#ALL I DID WAS DELAY THE OBSESSION AND MISS THEIR RISE TO THE TOP

[chryblossomjjk]

pov it’s 2015 and you’re seeing gifs of a red haired boy in a suit dancing his ass off everywhere thinking nothing of it. you had no clue that in 6 years you’d have a tattoo dedicated to him and a stan account.

#NO LIKE IM SO SAD #I ACTIVELY AVOIDED ALL BTS CONTENT #BC I WAS AFRAID #BC I KNOW MYSELF #I KNOW I WOULD BE OBSESSED #ALL I DID WAS DELAY THE OBSESSION AND MISS THEIR RISE TO THE TOP #IM SAD LMAO #WHY DIDNT YALL YELL AT ME

[hizashis-lil-bunbun]

No Rest for the Wicked- HardDom!Dabi X Fem! Brat Reader

Prompt: Dabi just wants to take a nap but everything goes wrong

I asked a friend in one of my discord groups for a random writing prompt when I was up late. Something about this one activated my inner ✨brat✨

Enjoy!

Word Count: 3.3k

Kinks/Warnings: brat taming, degradation, pain play, spanking, belting, mild dacryphilia, bondage, edging and denial, hints of dubcon

Banner made by the always lovely @ladyshinigami!

••••••••••••••

Exhausted.

That was the best way to sum up Dabi’s mood as he trudged through the bar fronting the League’s headquarters. Shigaraki had sent him out on a mission with orders to “stake out and take out” a small band of up-and-coming heroes. It had been easy enough to find them (newbies can never resist being flashy), but making sure they were all disposed of was another matter. A matter only made more complicated by a few rogue civilians that happened to spot him. It had taken him two full days to track everyone down, leaving him covered in blood, soot, and burns. In short, Dabi needed a break.

“Well, well, well.” Came the nasally voice of their fearless leader, “The prodigal son returns! Took you long enough, Dabi. Hope that means you didn’t fuck up the mission.”

“Don’t get your panties in a twist.” Dabi snaps back, too tired and sore to care about his tone. Not that he’d be any kinder to Shigaraki if he wasn’t. “I did what you asked and left no witnesses. Now piss off before I turn you into a smoldering pile.”

Shigaraki didn’t rise to Dabi’s bait, opting to simply flip him the bird before going back to whatever game console he was currently obsessed with. Dabi returns the gesture in kind, glowering as he disappears behind the bar and into the League’s living quarters. Their warehouse provides more than enough space for everyone to have their own room, and the boss even allowed them to decorate and furnish them as they pleased. Wasn’t that generous? Dabi plods down the hallway to his assigned room and kicks open the door only to find it was occupied. By you.

“Dabi?” You question for a moment before your eyes light up with excitement. “Dabi! You’re back!”

As a fellow Stain devotee, you’d sought out the LOV and been initiated as a member a mere six months ago. And two months later, you’d been initiated into Dabi’s bed. You wouldn’t exactly call yourselves “lovers.” Love was few and far between in a hornet’s nest of villains. But you’d certainly become something more than the occasional lay.

He grunts as he stalks into the room, shedding his coat and boots as he went. Dabi was never big on grand displays of affection. And in his current state, that small show of acknowledgment may as well have been equivalent to a bear hug.

“I missed you.” You chirp back, undeterred by his gruff response. “How was the mission?”

“Long and shitty.” Came his terse reply as he strips off the rest of his clothes and grabs a towel from a nearby wall hook. “I need a fucking shower.”

He wraps the towel around his waist before he sets about searching for body wash and a first aid kit. Greedy eyes roam the plane of his toned torso, eager to touch the scarred and stapled flesh you’d spent many a night mapping out. Before joining the League, you’d never had an opinion one way or the other on touch or physical intimacy. You didn’t dislike it by any means; it was just something people did, fuck buddies or otherwise. But now that you’d shared a bed with Dabi, your perspective had changed. His rough touch was your drug of choice, intoxicating in all the best ways. And with him being gone for almost 72 hours? It was safe to say you were jonesing for a hit.

“Oooh, sounds like fun.” You purr, sprawling out on the mattress in a catlike stretch. “Want me to join you? I think we could use a little… quality time together.”

He snorts derisively at that, straightening up once he’d found his supplies and fixing you with a deep scowl. So pretty even when he’s pissed. You bat your eyelashes in return.

“Don’t get cute, dollface. Once I get cleaned up I’m passing out for the next century.”

Before you can shoot off another coquettish remark, he turns on his heel and marches out the door in the direction of the communal showers. You huff and clamber out of bed to follow him, determined that he wouldn’t get away so easily.

“C’mon Dabi!” You whine, trotting along behind him as he stalks down the hallway. “I haven’t seen you in days! Are you really just gonna give me the cold shoulder?”

“Yup.” He snaps back, shooting you a harsh glare over said shoulder before barging through the bathroom door. From the other side you can hear his bark of “Move it, psycho!” followed by an indignant squeak from whom you can only assume to be Toga. You huff and stamp your foot like a petulant child, turning on your heel to flounce off in the direction of the League’s bar front.

“Bastard.” You seethe under your breath, “Who does he think he is, ignoring me like that? It’s his fault I’m so pent up. If I tried ignoring him when he was all hot and bothered–!”

You pause for a moment as a lightbulb goes off in your head. A single impish thought flashes through your mind and it causes your lips to curl into a Cheshire grin. He wants to play games? You’ll give him games.

You continue your trek into the dimly-lit, woodpandeled speakeasy, a renewed vigor in your stride as you make a beeline for the bar top. Kurogiri is standing behind it as per usual, wiping out a pint glass like the faithful bartender he pretends to be. You sidle up to the bar and place both hands on the oaken surface, adopting a sweet, too-innocent lilt to your voice.

“Kuro-baby.” You purr, the cutesy pet name causing the misty specter to look up from his task. “Can I have a glass of water, please? With lots of ice, if you don’t mind.”

Wordlessly, Kurogiri sets down the glass and picks up a shorter one, using it to scoop up a generous portion of ice from the freezer below before filling it nearly to the brim from the tap. If he has any suspicion of you, he’s very good at hiding it. The same can’t be said for Shigaraki, sitting a few stools down from you and still tapping away at the buttons of his console.

“Fucking with Staples again?” He questions disinterestedly, followed by a hiss of annoyance when the game lets out a series of gunshots. He must have gotten himself killed again.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” You shoot back airily, swiping the glass from Kurogiri’s outstretched hand and hopping off your own barstool.

“It’s your funeral!” He calls after you, waving you off with one hand. You snicker as you march back into the living quarters, one hand wrapped around the chilled glass and the other flattened over the top to ensure you won’t spill a drop along the way. Soon you find yourself back in front of the bathroom door and, suppressing the urge to giggle, you slowly push through it and into the steamy room beyond. In spite of the hideout’s outward appearance, the place is surprisingly clean and well-kempt (all thanks to den mother Kurogiri). Two sinks stand against the left-hand side of the wall, with two doors opposite them leading to the toilets. Next to the sinks are the showers: three open-faced, tile cubes barely covered by flimsy plastic curtains. Toga is standing in front of the nearest sink, wearing a skimpy pair of Hello Kitty pajamas and washing the blood and goop from her latest transformation out of her navy, pleated skirt. She looks up at you when you enter and you quickly put one finger to your lips, smirking as you point between the glass and the running shower beyond. Toga lets loose a sadistic giggle of her own before hastily shushing herself when you hear Dabi’s bark of “Pipe down out there!”

As you move past her, you can see her mouth the words, “You’re so dead, big sis.”

You can feel a jolt of adrenaline course through your veins as you sneak up to the edge of the tiled wall separating the shower from the rest of the bathroom, the glass in your hand shaking briefly. A small amount of water sloshes over the rim and spatters onto the floor, the sound barely overshadowed by the shower.

“Doll?”

His low, rumbling voice coming from the other side of the curtain sends another shiver down your spine.

“What are you up to out there?” He growls dangerously, as if he has a sixth sense when it comes to you and your shenanigans. For just a moment, the rational part of your brain takes over and makes you question your actions. Dabi’s already in a foul mood, and getting worse by the second by the sound of it. Maybe if you hold off and behave like a good girl–

Your body seems to move of its own accord. The next thing you know, the contents of the glass are sailing through the air, arching high over the plastic curtain rod and landing with a messy splat onto your unwitting victim on the other side.

“What the fu–!” Dabi’s curse is cut off by yours and Toga’s mad giggling as you sprint out of the bathroom and down the hallway. Passing by a very confused-looking Spinner, you dart inside Dabi’s room and slam the door, locking it for good measure. Seconds later, he’s pounding on it, using enough force that you’re convinced it might splinter and break off its hinges.

“Open this door right now and make this easier on yourself!” He roars, furiously jiggling the handle.

You let him pound away for a few more seconds, in part to allow yourself time to catch your breath but mostly to delay the unenviable punishment. With a deep, steadying breath, you plaster on a mildly amused expression, undo the lock, and pull open the door. Dabi is visibly seething, water dripping from his hair and cascading in rivulets down his toned chest onto the towel slung low on his hips. His brows are knitted together in rage, turquoise eyes flashing dangerously while one hand is still raised in a fist.

“Oh hey, babe. Done with the shower al–?”

His hands are around your throat before you can blink, your sassy remark devolving into a high-pitched squeak.

“You little bitch.” He spits at you, forcibly backing you further into the room as he advances. “Was that your idea of a joke?”

“N-no.” You gasp in response, voice slightly raspy from the pressure on your jugular. “I just thought–“

“Thought what exactly?” Dabi growls, kicking the door shut behind him with one foot before giving your shoulders a hard shove and pushing you onto the bed. You land with a slight bounce, the momentum giving you just enough time to prop yourself up on your elbows.

“Well?” He hisses, venom dripping from the word as he glares down at you.

“I was worried.” You start slowly, tone almost loving as you gaze up at him with big, doe eyes. “You seemed so tense when you got back. And don’t think I didn’t notice those new burns on your arms. So I thought, since the mission was so hard on you…”

Your face suddenly splits into a shit-eating grin.

“I thought you might need to cool down for a minute.”

Dabi blinks for a second, seemingly struck dumb by your remark. And then his hands are back on you in an instant, roughly flipping you over to lie chest-down with your legs hanging off the edge of the bed.

“Of all the stupid–“

Your shirt is ripped over your head from behind.

“Immature–“

There goes the bra, clasps and straps lost to a wildfire of blue flames as it falls away from your body in a charred heap.

“Bratty little schemes.”

Your leggings and panties are harshly yanked down, slipped off, and discarded into some unknown corner of the room. You feel cool air hit your legs and backside, moments before a harsh slap lands on your right cheek. With a yelp, you cast a wide-eyed glance over your shoulder at the menacing presence behind you; a pillar of rage and sadistic urges looming over your naked form.

“You wanted my attention that badly, dollface? Well I’m sorry to say you’ve got it now.”

Before you can react beyond a pained, needy whimper, Dabi hooks his right arm under your thighs to haul you up and onto the bed. He lays his full weight across your back and reaches around and underneath the farthest edge of the bed to produce a simple, black cuff, attached to the nylon spreader running along the underside of the mattress. Giving it a few cursory tugs, he grabs ahold of your right wrist and yanks it towards the corresponding corner, attaching the device with practiced speed and precision. You continue to writhe and pant below him, muttering a litany of curses and “no’s” as he does the same to the opposite side. You’re now bound by both wrists, unable to do more than thrash wildly on the mattress in a humiliating, spread eagle position.

“Seems like you need a reminder of who’s in charge around here.” He snarls in your ear, pushing himself off of you and marching over to his discarded pile of clothing. You can hear the soft rustle of fabric, followed by the telltale clink of metal on metal that makes your eyes go wide.

“Y-you wouldn’t dare…” You start breathlessly, just before the first blinding sting of leather greets your exposed skin, right at the juncture where the soft swell of your ass meets the tender flesh of your thighs.

“That’s where you’re wrong, sweetheart.” Dabi says mockingly, his tone dripping with false pity and saccharine sweetness as he takes his place at the edge of the bed once more. “I don’t have any problems dealing with a mouthy… little… brat like you.”

His words are punctuated by three more vicious blows, this time striking the meatiest part of your ass and sending the pliant flesh jiggling. The metal rivets in his belt only add to the pain, biting into your rapidly heating flesh and causing tears to prick at the corners of your eyes. Shifting your hips in a futile attempt to get away from Dabi and his newfound torture device, you roll partly onto your side and look over at him with watery, pleading eyes.

“S-sir… Dabi, please!” You sputter out, voice already wavering as your resolve crumbles beneath the stinging sensation. But Dabi’s not in the mood for bargaining. Instead, he growls as he wraps an arm around your waist and shoves his left knee underneath your belly, hiking your ass further into the air.

“Hold still!” He barks at you, another crack of his belt sending a fresh wave of searing pain along your already raw skin. You scream in agony, unable to do more than wriggle and squirm against his hold.

“Start counting, brat.” He demands huskily, your only warning before the next punishing spank meets your burning flesh.

“One!” You gasp out, “I’m sorry! Please–!”

Another blow lands, somehow harder than all the others, revisiting the spot where ass and thigh meet and causing you to wail in pain.

“Too late for apologies, dollface. The only thing I wanna hear from that slutty little mouth is counting. Understand me?”

The arm looped around your waist tightens in warning, and you hiccup before sputtering out a shaky, “T-two.”

“That’s more like it.”

He continues spanking you at a steady pace, the only respite coming when he pauses to hear you choke out the next number. By ten strokes, you’re bawling. By fifteen, you’re practically brain dead, unable to quell the sobs that wrack through your body or think beyond the next count. He mercifully stops at twenty, dropping the belt and loosening his own grip on you. All you can focus on is the burning pain radiating out from your tanned backside, sobbing as you bury your face into the pillow below you for comfort. Dabi’s own breathing is heavy and ragged, and he takes a few deep, measured breaths to steady himself. After a few moments, that hand that once held his belt is carefully laid on the curve of your ass, and you gasp both at the gentle touch and the shock of prickly pain it brings. Judging by the way he strokes the heated flesh, you’re sure the silver eyelets have left a series of bruises behind.

“S-s-sir.” You blubber, “I’m... I…”

“Shhhh, quiet down.” He says softly, voice uncharacteristically tender as he runs his hand along the width of your heated cheeks. “It’s over now. You did so well.”

The unexpected praise makes you whimper beneath his affections, devolving into a quiet moan as his hand travels even lower, fingers coming to rest at the entrance to your heated core. He begins to gently massage at your folds, middle finger slipping inside to find you impossibly wet and clenching around the digit.

“You filthy little thing…” He breathes out on a chuckle, “Are you really that turned on by me beating the hell out of your cute little ass?”

His finger delves deeper, pussy eagerly sucking him in as you keen below him. His free hand begins to lightly scratch up and down your back, goosebumps rising in the wake of each careful caress. Without thinking, you shift further onto your knees, fighting through the pain to push against his hand.

“Please, Sir.” You moan wantonly, “More. Please.”

With another dark chuckle, Dabi slips a second finger inside of you and begins to languidly pump them in and out. Pain and pleasure meld together in a sinful symphony, pants and whimpers coming from you as you rock your abused body against his own scarred flesh. He adjusts the angle and crooks his fingers downwards, curling them just shy of that sensitive bundle of nerves you know would have you seeing stars. Your back arches as you hungrily push against him, dignity forgotten in the face of pure, carnal desire.

“Getting impatient, are we?” He growls teasingly, fingers suddenly slipping out from your sopping core and wrenching a high-pitched whine from the back of your throat. He moves off the bed entirely, ordering you to stay put as he walks over to the nearby dresser and opens up the top drawer. Like the cuffs would allow you to do anything otherwise.

“Ah, here we go.” He says after a few seconds of rummaging, striding back over to the bed and taking up residence behind you. You feel the mattress dip under his weight seconds before his hands find your hips, roughly hauling them upwards and forcing your face further into the pillows. You shriek as he grabs ahold of your left cheek and squeezes harshly, pain shooting up your spine like a bolt of summer lightning. Something hard and cool prods at your quivering entrance, briefly brushing against your clit before being plunged inside of you. The sudden stretch feels at once too much and deeply satiating, sending burning, pleasurable heat licking across your oversensitized nerves. Once the toy is sunk to the hilt, Dabi gives a short grunt of satisfaction before sliding off the bed and circling around to lean over your quivering form. You turn your head to face him and he smirks at the sight of your fucked out expression: eyes red and puffy, cheeks streaked with half-dried tears, lips swollen from the bluntness of your own teeth.

“Aren’t you a sight?” He hums lowly, brushing away an errant strand of hair to plant a condescending kiss to your temple. “Such a needy little slut for me.”

With another dark chuckle, Dabi pats your cheek, straightens up, and turns towards the door.

“Wait!” You squeak out, squirming against your restraints as you watch his retreating back. “You’re just gonna leave me like this?”

“That’s the plan, dollface.” He shoots back, casting you a wicked grin over his left shoulder as he pulls the door open. “At least until I finish my shower.”

#bnha #bnha x reader #dabi x reader #Dabi #mha smut #mha x reader #tw: noncon #tw: pain play

[hopeless-ro-simptic]

Familiar Cerulean Eyes Pt. 5

Click here for other parts. Part 6 is up here.

Sorry for the delay, midterms kicked my butt and then I was sick all weekend, but here it is! For those wondering where Shoto is, don’t worry, he’s coming. This chapter is more of an introduction to the rest of the League. 

Word Count: 2.5 K 

Taglist:  @skzero-99 @superblyspeedydragon @jparra4587 @flyingowls @emrysaaryn @imuziawi @sheedaabee @peculiarinsomniac @littlelovebug98 @plutoneu @giftofwonder @kitty-kat-ash @fukyouthink @anarchys-bnha-mess @threbony @orenjineki @toobsessedsstuff @bamf-barnes @x-a-delama-x @inanabsentia @reallyshey @godsblesstheboi @operatorsdime @drownedbytears

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You expected there to by some sort of delay, making you sit in the black mist for a moment, a brief second before entering wherever it was taking you. There wasn’t. So, with no preparation at all, you were dropped into a corner of a dingy looking bar, surrounded by the unfamiliar scents of strangers. None of which you could assume were good company.

Dabi immediately shoved you behind him up against the corner, standing between you and the rest of the villains all of which who’s eyes immediately locked onto your own as you peeked out from behind him. There was no hiding your omega’s scent.

“My, my, someone smells delicious… what do you have there lover boy?” An Alpha on the other side of the room with a mask covering everything but his mouth and eyes stared back at you, smile on his face, a marble being rolled between his fingers.

“She’s so cute, I want a taste.” Golden eyes, wide with excitement, followed your movements as the petite blonde beta bounced in her seat, a knife between her fingers. You think you recognized her as the one that was called Toga, Shoto and his friends had run into her a couple times now. She had some kind of blood quirk and was obsessive with people.

You shrunk further back into the corner, eliciting a low growl from Dabi, which only made the alpha’s smile across the room widen.

“Now now pretty boy, why don’t you let the pretty girl say hello?”

The second beta jumped in now, his scent confusing your omega as it smelled both sweet and spicey, strong and weak all at the same time. “She should join us. Kill her she knows too much!” He sounded like two completely different people when he spoke, if you weren’t watching him you couldn’t have been sure that both voices were him.

The last person in the room, other than Shigaraki and Kurogiri, a scaled alpha with purple hair that sat the closest to you stayed silent, watching and listening.

You had barely blinked and the small blonde in the school uniform was in your face, peering around Dabi a wide smile across her features, her tongue licking her vampire like teeth.

“I’m Toga, that’s Twice, Spinner and the fancy guy in the top hat is Compress!”

“Toga!” Shigaraki growled out in annoyance.

“What? Everyone already knows who we are anyways! It’s rude to not introduce yourself.” Toga turned back to you, her crazed smile still wide, knife still in her hand. She took a step towards you only for Dabi to burst into flames, essentially engulfing you as well, forcing her to step back several paces.

“If anyone touches her I will rip their fucking heads off and burn them to a crisp”

The room was immediately filled with the scent of your panic rising as you tried to cower away from the flames licking at your skin but not burning you. You tried to rein in the panic, knowing you were fine but the sight and smell of the flames and smoke had your omega chirping wildly for help from an unknown source.

Dabi put out the fire as soon as everyone was far enough away, not even bothering to glance back at your terrified form. What the fuck was that? Did he know you couldn’t be burned? Did he care?

It was then that you noticed the deafening silence that followed. The questions hung thick in the air as everyone watched as your unscathed form looked up at Dabi with distress on your face. Even the hoodie you were wearing was barely burnt at the edges, making you wonder if most of his clothes were fire resistant somehow.

Kurogiri was the first to react, appearing suddenly in front of your form between you and Dabi, causing a low warning growl to be emited from the alpha, but the calm and collected beta ignored him completely.

“What’s your name little one?”

Dabi watched, ready to step in at a moments notice, but shockingly, you didn’t feel any malice coming from the well dressed mist in front of you. You had heard about majority of the member of the league from the Todoroki’s, mostly Shoto, but you were still amazed at the mist in front of you. Did he have a body? His scent was so soft and calming, even for a beta. It was so easy to miss. Like a light rain on a spring morning. It was no wonder you didn’t notice him when he first entered Dabi’s apartment earlier.

Everyone else was silent, watching on with curiosity as Kurogiri prompted you a second time.

“Your name?”

“Oh.. um… Y/N” You felt oddly at ease speaking to the mist in front of you, he didn’t have nearly the same effect on your omega that the other villains in the room did. You felt like he wouldn’t hurt you for some reason. You weren’t scared of him.

“Y/N…and can I ask what your quirk is, Y/N?”

You glanced over to Dabi, his face unreadable, before glancing around the room. As much as you didn’t want to tell the league of villains anything about yourself, you knew they weren’t going to leave you alone until you answered.

“Nullification skin… quirks and their effects that are outside of my skin don’t usually work on me. It’s pretty hit or miss though.”

Dabi glanced over to see that Shigaraki, who had been silently scratching away at his neck this entire time had stopped, glancing at his hands and back at you the question clearly written on his face. Dabi let out a snarl stepping towards the other alpha, ready to take him on if he so much as reached for you again.

“That doesn’t mean test it.”

You could see the blue haired alpha growing angry with how Dabi was talking to him. You didn’t want to be in the middle of another fight between the two.

“Come now, let’s not fight over the pretty damsel, I believe we have a mission to discuss?” Compress had spoken again, his eyes watching you with interest and something else. He made you uneasy.

“He’s right. Show and tell is over. We can deal with your little pet later. Kurogiri, get her out of here.”

Before Dabi could react, you were once again sent through the black mist of a portal, a soft chirp leaving your lips.

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The room you were in was small and looked like a prison cell if you were being honest. Maybe it was, after all you knew that the League of Villains was not above taking hostages. There was nothing in the room other than a toilet in the corner and a mattress on the floor, as well as a camera perched high up in the corner of the ceiling. Not even a blanket to keep you warm. There wasn’t even a door, which really had you confused. You guessed that the only way in or out of here was through a teleportation quirk. You curled up in the corner, on the mattress pulling your knees tight against your chest, tears streaming down your face as you cried silently.

You had always been a cry baby, the Todoroki pups used to tease you about it all the time, even Touya. Especially Touya. You felt like today you were allowed to cry though, given everything that has gone down in the last day or so. You felt like every five minutes you were going to die, and now the only person who seems to care about your safety, even though he is the one that kidnapped you to begin with, was ripped away from you, not to mention he clearly was hiding things. Like how he knew what your quirk was, or at least that his fire wouldn’t affect you. Had you been on fire at the market? Did he just assume you were fireproof? Or did he not know and just didn’t care if he burnt you?

The emotions that swirled in you were so confusing. You had been kidnapped, caught on fire, and almost killed.

On the other hand, your omega was over the moon at the attention you had received today. You hadn’t had someone look at you the way that Dabi does in years, in some ways ever. Were you just latching onto him emotionally because he is the nicest one out of all the murderers? You didn’t think so. Before the others were even involved he was kind to you. Sure he kidnapped you, and yes he was a cocky arrogant bastard that seems to think he has a claim over you. But he hasn’t even fully scented you yet. He hasn’t really forced himself on you. Not how a typical alpha would… and he gave you a blanket. Unscented. What alpha does that? For some reason, your omega, no not even, you were entranced by the blue eyed alpha. You wanted to smell him, to build a nest around him, to…

You frowned at your thoughts. Why were you going there? You barely knew this guy, and clearly he knew a lot more about you than you thought.  You couldn’t trust him just because he was a little nicer than some of the other alpha’s you had known, let alone the other villains you were surrounded by. Just because he is only the second other person to get you a gift. Just because he reminds you so much of a red-haired alpha that you missed with every ounce of your being.

