#bc I’m finishing up the long con and possibly a few things from my to do queue of oneshots first

[lyrebirdswrites]

1. i am SO excited for the fantasy au it sounds epic

2. you have at least one former horse girl constantly lurking on your blog, if you have questions about horse related stuff, speak into the void and it will answer

I’m excited too!!!! Hopefully I can do the idea justice (ง •̀_•́)ง

Thank you for the offer! I’m sure I’ll need some horse related input eventually, so once I start properly looking into that for the fantasy au I’ll probably shout some questions into the tumblr void.

#it might not be for a while though #bc I’m finishing up the long con and possibly a few things from my to do queue of oneshots first #lyrebirds answers #anonymous #the fantasy au #hmmm I’ll need to come up with a name so I can tag it properly

[peterparker-pickedapepper]

Always You

(Peter Parker/Spider-Man x Stark!Reader)

Chapter 01

A/N: this is set during Homecoming (and eventually FFH) in a universe where Tony isn’t ☠️ bc we don’t acknowledge that trauma here 🙂 also, there are elements from the comics and the older movies, but it’s still in the MCU

———————————————————————

I never meant to find it.

And I wasn’t being nosy either. It was my dads fault, really. Okay so yes, I wasn’t supposed to be in his workshop. But is it my fault he just leaves important things lying around? Mom’s told him to keep it tidy enough times you think it’d be engrained in his brain.

Anyway, the how isn’t important. Not even the why matters. It’s everything that came after.

It was the day my world began falling apart.

The moment I lost all trust—all respect—for the two men closest to my heart.

Now that I know their secret, I don’t see how I’ll be able to look them in the eye. But I’m going to do it. I’m going to keep my head up, act as normal as possible...

And see how long it takes for them to tell me themselves.

———————————————————————

                      Three Months Earlier

“I’m here on the corner of fifth and main, just a street away from the reported sighting of a flying man causing panic among the locals.”

Y/N adjusted her fingers around the smooth base of the microphone, her skin slipping against the hard plastic. It wasn’t nerves causing the dampness on her palms, but excitement. Her eyes flickered from the camera lens pointed in her direction to her best friend standing behind it before easily finding their mark again.

“The large, mechanically winged man has been wrecking havoc in New York’s beloved neighborhood of Queens for the last—”

The ground suddenly shifted beneath her feet with a loud boom, jolting her forward and stopping her report mid-sentence. She twirled around, eyes instantly landing on the sandwich shop across the street.

Or, rather, on the man looming ominously from its roof.

She could only assume it was a man. She’d never seen his face—or any part of his body for that matter—not that his skintight suit left anything to the imagination. But the media affectionately called him “Spider-Man”, so they pretty much filled in the blanks on that one.

She watched as he seemingly surveyed the area. It was always so hard to tell what was going on behind that mask, but every time she saw him she liked to imagine a picture perfect heroic expression etched into handsome features.

It made her disdain for the local superstar a little easier to swallow down.

His head swiveled back and forth a few times, fists clenching at his sides, before he shot one of his webs and disappeared on the other side of the building. She immediately turned back toward her camerawoman, lips pulled into an excited grin.

“This is perfect. Come on.” She wasted no time in scooping up some of the equipment laying at her feet, but stopped short when she noticed the apprehensive expression staring back at her.

“I don’t think I’m really in the mood to run toward danger today.” Her best friend’s bored voice didn’t match the concern she knew was brewing just below the surface.

“MJ,” Y/N all but whined. “We need this story.”

“We need to get ready for next week’s debate.” She muttered, mild annoyance seeping through. “We need to be home in twenty minutes so your dad doesn’t kill us. We need—”

“Okay, okay, I get it.” Y/N huffed, tossing the last of the camera supplies into her bag before slinging it over her shoulder.

She turned on her heel, pulling her phone from her back pocket as she moved toward the last crash that sounded a few blocks away. She was getting this story, whether she had to go alone or not. Screw her father’s arbitrary curfew. He was in India for the next few days, anyway.

“You’re serious?” MJ’s incredulous voice echoed from behind her. “What about Liz’s party?”

Y/N’s attention only wavered from the small screen in her hands once she was finished temporarily disabling the tracking feature her dad had not so subtly installed before giving it to her. He didn’t need to know she almost immediately figured out it was there, just like she didn’t need to know that he got a notification every time she hacked into the system.

Her eyes found MJ’s, wide with shock and following something in the sky above. Y/N’s head snapped upward, gaze locking on the flying man who was twisting and turning aggressively in an attempt to kick Spider-Man off his right wing.

“Yes. Very serious.” She huffed, pulse jumping with excitement. “If FRIDAY calls just, please, try to be convincing.”

With that, she spun around one last time before jogging toward the action. She knew MJ’s hesitation was coming from a good place. They’d been inseparable since middle school because they were on opposing ends of the same strong-willed base.

Where MJ was methodical and calculated, Y/N was rash and unpredictable. They were both the type to end up involved in sketchy situations, just at varying speeds and levels of grandeur. Y/N had her father to thank for that.

The iconic Tony Stark was not a pretender. He was who he was, loud and proud. He’d never apologized for it before—not even when he should’ve—and he probably never would. Y/N, on the other hand, had been pretending to be something she wasn’t for more than a decade.

He’d given her a choice when she was old enough for kindergarten. They talked about it, mapped out the pros and cons, and she made a decision. Soon after, she entered the outside world as Y/N Smith. It was the best thing her five year old brain could think of. Plus, she didn’t want her place on the alphabetical rosters to change.

She went to public schools—something Tony never missed an opportunity to mention he hated—and started paving her own way. Right now, that meant she was chasing a super-powered fight through the streets of Queens.

Since landing a highly sought after internship at The Daily Bugle, Y/N’s main priority had been impressing her overbearing bosses. That came with varying levels of complexity, depending on the superhero shenanigans of the month.

She rounded a corner into an alleyway, instantly ducking down when a blindingly bright object whizzed by her head. Her arms shot up in a protective motion as she leaned against the cool brick wall at her side. She remained there, frozen in place with a racing heart, for several seconds.

Something thumped to the concrete only a foot away from her crumpled frame, nearly making her jump out of her skin. She peeked through her arms, still crossed over her head, eyes widening as they landed on a pile of red and black fabric.

The lump groaned and slowly unraveled to reveal Queens’ favorite masked hero. He shook his head, the mechanical eyes of his suit twitching as if malfunctioning. Y/N was stuck in her spot, wide eyes hungrily drinking in every detail they could. Despite following his activity for months now, she’d never gotten this close to the mystery man.

His suit was tighter than she thought possible. It hugged his body in a way that left nothing to the imagination. The rippling muscles lining his torso were clearly visible beneath the thick material. She watched as he sat back on his heels and rubbed the side of his head, shoulders tensing as he seemed to finally realize that she was there.

“Whoa, hey.” Came his breathy, surprisingly high-pitched greeting. He cleared his throat before continuing, a steady hand extending her way. “Are you okay, miss?”

Y/N’s brow furrowed in curiosity, not missing the way his demeanor changed the moment he noticed her. It was like a flip switched. He’d turned on his superhero persona, a process she was unfortunately all too familiar with.

“I’m fine.” The words came out more forcefully than she’d intended, but she was all business now, too.

There was no way she was letting him out of her sight without getting some information. She wasn’t even worried about all the ways her bosses would kill her, she’d beat herself up enough for the missed opportunity. She ignored his hand, dusting her jeans off and hobbling to her feet before reaching for her phone to launch the recording app.

“Can I ask you a few questions, Spider-Man?” She jutted the phone out in front of her, and he took a step back as if the device would somehow hurt him.

The eyes on his mask widened, something she didn’t know was possible. “Oh. I...uh—”

Just then, the ground shook with a massive impact that couldn’t have been more than a block away. It would’ve knocked Y/N right off her feet if it weren’t for the gloved hand that shot out to stabilize her.

“Gotta go!”

By the time his hasty goodbye met her ears, he was gone. It took about ten seconds for Y/N to process what just happened before she took off running in the same direction he’d swung in. She was too far in to give up now. At this point, she’d settle for some shaky footage of the fight. It’d be enough to satisfy her editors for a few days.

She ran out in the street, stopping abruptly as a stampede of people swarmed her. Elbows and shoulders rammed into her sides as she tried fighting her way through the panic. 

“Oh, come on people! Chill the fuck out!” She found herself shouting to deaf ears. 

Maybe it was because she grew up immersed in the superhero way of life, or her bordering on unhealthy need to get some kind of story tonight, but either way she was aggravated by the public reaction more than anything.

She was rarely scared anymore, even when faced with imminent danger. Admittedly, she didn’t have a good gauge for when she might be getting herself into trouble. Another thing she blamed her father for. 

Her eyes remained trained on the sky, watching the fight unfold in mid-air. She cringed as Spider-Man nearly fell off the homemade-looking flying suit. He quickly regained his balance, shooting a web into one of the back engines. It immediately started sputtering as the metal clanked and caught in the sticky substance. 

