#and hey! i finally set up an ao3 account so that's something

[mxmmyprentiss]

I Miss You, I'm Sorry

Summary: Long story short, you survived without her. Her name had become a memory pushed and tucked away in the back of your mind. You locked it and threw away the key. You had stopped yourself from waiting for answers as to why she walked out on you or why she didn’t fight for you ages ago.

Well. Until now. Genre: Angst Pairing: Emily Prentiss x female reader Warnings: homophobia, parental abuse (?) Word count: 6.9k (I got carried away)

A/N: Hi, guys! I just made a new tumblr account and I'm new to Criminal Minds and I'm still actually just about to start season 4 lol but Emily Prentiss already got a chokehold on me and here I am. English is not my first language so any grammar/spelling/other writing mistakes, I apologize. I also have not written anything in a long, long time. Comments and criticisms are welcome.

(also emily's fbi timeline here might be a little confusing so idk lol)

AO3

Relationships don’t always work out. You have known that fact since you were seven years old as a result of your parents’ divorce. You still remember your mother saying, “Baby, sometimes love doesn’t last. Maybe it’s love for now but it won’t be love forever. Two people can grow apart even when they are together all the time. And that’s what happened with me and your dad. And honey, it’s not your fault, you understand?” And you still remember nodding as if you really understood what was happening.

But just like any other child who knew how it felt to be a product of a broken family, you still felt responsible about it. You could have done more, could have done something to prevent your family from falling apart, or at least could have done anything to stitch your family back together. But as you grow older, you learned that what if’s are only as good as heroin and cocaine combined together - it’s not. It’s lethal.

So even though your parents are still alive, you still considered them as the first ones you have lost. Accepting that has helped you cope with other things you have missed throughout your life..

Pen.

Hair ties.

Bus ticket.

Money.

Your first love.

The last one, unlike the others, was not forgotten, misplaced or stolen. The last one walked out of your life before you even had the chance to tell her you would move mountains and set the world on fire if she asked you to. What once were gentle, careful hands that held your heart are the same hands that crushed it into pieces and may have been impossible to glue it back together no matter how much you tried.

It’s fine though. It was a long time ago. You learned to live with it.

At least that’s what you told your therapist when she asked during one of your sessions.

“Come on, sugarplum.” Penelope Garcia, your roommate, tugged your arm. “It’s just drinks at the bar.”

“I’m already beat, Penny. I’ve had a long shift.”

“Exactly the reason why you need to get out and have fun, doctor. We were both so busy with work and never had fun anymore.”

“We have movie marathons sometimes.”

“Please,” Penelope scoffed. “You fall asleep in the first 30 minutes of every movie.”

You sighed. You didn’t defend yourself because it’s true. Lately, everything feels heavy. And you’re always exhausted to the point of passing out at any furniture you lay your head to.

“I’m sorry, Pen.”

Penelope cups your face and forces you to look at her. She has the most gentle, caring eyes when she wants it to be. Curious and determined, most of the time. “Hey, I’m not saying those aren’t fun, okay? I’m just saying maybe we need a change of environment. Get loose. Have a few drinks and maybe meet some people and dance. That’s all.”

“I don’t know these people,” you said defeatedly.

“And you don’t know your patients either but you’re forced to interact with them anyway.” Penelope squeezed your cheeks before letting go. “They’re my friends as much as you are mine, sweet cheeks. I’ll introduce you to them and who knows. You might end up liking them too.”

There’s no winning against your roommate. So you finally agreed and Penelope pranced to her room to change.

Since tonight seemed to be about changes, you decided to put on a skin tight knee-length blue dress that complimented your curves and skin along with a light denim blazer. You matched it with black printed flats and a purse Penelope gifted you last Christmas.

You and Penelope walked hand in hand to the bar. She told you briefly about everyone’s first names but you’re not sure if you will remember them all as you haven’t seen their faces just yet. Also, Penelope talks too fast when she’s excited and your brain just cannot process it as quickly knowing how tired you are.

You both stopped at the door, scanning the place and saw a booth on the far end of the bar. Penelope waved at the people on the table and everyone happily greeted Penelope. You felt a little at ease that they were all wearing casual clothes and looked a little less scary compared to what they actually do for a living.

“Everyone, this is my roommate, Y/N,” Penelope introduced you to the team. And pointing from left to right, she said, “This is Hotch, Derek, Reid and JJ.” They all waved at you. Reid stood up and shook your hand. He insisted you can call him Spencer and babbled something about an article he read the other day that he remembered because you’re wearing a blue dress. You stared at him, fascinated albeit confused. Derek chuckles and pulls Reid next to him.

“Hey, guys, here’s our dri-”

A pause. 

A stare.

Your heart skipped a beat. Or two. Or maybe it stopped for God knows how long.

One of the glasses of beer almost fell out of the raven-haired woman’s hands. Luckily, JJ caught it, looking back and forth between the two of you.

“Emily, you are an angel.” Penelope snatched three glasses out of her friend’s hand. “Y/N, this is Emily.”

It took you a second - or ten - before you reached out your hand for a handshake and forced a smile. “Nice to meet you. I’m Y/N.” Your jaw started to hurt at how tight you’re clenching them but you can’t help it.

She’s here.

Emily took your hand and for a brief second, you felt her squeeze it harder than you would normally do for a handshake. “Emily,” was all she said and sat to Penelope’s right.

Everyone grabbed their drinks. The music at the bar grew loud and they talked even louder to understand each other. Derek and Reid debated about something work-related that you didn’t understand but Derek rolling his eyes at Reid whenever he stated facts amused you. Meanwhile, Penelope showed something to JJ and Emily on her phone and you just hope it’s not something embarrassing because you caught the glance JJ shoots at you and she giggled.

“What are you showing them, Pen?” you asked curiously.

“Nothing,” she grinned. “I’m just showing them how pretty my best friend is.”

You squint, not believing a word she just said. Your hands were quick to snatch the phone from her hand. “Penelope Garcia!” Even with the dim lighting, your blush was evident. It’s a photo of you sleeping in your kitchen, hugging a stainless pot and holding a wooden spatula. You don’t remember that happening. “When was this and why are you keeping this picture?”

Penelope laughed. “You don’t remember so I’m not going to remind you.”

You immediately deleted it off her phone. “Now it’s gone.”

She raised her eyebrows and let out a chuckle, “You forget I work in tech?”

You mumbled a curse and rolled your eyes, accepting defeat.

“Don’t worry, Y/N. It’s cute.” JJ teased and you could only force a smile in embarrassment.

Out of nowhere, Penelope gulped down her entire drink and stood. “Come on, let’s get dancing! Let’s go! Let’s go!”

Everyone followed her. Even Hotch who seems to not like the idea but Derek practically pushed him to the dance floor.

Everyone except Emily.

Her.

And you.

You two were left at the booth, sitting across from each other. Emily was gripping her glass. Hard. You believed she might break it if she didn't relax.

You averted your eyes from Emily. It’s ridiculous to not find anything to stare at other than  Emily’s hands.

Emily’s beer. 

Emily’s hair. 

Emily’s clothes.

Emily’s necklace.

Why is this place full of her?

The place was full and crowded and the music was so loud but the silence between you two? That was louder. Deafening. Unsettling. Awkward.

“It’s nice to see you again,” Emily said, finally managing to look you in the eye again.

Your breath hitched once, twice, before answering, “You too.”

And you meant it. But you didn’t want to. 

Oh, but you did.

She chugged her beer and grimaces the second she does. “I … I didn’t know you and Penelope are friends.”

“I didn’t know you and Penelope are co-workers either.” You shrugged. “How long have you been with the FBI?”

“Seven years,” she answered.

Penelope called your name from the dance floor where she was dancing with Morgan. You only gave her a thumbs up to let her know you’re fine and will be staying at the booth.

“You’re staring,” you said and Emily quickly diverted her eyes from you. She decided the floor was a better view instead. You licked your lips to keep yourself from smiling. “It’s okay, you know.”

“What?”

“I said it’s okay.”

“What’s okay?”

“If you want to pretend like we don’t know each other.” But the agonizing tug in your chest claimed otherwise. “I mean, they’re your friends and Pen is your friend as much as she’s mine. She doesn’t have to know. She just brought me here tonight so we could have fun and meet you guys.”

To your surprise, Emily moved to sit next to you. Not really next to you but just close enough to smell her perfume. 

Velvety. 

Delicious. 

Familiar.

You inhaled deeply, composed yourself, and stole Penelope’s second beer.

“How have you been, Y/N?”

The shiver that ran down your spine shouldn’t be there when Emily said your name. It shouldn’t have affected you that much. Or at all. But it did. And you despised it.

“Since you left me? Great.” You laughed quietly, staring at the glass now half empty. “Really great. I … I’m well … a resident doctor …” You take a deep breath. “I’m sorry. I’m fine. I just …”

“You didn’t expect to see me, I get it.”

“Yeah.”

There’s the awkward silence again. If it doesn’t stop sooner, you think you might just bang your head against the table just to shift the mood.

“I tried to find you,” Emily spoke again. Her voice was low, you almost miss what she said. “I came back but you weren’t there anymore. Your mom said you already moved to LA with your dad and -”

“I don’t want to do this here, Emily. Please.” You just can’t. You might cause a scene if you keep this up. You’re still torn between crying hysterically or just downright screaming at her face.

But her face. Her stupid, fucking perfect face.

You looked away. You focused on the people dancing specifically at Penelope grinding against Reid who’s only swaying awkwardly. That’s better.

Emily scooted closer to you but not close enough to invade your personal space still. “Do you hate me?”

You wanted to be rude. Tell her what does it look like, bitch? But that’s just not you. You’re not a confrontational woman. You’re an honest woman. And to be honest, you’re feeling a lot.

Instead, you gulped a drink and stared at it for a while, leaving Emily staring at your hand, waiting for an answer that may never come.

It took a few minutes for you to gather the strength to look her in the eyes. Your eyes may have been teary, you’re not sure, but everything else looks blurry and you feel lightheaded. You’re not even drunk yet. You only had two beers, for fuck’s sake.

You missed those eyes. Emily’s kind, loving, gentle, ‘used to see right through you’ eyes.

“You left me,” was all that came out of your mouth.

Emily moved closer to your seat, dark eyes still locked on yours as if asking for permission. “I was scared. I was young, Y/N.”

You shook your head in disbelief. “And I wasn’t? Your mother literally hired a private investigator to threaten me so I would stay away from you! I was 17, Emily! 17!” You hissed. Emily tried to reach out for your hand but you got up quickly and ran to the dance floor, to your friend. 

You whispered to Penelope’s ear that you needed to leave immediately to cover an emergency shift at the hospital. She knew better than to argue with you and your work so she let you go and told you not to worry about the tab. She offered to call you an uber but you insisted on walking since the hospital is only a few blocks away.

“Y/N, wait!”

“Emily, not now!” Your strides were getting bigger and you wished you could just fly home instead and get there faster. She grabbed your arm, pulling you to the side. And although it’s already dark outside, Emily can’t miss the way your eyes glisten with tears, staining your cheeks. “Please, Emily, just please.” You didn’t know what you’re actually asking - begging - her. You weakly placed a hand to her stomach and pushed to keep a little distance between the both of you. 

Emily took your shivering hand and held it to her chest instead. Her hands were as soft as you remembered them to be. And you hated the fact that you still remember that after so many years. “Please, Y/N, let me just talk to you.”

“What’s there to talk about? We made it this far in life without each other.” You said bitterly.

“But we didn’t want to.” She sighed. “At least, not for me.”

You took a deep breath in. Emily wiped the tears with her thumbs. Then she cupped your face and you couldn’t help but to just feel her for a minute, face settling on her warm hands. You look at her, eyes pleading. “Em, please.” 

Emily shuddered at the nickname. You were - are - the only one who could make it sound so soft and loved; make it sound like home. After all this time.

“Emily?” You both looked at the sound of Penelope’s voice. You quickly retracted your hand from Emily’s. “Y/N? You’re still here?”

“I, uh, Emily here just brought me my purse because I forgot.” You lied. Emily swallowed whatever she was about to say. You turned to Emily. “Thanks. I have to go now.”

“Oh, okay.” 

You hailed a cab and got out as fast as you can, leaving Emily dumbfounded and Penelope confused as she was intrigued.

___

Emily rubbed her hands together and exhaled loudly. Penelope raised her eyebrow. “What did you do?” She asked.

“What? I didn’t do anything.”

“For an FBI agent, you’re a bad liar right now, honey.” She squinted and took a closer look at Emily’s eyes. Teary. “Were you two making out?”

Emily scoffed. “You’re drunk, Garcia.”

“And you’re hiding something, Prentiss.”

“I’m not!” Penelope continued to stare at her suspiciously, pressing the truth out of her. “Okay, I think you should talk to her first. I can’t be the one to tell you if she doesn’t want to.”

“Did you know Y/N before I brought her here? I saw that you two were surprised to see each other a while ago. There was something there. It doesn’t take a profiler to see it.”

Emily paced back and forth, biting her lip, arms crossed. She stopped herself from biting her nails, a habit she may have done when she’s anxious. Emily contemplated whether to tell Penelope everything or something or anything. “God, I think I need something stronger than the drinks in the bar.”

“I’m waiting here, pudding.”

“And I’m thinking here.” She kept her pace. Then stopped. Emily takes a deep breath. “Y/N is … well, she was … is … I think …” she rambled, hands in her pockets. Emily looked up to keep the tears pooling in her eyes from falling. “Garcia, she’s the love of my life.” She stated weakly.

Penelope gaped at Emily like a deer caught in headlights.

___

Penelope arrived home at around 2:30 in the morning. You heard the lock click and footsteps approaching your door. You quickly pulled the covers above your head and pretended to sleep soundly.

“Y/N?” It’s your roommate. She caressed your foot. “I just want to say I’m sorry for bringing you out there tonight. I … I didn’t know you and … her …” Penelope sighed sadly. “We can talk about it when you’re ready or whenever you want or not at all. It’s up to you really. I just want to say I’m sorry.” She gave a light pat to your leg. “Good night, sweetie.”

___

The next morning, you found Penelope sitting in the kitchen having coffee and talking to someone on her laptop. You didn’t interrupt her, suspecting she might be working from home.

You prepared coffee for yourself and sat on the opposite end of the table. You pretended to scroll on your phone … waiting …

“Morning, baby girl,” Penelope finally decided to break the silence.

“Morning, Pen.”

“So …” There it was. You have known her for a long time to know that nothing - not even the strongest of hangover -  is stronger than her inquisitiveness. “Want to talk about the elephant in the room?”

You took a deep breath.

“I’m not forcing you, Y/N. I’m just asking if you’re ready because if you’re not, it’s fi -”

“And let you die of curiosity?” You hid your smirk behind your mug. Penelope smiled widely. “Did she tell you about me?”

“Emily?” You roll your eyes as if to say who else? “We haven’t had the chance to talk about our personal lives before but last night, she told me two things actually.”

“Oh?”

“One, that it might be better if I get the dirt from you. And two …” Penelope pauses, grinning. Is she actually pausing for dramatic effect?

“Spit it out, Penny.”

“I’m not sure if you want to know.”

“Just say it.”

“That you were -” Your friend shook her head. “ ARE. You are the love of her life.”

Oh.

There it was again. That tug in your chest. Are you dying? Maybe. You needed to get this checked out one of these days at the hospital, you thought. You might need an ECG or probably a 2D echo.

“Is it true?” Penelope pushed. “How did you two know each other?”

You walked to the living room with your coffee and sat on the couch. Penelope follows you.

“That love of her life part, I’m not sure.” You took a sip of your coffee. Black and bitter. “We met in high school. She was my girlfriend.”

Penelope scooted closer. “What happened?”

“Well, long story short -”

“No, I want the long complete detailed version, love bug.” You rolled your eyes at her and she smacked your arm. “You’ve been holding out on me!”

“Hey! I didn’t know my ex is working with you, okay?”

“Still! Everything really does happen for a reason.” She smiled to herself.

You raised an eyebrow. “And what’s the reason for this then?”

“We’ll see,” Penelope smirked. “Now, go on with the story, girlfriend.”

“We met in high school. She was a transferee. I was, well, an introvert with no friends. She was the new girl. I’m sure you know where I’m going with this.” You see Penelope with a shit-eating grin, nodding her head. “It took a week before I could say a word to her.”

“Because you’re so gay and she’s a pretty girl?” Penelope grinned.

You glared at her. “Because I was an introvert.”

“Sure.”

“Anyway, she missed a class and asked if she wanted my notes and she said yes. We have been friends from then on.”

“Until…?”

“She was the first one to say ‘I love you’, you know?” Tears started pooling in your eyes. You immediately wiped it off with the end of your sweater before it even stained your cheeks. “We were in the locker room. Just the two of us after gym class. It was out of nowhere. We just finished showering -”

“Together?” Penelope gasped scandalously. You swatted her arm and she laughed. “I’m kidding.”

“Anyway, we just finished showering and she said she loved me. You have to understand that it was a time when you know … it’s not accepted nor tolerated to be … us.” Penelope took your hand and squeezed it. She could only sympathize, knowing how cruel and tough the world must be to not let people love who they love. “We hid it for a year, maybe two. I’m really not sure now, I think, but it was the longest time of my life. We were okay, great even. We had the most fun, enjoying each other’s company, sneaking around, going on dates. My mom met her. She liked her. Always asked about her when I get home.” You smile at the memory now but it quickly fades. “Until her mother found out about us.”

“Ambassador Prentiss? Oh, that evil -”

“Her mother sent a P.I. to threaten me so I would stay away from her daughter. I was 17 years old and scared, what else can I do?”

“Oh, honey,” Your friend pulled you into a hug. “I’m sorry the world has not been kind to you, sunshine.”

“Thanks, Penny.”

“You two broke up after that?”

You shook your head. “I was about to ask Emily what we should do. I was ready to run away, to hide, to go anywhere with her. I messaged her to meet me at the gym locker room after class the next day but she never showed up at the school at all.” Penelope noticed your trembling hands and gently caressed them. “I found out from the faculty that she moved overseas.”

“Thank you for sharing this with me. I know it’s hard for you, honey bun.”

“I just didn’t expect to see her last night … or ever. I stopped myself from looking for her again. Turns out, life has funny comebacks.” You chuckled bitterly. Penelope enveloped you in a tight hug until her phone rings. You giggle, “Work is calling you, badass computer nerd.”

___

When Penelope reached the BAU, Emily was the first one to spot her. She ran towards her, following Penelope to her office.

“Fabulous morning, person who hurt my roommate.” Penelope greeted without looking at Emily to which she replied with an eye roll. “Y/N told me everything.”

“Y/N told you everything about what?” Suddenly the two women stopped on their tracks and turned around. It’s JJ with take-out coffees in one hand and files on the other. “Come on, ladies. Share it with the team.”

“No!” They simultaneously yelled.

“Okay, chill.” JJ handed them each their coffees. “Share it with me. I’ll find out about it anyway.”

Penelope dragged the two women into her lair. Once locked inside, Penelope announced, “Y/N is your ex!”

“Garcia!” Emily hushed her.

JJ’s eyes were wide and almost spitted out her coffee. “I knew there was something!”

“What?” Emily looked genuinely confused.

“Emily, we’re profilers. We see everything.” JJ reminded her. “You were so awkward with her last night. I assume you guys haven’t seen each other in a while.”

“15 years.”

“And it’s still that awkward?” JJ scoffed unbelievably. “Must have been a bad break up.”

“Technically, they didn’t break up but Agent Prentiss here left my friend without saying goodbye.” Penelope squinted her eyes at Emily, arms folded and eyebrows raised.

Emily’s face was almost as red as her blouse now. “I didn’t … I didn’t want to.”

“Then why did you?”

“It’s com-”

A knock interrupted the ladies’ gossip session. “Ladies, Hotch wants us in the briefing room ASAP.” Morgan told them.

“Be right there!” JJ replied. “We’ll continue this later. Over drinks. Just the three of us. Ladies’ night.”

Emily saw no way out of this so she just nodded.

___

It was a terribly bad day at work. The ER was filled with too many people. Patients kept on coming without showing signs of slowing down. Every bed was occupied - some were already in the hallway in wheelchairs - and everyone had something to do. You have not had breakfast or lunch yet. Your cup of coffee left cold at the doctor’s quarters which you’re sure someone threw out already.

Sometimes you wonder why you chose this career instead of just pursuing your love for multimedia arts.

“Doc,” a senior nurse called you. “I have your patient’s labs and ECG right here.” She hands you the chart. “X-ray results are to follow. Let me know if you’ll be requesting more. Bed 5.”

“Okay.” You walked towards the bed, reviewing your patient's chart. Name … age …

Name?

Now the world was playing a prank on you.

“Emily Prentiss?” You call your patient’s name as soon as you draw the curtains. Emily looked up to you, lying on the bed, beaming too much for someone who’s injured. There’s a small stain of blood on her tank top. You felt something stuck in your throat as worry fills your thoughts yet you retain your poker face.

“Y/N?”

“Dr. Y/F/N, resident. I’m,” you cleared your throat. You put down the chart on the bedside table. “I’m here to examine you. Can you tell me what happened?”

Emily adjusted herself on the bed with a grimace. “I got shot. Almost. I was wearing a vest but I think it left a graze.” Emily lifted her top to show you. You don your gloves and inspect the wound closely, pressing softly at the area. You suspect she might have taken more than one close hit from the way the graze looked. Your eyes panned to her eyes staring at your hands.

“Did you get hit elsewhere, Agent?”

“No,” Emily shook her head. But your eyes found fresh bruises on both of her arms. “It’s fine, doesn’t hurt.”

“You’re always a tough cookie, agent?”

“I have to be.”

“Of course.” You assessed the rest of her body, especially her head for any bumps or cuts. Apart from the bullet graze on her chest and the bruises on her arms, you didn’t find anything else worthy of concern or emergency so far. “Do you feel anything else? Any pain?”

Emily had many answers to that but she bit her tongue. It’s not the time and place. She shook her head instead.

“Okay, I’ll get someone to clean and dress your wound. I’ll order an intravenous painkiller. It will take care of the first six hours, at least, but I’ll also prescribe you some oral painkillers and have your home care instructions ready. Do you have someone I can talk to?”

“I, uh, I think JJ is around somewhere. Or Reid.”

“Any relatives?”

“They’re all I have.” There was a small pause. “We take care of each other.”

“Yeah, of course. Part of the job.” You wrote your initial reports on her chart before leaving. “So, uh … I’ll call the nurse.” You turned around but Emily grabbed the end of your coat. “Anything else, Agent Prentiss?”

“Can you, if it’s not too much to ask, can you do the IV thing? I just …”

“You hate needles.” I know.

She nodded. “Please?”

Fuck. How can you say no when she’s looking at you with those eyes? Dark, pleading and consuming.

You can lie and tell her you have other patients to attend to but so far, no nurse had called you yet. You hear another resident had come in, too.

Emily’s eyes and hand were still on you.

“Okay,” you finally said. “I’ll be right back.”

Just your dumb, stupid luck.

___

Your shift ended at around 10pm but it’s almost midnight when you got out of the hospital. You already changed your top into a purple t-shirt. You carried your bags, coat hanging on your arm, as you walked to your car. You couldn’t wait to go home and wash off the busy day you had.

You stopped by to take out Chinese food for you and Penelope and a little extra to reheat tomorrow for breakfast.

You heard the TV as you approached the door. Penelope must still be awake and watching a show. You opened the door with your keys and to your surprise, one of your patients today was sitting on your couch. Your eyes met briefly.

“Hey, sweetie pie!” Penelope cornered you and grabbed hold of the take-outs. “Let me talk to you for a minute.” Penelope excused herself and you, dragging you to the kitchen. “I’m sorry Emily’s here but somebody’s got to take care of her and she lives alone. I figured since you’re here and you’re a doctor, this will be the safest choice. If that’s alright with you, of course.”

“Do I really have a choice?”

“No.” Your roommate grinned widely.

You let out an exasperated sigh. “Then it’s fine. I’m going to my room. I had a long day.”

“But aren’t you going to eat? You can watch TV with us.”

“I lost my appetite.” You mumbled. You walked to your room and Emily caught you on the way. She stopped in front of you. “What?”

“I’m sorry for staying. The team insisted and -”

“It’s fine, Agent Prentiss.”

Emily frowned. “You don’t have to be so formal.”

“I’m sorry but I’m really tired. I just want to go to bed.”

“Okay, sorry,” She stepped to the side and you walked past her. “Y/N?” You looked back at her. “Thank you for today.”

You flashed her a small smile.

___

You woke up the next morning to a loud scream. You quickly got up and ran to the living room. Your hair still disheveled and pajama pants hanging a little low.

“Is there a fire?” You asked, confused and half awake.

“Sorry for waking you, sunshine. But I cannot do this.” Penelope handed you a gauze, medical tape and scissors. “Help us, oh sweet lord of ER.”

You yawned then sat next to Emily. You disinfected your hands with alcohol and proceeded to clean her wound with povidone-iodine. She winces a little. “Hurts?”

“A little.”

“Well, it’s supposed to.”

“Wow, aren’t you grumpy in the morning.” Emily teased, earning a glare from you and a slightly painful poke. “Ow! Hey, be gentle please. I’m already hurt.” She pouted.

“You have a dangerous job. Couldn’t you be more careful?” You retorted, annoyed.

“Well, I’m sorry the UnSub has a gun and tried to kill me.”

You ignored her mumbling. “Do you have the day off?”

“Hotch gave me the week off.” Emily answered, clearly disappointed. “I can’t believe my doctor suggested a week's rest. It’s not even that bad, right?”

You bit the inside of your cheeks. “And you know better than your doctor?”

Emily smiled. “I guess not.”

You finished cleaning up her wound and changing the dressing. You picked up an ice pack from the fridge and handed it to her. “Ice your bruises. No more than 15 minutes at a time.”

“Yes, doc.”

“Don’t call me doc.”