Your stomach growled and you realized there was no food in this room or water, you weren’t sure how long it has been or how long you would be in here. Surely they would bring you some food and water, since they didn’t kill you outright.

Or maybe they would all grab some popcorn and watch as you starved to death, your mind going crazy at the silence.

After a few more minutes, or maybe it was a couple hours, you weren’t sure, the black mist of a portal finally showed up again, Dabi stepping through, it closing behind him. He looked tired and annoyed, his hair all sticking up from what you assumed was him running his fingers through it. It was a sexy look that’s for sure, but you ignored your inner omega, refusing to acknowledge his existence as you continued to stare at where the portal had been. At this point you were done crying, now you were angry.  

“I’ll be back in a couple days… you’ll have to stay here. It’s the best protection I can offer you right now. Tomura won’t even let me take you to my room here. He’s worried you’ll escape and go running to the hero’s” He glanced over at you, his hands buried deep in the pockets of his long cloak that was classic for his villain costume, a frown gracing his lips. “He’s probably not wrong I assume.”

“I want to go home,” His lips quirked up at your response. You sounded mad. Feisty. He liked it a little too much. He wanted to rile you up some more.

“I don’t doubt that, but which home are we talking about princess? The cage that is the number 2 hero’s domain? Or is it somewhere else?”

“What do you know about me?” Your eyes flitted over to his, a frown pulling at your face seeing that he was smirking per the usual. As much as your omega wanted him, there was no denying it at this point, you didn’t trust him for a second.

He squatted down in front of you, his arms resting casually on his knees, his face leaning in close to your own, the smell of alcohol on his breath.

“I know that you’re not wearing any underwear right now, cause I have your panties in my pocket. I know that the little gasps you make are sexy as fuck, and that you’ll probably be a good obedient little mouse once we get down to the nasty of things. I know that your lips look so damned kissable and I know that you want m-“ You shoved him, causing him to fall back onto the floor in front of you a weak hiss coming out of your throat, your face beet red.

“That’s not what I meant and you know it” the smirk on his lips wavering slightly as you turned away from him again, your voice flat. You were tired, you didn’t want to play his games right now. You were already starting to feel numb from the constant stress.

He let out a sigh, pushing himself back up onto his feet, pulling a walkie-talkie from his cloak pocket, tossing it to the bed next to you.

“Look, Kurogiri has the other one, if you need anything call him, he will get it for you. I’ll be back in a couple days and then we can get you into a more comfortable place okay? With a real bed.”

You continued to ignore him, wishing he would just leave you alone. Apparently having your life threated and being toyed with was exhausting. You curled up into yourself, facing the corner of the room leaning your head against the wall, as you heard the shuffle behind you the Alpha waiting for any kind of response.

After about a minute, he let out a soft grunt, turning to leave, pausing once more.

“Is there anything you want from the apartment before I leave? Maybe your old clothes for comfort…” You could barely hear the last part, a strange sadness tinting his voice. They only barely had Shoto’s scent on them, but you somehow knew that was what he was referring to.

Your omega spoke before you could even think.

“Can I have that blanket back... and some food?”

It was only a couple minutes after he left that the portal opened, your blanket, a singular pillow that after a quick sniff you confirmed was the one from his bed, and a bag of snacks and food being dropped onto the floor before closing again. You shuffled over grabbing the pillow and blanket planning to make what little of a nest you could when you noticed a sticky note with one word scratched onto it stuck to the bag of snacks. Reading it made your heart flutter in a way that you hated. Why did your omega want him?  

Sorry.

#bnha omega #alpha dabi #omega reader #bnha #mha #mha omegaverse #dabi is a todoroki #dabi is touya #dabi #dabi x y/n #dabi x female reader #dabi x you #dabi x reader #crispy

[world-of-aus]

Behind the Screen - (Part 10)

Pairing: Bucky x Reader

Word Count:3,000

Warnings:18+ (oral, fingering, Bucky get’s rough)

Author’s Note: Sorry for the day delay, life has caught up to me (when isn’t it???) I hope you’ll enjoy this chapter i attempted to write a steamier scene soooo hopefully i did it justice lol, thank you all for the feedback and reading on this series! 

Part 9 / SERIES MASTERLIST

“So how long do you think it’ll take Sam to catch on to us, Steve and Natasha already know, but I'm honestly surprised he hasn’t caught on,” Bucky murmured from where he rested against your bare chest, fingers drawing lines across your exposed skin.

Goosebumps erupted on your skin, "I don’t think we give Wilson enough credit, I’m sure he knows,”

Bucky perked up at your words, “you think he knows?” he questioned, “why do you think that doll?”

“because you’re obsessed with me,” you deadpanned a teasing tone to your voice.

A lazy grin pulled at his lips, “me obsessed with you, I don’t know doll I'm not the one writing about you online, behind a screen,”

A smack resonated through the room, a low chuckle following, “awe come on doll, it was a joke, I'm flattered, besides look where that got us,” he murmured nipping at your skin.

“Have I ever told you you’re insufferable lately?”  

He placed a kiss to your sternum, “I think you’ve said it at least once or twice,”

“I think I need to drill it a couple more times, it seems you haven't caught on,” you teased.

Bucky moved up your body, his head finding its way into your neck, “you don’t mean that,” he murmured causing an unflattering squawk to leave your mouth.

“Buck,” you squealed, a loud laugh falling from your lips, “you little shit, Buck!” your body squirmed under his, your head trying to retract from his invasive lips.

“babe please!” you squeaked through your laughter.

The word halted Bucky and the onslaught on your neck, he moved his head away from your neck his head looming over yours as he looked down at you.

“now that’s something I wouldn’t mind hearing come out of your mouth a couple more times,” he grinned his hand cupping your cheek.

Your cheeks turned pink from the heat that creeped up your face, but settled warmly in your chest, “awe sweetheart you’re flustered,” he cooed fingers grasping your chin to keep you in place.

“Buck,” you whined your cheeks flaring more under the intensity of his stare. He chuckled watching you try to get away, even goin as far as to pull you both under the covers.

His warm breath fanned across your face his lips touched down on your nose, your cheek, then finally your lips.

“Let’s get some rest, have a feeling it’s going to be long day” he murmured pressing another kiss to your awaiting lips.

“So you and tin man were awfully close this morning, there something you wanna tell me?” You could hear the grin come through his voice.

You looked at Sam over your shoulder your scope forgotten, “is this really the time for this Wilson, if I miss my shot you have to go in,”

He held his hands up from where he was crouched next to you, “I’m just saying, you were awfully cozy need to see if I can make my move or not,”

Bucky’s crackly voice sounded through your ears, “what was that Barnes? Wilson smirked.

You rolled your eyes, returning them to the lens of your scope, “she’s accounted for,” his voice responded.

You could feel Sam’s eyes boring into the back of your head, your face heating up, “oh she’s accounted for?” he questioned a teasing tone in his voice, “and who are you seeing y/n?”

You went to open your mouth to give him a half-witted response to throw him off but Steve’s voice was crackling over the comms silencing you, “keep your eyes sharp, there’s movement on the floor,”

Things happened quick from there, you weren't sure where to even pinpoint where shit had hit the fan. The man in question got away and the tension was thick, you could feel Bucky’s body thrumming with anger from where he sat next to you, and you weren’t sure what you could do to help ease it. The tension and emotions radiating off the man next to you was suffocating, and at this point you just wanted to get off the jet it was too much.

Steve eventually came around to let you know that you would be docking soon, “Buck I'm going to need you to head straight to the debriefing room once we get to the tower, y/n you’re free to go relax you won’t be needed,”

You gave Steve a tight-lipped smile, looking over to Bucky whose jaw was clenched, teeth practically grinding in anger. You wanted to say something, anything to help ease the anger boiling under his skin, but you knew you’d be met with a wall, so you did what you always did when missions ended sideways.

You gave him a reassuring squeeze to his hand, hoping it would portray all the words you weren’t able to say.

The jet docked; you watched the others unload Bucky still sitting almost frozen next to you, you could see the inner turmoil on his tired features. You stood turning to him, your hand outstretched to his, he looked up at you with wary eyes.  

“Nobody blames you Buck, we’re not meant to win all our missions, there’s some that are bound to go sideways and nobody blames you,” a sigh left your lips as you ran you thumb over the skin on the back of his hand, “If you’re done brooding you can come to my room after the debriefing, and we can talk about it if you’d like.”

You almost breathed a sigh of relief when you saw the tiniest hint of a smile tug at Bucky lip. Leaning down you placed a kiss to his lips.

“so you ARE accounted for,”

Your eyes were rolling a groan leaving your lips, you looked over to see Sam standing at the opening arms crossed, hip cocked, the brightest grin on his face.

“you were bound to find out,” you muttered squinting your eyes at him.

His mouth dropped open, his cock stance faltering, “what do you mean bound to find out?” he questioned as you grabbed your things walking towards him, “were you guys not going to tell me?” his voice raised an octave as you passed him.

You didn’t answer him as you continued to move forward, “Are you guys really a thing, were you really not going to tell me, your best friend, your literal wingman?” Sam questioned voice getting higher.

“I think you’re looking into that best friend thing too much,” you heard Bucky say.

“excuse me?!” you heard Sam argue, a chuckle falling from your lips as your feet carried you to your room.

You were pulling the sheets back on your bed, when your door was being swung open, the door hitting the wall with a thud. You looked over with wide eyes, Bucky stood there in the doorway, fist clenched, jaw ticked, body thrumming with tension.

“buck?” you questioned, his name falling from his lips had him surging forward.

His hands are grasping your face, your feet knocking into your bed, your mouth falls open in question but only gasp falls through as his lips are capturing yours roughly.

Your lungs are burning from the lack of oxygen, but the hold he has on you keeps you in place. His hands are leaving your face to wrap themselves around your thighs lifting you slightly to throw you onto the covers of your bed.  

You look up at him through hooded eyes, your chest rising and falling in short little gasps, Buckys eyes are raking your form, drinking in every inch of you. His hands reach for your legs pulling them apart, his eyes darken chest heaving, “Bucky wh-”

He slots between your open thighs, body falling forward as he mouths at the valley of your breasts. Your back arches, chest pushing further into his mouth as breathy little moans fall from your lips. He leans back his hands grabbing a hold of the top of you tank a rip sounding through the room as he tears your shirt down the middle. Your mouth drops in an o-shape, you want to argue that he had just demolished one of your favorite night shirts, but he’s working on your shorts next, “Bucky!” you whine.

Your breathy protest falls on deaf ears as your lacy panties are the next to go, “those were my favorite pair!”

“so, I'll buy you some new ones, “he mutters as he works off his shirt, “and then I'll tear those too,” he grunts as he shoves down his pants.

A low moan is spilling from your lips as you drink him in, Bucky was truly a piece of art to look at and you didn’t think you’d ever get tired of looking. He’s leaning down again his lips biting and sucking over the sensitive skin below your sternum, your body squirming and thrumming underneath his as his lips travel upward. He sucks a particularly harsh mark on to of the swell of your breast, your fingers thread through his hair holding him there.

“Jesus, fuck buck!” you hiss as he licks over the mark.

He looks up at you through his lashes, his lips sliding over as his tongue peeks out running over your taut nipple, his eyes are wild, body tense, its then that you get it, he needs this, he needs you. Grabbing his face in your hands you pull at him, he’s grunting low in his throat.

“c’mere babe,” you murmur the word putting him in calm state of mind as he begrudgingly gives in, his body following your hands.

You can feel his body thrumming where his skin meets yours, his eyes darkened over, you bring his head in closer to yours, lips hovering just above yours, “it’s okay Bucky, I trust you, you can let go,” you whispered lips brushing against his.

He’s sucking in a breath eyes softening over for just a second before their darkening over with lust, he surges forward lips pressing to yours roughly, it's all teeth and tongue, his fingers finding their way into your hair, tugging at your locks.

This kiss is over all too soon as Bucky leans up sitting on the backs of his knees, his right-hand trails down your face, fingers skimming their way down your body, your fingers catch around his wrist stopping him before he can reach your soaked warmth.

His brows draw in confusion, he watches as you sit up, your hand flattening against his chest as you push him from the bed till he’s standing. You move to the edge of the bed where you sink to the carpet on your floor. Shaky fingers wrap around the base of his hardened cock, a hiss falling from his lips. You look up at him through your lashes as you lean forward, the tip of your tongue swirling over the head of his cock. A low groan falls from his lips as you take him into your mouth sinking lower until your nose brushes against the hairs nestled around the length of him.

“fuck,” he moans, “fuck sweetheart,” he grits through his teeth.

You pull off his cock with a wet ‘pop’, his hand comes down to your face fingers sliding against you swollen spit slicked lips, “let go buck, you don’t have to hold back, just let go,” you murmured.

A low groan falls from his lips, his fingers move away from your lips up to your hair where they weave through your silky locks.

He’s bringing you forward, his hand guiding you, your mouth drops open as he pushes into the wet warmth of your mouth. His head falls back, a low groan bubbling from deep within his chest, “fuck y/n”

Adjusting yourself on your legs, you lean forward more, your hands reaching out to grip his thighs. Bucky’s initial thrusts are slow, tentative, but he gradually picks up the pace in which he fucks your mouth. Your jaw falls slack, tongue flattening along the bottom of his cock. The moans that are being drawn from the man above you have your thighs cleaning, the carpet beneath you wet with your slick.

Low chants of “fuck” are falling from Bucky’s lips his hands pulling you away, you look up at him and god if you aren’t the sexiest thing he has ever seen, and you on your knees for him, is just a whole other level of sexy.

His hands are wrapping themselves around your arms hauling you up, his lips crashing into yours, his tongue licking his way into your mouth. His hand has moved away from your arm trailing down your naked frame to your awaiting heat, index finger running over the folds of your mound, “fuck baby, you’re dripping,” he grins into your mouth.

You suck in a breath, head falling back as his finger glides back and forth through your wet slicked folds, his finger gliding over your aching clit.

“Bucky please,” you whine, your hand catching around his wrist to hold him there. His fingers circle over your clit giving it a few strokes, before he's pulling away from your grip to slide down to you entrance.

He’s watching you unmoving, another whine pulls from your lips, your pussy aching with need, “buck please,”

His fingers push in then, a pleasurable low moan falls from your lips at the feeling of being filled. His fingers flex within you, a beckoning motion that has your body arching your chest pressing into his. Bucky's skilled fingers work within you searching out that little bundle of nerves that will have you clenching and coming around his thick digits.

“fuck right there,” you hiss body jerking at the sensation

His fingers stay deep within you pressed against that sweet spot, he works them harder faster, wanting to see you come apart for him. Your body is twitching from pleasure against his hand, your thighs trembling as he brings you closer.  

“f-fuck, Bucky please!” you’re close, you’re so close the pleasure he’s bringing you is too much, it’s intense.

“Look at you sweetheart,” he whispers huskily, “look at you falling apart for me,” he leans down to nip at your chin, “you like getting fucked, you like to have my fingers deep inside of you baby?”

You can only nod, moans falling from your lips, his lips find your ear, “you gonna cum” he questions, “you going to come for me baby?”

The low moans that he is spilling into your ear is enough to send you over the edge, your body tensing up, thighs trembling as your orgasm washes over you. Moans are falling from your body as he continues to finger fuck you through the pleasurable waves.

You have no time to bask in your orgasm before your body is hitting the sheets of your bed, your legs being ripped apart harshly as Bucky finds his way between them.  A low growl is falling from his lips as he stares down at you, “fuck sweetheart, can’t get enough of you” he grunts as he pushes forward his cock sliding into your slick pussy.

Your jaw falls slack, back arching as he slides in to the hilt, your heat fluttering around his length. He’s pulling out till only the tip is in you before he’s surging forward, slamming into you, your body sliding up against the cooled sheets

Bucky’s hips start to thrust, his thick cock dragging along your walls, your walls fluttering as he picks up his speed, hard fast jarring thrusts leaving you breathless. Your fingers are curling into the sheets below you, legs wrapping around his waist to keep you locked to him, the erratic pace driving you up the bed.

The sensation of your approaching orgasm wash over you, and from Bucky’s faulty thrusts you can tell he’s close too. He’s fucking into you so roughly you’re sure to be sore tomorrow, his name falls from your lips in a silent prayer as he brings you closer and closer to that delicious pressure that is wanting to combust and leave you quaking in his hold.

The orgasm he brings you to catches you off guard, the pleasure building within blindsiding you. Your body goes tense, toes curling, thighs shaking, pussy clenching around his length as you bring Bucky to his own end.

Your both breathing heavily as you come down, Bucky’s sliding off to the side his sweaty back falling to the cooled sheets below him. It takes you both a moment to come too, his body rolling over till he’s propped on his side looking down at you. You're smiling up at him lazily through your post orgasmic haze, his hand comes up to rub at your cheek, a lazy smile of his own tugging at his lips.

“well that was something,” he murmurs a low chuckle falling from his lips, “where exactly did that come from?”

You giggled turning on your side to inch closer to him, “you needed it Buck, I know you, and I knew you took this job hard, I knew you needed to let go, you were tense, you needed that release,”

“In which way?” he teases.

You roll your eyes smacking at his arm, “you know you’re giving me crap but I didn’t see you complaining,”

“How can I complain when you let me live out a fantasy sweetheart?”

You raised a brow at him, “fantasy?” you questioned a smirk pulling at your lips

“doll if only you knew the things, I plan on doing to you, this, this was just the beginning, you have no idea what I have in store for you,”

Your thighs are clenching at his words, a grin pulls at his lips, “you ready for round two?”

Part 11

Behind The Screen Tag-list: @ladifreakingda @georgialeighc13 @racewife2004​ @multy-fandom-lover​ @otvlanga​ @sailorstupidsblog​ @n1ghtsh4d3-67​ @wantingtobekorra​ @gazzan-a​ @clarinette07​ @amanda-the-fangirl​ @im-sure-its-fine​ @sagechanoafterdark​ @heyywestman @runaway-escape​ @ilovesupersoldiers​  @unlistedpond​ @rayofdawnworld​ @badassbaker​ @spookyanairwin​ @fandom-basurero​ @krabby-tentacles​ @sassy-pelican​ @lizlepuffs​ @jaywolf840​ @xoasalxo

#behind the screen #bucky x reader #bucky x you #bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes x you #bucky barnes series #bucky barnes smut #bucky barnes fluff #bucky barnes fanfiction #bucky barnes fanfic #marvel fanfiction #marvel fanfic

[ilosttrackofthings]

Things you said in the dark for Jemma/Dred please! (I warned you! You brought this on yourself! Every prompt meme for the rest of forever. <3)

For anyone who doesn't know, Dred is a s5 Will from my fic slightly delayed. So don't be confused when I literally never refer to him as Dred in this. This little scene takes place after that fic.

Will’s searching hand lands on Jemma’s bare bum, then travels up her back, finding her shoulder blades, her hair, and then-

“Ah!” she cries out when he falls half on the mattress and half on her. She rolls out from under the tangle of arms and legs and laughs into the darkness while Will curses beside her. The familiar foul language is peppered with foreign words she doesn’t know, alien languages she’s only just beginning to gain a familiarity with.

“You okay?” he asks. His hand has taken to searching again and she grabs it, settling it on her stomach.

“Fine, you only startled me.” She shimmies her hips, finding a more comfortable position on the mattress. “I do have a question though.”

He hums and from the angle of it, she imagines he’s propped himself up on one elbow as though looking at her—though of course he can’t be. With the lights out and no windows, the guest quarters Kasius gave them—or gave Will; she hardly warrants guest quarters—are pitch black.

“Why didn’t you use the mask?” she asks, all innocent curiosity.

Naturally, this question sets Will to cursing again. Her innocent facade immediately falls away as she resumes laughing.

The fearsome mask Will wears to facilitate his pirate captain alter ego is equipped with several bells and whistles, among them is infrared.

He buries his face in the pillow beside her.

“You could’ve stood up,” she says solemnly. Then, fearful, “You didn’t stand up, did you?”

“No, I sat down. Which reminds me, I’ve got good news: the plumbing still works.”

“Thank the lord,” Jemma sighs. If they’re to be trapped in here while the space station’s habitat system is being repaired—or at least until the doors can be opened—running water will make it much more endurable.

Not that it’s been a chore so far. She and Will have made the most of it, passing the time as people tend to during power outages, but it’s been several hours now with no sign of letting up and no further word on the repair process through the station’s communication system.

“There’s bad news too,” Will cautions. She feels him shift beside her. He doesn’t rise, but something rattles in the area of the nightstand. There’s a sliding and then a bang. “Whoops.” He doesn’t sound terribly concerned, however, and she feels him roll back in her direction. A finely edged object touches her arm. It’s light, not much weight to it, and concave as well. She’s just identified it as his mask when-

For the first second all she can process is the pain of it and then she recognizes what she’s been missing for the past few hours: light.

It’s dim, similar in scope to what a cell phone would project, but it is light. Thin tendrils of it sent out by the mask. The design etched into its surface has lit up a pale blue.

“Oh, Will,” she says, her straight face not helped at all by the knowledge that this time he can see how her lip quivers as she struggles to hide her laughter. “You’re my light in the darkness.”

He stares at her for a beat and then- “Wooow. That was bad.”

She bats his chest gently, the darting of her arm sending shadows scurrying across the blue-grey the mask has painted the walls. “I thought it was quite romantic. Er. Well.”

He shifts his hand from his ear to his chin, intent.

She rolls her eyes and figures she’s too deep now not to explain. “Back— before, my team had to stop a criminal who had power over darkforce—or dark matter. His transmutation had driven him somewhat mad—quite common, I’m afraid—and he’d grown obsessed with a woman who he credited as his ‘only light in the darkness.’ Admittedly it was a bit … possessive and we did have to kill him to prevent him harming her, but aside from that-”

Will’s chin has fallen off his hand so that he might look up at her somewhat judgmentally. “I— am beginning to see how you fell for a space pirate.”

She shoves him onto his back. “Says the space pirate.”

He grabs her by the hips. Somehow she has ended up on top of him. “And you love it.”

Her hands slide over his shoulders as she lowers herself. Her middle finger follows the track of a scar from a knife fight. “Yes, I do.” And she sets about showing him just how much.

#jemmawill #biospace #jemma simmons x will daniels #aos fic #shineyma #my fic #*td #ask fic #fic: slightly delayed #ftwes

[staylovehearts]

Enough?

Lee Felix x Reader

Word Count ~3.9 k

Summary: You never wanted Felix to find out that the fans he loves so much can be so cruel.

Tags: angst, hate comments, self-doubts, Felix is an idol in this one, and you’re like his not so secret girlfriend, the company is chill but the fans aren’t, mentions of other stray kids members

It's a simple routine. As you unlock your phone you immediately swipe away about twenty different notifications from different social media accounts without even looking at them. You are not even sure why you even still bother with an Instagram and all of that. Maybe you should just go private again. Or delete everything. But that would feel like defeat. Like giving up. So instead you just try to not look at the mean words people are spouting at you on the daily. When it first started you still tried to report every single comment. Blocked every person who insulted you. But once the comments became too many to count you gave up on that as well.

But it's fine. Ignore them all. Swipe it away. Don't look at it. Focus on the nice comments. The people that spammed flame emojis under your recent Instagram selfie. The ones leaving nice comments and replies. Or at least those, that seem neutral. The ones that like to joke around or post memes. Damn, even the people that drop Loona fancams under your tweets are bearable.