They were going down, and fast. She knew this was probably her last chance to get any kind of discernable footage of the event, so she reached into her back pocket for her phone. It was at this moment that someone decided to shove into her so hard that she lost her footing and tumbled to the ground. 

A rush of air left her lungs as she hit the asphalt, hard. She couldn’t help but wince as pain shot up both of her arms. There would definitely be bruises she’d need to hide later. Thankfully, at least she ended up near the curb so she wasn’t instantly trampled to death by the screaming crowd. 

She pushed herself up into a sitting position and huffed, wiping away the tiny rocks that were now embedded into her palms. She was about to hobble to her feet and call tonight a wash when her eyes landed on a blueish-purple glow coming from a nearby alley.

Maybe she wouldn’t get any useable footage tonight, but a souvenir would lift her spirits and, hopefully, her credibility in the office. Without wasting anymore time, she stumbled to her feet and ducked into the darkness of the cramped space.

She followed the pulsating light, stopping only when her eyes landed on a small, metallic object. It had a thin silver cage protecting what looked like a gem or rock of some kind. Nothing too crazy, aside from the whole glowing thing. Her brows furrowed with curiosity as she crouched down to get a better view. 

She had absolutely no idea what it was, and she’d seen a lot of weird things in her dads workshop. The only thing she could compare it to was some of the alien technology that’d been leftover from the Battle of New York. She’d run a few stories about that herself, plus saw her dad tinkering with some things since Thor took Loki back to Asgard.

Figuring she could show it to him at the very least, she pulled the end of her sleeve over her hand and grabbed it. She let her bag slip off of her shoulder and quickly unzipped it before sliding the object inside. 

Just then, the sound of screeching metal filled her ears at a deafening volume. She managed to close her bag before covering her ears and ducking against the brick alley wall. The crowd still surrounding the area screamed in horror.

She watched with wide eyes as the huge bird-man landed on the rooftop just a few feet away from her crouched form. It was the closest she’d been to the masked—villain? She wasn’t sure—and he was far more intimidating than she’d first assumed.

His glowing beady green eyes didn’t so much as glance in her direction as he slung Spider-Man over the edge of the building, the tip of one of his wings wrapped around his throat.

An involuntary gasp tore through her chest.

It wasn’t that she was worried about the hero. For one, she knew he was more than capable of fending for himself. It wasn’t even that she cared if he got hurt. He was mostly an annoyance to her, his illusive nature making her job way harder than usual.

But if she knew one thing in this moment, it was that the bird-man was the bad guy, and she couldn’t let him win.

So, she did something really stupid.

She found the closest thing that she thought might actually do any kind of damage—which was, unfortunately, an old bike helmet next to the dumpster—and chucked it at the pair.

It hit one of the metal wings with a pathetic clink and all three of them froze.

Y/N held her breath as the man’s head turned in her direction slowly. Way too slowly. Like ‘I’m going to really enjoy killing you’ slowly.

After that, everything happened impossibly fast.

“Hey! Watch out!” 

She barely had time to recognize the panicked voice before she was flying. Her stomach flipped and she couldn’t even scream, overcome with sudden vertigo. She pinched her eyes shut the second she saw the top of a building and clutched onto whatever was carrying her away. 

If it was the weird bird guy, she accepted whatever evil plan he had. But, if it was Spider-Man, she was going to kill him.

It must’ve only been seconds before her feet touched solid ground, but it felt like an eternity to her. The moment she felt the stability beneath her, she began fighting against her captor.

“Let me go! Oh my god. If you don’t put me down right now—”

“What the hell—ow!”

Once she was free, she staggered away from him with a huff. She cleared the hair out of her eyes and bent over, resting her hands on her knees as she attempted to catch her breath. Her heart was pounding wildly and her stomach was still doing summer-salts.

She raised her eyes to send a withering glare toward the masked man. “Never do that shit again.”

He stared at her—at least she assumed—for a long moment before taking a step forward.

“What the hell was that? You could’ve gotten yourself hurt.” He gestured wildly with his hands, clearly agitated.

“That’s one way to thank me for saving your life.” Y/N ground out, sounding way more bitter than she would’ve liked.

“Saving my—” The eyes on his mask narrowed incredulously. “You did not save my life. All you did was distract me and put like ten other people in danger.”

She couldn’t help but scoff. “Please. Spare me the morality speech, Spider-Man. We both know you don’t bother worrying about people like me.”

Y/N was all too familiar with how superheroes think. When they’re in the middle of a fight, all they care about is winning. They usually have a bigger mission to accomplish. One that doesn’t concern itself with the lives left behind.

“People like you are all I worry about, trust me.”

With that harsh declaration, a heavy silence fell between them. Y/N clenched her jaw tightly, biting her tongue to prevent the floodgates from opening. Spider-Man wasn’t the only one who deserved her hostility toward superheroes, he just happened to be the one in front of her now.

Instead of speaking her mind, she turned on her heel and stalked away from him. At this point, it was late. The sun had set and her dad surely knew she wasn’t home when she promised. She had to accept that today just wasn’t her day and head back for some damage control.

Peter, feeling his chest tighten with regret for the way he’d snapped, followed closely behind her quick steps.

“Wait!” She actually stopped, something he wasn’t expecting, so he rammed right into her back. His hands quickly wrapped around her biceps as she spun around. “Sorry. I’m sorry. I, uh...”

He didn’t know what to say. This was the second time in one night he’d run into her, but he was still dumbstruck. The circumstances weren’t ideal. He thought he’d lost her earlier, but then she had to go and put herself in danger.

He took a step away from her, dropping his hands and rubbing at the back of his neck nervously. He had to remind himself that she had no idea who he was. Even if he did embarrass himself—like he usually did around her—she wouldn’t know it was him when they saw each other in the halls come Monday.

“At least let me get you home.” He insisted, feeling bad that he’d indirectly kept her out so late.

Y/N pursed her lips, immediately wanting to accept his offer but trying not to give too much away. Truthfully, she was exhausted. She just wanted to get home and deal with the fallout disobeying her curfew would bring so she could get some sleep.

“Alright.” She sighed, pulling anxiously at the straps of her bag. She knew this meant she’d have to swing through the streets again, something she wasn’t nearly ready to do.

Nevertheless, she allowed Spider-Man to walk toward her. She averted her eyes as he wrapped an arm around her back and tried not to let her breath catch when his gloved fingers skimmed the exposed skin of her lower back where her shirt had ridden up.

Warmth enveloped her as his proximity settled in. Under his mask, Peter’s face was burning. This was by far the closest he’d been to his classmate. Or any girl, actually. Not wanting to think about it for a second longer, he shot a web toward a nearby building and followed the directions Y/N yelled out.

Within minutes, they landed on the helipad outside her front door.

Peter felt his stomach drop with realization once he let his eyes wander around the outside of the huge building.

“Oh my god. Is this seriously where you live?” He cleared his throat after squeaking out the question, not necessarily wanting to give away his shock.

“What?” Y/N scoffed teasingly. “Don’t I look like a spoiled rich girl?”

“That’s not—I wasn’t—” He didn’t know what he was trying to say, honestly. There were endless questions flitting through us mind at warp speed.

If she lived here, at the Avengers Tower, did that mean she was one of them? And he just hadn’t met her yet? Or did she work for Mr. Stark? But she was so young. He guessed she could be an assistant or something. Maybe she worked for Pepper? Or Happy? Or, she could—

Y/N rolled her eyes, deciding to spare him the embarrassment of sputtering any more. “My dad is famous...like helped form the Avengers famous.”

Peter’s mind went blank. He wasn’t expecting that.

“Cap?” It was the first name to spill out of his mouth. “Wait, can he even have kids?”

Y/N couldn’t help the giggle that escaped her at his assumption. “He totally can, but no.”

“Oh.” The gears of his brain started turning again and realization slowly dawned on him. He felt his throat run dry as his eyes widened behind his mask. “Oh.”

Shit. This was way worse. He couldn’t believe he had no idea who she really was. Sure, she used a different last name at school, but he should’ve seen the resemblance sooner.

“Look, I know you two have worked together.” Y/N sighed, thinking back to all those weeks her dad was gone fighting Steve and the rest of his friends for no real reason. “Can you just...not tell him about this?”

Peter’s brows furrowed in confusion. Why wouldn’t she want Mr. Stark knowing that she’d been with him?

Either way, he agreed, since he had a favor to ask of his own. “Only if you won’t.”

She gave him this dumbfounded look, and he knew he had to elaborate.

“He made me this suit before the whole thing with Captain America, so I thought he would keep giving me missions, but now it’s been months and he won’t return my calls. I’m lucky if I get through to Happy. He doesn’t want me getting involved in this stuff, so...”

It struck Y/N then how weird it was to hear a superhero talk about her family so casually. It didn’t seem possible that the two of them were in the same circles. Sure, she’d practically grown up with a few of the world’s most famous heroes, but somehow Spider-Man was different.

He was local. And elusive. A pure mystery to her.

“What exactly is this stuff?” She thought back to the weird glowing object in her bag, having almost forgotten it was there.

