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mymoodwriting · 6 months

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Because You're Mine

Female!Reader x Werewolf!SKZ

Genre: A/B/O

Warning: Insomnia, Anxiety, Panic Attack, PTSD, Pheromones, ABO Dynamics, Mentions of Assault, Physical Assault, Restraints, Gags, Abuse, Physical Abuse, Verbal Abuse, Bullying

Words: 4.6K

Chapter One

(//Next) (@starillusion13)

Prompt: With omegas completely removed from society, they needed their own communities and institutions to grow. All your life you had lived and gone to school alongside your fellow omegas, and orphaned alphas. You had managed to keep yourself together, but now at the university level, keeping your secret had grown impossible. You had to face your fears and make friends with an alpha eventually, and now was the time.

“Can you believe it!? Tomorrow is graduation…”

“… yay…”

“Could you be any more excited?”

You sighed, staring up at the blank ceiling. You had honestly been dreading this day for years now, but it finally caught up to you. Graduation should be something to celebrate, but it just meant things were going to get harder for you. It was the reason why you were still awake so late into the night. You were anxious about tomorrow, whereas your roommate and best friend Jisung was excited. Even if he was making a joke he knew what was on your mind.

“Y/n… after graduation we’re gonna be moved to a different campus, a bigger one, and there-”

“I know.”

“You’re gonna get found out sooner or later… you should tell someone so-”

“No. I’m fine.”

“Y/n… you can’t hide this forever…”

“You can’t tell anyone!”

“Y/n-”

“Promise me, Jisung.”

“I promise I won’t tell anyone… but I am worried about you…”

“I’ll be fine. I’ll figure something out.”

“Don’t forget I’m here for you.”

“I won’t. Thanks, Jisung.”

“We should probably get some sleep though.” Jisung chuckled. “Big day tomorrow.”

“Yeah… good night, Jisung.”

“Good night, y/n.”

♥♥♥♥♥

Even if you only slept a few hours you still needed to be up early for graduation. You woke up before Jisung, letting him sleep in a bit more before getting him out of bed. Both your outfits were simple, but you still had to check in early at the ceremony site. It was kind of weird to have such a big celebration considering no one was here to see you. All the alphas and omegas here were orphans, never having known their parents. Besides faculty and staff, and the graduates themselves, no one else would be present. It made it feel like something was missing, but then again you just wanted this whole thing over with. After the long ceremony everyone was given a few hours to refresh and rest before the big party would begin. Of course you had no desire to attend, so you were just glad you could turn in early and enjoy a quiet night.

“Are you really not going?”

“It’s not her scene, Felix.” Jisung explained. “You gonna be alright?”

“Yup.” You smiled. “The whole dorm is gonna be quiet, so it’s like I have it all to myself.”

“That doesn’t sound bad at all. I’ll message you when I’m on my way back.”

“Cool. Now you two have fun.”

“Will do.”

Besides Jisung, you didn’t have many other friends. There was Felix who you knew pretty well, but he was more Jisung’s friend than yours. You were just fine with your mini circle of friends, although you weren’t sure how it would develop going forward. After graduation everyone got a week to just do as they pleased before the moving began. No one really had much to their name so when it came time to move it was fairly easy. You got lucky that Jisung was still your roommate, and you both loved the spacious upgrade to your dorm situation.

While in your high school years your dorm was pretty small, and for omegas only, the alphas had their own building. The school itself was also a decent size that could accommodate everyone that was there. For those couple years the alphas and omegas were separated with a few classes being co-ed. It would still be the same at the university level, but there was more of a choice. The alphas still had certain classes to take that were only for them, but omegas could pursue any type of knowledge by either taking omega only classes, or the co-ed ones.

The campus itself was also different. There were more students around in general. Those a year ahead of you, and also other incoming freshmen from other academies. It did feel a bit overwhelming, but you had a plan to make things easier for yourself. Besides the classes, there were some omega only spaces, and you’d be sticking to those. You wanted to pursue science and learn more about your world, whereas Jisung was excited to get into the arts. He was always very creative and passionate so you were excited to see where things went for him.

You took omega only classes, and afterwards you’d continue your studies in the library. There was an omegas only section there, and you always reserved a study room for yourself. On occasion Jisung and Felix would join you, having homework they needed to do. If you weren’t in class or at the library you’d simply go back to your dorm. There were plenty of omega only activities that you could participate in, but you preferred to keep for yourself. Although you were glad there was an arts class you and Jisung shared, Felix too.

“Y/n, you’re not looking too good.” Felix commented. “Are you okay?”

“Hm? I’m just tired, stayed up late last night studying.”

“Why did you choose science? It can be pretty hard.”

“Yeah but there are some questions I want to find answers for.”

“But aren’t the more advanced classes co-ed?” Jisung mentioned. “You’d only be able to go so far.”

“I know.”

“What does that mean?” Felix questioned.

“Nothing.” You assured. “I’m gonna head back to the dorm and catch up on some sleep. You guys can use my study room reservation if you need to.”

“Thanks.” Jisung smiled. “You get some sleep.”

“Will do. You two stay out of trouble.”

“No promises.”

When you got back to your dorm you put your bag down and dived into bed, snuggling the sheets. Luckily sleep came easy, so you got some good rest. You woke up a few hours later, checking the time and seeing you still had some daylight. You got out of bed to freshen up so you could do your assignments. While you were in the bathroom you heard the door unlocking, a bit surprised to hear that Jisung was back so soon. Usually he’d barely be getting out of a class at this time.

You stepped out to go greet him, and then the scent hit you. Jisung wasn’t at the door, it was an alpha. You quickly scrambled back to the bathroom and locked the door. You were already finding it difficult to breathe but you needed to calm down in order to hide yourself. You had no idea why an alpha was in your dorm, or how they got a key, but you didn’t care for it. All you wanted was for them to leave. You heard some rummaging around, and then things got quiet. You thought maybe they had left, but then you heard the bathroom door knob jiggle, followed by a knock.

“Are you okay in there?”

The voice was not Jisung at all, nor was it anyone you recognized. Of course it wasn’t anybody you knew, you didn’t socialize with alphas.

“I’m fine!” You stammered out. “Please… please leave…”

“Are you sure? You sound stressed and your scent-”

“Go away!”

You wanted to get away from the door and wound up tripping over the floor mat. You hit your head against the wall, reaching over to the wound and feeling the throbbing from the pain.

“Are you okay!”

Now the alpha was trying to open the door again with far greater urgency. Your vision was a bit blurry, but hearing the alpha try to break in shot your fear up to eleven. With the pain in your head, and the feeling of impending doom it was becoming very hard to breathe or focus. You screamed when you heard the alpha throwing themselves against the door. You were frozen in fear, starting to cry, and desperately hoping they’d hear your cries for them stop. It didn’t help though, and soon enough the door swung open. You couldn’t see the alpha through your tears, but they didn’t hesitate to approach you, even if you tried to push them away.

“Let me see. Are you hurt?”

The alpha pulled you into their arms and moved your hand away, examining your head. Thankfully you weren’t bleeding, but now that they were close they could smell the fear and panic on you.

“What’s wrong? Did someone-”

“Go away!”

You tried to push the alpha away from you again, but they only grabbed your hands which made you squirm all the more. You desperately tried to pull away but they kept their grasp firm, and only pulled you closer to them. They spoke softly to you, looking at you with sincere concern on their face.

“What’s wrong? Why are you crying?” The alpha asked. “It’s okay, you’re not bleeding. You’re not hurt, you’re just fine.”

You continued to scream and thrash, just wanting the alpha to leave you alone and go away but they weren’t listening. Instead they pulled you into their embrace and wrapped their arms around you, trying to sooth you.

“Deep breaths, it’s okay, everything’s going to be okay.”

You couldn’t get away from their scent now that your face was buried in their chest. They smelled nice, and you could definitely tell they were trying to calm you down but it was directly clashing with your desire to escape. You were still trying to fight, but their scent was getting to you, turning your screams into silent cries.

“There, there, you’re okay, you’re okay, I got you.”

“Y/N!”

Jisung returned to the dorm out of breath, looking around in a panic while calling your name. Soon enough he found you in the bathroom and his eyes went wide.

“Let her go, Chan!”

Without hesitation Jisung pulled Chan away from you, shoving him out of the bathroom and focusing his attention on you.

“Are you okay, y/n? Hey, can you hear me?”

“… jisung… is that… you…”

“Yeah, yeah, it’s me. Are you okay? I’m so sorry.”

“… jisung…”

You were still scared and out of it, your eyes were starting to tear up again. You could barely talk through your sobs.

“It’s okay, I’m here, it’s okay. Let’s get you out of these clothes and into a shower.”

Jisung got up to turn on the shower head, making sure the water was warm before putting you under it. He got you out of your shirt, and took off his own jacket, holding it out to you.

“Here. That’s my scent, just take a deep breath. You’re okay.”

“Jisung-”

“Get out!”

Jisung got up and pushed Chan away, shoving him out of the dorm. The other boy didn’t fight him, but was very confused over the situation.

“Jisung, what-”

“Get out before security realizes you’re here. And not a word of this to anyone!”

“What just happened!?”

“Nothing, now go.”

Jisung shut the door and took a breath before getting back to you. He found you with your face buried in his jacket, now completely soaked from the water. After a while he helped you out of the shower, drying you off with a towel and tossing your wet clothes in the corner. You leaned against him, resting your head on his chest, breathing in his scent and gradually calming down. You felt much better now.

“I’m sorry.” Jisung apologized. “It slipped my mind that you were in the dorm. I thought it’d be no problem to have Chan come and get something of his while I was in class. This is all my fault, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s fine… nothing bad happened…”

“I’ll talk to him, make sure-”

“It’s okay, Jisung. I’m glad you’ve made friends.”

“You can be mad at me, you know.”

“Why would I be mad?”

“I don’t know. I put you in danger…”

“It wasn’t your fault.” You assured. “How did you meet this alpha anyway?”

“Oh, we’re in the same class and share a couple interests. So we kind of hit it off from there.”

“Look at you, making friends.”

“Stop it.”

“Just saying. I’m happy for you.”

It took a bit but you were able to put the whole thing behind you and continue with your life. Jisung didn’t bring it up again, but he was a bit more cautious around you. The only difference was that every now and then you would see Chan around Jisung. You knew they were friends and nothing bad was gonna happen, but you still felt uneasy. Whenever Chan would notice you around you’d quickly avoid his gaze and hurry along with your business. Besides all that you didn’t think anything would come of the previous incident, but you were wrong.

“Ms. y/n?”

“Uh… yes… how can I help you?”

“The headmaster wants to see you.”

“Wa… what for…”

“Please come with us.”

After one of your classes two faculty members, along with a security guard, approached you. Just seeing them put you on edge, so the fact they were asking for you specifically made it worse. You had no choice in the matter but to go with them.

♥♥♥♥♥

“Jisung!”

Felix came running into the cafeteria, finding his friend at one of the tables. He interrupted the group conversation but he didn’t care. He took a moment to catch his breath before speaking.

“What’s up?”

“It’s y/n…” Felix breathed. “I saw her being escorted by faculty and security.”

“What!? Why!?”

“I don’t know, but she seemed scared.”

“Scared… what would-”

Jisung stopped in his tracks and looked over at Chan. The boy was silent, but a glint in his eyes told Jisung everything.

“What did you do!”

“There’s something going on with your friend and I’m trying to help.”

“You’ve done the opposite of help.” Jisung snapped. “Fuck!”

There was only one place you’d wind up. Jisung got up, leaving his things behind and bolting out of the cafeteria. Chan chased after him and caught up to him, holding him back.

“Where are you going?”

“None of your business!”

“Jisung, whatever’s going on isn’t good.”

“You don’t know anything!”

“All I know is that she was panicking for no reason and I wasn’t actually helping.”

“You have no idea.”

“Then explain it to me.”

“It’s not my story to tell, and it’s too late now. So let go!”

“You’re not gonna get her out of this.”

“I know that, but she’s also not gonna be able to speak for herself.”

♥♥♥♥♥

You nervously sat outside the headmaster’s office, fidgeting with your hands and shaking your leg. This could be nothing related to what you were thinking, but at the same time it could be. If that was the case, well, Jisung always told you that you’d get found out in the end. While thinking of him you suddenly heard your name called.

“Y/n!”

Jisung came running down the hall towards you. He was out of breath but still took your hand, pulling you onto your feet and into a hug.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m scared…”

“I know, I know, but everything’s gonna be okay.”

“Jisung…”

“Deep breaths. I’m here with you.”

Jisung took his jacket off and put it on your shoulders, pulling you into his arms. Just then the door to the headmasters office opened. The secretary asked for you to step in, but Jisung wasn’t going to let you go in alone. He kept a hold of your hand and pushed his way into the office with you.

“What’s going on?” Headmaster Shim asked.

“I want to ask the same thing.”

The headmaster raised a brow and Jisung quickly apologized. Even if he had the strength to stand up for you, the headmaster was still an alpha and held power over any omega.

“… sorry… I… I need to know why you called y/n here.”

“Why?”

“The matter may pertain to me. I’ve been her roommate since high school.”

“I see. This may pertain to you as well. Sit. Both of you.”

You both sat down in front of the headmaster’s desk, Jisung still holding your hand. You couldn’t make eye contact with the headmaster, and kept your head low. That way Jisung’s scent was right in your face and could keep you calm.

“Now. I received a report of unusual, and concerning, behavior in regards to y/n. I’m beginning to understand the reason for the report. So, which of you will explain?”

“That depends. You-”

“Mr… what was your name again?”

“Jisung. Han Jisung.”

“Mr. Jisung, you seem to know more about this incident than anyone else. I’m not happy with what I am seeing right now, and I need to know what is going on in order to fix it. So please, tell me what is going on.”

Jisung glanced over at you. He couldn’t imagine how you felt right now being so close to an alpha, but he could feel a slight tremble coming from your hand. He knew there was no hiding this anymore. For your sake he needed to speak the truth, no matter what happened. Jisung got up and pulled you into his arms again, softly rubbing your back.

“It’s okay, everything’s going to be okay.” Jisung took a breath. “Headmaster Shim.”

“Yes?”

“Y/n was assaulted her sophomore year of high school.”

“Excuse me?”

You buried your face into Jisung’s chest, trying to focus on his scent and not his words. You couldn’t help the tremble in your body, biting your lip to hold back tears. You thought you could forget that horrible night, but it always lingered in the back of your mind. You feared the day it would come to light as you had no idea what the consequences would be.

♥♥♥♥♥

“We told you to back off!”