But you can ignore them all for the sake of the one message that you actually want to read.

cuddly coala boy: are you going to be watching me later tonight?? i hope you're not mad that i had to cancel our skype date because of this :((

The text came at exactly 4:35 in the morning. Well, 4:35 in the morning in your timezone. That means for him it must have been... wait, what's the time difference again? Where even is he right now? You are too lazy to actually look up timezones right now to properly calculate the difference, but you decide to assume that it was a reasonable time. Well, at least you hope it was fairly reasonable. With the way his schedule works it's not unusual for him to send you messy texts full of typos past midnight when he is exhausted from a day of dance practice and vocal training and he just fell into bed after a quick shower and decided to send you a short text, already half asleep. It's also not rare for him to text you early in the morning. When he is on his way to his first schedule of the day. Early in the morning, but already buzzing with energy and excitement. Sometimes he'd send pictures of his breakfast and gush about the organic canteen. In summer he sent you a picture of the sunrise almost every morning. Because in summer the sun rises so early, that most people sleep through this daily spectacle of nature. But those that are woken up at five in the morning – even earlier on some days – never miss out on a sunrise. And you get to see those pictures of the sunrise in a different country, mostly after you've already missed the sunrise in your own location. Most of the pictures weren't even that special, some of them even too blurry to make out more than washed-out colours and the rough outlines of buildings. On some mornings the sky was too cloudy to show more than a lighter stripe of colour beneath a layer of grey and blue. But even on those days, Felix made it a point to show you the sunrise. And you have all of those pictures saved. Because you are just so goddamn whipped for this sunshine of a boy who sends you pictures of the actual sun every morning alongside a happy good morning text.

I'm not mad at all!! I know that work comes first, I'm sure we'll be able to make up for that skype date, have fun later, I might join when I have the time, but you know how the vlive times sometimes don't work with the timezones :/

It takes you a good fifteen minutes or so until you have finally typed up a reply that you are actually confident sending. You don't want to show that you are actually upset. You don't want to make him feel bad for having to cancel your plans. But it's probably obvious that you feel a little bitter about this. You were understanding the first few times this happened. And of course, you are still understanding. You knew that things would probably be like this. But it's becoming harder to hide your disappointment with every skype call that has to be moved to a different date. Every delayed reply. Every day that passes with just a few short messages being sent back and forth during water breaks.

But you know what you signed up for when you not only agreed on trying this long distance relationship, but trying it with an idol on top of the insane timezone difference.

Seeing the friendly kid you used to go to school with on television was already a weird experience. But finding out that he had become a K-Pop star felt like some kind of fever dream. To be completely honest you didn't even know what K-Pop was until you heard Felix – and his bandmate Chan – talk about it on national television. Your mother had called you downstairs in a frenzy to make you watch the special report. When you got there she was pointing at the screen excitedly, asking you over and over look, look, isn't this a boy you used to go to school with? Did you know that he's famous in Korea now? Isn't this crazy? You could certainly agree with her on that last question. To make a long story short, you spent pretty much the rest of that day – and most of the following week – researching every available bit of information about this K-Pop thing and the group your school friend was now part of. You listened to and downloaded their entire discography within one day. Watched every music video and memorised the member's faces within hours. And in the following days, you went through every vlive video and any other content you could find. Saying you were hooked would have been an understatement.

The thought of reaching out to Felix hadn't crossed your mind until maybe two weeks into your newly discovered obsession. It was a suggestion by a friend who you had a couple of courses together with. She had brought the idea up completely nonchalantly as if just hitting up a celebrity is a thing you do every other day. When you expressed that sentiment she just shrugged as if to say dunno, but weren't you friends with him?

Well, she wasn't really wrong about that. But she also wasn't really right. Sure, Felix and you went to school together. You had classes together for three years and you saw him pretty much every other day. But you were never super close to him. Felix was just that kind of person that everyone was on good terms with. He'd sit down at a different table at lunch every day, nerds and jocks were equally welcoming of him. Everyone likes having Felix around, but he wasn't insanely popular either. If someone would have asked about Felix the most common answer would have been something along the lines ah yeah, that guy, he's really nice, we don't really hang out outside of school though. That was just the kind of relationship almost everyone had with him, the kid you'd do group projects or share a lunch table with but not necessarily your first pick when you wanted to put together a group for karaoke that weekend. So Felix and you weren't really friends. You remember being in a group project with him once and for maybe a month or so he even was your lab partner until the seats were switched but that's pretty much it. Maybe you had a bit of a fleeting crush on him back then. Most girls had. The freckles dusting his cheeks and the big brown eyes gave him something adorable and his sunny personality matched that all too well. But back then as well you never considered acting on those feelings and years later you had almost completely forgotten about them altogether.

Tracking him down was hard, but easier than you thought it would be. Of course, the old phone number you managed to find in some inactive group chat didn't work anymore. And any social media you ever knew he had was deactivated. But somehow – through a friend of a friend of an acquaintance – you managed to get in contact with him again. And you immediately remembered what you had liked about Felix back then. Talking to him was as easy as ever. Somehow texting him didn't feel like talking to a celebrity, but just casually catching up with an old friend from school. Texting every once in a while turned into chatting almost daily. Then the phone calls started. Late-night rambling, one of you always tired from the time zone difference. The first face time call was an accident – at least that's what Felix told you – but the second wasn't. And neither was the twentieth. You've lost count at this point.

The status of your relationship with Felix has been a mystery to you for the longest time. It was clear to you that that little fleeting crush you used to have had come back at ten times the intensity and you were pretty sure that Felix must at least enjoy talking to you enough to stay up way past the time where he should go to sleep at. But even with mutual feelings, there were more than enough stones in your way. Him being a celebrity and the several hour time difference plus living in different countries are probably some of the most obvious trials.

Let's just say it worked... somehow. Is still working. Even if it's tough sometimes. You've seen Felix a total of three times since making it official and all of these were just for a couple of days at most. There's always schedules he has to attend, filming to be done. Your schedules don't match up at all, he has so little free time that you have no other choice than to arrange yourself around it. Make amends. Compromise.

That's not really the problem here. The official part of the whole making it official is actually the root of all evil. Surprisingly enough Felix's company actually allowed him to make an official statement regarding his relationship status and confirming that he was indeed seeing someone. Of course, you were never mentioned by name. But someone somewhere must have taken a picture of you and him meeting up that one time. And someone else must have somehow identified you on that picture and shared your Instagram. And twitter. And pretty much any other public social media you had at that point. All of that within an hour of the announcement being made. You never openly confirmed or denied any "rumours" - or maybe accusations is the more fitting term here – about you and Felix dating. But you didn't have to. They knew enough to hate you for "stealing" him away from them. Of course, not all of them hate you. Some are actually supportive of the relationship. Though that's definitely only because they support Felix and want to see him happy, not because anyone really cares about your hurt feelings here. Then there's also a couple of fans that just ignore the whole thing entirely. According to them, it's all just rumours and there is no way that Felix is actually seeing someone. Don't you know he's a sweet gay baby, uwu? He's actually dating [insert whoever they ship him with here]. At least these comments can be kind of entertaining to read. Sometimes. You've scrolled past entire think pieces and page-long analysis of the smallest interactions turned into super definite proof that there is more going on between those two band members behind the scenes. They are delusional, but at least they are mostly harmless.

And then there are people who just straight-up hate you. And maybe that group is not actually as big as it seems but they are loud. So goddamn loud. And they are mean. You have switched accounts, gone private, deleted and remade. Everything in a desperate attempt to hide from the comments. But they always find you somehow. There is no escape.

A new notification pops up on your phone, you try not to look at it as you delete it but you catch enough of a glimpse to get the gist of it.

You're not good enough... you don't deserve to be with him... you should just do him a favour and break up, he's probably just to nice to do it himself.

It's always the same, you've read it hundreds of times, in every possible phrasing and variation. The bad thing though, you're starting to believe that they might actually be right.

The vlive is happening around noon in your time, which is at least kind of reasonable compared to other times that you have set an alarm to watch some kind of stream or award show or anything similar. You actually don't really want to watch, at least not for your own entertainment. Watching these things for yourself has kind of stopped working after... well yeah, after all that's going on. But you know that Felix would be happy, knowing that you are watching him. So maybe you'll tune in for a bit during your lunch break. Just long enough to take a screenshot and send it to him alongside a short text telling him that you are watching the live and that you really aren't mad. You aren't mad. Just scared.

You click the notification as soon as it appears on your phone. One of the few notifications you are actually happy to receive. The app takes a moment to load and by the time the stream is actually playing it's already flooded with viewers. But the picture is not moving. Or at least the three boys in the frame aren't moving. But you notice something in the background, maybe some kind of curtain, being moved by a breeze. Still, the trio keeps up their game for another few seconds until they all break out into wide grins and start talking. Felix is sitting in the middle, wedged in between Jisung and Hyunjin. The three of them are sitting behind a table that has various playthings scattered on the polished hardwood surface. You spot a box filled with Jenga pieces, next to a card game and a rubik’s cube. You take a couple of screenshots and tap out to send one of them to Felix, of course he won't see it right now but you want to prove that you were actually watching live. When you open the stream again they are already building up the Jenga tower while joking around with each other. Even though you didn't plan to stick around you watch them play games and talk for a while. It's nice. You can almost imagine yourself sitting in a room with them, laughing, cracking jokes and enjoying yourself. You can almost imagine being this close to Felix. Both physically close enough to be in a room with him as well as close enough for him to introduce you to his friends and be allowed to hang out with the group. It's almost in your reach. Almost perfect. Almost.

Felix is messing with the rubik’s cube, trying to solve it after he has insisted for minutes that he knows how it's done, Hyunjin is stopping the time on his phone while Jisung is going through the comments. You yourself haven't dared to take a look at them yet. Even here you aren't save. Most of the time they are flying by so fast that you can't even finish reading one before the next one jumps into vision.

Where is-

can you say hi to-

omg i-

notice me ple-

Most of it is short comments like this, some are just emojis (mostly every different kind of heart there is), wild key smashing and a plethora of "i love you"s in different languages. But some stick out. Some are different. The username is the first thing you notice about that one specific comment.

felix's_girlfriend

When you first made your account you thought about claiming that name for yourself. Just as a joke. But it was already taken. And so was felix's_wife, ilovefelix, freckleslover or any other possibility you could think of. Even when you started adding numbers to the names you couldn't get them. There are at least fifteen people using some variation on Felix's girlfriend as their username. You stopped trying after that.

Jisung probably spots the comment about at the same time as you did.

"Yo, someone with the username felix's_girlfriend just asked when you will finally do a dance cover of the latest Twice song", he says. Or at least something along the lines. You practised Korean to be able to at least get the gist of what's going on when they are talking, but you can't always understand everything. But you sure do understand the way Felix's head just whips up. Like that of a puppy delighted to see its owner coming back home.

"She's watching?", he asks. This time you understand clearly. Jisung looks back at him for a moment, a mixture of shock and surprise on his face. Felix isn't supposed to talk about you. Not here.

"It's just that person's username", he answers, after a moment of silence. Felix's bright smile drops for a moment, but then he nods his head and laughs as if someone just made an amazing joke. The boys continue talking about the Twice comeback and other promotions that are currently going on as if nothing happened. Hyunjin rambles about Got7 while Jisung jokes about how Seungmin is probably really excited about Day6. But the people in the comments are not willing to let go of what happened quite as easily.

I hope that bitch just disappears someone writes. Felix should break up with her, she's not good enough. You can't pretend to not notice it any longer. And maybe the boys noticed too, at least they don't read out any other comments after that one. But you don't really stick around for that long after. You are clearly not welcome here.

The thing is, that you never wanted to drag Felix into this mess. Of course, he is already a part of it, but you didn't want to let him see all of the ugly things that they are saying about you two. Well, in the end it's mostly you they are mad at. Some fans have commented that they are mad or disappointed that Felix would date someone, but they don't say the same things about him that they say about you. And you're glad. You wouldn't wish this on anyone. Especially not Felix, who is always so bright and full of love for his fans. You know that he loves that. He's said it numerous times. And even when he doesn't say it with words, it's obvious. He says it with the way he always smiles and waves at the camera, with all that he pours into performances, with the energy and passion he gives. He loves them.

Felix has never said the l-word to you.

Your phone rings about three hours later. You are hesitant to pick up when you see his name light up on the screen, but you don't want to lead him to believe that you are mad at him or anything.

"Hey there, why are you calling? Isn't it the middle of the night where you are?" You try to make your voice sound cheerful. Like you are a little surprised that he is calling you at that time but all in all happy that he is calling you. Confused, but a pleasant kind of surprise. You're probably not all that convincing, but maybe it's enough since this is just a phone call. Not even video this time.

"Ah, I just wanted to check in on you", Felix replies. His voice sounds a little bit drowsy. A soft kind of deep rumble. Bedroom voice, but not the sexy kind. The soft I'm about to curl up and fall asleep voice. You've heard that before, fell asleep to that soft voice talking to you over the phone. For a moment you almost crack. You can feel the tears welling up in your eyes, but you blink them away quickly.

"Oh, I'm fine, just got back home a while ago, going to make myself some food soon. How was your day, did that live go well?"

"Hmm, did you watch it?"

"Oh, just for a bit. I was... busy." Somehow you feel guilty saying it like that. Sure, you did only watch maybe about half of it. You told him in advance that you probably wouldn't watch the whole thing. But you have a feeling that there is a reason he is asking. And you are purposely avoiding it. Felix stays silent for a moment, maybe hesitant to bring it up himself. And for a moment you hope that he just won't. That you can both pretend that everything is alright and just joke around like usual. When he finally does speak his voice sounds so sad.

"There were some... not so nice comments about you. Did you see them?"

You consider lying but you don't see the point in it. He probably knows that you have seen them.

"Yeah."

"Do they often say things like that to you?"

"... yeah."

"That's... awful. I'm so sorry."

You take a deep breath. You really never wanted him to find out about how cruel the fans he loves so much can really get. Of course he knew that not everyone approved of him having a relationship and of course he's seen some of the gossip articles that the tabloids write about you. But what the fans say behind the protection of anonymity is so much worse than that.

"It's not your fault", you mutter finally. You can hear Felix take a deep breath as well.

"You don't- you don't believe what they say, do you? You know that I would never break up with you just like that. You are enough. More than I could ever ask for."

You aggressively blink your eyes a couple of times and tilt back your head. You don't want to cry. It always becomes obvious in your voice when you start crying and you really don't want to worry him any more.

"I know, but it's nice to hear. Thank you."

There's noises in the background. Some loud clatter, like dishes falling over and then several voices talking over each other. You haven't thought about it yet but Felix must be calling you from the dorm. There is the sound of a door being opened, a little noise of surprise and then it's being shut close again. Probably someone looking for Felix.

"You should probably hang up soon", you mumble. Not because you want him to, but because you know that the longer this goes on the harder it will be for you to not burst into tears.

"I guess. I'll call you again tomorrow, okay?"

"Yeah, I'd like that very much."

"Great then... good night."

"Goodnight."

"Hey, (y/n), I love you."

"I love you too, Felix."

#stray kids #stray kids writing #stray kids imagine #stray kids scenario #lee felix #felix #lee felix x reader #felix x reader #lee felix fluff #lee felix fanfic #lee felix imagine #lee felix scenario #stray kids fluff #stray kids angst

[darkficsyouneveraskedfor]

Sinday: Bucky's Professor

Bucky takes a couple college courses and becomes obsessed with one of his professors as requested by anonymous

Hey it's me ya girl sagechanoafterdark on my main, can I get some stalker dark Bucky to sooth my soul on this fabulous sinday? Maybe a little noncon or dub on? 😘 As requested by @sagechanoafterdark

It had taken a year for Bucky to find the courage to walk into the therapist’s office. Another six months to take his advice to find a hobby. It was hard at first. Journalling didn’t work for him, drawing was never his forte, and he was tone deaf. Dr. Callum suggested he try some classes; something to keep him focused.

Days spent perusing the catalogue and he had finally chosen two classes. When he revealed his selections to the doctor, he had been wary. Maybe history wasn’t the way to go. He might not be ready for something so personal. At least, if he was going to study the past, he should opt for something he hadn’t lived through.

Bucky enrolled anyways. He wasn’t interested in ancient ruins or corrupt kings. The community college was small and both courses were taught by the same professor. Night classes he could work in between missions. He bought his textbooks and was early for his first day. And every class after that.

He met her in the hallway as he waited outside the locked classroom. He thought maybe she was another student. She remarked on his punctuality and muttered some excuse about her previous class. She let him in and crossed to the desk at the front to drop her bad on top. He was surprised.

He shouldn’t have been. He was among the oldest of her peers. As they filtered in, he sat in the front row with his open notebook and watched her. She wrestled with the projector remote and went about opening her presentation. Finally figured out, she watched as her students took their seats. 

She closed the doors and clapped her hands together. She silenced the room and smiled. Even as a few continued to titter. She gestured to the screen and welcomed the class. Bucky was eager. He hadn’t been involved in the pacific theatre of the war. This was something entirely different and yet completely familiar.

“I know you are all excited to get to the blood and grime of war but let us begin this course by setting the stage for our conflict.” Her voice was much bigger than her. He suspected the mic on her lapel helped with that. “Please open your syllabus and we will briefly go over our schedule before we jump in.” She waited as papers fluttered and folded. “So week one, that’s today, we will go over society and politics. Get an idea of how the US and Japan ended up at loggerheads. Week two, we will travel the road to war in the US, week three, we will head over to Japan, and by week four we should be at our declaration of war.”

Bucky didn’t look at his syllabus or scribble in his notebook. He watched her as she lit up. “And a short disclaimer before we get into the content. This is not a glorification of war. We are not learning about the war as scripted by Hollywood. This will be war as it is; destruction, death, tragedy. This is not war in numbers, it is war in blood. In human life. The casualties are not just statistics, they were people, on both sides. As much as this course is about the Pacific War, it is also about the greater picture of war as the calamity of human history.”

Bucky liked that. He smiled. How often he had rolled his eyes at the screen when the war was painted as some heroic crusade. At the ignorance of those around them who didn’t realize how greater powers barted the lives of the dispensable. He picked up his pen and jotted in his notebook. Her voice filled his chest with a peculiar warmth and he didn’t look down as his hand moved across the page.

His other class with her was in the same room. He took the same seat. Front row. This course was about the European front. He knew that much better. She was just as fiery. Just as confident in the knowledge locked inside her head. Just as fascinating.

He started recording her in the third week. He’d listen to her lectures as he fell asleep or when he was travelling for a mission. He managed to keep his class schedule between his work. Sometimes he showed up overtired and still bleeding beneath his jacket, but he was always present.

And he didn’t tell Dr. Callum about her. He told him about the classes but not her. He didn’t want to talk about her, he wanted to keep her to himself. She was his secret. His appointments grew fewer and further apart. He explained that he was busier; his missions kept him out of town. He could tell the doctor was disappointed but he didn’t care much. The doctor was always disappointed in him even when he did as he said.

It was just before midterms when it all combusted. He had an important mission. He’d be out of the city for a week. He e-mailed her. It took an hour to get his words right. When he hit send, his heart felt as if it would explode. She replied quickly. They could meet to re-schedule his exam if need be. 

“Before class?” He asked. She couldn’t do that. She had a class right before and was always cutting it too close. She sent her office hours. He couldn’t make those. He was busy with work. Well, she could see him in her office on Tuesday after class. That was the hour she usually used for marking. Yeah, that would work.

When she finished her lecture, she began to pack up. He remained in his seat and waited as the other students left. A few stopped to speak with her and she was just as lovely as always. He wasn’t the only one who liked her. A few of the boys who sat in the back made lewd jokes as they passed through the door, thinking themselves unheard. He was tempted to follow them but he had an important date to keep.

The classroom was empty at last and she zipped up her bag. She looked up as he tucked his notebook into his textbook and stood. She smiled. It was a habit, both genuine and nervous. He had seen her at the cafe just inside the library. She smiled when she ordered and wrung her hands. She sat and opened a book. When she looked up and accidently caught the eye of another, she smiled then too. Nerves.

He could hear her heartbeat. It stuttered when she saw him. Had she forgotten their appointment?

“Mr. Barnes,” She ventured, “Or James, can I call you that?”

“Bucky,” He corrected her. “Only my mom calls--called me James...but if you prefer it.”

“Bucky,” She repeated, “I’m sorry about the delay. We can head up to my office.” She looked over at the clock on the wall. “The cleaners will be here shortly.”

“Okay,” He stepped back to let her precede him. She smiled and passed him. He watched her hips as she walked to the door. Listened to the click of her low heels. He smiled, too.

-

You led the silent man into your office. You were surprised when he had emailed you. He wasn’t the most talkative and despite his punctuality, he had become a pillar of your class. He was almost a comfort as he took his usual seat and his blue eyes followed you around the hall. You would miss him in his absence, you were sure, but for now, you needed to figure out when he could sit his midterm.

You rounded your desk and the door closed. You looked up but didn’t think much of it as Bucky neared the chair opposite yours. You set your bag down beside your desk and sat. You gestured to the seat next to him and reach into your bag for your large leather planner. 

“You can put your things down, if you like,” You said as he balanced his books on his lap. He nodded and placed them on his side of the desk. “Now, I’ve gotten approval from the faculty dean for the re-sit but I just need to submit the date.”

“I’m sorry again,” He said. “I just...have to be out of town.”

“I understand, these things happen,” You opened your planner. “And given your...work, it must be difficult enough as it is.”

He shrugged.

“Would you like to sit it before or after that week?”

“Either,” He replied. “After would probably be easier given the time restraints.”

“Of course,” You scanned the lines and flipped the page. “I think I can do...the Monday before the class after? Does that work?”

“Sure,”You smiled and grabbed a pen. “Thank you.”

“Not at all,” You finished writing and sat back, “You know, it’s not everyday I teach a veteran about a war he fought in. It’s a bit...awkward.”

He chuckled. “I never thought of that.” He said. “I guess it would be.”

You nodded and tapped the pen. “Can I...ask you something?”

“Sure,” His metal fingers bent slightly along his thigh.

“Why exactly...are you taking these classes? Pure curiosity. Sorry, it’s just...you were there.”

“I was.” He accepted and stretched out his metal fingers. “But it was a long time ago. I wasn’t there for all of it.”

“Yeah, I guess so,” You broke the silence that began to rise. You placed your pen in the middle of the planner and closed it. “Well, I won’t keep you any longer unless you have any other concerns or questions.”

He lowered his head and thought. He sighed. “No, I think that’s...everything.” 

He stood and you did too. You rounded just to the side of the desk and he reached for his books. He didn’t quite grasp them and they slipped to the floor. You flinched and bent to grab them as they splayed across the carpet. He did the same. He grabbed the heavy textbook as your fingers wrapped around the open notebook. Your eyes flitted across his narrow writing and you froze.

'07:02 arrives on campus. Grabs coffee and muffin at The Chestnut. Today’s flavour is carrot and pineapple. Sits by window. Leaves 07:23. 

Walks to office in history wing. Arrives 07:38.

In office until 08:14. Proceeds to classroom for class at 08:30. Dismisses early at 10:17

Next class 1200. English wing. Dismisses 13:51. 

Returns to office. Leaves at 16:22. 

Stops at grocer. Drives home.'

You dropped the book and backed away. That was your schedule from last Wednesday. He had followed you. How long had he been following you? 

"Bucky," you said shakily, "I think you should go."

He picked up the notebook and sighed as he closed it. He set it down on his textbook atop the desk. "It's not--” He paused. "I don't want to hurt you."

"Why?" You retreated around the desk and he followed. "Please, just go."

"My therapist said I should take classes. Find a hobby. Something to keep me busy." He closed in and you tripped on your chair. He caught you before you could fall. "You've kept me busy. Kept me from feeling lonely. Every Tuesday and Thursday."

"Let me go," You rasped. "Please."

"I know you're lonely too." He pulled you close. His metal fingers squeezed your arm as his other hand went to your waist. "I've seen you at night."

"Please," Your voice was barely a whisper.

"Please, don't be scared." He leaned in and his lips brushed your forehead as he nuzzled your hair. "I only want to keep you safe." His arms snaked around you. "Because you're mine."

#Bucky Barnes #drabbles #drabble #sinday

[19mrs-barnes17]

As Long As I Can Get - Chapter Five: Wounds Heal

Summary: “Healing doesn’t mean the damage never existed. It means the damage no longer controls our lives.” - Unknown

Part: 5/5

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x reader (AU)

Warnings: supah cute

Word count: 3,001

A/N: Thanks again to @wxntersoldiers​ for beta reading! This chapter is dedicated to @cantnkrusshedevil​ for helping me to map out the details of this story’s plot.