“I don’t know.” Peter shook his head, seemingly defeated. “I thought it was just neighborhood stuff, but those guns...I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“Alien tech.” Y/N said without hesitation, although she wasn’t actually positive that’s what it was. “My dad has some in his workshop. It was leftover from the Battle of New York.”

“How does it work?” Peter found himself asking excitedly, easily pushing all the other revelations from this conversation to the back of his mind.

“I don’t know.” She admitted, looking away from him as her chest tightened with emotion. “I’ve never gotten close enough to any of it to see. He likes to keep me out of things too...”

It was at that moment, as a breath of silence settled between them, that they realized she was still in his arms. Y/N’s face erupted with heat and she quickly pushed herself away from him. Once her feet were back on the ground, they both stepped backward to create some much needed distance.

“I, ah...better get back...”

“Yeah, yeah. I have to go too...”

They looked at each other for a few long moments. It was at if neither of them truly wanted to separate, but knew they had to. It was clear, though, that they’d just formed some kind of connection.

Y/N felt something strange—and wildly inappropriate—brewing in her chest. A certain kind of attraction toward the masked hero she’d never considered before. It appalled her, honestly. It wasn’t like she hated the guy, but she certainly didn’t like him. And she had no idea who he was. He could be eight years old, for all she knew.

With that realization, she turned on her heel and stalked down the narrow entrance to the Avengers Tower, her face still burning. She heard the thwip of Spider-Man’s webbing and knew he’d be gone if she looked back. So she didn’t.

She pressed her hand against the touchpad outside the front door and quickly slipped inside once it recognized her prints. She sighed heavily and let herself fall back against the door, the comfort of home enveloping her.

The peace was short lived, however, as she caught sight of her mother waiting expectantly behind the bar to her left. With a glass of red wine in hand, her knowing gaze shifted from the helipad outside to Y/N’s stiff frame.

She took a slow sip, eyes narrowing over the rim of the glass.

“You’re so grounded.”

———————————————————————

let me know what you think!! should I continue this series??

#peter parker imagine #peter parker smut #peter parker #tony stark #mcufam #original character #marvel #the avengers #tom holland #tom holland imagine #tom holland smut #peter parker series #mcu series #tom holland series #stark reader

[quietmyfearswith]

where our demons hide {dark!tony stark x fem!reader}

where our demons hide {dark!tony stark x fem!reader} part 1

status — ongoing series

warnings — non-con turns into dub-con, oral sex (giving & receiving), name-calling, swearing, porn with a bit of plot, dark!tony stark, unprotected penetrative sex (pls dont do this, use protection!)

word count — 3,205

a/n — so i’m not gonna lie this is a little self-indulgent and this was an idea i somehow had after reading a few fics/drabbles with the same premise. this will be a dark series featuring not only tony stark but also the other male avengers. i’m also considering on making a separate dark series featuring the female avengers with the same concept. also!!! infinity war, civil war, and endgame did not happen (totally not bc everything went downhill from there & i hate it but because it just would be more fitting for the story) and that tony & pepper are not in a relationship in here bc in this house we do not condone cheating. & this is my first ever time writing smut so feedback would be very much appreciated :>

masterlist

“Boss lady, you heading out already?” John asked as he knocked on the outside of my office door. Seeing him with his bag strap over his shoulder, it made me turn back my attention briefly to the desk clock I had, my eyes widening in shock as I noticed how it was already a quarter to 9. “Jesus, has it been that long?” I said to him and to myself in disbelief.

John chuckled as he approached my desk and moved some files out of the way and sat down, “Well time sure does fly when you’re working your ass off.” I threw my head back, trying to rub off of the exhaustion off of my eyes, agreeing with him by saying, “As the head of the research department, I don’t think I have time to slack off and mess around.” 

As I looked into his eyes, I felt that he was conflicted — that he did want to help me furthermore, but there was also this part of him that wanted nothing but to spend a night out and enjoy himself and afterwards proceed with crashing into his bed. He inched closer to me, “You need to take a break though. Your report is like, 90% done, and that it is extremely well-detailed and comprehensive. I’m sure the mighty heroes of the world will understand if you go home now, rest and enjoy for the weekend, and come back on Monday to finish it up.”

“Do you think that these mighty heroes of the world always have the option to take a break on the weekends and come back to the job on Monday?” I sassed back as I moved my attention from him back to my computer, searching for more essential information for the team’s next mission. John, not taking a hint that I had already wasted time by talking to him, scooted closer and said, “Well for one, your work does not involve travelling suspects and mercenaries. You’re computer ain’t going anywhere, you know?” as he brushed a strand of hair that has fallen from my ponytail as he explained, “I just don’t want you to overwork yourself. I really care about you, Y/N.”

Creating some distance between me and him, I looked at him pointedly and told him, “I get that you may be worried about how I overwork myself, but I’m okay. If it ever gets too much, I will take a break. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to finish this research and report so that I can go home and get some rest. Unless you’ll help me in accomplishing this task, then I suggest that you just leave.”

John looked like he was in disbelief, but he quickly masked up what he felt and just walked away from my desk and awkwardly waved as he headed for the door. “What a bitch..” I heard him mumble lowly, not having enough strength to say it directly in my face — for in doing so could get him fired.

Following John’s departure, I was able to work peacefully and productively. Gathering and verifying information, confirm tipped intelligence, compiling these into an extensive and coherent report. As I was re-reading once more the final product of my long hours of labor and hard work, I stretched my arms up, hoping to provide some relief to my aching back. 

“Mr. Stark would like to ask if he can swing by your office, Ms. Y/n,” the voice of the A.I. startled me briefly, but it somehow also brought me back to my senses. Wanting to look decent and not like I was mere minutes away from passing out, I quickly removed the hair tie from my ponytail, fixing up my hair as I replied to Friday, “Yeah, he can come up.” As I was done attempting to look presentable, it wasn’t even a minute until I heard the office door open and the man himself, Tony Stark, did walk in — wearing a tight dri fit shirt and sweatpants. 

“Good evening Mr. Stark, was there anything I can help you out with?” I watched as he walked around the office, as if he was checking out if everything was in place — as if he had been there before and was making sure that things were the way he once envisioned. He settled down on an office chair, opposite from where I was sitting down.

Putting his chin on his hand as he crossed his legs, he stared at me curiously and intensely as he informed me about his sudden visit, “Was walking around the office wing when Friday informed me that you were the only employee left in the building. So I thought I’d drop by and see as to what was the reason as to why you were still working late and not going about with your weekend plans.”

I let out a sigh I did not know I was holding — probably out of relief that I was not in trouble — before sharing with him the reason, “I was just finishing up the final touches on the researched information for your mission next week.” He looked interested in that and rose to his feet and made his way to where I was sitting. “You mind if I take a look?”

I shook my head no and started to get up from my seat, when he placed his left hand on my shoulder, pulling me down to remain seated. “Stay,” he requested as his right hand operated the mouse in order to inspect the document opened on my computer, “I might have some remarks or questions about what you have researched.”

Beginning to feel a bit of uneasiness, I tried to fill him in about some parts I thought he was confused or curious about — judging by how he spent some time longer on certain pages compared to the others. “You did a good job, Y/N. Without a doubt next week’s mission would have already failed without what you have done.”

Avoiding his look and our close proximity, I shrugged off the compliment by responding, “Um, thank you. But it wasn’t just me, you know? Some other researchers also helped, I merely just organized and arranged it, Mr. Stark.” His hand still on my shoulder moved to turn me so I was facing him, he sat down on my desk and begged to differ, “I don’t think you would have been the overall head of the research department if all you did was compile shit, right?”

Fiddling with my fingers, I halfheartedly agreed with what he said. Looking up, I saw him cross his arms and his face lit up, as if he had remembered something he forgot to mention. “Which reminds me, I do need your help in researching something. Think you can handle it?” I was able to conceal my surprise, what was it he needed help with? And most importantly, why would he tell me about it now? There are procedures if an Avenger needs something to be researched relating to their work. But I could not bring myself to question him, so instead I buried those doubts in the back of my head. 

“T-That would depend, I guess? What is it about? And w-when do you need it to be completed?” I couldn’t help but scold myself for coming out as timid and scared. He uncrossed his arms and checked his wrist watch while he answered, “I need it to be completed tonight. Possibly into the morning. It depends.”

My jaw dropped in shock and astonishment. Does he seriously think that a research can be completed in mere hours? But if I had wanted to keep this job, then I had to comply with what he wanted. “I think that it would be a challenge to do so, but yeah. I guess it can be doable. What would the research be about?” I managed to blurt out and started to roll up the sleeves of my white, long-sleeved blouse and preparing to type on the computer.

However, Tony held my hands and placed it in my lap, preventing me from moving towards the computer and looked at me deeply, “It’s gonna be about you, Y/N.” I once again found myself dumbfounded and speechless. Opening my mouth I stammered out, “W-What? Mr. Stark, what do you mean?” 