You were always a loner that kept to herself. You only managed to make friends with your roommate Jisung, and were kinda friends with his friend, Felix. Besides that you stuck to yourself. You didn’t cause trouble, and you never wanted to, but it wound up finding you. There was this alpha in your class. Super pretty and very popular. He had both alphas and omegas fawning over him. You weren’t interested, but apparently he was interested in you. Because of that you had a target on your back

Just because alphas and omegas were meant to end up together, it wouldn’t stop them from dating one another while young. Even then one didn’t know what the future held. It made sense for omegas to fawn over alphas, but the opposite wasn’t so common, especially when it was an alpha crushing on an omega. What upset everyone the most is that you weren’t already crushing on the alpha, so the others felt like you didn’t deserve his affections. You only thought he was being nice to you, and you were grateful for that, but you didn’t think there was much else to his kindness. Although you’d soon learn it didn’t come with consequences.

You’d always stay late after classes to get your assignments done. So by the time you left the library the school would mostly be empty. After one of your study sessions you were making your way through the empty hall when you were suddenly attacked. A bag was placed over your head and you felt multiple hands grabbing you and dragging you away. You didn’t know what was happening, but you knew you were being taken down some stairs. Then you had your hands tied behind your back, and your legs tied together. The bag over your head never came off, but it was pulled up in order to gag you.

Once you were restrained things got quiet. You could hear multiple heartbeats around you, and some low whispers. Then you began to catch scents. You couldn’t identify anyone at the moment, but you knew that they were all alphas. You had never been afraid of alphas before, or saw them as greater than you, but this was seriously scaring you. After a long while you felt this crowd approach you, someone kicking you over onto your back. You moved over to be on your side but got shoved onto your back again, someone putting their foot on your chest to keep you still.

“You should’ve known better.”

“An alpha like that wouldn’t choose someone like you. So what did you do!”

“She’s just a desperate omega trying to get attention.”

“If you want the attention of an alpha there are plenty others to choose from.”

“So how are we gonna teach this omega a lesson?”

“I have an idea. Got this from the infirmary.”

“What is it?”

“No idea, but it’s not meant for students.”

“Are you sure it won’t kill her?”

“Doubt it, but we can give her a little bit just to be safe.”

You started squirming again when you heard them talk about giving you something, but the pressure on your chest only got more severe. You already felt like you couldn’t breathe, and the panic you were feeling only made it worse. You felt the bag over your head being lifted up, followed by a pinch on your neck. You started desperately thrashing around to no avail, and soon enough you began to feel uncomfortable in your own skin. It started off gradually, like a fever, but it was soon becoming unbearable. You didn’t want to cry, but you were certainly screaming into the gag, desperate for anything to make this feeling go away.

You could hear laughter though. Everyone had stepped back to watch the show, to watch you suffer. After a while you stopped screaming and were just crying for help, but they all ignored you. Sometimes they’d step forward to kick you, wanting to see your reaction. Your head was spinning, and your body was tired from fighting the restraints. You were certain you were going to pass out soon enough, but they weren’t gonna let you go quietly. Now that you had calmed down they got closer, poking at you softly. Even if they were so close you couldn’t identify anyone, all you had was a mixing scent of alphas and no one else. They kept bothering you until you actually passed out, realizing you were no fun unconscious.

Even when you woke up later you had no idea how much time had passed. You were still in the dark, your body sore and aching all over. You couldn’t even bring yourself to cry or scream, everything having been rung out of you. In this situation you weren’t even sure if anyone would find you, or if the alphas that did this would drop a hint as to where you were. The thought of dying there crossed your mind, it was so grim, but you had no idea what those alphas were capable of doing. At some point you must have passed out again, but with the bag over your head it was hard to figure out if you were really awake or not.

“Y/n!”

You heard your name being called, and even though you were exhausted your body tensed up. You were trembling from fear, whimpering as well. When you felt a hand on you your body flinched.

“I’m sorry… just…”

You felt the bag come off your head and immediately shut your eyes. You needed a second to adjust to the light. Whoever was here helped you sit up, giving your arms a bit of a break. You slowly peeked your eyes open, coming to find a familiar face. You felt tears well up in your eyes, your body relaxing a bit as well.

“What happened to you…”

Jisung undid your arms and legs, getting the gag off you as well. Once you were free you started crying and Jisung gently pulled you into his arms. Breathing in his scent further put you at ease, and he just held you for however long you needed him to. You’d later find out it was the next morning. After missing two classes Jisung ditched the next to go looking for you. Everyone thought you were sick but he wasn’t buying it. After all, he was your roommate and knew you weren’t in the dorm. Not to mention when he went to sleep and woke up you weren’t there. He retraced your steps and followed your fading scent from outside the library, finding you in a wretched situation in the basement.

You were in no condition to be going to class, although you pleaded with Jisung to just get you back to the dorm instead of going to the infirmary. Despite his better judgment he did as you asked. Back at the dorm you took a cold shower, wanting to wash everything away. You broke down again and Jisung held you, doing his best to assure you that everything was going to be alright. When you were strong enough you told him what had happened to you. He wanted to go to the headmasters office now more than before but you didn’t want to make a big deal of this or get them in trouble. You sounded crazy to him, but you begged him to keep quiet.

Jisung kept your secret, but he also kept a closer eye on you. He didn’t leave you alone after that, and he could also see how you changed. You avoided the alphas from the class, all of them. You didn’t know who was responsible but the scent of an alpha alone would make you panic. Jisung was weary of all the alphas too, but he just focused on looking after you and getting through the rest of the year. Over time you were able to be like your old self, but he knew you’d never be the same again. You still avoided all the alphas, even the teachers. You were doing okay, but Jisung knew that the truth would get exposed one day.

♥♥♥♥♥

“Why wasn’t this reported earlier?”

To say that headmaster Shim was angry was an understatement. For a second Jisung tensed up from the shift in scent, but they quickly composed themselves.

“I… she didn’t… she didn’t want to get anyone in trouble…”

“The reason for the OCPD is to look after omegas. If any alpha were to go against that ideal then they are not fit to be agents.” Headmaster Shim took a breath. “I will gather a list of the alphas from your high school class and we’ll need to-”

“No.”

You were shaking your head, trembling in Jisung’s embrace. The incident may have been nearly three years ago but it felt like just yesterday for you.

“I’m overlooking the fact that you didn’t report this to me when it happened, but the guilty party can not go unpunished. Miss y/n here may not be the only victim to this type of cruel behavior. Not to mention a staff member from the infirmary failed to report a supply discrepancy. This goes beyond just the two of you.”

“I… I’m sorry…” You mumbled. “I’m sorry…”

“What happens then?” Jisung asked. “After you catch those responsible.”

“They’ll be removed from the institution and miss y/n needs to begin therapy.”

“Therapy?”

“She’s been trembling since she set foot in here because I’m an alpha. And her records show she avoids any interaction with alphas in general, not to mention her behavior in regards to the recent incident. You also need to explain that one. An alpha shouldn’t be in the omega dorm.”

“Right…”

“For now the priority is with miss y/n. We can have a separate conversation later.”

“Of course, but I don’t want y/n going through any of this alone.”

“I appreciate that, but you are also an omega like herself. Part of her therapy will involve reworking her relationship with an alpha. I’ll need to find someone to-”

“Chan…” You whispered.

“Huh?” Jisung questioned. “What did you say?”

“Chan… he… he’s okay…”

“What?”

“Is that your choice?” Headmaster Shim asked. “You’d like him to assist with your situation going forward?”

“… yes…”

“That’s good. It gives us a good starting point.”

“You want to hang out with Chan?” Jisung wondered. “Really?”

“He was nice…”

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latoyalestrange · 7 months

Text

THE FOOL

p. pascal x f!oc

Masterlist | Playlist

Summary: It was their last twenty-four hours in Columbia before the cast flew back to Los Angeles. If you thought they weren’t going to party, you would be terribly mistaken.

Words: 3.3k

Warnings: Alcohol, mentions of cheating, possessive!pedro, not edited, begging 0.0, suggestive make out sceneeee

Taglist: @marvel-sw-lover , @lokislittle , @red-red-rogue , @babukat , @joels-darlin , @lmariephoto37 , @violac0la

comment if you want to be added to the taglist!

CHAPTER SIX — BAD INFLUENCE

“And that’s a fucking wrap!” Tom shouted, flute of champagne held up for a toast. The long dinner table erupted with applause and cheering. “I won’t bore you with a long speech, I know I already talk too much. So enjoy your dinner, and we will see you next year for season two!” Another round of applause as he joins in on the cheering before taking his seat.

“Thank god, I’m starving.” Pedro grumbled in his seat, next to Naela of course.

“I know, right? I feel like I can finally relax and eat a full meal. I’m so nervous in between takes that I can’t eat,” she chuckles, wasting no time in digging in.

“Really? What makes you so nervous?” There was that tone again. She gave him a knowing smirk in between bites.

“Hm. Interesting.” He knew what she was trying to say. Pedro and Naela always seemed to be on the same page, which was proven true when they were asked if they wanted to continue the party after dinner at a nearby club.

“But we have to wake up so early tomorrow,” Naela droned, pouting at Joanna.

“Yeah, I don’t know about being hungover for a 7 hour flight,” Pedro added.

“Oh, come on, love birds! Let’s have some fun tonight!” Joanna shook Naela’s shoulders, forcing them to laugh. “We won’t get to see each other again until the season premier!”

“Blondie’s right, let’s go make bad decisions!” Boyd joined in, jokingly cheering at the last part. Pedro looked at Naela, smirking at her while he considered the idea.

“I’ll go if she goes,” he decided before taking the last drink from his glass. Naela rolled her eyes but failed to look annoyed with her cheeks flushed.

“Pleeease, Naela? I promise it’ll be so much fun!” Joanna clasped her hands together as she begged. Naela thought for a moment, clearly it was important to Joanna.

“Fine. But I’m leaving at midnight, sharp,” Naela tried to warn her, but Joanna was already jumping and cheering after the first word.

“Yay! That’s probably how late I wanted to stay out anyway.” Joanna beamed at her, making her chuckle and shake her head.

As soon as they passed the bouncer, Naela could feel the regret setting in. The music, the dancing, and the overall atmosphere just wasn’t her. She was more of a bar kind of girl. However, if you got a few drinks in her, she could definitely be a club girl.

A few drinks meaning two shots of tequila and a refajo; exactly what she’d had tonight. The group gathered around a small, circular, bar-height table with their drinks. Joanna and Naela were chatting on one side, and the boys on the other. With her barriers down, conversation was flowing without any effort. They were laughing, joking, telling stories, and it all felt natural. Things came to a crashing halt, however, when Joanna heard one of her favorite songs come on.

She gasped, “I love this song! Naela, you have to come dance with me!” She clapped giddily before taking Naela’s hands, robbing her of the opportunity to say no. Luckily, it was one of Naela’s guilty pleasure songs as well, ones that you hate to admit they make you dance every time.

They didn’t waste a second getting to the dance floor and swaying their hips together to the beat. The neon lights glided across their skin as they moved, making a beautiful scene for everyone to watch, and they did. They stood out against the crowd and Naela only realized it when the music changed and she finally paid attention to her surroundings. A few pairs of eyes were on them, but the only ones she cared about were the espresso orbs staring at her from across the dance floor. Before she could think, her feet were carrying her closer to him and Joanna was following close behind.

They weaved their way through the dance floor and eventually arrived back at the table. Her eyes were mostly locked with Pedro’s, but she couldn’t help but notice the new round of drinks waiting for them on the table.

“Aw, how’d you know?” Joanna mused as she took the shot glass in her hand.

“Just had a feeling.” Pedro answered, openly winking at Naela. She smirked and followed suit, taking the small-but-mighty tequila shot in her hand.

“Cheers.” She hoped her friends didn’t pick up on the suggestive tone meant for Pedro. If they did, they didn’t comment before bringing their glasses together, then tapping them on the table in ritual. Naela held her breath as she brought the glass up to her plump and glossed lips and downed the firey liquid in one go. She usually couldnt hide her disgust after the second shot and this time was no different. Luckily for her, Pedro found the way she scrunched her nose and stuck out her tongue adorable. He shook off his own disgust before smiling down at her while she wasn’t looking.

“I think we should go dance with different people at the same time,” Joanna announced, looking pointedly at Boyd. He looked confused at first, but she nudged him and gestured towards Naela and Pedro on the other side of the table.

“What—“ Naela started before Boyd cut her off, agreeing with Joanna.

“Yeah, yeah I’m gonna go dance…” He trailed off as she dragged him away. Naela turned to Pedro, who was already looking at her, and couldn’t contain her laughter.

He shook his head, “What are we gonna do with them?”

She giggled, “I have no idea.” He sighed and glanced around the room, trying to swallow his anxiety.

“So what’s the first thing you’re doing when you get home?” Was the first question he could think of. The lights were flashing around, making focusing harder and just her presence was enough to make him sweat. She held back a wide smile by biting her lip, unable to contain her excitement.

“Firing my manager,” she answered confidently.

He instantly burst into laughter, letting his head fall back. “That’s fair, very fair.”

“What about you?” She asked, letting her body language naturally open up as she turned toward him. He smoothed his mustache for a moment, like he was deep in thought.

“Probably just gonna wait for you to call me,” he answered with a smug look on his face. She nudged him with her elbow, refusing to give in to the temptations she was feeling.

“I’m serious,” she added, looking up at him.

“So am I,” he chuckled. “Hope John won’t be too jealous.”

She scoffed, knowing he knew her boyfriends name, “It’s Josh. And he already is, if I’m honest.” The liquor was getting to the both of them and it was obvious in their conversation. His brow furrowed with interest.

“Oh yeah? Why’s that?” His tone again. It was like a siren’s call that pulled her further out to sea, and she was entirely fine with drowning in it.

“I only told him bits and pieces of a few scenes and he tried to convince me not to take the job. He damn near broke up with me when I told him about the other contract.” Her expression fell as she spoke, and Pedro swore he could feel a fire ignite in his chest. He was enraged by the fact that a man could treat a woman like her so poorly.

“Well you can tell John to step up or I’m next.” She didn’t bother to correct him. Her head was spinning, trying to find something witty and not awkward to say.

“Maybe I will,” with a cheeky smile and intentional eye contact was the best she could come up with. “I’m gonna go use the restroom. Could you get us another round?” she added to diffuse the tension. He nodded and watched as she gathered her purse and turned to walk away. Naela felt the urge to look over her shoulder, feeling a pair of eyes on her. Sure enough, glancing back at Pedro, she could clearly see his eyes glued below her waist. He looked up at her, wiping his thumb across his lip with a sultry look in his eyes. He didn’t even try to play it off, he wanted her and didn’t care if she knew.