~

A cool breeze blew through the tall grass, flower petals ripping from their stems and flowing into the wind somewhere out of sight. The cool brushing across her skin and ushering in a sense of calm to her frantic mind. The sun was setting and sending golden rays across her body and through the blades of grass. Soon the color has disappeared and she is left with the light of the stars, constellations twinkling within the dark navy net of the night sky. 

She feels peace for the first time in a while. Her eyes fluttering shut for a moment to take in the feel of the night air against her skin. 

This was her favorite place in the town. An empty meadow, well empty in the sense of human structures and beings. The only place where you weren’t likely to run into anyone, but you might spot an animal wandering about. A place of serenity and peace where she could simply be.

This was where she had come to understand her emotions since she was young. But she was just as lost as ever, stuck in a state of confusion and only one way to find an answer. She knew what she wanted, but she didn’t know if she had the strength to go out and get it. Or if she even could.

She was scared, but she wouldn’t let fear drive her to make a mistake. Fear had already caused far too much damage in her life and she was ready to break free of it. Instead, as cliche as it may sound… She wanted love to take the spotlight. 

~

“James? You there?” He could hear Y/N’s father from his room, his sluggish movement resulted in louder pounding upon his front door. But he had heard Y/N’s voice in his head chastising him about throwing on a shirt before answering the door and was momentarily delayed.

“Can I help you?” Bucky squinted at the man, fighting off a yawn as he leaned against the door frame.

“Y/N wasn’t answering her phone, some nurses were trying to get a hold of her to see if she’d pick up their shift. So I went to her apartment to see if she was alright. But...” Bucky straightened his stance, eyes landing on the phone in his hand. It was Y/N’s. “I have looked all over town but I can’t find her.”

“Look, she’s a smart woman. She’s probably just out clearing her head and left the distractions behind. The fact that it was in her locked apartment bodes well.” Her father nodded, relief flooding his face. “I’ll go to our spots and see if I can find her. Just wait for that to ring or buzz, ok?”

“Thank you.” He pauses for a moment, eyes saddening. “I never should have told you what I did. That’s not my job nor my business and it was wrong of me. But in my defense I become a little bit irrational when it comes to my daughter’s happiness, too paranoid about every little thing.”

“I know. But I never should have listened in the first place.” He left her father standing on his front steps as he made his way to the closest of the locations. “Go ahead home, I’ll find her in no time.

It was becoming dark as he went to location after location without success, his mind running through a list of possibilities. One came to mind and he felt like an idiot for not looking there first, it used to be his place to hide from the suffocating monotony of the town. When he met Y/N that changed, he showed her his private oasis so she could get away from the watchful eyes of her parents. It soon became a place they shared, one used to relax and calm their minds.

It had been ages since he had been to this field, seen these flowers and the tall grass in person. He had almost forgotten its power. His mind already felt less troubled as he began to scan the area. His eyes landing on a discrepancy in the tall grass and flowers.

The closer he got the more he noticed there was an inward bend in some of the grass as though someone was laying atop of it. When he saw an arm reach toward the stars he sent a text to her phone, a single word, before pocketing the device. Safe.

Bucky knelt by her head, his hair hanging over her as he shook her lightly. She responded instinctively with a fist to his nose. He fell onto his back with a grunt, holding his nose with his fingers as a little bit of crimson leaked between them. 

"Oh shit. I'm so sorry." She was hovering over him within seconds, eyes wide with panic until her training began to kick in.

"Never apologize for defending yourself. I'm the idiot who should have announced himself." He chuckled softly as she moved his hand to inspect the wound, eyes softening at the sight. Her fingers gingerly caressed over his throbbing nose before furrowing her brow and scrunching up her face as though she was brainstorming a plan.

"Good news is I didn't break it, the bleeding should stop really soon. It might swell a little but it isn't bleeding too bad." She pulls off her jacket and holds it beneath his nose, pinching the bridge between her fingers. "Sit up and tilt your head back."

"Guess it's a good thing I got punched by a nurse." He smiled a dopey smile as she held the jacket in place and shook her head.

"You're an idiot."

"Guilty. But at least I'm an idiot who loves you." She froze, eyes meeting his before a bright smile suddenly broke out on her face. 

"A lovesick idiot."

"Just what the doctor ordered." She shoved his shoulder and fell onto his back, her hand still attached and nearly dragging her all the way down. Hovering over him she carefully wiped the remaining blood from his face.

"You should be fine now, just ice it when you get home." She moved to stand but he grabbed her hand.

Bucky sat upright and patted the ground next to him before lying back down. She reluctantly complied, turning her head to the side so that she was looking him in the eyes. Something in her eyes had his insides turning to goo, heart racing in his chest.

"Stars are up there." She smiled softly and shook her head. "I may be an idiot, but I'm fairly certain about that one."

"Not my star." He furrowed his brow, absolutely perplexed by her comment. “It’s never been in the sky.”

"Alright, I'll bite where's your star?" She smiled and tapped his nose with her finger before giggling. "I'm not a star you goofball."

"Why not? We're all made up of atoms from previous stars aren't we? So why shouldn't you be my star? You do exactly what the North Star does after all." She returned her eyes to the sky but he couldn't stop looking at her. 

"And what's that?" He knew exactly what she was implying but he wanted to hear her voice say it aloud. Because if she said it, then he wouldn’t be so afraid to chase after this feeling she had him obsessing over.

"Remind me that I'm never alone." She smiled softly as her eyes fluttered shut, her chest slowly falling and rising as though she was blissfully unaware of how her comment had him reeling.

Bucky could not comprehend how someone could say something so profoundly heartfelt in such a casual manner. As if it was the easiest thing in the world. As though it held no more significance than any other endearment. To him it meant everything. Those few words made him fall all over again and he couldn't care less whether they had a whole lifetime or only a year.

He wanted her more than he had ever wanted anything in his life.

Her eyes remained closed as he moved to hover over her, a hand beside her head on the grass as he leaned in. His lips soon received a response from hers as they began to move together. Her hands making their way to his hair giving it a little tug which elicited a moan from him. 

Kissing her was like finally breathing that first breath of fresh air after months of breathing in smog. Euphoric. She tasted like chocolate and serenity. He just wanted to feel this rush forever, to taste her lips as often as possible and never let her go.  

One hand on the grass and the other beneath her, pressed against the small of her back. He held her close as his lips moved against hers, her tongue sliding inside as she once more tugged at his hair. She had him wrapped around her finger.

Y/N had a power over him that left him completely at her mercy and he didn’t mind that one bit. He almost forgot the necessity of air until she pulled away and rested her forehead against his. 

"Now I'm really mad at you." She laughed breathlessly as her eyes fluttered open to meet his gaze. "I've been missing out on that for over 10 years? You selfish bastard, learn to share."

Bucky couldn't help but let the laughter bubble up from his chest as his forehead fell onto her shoulder. 

"M'sorry." He mumbled against her skin causing her to suck in a breath. At this he smiled and pressed a kiss to her exposed collar bone after shifting the strap of her tank top. 

"Evil, how could you keep this talent to yourself." She tilted her head back with a smile, eyes closed as she propped herself up on her elbows. "Should be considered a crime."

"You don't wanna know all the thoughts that just popped into my head." Bucky moved to sit beside her but she straddled his waist and wrapped her arms around his torso. 

“Tease.”

Burying her face in his neck she left Bucky smiling like an idiot up at the stars. He wrapped his arms around her and pressed a kiss to her neck. She felt so perfect in his arms that he couldn’t believe he had ever denied himself the ability to hold her close to him. He may have never known the feeling of her lips on his or the way her hands in his hair could drive him so wild. To think he could have never known those feelings, such unbridled joy and love, was simply improbable. 

"I am never leaving you again. No matter how much time we have." She pulled back enough to look him in the eye. "I want you by my side for the rest of my life."

"I've never wanted forever. I only want as long as I can get with you."

He pulled her in for a kiss seconds after the words left her lips, smiling deeply into the kiss. 

~ 

When she woke in her bed with her head resting on his chest she smiled softly to herself. It was still hard to wrap her head around the fact that this was even happening. 

She never expected him to move back into town, let alone admit that he was actually in love with her and couldn't bear the possibility of letting her watch him slowly lose all of his mobility and functions. All this time he was simply terrified to put her through the suffering his family went through. Never realizing she went through it with them.

He hadn't noticed how much his hurting hurt her too. How watching him fall apart made her want to help him piece himself back together. But then again, she never noticed how he never stopped caring. How he kept tabs on her through Steve, though his letters. Or how he had kept a photo of her that he got from Steve in his breast pocket throughout his service. So that she was always with him.

Her heart swelled with joy as she closed her eyes and listened to the rhythmic beat of his heart. But when her stomach growled she was slipping out from beneath his arms and waltzed into her kitchen, eyes scanning in her fridge. 

Before she could turn around arms wrapped around her torso and pried her away from the fridge. She groaned in protest as he used his foot to shut the door, lightly smacking his forearms as he dragged her back to the room. 

“Uh uh, you know where the good stuff is. Put on some shoes and a jacket, we’re going to the diner.” She stuck out her tongue but complied, sliding on a light jacket over her tank top and slipping on some flats. 

“You go to the diner in pjs?” He nodded as he slid a hoodie on over his wild mane. She forced him into a seated position on her bed, standing between his legs as she gently guided his hair into the elastic band. His hands rested on her back and held her close and he messed with his hair, his face buried in her tank top. “All done, you can release me now.”

He shook his head and she chuckled softly, caressing his cheek before moving his head back. 

“So needy.” He gasped, throwing a hand over his heart. “And dramatic.”

“Takes one to know one.” He stood and pressed a kiss to her lips before taking her hand and leading her to the door. 

“Yeah but you know you love me.” She sent him a wink as she locked the door behind her and he shook his head. “Liar.”

“Mhmm. Yeah, yeah.” She smacked his shoulder as they descended the steps. “Okay, okay. I love you. I do.”

“Gee how heartfelt.” He grabbed her hand and pulled her flush against his chest, pressing her back to one of the walls on the landing. Her eyes watching him curiously as he cupped her cheek.

“I will always love you.” 

“Okay Celine Dion.” 

“I’m serious Y/N.” She placed a hand over his and pressed a kiss on the palm of his hand.

“I know. I love you too you idiot.” He shook his head as a smile tugged at his lips.

“Talk about heartfelt.” His arms wrapped around her waist as she leaned forward, eyes twinkling mischievously.

“Like poetry.”

“Mhmm.” He met her halfway, lips moving with hers as her heart began to race with adrenaline. 

“As much as I would love nothing more than to drag your ass upstairs and continue this I am actually very hungry and will kill if not fed.” She didn’t wait for a response as she dragged him along, opting to drive to get there faster.

“You are very violent when hungry.” 

“Aw you think this is violent for me? Adorable.” He made a concerned face as she pulled into the parking lot but she ignored it, rushing to his side of the car and shoving him into  the diner and into a booth.

“My god you’re here early.” Becca sat on a stool smirking at her best friend, eyes betraying her confidence with a hint of surprise. 

“Evil man wouldn’t let me eat from my own fridge.” Y/N rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes.

“He came between you and food and he’s still alive. Damn.” Becca chuckled as she slid off the seat and came over to take their order. “Last time a guy did that he almost got a black eye. But judging from your nose you didn’t get away scott free.” 

“No that’s from yesterday when he snuck up on me.” Becca shook her head with a furrowed brow, shrugging her confusion aside to work. “Don’t care just feed me now you beautiful human being.” 

“She’s very flirty when you give her food on an empty stomach.” Y/N just sent a wink in response before returning her face to Bucky’s bicep. “Usual Bucky?”

He simply nodded, eyes stuck on Y/N who was attached to his arm. No way he was getting that back until her food arrived so he used his right hand to hold out his cup and sip on his coffee. Becca returned with his plate and turned around to grab Y/N’s but it wasn’t quick enough because she smelt the food. He lost a piece of bacon as a result, but he regained 

use of his arm so it wasn’t a total loss.

“Oh thank god, I can refrain from murdering you.” She mumbled before taking a bite of her french toast. 

“Oh goody. I’m so grateful.” 

“You’re welcome.” She pecked his cheek before returning to her meal, a smile tugging at her lips as she watched him out of the corner of her eye.

“You are by far the strangest person I have ever met.” She laughed heartily before turning to face him.

“Bull. You’ve met Denise and Hilda. Also your sister.” He sat silent for a moment before nodding. “But I am definitely your favorite. Don’t worry I won’t tell Becca.”

“How thoughtful.” Bucky’s heart felt full as she smiled at him, giggling like a complete goof. 

If this was what the rest of his life looked like, then he didn’t care how long he was given in the end. As long as he has her at his side as long as he can get her. She was all he needed, and his reason to never leave. He finally faced his greatest fear: letting himself fall in love with her no matter the result. And he was beyond grateful that she had fallen for him just as hard. 

What he didn’t tell her last night was that she had always been the one he imagined gazing at the star at the same time he did. Because with her, he knew he was never alone.

~

Tags: @qtmeryr​ @broken-hearted-barnes​ @asphalt-cocktail​ @cantnkrusshedevil​ @gstran18​ @navegandoaciegas @just-trying-to-survive-marvel

#marvel #justtryingtowrite #small town lovers au #james buchanan barnes #Bucky Barnes #bucky #bucky barnes x reader #bucky x reader #writing challenge

[kierongillen]

Writer Notes: The Wicked + the Divine 44

Spoilers, obv.

I'm aware that this is either going to be a relatively short one or an epic one. The risk of the latter is that rather than just talking about the issue, for the first time I'm free to talk about the series as a whole, and so talk about some of those other choices. There'll be some of that, but it would warp the nature of the notes, and give some false perspective. I can talk about it being over now, sure, but talking about it all means I'm not talking about this element. Not least because I can't talk about it all – there's still the question of issue 45.

But still. There's a lot to talk about, and a lot of hard things in here to do. We knew where we going, but the devil is in the details. The devil's everywhere.

Jamie/Matt's Cover

Minerva finally gets her head-shot. I was a little worried that people would realise exactly what was happening to Minerva here, but I didn't see anyone realise she's falling, and speculate why. Of course, I knew what it was and couldn't not see it. That's how it works.

It's a striking last image though – this is an especially blank glance, in the middle of all the motion. Matt's pink/white nimbus is really powerful too.

Emma Rios/Miquel Muerto

Emma's one of our favourite artists, and we were so glad that we managed to get her before the end. Emma's always someone who gets this evocative drama of it all – this is obviously a momentous cover, but you don't know the moment until reading. Laura and Lucifer being a core relationship, and the hint of leaving. Miquel does strong, atmospheric things with the colours as well. It's a great cover to end the story on. On - Pretty Deadly is back on the same day as 45, and I can't wait. Gets!

IFC

In terms of minor things we did which have a big emotional effect, changing the gods' names to their human names was certainly one. It sits there and stings.

Page 1

This issue is particularly tightly wound, so we set the clock on the issue in this one page.

I had a couple of people wonder where the cops came from. I presume it's because the delay in publication – the "we have to go now because of woden's tape has revealed we're almost all complicit" is the only reason why they went for Minerva immediately.

For a page that's so tightly wound, Jamie does some great establishing here. Opening panel with the fire in top of Valhalla, to link to last issue. A shot with all these people in it – a character beat, and three extremely dialogue low panels.

Page 2

Riff on Better The Devil You Know.

The weird rhythm in WicDiv is the arcs-which-take-place-in-a-very-short-time and arcs-which-take-place-over-months.  Faust act, Rising Action, Imperial Phase II, "Okay" are the over-a-short time. Fandemonium, Commercial Suicide, Imperial Phase I and Mothering Invention are the extended ones. The closest to one which does both is Faust Act, which spreads its action over a week or two.

Page 3

Lovely stuff in here with Jamie, in terms of character work – obviously this is Lucifer hamming it up, but seeing individual responses around the room is a hell of a thing. Minerva's a total mess here.

Valentine giving up clever insults at this point is probably a thing.

Page 4-5 "Bothersome" is a very Lucifer word. The expression in panel 2 is also key Lucifer – that eye-roll of it.

Laura's captions also arrive mid way through – key, as they're clearly going to be key. I was thinking of having them at the start of page 3 as well, but we can let us live in the moment.

Laura's performance tentacles is a lovely panel – seeing how Matt works the colours on the space. The blues fading to white, the reds. Honestly, this is making me miss working with Matt already, and seeing how good he and Jamie are together.

Callbacks here to Lucifer in the first arc – the cycle of it all.

"There were two girls in hell" makes me well up. |It's one of my favourite Jamie expressions in the issue.

Page 6-7

When planning the larger structure of WicDiv, I was aware that I made certain calls in hope I would be able to save people. The early "death" of the Heads was actually a way to protect them. I was aware that characters who were in play were far more likely to die, as they had more chances to do so. I knew I could likely save the heads, so by making them heads, I made it more likely.

I originally planned for Dionysus to die, but I couldn't bear it. His hubris was real, but the idea that someone could give so much without anyone really caring or doing something for him was too heart breaking, even for me. I realised during Rising Action that I could actually save him – the pieces were already in play, and I just had to lean into those relationships to lead to Baph's choices. At the start, I wasn't sure where Baphomet ended in year 4 – part of me thought he'd survive, as I didn't have that final beat for him at the start. That I didn't have a hard end for Baphomet always made him open to the story finding another purpose for him – which is an end which I can't imagine any other way now. WicDiv is an awful necessary machine.

That applied to Lucifer too. She was a darling, obviously, but she was always going to be trouble. Part of me was aware that she could come back and almost immediately get killed again. I'd like her to make it out, but it was possible she wouldn't.

So, as I said last time, when I realised she was the final opposition I was pleased – that was perfect to the themes and the structure.

I wrote in my synopsis that Laura uses a performance to touch Lucifer and convince her into renouncing her godhood, and left it at that.

There it sat until I came to script it.

Because, in all honesty, I had no idea how Laura was going to convince Lucifer to give up her godhood. I just trusted that there would be some way Laura could reach her. Or, really, I hoped there was – because I knew if I wrote something that didn't feel convincing to me, I wouldn't do the scene. Lucifer would have died instead.

So, the day came when I was scripting this sequence, and I started writing, and wondered what the performance would be, and I just wrote "Laura descends the Ananke head sequence and drags Luci back."

Then I leaned back, a little shocked, because that was clearly right, and so clearly fit with what the series does – a final deconstruction of one of our core visual icons, giving a new way to look at the sequence and think about it. It was just there. As if it was there all along. Or just the sort of thought that emerges when you've been obsessed over this fucking thing for five years.

I'm aware of the weird resonance as well – Laura's finding a performance to save a friend is me finding a performance to save a character. WicDiv was a weird book.

Jamie and Matt go to town, of course – the melting faces are just painful, and wonderfully done. The fleshy reds, the fires. How Clayton uses the captions across the page to play with pacing...

I originally suggested we do it completely as the WicDiv spread, with Laura crawling across the centre spread and making her way up – that it would be treating what is meant to be two columns as a space was decided to be too much, so instead we went with flipping to a subjective perspective on a space that we've only experienced from a single objective outside viewpoint. That's got magic too.

Page 8

A long time to get to this kiss, right?

We moved the dialogue around a little to nail some moments – we had the magic effect on the final panel so the transition to the next page wasn't too much.

The annoyance of Eleanor in the last panel is just my everything. I described it to Jamie by using a metaphor of me in my early thirties, having split up with an Ex, and torn between various places, including seriously wondering whether, after everything, the simple answer to my sexuality stuff was that I was just gay. How annoyed I would have been, after all those years, if it was that. Just a "Oh, FFS. I'm just gay! Why didn't I get that earlier? Why have I wasted all this time? What a fucking fool I am."

That.

Page 9

Repeat of core WicDivian imagery, turned to a different purpose. After these magificent godly reveals, we do this very normal world.

Yeah. This would have been a happy place to end the series.

Page 10

Laura wants to be better, of course. It's easy to say you want to do better.

A+ Cassandra-ing in the background there.

Page 11

Now, Minerva is dead in a few pages time, and she is a genuine monster, trapped in a system of her own making. But I didn't want to send her into the void thinking she had that horror awaiting her. I can't forgive her, but I can give her a little peace.

Title drop, of course, with a wonderful expression by Jamie. There's a lot here.

Okay, let's do this.

"Okay" is a phrase that's haunted WicDiv. We've come back to it multiple times – it's a fascinating word in the English language, and has caused problems for people translating it, in the mixture of ambivalence and optimism in it is really tricky. Clearly, we use everything inside the word.

It wasn't my Dad's last words, but it's the last exchange I remember with him. Everyone else was out, and I was helping him back to his seat. He says to me.

"Son, I know this is strange, but I can't help but think it's going to be okay."

And I can almost imagine my eyes bulging out of my head, as I wanted to howl at him: no, Dad. It really fucking isn't.

This comes up almost verbatim in the first arc, with the exchange between Laura and Lucifer before she breaks out. The series is about many things, but my Father's death was the core inspiration for it, and that "It's going to be okay" haunted me and it.

I don't think this is what my Dad meant, clearly, but it's how I've ended up metabolising it. I've been signing "It's going to be okay" when I sign Faust Acts, partially as it's the WicDiv phrase, partially as a secret-promise-that-they-won't-all-die-and-there-is-hope and partially because "When death comes, it's okay" is that buried in it. If I had to boil the book down to a sentence, it'd be it. It means different things depending how you look at it. That's all I've got.

Page 12

I talk about Solving The Equation of the third year, and Dio being in play for this section is absolutely part of it.

That first panel. I said that the cast were all people I'd have killed to be at various stages of my life. Umar is someone I try to be now. I don't succeed, but he's a worthy goal. Kind is not soft and all that.

While the silent panel is something you've all seen before, it's worth highlighting how good Jamie is. The favourite gesture of the scene is the eyes upwards of Cassandra – I don’t remember Jamie using this angle before, and it's really striking. I suddenly miss that I won't be working with Jamie again for a while. Have fun, Jamie. You were the best.

And now, this.

Page 13-14-15

"It would take a real monster to kill a kid" is one of those lines that have been sitting in the files since the beginning.

There was a fan artist in the WicDiv community early on who kept on doing these totally charming portraits of Baal and Minerva playing around in a big brother and little sister way. Every time I saw them, I felt both love for the art, and a sadness. "In four years time, you are going to have a terrible day."

That's one of the weirdest things of the last four years – that. Knowing that stuff is out there.

Looking at this at a little distance, I see the elements in – the standing on the edge, the "Please Don't" and all that. I sigh. This is awful and upsetting and that page turn is one of the hardest in the series. I wish Valentine would forgive himself, but he couldn't.

This is the sort of thing I want to write a lot about, and want to write nothing. I think I'll keep it as just the facts, in terms of trying to plot this.

Occasionally you get to a knot – I knew Valentine had to kill Minerva, that Valentine couldn't bear to live after that was done and that Minerva had to die after Baal gave up his powers. How to you put those three together, without introducing something else.

C asked "Where does it happen? Could it happen somewhere high?" and the rest was there. Falling being the repeating WicDiv image as well.

I think I pictures this actually side on, without the drop. Jamie's choice is better, just because of the eyes.

The three panels is something we're returned too, but choosing the distance was key. You know it's there, but I didn't want to revel in the dead bodies. This is a different kind of death to many of the ones in the book, and has to be treated as such. Any more blood than shows they're dead would be obscene.

I sigh again. I note that Matt does the lights on the guns perfectly, but I want to highlight craft. The shot of eveyrone waiting is a huge thing – Inanna's grief, Dio stepping in, and the crossed arms of Cassandra...

16

I think it was when I was plotting the second year at WicDiv that I realised that I couldn't see a way out of this which didn't involve the majority of the cast ending up in jail for a while. I was okay with that, as it made some sense. It's thematically resonant for a few ways – it's a choice which shows their acceptance of their acts, and their actual humanity as well as an understanding of their power, and lots more.

However, due to all the straight, white characters being dead, it does mean that a all-queer all-PoC-minus-Lucifer cast going to jail, in the current jail system. That said, while far from perfect, the UK is not the US. I don't think I could have written this ending in the US. Even in the UK, I safety-proof it conceptually as much as I can.

They are all queer, and almost all PoC... but they are also superhumans (and mostly rich.) They have a degree of power, and options which are not open to other people... and it is their one chance to try and navigate this space with no-one else (either them or other humans) getting killed. It's their last chance to act in good faith to the rest of the species.

I wouldn't trust the system if they were people without their resources. They're not. And this is the least-worst choice I can see.