He chuckled as he brushed the strands of hair that had covered a portion of my face. One of his hands stroking my cheek while the other had a firm hold on both my hands situated at my lap, he calmly said, “It’s gonna be about you, baby. I wanna get to know you better. Let’s start with me finding out what it is you’re hiding underneath all these clothes, hm?” 

As he guided me onto my feet and pushed me against the office table, his lips grazed my ear and he kissed it lightly and whispered, “I like the way you call me Mr. Stark, makes me feel powerful.” His kisses started to descend, his lips leaving a trail in my neck as his hands started to caress my waist. Snapping out of my frozen state, I somehow managed to speak up and attempt to push him away from me, “Mr. Stark, please don’t do this. Please, stop” 

With one hand, he quickly grabbed both of my hands and placed it behind my back. His other hand wrapped around my throat, just where his lips were and hissed out, “Why do you want me to stop, Y/N? Do you not like this, baby?” I shook my head, telling him I did not in fact like where this was going. He scoffed, “I think you do. You like the idea of someone taking you in your office, the place where you spend most of your days in. Can’t imagine you getting laid frequently with how busy you are, baby.”

Tears were slowly streaming down my face, trying to wiggle away from the hero that everyone adored and respected. He pushed his body into mine, causing me to stumble which he used to his advantage by lifting me up and sitting me down on the desk. His legs wrapping around mine, effectively trapping me, he lifted my jaw and looked into me as he smirked and said, “Tell you what, if I search you up down there and find that you aren’t wet, I’ll let you go. Think that’s fair, baby?”

He did not even wait for me to answer as he made quick work of removing my skirt as he knelt down on the floor. After unzipping my skirt and discarding it to the floor, he chuckled upon seeing that I was wearing red, lace panties. “For someone who claims to not want this, you sure as hell came prepared.” His hands were then fondling my thighs as he kissed both my kneecaps and requested, “Open those legs, baby girl.” I shook my head and tried to cover my intimate area with both my hands. This evidently displeased the billionaire as he harshly placed his hands on my knees and threatened me by saying, “Unless you want to walk away jobless, then I suggest that you fucking open your legs.”

Filled with fear and horror, I reluctantly opened my legs and showed him my lower half. He showed his appreciation by chuckling darkly and immediately ripping off my panties. Just as I gasped with what he did with my piece of clothing, he brought one hand to my entrance and scooped some of the juices that my body was involuntarily producing. “Well what do you know, you’re not just wet. You’re soaking wet,” he bragged as he used his other grab my leg and stretched it out sideways, giving him more room to work with. “Time to start our research on you, baby.”

As he slowly inserted two of his thick fingers, I could not hold back the whimper as he ruthlessly moved his finger in and out of me. “Please, Mr. Stark, don’t do this.” I pleaded, hoping that his conscience would slap him and somehow get him to stop. But shortly after saying that, I let out a moan of pleasure as I felt his tongue lick my bundle of nerves.

“Just stop resisting, baby,” With his mouth still attached to my pussy lips, he used his other hand to fondle my thighs — hoping to rub off the tension within me. I threw my head back as he thrusted his fingers hard and sucked hard enough that I forgot my earlier concerns of how I was at first reluctant in giving in to him. I threaded my fingers into his hair, pushing his face closer, urging him to continue with what he was doing. He complied and proceeded to focus his sucking my little nub while he added another finger inside before managing to go at even a faster pace than he previously was.

“Fuck,” I exclaimed, “I’m close.” Right after saying that, Mr. Stark abruptly stopped his actions. I looked at him, and there he was licking off the residual juices off of his fingers.”Can’t have you finishing just on my fingers, baby. Has to happen with me inside you. But before that,” he stood up and pulled down his sweatpants and briefs, “Show me how talented your hands and mouth are first, baby.”

Before I could even process what he said, my body responded to the words that just left his mouth and I was pushing him away in order to make room for me to work and dropped down on my knees. Despite being of average length, I took note of how he had an incredible girth. With one hand fondling his balls, the other swiped the precum that was leaking out and spread it around the tip. He let out a loud groan as I then opened my mouth and captured his length.

“Yes, that’s a good girl, baby,” he complimented me while stroking my hair and later on gathering it all up in order for him to control the pace and speed of how I was sucking him. I glanced up at him just as I started gagging around his cock and fondling the rest that failed to fit in my mouth. “Do I taste good, baby?” he teased me while probably noticing that I was struggling not only to fit his entire length in my mouth, but also to please him.

A gurgled yes was the only reply that I managed to get out and he suddenly pulled out of my mouth and quickly put me back into my feet. He ripped off the blouse that I was wearing and briskly unclasped my bra. I watched him intently as he sat down on the swivel chair where I spent most of my working hours on and called out for me, “As much as I love how you please me with your mouth, it would be a waste to not cum inside you. So come over here and ride me,” he demanded as he patted his thighs.

I slowly began to walk over him and climbed over his legs. His smirk widened upon seeing me slowly get into position to ride him — with one of my hands holding onto his shoulder and the other one holding his cock up, I sank down onto him fully. The action might have taken the superhero back as both his hands flew into grasping on my hips and he threw his head back in pleasure.

Moving in slow, circular motions I found myself moaning and panting loudly, breathing out words of praise that had stroke the ego of the superhero. He brought his hand to my clit and he rubbed me fast enough that got me to stop riding him because of how intense the pleasure was. Mr. Stark’s dissatisfaction with what I did was made evident by him slapping my ass with enough force to push my chest into his and reprimanding me, “Did I fucking tell you to stop? No! So keep riding me, you fucking whore!”

I let out a whimper as he once again slapped my ass cheek and rubbed me even harder and faster. Placing both my hands near his collarbone, I began to ride him even faster and started to feel the release begging to come out. This pleased him as he stopped his assault on my ass and began to twist and pull on my nipples. The simulation proved to be too much for me that my head fell into the side of his neck and I began to trail kisses on there and suddenly let out a loud scream as I had suddenly reached my climax.

“Fucking hell, you’ve become even more tighter,” Mr. Stark sounded like he too was already on the verge of reaching his climax. Both his hands then met my hips once more and he started to bounce myself on his cock, disregarding that I could have been sensitive, hoping to finish inside of me. “I told you that you wanted this. That you needed to be fucked hard. So much for the “I don’t want this bullshit,” huh baby?” He mocked me as he noticed the stray tears that were falling on my cheeks as I felt that the stimulation was too much.

“I bet I can make you cum again. That by the time I release my load deep inside you, you will also be creaming over yourself.” His overconfidence was once again being made evident and determined to make his statement true, he began to wrap his mouth around my nipple and one of his fingers was shoved right into my asshole. It might have been the sudden intrusion on my backside, or the feeling of his warm tongue on my nipple, or the fact that his cock was being rammed in and out of me at a dangerously quick pace, but I found myself squirting all over both of our legs.

“Fuck, baby, that’s a good girl,” he moaned out as I also felt him release his juices inside of me. He stopped his licking, fingering, and maneuvering of my body as he wrapped his arms around me and pulled my head to lay down on his chest. We both took this time in order to calm down and catch our breaths. His one hand was playing with my hair while the other lightly ran up and down my spine. 

With his cock planted still deeply in me, he made me look into his eyes as his hard and demanding tone vanished and instead was replaced with a soft voice accompanied with a gentle look in his eyes as he said, “You did very well in accompanying and complying with my research, baby.”

His praise made me smile and I once again placed my head by his shoulder and briefly closed my eyes — still not having fully recovered from our sexual activity — when what he said caused me once again to be speechless and shocked, “Get ready because in a few minutes I’ll once again be conducting research. But I was thinking about conducting it in a different venue.”

#tony stank #tony stark #tony stark x reader #tony stark oneshot #tony stark x you #dark!tony stark #dark!tony stark x reader #dark!tony stark x you #dark!tony stark x fem!reader #tony stark x fem!reader #this is somewhat a fantasy of mine #noncon smut #dubcon smut #tony stark smut #dark!avengers #dark!tony stark smut #quietmyfearswith #my writing

[nicistrying]

this is gonna be a long work rant re: my post yesterday about closing up with my manager and not wanting to fuck up so feel free to scroll on past, I just need to vent somewhere 🙄

I got in at 3.30 after he asked me to start early and he said there was quite a lot to do. I thought I could probably get a reasonable amount of it done. Started with helping my friend get our usual work on frozen out of the way which took from 4-6pm. He'd asked me to work the chiller, change over a deals cabinet and put some tickets out by 9. It'll be tight but if I go fast enough it is possible!

Started working the chiller and some guys turned up with a cherry picker saying they needed to fix the air con but couldn't start working until we closed at 9, and would be working for 2 hours. So my manager comes to me and asks me to stay til 11 bc there have to always be at least 2 staff. The other 3 people who were in all live further away and don't drive so I said I would.

Working the chiller somehow took until 8.30, manager did the deals changeover bc time and I took my break bc I was starving.