The few minutes she had to herself in the bathroom Naela used relieve herself, but mostly to fix her hair and smudged lip gloss. She took several deep breaths before making her way across the sea of people in between her and where her friends were standing. Boyd and Joanna had joined Pedro back at the table, new drinks in their hands.

“How was sitting on the other side of the club for ten minutes?” Naela asked sarcastically as she sauntered up to the group.

“It was great actually, much better company,” Boyd added jokingly. Pedro wheezed as he laughed and nudged his shoulder.

An hour or so and a few more drinks later, Naela could feel everyone starting to slow down, whether it was from exhaustion or the liquor. Her own words were slurred and she found everything much more funny than it actually was. Additionally, she found herself standing much closer to Pedro than she should’ve been. By now, she leaned into him with his arm ghosting her back as they stood. Either no one cared or they were too drunk to notice.

Speaking of too drunk, while laughing at something Pedro said, she stumbled back into his chest.

“Wow, you’re really drunk,” he whispered teasingly in her ear, chuckling a bit as his hands lingered on the outside of her arms.

“Not even a little bit,” she mumbled, craning her neck to meet his gaze as she rested against him now.

“Let’s get you in bed, yeah?” She knew that wasn’t how he meant it but the ache she felt in between her legs thought otherwise. She nodded and couldn’t help but bite her lip as she looked up at him with suggestive eyes. He smirked down at her enticingly innocent expression, trying to silence the inappropriate thoughts circling his mind.

“I’ll call a taxi,” he chuckled, shaking his head.

“Are you guys coming?” She asked the rest of the group, her eyelids starting to droop and her words becoming more strung together by the second.

“No, I think we’ll finish our drinks first,” Joanne slurred as well, unable to hide her smirk. “You guys go ahead.”

“Okayyy, I’ll see you guys in the morning then.” Naela sloppily wrapped her arms around her friend, almost making the both of them topple over. They laughed it off before she broke away to hug Boyd as well.

“Don’t do anything stupid, yeah?” He joked, patting her back casually.

“So don’t do anything you would do, got it!” Naela resposed teasingly. He chuckled and nudged her away with his palm to her forehead. She retreated to Pedro, who was just getting off the phone.

As if it were a habit, he slinked his arm around her shoulder, whispering in her ear, “Vámonos, hermosa.” God, is Josh could see this…

Naela shooed the thought of her boyfriend away as Pedro held the door for her. The brisk air hitting her face didn’t sober her up one bit, but it felt nice. He joined her near the curb as they waited.

“So what are you actually doing first when you get home?” She asked curiously, smiling brightly at him. Her dimples made him want to cave right then and there.

“I’ll be sleeping for the first few days, trust me,” he laughed, “But once I’m awake I’m shaving this off.” He smoothed his facial hair down, a gesture Naela had grown to find extremely enticing. However, she gasped unexpectedly once she processed what he had said.

“No, please don’t get rid of it! It’s really grown on me,” she whined, inching closer to him and letting her palm rest on his chest.

“I’m pretty sure it’s literally grown on me,” he joked. Once again, even though it wouldn’t be that funny if she were sober, she let her head fall back with laughter, causing her to lose her footing and trip off of the curb and into the street. She would’ve been just fine, but Pedro instinctively grabbed her and pulled her back onto the side walk, coincidentally into his arms. With his heart practically beating out of his chest, tension hung in the air for what felt like many minutes as he searched her eyes for any sign of hesitancy. For once, Pedro knew exactly what he wanted and he was going to get it. No advice from management, no contract, or anything else for that matter could’ve kept him from kissing her in that moment.

Slowly, he brought their lips together for a gentle, yet meaningful kiss. It was so different from all the other times they’d kissed; it wasn’t rushed, expectant, or in front of an entire cast and crew. It was perfect, and she never wanted it to end as her arms found their way around his neck, pulling him in deeper. Their long-anticipated fantasy was over, however, when an impatient honker ripped them out of it. Naela had no idea how long the cab driver had been waiting behind them.

“Oh, shit…Lo siento, señor!” Pedro apologized to the driver before swinging the door open and allowing Naela in first. As they started driving, she instantly knew why the studio was so particular about them using their assigned drivers. She was regretting her last drink as the driver made sharp turns and lurched at every stop. She thought closing her eyes would help, but eventually she resorted to letting her head rest of Pedro’s shoulder.

“You okay?” He asked softly, looking down at her. She shook her head and groaned.

He chuckled, “Tell me if we need to stop. Not sure he’d be too happy if you threw up in here.” She only let out a deep breath in response.

“Frena, por favor. Ella está mareada,” He spoke up to the driver, who instantly accepted his request and drove carefully the rest of the way back.

“Veinte mil pesos, por favor.” The driver said coldly as he put the car in park and outstretched his hand. Pedro sighed and reached around to take out his wallet, giving him two crisp blue bills.

“Quédeselo.” He resposed simply as he pulled himself out of the back seat. Naela reached for her car door, but before she could step out, Pedro was opening her door and holding his hand out for her. She gladly accepted, regaining her footing much better than she had before the ride home. Once the cool air hit her skin again, she felt much better. They smiled at eachother after he closed the door, hardly having a chance before the cab sped off. Naela hardly noticed. She did notice, however, how right Joanna was about how he looked at her. Her cheeks were either hot from him or the drinks, and her stomach, she was sure turned into butterflies.

“You don’t need me to carry you, do you?” He asked teasingly.

She chuckled, “Hm, now that you mention it…” He knew exactly what her tone was implying. He sighed, and without a moment of hesitation, he bent down and wrapped his arms around her thighs and threw her over his shoulder. She squealed at the unexpected movement, desperately grasping onto his back for support.

“I wasn’t serious!” She giggled into his leather jacket as it pressed up against her chin. Once they reached her trailer, he slowly planted her feet on the ground, at which point Naela realized she had neither her shoes or her purse. She patted her side, swearing her bag was hanging off her shoulder moments ago.

“I got it, don’t worry,” He reassured her as he took her keys out of her purse, her shoes in his other hand. She couldn’t remember taking anything off, but she was grateful at least Pedro was keeping track of her mess.

“Oh, thanks,” she responded softly. After a few tries, he eventually opened the door to her trailer and ushered her inside.

“So this is where you’ll be staying for the next six months,” he joked, gesturing around the living space. Naela could hardly focus on what he was saying, though. Something about being taken care of made her want to take care of him. She slowly started inching toward him as he went on. “I hope you like spanish TV, because that’s all that plays—“

Before he could finish, she pressed her lips against his and tangled her fingers in his hair. Caught off guard, he found himself unable to back away, in fact his hands were slithering around her back and pulling her closer. But no matter how much he wanted this, or how long he’d waited, he didn’t want to be that person.

“Naela,” he managed to say in between feverish kisses. He was only met with more kisses. God, he wanted to give in so bad. But not only was she in a relationship, she was drunk. He planted both hands on either side of her face and retracted his own, looking her dead in the eyes.

“Naela, we can’t.” He shook his head, eye contact unbreaking so he knew she understood. Her face instantly dropped, and Pedro felt a pang in his chest. Why did she have to look at him like that?

“You don’t like me?” Her brow tipped upward, making her look utterly devastated. He instantly mirrored her expression, feeling horrible.

“No, no, it’s not that…” He shook his head and let his hands fall to her shoulders. He was no longer nervous to admit it, it’s what she needed to hear. “I really like you, Naela.” It didn’t seem to make her feel better, her eyes glued to the floor. He sighed and brought his hand back up to her cheek, this time brushing her hair behind her ear.

“You’re drunk, amor. And I want us to start off on the right foot. Nothing tieing us to other people…” He hooked his finger under her chin and lifted her eyes to meet his gaze.

“I don’t want there to be any question that we both want this.”

“There isn’t,” she retorted, her eyes unwavering. She slid her hand up his torso, gripping lightly onto his collar once she reached it.

“Please, Pedro…” She couldn’t bring him to her level, so she got on her tip toes to connect their lips once more. He grumbled into the kiss, begrudgingly reciprocating.

“You’re making this really hard for me, Naela.” He growled once their lips parted, still holding her frame close as their foreheads pressed together.

“I hope I’m making something else hard too,” she teased, biting her lip.

“You don’t get to know,” he argued, giving her one last firm peck before straightening his back once more. Their hands loosely intertwined at their sides as he smirked down at her.

“You’re a bad influence,” he chuckled, swiping his tongue across his bottom lip.

“I would say I’m more of a fun influencer.” Pedro instantly laughed at her nonsensical response.

“Okay, yeah, time for bed, Naela.” Before she could protest, he spun her around by her shoulder and began guiding her toward her bed.

The next thing Naela knew, the alarm on her phone was blaring next to her head as she untangled herself from the covers. She quickly scrambled to grab her phone and silence it. She looked at the time, four AM. The events of the night before instantly set in. Naela couldn’t tell if she wished she had more to drink that night so she wouldn’t have to remember embarrassing herself like that. On one hand, she totally would’ve thrown up on Pedro at some point, but was that really worse than what she had done? Naela didn’t think so.

reblog if you made it to the end!

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seireitonin · 7 months

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Ben and Sally getting along fluff when??? /j (no shipping lmao) ik probably not canon but AHHHHH

(Tee hee this is so cute. Since you put Ben and not BEN, I’m going to talk about the 12 year old boy and not the evil entity.)

•Since Sally and Ben both died pretty long ago they’re actually more mature than they look

• Sally for nostalgias sake, loves to play tea party still

•After all tea party was her favorite when she was alive in the 60s!

•Ben being born in the 90s and a boy who didn’t play it when he was alive, doesn’t fully get it, but joins her anyway. It’s like having a sister for him

• Sally who was born in the late 50s and died in the late 60s, doesn’t understand video games all that well but still plays with Ben the best she can

• Ben will sometimes let her win because he likes seeing her smile and cheer

• Ben loves playing hide and seek with her (fun fact it’s canon that Ben loves playing hide and seek :3)

• Sally kinda cheats by turning invisible though

• They find comfort in each other, both of them being children who were lonely and being tricked into dying

• They feel normal with each other, as if they never died and have a chance at growing up and being normal

• They stay up all night eat candy and watch their favorite movies together

• No need for health and sleep when you’re both already dead!

• Since they’re from different decades the movie choices are very different with all of Sally’s favorite movies being from the 40s-early 60s and Ben’s being from the 90s-early 2000s

• It’s like stepping into different decades for both of them and they love learning about each others time periods

• Despite popular belief, Ben’s actually a quiet and sweet kid

• Sally does more haunting than he does, most of his haunting is unintentional

• But he does watch her, thinks it’s interesting how scared people get.

• She’s just a little girl, right? What’s so scary about her? (She literally shows up in the darkness, bloody and talking in a creepy voice saying “play with me”) but they’re just overreacting! She’s totally normal in his eyes.

•Sally draws Ben pictures a lot!

• If Ben’s playing an RPG and he has the option to make his party members look how he wants them too, he’ll always base them off Sally and shows her

• This makes her beam with joy every time!

•Sally will watch him play video games and ask questions about literally everything

• He’ll answer all of them, he loves talking about video games and everything in them anyway and it makes him happy that Sally is interested

• Video games were his absolute favorite thing when he was alive that hasn’t changed now that he’s dead

• Sally knows that so she will absolutely let him talk forever about them, especially about how much he loves Link

• Sally’s favorite food is Lady Fingers

• Ben’s favorite is Pizza Rolls

• So they often bring each other those foods as presents

• (Ben has to ‘borrow’ lady fingers from the bakery in town, he doesn’t know how to make them lol)

• Sally and Ben don’t knock to enter each others rooms, they just appear like the ghosts they are

• Since Ben had trouble making friends growing up, he’s so grateful for Sally

• Sally’s grateful for him too, she feels so safe around him

• They’re basically attached at the hip

• Ben let’s Sally wear his hat

• Sally likes floating around with Ben, it’s something only the two of them can do together

• Loves floating in the sky with him when the stars are out

• Yay friendship!

#creepypasta #ben drowned #creepypasta fandom #sally williams #fluff #creepypastafluff #creepypasta characters #creepypasta hcs #creepypasta headcanon

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unexpectedstormy · 8 months

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My initial thoughts on the new update

In the first panel with the innkeeper, he is admiring a rupee. When the postman shows up, he looks super annoyed XD.

I’m getting the impression that Jojo has a passion for languages based on the tags for this one and the whole Minish-Japanese-English thing.

Confirmed: Sky is a late sleeper. (Yay! Sky gets some screentime!) Also, his sailcloth is really long, like cloak.

The mailman says “Da na na na naaaa!” The “you got a new thing!” song from the games.

In the panel right before the smith laughs at Four, the mailman is in the background, skipping away. He must put the flags away when he goes inside a building.

The scene with the smith laughing at a sad Four is funny. I like how the view is angleddown to make Four look even smaller.

When Hyrule, Warriors, and Wind come to join Four in swordmaking, Hyrule does not in fact have a crop top on. Is that Warriors’ fire rod or Legend’s? I know Warriors does have one in his game.

Warrirs tells Four needs practice with teamwork and that is definitely the case based on what happened when he split in front of Wild. He’s probably laughing because of the irony. But unfortunately, he can’t explain the joke the others yet. (And he doesn’t have his own sword with him right now, so he can’t show his party trick to the others right now no matter how funny that would be.)

Do you think that they’ll be successful at forging a sword for Wild? Probably because that’s how Four plans to make amends with Wild. But it would be really funny if they didn’t and that became the running joke of the comic that Four in fact cannot forge a sword for Wild that won’t break.

One more thing: Time is missing. He hasn’t been in this comic or the last one, he’s the only one unaccounted for. So where is he? Is he on a walk in the woods to clear his mind? Is he going back to the battleground? Will he find that the enemy’s evil axe is gone and instead there’s a portal? 👀

#linked universe #lu sky #lu four #lu wind #lu warriors #lu hyrule #ly postman #lu innkeeper #lu blacksmith #new update! yay!