I'm sure some of you will disagree with me on that.

17

More safety-proofing – Voluntuaryism is an anarchist idea. "The only true order is voluntary order" basically.

18-19-20

This is a lot of space for a sequence which is relatively minor dramatic weight, but as we segue towards the end, we want it to breathe a little. Plus there's the matter of the page turns – the previous interstitial was about pushing that as well, so both the "surrender" and Laura's final headshot are on a turn.

Matt's lighting in this sequence is wonderful – I said to Jamie that I was thinking of almost suggesting we're changing genre before Laura steps in. It's a "The special forces go after Batman" sort of sequence. I was thinking of the one from Batman: Year Zero, which is some top class special forces entering darkened environments.

Another moment of the weird-colouring-in-a-balloon, and the actually living in the moment.

Taking the guns is more safety-proofing, showing they are not acting in blind faith of the system. That Laura can take the guns also shows that Laura likely could walk out of prison any time she wants, and the rest will be able to do the same too.

(Not that the people in power know they don't presently have access to their big ones, of course.)

We originally has Cass shouting that final line, but had it much more matter of fact. This is kind of past shouting.

21-22

Yeah, this is calling back all manner of stuff. Back to the courtroom.

Jamie asked me a lot about the final expression, as is only right. This is a story where we've used head shots a lot, normally with pose. This is something else.

23

Worth noting that Laura couldn't be sentenced to life imprisonment. She's 18 so would be sentenced for "custody for life". Not that the story actually says what she's been sentenced to that either – we cut before the sentence is given. Don’t expect a firm answer to that in next issue either.

But they all have been sentenced to life, in the obvious metaphorical way. Laura has been depressed and self-destructive to the point of a death wish throughout. At the end, she's decided to try to live.

I count that as bitter sweet, and I count that as a win. I'm proud of her. I'm proud of them all.

I'm in tears now.

24-28

And we were when compiling the letters page. Thanks you lot.

29

Jamie and I both had really intense feelings about the final cover. It's clear why we've kept it secret (it gives away Laura survives) but to see this young woman we've been writing about older was incredibly moving.

Laura was 20 years younger than me at the start of WicDiv, and she's 20 years older than me at the end. Feeling suspended between the two poles, identically. The duality of it, one more time.

I love this cover so much, and I loved these characters, this book, you lot.

Thanks for reading.

#WicDiv #the wicked and the divine #Writer notes

[inevitably-johnlocked]

I-J’s Top 20 Bookmarks of 2018

I’M A BIT LATE WITH THIS, but I’ve been meaning to do this for awhile. I want to start reccing more fics that people haven’t asked for, and thought this was a good way to start that :P

After I made my Top 30 Read-Again Fics (March 2019) fic list, I thought hmm, why not just make a list of my fave fics I bookmarked in 2018? Because why not? 

So here we are; it was a RIDICULOUSLY hard selection process (it was supposed to be only 10!), since everything I bookmark are amazing stories. I kept the criteria to fics I’ve only read for the very first time in 2018 and then proceeded to bookmark, so these aren’t necessarily fics that were released in 2018, just stuff I’ve read and bookmarked.

ANYWAY, without further ado, in word count order:

I-J’s TOP 20 BOOKMARKS of 2018

See also: 

Top 20 Fave 40K+ w. Fics (April 2017 ) 

I-J’s Last 50 Bookmarked Fics (June 2017) 

Last 17 Bookmarked Fics July 2017

Last 30 Bookmarked Fics November 2017 

Ten Fave Short Johnlock Fics (Easy Reads April 2018) 

25 Fave Johnlock One Shots (April 2018) 

Top 10 Fave Fics (September 2018) 

Novel Length Fics: 50 to 100K (Nov. 2018)

Last 86 Bookmarked Fics (Jan 2019) || [MOBILE] 

Top 30 Read-Again Fics (March 2019)

A Study in Lace by KarlyAnne (E, 2,320 w. || Est. Rel., Crafty Sherlock, Tiny Lace Panties / Lingerie, Domestics, Experiments, Oral, Masturbation) – “Why do you suppose he was doing that?” “Why do I suppose who was doing what?” “The room. The lace. The secrecy. He was playing with fire in everything he did, and didn’t care one bit. But he had a secret chamber, carefully concealed, solely for the purpose of making lace lingerie. Obviously for personal use. Why?" Part 1 of The Unintentional Crafts of Sherlock Holmes

Lingerie by Sexxica (E, 4,135 w. || Valentine’s Day, Lingerie / Women’s Underwear, Mildly Public Masturbation, Picture Texting / Sexting, Bottomlock, Body Worship, Anal Sex / Fingering, Rimming, Orgasm Delay / Denial, Est. Rel.) – It's Valentines Day and Sherlock is taking John to Angelo's for dinner. Sherlock also happens to be wearing a garter belt, stockings and a rather small pair of women's underwear under his clothes. There's no dessert at Angelo's because John needs to get Sherlock home just as quickly as he can before they both lose their minds entirely.

If He Knows by shamelessmash (M, 4,513 w. || TSo3 Fic, Pining Sherlock, Bed Sharing, Angst, Sherlock POV, Texting, Internal Monologue, Blanket Forts) – I imagine mornings: John handing me a cup of tea, hair sticking out at odd angles. How he would bend down to kiss me, smiling fondly as he pulls away. The way his skin crinkles at the corner of his eyes, the way his skin looks in the morning light. The soft sigh as he sits in his chair with the morning paper, the way his toes curl in the carpet, the way he rolls his shoulders before sinking deeper into his seat. I watch him, how he is when he is content, as it should be. As he deserves. Happy. With me.

When to Let Go by KendylGirl (M, 22,109 w. || Friends to Lovers, Reverse Reichenbach, Sacrifice, Forgiveness, Angst, Love, Implied Drug Use) – What if it were John who had to die to thwart Moriarty's plans? John's supposed death shatters Sherlock, and when he returns, it will challenge the pair to forge a path of forgiveness, to peace, and to find a way back to each other. Part 1 of When to Let Go

Another Auld Lang Syne by DiscordantWords (M, 30,234 w. || Post S4, Mutual Pining, Alternating POV, Introspection, Parentlock, Christmas, New Year’s, First Kiss, Past Drug Use, Angst with Happy Ending, Drinking, Sherlock Whump) – There had been years of missed chances.

Chaperones by MissDavis (T, 34,114 w. || 11 Years Post-S4, Fake Relationship, Parentlock, Disney World, Bed / Room Sharing, Friends to Lovers, Fluff, First Kiss, Obsessive Sherlock, Insecure John) – Right. Of course. Everyone assumed they were a couple and no one would question it. John put his elbows up on the table so he could rest his head in his hands. "You want to pretend to be a couple so we can chaperone a trip to Disney World with Rosie's class and you won't have to share a room with a stranger?" "Exactly." Sherlock beamed at him. "Don't worry about the cost. The Birmingham case last month paid more than enough to cover expenses for all three of us."

Nothing to Make a Song About by emmagrant01 (E, 36,833 w. || Post-TRF, First Time, Reunion, Jealous John, Pining Sherlock, Romance, Angst with Happy Ending, Sherlock Has a Boyfriend) – When Sherlock returned from his faked death, John could not forgive him for the deception and broke off their friendship. Ten years later, John returns to London in search of yet another new beginning. Sherlock, not surprisingly, is waiting.

The Unfinished Letters by SilentAuror (E, 37,391 w. || Post S3 / S3 / HLV Fix it, Angst with Happy Ending, Romance, Infidelity, Depression, Case Fic, POV Third Person Sherlock, Love Confessions, Pining Sherlock, Letters) – A fire at Baker Street leads John to read something he was never intended to see: a notebook of half-written, unfinished letters Sherlock wrote during his time away...

Set in Stone by SilentAuror (E, 39,309 w. || Romance, Wedding, Therapy, Fluff and Angst) – Sherlock and John are back from Ravine Valley and planning their wedding. However, as they move past the trial of the human traffickers, Sherlock can't help but wonder if he's imagining that John is becoming a little distant. Surely he isn't getting cold feet about the wedding... Part 2 of The Ravine Valley series

In the Still of the Night by SilentAuror (E, 42,234 w. || S4 Fix It / Post-S4, Sherlock POV, Angst, Drama, Romance, Virgin Sherlock, Awkwardness, Misunderstandings / Miscommunications, Case Fic, Travelling, Pining) – As locals on the Northeastern coast begin to report UFO sightings, life at Baker Street becomes significantly awkward as John brings up his desire for more than friendship and Sherlock refuses him. They embark on the investigation from the confines of the tiny cottage Mycroft has rented for them, attempting to navigate both the clues of the case as well as their own inability to communicate...

Bloody But Unbowed by BeautifulFiction (E, 43,211 w. || Abduction, John Whump, Mild Torture, Background Case Fic, Friends to Lovers, Post-TRF / S3 Rewrite, Hurt/Comfort) – When a familiar argument threatens to destroy the last remnants of John and Sherlock's failing friendship, both men are left questioning their worth to one another. Before either of them has the chance to make amends, circumstance intervenes. John is left at the mercy of his abductors, and this time, he's not sure Sherlock will bother coming to his rescue.

floating through a dark blue sky by Lediona (M, 58,966 w. || Notting Hilll AU || POV John, Celebrity Sherlock, First Date / Time / Kiss, Past Drug Addiction, Angst with a Happy Ending) – Of course, I’d seen his films and always thought he was, well, brilliant -- but, you know, a million miles from the world I live in. Or, when John is the owner of a travel book shop and the famous Sherlock Holmes stops in one day.

The Book of Silence by SilentAuror (E, 60,056 w. || S4 Fix It / Post S4, Virgin Sherlock, Rosie / Parentlock, Domesticity, Fluff, Praise Kink, Sex Toys, First Person POV) – As spring blooms in London, John and Sherlock begin to take new cases and cautiously negotiate this new phase of life with John living at Baker Street again. Despite how well it's all going, John struggles to forgive himself for the way he treated Sherlock following Mary’s death as well as trying to figure out how to finally put his long-time feelings for Sherlock into words. Part 1 of The Book of Silence/Rosa Felicia

Summit Fever by J_Baillier (M, 78,802 w. || Mountain Climber AU || POV John, Angst, Tragedy, Suicidal Ideation, The Himalayas, Mountain Guide / Doctor John, Mount Climber Sherlock, Loneliness, Drama, Suspense, Slow Burn, Injured Sherlock / Sherlock Whump, Pining John) – After graduating from medical school, John Watson followed his heart to the Himalayas. Ten years later, he's a haunted cynic working for his ex-lover's trekking and mountaineering company. Will leading an expedition to Annapurna I—the most lethal of all the world's highest mountains—shake John out of his reverie, and who is the mystery client added to the group at the last minute?

Uphill by scullyseviltwin (E, 84,945 w. || Olympics AU || Sherlock POV, Skier!Sherlock / Medic!John, Rivalry, 2014 Olympics, Happy Ending) – Sherlock Holmes is striving for gold in this, his fourth and final Olympics as a downhill Alpine racer.

A Study in Winning by Jupiter_Ash (E, 106,658 w. || Tennis AU || John POV, Dirty Talk, Mutual Pining, Misunderstandings, Happy Ending, Sherlock Speaks French, Switchlock, Wimbledon) – John and Sherlock are professional tennis players and it’s Wimbledon. One is a broken almost was at the end of his career, the other an arrogant rising star tipped for greatness. It should have been a straightforward tournament. It really should have been. How were they to know that a chance encounter would change everything? Part 1 of Tennis

Eyes Up, Heels Down by CodenameMeretricious (E, 107,845 w. || Sports Equestrian AU || Fluff, Angst, Humour, Rider!Sherlock, Groomer!John, Show Jumping, Slow Burn, Happy Ending) – Sherlock is a top eventing rider currently training at Baker Farms. John is the new groom who's been told to steer clear of the surly rider and his horses. Part 1 of Baker Farms

The Burning Heart by May_Shepard (M, 119,150 w. || Canon Divergence, Post-TRF, John’s Sexuality, S3 Rewrite, Pining, Angst with a Happy Ending, POV John Watson, John’s Gay) – When Sherlock dies, John Watson feels like his life is over too. He’s completely shut down, until Mark Morstan, a new nurse at John’s medical clinic, catches his attention, and helps him uncover the long buried truth of his attraction to men. Although he’s certain he’ll never get over Sherlock, John plans to move on, and build a new life with Mark, unaware that Sherlock is not quite as dead as he appears, and that Mark is hiding secrets of his own.

The Horse and his Doctor by khorazir (T, 129,003 w. || Horse / Vet AU || Magical Realism, Horses, Vet John, Horse Sherlock, Implied Alcoholism) – Invalided after a run in with a poacher in Siberia, veterinary surgeon John Watson finds it difficult to acclimatise to the mundanity of London life. Things change when a friend invites him along to a local animal shelter and he meets their latest acquisition, a trouble-making Frisian with the strangest eyes and even stranger quirks John has ever encountered in a horse.

Gimme Shelter by SinceWhenDoYouCallMe_John (E, 159,368 w. || 70′s Surfer AU || Period Typical Homophobia, Hawaii, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Professional Surfers, Gay John / Sherlock, Angst with Happy Ending, John was a Sailor, Misunderstandings) – All John Watson wants is the feeling of a freshly waxed surfboard under his feet and the hot California sun baking down onto his back. To finally go pro in the newly formed world of professional surfing and leave the dark memories of his past behind him as he rips across the face of a towering blue barrel. To lounge beside the beach bonfire every evening with an ice cold beer tucked into the cool sand beside him and listen to Pink Floyd and the Doors while the saltwater dries in his sun bleached hair. That's all he wants, that is, until the hot young phenom taking Oahu and the Hawaiian shores by storm steps up next to him in the sand in the second round of the 1976 International Surf Competition.

#johnlock fic recs #my fic recs #top fics #fave fics

[thedistantstorm]

Keep On Rising (Until The Sky Knows Your Name) 12

Found Family | Zavala is Tower Dad | Father-Daughter Relationship | Childhood Trauma and Recovery | Canon-Typical Violence | Amputation

A story about how an orphaned Amanda Holliday comes to belong in the Last Safe City and the family she finds along the way.

(Or, the story of how Commander Zavala finds himself responsible for one Amanda Holliday.)

Chapters: 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11

This time: Zavala begins a process. The City’s child-care system begins another.

-/

The day is spent in a flurry of treatments: they make her do these really dumb - but hard - exercises, and they send a doctor to talk to her who asks weird questions. None of that ruins her good mood though. She's achy but not unhappy. She even gets to take a real bath, for the first time in the two plus weeks since she's been in the hospital, and when the nurse helps her back to bed, she gets to sit in the chair Zavala usually uses when he visits. It's a nice change.

Karena is exceptionally happy when she comes by in the afternoon, talking to Amanda about how well she's been doing and how proud she is of the girl's determination. Not that the matron isn't normally supportive, but it's nice to be told those sorts of things. She leaves after supper when Zavala arrives, meeting him in the doorway. Whatever they say to each other misses Amanda's ears. 

Not that it matters, Zavala picks her up and balances her on his lap, Shiori transmatting the blanket he's been working on at night over their legs. A skein of yarn appears next, with two silver knitting needles.

"Only a few more rows, and I'll be done with your blanket," He tells her, depositing the remote on the bedside table into her hands.

She looks up at him, both bashful and thrilled. "Fer me?" 

He smiles at her and she beams when he nods. "Find us something to watch while I finish it, hmm?"

She picks something educational - she feels like he'd like that, and she doesn't want to seem like a baby who only watches cartoons. In the end, the documentary about songbirds of the EDZ is not nearly as interesting as the methodical way Zavala knits, his eyes on the screen but his hands moving on their own. He pauses when her hands cover his. She looks pointedly at the screen, as if she has no idea how her hands got where they are. He moves them, pressing one hook into each of her palms before replacing his hands over top of them.

Each move is slower with their combined hands, Zavala watching now to make sure they do not make any uneven stitches. “Each row has to be counted so that the number of stitches are even,” He says to her softly, a rumble of sound she feels in her back more so than from the volume of his voice. “Seventeen more and we’ll begin the next.”

He counts each aloud, taking care to make sure the yarn does not get tangled. When he reaches zero, he has her hold the skein. She looks at him dubiously.

"Ya don't need me to help, do ya?"

He raises an eyebrow, she looks up and over her shoulder to see it. "Is it boring?"

She shakes her head, suspecting he's the type of person who can make anything interesting enough. "Jus' seems like you can do it yerself. I'm just slowin' you down."

Shifting the skein of yarn from her hands to his left hip, he hands her the thick needles and covers her hands once more. Casually, he muses, "I don't mind if it takes longer... and a little help would certainly not be remiss. You aren't tired yet, are you?"

"Nah," She hums, fully aware that she'd deny it even if she was, just to be held onto a while longer. "This's relaxin'."

Zavala chuckles. "It is," He agrees. "Our new row has one hundred forty-six stitches. Ready?"

Amanda's errant curls bounce when she nods. He smooths one back from her face as she chirps, "Ready!"

-/

Karena meets him outside the ward as he heads for the Tower in the morning. She hands him a large envelope, tutting gently as he stretches. "You do realize that having a child means you'll have to sleep at some point, right?"

He raises an eyebrow. "I slept for four hours," He informs the motherly woman. 

"That chair is hardly comfortable," Karena quips. She would know, spending most of her days in it, herself.

"I assure you I've had worse." His tone errs on indulgent for a moment before switching gears, indicating the file inside the envelope. "What do I need to do?"

"Fill it out completely. They ask that you have a space - a bedroom - for the child, which will be inspected before she's brought into it. Considering her injury you may have to make modifications before she can come home, and with your work, I would suggest some folks you'd trust to watch her, should the board have any questions." Karena regards him with a sharp eye. "Amanda seemed rather fond of 'Miss Eva.'"

He nods, already planning to speak with his friend on the subject.

"But for right now, you'll fill that out and get it to me, I'll get it sent to the board of governors, and the rest should honestly be a formality, once they see your name. You have my blessing, and usually these go without a hitch once you have the principal matron's approval regardless of the adopter’s status."

"Good." He taps the paperwork. "I will have my Ghost send you the digital copy this afternoon, unless you need the physical version? I can make the time."

"Digital is fine." Karena smiles. He may not act like it, but she can tell he’s eager to get the details set in stone. "Did you tell her?"

He shakes his head. "Not until everything is approved. I don't wish to worry her more. I fear she'll obsess about any delays, and she's finally starting to be in better spirits. I would hate for the bureaucracy to bring her down if it takes some time to finalize. Besides, she won’t be able to truly come home with me for some time. I feel like it should be handled delicately.”

Karena can’t keep the grin from her face, even as she shakes her head. She wasn’t wrong in her assessment that he would be an excellent parent. He’s calm, rational, and his willingness to think things through is a huge asset to handling the very unique situation little Amanda is in. 

“I’m just thrilled,” She gushes. “I’d been hoping you would come around. I just know in my heart this is what’s best for her. For you both.”

-/

The late morning was always a busy time for new intakes. In fact, considering it was the beginning of the week, the poor secretary would likely be making charts and combing through paperwork for her designated physicians until well after her shift was to end. Usually, though, the children brought in were quiet, surrounded by a large number of caretakers or sedated.

It must have been a full moon because the doors opened to a girl positively screaming, face nearly purple from crying and yelling all at once. “Take me back,” She’s yelling, dissolving into hiccoughing wails. “I don’t wanna be here!”

The woman behind the nurse pushing the stretcher scoffs. “Honey,” She says, in an almost patronizing voice, it’s so sugar-sweet, “There is no reason for a child to be treated at a military hospital. We have our own facilities, and they are far nicer.”

“Please,” The girl begs, looking for anyone who will listen, “I want Matron Karena.” Her voice rises to a fever pitch, shrill enough to make people wince. “Take. Me. Back!”

That seems to do it for the woman behind her. “That’s enough,” She snaps. “You are a ward of this City. Due to your injuries, Karena and your previous home are not equipped to take care of you long-term. Therefore, you are here. You should be grateful. It’s far nicer here than in that wretched home or some stagnant medical bay.”

Turning to the secretary, the woman says, “This is Amanda Holliday. Make her a chart and call for a psychiatrist. The one who contacted me in the first place was wretched, even if he made the right call.”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Ow! Hey, don’t do that!” One of the nurses jumps back, holding the side of her face. “You shouldn’t hit.”

“Don’t touch me,” Amanda snarls. “Jus’ take me back.”

The woman motions to one of the white-coat wearing staff. “Doctor, get her something for the pain. She looks like she’s hurting.”

“Yer the one who’s gonna be hurtin’ if ya don’t take me back,” She retorts, but the woman grabs her arm with an iron grip, clearly used to dealing with rebellious children.

One of the doctors steps forward, easily ducking the flailing leg she kicks out at him. After all, she only has the one, the other is short and sore and weeping through her bandage - she must have been flailing around more than she thought.

“Keep her still, Matron Gracie.”

She screams when they give her the pain medication, even though it’s pushed through an existing IV line and she never gets poked. The dose is excessive and effective, hitting her bloodstream quickly. Her eyes roll back almost immediately, her arms falling back to her sides atop the gurney.

“Always something exciting around here,” Matron Gracie says, with a toothy smirk. It’s just another day on the job for her, clearly. “Get the kid in her room. Maybe she’ll be a bit more cooperative when she wakes up.”

#destiny fanfiction #shipwright september #amanda holliday #commander zavala #destiny stories #zavala is tower dad #y'all are gonna hate me for this #but you're gonna have to trust me

[triggeringthehealing]

Courtside

Derek/Stiles | PG | ~1900w | AO3

Summary: No, Stiles is not stalking anyone. He just has an interest in supporting the school’s basketball team. That’s not a crime, is it? 

A/N: Written for the @fullmoonficlet challenge - prompt #284: seed A/N2: please excuse artistic liberties taken with anything sports related. 

-=-=-=-=-

Stiles never had time for following sports news. Or maybe he just didn't have any interest, at least not in the past. Now though, now he's glued to the local TV station, waiting for the report that was supposed to be aired an hour earlier but got delayed.

Because he's developed a vested interest in the state high school tournament. He's been following the friendlies, sat in the top row for every Beacon Hills home game, drove to a few away ones. No matter what Scott says, he's not obsessed though. He's just... developed a love for the game, that's all.

"Stiles come on," Scott complains, tugging on Stiles's sleeve. "You promised we'd do this mission, like, half an hour ago."

"I'll switch over in a minute," Stiles says, eyes still on the TV screen and remote firmly in his hand.

"You said that half an hour ago," Scot tells him.

"Yeah but I didn't know the announcement would be delayed," Stiles replies.

There's a marquee running over the bottom of the screen, informing him of what he already knows. That the seed for the state championship's group stage has been delayed and will be aired shortly.

"Can we just, you know, play, and you'll catch the results later?"

Stiles tears his eyes away from the screen and glares at Scott like he's said something unforgivable.

"Or you know, just let Derek text you?" Scott smirks and ducks the smack that Stiles attempts to aim at him.

"Derek's got nothing to do with this," Stiles protests, slumping into the couch with a huff.

"Yeah buddy, it's not like you started being obsessed with the basketball team right around the time Derek Hale was put in the starting lineup," Scott says. "I mean, did you even know the school had a basketball team before that?"

"I did!" Stiles says, maybe a little too fast. "I absolutely knew. All last year, I knew."

"You know I can tell when you're lying, right?"

Scott raises an eyebrow at him, clearly knowing the truth.

"Fine," Stiles admits. "So I didn't pay any attention until this year."

"You know it would probably be a better idea to just, like, ask him out," Scott says. "Instead of being a stalker."

"Excuse me, I'm not a stalker," Stiles says, but even he knows that it's a very fine line between his following of Derek's games and what his law enforcement officer father would see as stalking. "Also I'm pretty sure he doesn't know I exist," he says in a defeated tone. "Watching from afar is all I've got."

"Lydia didn't know you existed for real and that didn't stop you from wooing her for years," Scott points out. "Remember when I asked her if she'd want to join us for a study group and--"

"Yes, Scott, I remember that vividly, thank you for the reminder," Stiles interrupts him, the memory still painful even though he's now not only over strawberry blonde princesses but also actually good friends with Lydia Martin, despite their ongoing battle for class valedictorian.

Or maybe because of it. Keeping your friends close and your enemies closer and all that.