9pm comes around and we can't find his keys to get into the office to get into the safe to be able to bring the tills to cash up. We found them by 9.20 so I ran down to empty the tills, but the keyring that these tiny keys are on is broken so they keep falling INTO the counter caches (deep metal boxes with fiddly bits in them which are intentionally difficult to get your hand in. Thankfully I have tiny hands and managed to get them out after a few tries and a lot of cussing).

I could not for the life of me get the safe open even though I KNOW how to do it, and have opened it several times before. My manager is laughing to try to calm me down but I'm just getting really panicky and embarrassed bc I've already told him he makes me really nervous and I always fuck up when he's there. He came to show me something earlier and I got flustered and he's standing there laughing saying why are you going red. It's not that he's intimidating or anything, I just really want him to know I can do my job but bc I want that so badly I end up fucking up. He eventually has to open the safe for me and I finally start cashing up at 9.30 and everything is going fine, he's left to do other stuff, 3 tills are pretty much balanced, I get to the last one and it's £10 over. So I text him to come in the office. He recounts it and it is indeed £10 over so he declares it.

He asks me to count the safe and I'm so panicky by this point that I have to count everything twice bc I'm so convinced I've miscounted somewhere, I give him my numbers and he puts them into the computer. The safe is now £30 over and we have no idea why. So he has to start counting everything again himself and I'm just sitting tensed up in my chair by now, just panicking and thinking if I don't do anything I can't do anything wrong, but he'll think I'm not capable of doing it myself, so I ask what I can do that's actually useful. He remembers about stuff on the shop floor that he'd forgotten about, so I go do that while he finishes recounting. He comes out at 10.45 and says he figured it out and the wrong money was in the first till I did by myself 🤦🏼‍♀️ So I'm extra embarrassed and feel dumb as fuck.

I tell him this and that I'm worried he just won't actually be able to leave me to ever close up by myself, and he tries to make me feel better by saying I can just do early shifts instead. I didn't really say anything back bc I kind of took that as confirmation that he agrees I probably can't do it. I know that's not actually what he meant bc he just kept saying I'll get better etc etc but I just felt so shit and it was such a knock to my confidence (which I did not need) bc I know I can do all of it myself, I've done it all myself before and been totally fine because I was in with deputy manager who is super chill about everything and just lets me get on until I ask a question. Which is what he did last night too, he even left the room so i would panic less but I still fucked it up.

We finally leave work at 11pm. He showed me his baby car seat in the back of his car all ready for when his baby boy arrives (not due until July. It was adorable). Matthew pulls up to pick me up and I tell him I fucked up. My manager is super nice about it and says 'she did not fuck up she just freaked out everything is fine she's fine she just needs to calm down' and I give him the finger because he was also very much freaking out. We all laugh and say goodnight.

I get in the car and have the actual panic attack I've been trying to hold off all night and cry to Matthew for a good 10 minutes solid when we get home.

I've woken up this morning still feeling a LOT of residual stress and anixety AND I came on which explains the whole fucking thing but I can't really tell my manager that. I thought about texting him to apoligise for having such a shitty attitude but I'll just leave it bc the less I say to him the less weird shit can come out. I'll laugh it off on Friday when I see him. I just feel bad bc at one point I told him I didn't want the keys or the responsibility any more and that he should give them to someone else. He laughed and told me to fuck off lmao and said I don't have a choice bc he's told his bosses he's training me and this other guy and he insisted I'll be fine eventually but ugh. I'm annoyed at myself for having such an awful attitude but I now know it was partly down to hormones which is kind of a relief but kind of just sucks. Trying to look on the bright side, I'm just grateful that he recognises that I have such low confidence and is willing to work with me like this rather than just giving me the keys and hoping for the best.

It's 9am and I have a lot of housework to do before I go back into work at 12 and I just feel so anxious and overwhelmed by it that I genuinely want to call in sick. I can't do that bc I'll get into a depression spiral if I'm sat at home by myself and I'm hoping that once I'm there I'll be okay bc deputy is in charge today and I love her. Might actually go in early just to ask for reassurance tbh.

I have a lot of other stuff I really need to do and organise for the weekend but I can't think about it right now bc even getting up and washing the dishes feels overwhelming atm. Hoping I'll feel good enough to text some people and make some plans when I finish tonight. 🤞🏻

#sorry for the rant #matthew has already left for the day and i was just thinking about it all in circles #i actually feel better for splurging it all out somewhere #personal #anxiety #stress #mental health #work #confidence

[duskodair]

further Noel lore, by popular demand (with the old bc why not)

The one constant in her life has always been him. One of them was born first, but they're not sure which. Names don't stick to them. Dozens of monikers have come and passed them by. They barely use names for one another, so it doesn't matter. They know vaguely which order the children they might have once been were born and named, but neither of them actually know to which of them each name belongs.

They come to the orphanage as a pair of red headed infants, identical and inseparable. Among the other children, they are easily lost in the muddle. They grow up holding hands and answer to both names. They come to answer to others as well, as staff members forget and rename them from the pool of other children.

The orphanage is a loveless place. They learn of the distant love of a God who has forsaken them from nuns who have no time for them. They learn to walk holding hands and make their own language to whisper the secrets they learn from watching places that the convent do not want them to see.

The nuns can't keep the right names pinned to the right child and by the time they leave the orphanage, their papers are muddled and merged, inseparable in their scarcity. At fourteen, they do honest work for a few months, pulling in a pitiful wage between them. They answer to the names that the nuns told them they were given as decide that it's not for them.

Knowing their letters, at least, gets them into interesting places. Gossip slips by them. They come home with stories and whispers of crimes committed in distant towns. There's nothing truly behind it, but it intrigues them.

They leave the town they were raised in with the collection money for the convent's charity children. They never saw any of it whilst they were there, so they reckon it's theirs to take.

They do it sensible, though, no grand heist and sudden exit. One day two nobodies walk the streets and the next they are gone, notice properly given and a forwarding address passed along to those it may concern. Perhaps they go where they say they are going, perhaps they do not. The convent only realises the theft far later than it could be solved. And by that point, they are dust on the plains.

'New town, new names' is their policy. It gives them something to do on their journeys. Their childhood gives them a wealth of options as they work their way through the Good Book. She chars for a family as Leah, subtly learning to mimic the habits of those born into money as she beats dust out of the curtains. As Mary she is a gentle lady, down on her luck, willing to watch the children.

She never does a con without him. It starts with petty theft, enough to tide them over. But they grow confident as the years pass, and still the sheriffs fail to put out a bounty for names they've left behind.

Both of them claim to do the most work in their enterprise. She scoffs and says he's far too distracted by pretty stable boys and saloon lasses for his case to be true. He argues that she's too busy staring at her own reflection in things to possibly be doing the most work.

She kicks him, out of principle, before grinning. They're nearly done with this town. Regretfully, they're about to have a family emergency and the gentle seamstress' assistant and the errand boy will have to leave. It will be a while before anybody notices that old Mr McCoy hasn't been seen in a while. Well, perhaps the young ladies he used to shout at might notice, but the twins don't think they'll miss him.

Noel swings out her legs one last time before depositing them in Jonah's lap. She leans back as she considers the best way for Miss Miranda DuVal to break her incoming family crisis to her employer to potentially receive offerings of sympathy. In the last town she'd received a lovely pair of hand me down boots. She's hoping to do much better here, and well, there's some lovely stuff in the Atkinsons' unpaid tab.

The breeze picks up a little. Nothing like a peaceful walk and a casual picnic to enjoy their last day in this town. She looks away from the disappointing straggle of houses that make up the town, towards her brother. He's lying down in the prairie grass, staring up at the passing clouds. She thinks he's probably thinking about a barmaid again. He's got that look on his face.

She rips up a bit of grass and tosses it at him, 'keep your raunchy thoughts off your face. I don't want to know'

He tosses the grass back at her, 'I can do what I please. It's my own bleedin face'

With that, he rises, pushing her legs from his lap.

'Now come along, sister dearest, I'm sure we are missed. I must see if Old Man Thomas needs any more of those crates lifting, and I'm sure you have embroidery to do'

She lets him read her disdain before rising and schooling her features into the amiable Miss DuVal. 'Of course, brother, shall we go, then?'

She takes his arm and they head back to finish the performance before the appointed hour of departure. They make their arrangements and say their goodbyes. Jonah receives his kisses and Noel her tea gown.

On the road they pick new names, write a new story. When she stumbles in a gopher hole, he christens her Grace. She makes a hand gesture that the nuns certainly would not have approved of and accepts the name.

Town after town they pass through, weaving their way West, across the country. Their cons become bigger and grander and their budget grows.

For all their griping, they make an excellent team, she thinks, as he combs out her hair for her next performance. Their plan is to land a quiet jackpot in the town of Danser. It's been in their sights for a while, a little passing place, irrelevant. Perfect.

They have a few weeks to go before they arrive, appearances to make along the road. They call themselves Underwood for the branch that Jonah stumbles into as he stumbles around their camp after dark. They turn the branch into a lumber business and laud their wealth to one another.

Noel laughs into the fire as she weaves stories of their loving Papa, whose only desire in life is to see his daughter married off to a reputable man. Jonah grins as he fleshes out the tragedy of their gentle mother, taken too soon.