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m4ndysk4nkovich · 5 months

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Some Gallavich questions:

1. What was the first scene that made you ship them?

2. Favorite scene of theirs?

3. Favorite Ian line? Mickey line? (Doesn’t have to be in relation to each other)

4. When do you think they both realized they loved the other?

5. Where do you see them five years into their marriage?

YAY I LOVE THIS ASK TY

so when i started watching shameless i had already seen a few episodes/scenes before, so i knew that ian and mickey would end up together. the first scene was probably just, “IAN GALLAGHERRRRRR! YOU MESSED WITH THE WRONG GIRL!” but idk- one of the first scenes i watched was 4x12 where ian couldn’t get up, and when i saw how mickey was with ian that made me love them together.

bro i have no idea. every scene??? i think that if i had to narrow it down i’d say when ian came looking for the gun (1x07), the first dugouts scene (2x02), the first kiss (3x05), “don’t” (3x12), mickey comes out (4x11), ian can’t sleep (5x01), “sorry i’m late” (5x08), “you’re under my skin, man” (7x10), reunited in prison (9x06), “i wanna be where you are” (10x03), ian proposes (10x10), the entire wedding (10x12), “nick jonas” (11x03), mickey hires ian (11x04), the anniversary party (11x12). so yeah. i have a lot of favorites.

ian: “i think his dying wish was… get this plastic bag off my head.” mickey: “alright lets not stand around with our dicks in our hands, gentlemen.”

i think that mickey definitely realized he loved ian when he didn’t kill frank; and for ian, i think that he realized around the time when he was crying because of monica and wanted to see mickey/he picked mickey over kash.

five years into their marriage, i see them owning a house. i could see them having a house on the southside, a nice one that is what they both like. i made a post about my feelings on galladads, specifically how i’m not a big fan of it, so personally i don’t see them with a child- a cat or dog, maybe. i just hope that they’re happy and that things are going smoothly.

#shameless #ian gallagher #mickey milkovich #gallavich #ask

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atopvisenyashill · 1 month

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i love to push it as late as possible in the timeline when i fantasize about aus bc a) i like all the characters i want them there and b) i want to make it difficult, i want to make it spicy.

anyways how do you avoid the dance? angel scenarios aka “we kicked the dragon killing, era ending war down the road a generation, yay us” worlds:

orys baratheon that shit - do we need me to call otto a dumb bitch once again for thinking anyone wins in a dragon vs dragon fight? no but i'm gonna do it anyway because there's a really easy solution here that he could have gone for and that is just offer rhaenyra the stepstones. make dragonstone a paramount seat, make an offer to all the houses in the crownlands that they can stay vassals of the crown directly or become vassals of Rhaenyra and Dragonstone, and make a real effort to include the stepstones (maybe even parts of the disputed territories) as part of the seven kingdoms by protecting the shipping lanes, raising castles and settling families, tempting young bold knights with the promise of their own seat and land, and let Rhaenyra and her line continue to call themselves "Prince/Princess of Dragonstone" the way the Dornish do. if you're not offering something substantial here with an assurance that jace gets dragonstone and luke gets driftmark (and probably a few other matches) than you are half assing this coup and guaranteeing a war that no one can win!!!!!! you dumb bitch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

jace & helaena marriage. i just think this shows a willingness by both sides to give up the fight for real, if they can agree to this.

great council called - DONT crown anyone, just call a great council, make sure there’s planning involved so that most of the lord’s agree to it already and are prepared for it before viserys kicks it so it forces the other side’s hand.

rhaenyra has a daughter first - i simply think that if viserys really does double down on absolute primogeniture, people are going to Have Some Thing To Say and it would force a conversation on how the iron throne succession works beyond “according to how i’m feeling.” this one really has the potential to go belly UP though so u win some u lose here.

technically, if viserys never remarries, it means either everyone has to become okay with Daemon (not happening, he may be popular with some people in KL and Driftmark but it seems in my eyes a lot of the pushback to Rhaenyra is pushback to Daemon) or they simply have to be okay with Jacaerys (even then, if we can change stuff enough so that Criston doesn't murder a teenager at a party, I think Laenor winds up mostly fine and Jacaerys may even be his blood).

i might be missing an obvious one here besides "gc gives the throne to rhaenys and laenor" but i think these are the only way they avoid mass slaughter.

*naomi campbell voice* these people are so fucking stupid.

#alsdfjkladjksdjfksdjf #getting on my soap box #the dance of the dragons #this train is taking forever i want to go home omg

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michellemisfit · 6 months

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Weekly Tag Wednesday

Thank you @deedala for helping us remember the day of the week (and as per tradition that’s immediately ruined by me being late. But at least I know which day of the week I am late for!! lol) and thanks for tagging me @energievie @tsuga-of-mars @gallawitchxx @palepinkgoat @sleepyfacetoughguy @lingy910y @mickeysgaymom @crestfallercanyon

Name: Michelle

Age: 38

Favourite colour: Rainbow

What emoji best describes your current mood? Unfortunately it’s 😑

What season is it where you are right now? Autumn

Were you up before or after the sun this morning? After. Unlike yesterday I actually slept last night, so that’s exciting if you’re me!

Are you currently in possession of a pumpkin? I’m not, and I won’t get to carve this year, as I’m not at home (or near my knives lol) which is very sad, but probably for the best with everything else that’s going on in life

Do you prefer to carve or paint your jack-o-lanterns? Me: Carve, At work with Kids: Paint

Do you have a favorite pumpkin-spice flavored treat? If so, what is it? I’m actually really getting into pumpkin flavoured bakes. Any type of pumpkin tea loaf. Yummy yum yum.

What's your favorite season and what's your favourite pie that you associate with it? Pie is very American so… Chocolate pie? Meaning Thanksgiving? Meaning Fall? I’m bad at this lol Basically all other pies are fucked up about fruit, and that’s evil.

We're having a pot-luck, what are you going to bring? Does pot-luck have to be dinner? Guess I’m bringing dessert! I’m feeling chocolate mousse right now…

It's chilly outside and you need a hot drink in your hands, what are you drinking? Chai Latte or mulled cider.

Will you be wearing a costume for Halloween? Is it ready? I’ve got an under the bed drawer full of costumes and cosplays, so if a Halloween party comes up I can be ready in minutes, always!

Finally, what's something you've made or done recently that you're proud of? I guess some of the Kinktober stuff has been okay. Also I made it through the last three days. They were rough. So yay me? Sure.

I’m late and haven’t been great about catching up on my dash, so forgive me if you have done this already, please feel free to tag me in yours so I can read them :) @mybrainismelted @whatwouldmickeydo @mikhailoisbaby @a-chilleus @greentealycheejelly @lupeloto @look-i-love-u @ms-moonlight-inn @heymrspatel @rereadanon @juliakayyy @francesrose3 @darlingian @deathclassic @depressedstressedlemonzest @too-schoolforcool

#tag game #weekly tag Wednesday #tag game Wednesday #Mys stuff #tag you’re it

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raccoon-eyed-rebel · 11 months

Text

Part 22 - Geralt

Masterlist

Series Masterlist

Part 21 -- Part 23

Summary: The guys throw a New Years Eve party at 179th Crescent Street...

Warnings: Drugs (weed and alcohol), senslry issues.

Word count: 2.1k

A/N: Geralt is up! It's a shorter chapter than the other ones, because he didn't have a lot to say... I'm also happy to announce that all the NYE chapters are finished as of right this g'damn second! So: YAY ME! Enjoy!

Let me know what you think! 🥰

@deandoesthingstome @geralts-yenn @summersong69 @peaches1958 @fvckinghenrycavill @keanureevesisbae @livisss @sillyrabbit81 @ellethespaceunicorn @ylva-syverson @poledancingdinos

I’m barely aware of the things that are happening in the kitchen, going on auto-pilot, until Leon asks where Sherlock is.

“In his room,” Mike replies, “he wouldn’t last five minutes tonight if he had to deal with all of this, too.” He’s not the only one. For starters, it’s not ideal for Mike, either.

“We’ve got it from here,” I say. As far as I’m concerned, he’s done his part in setting up for tonight by getting the internet to work. My words come out harsher than intended. Fuck. I know he’s not mad - he’s Mike. It would take a lot more to upset him, and he knows as well as I do that I’ll be running on reserves, too, before the evening is over.

Unlike Mike, I don’t envy Sherlock. Hiding from the fuss surrounding these preparations wouldn’t do me any good. I’d still hear everything, and I somehow find it easier to ignore a noise I can see the source of. My eyes involuntarily move to the little plastic bag on the table. At least I’ll be able to sleep. Sol follows my gaze, and her eyes go wide when she sees what I’m looking at. We’ve had a few long conversations - at above average volume - about the fact that I occasionally get stoned - or, as she’d rather call it; ‘my drug use’. The last of these arguments happened while she was holding a glass of wine. She didn’t appreciate my pointing out that alcohol is a hard drug. No one ever does. With time, she’s grown used to it, but she isn’t exactly comfortable with how open we are about it here. I still don’t understand the fuss. It’s not like we’re doing anything illegal.

The hand on my back belongs to Sol. I don’t have to look to know that. I don’t even have to think about it. I just know. That knowledge doesn’t stop me from shaking it off nearly immediately. Usually, her touch calms me down, but not tonight - not right now, at least. It’s just another sensation to overwhelm me even further. There just isn’t anything she can do for me right now. When she looks at me, there’s a sliver of sadness in her eyes - a sadness I don’t immediately connect to my instinctive rejection of her touch, and with that, her intentions to comfort me. Until I do connect the dots, and end up feeling worse

“It’s just a bit much,” I say, unsure of who I’m trying to convince I’m alright, her or myself. “I’ll be alright.”

That last part isn’t a lie. No matter how exhausting this can be, it hasn’t killed me yet. At this point, after all this time, I think it’s safe to say that it won’t.

When Sherlock steps into the kitchen with Elena, he looks just about as miserable as I probably do - and he hasn’t spent a second downstairs yet. Thanks to the noise downstairs, I couldn’t be completely sure about why they’re so late, but I can make an educated guess. Sol is still standing next to me. I know she feels bad because she can’t help me, which means it’s time for me to suck it up and at least try to have a good time here until she can help me. I take her hand and pull her along to where August and Sherlock are standing. At least I can reasonably count on them enjoying this nonsense as much - or as little - as I do.

“Should I be glad Elena gets along with Anjelica so well?” Sherlock asks August while side-eyeing the girls and their animated conversation. The benefits of this party being so tremendously noisy is that everything turns to white noise nearly automatically. Normally, it would be a chore to tune out a conversation taking place so close to me, but right now, I don’t have to hear what the girls are talking about at all. Sol joins the conversation without too much effort, and I can see a faint smile on her lips when she sees me with the guys.

“Oh, we don’t get a say in these things.” I manage to very slightly startle August when I come up behind him. It’s never my goal, but always a nice bonus. He’s perceptive, tough to sneak up on, and his reflexes are insane. It’s what makes him a good boxer. A very good boxer. “I’m fairly sure we’re already doomed.”

Sherlock raises an eyebrow, clearly confused by my words. As much as I think we shouldn’t laugh or make fun of him because of it, his lack of experience can be quite endearing. “What do you mean?”

“I heard that they’re planning a girls night.” Gossiping isn’t something I enjoy doing, but I think the poor man deserves to know at least a little of what is about to hit him. August groans so softly I almost miss it. He’s damn right to, honestly. I like to think Sol isn’t the gossiping type, either, but I know better. When in Rome…

I’ve accidentally overheard plenty of these conversations between women. They’re completely exhausting to listen to, and that’s only in part due to the fact that during a twenty-minute conversation, there’s maybe a total of three finished sentences. What continues to surprise me most, however, is the amount of detail these discussions contain. I know very few men who would be as specific. Sure, the jokes around the house can be… somewhat graphic, but they’re absolutely far less informative. Something I’ve always found striking about these conversations is that there doesn’t always seem to be a clear point to them besides purely the exchange of information - no problem to solve, no question to answer, nothing to gain from these talks other than curbing their annoyingly insatiable curiosity. Women. I’m sure I’ll never come to understand them. And I promise it’s not for lack of trying.

“That usually means that all of them are going to be told every minute intimate detail of your relationship, so they can… I don’t know why they do it, just that they do.” August seems to be as lost on the reasons behind this interesting yet insufferable ritual.

“How intimate?” Sherlock asks. As previously mentioned, I believe we shouldn’t make fun of his inexperience, which makes me hell-bent on controlling my face upon hearing the alarm and astonishment in Sherlock’s voice, and all the more glad that August does the smirking for me.

“Yes, that intimate,” I answer, my voice significantly more strained than I had initially planned on, both from my efforts to keep my composure as well as my own mild terror at the thought of having my sex life painstakingly dissected by a group of girls.

“We’re not looking forward to it, either,” August adds.

“Not looking forward to what?” Elena asks as she wraps her arms around Sherlock. I can’t help but smile when I see it. They’re good together.

“Nothing,” the three of us say at the same time. It’s suspicious to say the least, but I doubt we’ll hear much more of it.

Something happens in the living room that we decide to ignore. Things settle down quickly, there’s no need for us to get involved in that. My head is pounding from the noise so badly that I barely notice Sherlock and Elena taking off. Good for them. Part of me wishes I could call it a day as well, but I can’t bear to spend time without Sol yet, and she’s still having a good time catching up with Anjelica. I know we won’t last much past midnight, so I just have to make it until then - a task that might just be made much easier by Ange’s discovery of what Mike has been up to in the living room. Solveig doesn’t even roll her eyes when she says it, either because it’s worse when I get high than when others do it, or because she realizes I could use a little peace and quiet.

The cold and fresh air help tremendously, and although the windows are hardly enough of a barrier to completely block the sounds from inside the house, they drown out enough to make it more manageable. Sol stays close, which I appreciate now that I’m not ambushed by a hundred sensations per second. She’s not cold - she’s used to harsher winters than the ones we get here. It doesn’t stop her nose, hands or feet from freezing. It just doesn’t bother her. Bothers me, though. It’s like sharing a bed with an icicle.

“Did you guys step outside when you saw me leave the living room?” Mike asks. August, Anjelica and I shrug - a clear admission of guilt. We know him a little. If one of us had so much as for a second suspected that our intended leeching would piss him off, we would have stayed inside. But it’s Mike. He grumbles something semi-annoyed while handing a joint to Dani and sits down to get to work on another one.

“Thanks, Mikey.” It’s always Ange. Mikey and Anjelica have something in common I can’t put my finger on, exactly. A certain way of understanding each other that’s very difficult to explain. Something so innately platonic that even August isn’t threatened by it - which is quite rare. She sounds tired, I notice, and she does a very good job of not looking the part. Anjelica thrives around people. Pressure. Pain. Although I completely understand why Sy questions the nature of Ange and August’s relationship, I never did. It makes perfect sense, it always has. In a way, they remind me of me and Solveig, though we have a more flexible dynamic. For a short moment, my thoughts jump to Sherlock. He had the same control issues we do. August and I. Part of me wonders if his preferences will turn out anything like ours, and I briefly wish I could be a fly on the wall during that girls night… I dismiss the thought instantly. Gossip. Despicable habit.