“You’re a doctor.”

“We’re not in the hospital.”

Emily leaned forward, a little too close to your face. “What should I call you then?”

Up close, you noticed her lower lip has a small cut while her upper lip … well, there’s nothing wrong with it.

You tried not to focus too much on her lips. Tried is the keyword. 

Then, you suddenly felt like your ghost floated above you and gave the back of your head a cold hard slap. Your eyes quickly darted up to her own brown orbs, intently staring back at you. 

“I’d rather you not call me anything at all.” You said firmly and got up. Emily watched you march back to your room.  A small smirk formed on Emily’s face.

You lied on your bed. Heart pounding, head somewhat dizzy, cheeks flushed.

Fuck Emily Prentiss and her stupid, stupid, tempting lips.

___

The three of you ended up watching your second classic film one afternoon with Penelope sitting between you and Emily. You didn’t like the movie that much honestly. You walked to the kitchen to make yourself your favorite drink - soda with vanilla ice cream.

“You still like that huh?” Emily sneaked up behind you. “It’s diabetes in a glass.”

“Guilty.” You took a sip. “It’s my comfort drink.”

“It sure is.”

“What do you need? Ice?”

“You, actually.”

“Why? Something hurts?”

“Nothing you can heal.”

You rolled your eyes. “I’m serious.”

“So am I, Y/N.” Emily stepped closer to you. “I was wondering if we can finally have a talk.”

“We’re watching a movie.”

“Penelope’s just fine.” You both glanced at Penelope who turned her head back to the TV at breakneck speed.

“She put you up to this huh?” You took a seat and you gestured to Emily to do the same. There’s no use avoiding ‘the talk’ anyway as it looks like Emily might live here for the whole week whether you liked it or not. “What do you want to talk about?”

“Us.”

“Us?”

Emily ran her hands through her hair, not knowing where to start. “I didn’t want to leave.”

Fifteen years.

It’s been fifteen years since you last saw Emily. Both of you were still kids - young, innocent, carefree, hopeful. The day Emily left your life, you were a wreck. You did good at school, acing exams after exams, and eventually got to medical school on partial scholarship. Outside, you tried to be the perfect little golden daughter your parents and teachers expected you to be. Inside? You were empty. You felt as if you’re a shallow case of a person.

The first five years since Emily left, you graduated from high school. You got multiple part time jobs before applying to universities. In between those busy times, you tried to find her - called her up on her phone every single day for three years, wrote letters to her last known address every month for two years. Once, you even tried to sneak into their house but the security guard spotted you and almost caught you. You almost had a bald spot from the security grabbing your hair.

By the sixth year since Emily had gone, you stopped. You realized it’s not healthy anymore. You were holding on to a ghost. So you learned to live the next years of your life without her. After finishing your degree in biochemistry, you moved to LA with your father. You got yourself into UCLA and pursued medicine.

The med school journey wasn’t a smooth ride at all. Yes, you didn’t fail one subject during med school but the harder part came later - the actual practice. You struggled with a lot of things but mostly socializing with different people - strangers - whose life depended on you and your capabilities.

It was only five years ago that you finally started to feel somewhat confident with yourself. Not perfect but you weren’t getting yelled at as much by the attendings anymore. A senior resident even complimented your improvement which meant a lot to you.

Long story short, you survived without her.

Her name had become a memory pushed and tucked away in the back of your mind. You locked it and threw away the key. You had stopped yourself from waiting for answers as to why she walked out on you or why she didn’t fight for you ages ago.

Well.

Until now.

“Y/N,” Emily placed her hand on top of yours and you were quick to retract it. It was a reflex at this point. “Sorry.” She kept her hands under the table. “I know apologizing won’t erase anything that happened to us but I’m really sorry, love.”

“Don’t call me that.” You clenched your jaw. “Just tell me why.”

“She, my mother … she took me to the Middle East when she found out about us. I should have known, I should have seen, that we were being followed by her men every time we went out. She tossed the photos - our photos - to my face. She called me disgusting and immoral and a fucking disappointment all because I loved you.” The last part came out as a mumble but you caught it.

Your eyebrows relaxed, eyes softened. The waterworks in your eyes were threatening to fall again. Damn it.

How would a 17-year-old expect this from her own mother? How was she supposed to know?

“She had all your information and your family’s and I was so afraid that she would come for you.” Emily continued, now looking down at her hands, trembling in fear and probably embarrassment of being vulnerable and open. “I knew she would come for you. She told me so. I will set that girl straight if that’s what it takes, that’s what she said. And you have no idea how that sentence scarred me until now.” Emily takes a deep shuddering breath. “The thought of you being hurt because of me … us … I couldn’t bear that, Y/N. I had to protect you so I made her swear to leave you alone and in exchange I will follow whatever she wanted me to do, whatever she wanted me to be.” Emily glanced back up to you, eyes defenseless and face flushed. “I just want you alive and safe.”

“Emily …”

“You don’t have to forgive me now or ever if you don’t want to. Or if you can’t. That’s okay. I can live with that … I think.” Your ex-girlfriend sat up straight, faked a smile. “But I want you to know that when I got to the Bureau, I did look for you.”

Your eyes met. And from what Penelope was seeing from the living room, everything was evident: the longing, the pain, the memories.

“I found out you got into med school in LA. I was so happy for you, you know that. I knew you would make it. I remember you wanted to be a surgeon at first but then you said you liked kids so maybe pedia -”

“Why didn’t you call?”

“I couldn’t … I wanted to, Y/N. I have wanted so badly for years. But when I remember about what I put you through, what my mother put you -”

“Us,” you corrected. “What your mother put us through.”

Emily nodded. “I just couldn’t ruin your life like that again.”

“Do you still talk to her? Your mother.”

“Not anymore. We haven’t been in contact since the last case she brought to the FBI.”

“Do you miss her?”

“Can’t miss someone you don’t know.”

You gave her a sad smile. “You’re strong, Emily.”

“Sometimes I think it’s a curse.”

“It will take some time,” you mumbled. Emily stared at you, waiting for what you meant. “Forgiving you, I mean.”

“I know. You don’t have to.”

“But I understand, Emily. I understand now.”

You shared a friendly smile. You leaned forward to wipe the tear from Emily’s cheek.

Emily held your wrist, feeling your hand on her cheek. You two stayed like that for a few seconds. You were the first one to let go but before going, you left a tender kiss on her forehead to which Emily closed her eyes, feeling your lips against her skin for the first time in a long time.

The moment was almost ruined when you and Emily heard a shriek from the living room and saw Penelope stuffing her mouth with ice cream. Clearly, she saw everything.

You and Emily chuckled.

“Em,” you softly whispered. “I’m sorry too.”

“You have nothing to apologize for.”

“Sorry the world wasn’t kind. To you. To us.”

Emily frowned. “It’s not your fault.”

None of this was your fault or Emily’s as it turns out. Now that everything was out in the open, a blossoming hope grew in your heart as you looked at Emily. All the sadness, anger and pain you felt the first time you laid eyes on her at the bar, you felt that diffusing quickly.

Maybe it’s not such a bad idea. 

To just kiss her. Just once. Again.

Or hug her.

You don’t know. All you know is that you missed her. And although she looked much older than you remembered her to be - so are you - you still remembered looking at her eyes all those years ago. At the locker room. During classes. At the carnival. At the mall. In your childhood room. The street two blocks away from her house.

Emily stood up, eye level with yours, as if she read your mind. She leaned forward. Your lips now close to hers that you can feel her take a breath. She waited for you to pull away or to ran to your room but you didn’t. The next thing you know was Emily closing the gap between both of your lips.

The kiss was soft. Like the first time when you were two young girls at the locker room the first time she told you that she loves you. Yet, it was also intoxicating, exciting. You felt a jolt of electricity running through your whole body.

The kiss was also quick. It was done before you know it.

Emily flashed a smile. “I’d like to do that again.”

“Me too,” You mentally kicked yourself at how quick you responded to that.

“Let me take you out on a date sometime.”

How can you say no to her?

The answer is you don’t.

“I’d like that, Em.”

“Friday? 10pm? I’ll pick you up?”

“It’s like you know my work schedule.”

“Lucky guess,” Emily smirked. “Let’s go before Penelope dies of excitement. She’s literally red and might combust.”

“Don’t worry, I’m here if she codes.” You share a laugh.

You couldn’t wait for Friday to come.

#emily prentiss x reader #emily prentiss x y/n #emily prentiss x you #emily prentiss angst #emily prentiss fic #emily prentiss #paget brewster x reader #criminal minds fanfic #criminal minds fic #criminal minds angst #jaye writes #emily prentiss x female reader

[tswaney17]

Accidental Chemistry Holiday Series - Part 2: Gifts Galore

Happy New Year!! 🍾 I thought we could kick off the new year with my final holiday fic of the season. If you sent me prompts, don't worry! I will definitely try to come back to those in the future. Hey, blink and @elriel-month will be here, right? 😉 A special thank you to @impossiblescissorspeachpaper for sending me this prompt. 💕

My fanfic account: @tswaney17fics​​​

My ao3 account: tswaney17

Please let me know what you think about this update. I love getting your feedback. Constructive criticism is always welcome. 💕

Catch up here.

Credit to @featherymalignancy for Cassian’s nickname, Cash. 😘

Trigger warnings: minor language

Word Count: 2,772

This fic will be posted on AO3 only. Read the beginning below or click here to head to AO3.

Azriel watched as Elain brought in bag after bag of Christmas presents for Oliver.

At his raised brows, she shot him a sheepish smile. “I’ve been saving small bits of my paycheck for a few months now. And there were so many good sales. I saved like $200 on everything.” She shrugged, even as a blush touched her cheeks.

He reached to grab a few of her bags off her shoulder and set them on the table. Money was a sensitive topic for her, and one she didn’t like the dwell on. So, he said instead, “Well, it sounds like you scored a good deal today.”

She dropped her purse on the counter, peeking into the living area where her little one was crawling all over the floor. One of her rare smiles bloomed across her face. It was one she always seemed to get when she watched her son. And sometimes she shot at Azriel when she’d catch him playing with Oliver. A thing of secret, lovely beauty. That’s what he called that particular smile. “Thank you for watching him today. I appreciate it.”

“I was happy to do it,” he admitted, meaning every single word. Az had gotten comfortable with Oliver over the several months of them living there, building a relationship with the boy and his mother. He never imagined himself as a father figure, but something about the fierce protectiveness he felt towards Ollie—and Elain for that matter—the warmth that spread through his chest whenever he got one of those big grins, made him start believing that perhaps it was something he had truly desired after all.

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~~~~~

Remember, sharing is caring! Please reblog if you liked the fic. It helps spread my work and I truly appreciate it. 💕

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#accidental chemistry #holiday series #gifts galore #elriel #elain x az #elain x azriel #azriel x elain #elain and azriel #azriel and elain #elain #elain archeron #azriel #azriel shadowsinger #elriel fic #elriel fanfic #elriel fanfiction #tswaney17 #tswaney17fics #tay writes #my writing #fanfic #fanfiction #acotar #acomaf #acowar #acofas #acosf

[flowerpotmage]

Tight Grip, Broken Dam (12)

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You don’t question it anymore, when Miguel appears in your bed at night. He’s not there for sex, no, you’ve never even kissed—though you would be lying if you said you weren’t open to the idea of kissing him. He’s there for comfort. For rest. If only it could stay so simple.

Pair: Miguel O'Hara & GN!Reader

Notes: for series: slow burn, ambiguous relationship, found family dynamics, reader is in their late 20s. for chapter: sexual tension, injuries and injury aftercare, references and nightmares about 90s comic run canon events

Word Count: 2.4k

Read this chapter on Ao3 here. If you like my work, please consider leaving kudos there as well! You do not need an account to do so.

a/n: deepest apologies for this series' absence! i hope this (only slightly) shorter chapter and the knowledge that i am already working on the next and hope to return to semi-regular updates will tide you over.

Your brief trip across town leaves you more winded than you hoped and less tired than you feared.

Your apartment is empty but for the presence of warm midday sun and green leaves when you return, kicking your shoes off and carefully setting yourself down on the couch, bones heavy with the weight of grief and exhaustion. There’s nothing to do now but rest, and so you don’t resist the warm embrace of sleep when it curls around you like hungry arms.

Brrring brrring!

The ring of your phone wakes you, the light now coming more brightly through your balcony doors.

A disoriented grumble escapes your throat as you shift, lifting yourself back up to lean against the back of the couch and immediately checking your side.

Sore. Sore, mostly dry, and unopened. Good.

Brrring brrring!

You find your phone in your coat pocket, having fallen asleep still fully dressed. Karen’s name lights up the screen. Rubbing the sleep from your eyes and clearing your throat, you answer the call and hold the phone to your ear.

“Karen, hey.”

“Hey!” She chirps through the line. “Matt and Foggy just won a case today, and–”

“Come drink with us!” Comes Foggy’s voice, shouted from somewhere in the room Karen has called from.

“I’m assuming you caught that.” You can hear the bemused expression on her face.

You try to chuckle, and fail, body too tired to force any levity. “I shouldn't tonight,” you say, wrinkling your nose and trying to roll out the stiffness in your neck. “I, uh—sick. Not feeling great.”

“Oh no!” Karen says, sympathetic. “Are you okay?”

You can hear the sudden silence from Foggy.

“Yeah, just uh. Out of it. Probably gonna just rest up for a few days, it’s a little rough.” You wince.

“Do you need anything?” She asks. “I don’t think it’s too far out of our way if you need some food. Some soup?”

You smile, heart warming at her thoughtfulness. “No, no, I’m all set. That’s really sweet though, thank you Karen.”

“Of course,” she says. “Rest up. We’ll see you when you’re feeling better.”

“Take an extra shot for me tonight.”

“Not like Foggy needs the excuse,” Karen laughs.

“What? What don’t I need an excuse for?”

“Wow, nosy,” you joke, smiling. “I’ll see you all next time.”

“Alright. Text if you need anything. I mean it.”

“You’re too nice. And I will, I promise,” you can’t help but smile. “Now go celebrate.”

Farewells are exchanged and the call ends. You drop the phone onto the couch, a heavy breath leaving your lungs. You linger for a moment before finally mustering the will to pull yourself off the couch and trudge into your room to change into your loosest pajamas.

Sleep pulls you back under its currents again.

Something pulls you from your slumber hours later, your cheek stuck to the pillow with dried spit, your vision blurry.

You haven't been this tired or slept so much since the spider bite that changed your life.

Your spider-sense pings and seconds later your bedroom door cracks open, Miguel in the open sliver between door and wall. His eyes meet your own, your head lifted slightly off the pillow from the surprise ping moments before.

“When’d you get here?” You ask, voice muffled and slurred.

“About an hour ago,” he replies, opening the door further. “You needed groceries, and I know you weren't going to be getting them anytime soon.”

You groan, letting your head fall back to the pillow. “You didn't need to do that for me.”

He crosses his arms, leans on the doorframe.

Now, with the door open, the smell of cooking finally reaches you and you rub your eyes. “ And you cooked?”

“I did.” There it is, his disproportionately endearing, pleased little half smile. Miguel crosses the distance from the door to your bed to help you up. “ Vamos, come on.”

“Thanks,” you mumble, when your feet finally find the floor. And again, after you’ve eaten and you sit side by side on the couch, sleep dragging down your eyelids once more: “Thank you, Miguel. For dinner, and… everything.”

“Of course,” he murmurs, and you slip into dreams once more.

The next morning, thankfully, finds you less fatigued. Miguel changes your bandages again, makes you breakfast, again, before leaving to fulfill his self appointed duties.

It continues like this as you heal. When Miguel isn’t at Spider Society HQ he’s in your home, cooking your food and cleaning your dishes and changing your bandages (You try not to go insane from the feeling of his hand on your bare skin). You don't ask, but you’re fairly certain the only sleep he gets is in your bed—a place you have to yourself less often than ever before.

Not that you’re complaining. Neither of you mentions it, of course, that he's visiting more while the skin over your ribs heals. You both seem to immediately accept this new normal and move forward as if it has always been the way things are. For Miguel’s part, he knows you don't have anyone here to take care of you properly—he knows you’ve lost family and more friends than most Spider-People usually had to start with—and so he takes the responsibility of you upon himself, and does so happily.

And mostly things are the same… mostly.

He learns about your favorite color, the watering schedule of your plants, how you miss having a pet but with the life you lead it doesn't feel like the responsible thing to do. He tries not to think about how it feels like learning more about someone you’ve been with for years, because he already knew which spoon was your favorite out of the somewhat mix-and-match selection, already knew about your aunt and your aunt's girlfriend on the force who still checked in on you up until her own death, your personal ASM-97 event.

He starts to feel disconcerted about how little he's shared in return, and tries his best to give something back. He mentions Gabriel in passing when talking about his childhood one day, during lunch.

“Gabriel?” You prompt.

“Ah,” he pauses, lowering his fork. To his plate. “My brother.”

The two of you are sitting on your couch, the balcony doors open wide to let in the fresh afternoon air that meanders through the open glass. Miguel holds his plate in one hand, you rest yours on your lap and your feet on your coffee table.

“I didn't know you had a brother,” you say. You want to rest your arm on the back of the couch, but despite your wound being at less risk of opening and bleeding, you’ve still been advised not to stretch the skin. So you pick at the couch cushion by your thigh with your nail instead, glancing at him.

Miguel nods. “Gabriella was named after him.”

Your heart squeezes. “Is he…?”

“He’s alive and well,” Miguel gives a reassuring, if rueful, smile. “It's just us two now.”

You nod. “Older or younger?”

“Younger,” he says, smiling at you. He rests his plate on his lap now, like you, and rests an arm on the back of the couch to angle towards you.

“Ah, oldest brother,” you raise your eyebrows and nod sagely. “That explains a lot.”

Miguel raises an eyebrow back at you.

You gesture at him vaguely. “I mean. Come on.”

Miguel scoffs, smiling, and then he tells you more about his family. About Tyler Stone and the secret his mother kept, how he’s not a true O’Hara but still carries the name. You sense he’s still keeping some things to himself, but you don’t press the issue, happy enough to even be let in this small amount. You hope that your adoration doesn’t show on your face too much as you watch him talk, lit with warm afternoon light.

Miguel feels lucky when he wakes up and can’t remember his dreams, because the nights that he does…

Flesh torn and shredded under his fingertips as gravity pulls the arm from his grasp, the man attached dangles infinite stories up from the streets and even farther to Downtown. The writhing gasp and scream of a man in pain and Miguel trying to save him and only making it worse. His father, angry and raging and taking it out on his mother. The smell of rotting flesh from his Vulture’s pantry, rotting cadavers stored haphazardly in a dark room in the underbelly of downtown waiting for—

No. Even in dreams it’s too sick to name.

Sometimes the horrors of his early days as Spider-Man blend with his life now. Gabriella’s rotting body in the pile in Vulture’s pantry. Gabriella, caught in an attack on his apartment, or in the crossfire between him and the Public Eye. You, hanging from his desperate grip after the lab explosion that changed him forever, your face twisted in fear and your arm shredded under his finger-pad talons as you slip from his grasp and fall to your death. You, in the pods for the long discontinued Corporate Raider program and killed in a fatal human-animal gene splicing test. You disappearing into the air, turning to less than ashes in his arms, or sometimes worse: You, holding Gabriella and reaching for him and the both of you disappearing when he reaches out, unable to so much as touch either of you one last time.

It’s not every night. Sometimes he dreams nonsense like everyone else, surreal landscapes with changing figures and storylines that mean nothing. Sometimes he dreams of happy memories or past almosts as if they had followed through on their potential. Schooldays with Xina or childhood games with Gabriel, or taking Gabriella to the Spider Society HQ like Peter does with May.

Sometimes he dreams about your skin, and your sheets, and your breath. Those ones always leave him distracted, off kilter and embarrassed through the rest of his day. He wishes he could bury them properly, leave them in his subconscious where they belong. Wishes he could keep himself from wanting to cross that line.

But tonight brings no dreams of pleasant pasts, no surreal landscapes, no ecstatic gasps and tangled sheets. Tonight he dreams of loss and pain.

A sudden jolt uproots you from sleep, dreams turn to evaporated particles in the air. At first you think there might be a threat, that perhaps your spider senses were what woke you, but the shallow and forcefully measured breaths in the bed next to you quickly inform you otherwise.

“Miguel?” Your voice is but a whisper as you prop yourself up, mindful of your ribs, your hand searching for him through the blankets. “Hey, hey, it's okay–”

He starts to say something, his voice dying in his throat before the first letter can even form on his tongue. His hand finds yours, wrapping tightly around palm and fingers alike. You scoot closer, doing your best with one hand now out of commission, and then you're partially hovering over him, your held hand supporting your weight.

“It's okay,” you whisper, and you begin to pet his hair back from his face. “You're okay.”

Even in the dark your eyes find each other. Before you can blink his arm is around you and you're pressed into his chest, his face hidden in your neck. You can feel each thundering beat of his heart through your chest as it slows, still beating too hard to fall into rhythm with your own.

“I’m here,” you whisper.

His arm tightens around your middle at that, a brief squeeze pulling you closer to him. His shuddered breath gusts across your skin where he’s buried his face.

“Bad dream?” you whisper into the hair above his ear, shifting above him to rest on his chest properly and rest one arm on the pillow by his head, the other sliding around his side to hold him in return.

“Sorry,” he whispers, ignoring your question, loosening his grip. “Your ribs-?”

“They’re fine, Miguel,” you say, your arm on the pillow by his head shifting.

As his heart slows, as his breath steadies and you wake fully, you become conscious of your body pressed into his. His face is still buried in your neck, and you feel his ribs expand under your body, raising you into the air.

His head falls back from your neck, resting on the pillow, and you lift your head to look at him in the dark.

“Do you wanna talk about it?”

He pauses, eyes flitting between each of yours before he looks away. He pulls his arm back from around you, hand sliding to rest on your waist under your ribs.

“No.”

“Okay.” You prop yourself up further. “I’m here, though.”

He sighs, nods, closes his eyes.

Silence returns to the room, pressing in on your chest, squeezing your ribs like the bandages around your calf. You are too aware of your position nearly atop him, body pressed into the side of his chest with his hand still resting on your side, yours on his and your other bracing you above him on the pillow beside his head. You've been this close before, of course, and held one another much tighter in the dark. But something about this is different. Perhaps it's the way his fingers begin to unconsciously stroke your side and the way you've never gotten to look at him like this, above him, his eyes closed under you—

Your breath catches in your throat, and you lift your hand from his side to touch his face. His brow twitches, his hand tightens and relaxes on your side, and he sighs again as tension slowly drains from his body. You let your hand rest on his cheek more solidly, and his eyes flicker open to meet yours in the dark.

You hope he can’t feel the way your heart skips and then beats just that much harder. You swallow, hold your breath, and let your hand slide into his hair.

His eyes flutter shut, and everything freezes.

“Thank you,” he whispers, and the pressure of the air eases.

“Of course,” you finally say, your mouth dry, stroking your thumb back over his temple into his hair. You shift, settling down into his side.

His arms wrap around you once more. Neither of you speak, and you don't fall back asleep for a long while.

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#miguel o'hara fanfiction #miguel o'hara x reader #miguel o'hara x you #miguel o'hara x y/n #miguel o'hara x gender neutral reader #miguel x you #miguel x y/n #miguel x reader #spiderverse fic

[dragonflylady77]

Mr Steve and the Monster Hunter

Here is it! The last chapter of my fic for @bigbangharringrove

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5

Ao3

Steve has a lot of things to say

Chapter 6 - I'm all in

Steve is finally holding Billy in his arms and he doesn’t want to let go. He’s not sure where this urge is coming from but it’s all encompassing and he is not questioning it. His gut is telling him he is where he is supposed to be, and well, his gut has yet to steer him wrong. 

Strangely for someone who just spent a week in a coma, he is exhausted and very sleepy. He has no idea what time it is. Daylight is still coming through the open window but he vaguely remembers reading somewhere that the sun sets at different times in different parts of the country and he’s never been to California before.

Billy didn’t say anything when Steve told him he’d missed him, instead he gently wrapped his arms around Steve, careful of his injuries and various bandages. Steve knows he needs to explain, even if his brain still feels a bit scrambled.

“I know what you’re thinking.” Steve lets out a short laugh that makes his chest sting a bit. He brings his hand back up to play with Billy’s hair. “How can I miss someone I barely knew? But I did, Billy. Somehow, I really did. And then… then you were there, alive, somehow even better looking than I remembered, and so fucking full of life… Of course I jumped when you offered to answer my questions.”

“Not like I got the chance to do much of that,” Billy mumbles and Steve can feel his breath on his chest. It feels nice and he wishes they were wearing less clothes and weren’t on a narrow hospital bed so he could feel it more. 

Still, he can’t let Billy feel bad for running off when Eleven reached out for help. 

“Well that is hardly your fault, is it? Just like what happened to me isn’t your fault.”

Billy sits up at that and pierces Steve with a thunderous look. He looks fierce, and hot as sin, and Steve wants to trace that scar on his cheek with his finger… or his lips. His brain and his heart seem to be fully on board with that plan.

“Billy…” Steve starts, reaching out to take Billy’s hand again, happy when Billy lets him..

“No, Steve.” Billy runs his free hand through his hair with a sigh. “I know better. The rules are there for a reason and I shouldn’t have let you come with us. It was my mission. I knew the risks and—fuck!” Billy looks straight at Steve then, his eyes wet with tears and Steve feels something squeeze his heart at the sight.

“Steve, you nearly died because of me. Because I let my feelings get in the way.”

“Billy…”

“I can’t… I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if something happened to you.” The chuckle Billy lets out is rough and raw. “I'm lucky Max hasn't come after me yet. I keep expecting her to come at me with Cindy to try and detach my head from my body.”

Steve was confused. “Who's Cindy?”

“My ax.”