At least, Noel thinks, she won't have to wear the fashion of a widow too long, as Jonah will, of course, have to return her to the loving safety of her father, if there is nobody left in Danser to provide. She checks the Derringer strapped to her thigh and consigns her new life story to memory. Yes, she thinks, Noel will work as a name for a while.

______

Danser is quiet the day the Underwoods ride into town. On the surface, they bring little change, just a business deal and a wife for the wealthy Mr Tobias Lloyd. Noel rides into town as a bartering token for her family's lumber business, a symbol of an alliance sealed.

Jonah Underwood brings her into town, red hair tousled in the wind as the twins drive, laughing, down the dust scattered road. He's going to stay in Danser as she gets settled.

He'll probably stay longer than expected, loath to leave her. They've never been more than a week apart throughout their short lives. Where she goes, he follows, but this time, he cannot.

Noel is prepared, she thinks, for a husband. Her trunk is packed with all her worldly possessions and the wood of the carriage is steady under her hands.

The town spreads before her, barely a stopping point out from the city. Home, it seems, now. She's a long way from Tennessee. She's a long way from their smaller cons. Jonah meets her eyes. They're ready.

Her fingers dust over the derringer that she carries strapped to her thigh. She smiles. The plan is simple. She can do it. Jonah guides the horses forward into town, nodding to the old man on his stoop outside the general store, before heading to the Emerald Hotel.

She holds her head high as Jonah makes arrangements. The role is easy, she smiles and nods and watches. Noel is quiet and demure, but ever watchful, cataloguing her new neighbours. She plays naive, batting doe eyes at passers by, luring people in to speak with them.

They spend a day getting settled, researching, making appearances. They go to church, make nice. They start tabs and pay them off, respectable like, with the money of dead men. They find out about Mr Lloyd. He's wealthy and removed, just their type. His employees dislike him, after a few drinks, and when Jonah reports back, so does she.

She is all smiles, however, when Jonah presents her with promises of lumber money. She twirls the loose curls that soften her cheeks around a finger, and in that motion, she has him. Soon the hair around her finger becomes a ring and she becomes a wife.

Tobias Lloyd is, fundamentally, a disappointing husband. Everything he tries to teach her, she already knows, and quite frankly, he's barely competent. He tries to run her in circles but his fall short of the ones she's running around him.

Jonah rides between Danser and the city, keeping the financial side of the con running as Noel pushes her hands into the running of the household. She takes control, bringing home arsenic for cleaning and for rats.

She makes appearances with her husband in the Emerald Hotel, a doting wife out for coffee. She wears fine gowns and resists gossip, staying upstanding, but never cold. She likes to think that she's making her mark in the town, becoming known. If she is, she's doing her job properly, settling her character witnesses.

Everything is going perfectly until it isn't. Jonah slips. Noel doesn't even discover how until it is too late and the gunfight is lost and Jonah is bleeding out in her arms, his tab with God unsettled and their victory bleeding away.

She buries him in the churchyard, demure and sweet, watching the stone with the wrong name mark her brother's place. Later, she rides out and screams, hands still stained red with his blood. She remembers his unsettled tab and sets out to match it, so that one day she can join him once more.

She returns to town and puts on her gloves. Tobias loves her, she is the perfect wife, so attentive to his bouts of illness and so concerned.

Noel forms the perfect cover, she plays her part perfectly. With a little sacrifice, she covers for Jonah's slip. She helps collect funds for the new church floor, embroidering kerchiefs with dainty patterns for the pastor to sell. The new pastor admires her faith, he smiles and says one day she'll see heaven. She does her best to ensure that won't be so.

Tobias grows sicker and sicker and Noel worries more and more. At least, in public. Old Man German at the store grows tired of her asking after medicine. There is never any coming in.

Calling for the Doc is a risk, but a necessary one. Fortunately, it pays off, he patiently assures her that he's not a doctor and he cannot cure her husband. He's the best Danser has, however, and all her husband will see. She grows fond of him on his visits, another respectable alibi and connection for when she is alone.

She forges ties and prepares for widowhood. She ties her hair up neat and slips into the saloon instead of the hotel on a Friday afternoon, seeking the Doc, looking to keep herself in his mind. She's going to need a new husband soon, anyway, and it's always a good idea to plan ahead.

#chill to reblog #a town called danser #noel #jonah

[gerrystamour]

the bittersweet between my teeth - Chapter 3

Written by: GerryStAmour | Gift for: @northisnotup​

Important reminder:

Nureyev is a gender euphoric trans man who has not had top-surgery and does not wear a binder. I use a mix of masculine and feminine terminology when describing his body.

New tags:

Sexual Tension

Mild Sexual Content

First Kiss (doesn’t count bc it’s rex/juno tho)

Making Out

Groping

Chapter Three [Previous Chapter] [First Chapter]

- - - - - Nureyev’s POV - - - - -

Nureyev hadn’t even realized he was walking into the Old Town Cafe that morning until he made eye contact with Benten, who appeared to be completely unimpressed. Rita, however, had beamed at him.

“Hiiii Mista Glass!” she called loudly across the dining room before hissing at Benten, “Pay up, I called it.”

“You took a bet on whether I would come?” Nureyev questioned as he approached the counter.

“I usually only make bets when I’m confident on my odds,” Benten replied sourly. “Guess I wasn’t clear enough last night.”

“Oh, you were plenty clear, Benzaiten,” Nureyev said with a smirk. “I suppose I wasn’t clear enough about my intentions.”

“Here you go, Mista Glass!” Rita interrupted, shoving Nureyev’s usual breakfast into his hands. “Boss ain’t here right now, cos he’s got that whole competition thingy with the other restaurants.”

“Thank you, Rita. You are truly a gem,” he said with a pleased smile.

He sat down at his usual spot and pulled out a notebook and his comms. Since he was so close to finishing the job, he didn’t bother to bring his laptop. It was really only busy work he was doing at that point. Anything for an excuse to stay and fool around with a semi-retired private eye, really.

When the bell over the front door clanged loudly, followed by the near-stomping steps he knew to be Juno Steel’s, Nureyev had had grand plans to ignore the private eye, to wait and see if he would come to speak to him first.

But Nureyev never did have much self-control when he allowed himself sticky things like feelings, and he always did have a flare for the dramatic… 

When he looked up, Juno hadn’t seen him yet and he was allowed a brief moment to admire the beautiful lady for the first time in what he realized was two days. 

Juno was radiant as always, wearing his heavy boots and a cotton skirt, showing off his muscled legs. The detective’s simple, nearly threadbare wardrobe that he wore to work was something that Nureyev had always found endearing. The idea of being able to keep something long enough for it to show it’s well-loved age was completely foreign to Nureyev.

Then Juno inhaled sharply through his nose and turned to look in his direction, his visible eye wide but his expression completely unreadable. When Juno didn’t do or say anything after a few moments, Nureyev decided to say something to rile the lady up a bit and give Nureyev one of his beautiful overreactions to break the awful silence that was growing between them.

“Good morning, Juno,” he said, and he knew it came out dripping with every besotted thought he had ever entertained about Juno. Nureyev could see it in the way Juno’s expression twisted just a bit as he released the breath he was holding in a gusty sigh through his nose and stomped over. 

“Didn’t think you’d come back,” Juno said as he sat down heavily across from him, his tone hard and not even bothering to return his ‘good morning’. Nureyev met his gaze over the rims of his glasses and something ached in his chest at the hurt he saw on Juno’s face.

“I considered staying away,” Nureyev confessed.

“But you didn’t, huh?” Juno supplied with a snort, crossing his arms. “Ben told me you’re a terrible date.”

“Yes, well,” Nureyev hummed, smirking as he returned to writing in his notebook. “That is bound to happen when the wrong date shows up.”

There was a long beat of silence.

“What.” Juno said it so flatly, it hadn’t even sounded like a question. It was a statement of confusion, and one that didn’t even necessarily demand an answer. For a detective, Nureyev figured, asking questions was more of a courtesy to others.

So when he looked back up at Juno, he was nearly winded by how his beautiful face softened with confusion. Nureyev wasn’t sure he had ever wanted to kiss another person in his life more than he did in that moment.

“Yes, I remember handing my second invitation to a clever private eye and paid him a great many compliments that hardly cover my true feelings for him,” Nureyev elaborated with a dreamy sigh. “Yet, when I arrived, it was his twin brother who met me. To say I was confused would be an understatement, Juno, and given that his brother and I barely tolerate each other—”

“Wait, what?” Juno sputtered, shaking his head. “Start over, and without the dramatics.”

“Well, that’s no fun at all—”

“Glass,” Juno warned.

Nureyev shifted so that he was leaning on the table with his elbows. “Juno, I had asked for you to go with me,” he said, straightforward and earnest. “My work is coming to an end soon, and I wanted to have a nice evening with you before I left.”