Mike hands me a joint, which I take from him gratefully. If I can just get my thoughts to calm down, the noise may become manageable enough to sleep later. I’m only vaguely aware of the conversation about the unrest in the living room earlier. There seems to be quite a lot of guilt there that Mike can’t seem to shake. It’s understandable, but I feel it isn’t necessary. Danielle seems to understand what he’s like better than anyone I’ve ever met - including us, and we’ve been living with him for a year and a half at this point. I hope they make it.

The six of us barely make it twenty minutes past midnight before we decide to call it quits. Mike makes a break for the stairs, leaving Dani with me and Sol. When we step into the hallway, Mike is already halfway up the stairs.

“Where is he?” It’s tough to be sure from the side, but it looks like Peter, Marshall’s best friend. “Mike, I swear, get the fuck out of my way.”

I can’t say I appreciate the amount of drama I’m getting caught up in tonight. Charles - of all people, ironically - would likely suggest we leave these things to the girls, because they’re better at it than we are. After tonight, I am inclined to believe that both sexist and - as it turns out - a lie. Men are more than capable of causing a scene. Sol is standing next to me, Dani is right in front of me. I can see August, but not Anjelica. I’ll just have to trust that she’s okay. Knowing her, that shouldn’t be too much of a problem. I hear footsteps on the stairs that belong to Marshall - clearly the person Peter is looking for to begin with. Despite the alcohol and weed - maybe even due to them - I’m alert. Tense. This probably isn’t a fight I want to get caught up in. Marshall wouldn’t want any of us to, anyway.

“Peter, leave him alone.” Mike tries to stop Marshall as he walks down the stairs, stubbornly staying exactly where he is. It’s clear he trusts Peter about as far as he can throw him right now. We’ve all met him multiple times, and he’s a good guy, but we’ve never seen him angry. And those hockey guys can fight… “Mike, it’s okay. He’s after me, not looking for trouble. It’s cool, back off.”

#179 crescent street #179cs #henry cavill characters #henrycavill fanfic #henry cavill fanfiction #henry cavill #geralt of rivia x ofc #geralt #geralt of rivia #hc geralt

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werebutch · 4 months

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HAI!!!! HOW WAS YOUR CHRIMMY .. I HOPED IT WAS GOOD!!! :DD I got an axe (that is also a window breaker, knife, and compass and probably more but im fucking stupid), a wolf knife, BASS SKULLCANDY HEADPHONES THAT ARE LITERALLY INSANE, a robot dog LOL, a book about wolves, a mimecraft goat plush, a three days grace shirt, THE WITCHER FOR SWITCH and finally (well I can't remember rn) a vibrator that is a hammer because it made me laugh once and bjørn thought it was too good. HAHAA. and I went to a family Christmas FOR THE FIRST TIME AND IT WAS SO NICE I MET HIS FAMILY AND FELT SOO INCLUDED..T_T I love other rednecks. BAHAHA. <3 look they're in love. (Their son in the center) HOPE YOU HAD A GOOD DAY I LOVE YOU!!!!

Hi bex don’t worry it did send:) YAY!!!!!!! So glad to hear from u ilysm hiiiii wow that sounds so awesome ^__^ THATS SO FUCKING COOL… you got so much cool stuff this year omfg?!?!!seriously.. THATS SO COOL DAWGGG… love the hammer omfg all of these things are so u HAHAH.. HIS as in bjorn or his as in one of ur emo bitches?LMAO THAT SOUNDS SO NICE.. I’m so glad you got to have a good xmas sorry I’m like so happy for u I just don’t even know what to say LOLLLL.. wow that’s a whole family pic so beautiful ♥️♥️ you have to tell me specifically what headphones cuz..omfg.. I want to see how much $…. LOL

My Christmas was pretty nice on Xmas eve we went to my bff’s family’s huuuuge party I had a couple drinks but I did not feel it so that was a little sad cuz I hate alcohol so I drank it for NOTHING!!!!!!BAHAHAH BUT it was fun 😁 they had some really good food.. it was really funny cuz my bff still calls me this random nickname from my animal jam days so I fully had his family members calling me that since that’s all he told them.. so bizarre and funny to hear out loud LOL.

Xmas day my BFFs family got me some stuff but they don’t really know what I like soooHAHA but it’s cute!! I like the bread sponges.. also gave me a couple little things of vodka and rum LOL but yes.. we played a bunch of games and mtg which he’s super into now.. and mostly just chilled out!!! Having a lot of good food lately as well :)

Me and my family had xmas before I left so I will show u my stuff when I get home.. apparently all of it didn’t arrive in time so I will have more when I get back lol^__^

#sorry I’m like really out of it lately I hope im explaining and talking ok im like . I DONT EVEN KNOW? ???????#im so glad you’re doing well ilysmmmmmmmm #asks #canidor

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peterparkers-bad-youtube-apology · 2 years

Text

Undertow

Wipeout - Chapter 3

Pairing: Surfer!Tom Holland x Reader

A/N: Hey guys! Just wanted to remind and ask for reblogs and feedback, they help spread my work and are just fun! I love reading what you guys have to say about my work and if your more comfortable saying things anonymously then my inbox is always open! Anyways love you guys, hope you enjoy xx

Warnings: Fighting, angst, alcohol

Summary: Things don't go well at Adrien's party

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Masterlist

Series Masterlist

❀ ゜.・゜-: ✧ :-　　-: ✧ :-゜・．゜❀

You yawned and rubbed your eyes as you punched out of work, it had been a long and brutal shift. If it weren’t for Adrien’s birthday party you would have gone straight home and passed out. Unfortunately it was too late for you to back out of going. You could already see Tom waiting in the parking lot, sitting in his Jeep with a big smile. He seemed far too energetic for your liking, but of course it was his day off. The only thing he’d done all day was go surfing. Meanwhile you’d worked a totally slammed eight hour shift with only two other waitresses.

“You seem tired,” Tom commented.

“Yeah, Tiff called out, it was a really long shift,” you explained, rubbing your eyes as you fell into his car, “And I forgot to bring a shirt so we need to swing by my place.”

“I’ve got one in the back, you can wear that if you want,” he offered.

You nodded, “Okay.”

“Why don’t you sleep on the way there?” he suggested.

“I think I will,” you yawned as he reached into the back seat, “I wish Adrien was just having his party at your place or something.”

“He wanted to see some of his friends back home,” he shrugged and tossed his shirt to you, “Why are you complaining? You don’t have to drive.”

“I still have to ride in the car,” you huffed as you pulled his shirt over your head.

“I think you’re just a little cranky,” he snickered, “You’ll feel better after you nap.”

“I’m not cranky,” you glared at him while he buckled himself in.

“Just a little bit I think,” he pinched his thumb and index finger together as he started up the car.

You rolled your eyes, “No, I’m not, asshole.”

He laughed and pulled onto the street, placing his hand over one of your thighs. It was a bit awkward to try and sleep in Tom’s car since there were no doors to lean on. You could have sat in the back and laid down across the seats or leaned on one of the half walls, but it would have been even more awkward to sit in the back while Tom was in the front. Instead you shifted around awkwardly before eventually you laid your head on Tom’s shoulder and started to drift off. Tom rubbed your thigh gently while you yawned and closed your eyes, helping to lull you to sleep.

“Do you want me to turn the heat on?” he questioned.

“Shh,” you pressed your finger to your lips, “Sleeping.”

“Alright,” he laughed, “I won’t say another word.”

You spent almost the entire car ride passed out on Tom’s shoulder, only waking up when he pulled onto a long gravel road and the car started to shake. You rubbed your eyes as you were jolted awake, peaking around to take in the sandy dunes around you. The sun was just starting to set, you were sure the view once you reached the water would be absolutely gorgeous.

“I hope you had a good nap love,” Tom grinned at you, “We’re almost there.”

“Yay,” you yawned and stretched your arms over your head, “Do you know if there’s gonna be a bathroom?”

“Probably not.”

You flushed, “Well do you think there will be one on the way?”

He shook his head, “No, but I can pull over.”

“Pull over?” you blushed, “You want me to pee on the side of the road?”

“What do you want me to do, pull a toilet out of my ass?” he laughed.

“Tom,” you whined, “Come on, I can’t pee on the side of the road, it’s gross. Isn’t there anywhere nearby?”

He sighed, “There was a petrol station a ways back, let me find somewhere to turn around.”

“Thank you,” you squeezed his arm.

“No problem love,” he peaked down at the clock on his dashboard, “We are gonna be late though, do you mind texting Haz and letting him know?”

“Yeah, no problem,” you smiled and reached for your phone while Tom whipped the car around.

It took you ten minutes to get back to the bathroom, at which point you lept from the car and went sprinting towards the bathroom. Tom chuckled while he watched you scrambling, he left the car much more calmly and headed in to buy a pack of beer for Adrien. You were smiling ear to ear when you left the bathroom, looking like you’d just won the lottery or something.

“You seem happy,” he chuckled.

“I feel great,” you boasted before you noticed the beer in his hand. You cocked your head in confusion, “Why are you getting beer? Aren’t they gonna have some at the party?"

“It’s for Adrien,” he explained, “I realized I didn’t get him anything for his birthday, so I got him some beer.”

“Just beer?”

“What’s wrong with beer?” he knit his brows, “It’s his favorite brand.”

“I don’t know, he’s your roommate, it seems a little weird to just get him beer,” you shrugged.

“Well obviously you wouldn’t get Grace beer, she hates it, but Adrien loves it,” he grinned as you paced back towards the car.

“Shouldn’t you at least put a bow on it or something?”

“Do you think I just carry bows around with me?”

“No,” you rolled your eyes and glanced back towards the small shop you’d just left, “They had newspapers in there right? We can make one.”

“If you really think it’s necessary go ahead,” he laughed as he climbed back into the car, tossing the beer into the back.

You ran back inside and bought a newspaper so you could attempt to make a bow. Tom continued to tease you while you pulled up a tutorial on your phone. The wind kept blowing the paper up in your face, which made Tom laugh every time. Eventually you managed to get something that resembled a bow and placed it on top of the carton of beer just in time for Tom to pull up to the beach where the bonfire was being held. Tom took the beer with him as he left the car, waving for you to follow after him. You noticed Harrison and Adrien as you approached the fire, but they were the only familiar faces in the crowd.

“There’s the birthday boy,” Tom beamed and grabbed Adrien’s shoulder, “I brought you a little prezzy.”

Adrien laughed as he took the beer from him, “Thanks mate, nice touch with the bow.”

“Oh that was all (y/n),” Tom laughed, “She made it herself.”

“Ah, thanks love, it’s adorable,” he gave you a quick hug.

You blushed and nodded, “Yeah, no problem, happy birthday.”

“Thank you,” he beamed ear to ear, “Do you guys want a couple drinks?”

“Well I’m driving tonight so I’ve got to stay sober,” Tom glanced over at you, “Do you want something Flower?”

You shot him a glare before nodding, “Yeah, is it just beer though?”

Adrien shook his head, “Nah, we’ve got plenty, come on, I’ll show you.”

Adrien pulled you away and you bit down on the inside of your cheek nervously. Even though you were fairly social it felt awkward being surrounded by only strangers, especially since it was Adrien’s birthday, and you two weren’t particularly close. You wished Tom would have come with you to fetch a drink, but he stayed back and started chatting with Harrison.

“You should have come out with us early, the water’s gorgeous up here,” Harrison greeted Tom with a smile.

“Next time,” Tom promised, “How’s the party so far? Anyone caught your eye yet?”

“Nah,” Harrison frowned as Tom’s eyes darted over to a group of girls, “Remember your brought a date yeah?”

“Yeah, obviously,” he grinned back at his friend, “But sometimes (y/n) gets a little huffy when I flirt with someone else, usually ends pretty well for me.”

“Huffy?” Harrison raised a brow, “You mean jealous?”

“What? No, come on, you know it’s not like that,” he rolled his eyes, “It’s just like she gets annoyed and then she gets a little rough,” his lips curled to a smirk, “And I like it when she gets a little rough.”

“Tom that seems kind of douchey,” Harrison frowned, “I don’t think you should do that to her.”

“Oh calm down, I know (y/n) much better than you,” he scoffed, “It’s just a bit of fun Haz.”

Harrison pursed his lips, “Whatever you say, I think it’s a little shitty though.”

“Well then it’s a good thing you’re not the one I’m sleeping with,” Tom grinned as he spotted you walking back towards them, “Welcome back, I hope Adrien got you something yummy.”

“Jungle juice,” you raised the glass towards him, “Delicious.”

“I’m sure,” he hummed, “Well we should probably start making our rounds right love?”

You nodded and let him pull you away into the crowd. Tom had no problem introducing both of you to everyone, which you were grateful for, until it came to Lea. She was a tall, pretty, brunette girl, and she barely even glanced at you when Tom told her your name. Tom shook her hand for a little too long and gave her the flirty look he usually directed at you. You clung to Tom’s side, making it very obvious that he was with someone. Any other night it would have been annoying, but you were already exhausted and not really in the mood to be at a party. The last thing you wanted to deal with was Tom ditching you.

“Do you want another drink darling?” Tom questioned as you finished your third cup of jungle juice.

You’d been downing drinks to try and relax your nerves and make the night more enjoyable. Although you had achieved a bit of a buzz, you still hadn’t reached the happy giggly zone you were shooting for.

“Yeah, I’d take another,” you nodded.

“Great,” Tom took your cup with a smile, “I’ll go get you one.”

Tom slipped away to fetch you another drink, leaving you to stand alone with a small group of Adrien’s friends. It was awkward and you didn’t really know what to do besides laugh and nod along with what everyone was saying.

“You seem like you’re having fun,” Adrien stepped in to fill the gap at your side. He was much more drunk than you’d ever seen him, and from what you could tell he was having the time of his life.

You smiled and nodded, “Everyone is super nice, but I’m more worried about you having a good time birthday boy.”

He beamed, “I’m having a great time, I mean I barely get to see these guys, it’s been so great.”

“I bet, you’re lucky your hometown is so close,” you hummed.

“Yeah, it’s really nice to be able to swing home whenever I need to,” he rubbed the back of his neck, “I’m really glad you came (y/n), I was really excited when Tom said he was bringing you.”

You giggled, “Thank you, that’s really sweet Adrien.”