“Okay...” Steve is sure Billy had a good reason to name his ax Cindy but it’s not relevant at this point. They can talk weapon names later. Steve is so going to ask for a tour of HellGrove when he’s no longer stuck in a hospital bed.

“Hey.” Steve links his fingers with Billy’s. “Forget about Max. And the rules. It’s like Robin said. I’m here. I’m alive.”

“You know, I did wonder how much of that private conversation you heard.”

Steve watches as a pink blush blooms on Billy’s cheeks and it’s the most wonderful thing he’s ever seen in his life.

“Let’s just say I heard Olivia ask you a question and I noticed you didn’t actually answer said question.”

“Jesus, Harrington. Don’t pull punches on my account.”

“You gonna tell me, Hargrove?” If Billy is gonna go back to last names, instead of his usual pet names, Steve is gonna follow suit. It brings back memories of high school posturing and what Steve can now see was Billy pulling his metaphorical pigtails at a time where being queer could get one in a lot of trouble, or worse. One glance shows Steve that Billy is still blushing and the neckline of his HellGrove tee stops Steve from seeing how far down it goes.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Billy says and Steve resists the urge to roll his eyes. 

Steve sits up, not paying attention to the slight sting on his chest when he does, damn bandages pulling on his chest hair, as he drags Billy to him by his hand, putting his other hand on the back of Billy’s neck to hold him there.

“Billy, the day after I found out you were alive, I went to see Robin and Heather so Robin could answer some of my questions.”

“I bet you had a few,” Billy chuckles softly.

“Hoo boy, yes I did. Then I even had questions about things I found out that day. About you. About Olivia. Then Robin said you were on your way back and I, um, I kinda freaked out.”

“Why? Steve, I’m not—”

“Oh, um, well, turns out I’m not very good at hiding things from Robin, and she said I definitely needed to have a chat with you or I would regret it.”

The laughter that peels out of Billy surprises them both. Steve thinks he looks so beautiful and happy. 

“That’s your first mistake, pretty boy,” Billy says. “You, of all people, should know you can’t hide things from Robin. She always finds out. And if she doesn’t, Heather does.”

“Heather scares me.”

“Oh my god.” Billy is still laughing and Steve wants to keep making him.

“She is fiercely protective of you and I don’t think she likes me very much.”

“Oh. yeah, um, about that…” Billy suddenly looks embarrassed and it’s not what Steve wants. At all.

“I, um, I’d like to change that.” He smiles. “Billy, I know it might seem sudden, since I only found out about you a week ago, but…” Steve stops and looks down at their fingers. Considering what Steve heard of Billy’s chat with Robin in the hallway, he doesn’t think it’s too much of a gamble that Billy will react favorably. Still, he’s been surprised before so it’s always better to make sure.

“But?”

“I had a dream about you the night we met again,” Steve says, before he pulls Billy closer. “A very detailed, very private, kind of dream,” he whispers, his mouth so close to Billy’s he can feel his breath. 

“Oh, did you now?” Billy whispers back and their lips are pretty much touching now and Billy’s hands are holding his face and Steve closes his eyes and he nods and then Billy is kissing him and Steve can’t think beyond ‘BillyBillyBillyBillyBilly’. 

The kiss feels like everything he didn’t know he wanted and more. Steve feels Billy’s tongue trace the seam of his lips and he opens his mouth and the kiss gets better. Billy is kissing him like he’s something precious, all slow and slick, and it makes Steve moan and once again wish they weren’t on a narrow hospital bed.

Too soon, Billy pulls back. He licks his lips and Steve feels his body shudder at the sight. He definitely wants more of that. Everywhere.

Billy chuckles and Steve realizes he may have said that out loud. He shrugs, then winces because the movement pulls on the bandages and Billy gives him a worried look.

“I’m okay. I wonder when they’ll let me go home. Or, you know, get out of here.”

“What did the doctor say earlier?”

Steve doesn’t ask how Billy knows the doctor came to see him, the guy kinda owns the building after all. “He said they need to run some more tests but I should be allowed out in a couple of days.”

“That’s good.”

Something important suddenly clicks when Steve hears himself talk about going home. “Oh God. Billy, I've been missing work for over a week. How am I going to tell my boss I am suddenly in California?”

“Oh, Max sorted that out for you. You'll have to ask her. When the doctor gives the okay, I'll portal you back to your house and you can, um, you know, go back to your life.”

“That's the second time you've said that to me,” Steve notes, not liking the way Billy is now looking at some point over Steve's shoulder, like he was distancing himself from Steve.

“Is it?” Billy sits back, his hands dropping to the bed. 

“Uh huh.” Steve picks Billy's hand again and makes eye contact, locking gaze with Billy. “Billy, I…” Steve smiles. “I don't want to go back to not knowing. I love teaching, don't get me wrong, but I can do that anywhere. But this?” Steve gestures between himself and Billy. “This is way too important. You are too important.”

“Steve…” Billy looks away and tries to get his hand back but Steve holds fast.

“No, I missed my chance in high school because things got fucked up and I didn’t realise it until it was way too late. But now that I know you’re alive? Now that I understand what the things I am feeling really mean? There is no fucking way I’m going back to what I had before.”

“What’s that?” Billy asks, his tone bitter and sad. “A quiet life without monsters? A safe job in a nice school? School moms fawning over you day in and day out? What’s so bad about that life, Steve?”

“Well, for one, if you’re not there with me, I don’t want it.”

“You can’t mean that.” The dejection comes through clearly in Billy’s resigned tone. Steve wonders what happened to Billy to make him believe he doesn’t deserve this and more. He makes a quick promise to himself to spend the rest of his life showing Billy how cherished he is.

“I can, and I do.” He grins at the man he loves, because, yes, there is no other word to explain the warmth filling his chest when he looks at Billy. “It will come to no surprise to you that your daughter isn’t the only one who’s been eavesdropping, not that you and Robin were particularly quiet in the doorway before. Billy, holding you, kissing you, it feels like the last piece of the puzzle finally slotted into place.”

Steve notices the tears rolling down Billy’s cheeks and he can feel his face is wet as well, but he presses on. “You can have this. Have me. I want you to know that I’m all in. If that’s what you want.”

The longing in Billy’s eyes threatens to undo Steve completely and Steve can’t take it anymore. He pulls Billy back to him, once again ignoring the sting on his chest at the movement, and brings their mouths together.

Billy lets out a moan and melts against him. This time Billy ends up on top of Steve, obliterating Steve’s ability to form thoughts beyond ‘ohmygodohmygodohmygod!’ and there is nothing Steve would change about that. 

Not even when the nurse rushes in to check on the screeching monitor because Steve’s heart rate is going through the roof.

***

The feeling of a cold arm around his waist pulls Steve from his slumber, the cold chest against his back waking him up a bit more. He shivers when its owner pulls him closer, their legs tangling together.

“Fuck, your feet are freezing!” Steve exclaims sleepily, attempting to move away, but Billy wraps his limbs around him like an overly amorous octopus.

“Sorry, baby. Livi went to the bathroom and got scared of the dark once she woke up fully. We really need to get those nightlights we’ve been talking about to put in the hallway,” Billy says, his lips kissing a trail along Steve’s bare shoulder.

“Mmmm, good idea,” Steve replies, barely listening because the kisses feel too nice. When Billy nibbles on the crook of his neck, Steve lets out a soft moan and, damn, he wants more. He turns around in Billy’s arms, spreadings both hands on Billy’s chest, the tips of his fingers finding the familiar grooves of the scars covering the hard muscles.

Steve moves a hand up to bury in Billy’s hair, the golden curls longer now than they were a year ago, and pulls lightly. He finds Billy’s lips in the dark and licks into his mouth, swallowing Billy’s needy grunt. Steve starts a slow grind against the thigh Billy slotted between his legs as the kiss gets sloppy. 

He lets out a loud groan when he feels Billy’s hardening cock against his. Billy squeezes his ass in warning.

“Shhhh, Stevie, not so loud, you’ll wake the baby,” Billy whispers as he ends the kiss to nip at Steve’s jaw.

Steve bites his lip to stop the whimpers as Billy moves to his neck, licking the spot he knows full well makes Steve melt. “Billy, baby, you’re really not helping,” Steve bites out, trying to stay quiet when Billy pushes him onto his back and straddles him. “Fuck…”

Billy’s throaty chuckle against his ear hits Steve right in the dick. “That’s the idea, pretty boy.” He punctuates that with another nibble on his neck and a hard grind of his hips.

Steve grabs Billy’s thighs with both hands and digs his fingers in. “Billy!” he warns with an urgent whisper, knowing full well it will only spur Billy on. Billy rolls his hips again, making Steve gasp.

“You fucker!”

“Aww, baby, don’t be like that,” Billy says against Steve’s collarbone as he sucks a hickey Steve knows he will need to hide under a high-collared shirt tomorrow. “You know I’ll make you feel good,” Billy adds, hands snaking between them, fingers tangling in the thick mat of Steve’s chest hair.

Steve knows what’s coming and he is powerless to stop it. Billy pulls and Steve’s hips arch off the bed, his teeth biting down on his bottom lip in a mammoth effort to stay quiet. Steve knows exactly what look Billy is giving him right now even if it’s too dark to actually see it. That look that says he’s proud of himself but only getting started…

“Billy, please…” Steve isn’t sure what he’s asking for, but if the past year loving this man has taught him anything, it’s that Billy will deliver.

“I got you.” Billy gets off of him then and Steve feels the loss of his weight on him keenly.

A shudder goes through Steve when he feels Billy’s hands on his hips, sliding in towards his crotch, and he spreads his legs to accommodate his boyfriend. He bites down on a moan when Billy settles between his thighs. 

“Shhhh,” Billy whispers as he mouths Steve’s hard dick over his pants and Steve slams a pillow over his face because there’s no way he can stay quiet, especially not when Billy reaches under the waistband of his pajama pants, his fingers extracting Steve’s dick and giving it a squeeze.

“Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck,” Steve whispers, panting already, and trying—really trying—to make as little noise as possible. 

When Billy licks a stripe from root to tip, Steve’s free hand grabs the bedding next to him, clutching the sheet with desperate fingers. 

When Billy sucks on the head of his cock, Steve’s breath stutters, then his entire body bows from the effort to stay quiet when Billy takes him all the way down.

It’s too much, too wet, too tight, too warm, too good, and Steve knows he’s not gonna last very long, not with the way Billy is going to town on his dick from the word go. Steve wishes there was more light in the room so he could watch because it’s a sight he never tires from.

He feels Billy’s fingers leave his hip and slide inward, brushing past his balls, then further south. The moment Billy’s fingertips touch his rim, it’s all over. The fingers digging into his hip are the only thing anchoring him to the bed as Steve bites down on the pillow he’s still holding over his face in an attempt to keep from waking up everyone on their street.

He’s only vaguely aware of Billy climbing up his body and removing the pillow, allowing him to catch his breath. He’s pretty sure Billy sucked his soul through his dick and somehow melted every bone in his body as well.

“You okay, pretty boy?” Billy asks and Steve can hear his grin.

“Uh huh.” Steve can’t make words right now, he’s pretty sure his brain leaked out his ears or something. RIP last brain cell.

Billy wraps one arm around him, pulling him close, and Steve manages to roll onto his side to rest his head on Billy’s chest. He hums happily, his fingers playing idly with the scar on Billy’s chest. 

“Billy?” Steve asks, breaking the comfortable silence they are lying in. He's glad they didn't wake the baby up. He doesn’t regret offering Robin and Heather a weekend off parenting so they could get a break, but keeping the noise down when Billy does unspeakable things to him is exhausting. 

“Yeah?”

“Do you think…?”

Steve stops then, trying to articulate the thought he just had, even though his brain wants to sleep because he just had an orgasm and it's the middle of the night.

“What is it?”

“Do you think you'd want to get married on a beach?”

“Pretty boy?” Billy asks, his hand stopping mid stroke on Steve’s arm.

“I mean, I know it's not legal or anything, not yet anyway, but one day…”

“If that's your proposal, it needs work, princess.”

Steve drops a kiss on Billy's chest. “Nah, just wondering. When I propose to you, you'll know for sure.”

“What if I propose to you first?”

THE END

I did some doodles for this fic, because I could... (chapter 1 and chapter 4)

#harringrove #billy hargrove #steve harrington #billy x steve #harringrove big bang #harringrove bigbang #harringrovebigbang #dragonflylady77 #mr steve and the monster hunter

[shygirl4991]

Azure Potion Chapter 1 The Truth will set you free

Summary: When SMG3 accidentally drinks a truth potion he ends up confessing his crush on SMG4 to Mario and Meggy. Sworn to secrecy the pair come up with a plan to find out Fours feelings and get the boys together.  Fic inspired by Indigo Secret by @lizaluvsthis Next Chapter Tags: fluff, humor, truth potion, love confessions, secret crush, first kiss, coffee and bombs! Can also read fic on AO3 and on wattpad SMG3 smiles while walking into the dark web with Mario and Meggy, today he was on a mission to get ingredients to make his popular SMG3 blast bomb. Meggy looks around on alert, she remembers how SMG4 told her about the dangers of this area which is why she came here in the first place. Earlier in the day she overheard SMG3 talk about going to the dark web to SMG4, Mario jumps in saying how he wanted to join to get closer to Three. There was no way she could leave her two friends to go into danger alone so she also volunteered to join the adventure.

A strange man in a hoodie walks up to SMG3 waving a bag around “Hey buddy need a popular social media account? How about some government secrets?” Meggy glares at the man ready for anything. SMG3 hums thinking the man's words over “Ya know having some government secrets couldn't hurt.”

Meggy steps in front of SMG3 frowning “What! SMG3 no, you know what Four said we can't trust anyone!”

SMG3 chuckles as he hands a bit coin to the man and takes out a small file from the bag, Mario peeks over three shoulders to see what was inside. “Meggy, I was a villain, remember? I spent more time here than I can count, I know what I'm doing.”

She rolls her eyes and turns away from the boys “Fine but if something goes wrong im not helping!”

Three waves her off as he puts the file in his hat and continues walking, after a while of walking they end up in a strange looking abandoned building. “Oooooh so scary!” Mario peeks in the window to see if anyone was in only to see a counter with glowing food and drinks. His eyes locked onto the food then dashed into the building “Mario wait!” Three runs after the plumber with Meggy following behind.

Meggy looks around on edge while Three holds back Mario from eating the food “Dude we are in the dark web you think glowing food means something good?!”

They all freeze when they hear laughter in the dark. “My food is safe, I'm just a lonely witch doctor that loves to cook.” Out of the shadows a tall woman in a strange cloak comes out, she smiles at them as she grabs a glowing blue drink and offers it to Mario. Three holds Mario closer to him staring at the drink, seeing this the woman chuckles “Are you his partner? I assure you it's safe to drink.”

“Partner?! Him?! I’m more like his caretaker and I know how you people work, what is it? Love potion? Poison?” Three wasn't about to let his guard down and from the looks of Meggy he knew he wasn't alone. The woman chuckles as she puts the drink right next to a plate of spaghetti, seeing this he can feel Mario shake harder in his arms. He can feel Mario slowly slip from his grasp, the woman walks away from the group and lets out a sigh “Well if you don't want anything then leave, i don't like trespassers.”

Three was ready to drag Mario out but with all the struggling he finally lost his grasp as he watched Mario escape his arms “Squid the pasta!”

Meggy dashes hitting the table to stop Mario, all the food and drinks fly into the air as Meggy pins down Mario “Red no! Remember what four said: nothing in the dark web can be trusted!” Mario frowns when he realizes that he won't be eating the spaghetti, seeing this Meggy slowly lets him go and smiles “I will get four to make you some at home to make up okay?”

Three runs around dodging all the food and drinks falling down from the hit Meggy did to the table, he trips on a loose floorboard falling to the floor. Meggy and Mario turn, seeing the blue drink hitting another flask cracking it, the two could only watch in horror as the blue liquid spills right into SMG3's mouth the moment he turns around.

They hold their breath as they stare at three, he pats his body looking around in a panic only to notice nothing different. They all let out a sigh of relief then all agreed to run out before that strange woman finds out what happened. “Man happy to be out of that place,” Meggy smiles, being back in the dark woods of the dark web. SMG3 nods as he finally spots the store he was looking for. They go in getting all the items they need, SMG3 smiles as he rechecks the bag excited to get to work “Ha bet SMG4 will be surprised when i show him an upgraded version of my SMG3 blast bomb!” he may have gone overboard getting certain types of powders but it didn't matter much to him. Mario chuckles “Excited to get back to your boyfriend huh?”

SMg3 scoffs “I wish he was,” three drops the bag and covers his mouth confused. Meggy stops walking, turning to the pair confused “everything alright you two? Why did you guys stop walking?”

Mario was surprised by the reply, smirking, he pushed the topic “You wish? Ooooh SMG3 are you gay for SMG4?”

He starts to sweat as he slowly removes his hand from his mouth “Why are you asking that idiot!! Of course I have been for years..AH NO WHY AM I SAYING THIS!!!” seeing this Meggy gasp remembering the drink. SMG3 was panicking as Mario was having the time of his life “Mario knew you were, you should tell him!”

SMG3 glares “Ah yeah tell four that i have been crushing on him for years would really go well! Shit what is wrong with me!?” Meggy smacks Mario before going to Three to help him relax. Once three stops panicking she gives him a nervous look “Remember that blue liquid you drank? I think the reason you are saying this stuff is because it was a truth potion.”

The world froze for Three, there was no way he could go back home with this he fought hard to keep his notebook from others to have his own mouth out him. Meggy looks back at the abandoned building and lets out a sigh “I can sneak in and see how long this potion lasts, but Mario don't go asking weird stuff of three!”

She was going to walk away only to be stopped by Three, he hands her a bomb and smiles “You never know when you have to solve modern day problems right?” She smiles while taking the bomb “Thanks three,” he shakes his head and blushes embarrassed by the whole situation and for his confession “I should be thanking you for taking this risk, I would help but god knows what would happen if that chick comes back and asks something.”

With a nod she leaves Three and Mario at the shop, she felt guilty about this mess if she didn't hit the table the way she did the potion never would have landed on three. She had to make it up to him. She sees the abandoned building and runs to it. Looking around she notices that the mess has been cleaned up, meaning the woman in the building knows what they have done. With a sigh she sneaks in looking around for a book or anything that could help figure out the potion.

She slowly walks into the back room and sees a huge book next to a bunch of strange flowers, she notices some of the flowers glowing like the potion and decides to pocket them. She peeks out the door making sure no one is around before opening the book, she flips through the pages and groans “Why do you have to be such a big book!”

Hearing the door to the room open she squeaks and hides, she hears footsteps stop at the book humming “Did you find the answer you were looking for?” the woman starts walking again. Meggy takes out her splatgun ready for a fight if need be, the footsteps stop right behind Meggy as she holds her breath waiting to see the woman's next move. She hears a chuckle as she tosses a bottle next to Meggy causing a mist to fill the room blinding the human squid. The woman laughs as she peeks around the corner where Meggy was at, she fires her splatgun only to miss due to the mist.

Meggy gets up and starts to run looking for the door “Leaving so soon dear?” the woman throws another potion near Meggy. It explodes knocking her into the book, she looks up and sees the page it landed on was the one she needed. She rips out a couple pages before getting up again, hearing another potion thrown Meggy runs to another spot annoyed by the mist. Then she remembers the bomb, taking it out, smirks as she lights it. “Sorry but I have a date with two loveable idiots, so I can't stay long.”

She tosses the bomb making a hole in the wall helping the mist leave the room, once clear she makes a mad dash out of the building with the woman screaming at her.

Three was getting worried about the time, it felt like hours since Meggy had gone to learn about the potion. He decides to go looking for her with Mario, as they walk through the woods they hear an explosion nearby. Three starts running to the sound with Mario right behind him, he knows his bombs and that explosion was one of his. “Meggy! Are you around here!?”

Mario started to get worried climbing one of the trees to get a better look “MEEEEGGY!!!”

“Over here!” Meggy was hiding behind a tree waving at the boys, relief washed over the pair as they ran up to her. SMG3 checked her for any injuries “You don't seem hurt, what happened?”

She smiles flashing the pages she took “Just got in a small fight but look what i got!” Three stared in awe as he took the pages and started reading them, Mario seeing that Meggy was okay pulled her into a tight hug “Don't scare Mario like that again!”

Three frowns as he reads the pages “I’m stuck like this for a whole week! Oh no what am i going to do…” he falls to his knees dropping the pages. Meggy and Mario share a look as they go to comfort SMG3, he closes his eyes as he feels the two next to him “I need you both to swear, you won't tell anyone especially SMG4 my feelings for him.” Meggy smiles and nods “I swear, after all things like this should be done when you're ready to confess, right Mario?”

Mario rubs his chin thinking, that's when he notices the death stare SMG3 was giving him, throwing any thoughts the plumber had to make a joke go out the window “SWEAR TO ME MARIO!”

The plumber nods “Mario swears!”

SMG3 relaxes as he looks at the pages again and frowns, there was no way he could talk to four. It was too risky, he needed to come up with a plan to keep his distances for a whole week. He gets up holding his bag of ingredients and now the pages of the truth potion and sighs, SMG4 was right the dark web is a dangerous place.

#fluff #smg34 #smg4 #smg43 #love confessions #truth potion #first kiss #idiots in love #Azure potion #shygirl4991 #shygirl4991 fanfiction

[ofbluesandyellows]

Figure You Out - Steddie / Steve Spider-Man AU

Summary: Steve has a big fat crush on Eddie Munson. He would consider telling him about it, Robin being very pushy over this but his life is based on saving the city as the one and only Spider-Man. One thing he didn’t see coming was Eddie Munson catching feelings for him, but not as Steve Harrington but as the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. Now he has to deal with this while trying to find balance so his poor heart won’t get crushed between the boy he likes and his life as a hero. This is definitely not the best of both worlds.

Word count: 8,592

Warnings: mentions of blood, violence, injuries and pretty much all spider-man related.

a/n: I posted this on ao3 last year i think and forgot to post it here too, so here it is. Hope you like it, based on tweets I saw of Steve being our sweet Spidey. This was supposed to be a one-shot but it ended up being too long so I divided it in two. Anyway, hope you enjoy this as much as I did writing it :) x

Hell’s kitchen was known to be one of the less safer places to walk around during the witch hour. 

For Eddie though it was just another Thursday night after band rehearsal.

Corroded Coffin was finally getting recognized, two parties booked within the next couple of weeks, one of them being from one of those stupidly rich white kids from the upper east side. They even got half the money in advance. Thanks to that, the band got a new set of mics, a bunch of guitar picks and drumsticks for Gareth. That boy always found a way to break them-on purpose—or just throw them to the crowd when they played at the local bar on Saturdays. He needed to stop that for the sake of the band’s bank account.

The rolling down of the shed door of the little bodega Jeff’s mom owned made enough noise to at least keep the muggers away, but the sound coming from one of the dumpsters in the alley beside the rehearsal room caught Eddie’s attention, a wave of fear found place in his chest.

“Hello?” he shouted, clearing his throat. The voice came out a bit shaky. 

The darkness in the alley was definitely not helping him clock the source of noise, however he could spot a bundle of something moving between the smelly trash containers.

Eddie took a big breath in, this is how he always got in trouble, pushing his luck, trying to do what others wouldn’t just because he knew exactly how being left aside felt like, maybe the bundle was a delinquent but hey what if it was a stray cat? What if it was hurt? He couldn’t let that happen, leaving a poor cat to die alone. So he grasped his guitar case a little harder, the strap coming over his shoulder. Ready to flee if it was necessary.

Eddie stepped forward, one, two steps, his body in alert, the bundle quickly moved and the next thing he knew, his hand was plastered on the concrete wall. 

“What in the shit!” Eddie gasped, more amazed than scared for his life.

“Don’t move, or I’ll web your mouth too.” The voice said from a hidden spot in the dark.

“Okay… um I just thought you needed help or something, heard the noises and,” Eddie half shrugged, now more confident knowing exactly who he was talking to. The webs gave him away.

“I’m fine, just a little dizzy.” 

“Hey man, just wanted to help, can you un-web me now? I gotta go home.”

The figure got close to Eddie, the full suit now on display under the dim light the lamp post provided. As he expected Spider-Man in his red and blue suit sprayed something over his wrist. 

The web fluid dissolved in a matter of seconds, leaving a faint smell of roses in the air, Eddie wondered if that was new, he didn’t remember the webs having a smell.

The superhero wobbled a little in place, a hand came up to grab the wall, but instead it got Eddie’s shoulder.

“Hey, you okay? Listen, if this is some kind of trick to check if I have something on, I can tell you now that I don’t have any grass on me this time spider-boy” Eddie said hands up in the air as if that was enough to declare him innocent.

As a first replay he got a low grunt, “It’s Spider-Man… jeez, how many times do I have to repeat it?” Spider-Man was really not in the mood that night, Eddie noticed.

This wasn’t their first rodeo, Eddie was pretty much his fink, in how the drug dealing world was running under the eyes of the mafia, but that was for another occasion, as for that moment Spider-man was dealing with a concussion and a few broken ribs, he could feel them bothering him from the inside, bad bruising already forming. At least if he rested for the rest of the night he could be good as new for brunch.

The thing was that he couldn’t swing home and there was no way he was going to walk, that would only make him an easy target.

“So, bug boy are you okay? Do you need help?” 

Spider-Man did his best to shake his head but the dizziness was taking over his body, if only he had protected his head when he got electrocuted earlier he wouldn’t be in this situation. 

“I am… not, but I’ll be okay, just need a second to-“

Eddie grabbed the poor boy as he was falling face first on the ground. Jesus, he had never seen him like that, and he had seen a lot of Spider-man in the past, blood and bad punches landing on the arachnid dude.

“Man, let me just… help you here.” Eddie managed–in a very surprising way–to half-carry Spider-Man to the edge of the street, he lived a couple of blocks down but he was not risking it, if a cop saw him carrying the friendly neighborhood Spidey around he’d get in trouble. And to be fair he liked Spider-Man, he was always nice to him.