Juno shook his head in disbelief. “But, Ben—”

“Has nothing to do with this,” Nureyev pushed, reaching across the table between them to rest his hand on Juno’s forearm. “I would like an opportunity to correct my blunder—”

Juno wrenched away from Nureyev’s touch as if it had burned him, and chewed the inside of his cheek. When he stood up, Nureyev reached to stop him but Juno just shook his head and retreated as quickly as he could to the kitchen. Rita made a sad sound and followed him.

Nureyev sat there for several moments, shocked at the turn in the conversation before schooling his expression into something cool and unfazed. He turned back to his notes and stayed at his table for hours, looking back up occasionally to see if Juno was going to return. Nureyev hoped his face didn’t show just how much it hurt when Juno didn’t.

The next two days went about the same way, with Nureyev only seeing Juno for brief intervals. Nureyev began to wonder if Benten would let him off the hook by virtue of Juno completely refusing to see him again.

By the third day, Nureyev was discouraged, though hoped he was fairly successful in not showing it.

He was sitting at his spot in the cafe watching some surveillance footage he had recorded, trying to find the cleanest take for each camera. The idea was that he would hijack the video feeds and loop some pre-recorded footage of empty halls, effectively hiding in plain sight as he snuck in.

As the lunch hour approached, he heard the kitchen door swing open. Nureyev paused the video to look up, and he truly disliked how much it upset him that it wasn’t Juno coming out, but Benten instead. Schooling his expression into a cool mask of disinterest, Nureyev looked back at the footage and hit play.

His work had been put off as long as possible, and it was only a matter of time before O’Flaherty contacted him again. Or worse, called in another thief. But that meant cutting his losses with Juno, which was for the best in more ways than one. It simply made no proper sense being so singularly focused on the private eye at all; they had rarely spoken, and when they did Juno was cagey and suspicious, his moments of openness fleeting and rare.

But those moments were captivating, pulling Nureyev in against the current, and all he could think about was the way Juno’s brow would soften and his jaw would clench just before he chewed the inside of his cheek. He thought of Juno’s smirk and the way it would settle into a soft smile and, even rarer, a genuine huff of laughter at a particularly well-timed joke. 

Nureyev wanted to bottle each and every one of those moments and take them with him, but he supposed the memories would have to do.

“Ugh, this is getting depressing,” Benten burst out, loudly and without warning, and stormed around the counter to sit at Nureyev’s table. “What are you doing?”

Nureyev looked at his coffee, and then to his work before asking in a stage whisper, “Is this a trick question, Benzaiten?”

“I mean about our deal, Rex,” Benten said with a roll of his eyes.

“My job here on Mars is ending,” Nureyev replied, closing his laptop and leaning across the table to give Benten his full attention. “I will be leaving shortly after regardless of outstanding affairs.”

“Bullshit,” Benten snapped. “You claim to really care about—”

“I have already delayed as much as I can, Benzaiten. My… client is growing impatient with the lack of results, especially seeing as I billed the work as child’s play at our consultation,” Nureyev hissed. “I would rather not leave without talking to Juno, and I was truly intending to keep to our deal, but I do not have the luxury of time to wait for him to work through whatever he’s feeling.”

Benten rolled his eyes. “Whatever, Rex,” he muttered as he moved to get up.

Something about the tone was the final straw, the constant needling from Benten and Juno’s avoidance and Ramses’ micromanagement becoming too much.

His hand flashed across the table, grabbing Benten’s wrist to pull him back down into his seat. Leaning across the table, Nureyev schooled his expression into something pleasant. “You are a spoiled brat, do you know that?” Nureyev said through gritted teeth. “You’ve pranced through life with this cocky little attitude, all the while Juno probably took every slap, punch, and insult that you earned.”

“Hey—”

“I can see it in the way you hold yourself next to him, the way Juno steps in front of you if it seems you’ve put your foot in it,” Nureyev continued, looking him up and down. “Do you even realize you’ve made him your shield?”

Benten did not answer, only stared at Nureyev with a raised eyebrow, though he did actually appear cowed. Nureyev would take it, and allowed himself one of his work smiles that showed off too many teeth, and not an ounce of kindness to soften the blow.

“You go on and on as if you understand exactly what I am, but I know it was Juno that figured it all out because he’s the clever one,” he continued unkindly and leaned back, watching Benten’s face. “I will say this again, but only because I hope it is repeated to Juno; I have delayed as long as possible, and will have to act soon. Once I have, I’m leaving and never returning.”

Nureyev moved to stand, but Benten held his hand up to stop him.

“Maybe you should stay for lunch today,” he said.

“What part of—”

“Yeah, yeah, I got all that and I’ll pass it on,” Benten replied and rolled his eyes. “He’ll probably come right out, yeah?”

“Possibly,” Nureyev said as he leaned back in his chair. “He’ll at least confirm what I am saying makes sense. I’m not making excuses to weasel out of something I wanted to do.”

Benten nodded, looking hurt and angry, and stood. For a moment, Nureyev felt a twinge of guilt watching him walk away, but it passed quickly when he remembered the constant antagonism. When Benten was gone, Rita scurried over to sit with him and gave him one of her brightest smiles.

“Wow, Mista Glass, I’ve never seen someone talk like that to Mista Benzaiten,” she said excitedly. “He’s a sweetheart, honestly, but I know he’s also really mean when he wants to be, y’know?”

“I didn’t mean to snap at him like that,” Nureyev said, because he thought he should say something like that.

“Yeah you did,” Rita laughed. “And he deserved it for what he’s been doin’.”

“What does that mean?” Nureyev asked, and he jumped a bit at Rita’s explosive sigh.

“What I’m sayn’ is Mista Benzaiten has a lot of good reasons to be suspicious of you, and I kinda agree. We’re both real tired of people hurtn’ Mista Steel, y’know?” She did not wait for Nureyev to respond to her question. “But I dunno, you look at him different and I think Mista Benzaiten sees that, too, but he’s scared. He thought someone looked at Juno different before, and that went real bad for both of them but that’s besides the point—” she took a deep breath and when Nureyev opened his mouth to ask for more information, she continued, “He gave you one of those ulti-whatever’s and you held up your end of it and he’s just sittn’ there lettn’ you fail! Which I said wasn’t fair, and let me tell ya Mista Glass, I was not happy that Mista Benzaiten actually went on that date with you. I told him to come clean, to tell you Mista Steel didn’t understand you asked him out and that going along with his conclusion-jumpn’ was more hurtful than helpful, but Mista Benzaiten was insist’ on talkn’ to you all private-like.”

Nureyev blinked at her, overwhelmed and still working his way through everything that was just said to him. “Thank you, Rita,” he said eventually, and she heaved a huge sigh.

“No, thank you Mista Glass! It's been a long week and these boys are gonna be the death of me if they keep it up,” she vented, leaning back in her chair.

“We can’t be having that,” Nureyev said sympathetically, returning the bright smile she gave him. “It’s safe to assume that you did most of Juno’s digging into me, yes?”

“Yeah,” Rita replied with a frown. It looked strange on her face, like hers wasn’t built for scowling. “I know a thing or two.”

Nureyev chuckled, shaking his head as he said, “Rita, I’ve done my own research into this merry bunch, professionally speaking I mean. I know the extent of your skills. How much have you found?”

Rita’s frown became a pout at the question. “Nothn’. Mista Steel figures ‘Rex Glass’ is a brand spankn’ new alias, so there’s nothn’ tied to it. Even facial recognition comes up with nothn’. It’s very annoyn’.”

“And when did you figure this all out?” he pushed, and Rita laughed.

“Oh, like the day afta’ you started showin’ up here or somethin’ like that,” she replied and Nureyev felt a shock rocket through him. “Mista Steel’s had your numba’ figured out since he saw you at Hyperion Brewn’ or whateva’ they’re called.”

Nureyev opened his mouth to say something but shut it, stunned as he was that Juno would entertain him at all.

The door to the kitchen opened, and habit had Nureyev looking up. Ready as he was to be disappointed, he was actually startled to see Juno leaving the kitchen carrying a plate with a sandwich. He strode up to Nureyev’s table and put the plate down, his expression very serious.

But Nureyev could see uncertainty in the lines around Juno’s visible eye, and it was obvious he was chewing the inside of his cheek.

“Juno—” Nureyev began, but Juno shook his head sharply.

“On the house. Make sure to use your napkin,” Juno bit out before turning on his heel and heading back to the kitchen.

Curiously, Nureyev picked up the sandwich—the same sandwich he had ordered the first time he ate there— and looked at the napkin that sat beneath it. Through the layers, he could see there was something written and couldn’t help the little chuckle.

“Oh, how mysterious, Mista Glass!” Rita cried excitedly. “Secret codes and hidden notes and all that stuff!”

Nureyev smiled indulgently at her and picked the napkin up to flip it open. Written inside were comms details, which he could only assume were Juno’s. A brief note, as curt and surly as the lady who wrote it, told Nureyev to call whenever he was able to talk freely.

“Not very mysterious, nor secret, if the whole cafe can hear you, dear Rita,” Nureyev said teasingly, tucking the napkin away to pick up the sandwich and start eating it.

“Oh! Right!” Rita said with a determined look. “Then I guess I better whispa’ then.”