“I mean I know we don’t talk that much but you’re always fun to be around,” his carmel cheeks dusted a shade darker whole he spoke, “You know there’s stuff for s'mores, if you wanted we could make some.”

“S’mores sound great actually, as soon as Tom gets back with my drink I’ll make one,” you peaked over at the drink table to try and spot Tom. You figured he’d be heading back over to you already.

Tom was now hanging around the drink coolers chatting with Lea. They were very close together, it was easy to see they were flirting, and the sight made your stomach churn.

“Uh Adrien,” you cleared your throat and nodded towards them, “Lea doesn’t have a boyfriend or something right?”

He glanced over at them and shook his head, “Nah, she’s like Tom, not really into relationships or anything. She’s really sweet though.”

“Seems like it,” you pursed your lips.

Adrien kept talking but you were struggling to focus on what he said. You couldn’t drag your eyes away from them. It was one thing for him to flirt when you were at parties in town together, but he’d specifically asked you to come out of town with him, to be his date to the party. It was rude, it was disrespectful, but that wasn’t the only reason it was making you upset.

You couldn’t help feeling just a bit jealous, and a bit of jealousy didn’t mean you were actually into him. It was normal to feel jealous when you were attracted to someone, and even more normal to feel jealous when you were sleeping with that person. It just meant that you were insecure, and you couldn’t help that. What wasn’t normal was for him to glance your way and smirk at you right before he set his hand on her waist. Your eyes were locked on his hand, suddenly your blood was boiling and your stomach was flip flopping.

“I’m so sorry Adrien, could you excuse me for a second?” you squeezed his arm and brushed past him.

Tom’s smirk grew when he saw you approaching them. He stepped back from her to greet you, “Hey Flower, I got that drink for you,” he held a plastic cup out to you with a smile.

He looked so smug, like he’d won some sort of unspoken game between the two of you. You didn’t want to make a scene or blow up at him but something in you just snapped. The alcohol was making you much more bold than you’d normally be, and all you could think about was wiping that smug little smile off his face.

“I want to go home,” you demanded.

“We’ve only been here for an hour, it’d be rude to leave now,” he hummed, “What’s got you all worked up love?”

“You do!” you snapped, making a few people turn towards you. Any other time you would have been mortified but in that moment you didn’t care. A wave of anger had overtaken you and it was too late to stop yourself. “You know what? I don’t care if you leave or not because I don’t want to go anywhere with you anyway! So here!” you pulled his shirt over your head and threw it at his chest, “Take your stupid t-shirt and just leave me alone!”

Tom watched with wide eyes while you stomped back towards the car. For a moment he was unable to move, frozen in shock as he processed what had just happened. As soon as his mind caught up to him he went scrambling after you.

“What the hell was that?!” he snapped.

“Fuck off!” you crossed your arms over your chest as you stormed past the party.

“Will you just stop for a second?!” he grabbed one of your arms, forcing you to turn and face him, “Look it’s cold out here,” he tried to shove the t-shirt back into your arms, “And there’s probably creeps out here too. Just put this back on so we can talk.”

“No, I don’t want to wear your shirt or talk to you or do anything with you, just leave me alone,” you tried to turn and leave again but Tom jumped in front of you.

“Hey, you can be mad about whatever your mad about but I’m not gonna let you go storming off in the middle of the night, it’s not safe,” he rubbed your arms gently, trying his best to calm you down, “If you want to go home then I’ll take you home okay? Let’s just go get in the Jeep.”

You shook your head and pushed him away from you, “I’m done Tom, I don’t want to talk to you or see you or sleep with you or do anything else with you. I just want you to leave me alone.”

His eyes widened in shock, “T-Then I can just take you home, we don’t have to talk. I mean you can’t walk all the way back, and you won’t get an Uber to come all the way out here,” he pursed his lips, “Please just come with me, it’s okay if you’re upset, I just want to make sure you get home safe.”

“Don’t patronize me by pretending you care about what happens to me!” you snapped again as another wave of anger hit you.

“What are you talking about? Of course I care about you!” he snapped back.

“No you don’t! You just care about having sex with me which isn’t gonna happen ever again so you can just drop it,” you glared at him, “I am so sick of it Tom! You dragged me all the way out here and then spent the whole night hitting on other girls! I’m sick of watching you hit on people!” your cheeks were flushed and you could feel yourself starting to get choked up. If you didn’t calm down you were going to cry, and you desperately didn’t want to start crying, but you were too worked up. You had no idea how to bring yourself back down, “I-I’m just sick of you.”

You were both quiet, you tried to leave for a third time but once again Tom stopped you.

“(y/n),” his mouth hung open for a second, he was still trying to process what you’d said, “I-I do care about you okay? And I’m not gonna let you go run off by yourself in the middle of the night. So either I’m gonna take you home or I’m gonna go grab my car and follow you the whole way back,” he blushed as he spoke, “I won’t talk if you don’t want me too, we’ll just drive home.”

You didn’t want to spend an hour in the car with him, but you knew you didn’t have many other options. Some small part of your brain was still thinking rationally and knew that he was right. You sucked in a deep breath and nodded, “Fine, just don’t talk to me.”

“Okay,” he nodded in agreement and took you back to his Jeep.

You climbed into the passenger seat, crossed both your arms and legs, and looked away from him. Tom had his eyes on you while he started the car, he wanted to say something, but he didn’t want to upset you any further so he stayed quiet for a while. You two had always gotten along, and Tom had never seen you that upset about anything before. He had no idea what to say or do, but he hated the idea of you thinking he didn’t care about you. He couldn’t stop his eyes from wandering to you while he drove, trying to figure out how he should approach the situation.

“Do you want me to turn on the heat?” he spoke up about halfway through the drive when he noticed you’d started to shiver, “O-Or you could use my shirt again.”

He pushed his shirt across the middle seat towards you, but you didn’t even glance his way. You were more focused on your own racing mind, and your embarrassment over how things unfolded at the party. It wasn’t like you to make a scene, and it definitely wasn’t like you to make a scene at someone else's birthday party. Plus now Tom was going to think you were into him, which you decidedly weren’t.

Sure he was being nice now, but you knew he wouldn’t want to hang out anymore if he thought your feelings had grown to something more. Not to mention you’d quite loudly called things off, even though you weren’t sure if that was what you really wanted. All you really wanted was to be alone because you didn’t feel like you could think clearly with Tom right beside you.

He finally caught your attention when you felt a gust of hot air blowing on your arm. Admittedly it felt nice, but you were still glaring when you turned towards him.

“Sorry, I just didn’t want you to be cold,” he blushed, “Is it too hot?”

Again you ignored him and turned your eyes to the road. The mixture of alcohol and tiredness had made you much more emotional than you wanted to be. Anger, embarrassment, and a flurry of your own insecurities were swirling inside you. You were sure you would have started sobbing if he wasn’t there.

Part of you wanted to yell at Tom again and part of you wanted him to hold you, it was confusing and frustrating. You wondered why he would choose someone else when he’d invited you out specifically, when he’d made plans to spend the whole night with you. Had he just found her so attractive he couldn’t resist? Or was he only into you when he couldn’t find someone else?

“Flower?” he spoke up again after another long bout of silence.

The sound of his voice made you want to rip out your hair. You were minutes from your home, but apparently he just had to get something else out there.

Tom cleared his throat, deciding he’d continue even though you had been silent the entire drive, “I’m really sorry about tonight.”

You felt your bottom lip start to quiver and a few tears managed to escape and roll down your cheeks. You turned away so he wouldn’t see and finally muttered out a reply.

“You really suck at being quiet.”

He cracked a tiny smile at the comment, “I’m sorry about that too, I just don’t like seeing you upset.”

He was hopeful that you might be starting to feel better and you two would be able to talk things out.

You let out a bitter airy laugh at the comment, “You are such a dick.”

“Yeah, but you’re my friend, I try not to be a dick to you,” his tongue darted over his lips as he pulled onto your street, “Did you still want me to spend the night? I know you get freaked out being by yourself...”

“Yeah well I’d rather get murdered in my sleep then be anywhere near you right now,” you bit back.

“Ah come on, you don’t mean that,” he peaked over at you, tempted to reach out and touch you, though he was sure you wouldn’t react well if he did.

“I still don’t want to be anywhere near you.”

“How about I walk you inside?” he pulled into your driveway and killed the engine, “Maybe we could try and talk a bit. I don’t mind just listening, and you’d probably feel better if you got everything off your chest.”

“No, just leave me alone,” you groaned as you unbuckled yourself, “Please.”

He blushed and nodded, watching as you climbed out of the car and stomped towards your door, “Right, I’ll just talk to you later then…”

Tom got no response other than you slamming your front door. He sat there in your driveway, struggling to collect his thoughts. His heart was pounding against his chest and more than anything he wanted to run to your door and continue pushing you to talk. It was hard for him to give people space, he liked solving problems as soon as they came up. He hated to see anyone he cared about upset or hurting, but it was especially bad when it was you, and it was his fault. After a few minutes of trying to figure out what to do he decided he’d try his best to give you space. It wasn’t easy for him but he knew it would be better to let you talk when you were ready, he just prayed you’d be ready soon.

next chapter

❀ ゜.・゜-: ✧ :-　　-: ✧ :-゜・．゜❀

Taglist:

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uminohotaru · 1 year

Text

Journey to the Land of the Gods

Banana Fish spoilers warning!

I'm late to the party but yeah, I just finished Banana Fish if you know what I mean. And maybe my heart would rather switch to smth else now and heal but my brain won't stop thinking about that story. So I feel the need to rant into the void, at least. I have no idea whether there are Banana Fish fans among my subscribers but if you haven’t seen it, I really REALLY recommend you watch this masterpiece, and that you better scroll this post without glancing under the cut since I'm going to analyze the end. Or rather, why could that story have had no other ending.

And it all has probably been said and discussed a thousand times but hey, I’ve told ya I’m late to the party, and I haven’t read any thorough analyses except those in the youtube comments below random videos, so now I need my own chance to rant.

During my short journey through the BF content (finally I can google it all I want without being afraid of the spoilers yay!) I came across different opinions on the ending. Mostly pain, of course, but then it’s either acceptance or denial. My first reaction was violent denial. But funny thing, as much as I wanted to immediately forget the Garden of Light and drown myself in fix-it AUs (the latter, I still do read), I realized quite soon that I can’t. That no matter how painful it is, the original ending is the thing that MAKES SENSE. No, Ash dying like that wasn’t something that had been decided on for the sake of shock, as some of the most bitter opinions I came across accused. Neither it devaluates the whole struggle and his final decision to leave to Japan with Eiji and have a normal life. No, there was something a lot deeper there, I realized once I’d cried my eyes out. As heartbroken as I was, I just couldn’t bring myself to hate it and reject it, and I tend to do that with the endings I do not like, as it happened with some other stories that I rejected with my whole heart and even devoted a good amount of my time to write the fix-its for. But strangely enough, it was not the case with Banana Fish. Its finale just makes sense. In fact, it makes so much sense that I’d go as far as to say that this whole story is the story of a journey to death which stemmed from the image of the leopard’s inscrutable journey to the summit of Kilimanjaro, the House of Gods. I can almost see the author being captivated with that image, and as someone who’s been writing from the young age I know that often (not always but still) you start the story from its finale. You take some resulting picture that for some reason appeared in your head and mesmerised you, and begin to unravel it, like an investigator: what could have happened? who are those people? why did they end up like this? Of course, it is only my assumptions but if I allow myself to guess, I’ll say the entire character of Ash, him being the wild cat, has originated exactly from that short excerpt of Hemingway.

Kilimanjaro is a snow-covered mountain 19,710 feet high, and is said to be the highest mountain in Africa. Its western summit is called the Masai "Ngaje Ngai," the House of God. Close to the western summit there is the dried and frozen carcass of a leopard. No one has explained what the leopard was seeking at that altitude.

The concept is here. It was never a question whether Ash dies, it was the question of how and why he dies. Just like the riddle he’s been pondering on—what was the leopard doing near the summit? What did it seek there? Was it climbing or trying to descend? And that in either case, it must have realized it won’t return. The direct parallel to that leopard, in the end Ash finds the answers to all those questions for himself, on his own journey to the Land of the Gods.

The Japanese characters for the name Izumo literally mean “out of the clouds,” evoking images of a place where the seen and the unseen worlds blur together.

Long before there was a Kyoto or Nara, this region was the center of what was known as Shinkoku, the Country of the Gods.

This is no coincidence. Japan in Banana Fish, and for Ash especially, is the image of the world untouched by the evil where you don’t need a gun, rather than a real country with the same amount of evil and dirt as any other. The fact that Eiji describes it as the country where there are 80 thousand gods, and that he is from Izumo, the Land of the Gods, of all places, makes the spiritual connotation all the more evident. The white peak of Kilimanjaro soaring over the wild jungle, an impossible image of two different worlds in one--there could not have been a better symbolism. Ash, the character who in one of the early episodes says, “I’ve never repented, not even once”, cannot even imagine himself in such a world, just like the sinner can’t seriously think about paradise, or a leopard about climbing a snow-clad peak, so of course his immediate reaction is “Are you nuts? me in Japan? what I’d be even doing there?” But the invitation is there. And deep inside, he realizes that yes, he wants that. To be with Eiji, the angel, in his Land of the Gods. Yet his hands are stained with blood. He's been ruined and tainted in most horrible ways. Is it even possible? But what Eiji sees is his beautiful, fragile, wounded soul, and he says—yes, of course you can, and I will take you there, let’s begin with learning the language. This is when it starts—Ash’s journey from the jungle and toward the summit, toward the Land of the Gods. Or well, that’s when it becomes more or less a conscious decision. And maybe that is also when he realizes it will probably cost him his life.

He tries to stop and turn back, more than once. Tries to convince himself that he will never belong there, that his fate is to be just another scum on these streets, in the world he has learned how to survive in, his jungle. Just as, more than once, he understands that no, he would rather die on his way to that summit, having decided to take this journey—but die with love, rather than remain in the jungle, even as the king, but empty inside. He has seen the white summit of Kilimanjaro above the wild forest, and that’s it—he can’t tear his eyes off it.

He learns to repent. He learns to pray. And he even takes the ultimate step—asking God to take him in place of Eiji. Just like Aslan from Narnia, a representation of Christ, he learns such a deep love that he willingly choses to sacrifice himself for another; and it’s not to say he couldn’t sacrifice himself for his friends earlier—he could, risking his life constantly to save others, not exactly cherishing it too much to begin with. But his bargain, for the lack of a better word, with God in ep.23 was something different. It was a conscious offering, a prayer to the God whom he wouldn’t even consider asking for anything earlier, the scarred soul that he is—take me instead of him. Not in the mess of the fight, say, covering Eiji with his body from a bullet, but through a prayer, in the quiet hours on his knees before that window basked in the rays of light. The difference between an act and a prayer in that sense is the difference between one moment and eternity. I'm offering myself in his place, give him the divine protection, change his fate, please God--I'm willing to pay the price. It is different.