So the roll up shed now made a creaky wild sound as it opened, Eddie ran to leave his guitar inside, running once again to get Spider-Man with him. A hand over his shoulder, and low growls coming from the hero by his side. 

The only couch they had in the rehearsal room was occupied by the masked human, as Eddie quickly dragged down the shed one more time. Maybe Eddie was too well trained in these things, which worried Spider-Man a lot as he watched the young man move around carrying water, a bottle of whiskey and a roll of paper. The stuff scattered at Eddie's feet, he kneeled down to level up with Spidey, even in these conditions he felt his heart quicken, his senses re-activating and he wanted to convince himself it was just because he was in pain, nothing else.

“Hey man, so what hurts?” 

“Everything, but nothing is bleeding. At least not that I’ve noticed, maybe a cut on the jaw but nothing too bad, the thing is the head, I fell from the fourth floor or a building.”

“Well, that was pretty stupid of you bug boy.” Eddie chuckled, it made Spidey scoff.

“Yeah, but I got what I needed anyway.”

Eddie nodded, holding the bottle of water so Spidey could hold it, who instantly shook his hand.

“I just need a second to get my shit together.”

“Okay… you can use the place as you find it more useful.” Eddie nodded, eyes intently watching Spider-Man.

This was so weird to him, the hero and him had a work kind of relationship, nothing too friendly, nothing too formal they got what they needed form the other so that was it. But Eddie had never seen him this up close, the huge eyes, the texture of the suit was freaking cool and the way his web shooters were strategically placed in his wrist.

A crippling feeling of curiosity and morbidity crossed his mind, if he could only see who was under the mask… maybe that would cure his steamy dreams about the arachnid hero. Dammit, Eddie had never thought about that out of his home this was a new unlocked level.

He felt a little bit attracted to Spider-Man which was bad enough as it was, but everyone kind of had a crush on the guy, a hero getting his ass beaten for the sake of the city was hot. Seeing him work was even hotter.

“You okay, Munson?” 

And that, the fact that he knew his name always caused him to feel something flutter in his stomach. 

Eddie cleared his throat, again, scratching his neck, trying to act cool, “yeah, yeah why?”

“You’re looking at me weird.” 

Dammit he had noticed.. wait–had he been watching him too?

“Me? No, no pff…I was just wondering if you were going to die on the couch, what would I do with your body, don’t want the police coming after me just because you were stupid,”

The deep rumble of a laughter Spider-Man let out followed by a whine made Eddie feel proud of the achievement and also concerned for the injuries he couldn’t see.

“You are not getting rid of me that easily, I just got a few broken ribs… not dying tonight.” 

“Okay, okay that’s good,”

The silence that fell over the two of them was a bit jarring, almost too heavy to bear, the tension building. Eddie sat with his back resting on the couch, near enough to hear spidey’s breathing but respectful enough to not look at his moving body, he was tempted enough by having him there.

“So you have a band?” Spidey asked. 

“Uh, yeah. We recently got the place so you were lucky you found me and not one of the boys.” 

“My hero,” and that was probably a little too much for Eddie to bear, he laughed it off, pretending to not feel his cheeks grow hot, lowering his head the curly locks served as hiding from the embarrassment.

“Well, we play at a bar near the theater district on Saturdays and some Sundays too, when the main band cancels at the last minute, the pay is shit but the crowd seems to enjoy it so we keep doing it.”

“Sounds fun,” the voice sounded a bit forced, but his ribs were hurting more and more, meaning it was healing, that was the most exhausting and painful part of it all. “I don’t know, maybe I’ll come by.”

Maybe it was the pain that made Steve talk a little too much, but if his spidey senses weren’t off he was sure that the flirting wasn’t only on his part, he saw Eddie smile and almost heard his heartbeat get a notch or two faster, matching his own.

“That’d be great, let me know so you don’t have to pay cover. Could save you a few bucks.”

“Heaven knows I should be saving some money.”

Eddie laughed, “tell me about it,”

The night went away in little chats until Eddie started to feel the heaviness of sleep. Steve felt his hand twitch, the urge to brush the curls away from Eddie’s face, he wanted to touch Eddie, but he contained himself. How creepy can one be just by staring at someone sleeping? Wearing a spandex suit watching a man sleep by his side, yeah he came to the conclusion of how creepy he was, so he did what Spider-Man was best at.

Escape.

Running away from the scene after the job was done, that, and beating the shit out of the bad guys, Steve loved that. It made him feel useful for once, his parents would shit their pants if they saw him now, but it was good that they stayed far away from him, one less worry in his life. 

The swinging wasn’t that bad, maybe because it was past four in the morning, his body had mostly healed thanks to Eddie’s words and soft laughs. Crawling up to the ninth floor of the apartment he shared with Robin, he opened the window and finally let his body plop on the bed, mask out, suit crumpled on the floor. Only boxers and soft bed sheets.

***

Steve felt the now very common flutter in his stomach when Eddie appeared at the doors of the book store Steve and Robin worked at. This being Steve’s second job, the newspaper he worked for paid very little for his Spider-Man pics hence he had to work somewhere else so he could at least be able to pay the damn rent. 

“You like The Smiths?” Eddie asked Steve when he pointed to the shirt he was wearing.

“Uh yeah, they’re cool I guess…”

“If you like depressive shit I supposed you’re right” Eddie smirked.

Steve felt his heart summersault, oh why was he there?

“Rude, but good point.” 

“Dude did you not sleep or what? You look like shit.” 

Steve half smiled, recalling Eddie’s tranquil sleeping self, “college is killing me man, that’s all.”

“See, you should just not do that, school’s only another way to control you Stevie,”

Stevie , ugh could he just say what he wanted and leave? Steve hated and loved when he called him that, but he refused to say a word.

“What are you doing here Eddie, we have work to do.” Robin appeared with a tower of new arrivals that needed to be put in the system. “Steve, you start with these, I'll do the arrangement.” She turned and observed Eddie, expectant.

Steve rolled his eyes, he loathed doing the lists and checking shit in the system, and he had to face the damn screen instead of Eddie, what a nightmare. Eddie’s laugh got cut short, by a sharp look Robin threw him.

“What do you mean what am I doing here ?” He leaned on the counter.

“Well, for starters you’re here in a really good mood and it’s not even twelve in the afternoon so something must have happened, don’t think you’re here to buy books, or are you Eddie?” Robin pointed as a matter of fact.

Eddie scoffed, offended almost. Steve’s ears perked trying to listen to what he was about to say a wry smile on his lips.

“Nothing, I just like hanging out with you guys, or is that wrong mood-police Buckley?” 

Robin squinted at him and Eddie felt his faux confidence weaver, “shit, okay I—“ he leaned closer on the counter, checking around to see if no one was hearing him, he whispered “I was with Spider-Man last night, the poor dude was bad injured and I kind of helped, so… yeah happy, Buckley?”

Steve felt it, a pang of panic taking over his body, he swallowed hard but Robin knew better, she had known Steve was Spider-Man for a year now, it was a bit of a mistake, he entered from the balcony and Robin was there watching a Friends marathon, Robin almost knocked him out with her laptop.

“So Spider-Man huh?” Robin kicked Steve under the counter.

He closed his eyes tightly, this was so embarrassing. Robin was a very clever girl. Yes, perhaps Steve had the brains for all the web fluid, electro mechanics and quantum physics but Robin knew how to read people, she was always observing. It took her less time to figure out Steve had a crush on Eddie than for Steve to find out himself he did.

“Yeah, and he was… pretty funny.” Eddie smiled, Robin imitated him, it was so obvious now.

“So you were like hanging out?” 

“You could say so, yeah.” The way Eddie was avoiding Robin’s eyes was the confirmation of her theory, his flushed face was also not helping his case.

“Eddie Munson! You have the hots for Spidey?” 

Steve froze, his breathing hitched, his hands felt clammy, heart skipped several beats. Senses alert. It was impossible for him not to turn and see Eddie’s reaction, there was a hint of fear but also some enlightenment. 

“What?” Eddie gasped, “Having the hots for him? I mean, do you like him, Robin? Don’t we all like him?” he let an airy-shaky laugh out, “He is cool and saves people… I work for the dude so yeah I like him I guess.”

Robin rolled her eyes, yeah Steve and Eddie were made for each other, two idiots.

“I mean it as in ‘you like him’ and you want to kiss him type of way.”

“Robin-“ Steve said, warning her.

Eddie’s eyes went from his ringed fingers to Steve’s face to finally find Robin’s blue eyes, he felt the heat cover his neck and cheeks and damn, he had been caught.

“Hmm, I— I may like him… like that yeah.” His eyebrows furrowed slightly.

And Steve, Steve felt like he could faint there, his heart was beating so fast it may as well just burst and let him die there. 

Only problem was that Eddie liked Spider-Man not Steve Harrington, that was something had to keep in mind.

“Knew it!!” Robin shouted, making customers turn. “So, something must have happened for you to be this happy.” 

Eddie sighed, palms hitting the surface of the desk, “We were flirty but nothing else, he disappeared when I fell asleep so I don’t know, Buckley. It felt nice but nothing happened, Spider-Man has a million and one things to worry about to be thinking of me or… whatever. I just don’t want to overthink it, okay?”

“Who knows, maybe he likes you back.” Robin half shrugged.

“Please don’t.” Eddie said as a bunch of books fell at Steve’s feet, “Jesus, careful there Harrington.”

“What?” Steve was doing his best to keep it cool, to not run away, to not shoot webs at Robin’s mouth to keep it as closed as possible. He was panicking big time but he couldn’t let it show, jeez why was he reacting like this, this information was a good sign.

“You’re a bit pale man,” Eddie pointed, but Steve just needed to get out, grab some air, disappear, think.

“I–I need to go check something, I’ll be back. Good for you man!” 

Steve didn’t let anyone stop him, he almost fell over a client on his way to the back exit. 

The cool air from late February hit his face, he forgot to grab his jacket and his backpack. He could always get back later for them, so he walked away from the book place. This was not how he had planned things, this was never part of the plan, any of it, not falling for Eddie, not make him work for Spider-Man, not Eddie developing feels for Spider-Man but dammit, this was all his fault, he had been sloppy and too confident in the suit, letting his feels leak, knowing Eddie wouldn’t recognize him so he let the words escape and now he was going to have to deal with Eddie falling for Spidey and not him.

Fuck my life.

Spidey and him were one and the same but they were completely different too. Steve was nice and kind and a big nerd but he was always overthinking actions and words, pretending to be cool while Spider-Man had to be confident in the decision making, witty, fast thinking, always alert and being smooth. It was obvious Eddie would fall for that version of him instead of his real self. 

It sucked but it was also a good sign wasn’t it? He was so confused. 

***

Eddie was late for band rehearsal, he was crossing the busy streets with his guitar on the back, to be fair he was always late that’s why his bandmates usually arrived thirty to forty minutes later than what was agreed just to assure Eddie arrived in time. This time it wasn’t Eddie’s fault, well maybe half of it was his fault, the other half was on his curiosity.

His eye caught a glimpse of something blue, it wasn’t the kind of blue from dumpsters or simple trash bags. It was a bright sky blue tone. It was an odd place to find a backpack, one that seemed oddly familiar, but he couldn’t remember where he had seen it before. Still this one had a very distinguishing feature that made it a bit too easy to find the owner of it; the blue backpack was plastered on the wall, webs covering the whole thing in an alley in midtown. It belonged to Spider-Man or that was Eddie’s conclusion, a pretty obvious one if he could say.

Looking on all directions-as if someone even cared what he did- he stepped in the alley, pushing his long locks away he examined the almost artsy piece, he was not going to be able to get it off from its spot, not with all the mush of sticky webs but Eddie’s curiosity was bigger than any obstacle or web in his way. The idea of knowing Spider-Man’s identity had been bouncing in his mind for days now so maybe if he could only get a look of the inside he could at least find out something about the masked hero, it sounded so not right but Eddie was really getting desperate about it. 

From the side of the bag he was able to open the zipper only enough for him to grab a notebook. A smug smile spread on his lips as he flipped through the pages, there were drawings, lots of formulas, prototypes of different kinds of webs and web shooters. Eddie could tell that Spidey was not a good artist but he was good enough to make Eddie picture the final product. His eyes landed on a formula about a new web dissolver , an improved version, a biodegradable one with a hint of peppermint smell. 

It made Eddie smile. Spider-Man was not only fighting corruption and evil on the streets but he cared for the environment, his stomach fluttered, damn he was falling hard, and he kind of hated it. 

Eddie heard noise coming from the opposite side of the alley, hard footsteps and panting. Swallowing, he did what he did most of the times in this kind of situation, run, at least he had that in common with Spider-Boy. Moving fast to the main street, dodging people and mixing with the crowd, until he entered a convenience store, realizing then that he didn’t put the notebook back.

“Oh shit,” 

Eddie could be lots of things but not a petty thief, he took a second to relax and act as normal as possible, he knew he could look suspicious not only because he was panting but for the way he looked, the hair, the clothes; it wouldn’t be the first time someone asked him to empty his guitar case. 

After buying a packet of gum he went back to the alley to find nothing, the backpack was gone making his stomach drop, how was he supposed to get that back? 

Trying to remember what feature form the backpack could be useful to even try and track Spidey was kind of a waste of time, he came to the conclusion that this would be way easier if half the population didn’t wear a damn JanSport backpack for school.

With a sigh and defeat, Eddie decided to walk to rehearsal with a brown notebook in hand, one that he was grasping a little too tightly against his side. 

As rehearsal went easy and actually freaking fantastic, Eddie’s mind often drifted to the notebook that got shoved down his guitar case, he didn’t need any of his friends to find out about it.  

Eddie practically ran up the stairs to his apartment, almost carelessly tossing his guitar on the couch where he also plopped his body a moment after. 

The notebook rested against his knees as he kicked off the boots he was wearing. Eyes landed on a little calendar drawn with pink markers. His eyes widened seeing all the stuff Spidey had to do in the upcoming days.

Work, work, work, class, class, test prototype, work, buy bread, sent email, sleep (if possible) 

Eddie scrunched his nose, Spidey worked a bit too much for Eddie’s liking but he guessed maybe being a superhero was a very exhausting and demanding thing. He could never do that, he was too selfish and lazy to swing across the city to rescue cats and punch men in suits. 

The tip of his finger traveled across days and small notes Spider-Man left across the improvised calendar, formulas and reminders of things he needed to buy, very average, he huffed not finding anything useful. That until a note stuck out from the bunch of letters, in a very bright green ink, on the 18th; a Saturday night. It read: Corroded Coffin :)

Eddie’s heart somersaulted, it almost made him drop the thing on the floor. So Spider-Man was planning on going to see his band. Hell, Eddie had been in love in the past but somehow his insides have never twisted and jumped that way before. Spider-Man was gonna go see him next Saturday, he had no idea how but he knew he had to tell the bouncer about not charging the hero anything, that was going to be a hard thing to explain. 

Christ. Now he was feeling the small but persistent fear erupting in his chest. How was he supposed to spot him, was he even going to see him, was he ready to finally see who was under the iconic Spider-Man suit?

Too many questions yet no answers, just fear and anxiety building. He may as well relax and smoke a joint or just spiral into a very uncomfortable mix of fucked up emotions and chest pains.

***

“What do you mean you lost it? Again, Steve? Seriously?” 

Yeah, this was the third time this month, but Steve was sure this time his backpack was secured between a dumpster and the wall, hidden nicely, like who in their right mind would go there to steal a backpack. He even added more than two layers of web, making sure it got very well plastered between that nasty green plastic trash cube.

“Robin, do you think I wanted this? Cut me some slack would you? I don’t know how this keeps happening, I don’t have the money nor the energy to keep buying these things, the man at the store looks at me like I’m stupid or playing joke on him,”

Steve brushed his hair back, clearly frustrated, he had his books and notebooks for college there, good thing that he didn’t left any web cartridges or web shooters there as he used to, not after that one time he forgot it in a place he shouldn’t have and got caught in a fire in Brooklyn. Half a year of advanced tests on electroshock webs gone to waste.

“Well maybe you are kind of stupid, dingus. Like are you kidding me? You have sticky fingers you could put that backpack up on a rooftop or a lamp post, I don’t know but not somewhere where it could get easily stolen,” 

Steve grunted, he was not going to admit that Robin had a point and it was a good idea to put it on a high spot. He felt too annoyed so instead, he kept on retouching the photos he had to send to his boss before the day ended. 

“At this rate you should really think on carrying your stuff in a paper bag, cheaper and probably then thieves would care two fucks about stealing your shit.” 

She closed the door to her room, leaving Steve in the living room, alone.

“I guess I’ll have to ask Henderson to lend me a backpack.” He said out loud to no one.

He texted the boy those exact words, receiving an emoji with the middle finger up and a crying face.

Dustin:

Again Steve? Are you fucking kidding me?

Steve:

Fine, don’t do it… you and Robin are so annoying 

I’m not telling you guys anything ever again

Dustin:

Oh yeah? As if that would make you less of an idiot

Steve:

You know what? Fuck you Henderson, have a good day.

Ten minutes later Dustin replied with an emoji of a face rolling its eyes:

Dustin:

You are such a kid, this is the last time I lend you something, 

pick it up later today.

Steve smiled, he knew Dustin was going to give in eventually, not like his roommate.

Steve:

Thanks man, I appreciate it

Dustin:

I don’t care about appreciation, 

just pay me for the last backpack I bought for you

Steve scoffed but agreed to the terms. Dustin Henderson was a good kid and he always did everything to help Steve, a true guy in the chair for Spider-Man’s work.

When his photoshop skills were used and his fingers got tired of fixing light and erasing red eyes he was ready, almost too on the edge to process how he was going to deal with seeing Ed—Corroded Coffin that night. He was there not only for Eddie, he was there to take photos of the band and maybe if his boss let him, to post something about them in the website of the newspaper. 

He was being optimistic as he dressed accordingly to the night. Robin helped him pick up his outfit not because she had better style than him, but because Steve was too nervous he didn’t know if a leather jacket was too much or if he could just go wearing a black hoodie.

Yes, he wanted to impress or at least catch Eddie’s attention for once and not when he did clumsy shit or when he was asking questions about his D&D campaigns, this being something he had no clue what was about. 

“Robin I look fucking ridiculous, I can’t wear that shirt with this jeans it’s too monochromatic for me.” 

“You look nice!” 

Steve checked himself again in the mirror, he looked okay but it wasn’t his style, an all black outfit was a little too boring. He took off the jacket and looked around, his only other options were a white simple t-shirt, a yellow button up shirt and some old blue David Bowie shirt he couldn’t remember where or how he got it in the first place. 

With a deep sigh he tried the yellow one, Robin nodded as she rested her head on her hand, elbow on the bed, body sprawled over his bed. 

“I like it,” she said, giving him a thumb up.

“Are you insane? This yellow is not matching the yellow from the bananas on my socks!” 

She slapped her forehead, “you are such a diva Steve,”

He pushed the shirt away, pulling over the white t-shirt instead.

“Is this too basic?” he almost twirled around for Robin to see him.

She was checking her nails, the boredom was palpable on her features, “no if you add the jacket and the scarf.”

“Hmmm…” he tried the black jacket, not convinced yet, he went and put on the scarf Robin had picked earlier for him, “okay, maybe and only maybe I’ll give you credit for this.” 

He checked his butt and his profile, he looked good. 

“I always have the reason you just hate admitting it.” 

Steve smirked, “someone has to humble you once in a while Robin.”

“Whatever, just hurry we’ll be late.” 

Robin exited his room and from the other side of the door he heard the tv, that meant she knew Steve was not going to be ready for the next thirty minutes at best.

And she was so right, his hair seemed to be acting up at the worst moment, spry and gel didn’t do much to the cause, and it was stupid to go to a rock concert waring a cap, so he let it be, tired of using a blowdryer he just left it poking out in different directions. 

Avoiding all mirrors, he closed his eyes and sprayed lotion on, tied his combat boots ready to fight the night's demons as Steve Harrington. 

Robin whistled when the boy came out of his room, looking truly like a new version of himself. Steve spent the ride to the bar almost praying to all the stars in the sky that he could at least get Eddie to look at him different, to compliment his efforts and to get pretty damn good pictures of him, at least it would give Steve some kind of excuse to talk to him or even see him around the store to chat about the photos.

The bouncer asked for their names, letting them in at least Robin had done something good and Eddie put her on the list. The bar wasn’t even that big but they had moved the chairs a little further back so if there were any fans of the band they had enough space to gather around the stage. 

“You okay?” Robin asked as they sat down on a table near the stage, two bottles of beer resting on the table’s surface, condensation already showering the bottles.

“I am, why?” Steve felt like his stomach was going to rip open and a million butterflies were going to fly out of his insides but he tried to keep it together, his bouncy knee gave Robin the right answer though.

“Just wanted to check, because here they come.” 

Steve almost snapped his neck, his head turned back and there they were, the band propping their instruments. Eddie plugged his mic and his guitar causing white noise to rumble, mixing with the indie music. 

The noise, the people talking, the dim lights, the smoke floating around, Steve gulped, it seemed like some kind of movie scene where the protagonist would fall in love at first sight with the lead singer of the band, both following a doomed love but a happy ending would appear right around the corner. Of course Steve thought about himself as the main character.

Steve wanted to have a happy ending, he felt he was in the doomed love part of the movie to be fair, he was always the doomed one. 

Eddie turned around, Steve and him connected eyes. It was the wry smile and the pose that made Steve shake in his combat boots, not feeling ready to fight monsters anymore. If only he could channel his Spider-Man side into his Steve self things would be easier. 

“Hey Harrington, take a pic of us doing this shit, it could work for promo for instagram.” Eddie shouted to him. 

And it was almost pathetic for Steve how fast he got up from his chair, placing the camera in front of his face as he approached the stage. Taking the tap off of the lease, he quickly aimed, fixed exposure, zoomed in and a flash splashed the sparkly cymbals along with Eddie’s pale skin. 

Steve lost count of how many photos he took of them doing band stuff but he got a big Eddie smile at the end. Worth it? Totally. 

Robin only shook her head as she observed his friend, it was so obvious how much he liked Eddie, only an idiot wouldn’t notice… oh wait.

“Jesus, Steve. That was painful to watch, may as well throw yourself at Eddie, don’t think he would mind, knowing how much he cares for Spider-Man, he’d be over the moon.” 

“So easy for you to say, imagine if I tell him that me Steve Harrington am-“ Steve leaned closer to Robin and whispered “the Spider-Man he’s been sighing for for the past few months, he’d be so disappointing that it’s me, he’d probably even stop coming to the store and I just can’t risk it Robin, you know it doesn’t work like that.” he sank deeper in his chair, this was definitely not how he expected things to work with Eddie.

“Yeah, yeah I know you can’t go around saying that but still you and you-know-who are one and the same stop being so pessimistic, just tell him you have a crush on him and get over this, I hate seeing you whine.”

“Oh I don’t think you are the most appropriate person to tell me that when you haven’t asked  Nance out in so long, so please leave this for the professionals.”

“Low blow Harrington. You’ll pay for this.” Robin squinted at him.

Steve smiled, “Oh look how I’m shaking, so afraid of you Buckley.” 

Mockery and all, they were both in a very doomed situation. 

***

The show goes in the blink of an eye, Steve got some of the best photos he had ever taken in his life, he was willing to excel in this for obvious reasons.

Steve and Robin found a spot near the bar, they started talking about how crazy it was to see Corroded Coffin play, they were so loud but Eddie had a pretty strong voice, and he was attractive on stage, dragging much more attention once up there.

Steve noticed how girls and boys equally got closer to the stage to see the band perform, sparkly eyes on them, shouts and whistles filling the room as an expression of euphoria and love for music, love for their music. At least Steve could tell all the members of Corroded Coffin enjoyed playing for a crowd of screaming people. They were meant to be there, that was for sure. 

It wasn’t often that Steve took a break from his Spider-Man duties, even Robin got surprised when he told her he was going out with her tonight, he was actually going there to spend time with Eddie, to try his best to exchange a few words other than talking about the weather or what his thoughts were on the new Top Gun movie. But of course he didn’t tell her this.

A tap on the shoulder made him turn, he caught the smirk on Robin’s lips last minute. His eyes went wide as saucers when Eddie appeared there. Steve’s knees barely brushed Eddie’s tights, he felt his breath get stuck in his throat. 

Keep it cool dude.

“Hello my people, did you enjoy it?” Eddie asked, a big grin adorning his rosy lips.

“That was… really awesome man.” Steve blurted out, all smiles and a slight blush on his cheeks. “Got all the ladies screaming your name.”

Eddie shook his head, with a low chuckle, clearly embarrassed. His locks moved all over his still sweaty face. Steve noticed the shimmer on his eyelids, he had put silver sparkles all over it. Now they were smeared and scattered on his skin, cheeks, forehead, nose, lips, neck. He looked too nice, almost ethereal. Steve was staring a little too much, Robin nudged him casually on the leg with her own knee. Steve blinked, and looked elsewhere, his shoes seemed very interesting to look at now.

“Thanks Stevie, it really means a lot coming from someone who only listens to Radiohead and Coldplay��.” Eddie’s hand sneaked up Steve’s shoulder, resting there unmoving.

“They are good bands, come on! You need to admit it.” Steve pointed, he had seen Eddie’s record collection In Rainbows was there, he was certain.

Eddie scoffed, “anyway, what do you think Buckley?” 

Hand still up there, Steve felt the warmth coming through his clothes, it was impossible for him not to notice the slight pressure Eddie was making on the curve of his shoulder. 

“Uh, I really liked it, you look like a real rockstar up there Eddie, and those guitar solos, freaking epic. Tell Jeff that I’d be keeping the drumstick on display at ours, right Steve.”

Robin wobbled the drumstick around. Showoff.