"I'm telling you, he's not going to say no," Scott says. "Anyway, you're missing the seed announcement."

Stiles turns to the TV fast enough that for a second he feels dizzy. Then his attention is fully on the list on the screen and the presenter's voice and he memorizes the upcoming schedule and teams for the state tournament.

-=-=-=-

Scott's words, no matter how little Stiles believes them, keep playing in his mind for the next few months. He continues to go to all the games, with increasingly lesser subtlety about whom he's watching during them. He does not include Derek's number or name on any of his banners but it's only because he refuses to let Scott help. He does, however, drag Scott to the games, in return for Scott making him sit on the bench for lacrosse.

"They could win this year," Scott says a few months, when the BHHS team is clearly on the way to the finals, clear out of the group stage and on a winning streak through the playoffs.

"It's a good lineup," Stiles agrees. "Told you they're worth supporting."

He pointedly ignores Scott's judging glare.

"Ally asked me about us being at all the games, you know," Scott tells Stiles after a while, as the cheerleaders do their warm-up routines on the court. "She thought I was there for her."

"You two broke up, like, two years ago," Stiles says, frowning in the direction of the cheerleaders, one of whom happens to be Allison, Scott's ex-girlfriend. "Why would she think that?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure she was just trying to see why we were here all the time."

"You didn't say anything, did you?"

Stiles feels a little panic rising in his chest. The team and the cheerleaders are close -- he knows that Allison and Derek especially hang out a lot even away from training -- and while he's okay with Scott having figured out why Stiles has such a dedication to the games, he's not at all okay with anyone else knowing.

"I told her it's about school spirit."

"There's no way she believed that." Stiles scoffs.

"I also told her Coach is making us support other teams because he wants them to come to support us," Scott adds, grinning. "That, she did believe."

"Well, yeah. Just don't let Coach hear you say that, or we'll spend more time cheering on other teams than anything else," Stiles says, eyes back on the bench, where the team is slowly gathering for the game.

They're closer to the court today. The back rows where Stiles usually chooses to sit were already occupied when he and Scott got there. It's also an away game, and their school has seating allocated right behind their own bench. Because Scott insisted on driving -- something about practice for his own car -- the only places left were right behind the team's non-playing members.

"Hey McCall," comes from the seats in front of them and Stiles turns to see Boyd waving at Scott. "Coach still on to you about the whole team spirit bullshit?"

"Yeah," Scott answers easily.

Stiles narrows his eyes, wondering when Scott learned how to lie.

"Why aren't you up front?" Scott follows up, drawing attention from Boyd's question.

"Muscle strain. Doc has me on break for today, so I can play the finals," Boyd explains.

"Damn man, that sucks."

Stiles tunes out of their conversation about injuries that follows that exchange. He's never had that issue, despite being forced to do cross-country during the off-season and the occasional game he got to play. Scott knows a little about dealing with being benched -- Stiles at first wasn't even sure Scott could play, since his asthma was an issue all through middle school -- and him and Boyd swap tips and stories.

Meanwhile, the team moves from the bench to the court to warm up. Stiles tries to remember to watch all of them, not just Derek, but he's pretty sure he's not as subtle as he'd like to be. Luckily, it seems like he's getting away with it today and no one is paying him attention.

"Hey, Boyd said the team's going for burgers on the way back," Scott tells Stiles during one of the breaks in the game. "Said since we made the effort to drive out, we should join them. I said we would."

"Scott, why?" Stiles managed, but then the game is back on and their attention pulled away.

The game ends with another clear win for Beacon Hills and Scott and Stiles join in on the victory cheers. Despite Stiles's protests, Scott confirms with Boyd that they'll join the team at the diner on the way back home. And since Scott still has the keys to the Jeep, Stiles has no choice but to sit in the passenger seat and pout in protest.

At the diner -- about halfway on the way home -- the team takes over several booths. Stiles attempts to snag a seat with the cheerleaders since he's on friendly terms with Erica, but he's tugged into one by Scott before he can steer anywhere by himself. He's staring at the menu and debating whether he wants to test this place's curly fries or go safe and just order a milkshake when a shadow falls over the page. He looks up and freezes.

"Hey Stiles," Derek says, a soft smile playing on his lips.

"H-hi," Stiles stutters a response, feeling the heat in his cheeks.

"Thanks for coming to the game tonight," Derek tells him as he sits down. "It's great to have people from home at the away games."

Stiles nods, not sure what he's supposed to say. Which, he's pretty sure Scott would say, is a first in his entire life.

"Hey, your lucky charm is here, Hale," one of the other guys shouts from the other booth, drawing Stiles's attention. "Thanks for helping us win, Stilinski!"

When Stiles looks back at Derek, he sees the way his cheeks are darkening.

"What?"

"It's nothing," Derek mutters, but he's obviously nervous, shredding a napkin with his fingers.

Stiles waits.

"We started winning when you started coming to the games," Derek says quietly. "Lost the ones you weren't at."

"How does that make me your lucky charm?"

Derek mumbles something in response, but Stiles can't make it out.

"What?"

He's confused and his mind is already coming up with ideas, half of which he would love to be true, the other half so outlandish that he's not even going to try believing them. Beside him, Derek grabs another napkin and starts shredding it, then he takes a deep breath before he starts talking again, this time a little more clearly.

"The guys say I play better when you're there. Showing off."

"Oh."

There's a pause, then Stiles's curiosity gets the better of him and he blurts the question that's taken over his mind.

"Do you?"

Derek -- still staring at the table and the napkin in his fingers -- sighs.

"Maybe. A bit," he says quietly, not looking at Stiles.

Holy shit, Stiles thinks. Then he freezes when he hears a chuckle from his other side, where Scott is pretending not to listen in to the conversation.

"Oh."

Finally, Derek glances in Stiles's direction, but only for a second. He looks away fast, cheeks burning but a small smile playing on his lips. Stiles blushes in return.

"Hey Stiles, I'm taking a ride on the bus on the way home, they're going to drop me off," Scott says, breaking the tension a little.

"Right."

"I think I'm taking Derek's spot though, would you mind driving him?"

Stiles turns around and stares at Scott with his jaw dropped, speechless for the second time in one evening. Then he nods and turns to Derek.

"Is that okay? We could talk."

Derek nods. A beat later, his fingers stop pulling apart the napkin and he drops one of his hands under the table, finding Stiles's own and he links their fingers together. Stiles absolutely does not blush.

#sterek #eternalsterek #sterek ficlet

[thanhtuandoan89]

Pack Up the Big Top: Insights from MozCon Virtual 2021's Grand Finale

And just like that, MozCon Virtual 2021 has come to an end. Over the past three days, we’ve seen incredibly insightful presentations on everything from content marketing, to machine learning, to new and exciting SEO tips and tricks. A big thank you to all our speakers, emcees, attendees, and volunteers in front of and behind the camera. It wouldn’t be MozCon without you!

Check out our recaps from day one and day two, and if you missed day three, read on for top-level takeaways! But to get the most out of this year’s MozCon content, make sure to access the video bundle when it goes on sale Friday, and stay tuned for details on MozCon 2022 —

You heard it here first, folks: #MozCon 2022 is slated to be LIVE in Seattle, in person! 🎉 https://t.co/3CKcI0N9l7

— Moz (@Moz) July 14, 2021

— that’s right! We’ll be back live and in-person next year in Seattle. Can’t wait to see you all there!

Tom Capper — The Fast & The Spurious: Core Web Vitals & SEO

“What if I told you that Core Web Vitals, and this update, are a bluff?”

Tom sure did kick off day three by blowing our minds with his opening line — the update everyone has been obsessing over for the last year isn’t actually all it’s cracked up to be?

Well, sort of.

It turns out we can’t afford to call Google’s bluff, but we can “sort of cheat”. Tom went on to lay out the flaws of Core Web Vitals, which all add up to the fact that they actually encourage terrible optimizations.

Core Web Vitals are all the rage, but do they live up to the hype? Here's @THCapper's take - SEO is like the prisoner's dilemma - Prioritize high traffic pages & page speed - Metrics can be gamed - Drop, delay unstable elements or move below fold - Rethink hero images#mozconpic.twitter.com/hgqeUZzKTP

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

So what’s taking so long? As we all know, this roll out has been delayed multiple times. Tom uses a brilliant example of the classic prisoner’s dilemma to explain why:

@THCapper pulling a #ChidiAnagonye by bringing moral philosophy into an SEO talk. #MozCon#TheGoodPlacepic.twitter.com/A7cx1GtKVy

— Sandi Pope Griffin (@sandpoper) July 14, 2021

As it turns out, Google has been contradicting themselves when talking about CWV because they can’t actually roll out updates that undermine the quality of their services — they’re relying on us, the SEOs, to act as the prisoners in their big dilemma of rankings.

On Google’s “There appears to be some confusion”: “Well, yes, you will notice some confusion if you directly contradict yourself.” @THCapper#MozCon

— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 14, 2021

Tom advised SEOs to take advantage of Google Discover, which is actually a massive, untapped traffic opportunity as it’s more responsive to speed than organic search.

"For most sites I see that are taking Google Discover even remotely seriously, they are getting more traffic from Discover than from organic search." - @THCapper dropping shocking stats. #MozConpic.twitter.com/kJSPDKCTTn

— Rob Ousbey (@RobOusbey) July 14, 2021

Before he signed off, Tom reiterated:

Prioritize high traffic pages

Metrics can be gamed/optimized

Don’t do any of this at the expense of speed

We won’t dig into the how for all of this here, so definitely check out his presentation in the video bundle!

Luke Carthy — The Ultimate How-To for Faceted Navigation SEO in E-Commerce

After an introduction that got the whole chat laughing (“Hi, I’m Morgan Freeman. Welcome to the afterlife.”), Luke Carthy showed us how he generated a 25% increase in organic traffic using faceted navigation.

Wait, what’s faceted navigation? You’ve definitely run into it if you’ve ever shopped online. Think about the stores that allow you to filter and sort your search. Behind that search is a faceted nav, defining, filtering, and sorting URLs on a website.

If it’s so common, what’s wrong with it? As Luke explains, faceted navs generate hundreds of long, parameterized, filtered URLs. It’s messy, it’s bloated, and bots can’t easily crawl them.

SEOs tend to counteract this bloat by “nofollowing the shit out of” faceted URLs. But when we do that, all of that long-tail gold disappears.

So what’s the solution? As Luke says, “It’s all about balance!”

(Side note: how cute is this photo??)

Luke shared some ways to “make facets sexy” by:

Understanding your site’s taxonomy

Using filters only to add granularity

Using “-” (dash) instead of “_” (underscore)

Filtering parameter URLs in GA to spot opportunities

Using a consistent structure

Limiting indexable parameter options

There were a bunch more actionable tips in this presentation, but we won’t spoil it all for you!

Okay, wow, this presentation is EXTREMELY actionable for anyone who handles e-commerce sites. But also, if you handle a blog - maybe try and use it for tags, categories, etc. Just a thought off the top of the dome 🤷‍♀️@MrLukeCarthy#MozCon

— Brie E Anderson (@brie_e_anderson) July 14, 2021

Miracle Inameti-Archibong — Harnessing the Natural Language Toolkit for More Productive SEO

In her quick presentation, MozCon newcomer Miracle walked us through ways to use Natural Language Processing to do our SEO tasks — like keyword research — and even shared some of her own resources to help us do it!

With Miracle’s comprehensive Natural Language Processor with Python, you can analyze up to 10,000 keywords with the click of a button and group them based on category, frequency, and search intent. Don’t worry — even if you aren’t a programmer, Miracle’s scripts are easy enough to plug and play so you can start analyzing immediately.

If you're not following @mira_inam yet, what are you doing? Miracle just shared SO many actionable keyword research takeaways!!! Thank you!!! 🤯🤯🤯 https://t.co/ESStpcLt5I

— Britney Muller (@BritneyMuller) July 14, 2021

Miracle then walked us through how to get the script up and running step-by-step. The results were mind-bending. In just a few short clicks, she produced a wealth of keyword data sure to fuel some brilliant strategies and ideas.

To be honest, there was so much information in such a short time frame, this is one we’ll have to revisit again to absorb every tip possible, but click below to access Miracle’s scripts:

http://bit.ly/keywordclassification

http://bit.ly/keywordcluster

Amanda Milligan — A Live Guide to Finding & Filling the Gaps in Your Link Strategy

Amanda kicked off her first MozCon presentation by reiterating the importance of quality over quantity, to the tune of enthusiastic cheers from the MozCon chat box. In today’s climate, quality content is what will get you that authority and trustworthiness today’s marketers (and Google) crave. Quantity may give you a short term boost, but it won’t last and it won’t compound.

@millanda on creating link-worthy content: "Always remember that it's not just about the link juice, but about the excellence you've created and the value you've provided as a result." #mozcon#SEO#linkbuildingpic.twitter.com/yT7uqIS7OL

— Katie Bradley (@KtBee21) July 14, 2021

But Google is just a robot and they base their assumptions on links: Who owns them and who links to whom? If your competitors are ranking on time.com and you aren’t, then Google will see your competitors more favorably and rank them higher in the SERP.

Amanda reminds us that these gaps are opportunities. If your competitor can get a link on Time.com, then so can you!

Amanda jumps straight to Moz Pro’s Link Intersect — “This tool was made for this kind of analysis!” — measuring up Chewy.com to competitors Petco.com and Petsmart.com to reveal the places where Chewy’s competitors link, but Chewy doesn’t.

One such article on CNN.com links to Petsmart and Petco and features a very cute guinea pig in a suit of armor — is it possible for Chewy to obtain a link to CNN? Yes!

Developing the content is only half the battle. Once you have something you think will resonate, it’s time to start pitching, which is arguably “where many link builders fall short.” In the pitching process, Amanda offers a fool proof plan of attack: “Pitch your content exclusively at first, and then once published, you can begin to take it elsewhere.” Publishers love exclusive content because they can leverage it to drive more views to their own content.

Amanda also drives home another link building golden rule: make sure you research and position your pitches and tailor them to the publisher. Gone are the days of mass outreach, and that won’t serve you well in the long run.

Once you’ve done the work, it’s time to track and record your progress. Take note of all the places your content shows up (anchor text, images, etc.) or whether it is do-follow or not.

Finding & filling gaps in your link strategy: 1/2 Finding - Identify brands building great links - See who links to them, but not to you (use a tool like Moz's link intersect) - Analyze the types of content earning links - Consider similar angles@millanda#MozConpic.twitter.com/lsH0DcbVfk

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

Check out Amanda’s Whiteboard Friday on crafting the perfect pitch email for more tips!

Lily Ray — From the Medic Update to Now: How the E-A-T Ecosystem Has Transformed Organic Search

Lily Ray has been studying the evolution of Google and E-A-T for a few years now, and in this presentation, she outlined key changes in how Google perceives content – specifically when it comes to the rise of misinformation.

Since 2016, and especially in the last year, more people turn to Google for information on things like politics, vaccines, COVID, and other important topics. This makes it increasingly necessary for Google to surface reliable information. In times of crisis, things become even more critical, and according to the data, Google begins to favor more authoritative sources versus relevant sources. We don’t know exactly how this is determined, but in her study, the data shows that Google favorably ranks content from reputable sources for potentially controversial keywords.

If there is one thing that Lily wants us to walk away with, it's the “E-A-T matters in crisis”, and is Google’s quality standard for evaluating content, authors, and websites.

As a result of this, Google saw a sharp decline in search visibility for questionable news sources, which then expanded to include health and science sites, regardless of the technical optimization on those sites.

@lilyraynyc explains E-A-T at #MozCon E-A-T was created in 2014 to make sure the quality of the content they are surfacing is meeting the needs of the users. @Moz In 2017 many of the fake news were wiped off the SERPs. Then this continued in 2018 with the YMYL sites pic.twitter.com/6PUCFwKrbV

— TurnDigi (@TurnDigi) July 14, 2021

Lily digs into keyword comparisons, showing how more authoritative sites became increasingly more visible between 2018 and 2021.

If you are wondering how E-A-T impacts search results - these slides by @lilyraynyc showing real life examples are sooo good #MozConpic.twitter.com/eQux45kKmm

— Casie Gillette (@Casieg) July 14, 2021

Most of the sites that lost visibility were doing some questionable things including:

Leveraging questionable authors

Had poor reputations

Published deceptive content

Lacked sufficient sources

Published dangerous medical advice

Included hate speech

Included excessive affiliate or sales links

“Winning sites make it really clear who they are, who writes for them, how they make money on the sites, why they should trust them […]—all of these great things that really instill trust in the user.” @lilyraynyc#MozCon

— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 14, 2021

From there, Lily dug into 10 key ways Google has changed, and we encourage you to check out her slides and take a look for yourself.

What do all these changes mean for SEO? The landscape is more complex and competitive than ever, so it’s important to be reasonable with your organic search goals and always put E-A-T at the forefront of your SEO Strategy.

Learn from the winners investing in EAT over the last few years of Google’s evolution: @lilyraynyc#mozcon@Healthline@NerdWallet@[email protected]/0TfFAoNWqc

— Amsive Digital (@Amsive_Digital) July 14, 2021

Kameron Jenkins — The Content Refresh: How to Do More With Less

Kameron Jenkins is no stranger to content. She manages multiple blogs and currently works for e-commerce powerhouse, Shopify.

When it comes to content, she knows that the best way to regain lost traffic and give your content new life is through a content refresh. In her presentation, she walked us through her exact process for identifying and updating old content. Surprisingly, most content marketers only dedicate 10-25% of their time to content refreshes, even though a content refresh can lead to more ROI in the long term.

Content people! About what % of your team's publishing calendar is *refreshes (vs. brand new content)? *taking something that was previously published and updating it.

— Kameron Jenkins 👋 (@Kammie_Jenkins) May 11, 2021

How do you identify the content that could benefit from a refresh? Look at your Google Analytics Landing Page report alongside Google Search Console, and prioritize content based on goal conversions, trending topics, and business priorities.

@Kammie_Jenkins Great deck and congrats on #mozcon!!! We're totally aligned on using the biggest movers for analysis. I love including impressions too to see the scope of opportunities. Kind of like this: pic.twitter.com/5hoaova2zL

— Noah Learner (He/Him) (@noahlearner) July 14, 2021

Oh heck, I loooove anyone who has a favorite GA view. But add in GSC data exports... I think I'm in heaven. Pageviews going down in GA + Losing rank for specific keywords in GSC = Opportunity for content revamp#MozCon

— Brie E Anderson (@brie_e_anderson) July 14, 2021

Next, it’s time to refresh. When moving into the execution, you’ll want to ask yourself three key questions:

What’s table stakes?

What will give you the competitive advantage?

And what will maximize conversions?

Other content refresh opportunities to look out for are consolidation, query targeting, and internal linking.

How can you stand out from the competition in your content refresh? Incorporate original research and expert quotes to beef up the authority and originality of your post.

Lastly, maximize your conversions by testing out your CTA placement and make your offers relevant to your audience.

She left us with some wise words of wisdom, “SEO is like owning a car. Even when the car is paid off, you still need to conduct regular maintenance to keep that engine running.”

Some tips for getting more value from your existing content: - Refresh decaying content to rank faster, increase ROI & maintain brand credibility - Remember session loss ≠ Traffic loss - Leverage GA & GSC data - Prioritize by trend, conversions & value@Kammie_Jenkins#MozConpic.twitter.com/SAVTtAFMIC

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

Best quote of #MozCon by @Kammie_Jenkins of @Shopifypic.twitter.com/tNb6qvwRO6

— Barb Davids 🤓🏃‍♀️🍻 (@BarbDavids) July 14, 2021

Wil Reynolds — The 3 Most Important Search Marketing Tools…Your Heart, Your Brain, & Your [Small] Ego

Wil brought the energy yet again for his ninth MozCon presentation, closing out the conference with a bang. His message was simple yet powerful: Your top three tools are your heart, your brain, and your small ego. But what does that mean, exactly?

Small ego

Wil began by introducing the concept of intellectual humility, or the recognition that some of the things you believe just might be wrong. He urged us to listen to the people around us who say there's a better way — even brand-new coworkers or recent college grads whose ideas you might otherwise discount.

Sharing this with everyone I know 👏 #mozconhttps://t.co/f1x5gDp5is

— Casie Gillette (@Casieg) July 14, 2021

And don't feel badly that you might be wrong — Wil posits that not knowing your own ignorance is just part of the human condition. He shared a quote from Upton Sinclair that was especially poignant:

It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.

Heart

A hundred years ago, no business needed SEO. They needed customers, profits, and sales. And as true then as it is now, they needed to know their customers.

One slide stood out loud and clear: The less you understand your customer, the more you spend to acquire them. And as Wil said, reports that lack dollar signs don't land on real decision makers' desks. Here's where your brain comes in.

“Best practices are a great start for those who lack data, or have data but can’t process it.” - @wilreynolds#MozCon#IntellectualHonestypic.twitter.com/91QiMy4ZDq

— Michael Tolosa (@TolosaSEO) July 14, 2021

Brain

Wil presented a bit of a conundrum: making decisions based on your gut may be easy and comfortable, but it's the data that gets you the insights you need to create and test hypotheses. However, exhaustive data — the kind of data where opportunity lives — is probably too big for your laptop to handle. What's an SEO to do?

Of course he had answers! Wil's suggestion was to harness the power of ngrams. With the help of a tool like PowerBI or BigQuery and using ngrams to examine all the search terms, you can find all your ranking results and see where your search term isn't in the title.

Transform your SEO data into winning insights: - Shrink your ego & question assumptions - Don't rely on best practices. - Tools are a start, not an end. - Business is about $ - Understanding your customer saves $ - What people do & say are different@wilreynolds#mozconpic.twitter.com/IB7CcQ4IpN

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

There's too much goodness to cram into a short recap, so you'll definitely want to get yourself a copy of the MozCon video bundle when it's ready for purchase. Until then, a few final suggestions from Wil:

Examining all your data is the only way to capture all your opportunities; resist the urge to pare it down to the top 20%. Every time you shrink your data down, you're missing out on opportunities that someone else can see.

See every data set through a competitive lens: if all else is the same, how do you create value?

Combine your paid and SEO data together — get the dollar signs in those reports and get in front of key decision makers

Learn SQL. You'll be able to search for exactly what you need within your own data, you won't have to rely on others, and your hypotheses will benefit from your newfound data freedom.

Be brave enough to suck at something new. Stop doing the thing that you feel comfortable with. Run your own experiments and validate your hypotheses. It'll be worth it in the end!

Hey #MozCon thank you! Remember: 1 - Surround yourself with people willing to show you a new way (show >> tell) - its easy to find people to tell you you are doing it wrong, find the people who build stuff to show you a new way.

— Wil Reynolds (@wilreynolds) July 14, 2021

Thanks everyone for a wonderful show! And we’ll see you in person next year!

#MozCon was freaking awesome! I learned so much and enjoyed meeting so many new colleagues! Thank you @Moz for such a wonderful event!

— Taylor Berg (@taylorannberg) July 15, 2021

[drummcarpentry]

Pack Up the Big Top: Insights from MozCon Virtual 2021's Grand Finale

And just like that, MozCon Virtual 2021 has come to an end. Over the past three days, we’ve seen incredibly insightful presentations on everything from content marketing, to machine learning, to new and exciting SEO tips and tricks. A big thank you to all our speakers, emcees, attendees, and volunteers in front of and behind the camera. It wouldn’t be MozCon without you!

Check out our recaps from day one and day two, and if you missed day three, read on for top-level takeaways! But to get the most out of this year’s MozCon content, make sure to access the video bundle when it goes on sale Friday, and stay tuned for details on MozCon 2022 —

You heard it here first, folks: #MozCon 2022 is slated to be LIVE in Seattle, in person! 🎉 https://t.co/3CKcI0N9l7

— Moz (@Moz) July 14, 2021

— that’s right! We’ll be back live and in-person next year in Seattle. Can’t wait to see you all there!

Tom Capper — The Fast & The Spurious: Core Web Vitals & SEO

“What if I told you that Core Web Vitals, and this update, are a bluff?”

Tom sure did kick off day three by blowing our minds with his opening line — the update everyone has been obsessing over for the last year isn’t actually all it’s cracked up to be?

Well, sort of.

It turns out we can’t afford to call Google’s bluff, but we can “sort of cheat”. Tom went on to lay out the flaws of Core Web Vitals, which all add up to the fact that they actually encourage terrible optimizations.