Eiji who had a 50% chance of surviving, I believe, survived exactly because of that, at least we can say that it was implied. Ash’s spiritual journey, from being the one who “never once repented”, through finding the spirit to hope and to say I want that, please take me to the Land of the Gods, and to finally offering himself in place of the one he loves—that journey is simply amazing.

That's why his life could not be taken simply in the mess of the fight. Narratively it would have diminished that huge journey. So he defeats the strongest enemies and survives. Like Cain says, Ash will only die if he brings it on himself. The leopard dies near the summit, but you are not a leopard, you can choose—says Eiji. And we truly can say that Ash chooses to die—from a non-lethal wound (which is more clear in the manga.) Even then, God leaves him the chance to reconsider, to return to the jungle and lick his wounds. In a way, he is safe while he stays in the jungle. But once he tries to reach Eiji, to reach the Land of the Gods, after that prayer, it is no longer so as if fate says, you've exchanged your life for his, that's it. So Ash chooses to pay and to die, and he dies on his own terms to an extent—in the peace of that library, the only place in the “jungle” that has always been his refuge, a part of another world, and he dies smiling—which implies it is not the Grim Reaper who comes for him unlike back then in the hospital, bringing dead calmness devoid of any pain as well as of joy. No, what Ash sees in that moment is some beautiful and happy scenery, so we can say that yes, he sees the Land of the Gods, his paradise where their souls are together, the exact scene from the ED2. He dies, but he ends up reaching it.

So why does Ash, not the logic of the narrative, choose death? For one, this is his part of the bargain with God: and when he is attacked exactly at the moment when he finally runs to reunite with Eiji, he realizes that. Eiji has been able to live on because Ash offered himself instead. And he should have died exactly because he covered Ash with his body, exactly because there is a price for him staying in the jungle, as well as for Ash breaking from the jungle, and from the beginning, Eiji took multiple risks and he took that last bullet meant for Ash, too, because basically his very residence in Ash’s world was the act of his love and desire to save Ash. So of course, he does. But Eiji does more than just saving his life, he saves his soul—since in the end he provides the chance for Ash to say nope, I will not have that, I will ask God to save you and take me instead. Just like Aslan the lion's sacrifice that results in his rebirth. The pinnacle of his spiritual journey, his ticket to the plane going to the Land of the Gods. No, we couldn’t have had Japan as the real 3D country in this story. We simply couldn't.

...One of the distinguishing features of Izumo Taisha Grand Shrine: the shimenawa, or immense straw rope hanging from side to side in the front. The Kaguraden building shimenawa is the largest of its kind in Japan, measuring eight meters in diameter at its largest hanging parts.

It is a reflection of the main god enshrined here, Okuninushi-no-Okami, the god of human relationships. The Japanese word for this is enmusubi, which we can translate literally as “bound fate.”

#banana fish #ash x eiji #umi rants #what have i dragged myself into #banana fish theory #banana fish analysis #aslan callenreese #ash lynx #eiji okumura

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hargrove-mayfields · 2 years

Text

It’s finally day one of @harringroveweek! Yay!

The prompt I went with for the 24th was: [Holiday] In the Summer! Here goes!

It’s late June again. School’s out, Max is turning 15. Three days away from the one year anniversary of when shit started going wrong.

Ideally, Billy wants to spend it moping; Honestly that’s how he spends most of his time anymore.

Since getting out of the hospital, since moving into a trailer with the Mayfields, since- well, everything- he just doesn’t have the motivation for much. Or the ability. Though that’s harder to admit.

So even though it’s the little shits birthday, and he spent the morning helping Susan tape balloons to the TV set and shit since he couldn’t sleep anyways, he didn’t expect the day to go much different than any other.

He’d tell the little brat happy birthday and be on his way with lying around and hating himself. Fun.

And then he found a spare party invitation on the calendar, that he’d either not noticed all month, or had just been out there this morning.

Tearing it off of the tack, he drops it on the dining table in front of Max, making the rickety old thing wobble slightly, “All of your nerds are coming here? Today?”

Matching his annoyed tone, Max looks up at him like he’s an idiot, that judgemental glare he’s so used to by now settled in her expression, “Uh, yes. It’s my birthday, asshole.”

Okay, he probably deserved that.

Still, he scoffs at her attitude and pulls the chair out next to her, “Aren’t most of those losers like, loaded? Can’t they host you or some shit?”

“No! Billy, it’s the first holiday of our summer break and I want to spend it at our new place.” Max says it like it’s a matter of fact that can’t be argued with, but Billy has to interrupt, “But your birthday ain’t a real holiday, Maxine.”

He can practically hear her eyes roll, having obviously struck a nerve as she crosses her arms and over explains in retaliation, “Shut up. I know that. But after what happened, it’ll be nice to celebrate something that doesn’t involve fireworks and crazy family members and nasty picnic food for a change.”

“Whatever.” He lets her have that. In the grand scheme of things, he doesn’t give a shit about any of this either way.

But then she makes this weirdly smug face instead, acting like she’s about to get him back or something with a simple comment, “Steve Harrington will be here.”

Best he can give is a half-hearted shrug, “So?”

She shifts to face him in her chair, obviously frustrated with his lack of cooperation with whatever idiotic plan she cooked up in her mind, “C’mon, I thought you liked Steve.”

Billy pretends he doesn’t feel his face heat up at that remark, or at least the personal context behind it, maybe being a little too defensive in his comeback, “Can I tolerate him more than the rest of the dipshits you hang out with? Sure. Do I particularly like him? Absolutely not.”

“You’re so picky. At least he talks to you. When was the last time you heard from any of your own friends?” It’s in her tone that he knows she doesn’t really get what she’s talking about, or understand why he’s been so distant. That his best friend didn't make it out like he did and now he’s all alone. So again, he just lets it go.

Saves this particular argument for later and tries changing the subject in a way, “Look. I just still don’t forgive him for lying. Or totaling my car.”

She doesn’t appreciate having her sarcasm dished back in her bratty face though, and she makes it known by shaking her head, a frizzy mess of slept-on hair he’s probably going to begrudgingly help Susan detangle later shaking at him too, and declares, “I’m not even going to acknowledge what you just said.”

“It’s true.”

“Yeah, whatever.” There’s this break in the conversation, and Billy thinks he’s done being annoyed, out of the woods for a few moments of peace, until Max starts up again. At least this time, there’s a bit of honesty in her voice, “You know, maybe you’re just comfortable like this, pushing everyone away. But I had to learn how to accept that sometimes, not everyone is out to get you, and I think you should too.”

But it’s uninvited honesty all the same, and it makes Billy feel strange, some barely fifteen year old girl preaching at him like that. There’s some sort of equally genuine answer dancing at the back of his thoughts, but he shuts it- and Max -down, “Since when were you my therapist?”

“Doesn’t matter, because I mean it.” Her posture straightens, knowing she’s won for now, “If you don’t come outside during my party, I will personally see to it that you are dragged along to every single gathering we have from now on. Every. Single. One.”

“Fine. I’ll participate. But only because I don’t want to be subjected to your dorky bullshit for the rest of my miserable life. I didn’t survive what I did just for that.”

“Aw, but now you’re going to miss Mews 2’s gotcha day party at Dustin’s next week.”

“Thank god for that. I might’ve just-“ Nowadays there's a tube that’s doing most of his breathing for him, since the massive hole in his chest still hasn’t quite fixed itself. He takes the opportunity to pinch it between two fingers, pretend to twist it, make a statement here that doesn’t need more explaining.

Because quite frankly, he would rather suffocate than go to a birthday for a cat with a handful of freshmen as his company. He misses being invited to parties that mattered.

Max doesn’t budge, if anything getting more stern, “No jokes like that on my birthday.”

“When did you become such a bitch?”

“Since I started spending more time with you.” As much as that stings in some backwards way, Billy cracks a smile. She probably had learned that from him, and they both know it. He almost feels proud even if she still won’t shut up, “But, because I’m actually trying to enjoy my hurtling advancement towards death, when my friends get here, do me a favor and don’t bother us with your dumb ‘jokes’.”

“What is it? I have to be outside, or I’m not even allowed to talk to you?”

“Both. Because I want you to sit with Steve.”

All this talk about someone he definitely used to have a flaming crush on isn’t good for Billy’s heart this early in the morning. Well, maybe it’s not that bad and it’s just his ego that’s in danger, but he complains about it all the same, “Why are we talking about Harrington again?”

“Well you know Dustin is going to bring him along, and then Steve’s going to be weird and he’s not going to want to do any birthday stuff with us because he’s older but he’s not going to want to be awkward so he’s gonna do it anyways, but he’ll just end up confused and annoyed and he’ll start whining about it and picking on us and-“ Max rambles on and on, so Billy decides to cut her off before she’s the one running out of air, “Alright. I’ll babysit the babysitter. Jesus.”

“Thank you, Billy.” Max wears the brightest shit eating grin, displaying all that righteousness right back in his face, “Just for that, I’ll re-invite you to Mews’ Party.”

Totally out of comebacks that aren’t way too harsh for her sensibilities, he can’t help but take her spot as the eye-rolling bitch then, “Gee, thanks.”

And then she’s off like a bat out of hell into the rest of her day, leaving him in this confused whirlwind of way too much happening all around him. In his state, it’s a lot of work just watching her skit around the tiny trailer like it isn’t a prison, and maybe it isn’t for her, not with how excited she is anyway.

So Susan and Max pretty much have the party handled from there. The most Billy ends up really doing is zip-tying a banner to the dogs kennel and stacking up some drink cups. It felt pretty shitty knowing that he’s not even strong enough to carry a card table from a few feet from the shed to the yard. Lucky for him, it’s easy enough, with all the other dramatics he tends to pull in a day, to play it off as pure disinterest.

Around when it starts getting hot out the rest of the shitbirds start showing up by the car-full, so it’s time for Billy to double down on his aura of definitely not wanting to be fucked with. He sits by the corner of the porch, the furthest spot from the hotspot of attention that is that new rat-dog and the only place in their new yard with any damn shade, and hides his face in a solo cup full of lemonade that definitely hasn’t been spiked with a little bit of Susan’s sherry, no sir.

The brooding older brother that nobody likes is not a hard part for him to play. They keep their distance and he keeps his easy peace. He might actually be enjoying this little summer party they’ve put together, if not just because it gets him out of that tiny fucking trailer for a few hours and out in the open air.

Until his little bubble of solitude bursts, Max’s wish for him has come true.

Barely an hour into the thing, Steve Harrington saunters over, just as awkwardly as the birthday brat described. His hands are stuffed in his pockets and his posture is way over-practiced. Looks like they may have both been forced to socialize. Billy wonders vaguely if he’d been blackmailed too before Steve breaks the silence with a stiff, “Hey.”

A non-committal gruff is Billy's only initial response. He’d like to maybe say more, but he doesn’t trust himself yet. He likes keeping to himself more anyways.

“You look pretty unenthused with all this.” Steve prompts, stupidly observant and painfully tense. Almost charming, somehow. Chalk it up to old feelings.

“Yeah, well, excuse me if I’m not thrilled about being stuck out in this humidity, playing babysitter for a group of kids that don’t even like me, with nobody else to talk to but my stepmom and some- random high school wash up.” Billy doesn’t know why he let all that come pouring out. Was it not a few seconds ago he decided he wasn’t going to do this?

He’ll blame it on a head injury or something.

“That’s how all the holiday parties go with these kids. You get used to it.” Steve shrugs, carrying on the same dry conversation until realization of Billy’s harshness and the implications of it hits him, “Wait, what-“

He doesn’t acknowledge it, maybe out of guilt for snapping and not totally just to save his ass, though that’s only for himself to know and think about, “Since when do unpopular dorks’ fifteenth birthday parties qualify as an official summer holiday? That’s the second time I heard that today.”

“I guess it’s just a matter of wanting to celebrate for once. You have to admit last summer sucked pretty bad for these kids. What’s the big deal if they want to act like birthday parties are the biggest event of the year?”

That description is so sweet, it almost doesn’t fill Billy with bitterness. Almost.

He mentions, either fishing for sympathy or for something to fight about, fine with whichever Harrington is willing to give him, “I didn’t even get a card.”

“When was your birthday?”

“Does it matter?”

“Uh, obviously it does. I asked for a reason.” Wisdom to curiosity to offense. This boy is truly giving Billy a run for his money in the confusing motives and twisting others’ words competition. A man after his own heart.

“Since when did you care what happened to me?” Billy demands a little harsher than he means to, and Steve must get that because, “I think we’re getting a little deeper than birthday cards here..”

Which, yeah, he’s absolutely right about that, but he doesn’t need the context. For Billy’s sake mostly, because it’s trauma Harrington wouldn’t understand combined with that dreamy crush on him that apparently just keeps coming back that’s making him so defensive over every word that the other could come up with.

And even if he’s more clever than he seems, and genuinely interested in what Billy’s talking about, and definitely still just as pretty as he was in high school, Billy figures, it’s better to scare him off now. Save himself the torment.

He can’t have what he wants, so he’ll just be a bitch about it or something. Maybe that is where Max learned her tricks.

So, even though Steve is right, Billy refutes it, in the most bitchy, inconsiderate way possible, which is to say he’s overcompensating for his dumb school boy crush, “We’re not, actually. You’re just being nosy. Because of course King Steve’s got to keep stroking his ego. As if showing up here wasn’t enough.”

Looking genuinely exasperated, a good sign for the sanctity of Billy’s secret, Steve asks, “What are you even on about anymore, Hargrove?”

“I know you’re somewhat of a dunce, but isn’t it obvious? I mean, if you wanted dirt on me, you could’ve just asked Max. She doesn’t exactly give a damn about me, so you didn’t even have to show up here, but you did anyway.” Yeah, that’s definitely a projection issue there. Better to let him think he’s become neurotic than to give off that he’s a queer.

At least Steve has the backbone to argue with him, “Uh, newsflash Hargrove. Not everything’s about you. I’m literally just here because Dustin needed a ride.”

“Oh, then pardon me for thinking I might be permitted to intrude upon your presence then, King Steve. It’s only my fuckin’ trailer.”