Eddie rolled his eyes. “That little shit keeps on throwing those away as if they costed two bucks,”

“You can’t be a low budget band Eddie! That's not very rock n’ roll of you.” Robin said, wry tone didn’t go unnoticed as Eddie with his free hand pushed her off her stool. “Idiot.” she mumbled, still laughing.

“So can I buy my two favorite fans a beer or what?” Eddie patted Steve on the back, he nodded.

“Sure, why not.” 

A couple beers later, Eddie and his friends were sitting occupying a table, Robin was giggling at something Kevin had said, and Steve was showing around the photos he had taken.

“Still need to make a few edits with the light and stuff but I think you guys look very decent.”

“Decent?” Eddie put a hand on his heart, “we don’t want decent Stevie, we need grunge and metal looking like photos, I mean these are really fantastic man, but don’t tell me we are decent, we are majestic .”

Of course you are. 

Steve laughed, he had a point, they were a pretty great band. Eddie’s eyes were locked on Steve’s for more than two seconds, making his nervous system go into alert, a shiver ran down his arms, fingers twitched, lips parted, maybe and only maybe if he was just as tipsy as Eddie he would be able to say the words he had rehearsal in front of the mirror more times that he liked to admit but he was sober, beers did little to nothing to him, sometimes having enhanced abilities fucked up other things he missed, like getting drunk.

Eddie cleared his throat, eyes lowering, now focusing on the camera’s screen. His fingers pressed buttons passing once again over the photos Steve took, smiling and nodding to what he saw. This made Steve feel proud of his work, but it lasted just a few moments.

The sparkly makeup on Eddie’s eye made his expression look more dramatic, Eddie seemed frozen in place, then he squinted at the image and then his brown eyes found Steve’s again, but this was a shocked expression more than an admiration one.

“You took these?” Eddie asked, passing the camera back to its owner.

“What?” Steve was confused, the small screen showed a photo of Spider-Man swinging through buildings. Dammit, Steve forgot he still had those there, “uh… yeah, I- it’s part of my work.”

Eddie blinked, as if this was the biggest news he had ever heard, “so you know him? You know Spider-Man?”

“Well, yeah… kind of. I take his photos and sell them to the newspaper I work for… you didn’t know?”

This was a genuine question, for some reason he assumed Eddie knew he worked for the Daily Bugle, but yeah he assumed a lot of things, he wasn’t as special as he thought.

“No, no, of course I knew you worked for the bugle, I just had no clue you knew Spider-Man.”

Eddie furrowed his eyebrow, making Steve feel uneasy, he didn’t know what was going through Eddie’s mind but it mustn’t be good if it was making him feel this distressed.

“You okay?”

“Yeah just one second,” Eddie got up, he disappeared where the little green room was supposed to be, only coming back a few minutes later. “Here.”

Something made a thud on the table, the conversations around them kept on going as if nothing had happened, however Steve felt a wave of fear bubble up his chest, his notebook rested on the dirty table, a very serious Eddie sat by his side.

Playing it dumb seemed his best choice, “um, am I supposed to know what is that?”

“Yeah, well no… but I kind of hoped you’d help me give it back.”

Eddie dragged the notebook closer to them, his body also got closer to Steve's, subsequently making him feel the warmth exuding from it.

Jesus.

“This, Harrington, this is Spider-Man’s notebook, and I know I sound quite kooky when I say this but it really is, like come on man check this shit.” The pages flipped and Steve knew every single detail drawn there. 

This was supposed to be lost or sold in the black market, who the fuck knew where could that have ended up, instead he found it in Eddie’s hands, what kind of serendipity was that? That notebook had a little too much information about how his suit worked, it was a relief for Steve to see that at least it was in safe hands, he still needed to buy new books for college, though.

“Where did you get it?” 

Eddie threw him a quick glance, “found it in an alley,”

“hmm, and you want me to… what?”

Eddie shuffled in his seat, looking like someone who was overthinking stuff, “would you give it to him?” his brown eyes had that pleading kind of look, soft and innocent. Steve wasn’t a fan.

“I suppose I can do that-“

“Great, so you know him… personally?” 

With that his whole body awoke. 

Steve felt bad for lying but it was the best for now.

“I’ve talked to him, but not much, he is cool though so I don’t think there would be a problem giving it to him… You could give it to him yourself,”

“Nah man, he is busy and you are seeing him sooner than me so yeah you give it to him.”

The notebook remained there until the night ended, Eddie’s ringed fingers playing with the bent corners of it.

Why Steve couldn’t find his voice and just tell him, he seemed to be unable to put anyone at risk now, Eddie was already pretty vulnerable being Spidey’s fink so he couldn’t put him in double risk just because he had a crush on him.

***

The splash was heard almost in the whole building, Dustin came running immediately, making a ballerina split as he slid across the floor. The smell of peppermint was so strong it made everyone’s eyes go watery.

“Holy shit, Steve!” Dustin shouted, looking all around the room, smoke was coming from a corner while Steve sprayed the last bits of CO2 gas, a white layer covered the floor, and webs came from every spot and crevice.

Steve held a hand up to stop Dustin from shit talking to him, “Please shut up, Henderson. I will clean this up and I’ll fix the shooters, just shut up for a second.”

“Can’t believe I let you use this spare room for your idiotic experiments, you should be thankful my mom is out working.” 

Dustin turned heel and walked out of line of vision, Steve could still hear the swears from across the hall.

The prototype had gone wrong, again . It’s been the fourth try and still something was off. The shooters were the exact same he used on a daily basis, but maybe the dissolver needed to be adjusted; too watery could make his shooters go into an electric shock, but if it was too dense it could clog them and make them explode, the latter was the cause of the recent web explosion, just like little domino effect on the other cartridges.

He needed to work on the consistency of the dissolver that was for sure.

***

Robin’s smirk made Steve roll his eyes.

“Come on, say it Robin,” he already knew she was going to make fun of him.

“New cologne?” She chuckled.

“Very funny, it’s the damn dissolver, that shit I swear-to whatever higher force there is-it’s going to end with my sanity.” 

“I told you, you need glycerin, and stop adding so much peppermint oil, honestly you smell like a walking tea bag. It’s a lot.” 

Robin fanned her face with the poetry book she was reading.

“I know that, still something is not right with the formula. I left Dustin to give it a second check before I have the chance to blow his apartment off again.”

Robin shook her head. 

The bookstore was practically dead, so they decided to watch Blade Runner and Blade Runner 2043 on Robin’s iPad, both agreeing that the last one had a pretty epic soundtrack. The sudden phone call of Dustin made Steve sigh, tired. Apparently the formula was not right again.

Without his notebook Steve had to re-do the whole thing, trying to remember the equations, everything on a random piece of paper he found in Robin’s bag. Robin almost saw smoke coming out of his ears.

Doorbell rang, Robin turned around to see Eddie walk in the store, she was surprised to not see Steve react. 

Eddie approached the main desk, sniffing hard, he scrunched his nose. “Nice… smell, do you guys have like a new air freshener for the store or…”

“Yeah, we were testing it out, but I think it’s a bit strong.” Robin said, holding in a chuckle.

“I see,” Eddie’s brown eyes went from Robin to Steve, who was still doodling over a napkin. 

“Do you need anything?” Robin noticed how Eddie was checking Steve, she was definitely telling him about it later.

“Nope, just wanted to check on Stevie here,” Steve’s head snapped up, finally. “Did you give it to him?”

For a second Steve got confused, but Eddie made the Spidey sign with his hand “oh, yeah yeah I did, he was very thankful.”

For once Steve was more concentrated in his own thing than in Eddie, which made the latter feel slightly bothered, it was weird that Steve acted this way with him. He let it slide, clasped his hands together, rings clinking, leaning on the counter he spoke.

“Well, thanks for the photos, the boys are really happy with the editing,” 

“Sure, no problem.” Steve said, nonchalantly.

Eddie furrowed his eyebrows, something in his stomach twisted, “Er, I guess I can go now… see you around my people. Thanks for that favor Harrington.”

Robin saw the exchange equally as confused as Eddie. Steve just gave him a thumbs up and off he went, not even giving Eddie one last look. She squinted, but said nothing.

***

Steve felt bad for ignoring Eddie earlier, after his shift, right when his Spider-Man duties seemed to start he swung around New York, until he finally spotted that unmistakable mop of hair walking down midtown, smoke in hand. To be fair Spider-Man knew Eddie’s usual spots by heart, however he considered this a sign for him to approach the boy that made his heartbeat go unsteady.

Shooting webs across buildings, until he reached him in a nearly empty street. Spider-Man crashed against a wall, catching Eddie’s attention. 

“Hey! Careful there” Eddie’s voice had a wry tone, he wasn’t even startled by the sound or the masked hero.

“Yeah sorry, sometimes the wind makes the momentum stronger” Steve as per usual felt way more confident in the suit. Leaning on the wall like he was casually there. “So um… Steve gave me the notebook, just wanted to thank you for that, got pretty important stuff there”

“I noticed” smoke came out of his lips Spidey gulped, the suit covering it nicely “I'm glad he gave it to you”

“Yeah, right… I also saw you with your band the other night and you were… great! very metal I’d say, I mean it’s cool!”

Eddie smirked, enjoying the awkwardness of the beloved hero, “but it’s not your style eh bug boy?”

Maybe it was a good thing that Eddie wasn’t able to see Steve beam and blush, it was embarrassing enough as it was.

“No it isn’t, you’re right but it was nice for a change”

“Sure” 

Silence lingered there for a second right before a bunch of sirens started to go off in the periphery. Spider-Man’s weight shifted from one foot to the other.

Eddie cleared his throat, scratching his cheek “I think that’s your cue.”

“What?“ the sirens grew louder “oh yeah that’s me… well Munson, I leave you. Thanks for checking on me the other night too… was very kind. Anyway… I’ll see you when I see you, I guess,”

Spider-Man saluted him and with the flick of the wrist Spidey shot his body up to the skies, passing Eddie for one side.

The very faintest smell of peppermint in the air… his mind went back to Steve… for a moment things kind of clicked but it couldn’t be… Eddie laughed it out. 

Nah there is no way.

Part 2

#fanfic #steve harrington spider man #eddie munson #steve harrington #protective steve harrington #robin buckley #dustin henderson #steve spiderman #romance #idiots in love #steddie #steve x eddie #au steve spiderman #stranger things au #steddie fic #i dont know #idk what else to tag

[whorror-barbie]

A good lesson in fucking (au! Virgin! Ceo! The Salesman x Bimbo! sugar baby! Fem! Reader) (part 1)

general series summary: you find out your sugar daddy is a virgin and you would love to help him explore his sexual desires

Warnings: nothing explicit at this time, maybe some suggestive language and sexual themes. this fic is 18+, so you've been warned.

A/n: I just wanted to write about an older handsome man whose a virgin( so literally a 40 year-old virgin lol) and btw I'm giving him the name Seok-woo again, so I'm not always calling him the salesman, so I hope that's fine with y'all. Enjoy :)

P.s: I have an AO3 account under the name whorrorwritings, part 2 will be up on there by the time I post this part on here, if you can't wait head over there and read it if you want to!

"Wait, you're going over to his house?! You don't even know him" that is the sound of your distressed friend on the other side of the phone.

" Oh, will you stop worrying. He seems like such a nice guy " you open up a pretty pink box to see a really cute yet sophisticated dress. "Honey, just because he buys you stuff, doesn't mean he's a nice guy." She tries to reason with you as you're trying on the dress he wanted you to wear for the meetup, It hugs your curves beautifully as you look at yourself in the mirror. " I mean, you told me you don't even know his name or what he looks like, what if he's a serial killer..you never know" she continues and let out a sigh as you're still smiling.

"Look, I get your concerns, but I'll be fine, and besides it doesn't hurt to meet the guy who financially supported me for 6 months when I was settling here" you do not really understand why she's so worried. sure she has a point, he's seen only ever seen you and your body online multiple times, but don't know a thing about him. Finally, you hear her sigh coming from the other side of the line. "I know you're not going to listen, but please be safe and text me if you need anything, I'll be there so fast I swear" you giggle at your worried friend. " I'll keep you posted, I'll talk to you later, bye, " you say cheerfully and you both hang up. You are fully ready, now it's time to leave for your date.

30 minutes later, you arrive at his beautiful home by a car he sent out for you. Looking around and starting to approach the home, you're regretting this with every heartbeat as you walk closer. what if your friend is right? What if he does murder you? There is no turning back now. you ring the doorbell anyways, waiting until you are greeted by a tall, handsome man at the door.

"hey, miss it's finally nice to meet you," he says so kindly, you look into his eyes and it was love at first. You were not expecting this gorgeous man to be your sugar daddy, but you definitely were not complaining at all. In a matter of seconds, you were already planning a wedding, and having a family with this man "are you ok?" You look up at him "oh sorry" as you enter his home.

Inside his home is beautifully furnished and spacious, but that is to be excepted from a rich CEO. "I must say you're as gorgeous in person." he says with a bit of nervousness in his voice as he's scratching the back of his head "oh, why thank and you're quite a handsome gentleman." You giggle slightly which makes him arrange his tie at your response, he seems to be feeling hot?

" by the way... my name is Seok-Woo... I don't think I ever told you my name before..umm ever" he laughs nervously. "Oh, Seok-Woo? what a nice name." You smile brightly. The two of you are just standing there in awkward silence for a minute as you look up at him with your pretty eyes, and he starts to look around out of nervousness.

"so..um did you eat anything yet? I can umm. set something up" he asked you politely. " Oh, sure I can go for a snack" nodding at him. "Ok, I'll be right back then" he bows slightly then heads into his kitchen.

While he's doing that, you start to wander around his house looking at the beautiful paintings that hang on the walls, taking in his decor. making your own journey around his house until you see a door slightly open to a room, begging for someone to enter it. The curiosity is killing you, so you go inside to check it out.

upon entering, you see nothing but a bunch of half-naked anime figurines on his shelf against each corner of his walls, and you look in awe "wow, what a cute doll" you let out a ditzy laugh, holding one of the figurines in your hand as you inspect it ''wow, she's very curvy" tilting your head then look at your own body." what else does he have in here?'' you proceeds to look around when you spot a stack of hentai mangas and so you pick it up to read the title.

"Super big titty sluts xxx" you say out loud to yourself then open up the book to flip the pages, and you see some very lewd images which makes your face feel like it's on fire, it was nothing but big titties everywhere, and dicks going in every hole. "The pages are stuck together? I wonder why?" As you try to continue to read the manga, figuring out the storyline.

"Hey! Why are you in here?" You jump so hard, dropping his manga and figurine in the process " Oh my god, I'm sorry! I was just waiting..and and I.." your face still feels so hot at what you saw. Wow, he's into some freaky stuff you thought. when he sees you drop his figurine, he wanted to lose it on you, but he remains calm. those figurines are his prize possessions, he's paid a pretty penny for all of them.

"Oh, well... please don't do this again." He says softly as he goes over to pick up his figurine and carefully places it back on the shelf, he looks over her to make sure you didn't mark her up " Umm.. so you want to watch a movie together?" his attention on you now, nodding your head yes as you leave out of his very interesting room.

😳

10 minutes into this suspense drama, it's pretty good so far. You start moving your body closer to his to rest your head on his shoulder. You can feel him put his arm around your arm awkwardly in response. You sigh of relief, looking up at him into his eyes, but he looks away fast.

"Are you enjoying this movie, babes?" You giggle as you feel him trying not to look down at your cleavage . " Umm...yeah..it's good.. how about you? do you like the film?'' He asks, trying to focus his attention on the movie. " I mean it's definitely interesting, but I'm more interested in you, Seok-Woo" he can feel himself getting hard at your voice alone, you're as sexy as the women he sees in the hentai on his computer screen every night.

"how about this?" You straddle his lap, facing him. you're feeling his boner twitching in his dress pants" oh wow, I can feel how big you are, impressive." you giggle with the motion of your boobs jiggling and he looks nervous, though he is enjoying the view. "How about we have some fun? I at least owe you for taking care of me" You wink at him then proceed to kiss on the crook of his neck as you grab his hands so he feels up your ass, but he doesn't squeeze it. you're grinding on him and moaning like a needy whore into his neck. Seok-Woo's eyes are closed while grunting under his breath, focusing on feeling your pussy lips with his tip. this is the perfect scenario that he's been dreaming about, he might cum from this alone.

You reach for his belt to remove it, but his hand stops you in mid-motion. Surprised, you look up at him and his facial expression is reading regret it seems "Stop, Hun" he says out of breath. " Not now" he looks down. Feeling confused, but You get off of him, and sit back down on the couch, this is very awkward now. "I'm really sorry, Seok-Woo...I hope I didn't offend you" did you read the room wrong? Is he not into you like you thought he was.

"you should leave" he simply says which was another dagger to your heart. grabbing your purse as you get up to leave and he follows you to the door. "Text me to let me know that you got home safely... and oh I'll be wiring your weekly allowance to your account tomorrow, have a good night," he says then shuts the door in your face, not giving you a second to respond.

Tears start to stream down your face. You're feeling horrible and embarrassed. that's when your Phone is ringing off in your purse so you check to see that it's your friend, Hong-Ga young again, so you pick it up.

"Oh thank God, he didn't murder you," she says but then she hears you sniffling. "Oh..what's the matter? Are you alright?" Her voice sounds very worried, and you try to keep your composure. " Yeah, I'm ok, Ummm can you pick me up?" You wipe away the tears with your sleeve. " Of course! I'll be there in a second" she says hastily. Both of you say your byes then hang up the phone.

While you are chilling on his steps with your morbid thoughts clouding your mind. a big raindrop falls on your knee, and out of nowhere rain starts to violently poor down. With no umbrella in sight, you're all drenched now, can this night get any worse? You just need to bundle up in a blanket and forget about this night that ever happened, hoping everything will be better tomorrow.

#gong yoo #salesman imagine #salesman x y/n #salesman x reader #squid game fanfic #squid games smut

[abitohoney]

Flustered - PT2

PT1 || PT2 || PT3

Ran x female reader

Rating: Explicit, MDNI, NSFW (not this chapter, but putting it here for the subsequent chapter)

Tags (for entire fic): Teasing, Voyeurism, Light Dom/sub, Master/Pet, Light Bondage, Impact Play, Dom Ran, sub Reader, Blindfolds, Begging, Praise Kink, Light Sadism, Light Masochism, Scratching, Ice Play, Vibrators, Orgasm Delay, Aftercare

Word Count: 2.1k

Summary: PT1: 3 times Ran definitely made you flustered And 1 time you made them flustered (you think)

PT2 and PT3: After losing a bet with Ran, their resulting “prize” leads to precisely the thing you’ve been dreading. But worse than that, it’s also precisely the thing you’ve been craving.

AN: Already on AO3, just finally getting it on here.

You enter The Last Drop in hopes of a good drink despite it being barely past noon. What fool wouldn't take advantage of the free drinks Silco allows his best goons?

While making your way to the bar you scan the room. Most of Silco's crew seems to have had the same idea. Nearly all of them are drinking and partaking in some form of entertainment. Your survey comes to a halt when your eyes fall on Ran. They are watching you, unabashedly conspicuous, while arm wrestling one of the newest recruits. He's a tiny, pathetic thing. Granted he is only an accountant or something of that nature. Don't exactly need muscles for that. Still, it seems unfair that he's been pitted against Ran. Especially when Ran is using their metal hand.

You quickly turn away from their gaze and take a seat at the bar.

You've been trying to avoid Ran as of late. The last several encounters you've had with them had left you feeling rather… well, flustered. There had been far too many situations, words, and touches to be considered simply coincidental . Ran was very clearly toying with you, and enjoying it. But that's not even the worst part of it. What’s worse is the fact that you can't deny just how much you enjoyed it. As much as you hate to admit it, even to yourself, that brothel incident has been playing on repeat in your mind ever since it went down just a few weeks ago.

Attention back to the present, you spot Thieram busy cleaning and prepping for the night, his back turned to you.

"Hey! What's a girl gotta do to get a drink around here?" You holler, knowing damn well you're going to startle his skittish ass.

Sure enough, he jumps, nearly dropping the stack of glasses in his hands. He curses quietly before turning to face you with a worried look.

"Oh, hey. Yeah. One second. Let me just-" he stammers.

"You're fine," you laugh, watching in amusement as he stumbles and sets the glasses down on the shelves beneath the bar.

"Boss says we need to cool it on the expensive stuff. Unless you pay," He explains when he comes to stand across from you. “What can I get you?”

"Get me whatever is the best not expensive shit you have," You request with a roll of your eyes and air quotes for emphasis.

"Okay. Sure.”

When Thieram turns to grab your drink, you spin in your seat to watch the room again. Unfortunately, your eyes seem to immediately gravitate toward Ran. If you didn't know any better, you'd think perhaps you actually like putting yourself into uncomfortable situations. Because- as you would expect- they immediately lock eyes with you while scooping up their winnings. Their poor, defeated opponent hangs his head to hide from the jeers of several onlookers, but neither you nor Ran so much as give him a passing glance.

A lump forms in your throat when Ran rises from their seat, gaze still on you, and heads in your direction.

You immediately turn back toward the bar, silently praying you won’t somehow end up in another situation where you’re left completely hot and bothered.

Janna, when did you become so fucking nervous?

Said deity seems to take at least a bit of pity on you. Thieram brings you your drink- a distraction- just as Ran takes a seat next to you.

"Thanks," you blurt out and grab the glass, perhaps a bit too quickly and obviously as it sloshes and spills over the edge when you bring it to your mouth. Not even bothering to first taste what he's given you, you throw it back in one go.

"Thirsty?" Ran teases with a tiny crooked grin.

You choke and sputter like a damn idiot as the burn of what is definitely a cheap hard liquor runs down your throat. And fuck , you swear you can already feel it setting your stomach aflame too.

Ran raises the brow not covered by their choppy hair, but that little grin returns the moment you somewhat pull yourself together.

"Ha!" You force a laugh. "Just really needed a drink. To relax." Your cheeks burn nearly as hot as your throat under Ran's unwavering gaze. "Can I get another?" You yell to Thieram. As if you couldn’t make yourself look any worse, you're so flustered and busy watching Ran that you don't immediately realize he's still standing right in front of you, watching your absurd behavior with equal concern.

"You- you sure about that?" He asks with an awkward laugh.

At least you’re not the only person failing at socialization.

"Sorry," you murmur, "Yes."

You stare in his direction as he takes your glass to refill it, but you're not really watching. Instead, you try to calm yourself and come up with something to say to Ran to break the now unnerving silence.

"So how much did you make from taking advantage of the poor sap?" You ask and hope Ran doesn't notice how your voice wavers. Maybe you can blame it on chugging that sump-flavored drink.

"Taking advantage?" Ran asks with a short, airy laugh.

A laugh that has you recalling their taunting that night at the brothel.

You adjust in your seat without realizing it, trying to ease the ache that memory drives between your thighs.

"Yeah. That guy is tiny and you used your metal hand. Not fair." You point out.

Thieram returns with your drink and you give him a nod in thanks before taking a much more tolerable sip this time. "You should be challenging someone of equal strength.”

You realize your mistake far too late, but you still pray that Ran does not take the bait you just inadvertently dangled in front of their face. But as you attempt to hide your surprised expression behind your glass, Ran latches on and pulls you under.

"Like you?" They tease.

Shit. Shit-shit-shit.

Now you're left with a difficult decision. Do you lie and say you're too weak to take Ran on and fall victim to endless taunting and teasing over it, or do you agree and let them drag you into a match that requires extended physical contact?

Maybe if you play it cool, and don’t sound too arrogant…

“Well, I mean I’d be more of a challenge than him,” you try to reply as nonchalantly as possible.

Ran makes a humming sound that could arguably be either an indifferent acknowledgment, or a mocking laugh.

Side-eying them as you take another sip of your drink, it would appear- much to your chagrin- it’s the latter.

With a cocky smirk, Ran leans in close to your ear to quietly taunt, “Prove it.”

The words don’t sink in immediately. Not when you’re too preoccupied with trying- and failing- to control the way your body reacts to the feeling of their warm breath tickling your ear. The tiny hairs at the back of your neck stand on end and you shiver involuntarily.

“Cold again?” Ran teases as they straighten up to grin down at you and your obvious discomfort.

“Yeah,” you mumble and take another drink. You can feel Ran’s expectant gaze hot on your face.

What had they said? …

Prove it.

DAMNIT!

No getting out of this now.

“Fine,” you grunt before throwing back the rest of your liquid courage and slamming the glass down on the counter. Without so much as a glance at Ran, you abruptly stand up and rush over to the table Ran had just vacated minutes ago.

You take a seat where the new guy had sat and watch, anxiously, as Ran strolls over wearing that goddamn sexy little smirk on their face.

Wait- Sexy?

No. No, you do NOT find it sexy. Just arrogant. Nothing more. The two of you are just… associates. Co-workers. There’s no underlying attraction .

And yet those memories of the brothel have been plaguing your mind nearly every night while you lie alone in your bed. And every time- every single time - you end up slipping a hand beneath your underwear to–

“A bet?” Ran asks as they sit down.

Ran’s voice rips you from your thoughts, although once again you don’t process their words right away.

“What?”

“Let’s make it a bet,” Ran replies, grin spreading wider.

Fuck.

“Oh- Okay. What are we betting?”

Please say coins .

“Winner’s choice.”

“What?!” you ask incredulously. “Like- anything at all?”

Ran nods.

This can NOT end well .

Unknowingly, you chew on your bottom lip as the tension ratchets up yet another notch. How do you always manage to get into these situations with Ran? And why the hell isn’t that sorry excuse for alcohol kicking in yet?

Ran rests their elbow on the table and extends their metal hand, palm open. Their brow raises expectantly. “You in?”

You clear your throat, then give Ran a nod. “Of course.”

As you wipe your clammy hand off on the side of your pants, you hope Ran doesn’t take notice. Elbow propped on the table, you take Ran’s metal hand in yours and start to count down.”

“3-”

Ran’s plump, dark lips curl into a devious smile.

That damn lump returns to your throat.