Core Web Vitals are all the rage, but do they live up to the hype? Here's @THCapper's take - SEO is like the prisoner's dilemma - Prioritize high traffic pages & page speed - Metrics can be gamed - Drop, delay unstable elements or move below fold - Rethink hero images#mozconpic.twitter.com/hgqeUZzKTP

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

So what’s taking so long? As we all know, this roll out has been delayed multiple times. Tom uses a brilliant example of the classic prisoner’s dilemma to explain why:

@THCapper pulling a #ChidiAnagonye by bringing moral philosophy into an SEO talk. #MozCon#TheGoodPlacepic.twitter.com/A7cx1GtKVy

— Sandi Pope Griffin (@sandpoper) July 14, 2021

As it turns out, Google has been contradicting themselves when talking about CWV because they can’t actually roll out updates that undermine the quality of their services — they’re relying on us, the SEOs, to act as the prisoners in their big dilemma of rankings.

On Google’s “There appears to be some confusion”: “Well, yes, you will notice some confusion if you directly contradict yourself.” @THCapper#MozCon

— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 14, 2021

Tom advised SEOs to take advantage of Google Discover, which is actually a massive, untapped traffic opportunity as it’s more responsive to speed than organic search.

"For most sites I see that are taking Google Discover even remotely seriously, they are getting more traffic from Discover than from organic search." - @THCapper dropping shocking stats. #MozConpic.twitter.com/kJSPDKCTTn

— Rob Ousbey (@RobOusbey) July 14, 2021

Before he signed off, Tom reiterated:

Prioritize high traffic pages

Metrics can be gamed/optimized

Don’t do any of this at the expense of speed

We won’t dig into the how for all of this here, so definitely check out his presentation in the video bundle!

Luke Carthy — The Ultimate How-To for Faceted Navigation SEO in E-Commerce

After an introduction that got the whole chat laughing (“Hi, I’m Morgan Freeman. Welcome to the afterlife.”), Luke Carthy showed us how he generated a 25% increase in organic traffic using faceted navigation.

Wait, what’s faceted navigation? You’ve definitely run into it if you’ve ever shopped online. Think about the stores that allow you to filter and sort your search. Behind that search is a faceted nav, defining, filtering, and sorting URLs on a website.

If it’s so common, what’s wrong with it? As Luke explains, faceted navs generate hundreds of long, parameterized, filtered URLs. It’s messy, it’s bloated, and bots can’t easily crawl them.

SEOs tend to counteract this bloat by “nofollowing the shit out of” faceted URLs. But when we do that, all of that long-tail gold disappears.

So what’s the solution? As Luke says, “It’s all about balance!”

(Side note: how cute is this photo??)

Luke shared some ways to “make facets sexy” by:

Understanding your site’s taxonomy

Using filters only to add granularity

Using “-” (dash) instead of “_” (underscore)

Filtering parameter URLs in GA to spot opportunities

Using a consistent structure

Limiting indexable parameter options

There were a bunch more actionable tips in this presentation, but we won’t spoil it all for you!

Okay, wow, this presentation is EXTREMELY actionable for anyone who handles e-commerce sites. But also, if you handle a blog - maybe try and use it for tags, categories, etc. Just a thought off the top of the dome 🤷‍♀️@MrLukeCarthy#MozCon

— Brie E Anderson (@brie_e_anderson) July 14, 2021

Miracle Inameti-Archibong — Harnessing the Natural Language Toolkit for More Productive SEO

In her quick presentation, MozCon newcomer Miracle walked us through ways to use Natural Language Processing to do our SEO tasks — like keyword research — and even shared some of her own resources to help us do it!

With Miracle’s comprehensive Natural Language Processor with Python, you can analyze up to 10,000 keywords with the click of a button and group them based on category, frequency, and search intent. Don’t worry — even if you aren’t a programmer, Miracle’s scripts are easy enough to plug and play so you can start analyzing immediately.

If you're not following @mira_inam yet, what are you doing? Miracle just shared SO many actionable keyword research takeaways!!! Thank you!!! 🤯🤯🤯 https://t.co/ESStpcLt5I

— Britney Muller (@BritneyMuller) July 14, 2021

Miracle then walked us through how to get the script up and running step-by-step. The results were mind-bending. In just a few short clicks, she produced a wealth of keyword data sure to fuel some brilliant strategies and ideas.

To be honest, there was so much information in such a short time frame, this is one we’ll have to revisit again to absorb every tip possible, but click below to access Miracle’s scripts:

http://bit.ly/keywordclassification

http://bit.ly/keywordcluster

Amanda Milligan — A Live Guide to Finding & Filling the Gaps in Your Link Strategy

Amanda kicked off her first MozCon presentation by reiterating the importance of quality over quantity, to the tune of enthusiastic cheers from the MozCon chat box. In today’s climate, quality content is what will get you that authority and trustworthiness today’s marketers (and Google) crave. Quantity may give you a short term boost, but it won’t last and it won’t compound.

@millanda on creating link-worthy content: "Always remember that it's not just about the link juice, but about the excellence you've created and the value you've provided as a result." #mozcon#SEO#linkbuildingpic.twitter.com/yT7uqIS7OL

— Katie Bradley (@KtBee21) July 14, 2021

But Google is just a robot and they base their assumptions on links: Who owns them and who links to whom? If your competitors are ranking on time.com and you aren’t, then Google will see your competitors more favorably and rank them higher in the SERP.

Amanda reminds us that these gaps are opportunities. If your competitor can get a link on Time.com, then so can you!

Amanda jumps straight to Moz Pro’s Link Intersect — “This tool was made for this kind of analysis!” — measuring up Chewy.com to competitors Petco.com and Petsmart.com to reveal the places where Chewy’s competitors link, but Chewy doesn’t.

One such article on CNN.com links to Petsmart and Petco and features a very cute guinea pig in a suit of armor — is it possible for Chewy to obtain a link to CNN? Yes!

Developing the content is only half the battle. Once you have something you think will resonate, it’s time to start pitching, which is arguably “where many link builders fall short.” In the pitching process, Amanda offers a fool proof plan of attack: “Pitch your content exclusively at first, and then once published, you can begin to take it elsewhere.” Publishers love exclusive content because they can leverage it to drive more views to their own content.

Amanda also drives home another link building golden rule: make sure you research and position your pitches and tailor them to the publisher. Gone are the days of mass outreach, and that won’t serve you well in the long run.

Once you’ve done the work, it’s time to track and record your progress. Take note of all the places your content shows up (anchor text, images, etc.) or whether it is do-follow or not.

Finding & filling gaps in your link strategy: 1/2 Finding - Identify brands building great links - See who links to them, but not to you (use a tool like Moz's link intersect) - Analyze the types of content earning links - Consider similar angles@millanda#MozConpic.twitter.com/lsH0DcbVfk

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

Check out Amanda’s Whiteboard Friday on crafting the perfect pitch email for more tips!

Lily Ray — From the Medic Update to Now: How the E-A-T Ecosystem Has Transformed Organic Search

Lily Ray has been studying the evolution of Google and E-A-T for a few years now, and in this presentation, she outlined key changes in how Google perceives content – specifically when it comes to the rise of misinformation.

Since 2016, and especially in the last year, more people turn to Google for information on things like politics, vaccines, COVID, and other important topics. This makes it increasingly necessary for Google to surface reliable information. In times of crisis, things become even more critical, and according to the data, Google begins to favor more authoritative sources versus relevant sources. We don’t know exactly how this is determined, but in her study, the data shows that Google favorably ranks content from reputable sources for potentially controversial keywords.

If there is one thing that Lily wants us to walk away with, it's the “E-A-T matters in crisis”, and is Google’s quality standard for evaluating content, authors, and websites.

As a result of this, Google saw a sharp decline in search visibility for questionable news sources, which then expanded to include health and science sites, regardless of the technical optimization on those sites.

@lilyraynyc explains E-A-T at #MozCon E-A-T was created in 2014 to make sure the quality of the content they are surfacing is meeting the needs of the users. @Moz In 2017 many of the fake news were wiped off the SERPs. Then this continued in 2018 with the YMYL sites pic.twitter.com/6PUCFwKrbV

— TurnDigi (@TurnDigi) July 14, 2021

Lily digs into keyword comparisons, showing how more authoritative sites became increasingly more visible between 2018 and 2021.

If you are wondering how E-A-T impacts search results - these slides by @lilyraynyc showing real life examples are sooo good #MozConpic.twitter.com/eQux45kKmm

— Casie Gillette (@Casieg) July 14, 2021

Most of the sites that lost visibility were doing some questionable things including:

Leveraging questionable authors

Had poor reputations

Published deceptive content

Lacked sufficient sources

Published dangerous medical advice

Included hate speech

Included excessive affiliate or sales links

“Winning sites make it really clear who they are, who writes for them, how they make money on the sites, why they should trust them […]—all of these great things that really instill trust in the user.” @lilyraynyc#MozCon

— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 14, 2021

From there, Lily dug into 10 key ways Google has changed, and we encourage you to check out her slides and take a look for yourself.

What do all these changes mean for SEO? The landscape is more complex and competitive than ever, so it’s important to be reasonable with your organic search goals and always put E-A-T at the forefront of your SEO Strategy.

Learn from the winners investing in EAT over the last few years of Google’s evolution: @lilyraynyc#mozcon@Healthline@NerdWallet@[email protected]/0TfFAoNWqc

— Amsive Digital (@Amsive_Digital) July 14, 2021

Kameron Jenkins — The Content Refresh: How to Do More With Less

Kameron Jenkins is no stranger to content. She manages multiple blogs and currently works for e-commerce powerhouse, Shopify.

When it comes to content, she knows that the best way to regain lost traffic and give your content new life is through a content refresh. In her presentation, she walked us through her exact process for identifying and updating old content. Surprisingly, most content marketers only dedicate 10-25% of their time to content refreshes, even though a content refresh can lead to more ROI in the long term.

Content people! About what % of your team's publishing calendar is *refreshes (vs. brand new content)? *taking something that was previously published and updating it.

— Kameron Jenkins 👋 (@Kammie_Jenkins) May 11, 2021

How do you identify the content that could benefit from a refresh? Look at your Google Analytics Landing Page report alongside Google Search Console, and prioritize content based on goal conversions, trending topics, and business priorities.

@Kammie_Jenkins Great deck and congrats on #mozcon!!! We're totally aligned on using the biggest movers for analysis. I love including impressions too to see the scope of opportunities. Kind of like this: pic.twitter.com/5hoaova2zL

— Noah Learner (He/Him) (@noahlearner) July 14, 2021

Oh heck, I loooove anyone who has a favorite GA view. But add in GSC data exports... I think I'm in heaven. Pageviews going down in GA + Losing rank for specific keywords in GSC = Opportunity for content revamp#MozCon

— Brie E Anderson (@brie_e_anderson) July 14, 2021

Next, it’s time to refresh. When moving into the execution, you’ll want to ask yourself three key questions:

What’s table stakes?

What will give you the competitive advantage?

And what will maximize conversions?

Other content refresh opportunities to look out for are consolidation, query targeting, and internal linking.

How can you stand out from the competition in your content refresh? Incorporate original research and expert quotes to beef up the authority and originality of your post.

Lastly, maximize your conversions by testing out your CTA placement and make your offers relevant to your audience.

She left us with some wise words of wisdom, “SEO is like owning a car. Even when the car is paid off, you still need to conduct regular maintenance to keep that engine running.”

Some tips for getting more value from your existing content: - Refresh decaying content to rank faster, increase ROI & maintain brand credibility - Remember session loss ≠ Traffic loss - Leverage GA & GSC data - Prioritize by trend, conversions & value@Kammie_Jenkins#MozConpic.twitter.com/SAVTtAFMIC

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

Best quote of #MozCon by @Kammie_Jenkins of @Shopifypic.twitter.com/tNb6qvwRO6

— Barb Davids 🤓🏃‍♀️🍻 (@BarbDavids) July 14, 2021

Wil Reynolds — The 3 Most Important Search Marketing Tools…Your Heart, Your Brain, & Your [Small] Ego

Wil brought the energy yet again for his ninth MozCon presentation, closing out the conference with a bang. His message was simple yet powerful: Your top three tools are your heart, your brain, and your small ego. But what does that mean, exactly?

Small ego

Wil began by introducing the concept of intellectual humility, or the recognition that some of the things you believe just might be wrong. He urged us to listen to the people around us who say there's a better way — even brand-new coworkers or recent college grads whose ideas you might otherwise discount.

Sharing this with everyone I know 👏 #mozconhttps://t.co/f1x5gDp5is

— Casie Gillette (@Casieg) July 14, 2021

And don't feel badly that you might be wrong — Wil posits that not knowing your own ignorance is just part of the human condition. He shared a quote from Upton Sinclair that was especially poignant:

It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.

Heart

A hundred years ago, no business needed SEO. They needed customers, profits, and sales. And as true then as it is now, they needed to know their customers.

One slide stood out loud and clear: The less you understand your customer, the more you spend to acquire them. And as Wil said, reports that lack dollar signs don't land on real decision makers' desks. Here's where your brain comes in.

“Best practices are a great start for those who lack data, or have data but can’t process it.” - @wilreynolds#MozCon#IntellectualHonestypic.twitter.com/91QiMy4ZDq

— Michael Tolosa (@TolosaSEO) July 14, 2021

Brain

Wil presented a bit of a conundrum: making decisions based on your gut may be easy and comfortable, but it's the data that gets you the insights you need to create and test hypotheses. However, exhaustive data — the kind of data where opportunity lives — is probably too big for your laptop to handle. What's an SEO to do?

Of course he had answers! Wil's suggestion was to harness the power of ngrams. With the help of a tool like PowerBI or BigQuery and using ngrams to examine all the search terms, you can find all your ranking results and see where your search term isn't in the title.

Transform your SEO data into winning insights: - Shrink your ego & question assumptions - Don't rely on best practices. - Tools are a start, not an end. - Business is about $ - Understanding your customer saves $ - What people do & say are different@wilreynolds#mozconpic.twitter.com/IB7CcQ4IpN

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

There's too much goodness to cram into a short recap, so you'll definitely want to get yourself a copy of the MozCon video bundle when it's ready for purchase. Until then, a few final suggestions from Wil:

Examining all your data is the only way to capture all your opportunities; resist the urge to pare it down to the top 20%. Every time you shrink your data down, you're missing out on opportunities that someone else can see.

See every data set through a competitive lens: if all else is the same, how do you create value?

Combine your paid and SEO data together — get the dollar signs in those reports and get in front of key decision makers

Learn SQL. You'll be able to search for exactly what you need within your own data, you won't have to rely on others, and your hypotheses will benefit from your newfound data freedom.

Be brave enough to suck at something new. Stop doing the thing that you feel comfortable with. Run your own experiments and validate your hypotheses. It'll be worth it in the end!

Hey #MozCon thank you! Remember: 1 - Surround yourself with people willing to show you a new way (show >> tell) - its easy to find people to tell you you are doing it wrong, find the people who build stuff to show you a new way.

— Wil Reynolds (@wilreynolds) July 14, 2021

Thanks everyone for a wonderful show! And we’ll see you in person next year!

#MozCon was freaking awesome! I learned so much and enjoyed meeting so many new colleagues! Thank you @Moz for such a wonderful event!

— Taylor Berg (@taylorannberg) July 15, 2021

[lakelandseo]

Pack Up the Big Top: Insights from MozCon Virtual 2021's Grand Finale

And just like that, MozCon Virtual 2021 has come to an end. Over the past three days, we’ve seen incredibly insightful presentations on everything from content marketing, to machine learning, to new and exciting SEO tips and tricks. A big thank you to all our speakers, emcees, attendees, and volunteers in front of and behind the camera. It wouldn’t be MozCon without you!

Check out our recaps from day one and day two, and if you missed day three, read on for top-level takeaways! But to get the most out of this year’s MozCon content, make sure to access the video bundle when it goes on sale Friday, and stay tuned for details on MozCon 2022 —

You heard it here first, folks: #MozCon 2022 is slated to be LIVE in Seattle, in person! 🎉 https://t.co/3CKcI0N9l7

— Moz (@Moz) July 14, 2021

— that’s right! We’ll be back live and in-person next year in Seattle. Can’t wait to see you all there!

Tom Capper — The Fast & The Spurious: Core Web Vitals & SEO

“What if I told you that Core Web Vitals, and this update, are a bluff?”

Tom sure did kick off day three by blowing our minds with his opening line — the update everyone has been obsessing over for the last year isn’t actually all it’s cracked up to be?

Well, sort of.

It turns out we can’t afford to call Google’s bluff, but we can “sort of cheat”. Tom went on to lay out the flaws of Core Web Vitals, which all add up to the fact that they actually encourage terrible optimizations.

Core Web Vitals are all the rage, but do they live up to the hype? Here's @THCapper's take - SEO is like the prisoner's dilemma - Prioritize high traffic pages & page speed - Metrics can be gamed - Drop, delay unstable elements or move below fold - Rethink hero images#mozconpic.twitter.com/hgqeUZzKTP

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

So what’s taking so long? As we all know, this roll out has been delayed multiple times. Tom uses a brilliant example of the classic prisoner’s dilemma to explain why:

@THCapper pulling a #ChidiAnagonye by bringing moral philosophy into an SEO talk. #MozCon#TheGoodPlacepic.twitter.com/A7cx1GtKVy

— Sandi Pope Griffin (@sandpoper) July 14, 2021

As it turns out, Google has been contradicting themselves when talking about CWV because they can’t actually roll out updates that undermine the quality of their services — they’re relying on us, the SEOs, to act as the prisoners in their big dilemma of rankings.

On Google’s “There appears to be some confusion”: “Well, yes, you will notice some confusion if you directly contradict yourself.” @THCapper#MozCon

— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 14, 2021

Tom advised SEOs to take advantage of Google Discover, which is actually a massive, untapped traffic opportunity as it’s more responsive to speed than organic search.

"For most sites I see that are taking Google Discover even remotely seriously, they are getting more traffic from Discover than from organic search." - @THCapper dropping shocking stats. #MozConpic.twitter.com/kJSPDKCTTn

— Rob Ousbey (@RobOusbey) July 14, 2021

Before he signed off, Tom reiterated:

Prioritize high traffic pages

Metrics can be gamed/optimized

Don’t do any of this at the expense of speed

We won’t dig into the how for all of this here, so definitely check out his presentation in the video bundle!

Luke Carthy — The Ultimate How-To for Faceted Navigation SEO in E-Commerce

After an introduction that got the whole chat laughing (“Hi, I’m Morgan Freeman. Welcome to the afterlife.”), Luke Carthy showed us how he generated a 25% increase in organic traffic using faceted navigation.

Wait, what’s faceted navigation? You’ve definitely run into it if you’ve ever shopped online. Think about the stores that allow you to filter and sort your search. Behind that search is a faceted nav, defining, filtering, and sorting URLs on a website.

If it’s so common, what’s wrong with it? As Luke explains, faceted navs generate hundreds of long, parameterized, filtered URLs. It’s messy, it’s bloated, and bots can’t easily crawl them.

SEOs tend to counteract this bloat by “nofollowing the shit out of” faceted URLs. But when we do that, all of that long-tail gold disappears.

So what’s the solution? As Luke says, “It’s all about balance!”

(Side note: how cute is this photo??)

Luke shared some ways to “make facets sexy” by:

Understanding your site’s taxonomy

Using filters only to add granularity

Using “-” (dash) instead of “_” (underscore)

Filtering parameter URLs in GA to spot opportunities

Using a consistent structure

Limiting indexable parameter options

There were a bunch more actionable tips in this presentation, but we won’t spoil it all for you!

Okay, wow, this presentation is EXTREMELY actionable for anyone who handles e-commerce sites. But also, if you handle a blog - maybe try and use it for tags, categories, etc. Just a thought off the top of the dome 🤷‍♀️@MrLukeCarthy#MozCon

— Brie E Anderson (@brie_e_anderson) July 14, 2021

Miracle Inameti-Archibong — Harnessing the Natural Language Toolkit for More Productive SEO

In her quick presentation, MozCon newcomer Miracle walked us through ways to use Natural Language Processing to do our SEO tasks — like keyword research — and even shared some of her own resources to help us do it!

With Miracle’s comprehensive Natural Language Processor with Python, you can analyze up to 10,000 keywords with the click of a button and group them based on category, frequency, and search intent. Don’t worry — even if you aren’t a programmer, Miracle’s scripts are easy enough to plug and play so you can start analyzing immediately.

If you're not following @mira_inam yet, what are you doing? Miracle just shared SO many actionable keyword research takeaways!!! Thank you!!! 🤯🤯🤯 https://t.co/ESStpcLt5I

— Britney Muller (@BritneyMuller) July 14, 2021

Miracle then walked us through how to get the script up and running step-by-step. The results were mind-bending. In just a few short clicks, she produced a wealth of keyword data sure to fuel some brilliant strategies and ideas.

To be honest, there was so much information in such a short time frame, this is one we’ll have to revisit again to absorb every tip possible, but click below to access Miracle’s scripts:

http://bit.ly/keywordclassification

http://bit.ly/keywordcluster

Amanda Milligan — A Live Guide to Finding & Filling the Gaps in Your Link Strategy

Amanda kicked off her first MozCon presentation by reiterating the importance of quality over quantity, to the tune of enthusiastic cheers from the MozCon chat box. In today’s climate, quality content is what will get you that authority and trustworthiness today’s marketers (and Google) crave. Quantity may give you a short term boost, but it won’t last and it won’t compound.

@millanda on creating link-worthy content: "Always remember that it's not just about the link juice, but about the excellence you've created and the value you've provided as a result." #mozcon#SEO#linkbuildingpic.twitter.com/yT7uqIS7OL

— Katie Bradley (@KtBee21) July 14, 2021

But Google is just a robot and they base their assumptions on links: Who owns them and who links to whom? If your competitors are ranking on time.com and you aren’t, then Google will see your competitors more favorably and rank them higher in the SERP.

Amanda reminds us that these gaps are opportunities. If your competitor can get a link on Time.com, then so can you!

Amanda jumps straight to Moz Pro’s Link Intersect — “This tool was made for this kind of analysis!” — measuring up Chewy.com to competitors Petco.com and Petsmart.com to reveal the places where Chewy’s competitors link, but Chewy doesn’t.

One such article on CNN.com links to Petsmart and Petco and features a very cute guinea pig in a suit of armor — is it possible for Chewy to obtain a link to CNN? Yes!

Developing the content is only half the battle. Once you have something you think will resonate, it’s time to start pitching, which is arguably “where many link builders fall short.” In the pitching process, Amanda offers a fool proof plan of attack: “Pitch your content exclusively at first, and then once published, you can begin to take it elsewhere.” Publishers love exclusive content because they can leverage it to drive more views to their own content.

Amanda also drives home another link building golden rule: make sure you research and position your pitches and tailor them to the publisher. Gone are the days of mass outreach, and that won’t serve you well in the long run.

Once you’ve done the work, it’s time to track and record your progress. Take note of all the places your content shows up (anchor text, images, etc.) or whether it is do-follow or not.

Finding & filling gaps in your link strategy: 1/2 Finding - Identify brands building great links - See who links to them, but not to you (use a tool like Moz's link intersect) - Analyze the types of content earning links - Consider similar angles@millanda#MozConpic.twitter.com/lsH0DcbVfk

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

Check out Amanda’s Whiteboard Friday on crafting the perfect pitch email for more tips!

Lily Ray — From the Medic Update to Now: How the E-A-T Ecosystem Has Transformed Organic Search

Lily Ray has been studying the evolution of Google and E-A-T for a few years now, and in this presentation, she outlined key changes in how Google perceives content – specifically when it comes to the rise of misinformation.

Since 2016, and especially in the last year, more people turn to Google for information on things like politics, vaccines, COVID, and other important topics. This makes it increasingly necessary for Google to surface reliable information. In times of crisis, things become even more critical, and according to the data, Google begins to favor more authoritative sources versus relevant sources. We don’t know exactly how this is determined, but in her study, the data shows that Google favorably ranks content from reputable sources for potentially controversial keywords.

If there is one thing that Lily wants us to walk away with, it's the “E-A-T matters in crisis”, and is Google’s quality standard for evaluating content, authors, and websites.