A beat. A look of revelation passing over the frustration in Steve’s features and leaving behind something softer. A tone that is way too gentle for the asshole Billy is intentionally being follows too, “Is this about that bullshit rivalry between us?”

“What else? You think I’m jealous of that never ending trail of mascara tears you bring everywhere with you? Ain’t got much to brag about there, King.” Billy’s spiraled too far into this to back out. Self-loathing over his own feelings pushed outward into insults. It makes him feel like shit. But he tells himself it’s fine just as long as he plays the part well.

He’s relieved when Steve braces through the compassion he let into his tone before and retaliates with some actual fire behind his words instead, “Except status. Is everything a competition with you?”

“Hell yeah, one that even with this damn tank weighing me down I could beat you at.” Not true. But he’d be willing to try. As long as it gets a rise out of Harrington.

Unfortunately for him, he’s once again overestimated the mean-spiritedness of everyone but himself.

Steve tilts his head just so, looking even more stupidly cute than usual, as if he’s more confused now than offended. Not what he was hoping for, “I don’t get it. I never cared about the comparisons people made about us. I thought they were crazy for wanting me to fight you for the crown and all that. I was over it before you even showed up.”

It’s getting harder to act like he’s unbothered by it all, and Steve isn’t helping. As easy as it is to pretend he’s raging and cold all the time, he lets just the slightest bit of vulnerability into his next response. An accusatory call for help of sorts, “So now you think you’re above me?”

“What? No? I’m just sayin’, Hargrove. Maybe this isn’t just about the past anymore. Because honestly, I used to like you Billy.”

What can Billy even begin to say in response to that? Something stupid, probably. But hearing those words from the one person he always wanted a second chance with, that sucks. There’s about a thousand ways he could spin this to mean something different. Something he wants to hear.

Instead, he stares at the ground in silence, though Harrington is unfortunately undeterred, and keeps talking, making everything worse.

“I mean, yeah you were kind of a dick, but you just had this way about you. Charming I guess.” He trails off with this admirable, nostalgic sort of tone that Billy can feel in his core. Every day is a memory for him, a series of fuck ups that all lead to this conversation with Steve Harrington at a backyard birthday party. Is he willing to delude himself for even this one little moment, to think that Steve might be the same? “Honestly if it wasn’t for the concussions you dealt me like, a week after we met, I think we could’ve been friends.”

“You deserved it.” The quiver in his voice must not be very convincing, because Steve just shrugs it off, and repeats, “Like I said, I’m over it, anyway. I just think that maybe we should stop living in the past all the time.”

It’s true, he shouldn’t. And he shouldn’t keep arguing either. But as long as he has a bond with Harrington, even if it’s through bitterness and hatred and other things he doesn’t want to think about, that’s a hell of a lot better than being honest and scaring him off, leaving himself with nothing to connect him to Steve at all.

“I’m almost touched, Harrington. But you wanna know something? This? It isn’t me.” It’s become a thing for Billy to just spew whatever crosses his mind apparently, because he rambles, on and on about things he’s never said to anyone before, “Being hooked up to tubes and shit, living in some run down trailer park with my step-family that don’t even like me because everyone else I’ve ever known skipped out on me. All my friends are dead or terrified of the rumors around my name and won’t come near me. The past is where I am. The real me. And that’s where I want to be.”

“For what it’s worth, Billy, nobody actually thinks of you like that.” Somehow it feels even shittier to hear Steve stand up for him. Again he’s at a loss for words, fighting a thousand battles of deceit and egotism and betrayal in his mind. And again, Steve continues.

“I mean, you might look at yourself as broken or something, but to us, that’s all bullshit. You’re a goddamn hero. And I’m serious about that.” The more Steve speaks, the more Billy feels guilty and just generally bad. This whole situation is stupid. He should’ve just ignored Harrington, or at least tried regular small talk instead of- whatever you could even call this.

Monologuing back and forth and making each other feel like shit. Maybe that’s just the way they were meant to interact. Speaking of, Steve still doesn’t stop, though Billy doesn’t know if his heart can take it. Literally.

“So even though you’re hurting and you have every right to be, holding onto something that isn’t there anymore, only holds you back from achieving something better.”

Billy glares at Steve for that, if not just to hide the fact his eyes feel a little misty, and accuses, sounding totally pathetic and mean, “Where’d you read that? Actually, I don’t even think that’s something you could comprehend..”

“A friend of mine said it to me when I was pussyfooting over whether or not I should visit you in the hospital, actually.”

“You never visited me.” Did Billy mean to sound that disappointed out loud?

“Not when you were awake.” Steve sighs as he retells it, his turn to be uneasy with oversharing in an attempt to compensate for some personal failure, “But at first, before you woke up and when your dad was... Well Max needed a lot of support and I thought I’d try my hand at it, but I couldn’t get over everything you did, at least not at first.”

Billy narrows his eyes in disbelief, mostly wondering why nobody never told him about this. Steve takes the doubtful expression as an invitation to explain himself. Again.

“I just thought, ‘why would I go visit someone who seemed to only ever want to hurt me?’ But my friend said I should think about letting go of that stuff and I did, and I might not be good at showing it but, something I learned is that, I still kind of like you, Billy Hargrove.”

Billy waits until he’s sure Steve is done to ask, “You know something, Harrington?”

“Huh?” There's a light in his eyes, a sort of hope with Billy’s engagement that wasn’t there before. Like he’s expecting to have made things right with his speeches that totally aren’t making Billy subtly tear up.

It would be a shame to crush that hope, but-

“I hate everything you just said. I’m tired of being talked down to. I’m tired of hearing other people tell me they know what happened to me, and frankly I’m more than fucking tired of acting like everything’s okay and normal just because these kids want their summer break to be full of celebrations. Fuck that, and fuck you.”

A deep breath is in order. It’s shaky and makes Billy sound unsure of everything he just said. And to be fair, he is. Venting his problems to Steve Harrington is a questionable choice at best. Why can’t he just fucking shut up?

At least he can do damage control. He looks at Steve instead of the vague space of the ground in front of him that he was ranting at before, telling him firmly, “But, you’re still right.”

“I am?” A tiny smile grows on his face.

Billy, as he has proven to himself today, has to accommodate for the butterflies in his chest that goofy little smile on that pretty face gives him, so he deflects. Tries to remind Steve of the asshole he’s talking to who doesn’t deserve happiness and fluttery feelings.

“More right than I’ve ever heard you be. Except maybe when you decided to mow me down in that car. Don’t think these brats ever would’ve forgiven me if I smashed a car full of ‘em.”

Steve, to his credit, only scrunches up his face in distaste at the comment, “You’re not gonna change my mind like that, you know. You want to scare me off by being cold and mean, but it’s not going to work.”

“Why?”

“Are you really gonna make me say it again?”

In the place of another obnoxious speech, Billy just shakes his head no. That’s enough, now that the tension between them seems to be mostly gone. He didn’t think he would, but he prefers it that way anyways. Not like they were getting anywhere, with all the arguing about everything before.

It’s a peaceful silence then, that settles in their tiny corner of the yard. They have the best seats to watch the brats doing their stupid and mildly amusing party shit. Not that Billy’s paying them any attention.

There’s something Steve said that he can’t get out of his head. That whole thing about liking him. It’s definitely just a meaningless coincidence that Billy happens to really like Steve back, in the kind of way that would forever ruin all future festivities at their place if word were to get out.

Becoming Max’s freaky fag of an older brother instead of the mildly-weird recluse brother would definitely ruin some recently established community connections.

Still, he’s got to shoot his shot while he’s got the chance. They’re basically alone and they’re on decent terms now, so, considering their history, now’s as good a time as any.

“Hey, Harrington?” Billy bites at the corner of his nail, waiting for Steve’s acknowledgment. It’s only when those gentle eyes lock on his, shining with curiosity, that he wills himself to continue, to make a sort of confession, that could definitely also be explained as platonic if shit hit the fan, that he blurts out-

“I like you too.”

And that’s it.

They don’t talk about it again, after all the bitching Billy did they’re honestly out of things to say, but a little while later, when he’s sure nobody’s looking, Steve one-ups Billy in this cautious game. He puts his hand on his, under the rickety plastic garden table Sue had brought over for him to put a piece of cake on, so nobody could see even if they wanted to. An awkward gesture accompanied with a pearly smile on a blushing face.

A silent way to say that he got the real meaning behind Billy’s declaration of like.

That’s not something they talk about either, but it’s nice, holding hands like that for the rest of the time they’re expected to be chaperones, as if this tiny party of tinier nerds is going to get out of hand. It’s a start anyways.

On its own, the shitbirds birthday party doesn’t make June 21st a real holiday, but being the anniversary of the day Billy told the truth for the first time in his goddamn life, and got a new boyfriend out of it, it might make the date celebration worthy in Billy’s book.

#HarringroveWeek #season four didnt happen here #set after season three #billy & max #billy x steve #harringrove #hopefully this wonderful event will get me back into posting regularly #but i do have something planned & written for every day if all goes well #thank you to the organizer(s) for doing this!#also every prompt is a loose interpretation #my writing #story by ej #ej writer

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cadybear420 · 5 months

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My Proper Tierlist Ranking of Choices Books (as of late November 2023).

I'm kinda tired of using the tiermaker templates because they're not always up to date lol. So instead I'm just doing it as a basic ass text post. Keep in mind that all of these placements are subject to change.

Feel free to ask me about any of my placements because I love to talk about my Choices opinions!

Diamond Tier: Choices’ Bests. 10 stars. YAAAAASSSS!

The books and series that clearly had the most effort and heart put into them. They’re not all perfect obviously, but they do feel like actual interactive stories, and they’re easily the most enjoyable of the bunch.

OG High School Story

Endless Summer

It Lives Series

A Courtesan of Rome

The Heist: Monaco

Blades of Light and Shadow

Platinum Tier: Exceptional Quality. 9 stars. YES!

They probably didn’t have quite as much meaningful player interaction put into them and/or weren’t quite as enjoyable as any of the Diamond Tier books. But they’re still really high quality and very respectable, and even possible contenders for being moved up to Diamond Tier after I give them a replay.

The Crown and the Flame

The Royal Romance- Book 1 (have yet to play the rest)

Perfect Match

BloodBound

Mother of the Year

Murder at Homecoming

Gold Tier: Memorably Fun. 8 stars. WOOO!

They’re maybe not really the best quality stories, but they were fun to play and had elements that stood out to me. Maybe it was just an absolute wild ride of a story, or maybe it’s a guilty pleasure story. They’re memorable and certainly worth replaying.

LoveHacks

The Haunting of Braidwood Manor

Hero

America’s Most Eligible

Across the Void

Bachelorette Party

The Phantom Agent

Silver Tier: Enjoyable. 7 stars. Yay!

The “vanilla is still a flavor” of the app. The stories that were mostly simple and straight-forward and didn’t greatly wow me, but were still at least fun to play and could be worth a replay. Pretty good as “cozy” stories.

The Freshman Series- Special Date Side Stories (have yet to play the actual main series and the holiday side stories)

Home for the Holidays

High School Story: Class Act (if you pretend it’s not a HSS spinoff)

Open Heart- Book 1 (have yet to play the rest)

Baby Bump- Book 1 (have yet to play the rest)

With Every Heartbeat

Shipwrecked

Crimes of Passion- Book 1 (have yet to play Book 2, and Book 3 is on its way)

The Princess Swap

The Cursed Heart

Immortal Desires

Copper Tier: Decent, Average. 6 stars. Eh.

The “just okay” stories. Far from terrible, but not much about them that really stood out to me. Not much interest in replaying them, unless maybe I need something completely mindless to play.

Nightbound

Distant Shores

Bronze Tier: Unsure, Mixed Feelings, It’s Complicated. 5 stars. Ehhhhh.

I’m mixed on these stories. They aren’t really terrible as there are some things they did right, but there’s also so much that they did wrong. A lot of these could also use a replay for the sake of giving it a second chance.

Rules of Engagement

High School Story: Class Act

The Nanny Affair- Book 1

Laws of Attraction

Wolf Bride

Wake the Dead

Stone Tier: Truly Mid, Lacking in Substance. 4 stars, Meh.

I don’t quite dislike them, but there’s nothing they give to us. They’re just so empty. There’s “vanilla is still a flavor” and then there’s having no flavor at all, and these books just have little to no flavor.

Ms. Match

Slow Burn

The Nanny Affair- Book 2 (and the sum whole of the trilogy tbh)

Roommates With Benefits

Wood Tier: Boring. 3 stars. Bleh.

The absolute snorefests of the app. Not only did they give nothing, but they were terrible at holding my interest and attention. They’re so poorly paced that even if they did have something of value, I completely missed it because I was either completely zoning out and/or I felt actual mental distress trying to follow the story.

Ride or Die

A Very Scandalous Proposal

Rotting Flesh Tier: Annoying. 2 stars. Uuuuggghhhh.

The stories that are legitimately painful to play through. Just downright frustrating and groan-worthy. They aren’t quite the worst, but they only do very little right. And it’s even more tragic because these premises could have been done right. There are ideas for decent stories here, but they’re completely neglected.

Witness

My Two First Loves

The Nanny Affair- Book 3

PooPoo Tier: Literally the Worst. 1 star. AAAARRRRRGGGHHH.

The absolute dogshit stories. The biggest doodoofarts of the entire app. The complete bottom of the barrel. The stories that had me actually verbally raging and close to throwing my phone into the nearest wall. Everything about each of these is doomed from the beginning. Anything that could have been done right or even decently is done terribly.

Surrender

Untameable

First Comes Love

Air Tier: Opinions and Rankings Pending.

Quite simply, the ones I can’t properly judge yet due to not having completed or played

Haven’t even started playing yet: MW, TFS, RCD, VOS, D&D, BSC, TE, PTR, WT, PT, STD, TRM, HC, RT, FA, GNV, TDA, KND

Currently Playing that I haven’t yet completed: GG, KOD, OH trilogy, BaBu series

Currently Playing that’s still releasing to all: TBB, DLS

Currently Replaying: OH 1, AME 1, TH:M

Stories I started playing but then dropped mid-book prior to getting my new phone and have yet to pick up again: SK, QB 1, WT, TUH

Still VIP Only: Alpha, SOD, TCH 2

Coming Soon: Unbridled (UT 2), Guarded, Hot Shot, ID 2, A Taste of Royalty, Unnamed GOC Firefighter Book, The Most Dangerous Game, RWB 2, COP 3

#i'm not tagging all of these books #choices stories you play #choices #choices game #choices stories we play #choices stories we play fandom #cadybear's rankings #cadybear's choices books rankings

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