“2-”

Ran locks equally mischievous eyes with yours.

A bead of sweat starts to form along your hairline.

“1.”

You don’t hold back, putting all your strength into squeezing and pushing against their metal appendage. Attention now on where your hands are clasped together, you don’t realize Ran is still watching your expression in apparent amusement. You’re just as oblivious to how they are clearly not exerting all their effort.

You gain a small distance, pushing their hand just a bit closer to the table.

“You really want to win, hm?” Ran taunts, tone smooth and unaffected.

That’s when you realize they’re not giving it their all.

Eyes darting to Ran’s face, you find them looking entirely too relaxed. Meanwhile, your brows are furrowed deeply in concentration and you’re sweating fucking bullets. Granted the latter is from more than just your effort. Your damn nerves are setting your body aflame as well. 

Ran puts a bit more into it, forcing your hand to the other side of the table.

“What the fuck Ran?” you squawk. Janna, even your voice is cracking from the strain. 

“You’re holding back, aren’t you?” you demand. At least this time you seem to have a little better control of your voice. Then you can fucking feel them back off a bit and allow you to take the lead again.

Ran releases a breathy laugh through their nose. “Equal strength, hm?” they taunt. And then they take a large lead, bringing your hand a mere hairsbreadth away from the table.

You adjust in your chair, your body almost instinctively trying to force you to stand. To get that extra leverage. Cause fuck if you want to let them win. There’s no telling what they’ll make you do.

“Fuck you,” you grit out as you strain to keep your knuckles from hitting the table. You gain just the tiniest amount back, ignoring how your arm muscles burn and scream in protest while you push your limits.

Ran chuckles. And it’s an almost arrogant, throaty, and undeniably sinful sort of laugh. Not their typical puff of air sort of laugh.

And then just like that- you completely lose your concentration, your strength, and then the goddamn bet .

Ran slams your knuckles down against the table hard enough you’re certain it will leave bruises, but that’s the least of your concerns.

Having forgotten the two of you were not alone in the bar, you nearly jump from your seat at the sudden uproar of cheering and laughing. You quickly scan the room to find every one of its occupants watching the two of you.

If you somehow manage to make it out alive from whatever Ran has in store for you, you swear you’ll find a way to make them pay for this. Shoulders slumped in defeat, you slowly turn back to face Ran. Their attention has not strayed from you despite all the hoopla.

“So what will it be?” you sigh exaggeratedly, “Claim your prize.”

Ran’s lips curl into another one of those impish smirks, and your stomach sinks.

Janna, have mercy on me.

PT3 >>

#arcane #Ran #arcane Ran #ran x reader #arcane ran x reader #fanfic #honey writes

[randyortonofficial]

title: show me something real (click here for the ao3 version) pairing: cody rhodes/randy orton (candy), hhh/punk if you squint SUPER hard word count: 4975 important tags: shower sex, dirty talk description: People in the locker rooms might be throwing a fit about the return of CM Punk tonight. They may just be trying to find Hunter to bitch about it and demand an explanation, but it’s not something Cody and Randy think too much about, not when they have each other to focus all their attention on.

Because who the hell cares about CM Punk when Cody’s husband is back in town to give him the dirtiest sex in the world whenever they want?

It was the best Survivor Series night of Cody’s career.

Previously, it was Survivor Series back in 2008. That was the one he and Randy won, both of them being the sole survivors out of all the ten participants in the match, and thusly, a foreshadowing to their eventual future together.

They weren’t the sole survivors of this one. It was a special Wargames matchup, focused mainly on destruction instead of elimination, and Randy was only in the match for the last ten minutes, but he had finally returned back to WWE after being out for eighteen long, long months and Cody was going super stir crazy as a result.

Hell, he almost wished for another injury so he could keep recovering at home with his husband by his side. The pec injury did give them some precious time together, but there was still about eleven months to account for.

Not anymore though.

Now, Randy is back.

Randy is back, and here to stay, and now he and Cody can get it on in a major way.

(As Randy had so eloquently told Cody when he landed in town last night).

“We had a pretty tough match, huh?” Randy lets out a long sigh as he stretches his arms up high. “We should uh… shower off.” He crosses his arms over his chest before leaning against the wall. His steel blue eyes roam all over Cody with purpose, his gaze lingering in certain places. “Clean up some before going out. Don’t you agree?”

Cody’s grin spreads so wide across his face that it actually kind of hurts. As he opens his mouth to enthusiastically agree with him, he’s cut off by someone’s strong arm wrapping around his shoulders from behind.

He and Randy frown and both furrow their eyebrows together before looking to the man at Cody’s side.

“Hunter,” Randy starts, “can me and Codes have a moment?”

“Just excited to see my favorite couple back in WWE!” Hunter praises. “Hey guys, tell me something.”

Cody and Randy both immediately answer with, “something,” and as Hunter rolls his eyes, they both chuckle at each other.

They both really are just so funny sometimes.

“What do you guys think of Phil being back?”

“What’d you offer to get him back here?” Randy asks. “A win against Roman at Wrestlemania?”

“A spot on WWE’s board of directors?” Cody adds.

“All the ice cream bars in the world?”

“A chance to set Colt Cabana on fire?”

“Your big, fat co-”

“Are you guys gonna keep going back and forth with each other until I leave you two alone to do whatever the hell it is you guys do now?”

“Yup.” Randy raises his eyebrows and holds out his hand. “Can I get my husband back now?”

With a sigh, Hunter unwraps his arm from Cody and holds up his hands in defeat. “He’s all yours. Whatever you guys do though, uh,” he shoves his hands into his pockets and looks them both over as they hold onto each other’s hands, “don’t make it too obvious what you decide to do with each other. You know what I mean?”

“You mean hardcore sex with each other?”

Hunter blinks at Randy a few times before pressing his lips together in a strained, but still fond smile, the kind that comes along with mentoring Randy Orton for near two decades. “Good to have you back, Randy.” He pats Randy’s shoulder before looking to Cody and telling him, “keep making sure he stays out of trouble.”

Randy groans and rolls his eyes while Cody chuckles. “Hey!” Randy calls out. “I’ve been on my best behavior for thirteen years now!”

Hunter holds up a middle finger in the air as he continues down the hall, right before disappearing down another one.

“How come nobody ever tells me to make sure you stay out of trouble?” Randy mentions while he and Cody make their way down to Cody’s locker room.

“Because I never get into it.”

“Neither do I.”

“Not anymore with my influence.” Cody squeezes Randy’s hand and smiles over at him. “Kidding, obviously, I know a lot of it was your doing. However,” he walks in front of Randy, still holding his hand, and raises an eyebrow, “I would like for you to be on your bad behavior real soon.”

With a smirk and a rising hum, Randy tilts his head back to show off the column of his throat. He proceeds to look Cody over and licks his lips as he surveys his body, so much different then from when they first got together all those years ago.

He’s no longer some toned twink with a hairless chest and delicate limbs. He’s got huge biceps now, hair all over his chest and leading down chiseled abs, he’s got that pec tattoo of his dad’s name and his logo tattooed on his bicep (after Randy talked him out of doing it on his neck), and he’s an absolutely manly man now.

He always was, but it’s much more prominent this time. Cody carries this distinct alpha-like air, he walks the halls with confidence and commands everyone’s attention…

… and yet, despite what Randy sees in front of him, he still sees that toned twink with the hairless chest and delicate limbs.

Randy takes in a deep breath as he lets go of Cody’s hand. “We gotta go wash up,” he tells him in a low tone.

And suddenly, he’s bending down onto a knee to hoist Cody up over his shoulder like he weighs nothing at all. To Randy, this will always be the case, and Cody is thankful that, after all this time, Randy can still pick him up and throw him around with ease. It was something he worried about when he started to gain muscle, if it would affect their sexual dynamic, but it’s only intensified what they’ve been doing with each other.

As Randy continues down the hall, Cody raises his head to look down the other way. There’s a blush on his cheeks and it grows much more seeing Phil at the other end.

Phil tilts his head. He blinks at the two men as he casually waves their way.

Cody waves back before Randy disappears with him down the hall.

Phil from the past would have given Cody and Randy a lot of shit for being so open about doing this kind of thing where anyone could see, but they’ve all let bygones be bygones at this point. Phil might not have changed in some ways, but he has in others. It depends on who you ask whether they think Phil has truly changed.

People in the locker rooms might be throwing a fit about the return of CM Punk tonight. They may just be trying to find Hunter to bitch about it and demand an explanation, but it’s not something Cody and Randy think too much about, not when they have each other to focus all their attention on.

Who the hell cares about CM Punk when Cody’s husband is back in town to give him the dirtiest sex in the world whenever they want?

  After setting Cody down on his feet on the floor, Randy leans in to murmur into his ear, “get undressed.”

And he doesn’t have to tell Cody twice.

His boots have to come off first before he can pull down his tights. He hears the water running nearby and raises his head to see the wonderful sight of a naked Randy under the showerhead. It motivates him to quickly rid the rest of his ring gear, to the point he almost trips stepping out of his tights, and Randy has to laugh at his dramatic, eager display.

“Fuck, you really couldn’t wait, could you?” Randy asks as he leans against the tile, his big arms crossed over his even bigger chest. “Were you that desperate, baby boy?”

Baby boy.

The familiar nickname cuts through Cody’s facade and sentences it to death immediately. That bravado of a confident man who can command the ring and inspire others with his effortless leadership has now reverted back to that lost boy still trying to figure out his footing in the world and had to rely on Randy to help him through to the other side.

Cody’s mouth goes dry looking at Randy. He has to grab onto the bar in the shower to steady himself as he steps onto the tile, water gently splashing under his feet. His grip tightens on the bar and he’s whimpering out, “yes, daddy.”

Cody was really proud of himself for gaining all this muscle. Being a pretty boy was fun, and he misses it at times, but he’s at a place where he’s fully confident with his body. People take him seriously now, they see him as the leader he’s worked so hard to be, and it’s great to no longer be wondering what his purpose is or what sort of path his career is going to take.

But Randy sees him for all that he is.

Randy sees him as that confident leader, but he also still remembers Cody as that boy who desperately needs to be taken in his big, strong arms and fucked relentlessly until he forgets everything but his name.

Cody’s so big now, but Randy is, somehow, even bigger.

Randy is the most shredded he’s ever been in his life. Fuck, even his muscles have muscles. Cody’s pretty sure Randy developed muscles he never knew existed and it’s such a crazy thing to think when they’ve been together for over a decade but Randy continues to blow his mind, day in and day out. Those muscles, the arms and the thighs, oh god, the thighs, Cody can never get over those beautiful fucking thighs, and then there’s his cock-

His thick fucking cock. Thicker than any other part of his body.

A hot breath pushes past his pretty, pink lips as he watches Randy’s fingers wrap around his hardening erection. His own fingers are twitching, wanting more than anything to reach out and touch but despite his best efforts, he’s frozen in place. As if being held there by another presence so strong that he can’t even attempt to step into it, not without permission-

“What are you waiting for?”

Cody looks up into Randy’s eyes with his own, bright and blue, as Randy pulls him right up against his body with his other hand.

Randy looks down into Cody’s eyes with his own, a cold and calculated steel. He smirks before letting his tongue swipe out along his lips. Gently, he lets go of Cody’s hand and he holds his own up in the air, appearing to offer himself in his entirety to the other man. With Randy’s implied permission, Cody finds it in himself to finally touch him and he can’t even help the moan that falls from his lips as he grabs Randy’s biceps. The heat in his eyes is prominent watching his hands move up those strong arms he’s fantasized so much about, a heat that burns up, flares hot when they make eye contact again.

Cody swallows his arousal down enough for him to speak. “I missed you like this,” he says just above a whisper. “Thought about it so much.”

“Yeah, daddy did too,” Randy’s voice rumbles out as he leans in, so close their foreheads almost touch but not quite. His hands then slip down Cody’s back to grab his ass, squeeze it tight in his hands, and he grins at the gasp Cody exhales against his lips.

“Thought about this every day, you know that?” He then moves his mouth by Cody’s ear to whisper, “getting my baby boy alone again, doing whatever the fuck I want to him.”

With a whine, Cody closes his eyes. “God, I need you,” he pleads. “I can’t wait anymore for it-”

“You were pretty fucking obvious about it out there,” Randy scoffs. “You were calling the shots out there just fine earlier. Telling everyone what to do, taking charge and taking names and all of a sudden I walk out there…” He bites at Cody’s earlobe to drag it out with his teeth, and as Cody moans, Randy is fully pressing their foreheads together. “... you turn right back into a slut for me. And you let everyone knew it too, I fucking saw you spreading your legs out there when I gave that RKO to JD-”

“I-I couldn’t help it, daddy.” Cody’s hands move over Randy’s shoulders and down his broad pecs. “Reminded me what it was like… all those years ago in Legacy…”

His hands continue downwards over his abs. Twitching fingers run along the ridges of Randy’s muscles and press into the skin just to feel how firm and hard they are. Cody bites back his moan at first before deciding to let it out, because it’s just the both of them here in this shower and he has no reason to hide how much he wants the much bigger man in front of him. Sure, they could just do this back on Cody’s tour bus, but where’s the fun in that? Why do it there when they can do it here, just like old times?

“Back when I had no idea what I was doing,” Cody chuckles quietly. “And I just followed your every word. Watched your every action. Trusted you, at every second, to take care of me…” And as his hands roam back up to grip tight at Randy’s shoulders, he looks back into his eyes before telling him, a low voice that drips with desire, “begging for you to take me.”

In an instant, Randy has his hand pressing Cody to the wall by his throat. It has Cody gasping out for air and darkens his eyes so much so that you can’t even make out the bright blue anymore, eyes now a mystifying shade of absolute lust.

Randy bites his lip as his eyes encircle Cody’s features. Those mystifying eyes and those pretty, pink, and naturally pouty lips. There’re crinkles at the corners of Cody’s eyes now, a fact of getting older, and his life experiences show better over his features, no longer that perfect babyface from years ago, at least not in appearance’s sake, but in state of mind, this will always be the core of who Cody is.

Doesn’t matter how many press conferences Cody does, how many suits he wears, or how many people he’s able to lead, because he will always bow down to Randy Orton.

Then, now, and until the end of time.

Cody watches Randy with baited breath, eyes as dark as the night that they’re heading for together. He can barely focus because he’s so aching hard and dying for Randy to soothe the pain that came from waiting for him to come back, waiting month after month after month, fuck, so many of them and it seemed never ending, just like the building anticipation between them in this shower.

Randy narrows his eyes. “And that’s what you want, isn’t it?” he asks quietly. “For me to take you again?”

Cody swallows heavily. He nods as best he can. “More than anything, daddy.”

“Well, you don’t gotta worry anymore, baby,” Randy murmurs as he begins to lean in. “Cause daddy’s back home…”

Although he takes Cody’s lips so ruthlessly, it is done with great care. Randy is taking whatever his heart desires, but it just so happens that Cody’s heart wants the same exact. It’s just the way Cody likes it when it’s been as long as it has - powerful, insistent, and so sloppy that it makes even the most experienced people blush.

Layers of steam shroud their bodies as the hot water rains down, which besides the benefit of adding to the growing atmosphere of lust, provides much relief to their sore bodies from earlier in the night. The droplets steadily roll down their wet skin, it drips down Randy’s pec and onto Cody’s stomach and it’s just wonderful how they’re so connected right now. Their tongues are eagerly rolling over each other’s mouths, slipping past the plush lines to dance within, and they’re biting too, biting and sucking, licking and pressing, gasping and moaning in between.

As far as Cody and Randy are concerned, they have the whole night to show each other just how much they’ve missed one another.

It’s not certain how long it’s been when they pull away, and it’s just barely. Cody rolls his lips back between his teeth as his eyes dip to Randy’s lips, and his breath hitches when Randy wipes his tongue out. Randy gives Cody’s throat one more squeeze before his hands latch onto his hips, and then he’s leaning forward to sink his teeth into Cody’s neck. It pulls a loud gasp from Cody’s lips, his eyes widening before they flutter shut, and his head rolls off to the side as Randy begins to suck at his skin.

Once.

Twice.

After the third time, however, Randy is pressing his tongue to the column of Cody’s throat to tantalizingly lick all the way up to Cody’s lips, though he doesn’t kiss him again. He just lets his breath hotly ghost out over Cody’s mouth and Cody is whining out loud because fuck, Randy’s lips are right there, what the fuck is he trying to pull? Why is he depriving him, depriving them?

“I wanna see that mouth get put to work, boy,” Randy drawls. “Understand?”

Cody’s eyes light up immensely.

He can’t remember the last time he’s wanted to suck off Randy so bad. Fuck, he can’t remember when he’s wanted anything ever in his life so bad.

A nod from Cody is all Randy needs to growl at him, “good. Show me what those pretty, dick-sucking lips of yours can do.”

And then Randy is gripping tight at Cody’ hair to force him down onto his knees. He’s pulling Cody’s face forward and thrusts against his lip with a groan, and Cody is moaning as he sticks out his tongue to curl around the head. He lids his eyes open at the other man and grabs onto his hips, nail pressing into the skin.

“C’mon, I don’t got all day,” Randy warns. “Take me in, now.”

Cody doesn’t protest, doesn’t say a word as he licks right up Randy’s shaft before taking him in, all the way. Randy lets out a loud moan, eyes closing and his head lulling back.

“Fuck.” Randy’s fingers thread back into Cody’s blonde threads. “Holy fuck, Cody, that’s it.”

He’s moaning, over and over, as he quickly moves his mouth. The heady taste of Randy’s musk, that tinge of saltiness and ounces of sweetness drive Cody crazy. Randy carries just a little bit of everything to keep Cody coming back for more, and he decides to deepthroat him again, and again, and again, with relative ease.

Cody’s letting all the fantasies he’s had about their reunion guide his movements. His hands can’t help but to wander over Randy’s firm, sculpted abs and he moans feeling how hard he is under his fingertips. The knowledge of what a big, powerful man he’s somehow managed to marry sends flares of arousal throughout his body, causes his hole to clench around the nothing, and he’s whining out after pulling to the tip.

“Fuck, I missed my daddy.”

“Miss him telling you what to do?” Randy breathes out as he yanks Cody back by his hair to stare down into those beautiful eyes. “Making you do what he wants?”

“Can you fuck my mouth?” Cody asks so sweet. “Please, can you fuck it? Use me? Please?”

“Fuck yeah, I can,” Randy groans out, steadying Cody’s head with one hand as the other steadies his cock at the base to rub it along Cody’s pretty lips. Randy moans as Cody gives the tip a little suckle, because Cody can’t fucking help himself when Randy tastes so good, better than anyone and anything. “Yeah, open up wide for your daddy, baby boy…”

The moaning Cody gives is muffled as Randy pushes past his lips to sink his cock down his throat. He has no time to even grab at Randy to keep himself grounded before Randy is grabbing both of his wrists to pin them high up on the shower tile.

“Take it, Cody, be a good boy and take it,” Randy growls at him as he sinks his nails into Cody’s wrists. Cody is gagging around Randy as Randy continues to push in, but when he can’t anymore, he starts to swivel his hips around, moaning as he does so.

Cody is settled on his knees, right at Randy’s mercy. He is helpless as Randy keeps him pinned to the wall by his wrists, and he only needs one hand to do so. One hand practically crushes his wrists in their grip as the other hand threads right back into his hair to tug at the strands, and it makes his scalp burn but only in the best way, as it always is with Randy.

He’s using Cody just like Cody wants. No regard for his being (at least on the surface) and using his mouth solely as a vehicle for his own pleasure. Cody can’t even move, the only thing he really can do is gag around Randy everytime he pushes in too far or flex his fingers, maybe even tense his thighs. Sometimes, he looks up to Randy and even through the tears beading at the corners of his eyes, it’s clear to him how much Randy is enjoying his velvety hot mouth.

As Randy continues to fuck his throat raw, all Cody can think about is being a good boy for him. Being a good hole and letting Randy take him, wreck him, and destroy him, just like he did all those years ago, because things never really do change, don’t they?

With a loud groan, Randy pulls Cody down all the way and swivels his hips once more. He tugs at Cody’s hair and begins to pull him to the tip, and with the way Randy’s breathing is getting, Cody can tell he’s about halfway there. It means he has other ideas in mind, and in all of Cody’s excitement and hopefulness, he’s whining out at his beloved, “I’ve been wanting you, Randy, I’ve always fucking wanted you, god, I need you to give it to me, I need you to just fuck me and I’ll be a good boy, I’ll always be a good boy, please Randy, please daddy, please, please, please-”

“God fucking damn, Cody,” Randy huffs out a laugh as he looks up to the ceiling. He shakes his head in amazement. “Thirteen fucking years, and you’re still as much of a desperate slut like you were the first time. You’re fucking perfect, you know that?”

The praise has Cody giving a little trill. “I am?”

“Always. Now get the fuck up and turn your pretty little ass around, boy.”

The moment Randy removes his hands from him, Cody is instantly scrambling against the wall to pull himself up to his feet. He goes to turn around but Randy is doing the honors for him, easily turning Cody to shove him up against the wall and grabbing at his hips to pull him back so his ass can present itself.

His ass is actually much bigger than it was in the past. There’s much more meat to it, and it’s obvious in any pants he wears, or right now, what he doesn’t wear. It grew with him like his muscles, and Randy has always been so appreciative and supportive of the work Cody has put into his body. They got together when Cody was leaned and toned, more of a pretty boy than the obvious manly man he now is, but Randy still treats Cody the same way he did all those years ago.

And right now, Cody is so thankful for that.

It hurts when Randy pushes into him, but it’s what he expected, what he needed. Cody needs that pain, the excruciating stretch, the heat of Randy’s hands on his body to keep his back arched so pretty as the water continue to cascade over them from above. Randy pulls out to the tip just to slowly push all the way back in and Cody’s eyes almost roll into the back of his head as he lets out a long, and almost whiny moan out into the open.

“That’s it,” Randy murmurs as he continues with his movements - slow, but each thrust packing a hard punch. “Taking me so good, baby boy. Doesn’t matter how many times I fuck you, you’re always gonna be tight for your daddy, huh? The perfect fit?”

Cody whimpers and nods. “A-Always, daddy-”

He gasps as Randy grabs his throat from behind. His eyes fall shut and he doesn’t move a muscle as Randy leads him up to stand up a bit more, until they’re both standing up straight. Randy’s breath is ghosting over his ear, hot air expelling from his mouth in short bursts as he breathes in and out.

“You said you were always gonna be good for me, right?” Randy grumbles into his ear.

“Always,” Cody whispers. “Wouldn’t be anything else.”

Randy’s lips slowly widen into a proud smirk. “Good boy,” he whispers in turn before kissing Cody’s cheek. “Daddy loves you, you know that?”

“I-I love you too-”

Cody’s voice cracks when Randy squeezes his throat. He’s gasping out for air before Randy spanks him, the sound cracking throughout, and he’s crying out right as Randy begins to give it him with all the strength he has and fuck, is there so much of it. If it was Cody from years ago, he might even say it’s too much but he can take whatever Randy throws at him now.

Randy is brutally hammering away into Cody, hand under Cody’s chin and over his throat, fingers almost crushing Cody’s jaw with the kind of hold he’s adopted. It hurts, god, it hurts, it’s never hurt like this before, but it’s never felt so damn good like this either.

Cody is a willing slave to Randy’s desires. He has no more theory of mind, no thoughts beyond RandyRandyRandy and please more and daddydaddydaddy, he is a mere shell, a being comprised of all of Randy’s dirtiest fantasies and he can’t think of a sweeter fate. He cries out with each slam of Randy’s hips, over and over again. Even with his eyes screwed so tightly shut, the tears manage to find their way out to roll down his cheeks. Randy is truly giving him everything and it’s shocking, tragic even, that none of the men Cody has been with could ever induce this in him. All of this wonderful sex, the best sex in the world, locked behind the closet of a straight man that only Cody held the key for.

“Oh my - fuck - R-Randy, Randy,” Cody sobs, “Randy, please-”

“Yeah, say my fucking name,” Randy growls. “You like this, baby? You like being used like a fucking slut?”

“Yes, daddy, just your slut, daddy,” Cody gasps.

“Want daddy to fill you up? Give you his come, is that what you want, baby boy, huh? Is it what you need?”

“Need it, daddy, please, need your come-”

“I bet you fucking need it, you little whore,” he growls out as his other hand pulls one of Cody’s back to keep it behind Cody’ back, grip on Cody’s wrist so hard it’s pressing against bone, and it hurts, it’ll leave bruises with all the others that are forming on Cody, and Cody loves it, fuck, he welcomes it.

He loves everything Randy does to him, and he loves it even more when Randy fills him up with a long and loud groan. His wrist and chin hurt like fucking hell, to the point it makes him wanna cry, but it’s what he needs, he needs to be dominated, to be told what to do and not given a choice because this is what he knows so intimately.

Despite everything that’s happened in his life, and all Cody has gone through, this is where he feels the most comfort. It’s how he can escape from the responsibilities he has now. No thoughts beyond letting Randy take control of him, take care of him, he gets to let Randy call all the shot and he can go back to being that lost boy still trying to figure out his footing in the world, the boy who had to rely on Randy to help him through to the other side.

Cody comes along with Randy, the both of them pretty much in sync now with the amount of times they’ve fucked at this point. Randy’s grip on Cody begins to loosen in the wondrous afterglow of their shared orgasms, and the gentle, butterfly kisses he trails over Cody’s neck and shoulders is a welcomed juxtaposition to his harsh treatment mere minutes ago. Cody’s shoulders slump with relaxation under the kisses and he flexes his fingers in appreciation for the newfound freedom. Randy’s hands are kneading his sides in soothing ministrations and after letting his lips graze up Cody’s neck to his ear, he whispers, “I really missed you, Cody.”

Cody tilts his head to the side. He lets out a long sigh, just to get his breath back, and is able to muster a smile. “You think being all soft now will make up for the way you fucked me just now?”