As a result of this, Google saw a sharp decline in search visibility for questionable news sources, which then expanded to include health and science sites, regardless of the technical optimization on those sites.

@lilyraynyc explains E-A-T at #MozCon E-A-T was created in 2014 to make sure the quality of the content they are surfacing is meeting the needs of the users. @Moz In 2017 many of the fake news were wiped off the SERPs. Then this continued in 2018 with the YMYL sites pic.twitter.com/6PUCFwKrbV

— TurnDigi (@TurnDigi) July 14, 2021

Lily digs into keyword comparisons, showing how more authoritative sites became increasingly more visible between 2018 and 2021.

If you are wondering how E-A-T impacts search results - these slides by @lilyraynyc showing real life examples are sooo good #MozConpic.twitter.com/eQux45kKmm

— Casie Gillette (@Casieg) July 14, 2021

Most of the sites that lost visibility were doing some questionable things including:

Leveraging questionable authors

Had poor reputations

Published deceptive content

Lacked sufficient sources

Published dangerous medical advice

Included hate speech

Included excessive affiliate or sales links

“Winning sites make it really clear who they are, who writes for them, how they make money on the sites, why they should trust them […]—all of these great things that really instill trust in the user.” @lilyraynyc#MozCon

— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 14, 2021

From there, Lily dug into 10 key ways Google has changed, and we encourage you to check out her slides and take a look for yourself.

What do all these changes mean for SEO? The landscape is more complex and competitive than ever, so it’s important to be reasonable with your organic search goals and always put E-A-T at the forefront of your SEO Strategy.

Learn from the winners investing in EAT over the last few years of Google’s evolution: @lilyraynyc#mozcon@Healthline@NerdWallet@[email protected]/0TfFAoNWqc

— Amsive Digital (@Amsive_Digital) July 14, 2021

Kameron Jenkins — The Content Refresh: How to Do More With Less

Kameron Jenkins is no stranger to content. She manages multiple blogs and currently works for e-commerce powerhouse, Shopify.

When it comes to content, she knows that the best way to regain lost traffic and give your content new life is through a content refresh. In her presentation, she walked us through her exact process for identifying and updating old content. Surprisingly, most content marketers only dedicate 10-25% of their time to content refreshes, even though a content refresh can lead to more ROI in the long term.

Content people! About what % of your team's publishing calendar is *refreshes (vs. brand new content)? *taking something that was previously published and updating it.

— Kameron Jenkins 👋 (@Kammie_Jenkins) May 11, 2021

How do you identify the content that could benefit from a refresh? Look at your Google Analytics Landing Page report alongside Google Search Console, and prioritize content based on goal conversions, trending topics, and business priorities.

@Kammie_Jenkins Great deck and congrats on #mozcon!!! We're totally aligned on using the biggest movers for analysis. I love including impressions too to see the scope of opportunities. Kind of like this: pic.twitter.com/5hoaova2zL

— Noah Learner (He/Him) (@noahlearner) July 14, 2021

Oh heck, I loooove anyone who has a favorite GA view. But add in GSC data exports... I think I'm in heaven. Pageviews going down in GA + Losing rank for specific keywords in GSC = Opportunity for content revamp#MozCon

— Brie E Anderson (@brie_e_anderson) July 14, 2021

Next, it’s time to refresh. When moving into the execution, you’ll want to ask yourself three key questions:

What’s table stakes?

What will give you the competitive advantage?

And what will maximize conversions?

Other content refresh opportunities to look out for are consolidation, query targeting, and internal linking.

How can you stand out from the competition in your content refresh? Incorporate original research and expert quotes to beef up the authority and originality of your post.

Lastly, maximize your conversions by testing out your CTA placement and make your offers relevant to your audience.

She left us with some wise words of wisdom, “SEO is like owning a car. Even when the car is paid off, you still need to conduct regular maintenance to keep that engine running.”

Some tips for getting more value from your existing content: - Refresh decaying content to rank faster, increase ROI & maintain brand credibility - Remember session loss ≠ Traffic loss - Leverage GA & GSC data - Prioritize by trend, conversions & value@Kammie_Jenkins#MozConpic.twitter.com/SAVTtAFMIC

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

Best quote of #MozCon by @Kammie_Jenkins of @Shopifypic.twitter.com/tNb6qvwRO6

— Barb Davids 🤓🏃‍♀️🍻 (@BarbDavids) July 14, 2021

Wil Reynolds — The 3 Most Important Search Marketing Tools…Your Heart, Your Brain, & Your [Small] Ego

Wil brought the energy yet again for his ninth MozCon presentation, closing out the conference with a bang. His message was simple yet powerful: Your top three tools are your heart, your brain, and your small ego. But what does that mean, exactly?

Small ego

Wil began by introducing the concept of intellectual humility, or the recognition that some of the things you believe just might be wrong. He urged us to listen to the people around us who say there's a better way �� even brand-new coworkers or recent college grads whose ideas you might otherwise discount.

Sharing this with everyone I know 👏 #mozconhttps://t.co/f1x5gDp5is

— Casie Gillette (@Casieg) July 14, 2021

And don't feel badly that you might be wrong — Wil posits that not knowing your own ignorance is just part of the human condition. He shared a quote from Upton Sinclair that was especially poignant:

It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.

Heart

A hundred years ago, no business needed SEO. They needed customers, profits, and sales. And as true then as it is now, they needed to know their customers.

One slide stood out loud and clear: The less you understand your customer, the more you spend to acquire them. And as Wil said, reports that lack dollar signs don't land on real decision makers' desks. Here's where your brain comes in.

“Best practices are a great start for those who lack data, or have data but can’t process it.” - @wilreynolds#MozCon#IntellectualHonestypic.twitter.com/91QiMy4ZDq

— Michael Tolosa (@TolosaSEO) July 14, 2021

Brain

Wil presented a bit of a conundrum: making decisions based on your gut may be easy and comfortable, but it's the data that gets you the insights you need to create and test hypotheses. However, exhaustive data — the kind of data where opportunity lives — is probably too big for your laptop to handle. What's an SEO to do?

Of course he had answers! Wil's suggestion was to harness the power of ngrams. With the help of a tool like PowerBI or BigQuery and using ngrams to examine all the search terms, you can find all your ranking results and see where your search term isn't in the title.

Transform your SEO data into winning insights: - Shrink your ego & question assumptions - Don't rely on best practices. - Tools are a start, not an end. - Business is about $ - Understanding your customer saves $ - What people do & say are different@wilreynolds#mozconpic.twitter.com/IB7CcQ4IpN

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

There's too much goodness to cram into a short recap, so you'll definitely want to get yourself a copy of the MozCon video bundle when it's ready for purchase. Until then, a few final suggestions from Wil:

Examining all your data is the only way to capture all your opportunities; resist the urge to pare it down to the top 20%. Every time you shrink your data down, you're missing out on opportunities that someone else can see.

See every data set through a competitive lens: if all else is the same, how do you create value?

Combine your paid and SEO data together — get the dollar signs in those reports and get in front of key decision makers

Learn SQL. You'll be able to search for exactly what you need within your own data, you won't have to rely on others, and your hypotheses will benefit from your newfound data freedom.

Be brave enough to suck at something new. Stop doing the thing that you feel comfortable with. Run your own experiments and validate your hypotheses. It'll be worth it in the end!

Hey #MozCon thank you! Remember: 1 - Surround yourself with people willing to show you a new way (show >> tell) - its easy to find people to tell you you are doing it wrong, find the people who build stuff to show you a new way.

— Wil Reynolds (@wilreynolds) July 14, 2021

Thanks everyone for a wonderful show! And we’ll see you in person next year!

#MozCon was freaking awesome! I learned so much and enjoyed meeting so many new colleagues! Thank you @Moz for such a wonderful event!

— Taylor Berg (@taylorannberg) July 15, 2021

[epackingvietnam]

Pack Up the Big Top: Insights from MozCon Virtual 2021's Grand Finale

And just like that, MozCon Virtual 2021 has come to an end. Over the past three days, we’ve seen incredibly insightful presentations on everything from content marketing, to machine learning, to new and exciting SEO tips and tricks. A big thank you to all our speakers, emcees, attendees, and volunteers in front of and behind the camera. It wouldn’t be MozCon without you!

Check out our recaps from day one and day two, and if you missed day three, read on for top-level takeaways! But to get the most out of this year’s MozCon content, make sure to access the video bundle when it goes on sale Friday, and stay tuned for details on MozCon 2022 —

You heard it here first, folks: #MozCon 2022 is slated to be LIVE in Seattle, in person! 🎉 https://t.co/3CKcI0N9l7

— Moz (@Moz) July 14, 2021

— that’s right! We’ll be back live and in-person next year in Seattle. Can’t wait to see you all there!

Tom Capper — The Fast & The Spurious: Core Web Vitals & SEO

“What if I told you that Core Web Vitals, and this update, are a bluff?”

Tom sure did kick off day three by blowing our minds with his opening line — the update everyone has been obsessing over for the last year isn’t actually all it’s cracked up to be?

Well, sort of.

It turns out we can’t afford to call Google’s bluff, but we can “sort of cheat”. Tom went on to lay out the flaws of Core Web Vitals, which all add up to the fact that they actually encourage terrible optimizations.

Core Web Vitals are all the rage, but do they live up to the hype? Here's @THCapper's take - SEO is like the prisoner's dilemma - Prioritize high traffic pages & page speed - Metrics can be gamed - Drop, delay unstable elements or move below fold - Rethink hero images#mozconpic.twitter.com/hgqeUZzKTP

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

So what’s taking so long? As we all know, this roll out has been delayed multiple times. Tom uses a brilliant example of the classic prisoner’s dilemma to explain why:

@THCapper pulling a #ChidiAnagonye by bringing moral philosophy into an SEO talk. #MozCon#TheGoodPlacepic.twitter.com/A7cx1GtKVy

— Sandi Pope Griffin (@sandpoper) July 14, 2021

As it turns out, Google has been contradicting themselves when talking about CWV because they can’t actually roll out updates that undermine the quality of their services — they’re relying on us, the SEOs, to act as the prisoners in their big dilemma of rankings.

On Google’s “There appears to be some confusion”: “Well, yes, you will notice some confusion if you directly contradict yourself.” @THCapper#MozCon

— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 14, 2021

Tom advised SEOs to take advantage of Google Discover, which is actually a massive, untapped traffic opportunity as it’s more responsive to speed than organic search.

"For most sites I see that are taking Google Discover even remotely seriously, they are getting more traffic from Discover than from organic search." - @THCapper dropping shocking stats. #MozConpic.twitter.com/kJSPDKCTTn

— Rob Ousbey (@RobOusbey) July 14, 2021

Before he signed off, Tom reiterated:

Prioritize high traffic pages

Metrics can be gamed/optimized

Don’t do any of this at the expense of speed

We won’t dig into the how for all of this here, so definitely check out his presentation in the video bundle!

Luke Carthy — The Ultimate How-To for Faceted Navigation SEO in E-Commerce

After an introduction that got the whole chat laughing (“Hi, I’m Morgan Freeman. Welcome to the afterlife.”), Luke Carthy showed us how he generated a 25% increase in organic traffic using faceted navigation.

Wait, what’s faceted navigation? You’ve definitely run into it if you’ve ever shopped online. Think about the stores that allow you to filter and sort your search. Behind that search is a faceted nav, defining, filtering, and sorting URLs on a website.

If it’s so common, what’s wrong with it? As Luke explains, faceted navs generate hundreds of long, parameterized, filtered URLs. It’s messy, it’s bloated, and bots can’t easily crawl them.

SEOs tend to counteract this bloat by “nofollowing the shit out of” faceted URLs. But when we do that, all of that long-tail gold disappears.

So what’s the solution? As Luke says, “It’s all about balance!”

(Side note: how cute is this photo??)

Luke shared some ways to “make facets sexy” by:

Understanding your site’s taxonomy

Using filters only to add granularity

Using “-” (dash) instead of “_” (underscore)

Filtering parameter URLs in GA to spot opportunities

Using a consistent structure

Limiting indexable parameter options

There were a bunch more actionable tips in this presentation, but we won’t spoil it all for you!

Okay, wow, this presentation is EXTREMELY actionable for anyone who handles e-commerce sites. But also, if you handle a blog - maybe try and use it for tags, categories, etc. Just a thought off the top of the dome 🤷‍♀️@MrLukeCarthy#MozCon

— Brie E Anderson (@brie_e_anderson) July 14, 2021

Miracle Inameti-Archibong — Harnessing the Natural Language Toolkit for More Productive SEO

In her quick presentation, MozCon newcomer Miracle walked us through ways to use Natural Language Processing to do our SEO tasks — like keyword research — and even shared some of her own resources to help us do it!

With Miracle’s comprehensive Natural Language Processor with Python, you can analyze up to 10,000 keywords with the click of a button and group them based on category, frequency, and search intent. Don’t worry — even if you aren’t a programmer, Miracle’s scripts are easy enough to plug and play so you can start analyzing immediately.

If you're not following @mira_inam yet, what are you doing? Miracle just shared SO many actionable keyword research takeaways!!! Thank you!!! 🤯🤯🤯 https://t.co/ESStpcLt5I

— Britney Muller (@BritneyMuller) July 14, 2021

Miracle then walked us through how to get the script up and running step-by-step. The results were mind-bending. In just a few short clicks, she produced a wealth of keyword data sure to fuel some brilliant strategies and ideas.

To be honest, there was so much information in such a short time frame, this is one we’ll have to revisit again to absorb every tip possible, but click below to access Miracle’s scripts:

http://bit.ly/keywordclassification

http://bit.ly/keywordcluster

Amanda Milligan — A Live Guide to Finding & Filling the Gaps in Your Link Strategy

Amanda kicked off her first MozCon presentation by reiterating the importance of quality over quantity, to the tune of enthusiastic cheers from the MozCon chat box. In today’s climate, quality content is what will get you that authority and trustworthiness today’s marketers (and Google) crave. Quantity may give you a short term boost, but it won’t last and it won’t compound.

@millanda on creating link-worthy content: "Always remember that it's not just about the link juice, but about the excellence you've created and the value you've provided as a result." #mozcon#SEO#linkbuildingpic.twitter.com/yT7uqIS7OL

— Katie Bradley (@KtBee21) July 14, 2021

But Google is just a robot and they base their assumptions on links: Who owns them and who links to whom? If your competitors are ranking on time.com and you aren’t, then Google will see your competitors more favorably and rank them higher in the SERP.

Amanda reminds us that these gaps are opportunities. If your competitor can get a link on Time.com, then so can you!

Amanda jumps straight to Moz Pro’s Link Intersect — “This tool was made for this kind of analysis!” — measuring up Chewy.com to competitors Petco.com and Petsmart.com to reveal the places where Chewy’s competitors link, but Chewy doesn’t.

One such article on CNN.com links to Petsmart and Petco and features a very cute guinea pig in a suit of armor — is it possible for Chewy to obtain a link to CNN? Yes!

Developing the content is only half the battle. Once you have something you think will resonate, it’s time to start pitching, which is arguably “where many link builders fall short.” In the pitching process, Amanda offers a fool proof plan of attack: “Pitch your content exclusively at first, and then once published, you can begin to take it elsewhere.” Publishers love exclusive content because they can leverage it to drive more views to their own content.

Amanda also drives home another link building golden rule: make sure you research and position your pitches and tailor them to the publisher. Gone are the days of mass outreach, and that won’t serve you well in the long run.

Once you’ve done the work, it’s time to track and record your progress. Take note of all the places your content shows up (anchor text, images, etc.) or whether it is do-follow or not.

Finding & filling gaps in your link strategy: 1/2 Finding - Identify brands building great links - See who links to them, but not to you (use a tool like Moz's link intersect) - Analyze the types of content earning links - Consider similar angles@millanda#MozConpic.twitter.com/lsH0DcbVfk

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

Check out Amanda’s Whiteboard Friday on crafting the perfect pitch email for more tips!

Lily Ray — From the Medic Update to Now: How the E-A-T Ecosystem Has Transformed Organic Search

Lily Ray has been studying the evolution of Google and E-A-T for a few years now, and in this presentation, she outlined key changes in how Google perceives content – specifically when it comes to the rise of misinformation.

Since 2016, and especially in the last year, more people turn to Google for information on things like politics, vaccines, COVID, and other important topics. This makes it increasingly necessary for Google to surface reliable information. In times of crisis, things become even more critical, and according to the data, Google begins to favor more authoritative sources versus relevant sources. We don’t know exactly how this is determined, but in her study, the data shows that Google favorably ranks content from reputable sources for potentially controversial keywords.

If there is one thing that Lily wants us to walk away with, it's the “E-A-T matters in crisis”, and is Google’s quality standard for evaluating content, authors, and websites.

As a result of this, Google saw a sharp decline in search visibility for questionable news sources, which then expanded to include health and science sites, regardless of the technical optimization on those sites.

@lilyraynyc explains E-A-T at #MozCon E-A-T was created in 2014 to make sure the quality of the content they are surfacing is meeting the needs of the users. @Moz In 2017 many of the fake news were wiped off the SERPs. Then this continued in 2018 with the YMYL sites pic.twitter.com/6PUCFwKrbV

— TurnDigi (@TurnDigi) July 14, 2021

Lily digs into keyword comparisons, showing how more authoritative sites became increasingly more visible between 2018 and 2021.

If you are wondering how E-A-T impacts search results - these slides by @lilyraynyc showing real life examples are sooo good #MozConpic.twitter.com/eQux45kKmm

— Casie Gillette (@Casieg) July 14, 2021

Most of the sites that lost visibility were doing some questionable things including:

Leveraging questionable authors

Had poor reputations

Published deceptive content

Lacked sufficient sources

Published dangerous medical advice

Included hate speech

Included excessive affiliate or sales links

“Winning sites make it really clear who they are, who writes for them, how they make money on the sites, why they should trust them […]—all of these great things that really instill trust in the user.” @lilyraynyc#MozCon

— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 14, 2021

From there, Lily dug into 10 key ways Google has changed, and we encourage you to check out her slides and take a look for yourself.

What do all these changes mean for SEO? The landscape is more complex and competitive than ever, so it’s important to be reasonable with your organic search goals and always put E-A-T at the forefront of your SEO Strategy.

Learn from the winners investing in EAT over the last few years of Google’s evolution: @lilyraynyc#mozcon@Healthline@NerdWallet@[email protected]/0TfFAoNWqc

— Amsive Digital (@Amsive_Digital) July 14, 2021

Kameron Jenkins — The Content Refresh: How to Do More With Less

Kameron Jenkins is no stranger to content. She manages multiple blogs and currently works for e-commerce powerhouse, Shopify.

When it comes to content, she knows that the best way to regain lost traffic and give your content new life is through a content refresh. In her presentation, she walked us through her exact process for identifying and updating old content. Surprisingly, most content marketers only dedicate 10-25% of their time to content refreshes, even though a content refresh can lead to more ROI in the long term.

Content people! About what % of your team's publishing calendar is *refreshes (vs. brand new content)? *taking something that was previously published and updating it.

— Kameron Jenkins 👋 (@Kammie_Jenkins) May 11, 2021

How do you identify the content that could benefit from a refresh? Look at your Google Analytics Landing Page report alongside Google Search Console, and prioritize content based on goal conversions, trending topics, and business priorities.

@Kammie_Jenkins Great deck and congrats on #mozcon!!! We're totally aligned on using the biggest movers for analysis. I love including impressions too to see the scope of opportunities. Kind of like this: pic.twitter.com/5hoaova2zL

— Noah Learner (He/Him) (@noahlearner) July 14, 2021

Oh heck, I loooove anyone who has a favorite GA view. But add in GSC data exports... I think I'm in heaven. Pageviews going down in GA + Losing rank for specific keywords in GSC = Opportunity for content revamp#MozCon

— Brie E Anderson (@brie_e_anderson) July 14, 2021

Next, it’s time to refresh. When moving into the execution, you’ll want to ask yourself three key questions:

What’s table stakes?

What will give you the competitive advantage?

And what will maximize conversions?

Other content refresh opportunities to look out for are consolidation, query targeting, and internal linking.

How can you stand out from the competition in your content refresh? Incorporate original research and expert quotes to beef up the authority and originality of your post.

Lastly, maximize your conversions by testing out your CTA placement and make your offers relevant to your audience.

She left us with some wise words of wisdom, “SEO is like owning a car. Even when the car is paid off, you still need to conduct regular maintenance to keep that engine running.”

Some tips for getting more value from your existing content: - Refresh decaying content to rank faster, increase ROI & maintain brand credibility - Remember session loss ≠ Traffic loss - Leverage GA & GSC data - Prioritize by trend, conversions & value@Kammie_Jenkins#MozConpic.twitter.com/SAVTtAFMIC

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

Best quote of #MozCon by @Kammie_Jenkins of @Shopifypic.twitter.com/tNb6qvwRO6

— Barb Davids 🤓🏃‍♀️🍻 (@BarbDavids) July 14, 2021

Wil Reynolds — The 3 Most Important Search Marketing Tools…Your Heart, Your Brain, & Your [Small] Ego

Wil brought the energy yet again for his ninth MozCon presentation, closing out the conference with a bang. His message was simple yet powerful: Your top three tools are your heart, your brain, and your small ego. But what does that mean, exactly?

Small ego

Wil began by introducing the concept of intellectual humility, or the recognition that some of the things you believe just might be wrong. He urged us to listen to the people around us who say there's a better way — even brand-new coworkers or recent college grads whose ideas you might otherwise discount.

Sharing this with everyone I know 👏 #mozconhttps://t.co/f1x5gDp5is

— Casie Gillette (@Casieg) July 14, 2021

And don't feel badly that you might be wrong — Wil posits that not knowing your own ignorance is just part of the human condition. He shared a quote from Upton Sinclair that was especially poignant:

It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.

Heart

A hundred years ago, no business needed SEO. They needed customers, profits, and sales. And as true then as it is now, they needed to know their customers.

One slide stood out loud and clear: The less you understand your customer, the more you spend to acquire them. And as Wil said, reports that lack dollar signs don't land on real decision makers' desks. Here's where your brain comes in.

“Best practices are a great start for those who lack data, or have data but can’t process it.” - @wilreynolds#MozCon#IntellectualHonestypic.twitter.com/91QiMy4ZDq

— Michael Tolosa (@TolosaSEO) July 14, 2021

Brain

Wil presented a bit of a conundrum: making decisions based on your gut may be easy and comfortable, but it's the data that gets you the insights you need to create and test hypotheses. However, exhaustive data — the kind of data where opportunity lives — is probably too big for your laptop to handle. What's an SEO to do?

Of course he had answers! Wil's suggestion was to harness the power of ngrams. With the help of a tool like PowerBI or BigQuery and using ngrams to examine all the search terms, you can find all your ranking results and see where your search term isn't in the title.

Transform your SEO data into winning insights: - Shrink your ego & question assumptions - Don't rely on best practices. - Tools are a start, not an end. - Business is about $ - Understanding your customer saves $ - What people do & say are different@wilreynolds#mozconpic.twitter.com/IB7CcQ4IpN

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

There's too much goodness to cram into a short recap, so you'll definitely want to get yourself a copy of the MozCon video bundle when it's ready for purchase. Until then, a few final suggestions from Wil:

Examining all your data is the only way to capture all your opportunities; resist the urge to pare it down to the top 20%. Every time you shrink your data down, you're missing out on opportunities that someone else can see.

See every data set through a competitive lens: if all else is the same, how do you create value?

Combine your paid and SEO data together — get the dollar signs in those reports and get in front of key decision makers

Learn SQL. You'll be able to search for exactly what you need within your own data, you won't have to rely on others, and your hypotheses will benefit from your newfound data freedom.

Be brave enough to suck at something new. Stop doing the thing that you feel comfortable with. Run your own experiments and validate your hypotheses. It'll be worth it in the end!

Hey #MozCon thank you! Remember: 1 - Surround yourself with people willing to show you a new way (show >> tell) - its easy to find people to tell you you are doing it wrong, find the people who build stuff to show you a new way.

— Wil Reynolds (@wilreynolds) July 14, 2021

Thanks everyone for a wonderful show! And we’ll see you in person next year!

#MozCon was freaking awesome! I learned so much and enjoyed meeting so many new colleagues! Thank you @Moz for such a wonderful event!

— Taylor Berg (@taylorannberg) July 15, 2021

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