A chuckle rumbles up from Randy’s throat. “Abso-fuckin-lutely,” he drawls. “Is it working?”

After pressing a gentle kiss to his husband’s lips, Cody tells him, “yeah. It really is.”

#candy #my fics #enjoy bc god know i did

[fountainpenguin]

"Their set time's far too early and I've never heard of them..." (x)

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New Pixels Imperfect stuff today!

“No One Likes the Opening Band” || MCYT one-shot

Read on AO3 - 13k

@flufftober - Day 1 - "I've Got You"

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Professional camera account sports get real competitive, especially when you’re the only team in the league with 4 cams and 1 player-born. No one ever thought they’d see the day Etho let a cam into his life. And, well... He didn't. Turns out, he just brought a friend.

AKA - More PiglinMyNose and SnifferMyFeet fluff because I live for the "ancient camera account boy takes his newbie friend under his wing" dynamic and I love them, your honor.

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Canon-typical Minecraft violence (Fighting in a safe environment; immediate painless respawn) + anxiety and brief dissociation (Sniff reflecting on Joel and Grian possessing his body in his origin video) + Emotional hurt/comfort (Stressed by people looking down on you) + Mild flirting between Pig and TwoMuchGrian (and Sniff has a crush on BadTimeWithScar: world's sexiest semi-invisible catboy)

Also tagging for "Sniff's still coping with the fact that he's not married to either Etho or Scar even though his screwed-up memories tell him Double Life SMP was real and not roleplay," I guess... I love him.

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(First 1,000 words under the cut)

Wait, THAT'S the guy Etho settled for!?

Team Jade Jaguars is the only team in the Competitive Camera league with a team of 4 cam accounts instead of 5. Everyone's been whispering about their player-born. Seriously, their team's tag started trending when the season began. That was weeks ago, and only rarely has it slipped from the upper spots. Half a dozen articles keep circling the portal hub like lions waiting for a kill. Even Pig knows that, and he gets most of his news secondhand from the rest of the team.

Wait their 5th slotter isn't even a camera?

"Guys, ignore them," TwoMuchGrian said the first time they passed a news page pinned up in town square. "They're just trying to get in our heads." And Two's team captain, so Pig did exactly that. They'd just finished their second practice, all of them with pixels sticking up funny and exhaustion dripping like raindrops from their code. Two praised all of them, even though Pig had a very bad fall and missed catching one of the best crossbow shots Joel's ever had. It didn't matter. Two insisted they all did phenomenal this early in the season. He took the whole team out for hot chocolate and sorbet.

😂😂 Bruh I'm crying WHAT? Who the hell is THAT???

Today is game day. The locker room bustles with chatter and banging iron doors. The room's had a makeover since last year. They've got lanterns instead of torches to light this place up now and their jaguar face logo snarls in triumph from a sea of gray carpet.

Are they tanking on purpose or something?

"Hey, Pig!" Two calls, jogging up behind him, and Pig turns his head. Two's not even changed yet, still sporting the tie-dye T-shirt he's almost always dressed in. His flower-spotted headband keeps slipping over his eyes. He pushes it up with one hand, tossing Pig a jade green jersey with the other. Pig catches it on one finger. Two's grin is crooked, but no less genuine than it ever is. "There ya go! I'm so sorry we cut it so close. I actually feel awful, but hey… we finally got your new shirt in!"

Ngl I can't follow the Jaguars' logic here. They know he's Etho, right? His sign-ups must have been a mile long

Pig flips the jersey around, searching for his name. The familiar number 8 blazes strong and proud on the back. Above it, in smaller print, is his current username: PiglinMyNose. It wouldn't have been a big deal to play the first match with last season's jersey, but… It's nice to shed the final tie to his old identity. LazyBeans26 is a guy of the past. "Pig" is a far more comfortable nickname than "Lazy" ever was.

This I have to see

He hugs the jersey to his chest. "No way! Two, you're the best… See? This man!" He punches him in the shoulder; Two flashes briefly red. "I knew you'd come through for me!"

Like I'm all for a player joining the team if they want, but they pair him with ETHO?

Two hums in approval, fluttering his wings. It's so weird to see Two off spectator mode. When he's not translucent, you really get an appreciation for the deep blue and bright gold feathers he's flaunting. Pig casts a glance or two over his shoulder as Two walks away, calling out to PearlescentMoo on the far side of the locker room. Dang. Two's been putting in hours at the gym even outside their practice time. That's undeniable. Those are good looking shoulder blades. He can probably even lift a llama on a lead with muscle tone like that.

Glad he's on MY team… If we're going up against the Sharks, we need every edge we can get.

lmao I love how #Jade Jaguars has been trending for a month xD

Sniff sits on the center bench, his face pressed in his hands. Pig keeps a mirror on his locker door. He checks it every couple seconds as he sheds his jacket and wriggles from his shirt. It takes another two minutes to unclip all his necklaces and drizzle them in the locket basket. Then he pries off his rings. They drop on the necklace heap with a clatter. Probably shouldn't have worn all the jewelry today, but hey… They're his good luck charms. He always has his necklaces.

Does this mean we're never going to see an Etho/EthoCam team-up? 😢

Sniff moves his hands to the back of his neck, fingers bent as though they're claws.

See the most frustrating thing is that it's not like he's played before. He's still a new account. It's not even skill that got him in good w/ Etho. Etho's only with him b/c he looks like Joel. They're Boat Boy baiting for hype :/

The new jersey smells like cedar wood. Pig's never seen a cedar tree in his life, but somehow… He can tell. He holds it to his nose, breathing in the scent of fresh-cut shavings. In truth? It still feels warm from the printer, even though that must have been weeks ago. It's a sign of a good season, that. When he slips the jersey on, it fits perfectly, like a life vest.

Like… idk. I'm not saying I know for sure or anything, but it feels like there's some kind of nepotism thing going on behind the scenes.

Their first game of the season doesn't promise to be easy. Team Cerise Sharks isn't known for their mercy. BadTimeWithScar is team captain, and Two's been reviewing old footage since the match-up was announced. BadTime always brings out Two's competitive overdrive. Two sees scarlet every time. Pig spent all of last night on Two's bed, preening his wings and chatting about this and that while Two stared (glaze-eyed) at match after match on his comm screen. He needs new chew blocks; he's gnawed through most of them and his rope tug.

I should get him a care package. He'd like to be fawned over this week, I reckon.

Oh, their relationship gets skewed badly in a one-sided way when the tournament is live. It's like Two always says: Captain Two is not your friend. But he always makes up for it. Two's an overly affectionate pest between seasons, pushy and playful, and Pig falls head over heels for him every time. One evening with Two gripping his wrists like handcuffs and teasing raspberries at his cheek is worth a million tournament nights, at least.

BadTime's not even the only one to worry about. The Sharks are rocking a strong roster this season, featuring AriesEva, WellsGlazes, HumanCleo and ImpulseCam. Last year, iCam went home with the title of Top Scoring Player overall… a fact that TangoCam has never shut up about. Pig glances three lockers down. Tea is seething, staring at the half dozen carefully compiled images of his long-time rival taped inside his locker door. He does the whole "anime glasses" thing, pressing his glasses up every time they slip down.

"I'm gonna bury him in the avalanche trap," he mutters. "That gold medal's mine." So saying, Tea bends the locker door slightly, reaching out to glide his fingers over iCam's face. He trails them down his cheek. They squeak against paper. "He'll be recording snow the whole match."

#PiglinMyNose #SnifferMyFeet #flufftober2023 #mcyt #Day 1 #Joel Smallishbeans #EthosLab #Boat Boys #Pixels Imperfect #Sniff and Pig #ridwriting #apparently art #I started this at noon on Monday and wrote until 4 AM Tuesday. I do not advise but I have no regrets #TwoMuchGrian #BadTimeWithScar #desert duo #??? We're putting that tag last #/me staring at the ceiling #TwoPigs #fic announcement

[hbyrde36]

Caught in the Undertow

Chapter 3: All the way Down

Part 1 Part 2 AO3

*TW* suicidal thoughts/ideation etc.

*Steve*

Steve was...nervous, but also excited, and maybe just a little bit nauseous? Although, that part might have something to do with the fact that he hadn't eaten at all today, on account of the nervousness. This is just like any other get together. It's just the usual gang, plus Eddie. Nothing to be so worked up over, he tries to reason with himself. 

It's no use, Steve can't convince himself that this isn't a big deal. It is. It'll be the first time, since that horrible night, that any of them will get to set eyes on Eddie. Assuming he shows. He’ll never forget the overwhelming surge of relief he'd felt when Dustin rang and said Eddie had called him, that he'd finally reached out to one of them!  It was like Steve had been slowly suffocating and someone had finally come along and pulled the heavy blanket off allowing him to take his first deep breath in far too long. 

The phone rings, interrupting Steve from his thoughts and he rushes into the kitchen to answer. He assumes it must be Robin calling to ask for a ride over. She assured him it wouldn’t be a problem to get her mom to drop her off, but it wouldn't be the first time Mrs. Buckley had a last-minute change of plans, so he answered accordingly.

"Hey Rob."

"Steve? It's Wayne"

"Oh, Mr. Munson. I’m sorry I thought..."

"Boy, how many times do I gotta tell you..."

"I know, I know . Wayne . Sorry."

Wayne chuckles softly. "That's better"

"Is everything okay? Is Eddie..."

"He's fine. Well, at least as fine as he's been ya know? Anyways, he's in the shower now getting ready to head over to your place. I can't tell you how happy I am that he's finally gonna see some of his friends."

"Me too. I mean...I know the kids are excited, they’ve missed him."

"I bet... So, I hope this isn't too much to put on you, but I was calling to see if you might keep an eye on Eddie for me while he's there tonight. You know he's been having a real rough time and I worry..."

"No problem, Wayne. I'm happy to do that. I'm sure everything will be fine."

“Thanks boy, you’re a lifesaver. Listen, I’m not sure how Eddie would take it, us talking behind his back like this and all. Maybe it would be best if we just keep that between us, yeah?”

“Understood.”

Steve's...friendship with Eddie's Uncle isn't something he saw coming out of all this. Not in a million years. Wayne was, understandably, skeptical when he first heard that his nephew’s life had been saved by a Harrington. After all, Steve’s father did have a bit of a reputation around town for being a rich pompous asshole. Back when he was around at least. 

Wayne had told Steve as much when he'd called, after that long first week, to say Eddie would be waking up soon. Wayne had gone on to explain that while he'd met some of Eddie's band friends, he didn't know their last names to look up their numbers. Of course, he’d remembered Steve's, the whole situation was too weird not to. He had wanted to share the good news about Eddie with someone, anyone who cared about his boy. Luckily, the Harrington's home number was listed in the phone book.

They talked for over an hour that first time. Steve couldn't tell Wayne anything about Vecna, or the Upside-Down and to his surprise Wayne didn't push. He did tell him a little about how he and the others had been with Eddie the whole time, helping to keep him hidden while the town hunted for him. He told Wayne how he hadn't really known Eddie in school except in passing, a fact he is grateful for since Steve would be the first one to say how much of an asshole he was back then. He talked about finding Eddie in the boathouse, and how even after the other boy had held a broken bottle to his throat, he quickly realized Eddie wouldn't hurt a fly unless threatened. He even told Wayne how he really wants to get to know his nephew better; once he recovers and they clear his name, of course. How he hopes he and Eddie can be friends. 

Wayne clearly felt bad when he had to tell Steve that Eddie was refusing any visitors. The kids were devastated, Dustin especially, but Steve understood. He told Wayne it was okay. That everyone deals with trauma in their own way and as long as Eddie was alive and safe, they could wait until he was ready.

The interaction seemed to cement something between Steve and Wayne and they spoke quite often after that. Sometimes in person at the hospital, when Steve would turn up on the off chance that Eddie was feeling better and sometimes on the phone, late at night when Wayne would call to update Steve on Eddie’s progress. Even once Eddie was released from the hospital, Wayne would call sometimes when Eddie was asleep, even if the only news he could offer was that his stubborn nephew was still refusing to see anyone. 

Steve, in turn, starts telling Wayne all about the kids he and Eddie had come to share. He tells funny stories about his time working at Scoops and the video store. Including How he and Robin had been fired from Family Video for ‘abandoning their post”. Steve assures Wayne it was well worth it and yea he’s looking for a job but he’s in no big hurry.

-

As they often do when gathering at Steve's house, the party splits off into two groups. The kids, as usual, take over the living room. All of them are well acquainted enough with Steve’s house by now to know where all of the spare pillows and blankets are kept, as well as the good snacks. 

The older kids like to congregate in the kitchen. Partially to be close to the fridge where the beer is kept, and partially to guard said beer from the younger kids. The adults opted out this time. Joyce and Hop are having a date night while Murray… Well, Steve isn’t the biggest fan of Murray and maybe neglected to call him.

Everyone else has arrived, at this point they're just waiting on Eddie. Steve takes the opportunity to remind the kids to give Eddie plenty of space and to try not to overwhelm him with questions. In fact, it would be better if they didn’t bring up the hospital, or the time since then unless Eddie expressly brings it up himself. Everyone copes differently and it wouldn't be fair to make him feel bad about it.

Eddie arrives shortly after Steve’s speech. He smiles big and talks happily with the kids. Chats a little with Robin and Nancy whenever he pops back into the kitchen for another beer, but is always quick to rejoin the younger set in the other room. Outwardly he seems to be fine, great even, as long as you don’t look too closely. Steve knows better, thinks Eddie is just doing a masterful job of covering up how not great he’s doing. But Steve can see it, there’s a certain set to his shoulders, a bit of tension is his neck that betrays him.

Steve, true to his word, has kept a close eye on Eddie since his arrival – albeit from a distance. Eddie hasn’t so much as looked in his direction since his arrival, and Steve’s not sure what that’s about but he doesn’t want to push the issue tonight. 

An hour in, Eddie strolls into the kitchen for what woud be at least his 6 th beer by Steve's count. He’s drunk enough to stumble over the level floor, his words slurring a bit when he apologizes to Jonathan for bumping into him. Steve thinks unfortunately that it might be time to intervene.

“Hey man, do you think maybe you should slow down?” Steve says, taking a tentative step towards the other boy.

Eddie turns, his smile dropping to a scowl in an instant “Oh, is that what you think King Steve ? How about you just mind your own fucking business for once and leave me alone.”

Eddie’s tone is positively venomous. Steve is so taken aback by it that he literally takes a step back, raising his hands in a surrendering gesture. “Come on Eddie, I’m sorry, okay? I just don’t want to see you get sick or something.”

Eddie makes a show out of rolling his eyes. 

“Whatever, I’m outta here.” He says, grabbing his keys off the counter.

Nancy quickly steps into his path, “Oh no you don’t. You’re crazy if you think we’re letting you drive like this.”

“Fine, I’ll walk.” he says, handing her his keys as he tries to step around her.

Robin steps into Nancy’s side, helping to close the gap. “You can’t walk all that way out in the open, there’s too many people still after you!”

Eddie laughs, but not like anything is funny. “Jesus H. Christ. What a pack of meddling fucking do-gooders’ you people are. So what, if people are after me! Who gives a shit?!”

“We do, Eddie. We’re your friends dude, of course we care - Why don’t you?” Steve counters.

Eddie scoffs, shaking his head.

Steve sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Look man, just…sleep it off in the guestroom, okay?”

“You know, I don’t think I want to 'sleep it off' your majesty ” Eddie replies, complete with a mocking bow. He stops trying to get past the girls and instead turns, yanking open the fridge and after finally taking out the beer he’d been wanting, downs it in one go. 

“What is your problem, huh?” Steve is losing it a little bit but fights to stay calm. He knows adding his own growing frustration to Eddie's apparent anger isn't going to help the situation.

“You Harrington, you’re my problem.” he says, gesturing in his direction with the now empty beer bottle.

Eddie’s gaze on him is heavy and full of rage. Steve still doesn’t understand it, he fights to not take yet another step back from his friend.

“Why? What did I do?” 

“You should have fucking left me there!” Eddie shouts, pushing into Steve’s space. 

The room falls silent and when Eddie takes off towards the downstairs bathroom, nobody moves to stop him.

After a long moment Robin says, “Shit, do you think the kids heard any of that?” 

Argyle takes a peek into the other room before responding “Nah, the little dudes are like fully engrossed in their movie man. It’s cool” 

Well that’s a relief at least, Steve thinks.

“Nance...can you, Jonathan, and Argyle get Robin and the kids home?”

“Yea, we can do that. Are you sure you want to deal with this on your own though?” she asks.

Steve shrugs, “It feels like this is at least in part my fault so, I want to fix it if I can. I’ll be okay”

Robin doesn’t want to go. When he walks her to the door she all but begs him to let her stay but Steve assures her he can handle it. He thinks maybe he can get Eddie to talk more without a crowd around and if it gets any worse, he promises to call Wayne. She nods, finally letting it go. Robin knows about his talks with Wayne.

Before leaving she pulls him into one last tight hug. “He said, you should have left me there, I don’t like the sound of that.”

Steve swallows hard, his throat tight. “Me either” 

-

With the house finally empty, Steve approaches the bathroom. He can hear Eddie sobbing loudly through the door. The sound is heart wrenching and it tears a hole through Steve’s chest. He hadn’t known Eddie was in this much pain. He can admit to himself that he's maybe a little out of his depth here, but there’s nothing for it now. Steve takes a deep breath and knocks on the door, softly.

There’s a choked off sound followed by a muffled whimper, before silence falls on the other side of the door. He can imagine Eddie with a hand thrown over his own mouth, desperately trying to stifle the sound.

Steve closes his eyes tight, breathes deeply again. He can do this; he is intimately familiar with bathroom floor breakdowns and not just the one he and Robin can now look back on with laughter. He himself has spent many a night on that very same cold tile floor. After that first Demogorgon, after the tunnels, and the Russians and the mind flayer, and just a few weeks ago - after Vecna.

Steve sits, knees drawn to his chest and his back resting against the doorframe. “Everyone is gone, we told the kids you weren’t feeling well. Do you…um…want to come out and talk? or I could come in there?”

“Go away, Harrington” Eddie snarls, voice breaking  a little on the words. 

“I mean, you don’t have to talk if you don’t want to, I could just sit with you.”

“Haven’t you done enough King Steve? Just leave me alone!” 

“Come on man, you know I'm not that guy anymore. I thought we had a moment back there, in the woods?”

Eddie scoffs “A moment? What am I, your fucking prom date, Harrington?”

Steve sighs, “You know what I mean Eddie, I thought we came to an understanding; that we agreed we were both different than the other expected.”

“What part of ANY of this has convinced you that I’m not exactly the freak everyone says I am?”

“You’re not…”

Just when Steve starts talking, he hears the clatter of something falling to the tile floor. It sounds like metal, like a blade. It could just be the chains from Eddie’s jeans dragging on the floor, but Steve has a bad feeling. 

“Open the door Eddie” Steve pleads, shooting to his feet.

“Fuck off!”

“I’m serious, I’ll break it in.”

“You’re not gonna break your own door down.”

“Try me” 

If Steve is right about what he thinks is happening in there, he’d do a hell of a lot more than break down a stupid door to stop it.

Steve backs up, preparing to use his shoulder as a battering ram, when he hears the faint click of the lock. 

He takes a moment to collect himself before opening the door. He thinks the best thing he can do in this situation is not react, or at least to react calmly, to whatever he sees. Eddie is drunk and clearly in a very dark place right now and may be well past reasoning with. 

He swings the door in carefully, unsure of where Eddie is within the small room and not wanting to hit him with it. 

Eddie is huddled on the floor, wedged in the corner between the sink and the wall. He has a rather sharp looking pocket knife gripped in his hand and he’s shaking his head violently, muttering something under his breath over and over again.

Steve kneels on the floor, as far from Eddie as the small room will allow so as not to spook him and cause a panic. Down on this level he can finally make out the words Eddie keeps repeating. 

“I’m not supposed to be here, I don’t want to be here anymore.”

Fuck. Steve might be a little slow sometimes but he is absolutely sure that when Eddie says ‘here’ he's not talking about the bathroom, or this house, or even Hawkins. No, Steve the sinking feeling he knows exactly what Eddie means. 

“Please give me the knife.”

Eddie’s eyes shoot up to meet his. His eyes are red, and there’s still so much anger in his gaze and yet tears are flowing freely down his face. Eddie grits his teeth hard enough to hurt, as he drops the pocketknife to the floor between them. He looks Eddie up and down, relaxing minutely when he finds no trace of blood anywhere on him.

Steve moves slowly, deliberately, not knowing what might set Eddie off further. He carefully folds the knife up and slips it into his pocket. Eddie’s eyes tracking his movement the whole time. 

“Always think you know what’s best. Who put you in charge, why do you get to make that decision?”

Steve shakes his head. “I don’t know anything, Eddie.”

Eddie looks away, staring at a spot on the wall for a long time before he speaks again.

“Why didn’t you just leave me there? I was as good as dead. It would have been easier, safer.” There’s no anger behind the question this time. An eerie calm seems to have come over Eddie.

“I don’t know how to answer that.” Steve says, honestly.

“I did it to save Dustin but I also wanted it to happen. I never planned on making it out.”

Steve nods and slowly rises to his feet. He offers Eddie a hand up, which surprisingly he takes and then – doesn’t let go.

He pulls Eddie up the stairs by the hand and shows him into the guestroom, neither saying a word. Once  in the room Eddie finally lets go, laying down on top of the comforter fully clothed and facing the wall.

Steve just stands there, watching the rise and fall of his breath for a long minute.

“I’ll be right across from you, if you need anything and there’s a bathroom down the hall.”

Steve waits but gets no response, he didn’t really expect one.

“I’m not sorry that I saved your life, I could never be sorry for that, but — I am sorry that you’re hurting.”

-

Steve manages to make it downstairs before the first tear falls. He’s shaking by the time he reaches the phone. He dials Wayne’s number from memory before sliding down the wall to sit hunched on the floor.

“Hello?”

“Wayne…” Steve says wetly, His voice cracking on the word.

“Steve?! What’s wrong, where’s Eddie?”

“He’s here. He’s laying down in the guestroom.”

“What happened?”

“It’s bad…he…God…Wayne, I can’t even say it.” Steve can't catch his breath, thinks he's hyperventilating.

“It’s gonna be alright son, take a deep breath, in and out. Go on”

Steve knows this, it's not his first panic attack. He tries to hold the breath for a moment before letting it go but he can't. It feels like he's drowning.

“That’s real good Steve but you’re still breathing a little too fast, try again and drop your head between your knees.”

He does, listening to wayne soft encouragement the whole time. Within minutes he’s feeling a little better.

“I’m sorry”

“Nothing to be sorry for boy, now do you think you can tell me what’s going on?”

“Eddie got a little drunk and I tried to get him to slow down but…it just started an argument. He said some…things. He locked himself in the bathroom after so I had everyone go home. He was in there with a knife.”

Steve can hear Wayne sniffling now on the other end.

“Shit” Wayne says

“I’m sorry”

“It’s not your fault. I knew he was having a hard time but I didn’t think…”

“I know”

“I don’t know what to do, now I’m even more terrified to let him out of my sight. I’m supposed to go back to work tomorrow night, I can’t afford any more time off. We might not owe on the trailer but I still got bills to pay. I can’t lose him, Steve.”

“What if he stayed here with me for a while?”

“I can’t ask you to do that…”

“You didn’t, I’m offering. You know I’m not working right now, so I can be home with him all the time.”

When Wayne doesn't respond for a while, Steve softly adds, "I really wanna help him through this, if he'll let me"

“Well alright then, let's give it a try. I’m gonna pack a bag with some of his things and bring it on over, might be best if I come and talk to him about it too. I’ll see you soon.”

Part 4

#eddie munson #steve harrington #steddie #steddie fanfic #stranger things #ao3 #ao3 link #steve harrington/eddie munson #eddie munson pov #alternating pov #CITU

[bittybeanie]

Finally an account that does mob psycho! I appreciate your service! Could you write a scenario about going to the mall with Serizawa? Just looking at the cute stores, buying Seri some new clothes, maybe reader is looking for a fancy dress, maybe they stop by a lingerie store idk 👀 anything would be lovely!

happy to be of service!! this was such a cute idea i couldn't decide what angle i wanted to take, so here are two lil connected snippets! basically, you're both trying to find fancy clothes to wear to an event together- please enjoy!

also on ao3!

(update: this fic has art by the incredible @butterysalt! newly featured in the header, you can find just the art on their page here! go show them so much love!)

"Oh, you can handle it! This is barely anything. Besides, having your hands go numb from too many bags is an essential part of the mall shopping experience. I promise this is so authentic and neccessary." Against your words, you hold out a couple fingers to grab the handles of his bags. He lets go and sighs gratefully, rubbing his hands together to get feeling back into his fingers. You start to lean as you realize the bags were much heavier than you first thought, and you have to do some quick shuffling to avoid toppling over into him.

"I know you said it was easy to get distracted, but I guess I wasn't expecting…"

"Yeah, sorry. I just wanna make sure I don't forget anything we actually came here for."

"I get it. I really don't mind." He smiles that smile at you, the one that always makes your face light up and your heart sing and your worries and doubts and regrets sound like dull buzzing of the past underneath the loud simmer of your affection for him, and he points at a set of chairs in the nearby walkway. "This is my first time having to get so dressed up. I'm learning a lot."

"Well, it's not like I'm a pro at it either. You've seen what I wear to the office sometimes." He laughs and nods, and he tugs gently on your arm to steer you away from bumping into somebody. When your shoulder brushes against his arm, you take advantage of it to lean your head against him before leading him across the stream of people toward the chairs. You set your bags down and roll your wrists, looking around for a map. "I didn't think it would take quite this long to find something good, though."

"I promise, I don't mind." He taps the top of your head with one finger. You hum, so he leans down and presses a kiss in the spot he just tapped. As he stands back up, you lock your arms around his neck and pull him into a proper kiss, albeit one that's much too quick for your liking. You are in public, though, and having him spontaneously combust just wouldn't do, so you'll have to settle for his nervous laughter and wobbly smile for now. "Especially if I get more of those."

"So you're saying you wouldn't mind even if we stopped at every single store, right?"

"Well…"

"Ooh, and what about that one? Something for you, perhaps?" You nudge his side and point your elbow toward the lingerie store just behind you. He barely glances before snapping his head in the opposite direction. When his hand comes up to rub at the back of his neck, you're honestly not sure if his discomfort is emotional or physical.

"I… don't think I'm their target audience." You catch even yourself off guard by how loudly you laugh. You slap a hand over your mouth, clearing your throat in an attempt to disguise your remaining giggles.

"Well, I admit that would be pretty fun to see." You take a mental screenshot of the way his cheeks light up, filing that information away to use later. "But I meant for you. Like… as a present?"

"But you… Oh! I-I-I see! You don't need- I mean I don't need- it's not- we, um. That is-"

"Hey, baby." You tap a finger over his lips, and he stops talking just long enough to nod. "I'm just teasing." His smile is still lopsided and his cheeks are still warm, but his shoulders creep away from his ears when you kiss him, and you think you might just melt from how endearing it is. You pull away to slip the bags back over your arm, laughing when he jerks forward to snatch some away from you. "We should focus on what we came for, anyway. But, if you change your mind, let me know."

He shifts all his bags to one hand and reaches for you with the other, rolling his eyes as he pulls you toward the second floor.

+

You'd be lying if you said you weren't worn down by now. You'd started off hopeful and excited, but one store after another had been a disappointment, and if this one didn't meet your standards you were probably going to have to go home with nothing helpful to show for the hours you'd spent. Serizawa was doing his best to remain cheerful, but you could tell it was getting to him, too. You believed him - and agreed - when he said he was just happy to spend the time with you, but it was way more people than he was used to being around, and you could see the pinch at the ends of his smile and feel the way his hand twitched in yours when the volume swelled. You wanted to get him home.

"Let's make this the last one."

He didn't have the energy to fight you, just nodding and squeezing your hand.

You wander around, scanning the rows of clothing as you make your way down the main aisles.

"Should we just go home? I might just be tired, but I don't see anything good." He hums, low in the back of his throat, so you nod, turning to head for the door. Your arm jerks as you feel resistance, and you look back to find him staring off into the distance.

"Wait." He points to a mannequin in the back corner, then to another a couple racks over. "What about those?"

"Holy shit." They're clearly separate outfits given their distance apart, but everything about them looks like they were made to go together - from the color, to the fabric, to the pattern of how the stitching on the sides is tailored. "Katsuya."

"Hmm?"

"You're a fashion genius."

"I am?"

You don't have time to see his pleased expression before he's stumbling to follow behind you, practically running as you pull him along. You set your bags down to rummage through the racks, and he picks them up just in time to catch the clothes you haphazardly chuck at him.

"Sorry! Stay there!"

"R-right!" He straightens, standing awkwardly still as he waits for you to sprint over to the other rack and find the right size of everything for the other outfit. You sling everything over your shoulder and take the clothes back from him, looping your hand into the crook of his elbow to drag him to the fitting room.

You push the door open for him before slipping in behind him to lock it. He looks a little shell-shocked as he sets the bags down in the corner, and you drop the clothes onto the bench to reach for him. You slide your hands up both sides of his face and pull him down to press a gentle kiss to the tip of his nose.

"Sorry. I got very excited."

"I noticed." He tilts his head to kiss you fully, and your fingers slide back into his hair. "It was cute."

You click your tongue, ruffling his hair as you pull away to hide your flustered state. "Oh, stop flattering me and put these on." You pick his set of clothes out of the pile, wrinkled as all hell by now, and hold them out in one hand as your sift through your own clothes with the other.

"Okay." He gently takes the clothes, a huge smile plastered across his face, and you can't resist the urge to kiss him one more time.

Ordinarily, you would take every chance you had to tease him in a situation like this, but both of you are so tired that you strip without much pretense, throwing your clothes in a pile by the door like it's your hamper back at home. He laughs when you trip trying to take your shoe off and lets you scramble to catch his shoulder, but otherwise keeps his eyes politely in the other direction. It's not until both of you have stopped moving that you look over at each other, and you take a sharp breath in as you survey him.

"Damn." You reach up to straighten his tie, smoothing your hand down his chest as your gaze makes its way down his figure. "You clean up nice, Serizawa."

He's too busy staring at you to respond. You'll take that as a good sign.

"Here, let's see…" You put your hands on his hips to spin him toward the mirror, and he seems to blink himself back to awareness as you take your place beside him. He holds his arm out to let you wrap your elbow around it, and he smiles when you lean against him. "What do you think? Do we look good, or what?"

"Yeah." His voice is breathy, and it makes your own breathing catch in your throat. He pulls his arm out of your grasp and reaches around behind you, resting his hand on your hip to pull you against him again. He presses his nose into your neck, kissing you as soon as you lean toward him, before straightening to rest his chin on your head. You can feel him surveying you more than you can see it, and your temperature shoots up when his hand tightens on your hip.

"Hey…"

"Mhm?"

"Can we go back to that...?"

You blink, looking up at his face in the mirror.

"You said to tell you if I changed my mind, so..."

You bury your face in his chest and let out a breathy chuckle. "Tell you what." You pull yourself away from his side to lay your original clothes out. "When we get home, we can do some online shopping instead." You don't miss the way his gaze hovers as you pull the fabric over your head - just high enough over your shoulder that he could say he wasn't looking if pressed, but close enough that you both know he's staring. "That way we can both be flustered in peace. Deal?" He slips a finger into the knot of his tie and jerks his hand out. It comes easily undone, one end fluttering across his wrist to drape down his arm as he swallows thickly.

"Deal."

#serizawa katsuya x reader #serizawa x reader #my writing #shopping with seri is such a domestic idea that i absolutely had to write this #but if i'm being honest #my favorite brand of shopping with him would probably be late night convenience store runs #because of all that instant ramen he inhales #thoughts for another time™ maybe

[justworthlessreblogs]

waffleverse: full bibury fic author's notes

this fic is so long and i had so many writing decisions/notes i wanted to talk about that they couldn't all fit in ao3's 5000 character limit. so i figured i might as well put them here. they'll be under a cut to prevent any accidental spoilers!

writing notes:

- first off this fic drove me CRAZY. another one of its nicknames was “the frankenfic” because i really did feel like i had 3 fics i was shoving into one. and it also took on a life of its own. every day i wake up and scold myself for deciding that covering 33-40 was a good idea. it was not helped by me not having many strong feelings about any of the episodes in that set, which led to me feeling really bored when writing them, and then in the last month of writing i said “fuck it, we ball” and started just making up shit. i also remembered Hey I Made Bibury Try To Kill Rio Back In May I Should Do Something About That. so you get bibury backstory! plus i was sad that they never explore her’s and rio’s time working under noir in canon aside from like. one scene in episode 18

- rio is trying his best to be better at emotions but it is definitely an uphill battle and not linear. the other cures meant well by accepting bibury so easily - after all, it didn’t really work out that great when they were constantly suspicious of him - but he didn’t see it the same way they did. in his eyes bibury was getting away with everything even though she did similar things to him. this was inspired by how the show itself does not seem to ever hold bibury accountable (at least as of where i’m at) but makes it very clear that rio needed to do something to make up for what he did (which i am fine with! this is not a “omg poor rio he was so hated by the writers” moment. i just found it interesting and thought i could explore it)

- episode 37 was the reason for like. nearly all of my original writer's block. it almost got cut, but in the end 34 got the chopping block instead because i felt that bibury didn't really have a justification to be there and 36 got basically entirely cut because i thought it was boring. plus 37 was just… too important to not acknowledge unfortunately. i still definitely want to write a waffleverse version of 34, though, i just think it’d work better on its own! which is why i summarized it here. i had the entire thing written out and saved it, so the original version will probably get uploaded to spice of life someday

- rio being like “i am so mad at my sister. however she is upset so i will make her waffles” was very funny to me. the duality of rio kuroki

- i left the bib & rio talk at the end open-ended, since i had so many things they could have possibly discussed that i couldn’t fit them all in naturally no matter how hard i tried. so let your imaginations go wild lol. however i guess i do have to thank that original draft of their conversation since it was the thing that finally, finally, made me figure out what i wanted from this fic - exploring not just bibury, but bibury and rio. this fic was originally a lot more ciel-heavy than what the final product ended up being, and frankly bib & rio didn’t interact much at all, and i wasn’t able to get to the bottom of why they still hated each other until i remembered. hey. attempted murder

- you are all so lucky that i ended up incorporating 26 into this fic because the original plan was for the scenes that changed to be stuck into spice of life when i got around to writing them someday. the mcu-ification of waffleverse is defeated for another day

- no fantastic animale because i really dislike those super forms and the attack. this is one of two times i have actively disregarded canon, i usually try to stick as close to canon events as possible (which is why the crystal animals are in this. you have no idea how badly i wanted to cut them). fantastic animale is Just That Bad. this was literally the first thing i decided after i started planning this fic. so animal-go-round is powerful enough in this ‘verse. just roll with it please

- no "do sweets bring sadness?" dilemma here because i didn't vibe with that part of the episode. i was looking forward to bibury shenanigans :( the crystal animals are just cielbib shippers /j

- if the writing seems disjointed i apologize it's because this thing was written on and off over a period of 3 months and is also super long

- i had so much fun writing the bathroom scene. finally allowing myself silly rights. the flashback scenes were also really enjoyable

- i messed with the yukari v. kirarin fight because i was a little disappointed with how it played out in canon. yukari tells everyone right away here because she had a Realization because of part 4. kirarin is more resistant than the average fairy to diable in this universe but not fully immune

- RIO FINALLY GETS TO SAY FUCK WOOHOO i've waited so long for this. also bibury is definitely a character who would cuss if the show's rating wasn't the japanese equivalent of tv-y7 so i was a little looser here

- you all know it in your hearts that aoi was 100% a vine kid. also there was no way i was letting that joke slip past me

- did the math and i'm preeettty sure that rio's age in the prologue section checks out with the waffleverse timeline? when i started this series i was under the impression that rio had been gone for way longer than what the series ended up implying, and so in waffleverse i decided he was gone for about a year. he's 12-about-to-turn-13 in the prologue and 14 in the present (his & ciel’s birthday was shortly after part 4!)

-bib starts calling him rio pretty quickly because a) she may have been evil, but she respects people's preferred name choices and b) yukari already had an arc about realizing how he's not julio anymore and i really didn't want to write that same arc a second time!

- waffle’s secondary attack finally shows up!!! waffle protége my beloved. giving him some sort of barrier just Felt Right (and waffles are the perfect shape for it). i like to think he can split it apart and use it offensively a la rosetta reflection. it was originally supposed to show up in 34 (which got cut) then in 37 (then i cut the battle from the episode since it felt very forced) and then i worried i wouldn’t be able to fit it in at all but got the opportunity with the climax rewrite

- in regard to bib's aging i'm going with "noir's presence slowed down her aging a lot somehow, so she may be chronologically 106 or so, but in all other aspects she's around 13-14 and will now start aging normally again". the same would've happened to rio had he stayed with noir longer. insert noir child labor joke here

- hey remember that time noir tried to take rio back!? i guess 40 kinda busted that for canon by establishing he sees them all as expendable but in my defense while i was writing part 3 i saw it more as a twilight-dyspear situation. and then i ran with that. at this point i’m just gonna have to accept that waffleverse isn’t purely canon divergence any more thanks to me writing it as i watch the show, which leads to the show debunking things from earlier parts 

- was a bit disappointed that the great fairy meeting episode didn't really involve, well, a meeting. so they actually get some time to talk strategy here! i'm so sad the technological limitations of ichigoyama meant that i couldn't have waffle give a powerpoint presentation on noir like i wanted to. it would've been so funny. maybe i'll make it for fun someday

- yeah i messed with episode 40 like. a lot. sorry. it's just how it ended up working out tbh. i actually debated back and forth for literal months on if i should give bib a "canon cure waffle" moment or not, and nearly did it, but decided against it because in the end it just didn't feel quite right for a multitude of reasons. so you were going to get fairy combat and then bib yelling at grave instead. and then that got rewritten once i decided i wanted to expand more on why rio & bib are so antagonistic to each other. you can still see traces of the original climax though in ciel showing up with the fairies, as well as the part where bib confronts grave! bib also originally wasn’t supposed to be dragged into the town with them, she was gonna stay on the mountain and then venture down with ciel and the fairies. but rio said Nope She’s Coming With Us once the fic's course changed direction

- my beta enabled me on the "bibury hasn't slept in an actual bed in a century" thing. i originally sent it to him as a joke. he told me to go ahead with it. but let's be real noir would do something fucked up like that

- let waffle fight the townspeople 2k23. this is the other time i actively disregarded canon in the fic idc what it says He Would Do It

- bibury’s verbal beatdown of grave was inspired by her canon one in episode 40

- ciel & bib's relationship isn't gonna progress past "mutual crush" at any point in waffleverse simply because i cannot write romance sorry. rest assured it blossoms into a beautiful love story. they get married on the island where they met properly for the first time. rio is ciel's best man

- i came to the realization that a lot of my decisions regarding this fic were along the lines of "fuck canon". idk what that means

#precure #pretty cure #kirakira precure a la mode #cure waffle au #waffleverse: writing #waffleverse: behind the scenes #long post #so sorry about the length. you can blame bib fic and its 13.9k word wordcount

[maruyaaya]

Hey Imeda! I am Low! I read your Pandalily fic recently and I adored it! I saw that you haven't had this account long and since I can't peruse/stalk your account to satiate my curiosity I've decided to inquire here :) I hope you don't mind.

Do you have any specific Pandora or Lily headcanons you can share? Do you have any WIPs in the works? Do you have any songs you are listening to on repeat right now? What are the top 5 ships that are giving you the most insistent brain rot currently?

And finally, I am done pestering you and I'm wishing you a day full of wonder <3

OMG HI LOW!! yes absolutely i am always happy to talk about pandalily they are my beloveds <3 yeah i set up this acc relatively recently bc i wanted a fresh start for my ao3 and i haven’t really had the chance to do much on it yet (i am unfortunately a full time university student) but i am so happy you sent an ask bc i am always excited to talk to ppl!! feel free to send more asks or even dm me for whatever reason!!

i’m gonna do the pandalily headcanons last bc i have so many of them, but firstly do i have any wips:

oh i ABSOLUTELY have wips. i actually am the worst at starting wips and never finishing them, but as for main ones i’m working on rn, i have a prongsfoot wip that’s currently around 50k words 75% done, a marauders x daisy jones & the six au, a (you have to hear me out on this one okay bc i know nobody ships this but me BUT HEAR ME OUT) friends with benefits sirius x barty fic that’s about half done, and another pandalily fic that is basically just taking shape but i don’t have much to say about it yet (im actually just the worst multishipper ever and i ship my favourite character, sirius, with every single person who dares to so much as breathe in his direction)

songs on repeat

ok so i am totally willing to just link my spotify, in fact: here and i have a pandalily playlist in the works here, but specifically, i’ve had never love an anchor by the crane wives, three by sleeping at last, and funeral by phoebe bridgers on loop over and over as well as the entire daisy jones & the six album.

top 5 ships giving me brainrot

1. PRONGSFOOT!! prongsfoot is forever in my head as one of my fav ships ever

2. pandalily! i absolutely adore their dynamic and the little version of them that i have created in my head

3. rosekiller. i think this is a relatively unpopular opinion but i am so intrigued by their dynamic and i’m currently in the process of drafting a LONG fic about them but i haven’t done much work on it yet

4. dorlene. UGH MY OG ENEMIES TO LOVERS i am forever obsessed with them and i can’t believe i haven’t written them yet

5. normally i’d have jegulus around here i think but currently i’ve been having intensive brainrot about the idea of a dynamic between barty and sirius. i think they’re two characters who are very similar and yet hate each other and i think it’s really interesting to explore a two sides of the same coin dynamic between them and idk i have a lot of thoughts about them i could absolutely rant for a very long time abt the sirius/barty dynamic i have in my head

bonus bc it isn’t a marauders ship but my favourite ship of ALL TIME is soukoku, aka dazai/chuuya from bungou stray dogs. i like them a Normal amount (i’m crazy abt them)

and now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for, here are a few of my pandalily headcanons that i can think of off the top of my head

first of all, my fav pandalily song is trouble by halsey. it’s literally them. that’s their dynamic to me

pandora’s much more open about her oddness and want for Blood while lily is more closed off about it. it’s still there—absolutely still there—but pandora kind of awakens it in her and helps her to realize that it’s okay to show that part of her

they met through james and regulus and often go on double dates with them

they absolutely get matching tattoos. probably ethel cain lyrics or something abt the inherent eroticism of cannibalism idk

my favourite headcanon is that pandora and evan are twins and evan tries to get lily the shovel talk when he meets her for the first time, but actually just ends up half in love with her bc he thinks she’s so cool

speaking of, evan and lily joke that they’re going to run away and elope so that evans name could be evan evans and pandora thinks it’s the funniest thing ever

bonus headcanon that evan is the older twin by a few minutes but pandora tells everyone that she is and he doesn’t correct her

they watched bones and all together and every 5 minutes they would whisper “this is so us” to each other

they absolutely LOVE baking together. they do it at least once a week and they make cookies or cupcakes or something and decorate them like pinterest photos and give them to their friends

they have two shared pinterest boards. one is really cutesy baking ideas and cute room decor inspo and the other is full of quotes abt cannibalism and blood and eating each other whole. they treasure both of these boards equally

lily is the biggest taylor swift fan ever and she makes pandora listen to her songs together. pandora moderately enjoys taylor swift, but will listen to her constantly to please lily. lily’s favourite song is this is me trying and pandora likes cowboy like me

they give each other flowers all the time (notably lilies ofc). pandora can’t stand to watch them die and always presses them and keeps them all in a little notebook with the date they got them

they’re obsessed with biting each other. like not even just during sex, they do it all the time. they’ll be watching a movie and pandora will just reach over and bite lily’s shoulder for fun

their favourite show to watch together is hannibal. they’re crazy about it. they rewatch it all the time to an unhealthy extent

they often say really strange declarations of love to each other in front of other people like “i want to eat you down to the bones” or “i want to rip open your skin and crawl inside your kidneys and sleep in there” and everyone around them just laughs nervously and can’t tell if they’re serious or not

i probably rambled much more than i needed to but i am always very excited to talk!!

#should probably start using this acc more huh #this has Awakened something in me i’m going to talk so much abt my wips now LMAO #imeda answers asks!!

[galactic-pirates]

@tinknevertalks thanks for the tag :) I know you also tagged me on the WIP poll post but as I don't really have any fanfic WIPs I wasn't sure how to do that one. I did appreciate it though. I always get a warm awww when someone thinks enough of me to tag, so thank you.

Anyway!

Rules: Pick any ten of your fics, scroll roughly to the midpoint, pick a line (or three) and share it. Then tag ten people.

I think I'll do my last 10 posted on AO3? That seems reasonable. So in reverse order (most recently posted at #1)

1) Somewhere to Belong (Star Trek: Picard, Seven/Raffi)

“Insubordination.” Raffi snorted. “Picard does bring that out in people. Although really… Seven…” she sighed.

2) Time Will Tell (Sanctuary, James/John/Helen)

“I take it the two of you have finally decided to stop dancing around one another,” Helen noted dryly.

3) We Belong to the Future (The Librarians, Eve/Flynn)

“Thirty years we travelled, somewhere new every week. I barely noticed beyond the season change. I didn’t count the years. Well I suppose I did but not…” Charlene trailed off, shaking her head. “It’s all different. The world has changed around us, but we’re still the same.”

4) Odyssey: Future's Legacy (Sanctuary/Warehouse 13, James/John/Helen, Myka/HG, Artie/MacPherson)

“Hey, Artie,” Claudia answered. “Yeah, we’re almost done here, I think Fang-boy just found it.” Nikola twisted to glare at her. He accepted such indignities from the wolf-boy, as they traded such things, but really? And he had thought Claudia respected him. He stalked forward, aware that his demeanour was probably like that of an offended cat, Nigel used to roast him for it. Nikola didn’t usually think of Nigel much, he had been dead over six decades, but the case, centering around the griffins as it did, was conjuring up many old memories of Griffin. It was a shame he hadn’t lived to see his namesake.

5) Dancing on Broken Glass (Star Trek: Picard, Seven/Raffi)

Seven set her mouth in a firm line. It felt incongruous to keep dancing like there was nothing wrong, when suddenly everything felt wrong between them. The mood had changed from flirty to unhappy tension in the blink of an eye. Suddenly Seven realised that the tension wasn’t just stemming from them.

6) Celebrate the Day (Sanctuary)

Every Christmas after that for the next few years they’d built Lego decorations. It had been the tradition of their childhood. Helen had felt a pang the year they’d stopped. Henry had reached the age where he was old enough to start building anything he wanted for real, and Ashley had been so eager to grow up and leave toys behind her. Now the tradition was passed to the next generation.

7) Gentleman of Blood (Sanctuary, James/John/Helen)

“War is coming,” James commented, with terrifying certainty. Helen sighed. “I wish you would stop saying that, James.” James turned to look at her, his eyes flickering to John behind her, and then back to meet her eyes. “I wish it weren’t true, darling,” he said apologetically. “But Europe is a powder keg. It’s only a matter of time, and with these investments Worth stood to make a fortune when it happened.”

8) Focused Avoidance (Warehouse 13, Artie/MacPherson)

He’d tried warning Myka, he’d even referenced James directly, but she hadn’t seen the obvious parallel and he hadn’t elaborated. An agent had to trust their partner. Artie had trusted MacPherson with his very soul and had been burned - rather literally if you took into account the Phoenix artifact. Perhaps because of what had happened with James, Artie had picked up the sparks between Myka and the thrice-damned HG Wells almost from the start, almost certainly before anyone else bar Mrs Frederic of course.

9) The Tragic Tail (Sanctuary, Helen/James)

“It’s April 14th,” Helen murmured. That meant nothing to James but his gut clenched. It meant something to Helen and there was a catch in her voice, something that told him that very soon it would mean a lot to him.

10) It takes little effort to watch a man carry a load (Sanctuary, James/John)

James shook his head. “No. I’m quite sure John killed those poor women but the real question is why. Don’t you see, Nikola?” James pleaded. “There has to be a reason. John would never have done… that on his own. I will find out what happened, and I will save him from it, if it’s the last thing I do.”

I don't think I know 10 people well enough to tag sadly. So tagging @purlturtle, @sarcasticsciencefictionwriter, @rinari7, @enterprise-come-in and @ussjellyfish and of course anyone who wants to do it :)

#long post #sam talks writing #I answer things

[laffy-taffy-creations]

Dayyyyy 3!

This fic was cross-posted on AO3 here

Language of Protection

Journal | Solitary Confinement | "Make it stop!"

Fandom: My Hero Academia

Words: 551

Warnings: human experimentation, quirk experimentation, all of it is unethical experimentation

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

White. Walls and Walls of nothing but white.

The tiles on the floor way too clean, you could tell there were frequent accidents.

“C’mon MEQAT3, you do this,” I whispered to myself. Running through the entirety of the lab in less than 5 minutes was incredibly taxing; but if I was gonna escape here, I had to be able to run and fast.

I heard someone screaming. “Make it stop, make it stop!”

Shit.

I forgot they were beginning another genetic experiment today.

I ended up making a quirk U-turn and sprinted towards the sound.

I tried to open the door. The doorhandle refused to move. It was locked. It was locked.

I banged on the door. Over and over. “WHICHEVER SCIENTIST IS IN THERE, I’M GONNA BEAT YOUR ASS AS SOON AS I GET IN THERE!” I threatened.

I heard a faint chuckling on the other side. It infuriated me.

A few steps back, a small sprint and one foot aimed directly at the door, it was sent flying off the hinges.

I immediately rushed to the side of the new experiment.

“Well, I guess now’s a better time than any to introduce you two,” the doctor said.

I looked up at them, memorizing their face instantly so they wouldn’t be able to get away even if they tried. “What. Do. You. Mean.”

“MEQAT3, meet the new member of your series, MEQAT5,” they said nonchalantly.

I looked at the guy currently hiding in my arms. MEQAT5… just how many of us are they going to make…

“Hey, hey do you understand me?” I asked. He looked up at me in confusion. I realized when I heard him screaming it hadn’t been Japanese, but Chinese.

I took a deep breath. I did my best to remember what I’d learned. “现在你明白我在说什么了吗?”

He looked like he had just met whichever of the gods he worshipped. “是的是的！你是谁?”

“MEQAT3.”

I didnt give him time to respond before pulling him up to his feet, and pushing him through a portal. “For safety.”

I turned back to the scientist. They had been writing stuff on the clipboard. They were using this as a chance to study me.

Unluckily for them, I still had the upper hand of my quirks still active, and set up a quick invisible boundary to make sure it stayed that way.

One quick movement of void immobilised them. I walked forward and took the clipboard.

“I am not something for you to study.”

I made good on my promise and proceeded to cut deep into their skin, the void itself providing an effective clot to the wound.

Walking out, I finally took a deep breath. These 'doctors' were really getting on my nerves.

I returned my attention to the clipboard. It read through like a journal, telling the personal account of my outrage. Documenting all the anomalies with my quirks.

I put it back under my arm and made my way to the room I'd sent MEQAT5 to.

My speed tests had been long forgotten in favour of helping someone new assimilate into this new life.

Try as I might, even I knew it would be a long time before everyone would be able to escape.

#whumptober2023 #no.3 #solitary confinement #make it stop #my hero academia #human experimentation #child experimentation #writeblr #writers on tumblr #writing #writers #creative writing #my writing #writer #whumpblr #whump writer #whump writing #whump community #emotional whump #whump #oc: ov