“It’s best that we stop speaking of it entirely, actually,” Nureyev said with a laugh, making quick work of the sandwich before packing up his things to leave. “I’ll see you tomorrow morning, hopefully.”

“Of course, Mista Glass!” Rita replied with a smile so bright it was likely visible from orbit.

As Nureyev left the cafe, he entered Juno’s information into his comms and made the call. His stomach did somersaults as it beeped, waiting anxiously for Juno to answer.

“That was fast,” Juno answered, his tone flat but the tension was palpable.

“Would you prefer I call back later, dear detective?” Nureyev asked with a warm chuckle, and this earns him a snort of laughter.

“No, this is fine, just give me a second. I’m dealing with the oven,” he said, and Nureyev listened to Juno fiddle with and press several buttons, muttering calculations under his breath.

“Don’t you have an oven that does all of that for you?” Nureyev eventually asked, which was responded to by adorable stammering.

“I prefer doing it myself,” Juno grumbled defensively. “If it does the thinking for me, I’ll get lazy.”

“I truly doubt you’ve ever been ‘lazy’ a day in your life, Juno,” Nureyev all but purred, and he smiled at the shaky breath that earned him.

“Well that shows how well you know me then,” Juno said firmly.

Nureyev laughed as he hailed a cab. “That’s what I’m trying to change, dear detective,” he said, hoping he was conveying his sincerity well enough over the comms.

“Stop that,” Juno bit out, but the tone was pleading.

“Stop what, darling?” Nureyev asked cheekily as he slid into the backseat of the cab, handing the driver a business card for the hotel.

“Sucking up to me.”

“I can assure you, Juno, that is not at all what I’m doing,” Nureyev reassured with a small chuckle, letting his voice drop an octave. “But I’m not opposed to suck—”

“Nope, no, absolutely not,” Juno choked a bit. “We’re not— you said you’re leaving soon, right?”

Nureyev hummed his acknowledgement, his smile turning a bit sad.

“Will you tell me what all this is about?” Juno asked, his tone sceptical.

“That depends,” Nureyev replied cheekily, and Juno laughed.

“Okay, I’ll bite. It depends on what?” he asked, and Nureyev could hear the eyeroll.

Nureyev suddenly felt… something like worry and stress, knowing what came next. It was time to take the plunge and it was terrifying.

“Will you go to dinner with me, two nights from now?”

Juno scoffed. “Like a date?” he asked, his tone mocking and bitter but there was an edge to it that Nureyev desperately wanted to be hope.

“Only if you want it to be, Juno,” he replied soothingly. “It can just be dinner, where we can get to know each other and I will… tell you everything after if you still want to know.”

Juno hesitated for a moment before he took a shaky breath. “Do you want it to be a date?” Juno asked quietly.

“Yes,” he replied without hesitation, and he smiled softly at the little gasp Juno let out.

“Tomorrow, I’ll go to dinner with you,” Juno said after a few more moments.

“Tomorrow?” Nureyev asked, raising an eyebrow at the change in pace.

“That a problem, Glass?” Juno asked with a laugh. “You said you’re running out of time.”

Nureyev smiled, and said, “It’s not a problem at all. Thank you—”

“It’s not a date, by the way,” Juno suddenly said, defensive all over again.

“Of course not,” Nureyev agreed.

“You’re still a criminal.”

“Of course, so you say,” he laughed.

“It’s my job to turn people like you in.”

“Of course, Juno. I am aware.”

Juno let out a huff, sounding almost annoyed that Nureyev didn’t argue any of those points. “Good,” he bit out, sighing quietly. “Where are we going?”

“Let me worry about that, dear detective,” Nureyev said soothingly. “I’ll pick you up around seven?”

“Yeah, okay,” Juno said.

“Excellent, I’ll pick you up from your apartment—”

“I’m not telling you where I live, Glass,” Juno all but snapped, and Nureyev chuckled.

“The cafe then?”

Juno grunted, and Nureyev took that as an agreement and smiled. 

“What should I wear?” Juno asked.

“Something nice, I suppose,” Nureyev said as the cab pulled up to his hotel. “But I’m sure you’ll be radiant no matter—”

“I told you to stop sucking up to me,” Juno all but growled.

“And I told you that wasn’t what I was doing,” Nureyev sighed as he counted out some creds and handed them to the driver.

“Then what are you doing, Glass?” he demanded, and he sounded so angry and doubtful.

The impulse was there to continue to tease and flirt with the testy detective, but Nureyev knew it was time for sincerity. It was the least he could offer, and the least that Juno deserved.

“I’m flirting with you because I find you to be incredibly clever, strong-willed and sharp,” he began, taking a deep breath. “You are also very pleasing to look at, and you make the best pastries and sandwiches I have ever had the pleasure of enjoying in my life. And—”

“Okay, Glass, I get it!” Juno shouted, and Nureyev laughed as he got out of his cab.

“Do you, Juno? Because I could go on,” he teased.

Juno laughed at that, one of his beautiful rare ones that lifted Nureyev’s spirits like nothing else ever had. It was a strained laugh, still, but amused nonetheless.

“I bet you could,” Juno murmured, and the tone of his voice was so sweet Nureyev wished he could kiss him. “I’m hanging up now, Glass.”

“I will see you tomorrow, dear detective,” Nureyev said with a smile.

“I won’t talk to you when you’re at the cafe,” he warned.

“That’s fine. I’ll still be coming for my breakfast,” Nureyev replied.

“Whatever, knock yourself out,” Juno grumbled. “I have actual work to do. Bye.”

The comms beeped as Juno hung up and Nureyev couldn’t help the grin that spread across his face as he went to his room.

None of the traps in his room had been tripped, and after a cursory look for bugs and finding none, he sat down at the desk to work on removing any video evidence of himself from around the city. He knew the location of just about every camera in the city by then, having perfected this particular chore for over two weeks.

After that, he started compiling his plans, both in preparation for performing the heist, and also for it all to be organized for Juno to easily read. It was at that point that it properly dawned on Nureyev that the next evening, he would be spilling everything to Juno, and his gut squeezed at the thought.

Nureyev wanted to bolt, to go right then and complete the job and leave Mars forever. It would be the smart thing to do, the professional thing.

But he thought about Juno, waiting for Nureyev to pick him up, wearing that same sad expression he had when he was convinced Nureyev wanted Ben. He thought about how he would join the long line of disappointments who preceded him, and it made him sick to his stomach.

Juno deserved the truth, and what was more, Nureyev wanted him to know it.

-

The next morning, Nureyev sat at the cafe eating his breakfast and reading a book. He had no actual work to do anymore, and no longer had a reason to pretend that he did. The cafe was slower than usual, but Juno still managed to stay in the kitchen the whole time as he promised. If Juno ever peeked out through the kitchen door, Nureyev never caught him looking.

It was just before lunch, while Nureyev and Rita sat together watching one of her streams, when Benten arrived with Mick hot on his heels. Nureyev glanced up just in time to see Mick look right at him and frown. The expression was almost comical because, much like Rita, the man’s face was just simply not designed to hold a scowl.

Mick sat down, and grinned broadly at Rita’s delighted, “Hi, Mista Mercury!” 

“Good morning,” he said, turning back to Nureyev seriously. “So what are your intentions with my best bud?”

The question actually took Nureyev by surprise and he asked, “I beg your pardon?”

“He means Mista Steel, Mista Glass,” Rita sighed. “He calls Mista Steel his best friend, but I’m actually Mista Steel’s best friend—”

“You’re both wrong,” Benten called from the counter, where he was reading a magazine, not even looking up at them. “I’m his best friend by default.”

“Well,” Mick prompted, ignoring both of them. “What are your intentions with my best friend?”

Nureyev raised an eyebrow and chuckled. “That is certainly a loaded question, Mr Mercury,” he replied eventually.

Mick made a face, which Nureyev was positive was meant to look a lot like Juno’s deadpan stare, but it just looked silly on his goofy face.

“Are they pure?” Mick asked, the corners of his mouth twitching.

Nureyev let out an actual bark of laughter at that, delighting in the way that Benten’s head shot up to stare at them.

“Absolutely not,” he replied cheekily, his tone almost mockingly flirtatious, though the words did summon some fantasies that had heat pooling between his legs.

Mick’s face broke into a grin while Benten audibly gagged. “Hey! That’s great because my buddy Jay is a catch and deserves to be treated like the queen he—”

“Mick!” Benten hissed. “Focus? Please?”

“Oh, right, yeah,” Mick said, visibly working to school his expression into something more serious and asked solemnly, “Do you like mushrooms?”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Benten muttered, dropping his head onto the counter with a heavy thunk.

“I don’t have much of an opinion on them, to be honest,” Nureyev replied, shrugging with one shoulder. “They aren’t something I particularly love, I suppose.”

Mick was grinning again, and Nureyev was baffled by him.

“Perfect! Cos Jay hates them, like even the smell of them,” Mick said quickly. “There was this one time when I ate this whole mushroom and cheese pie thing, and JayJay walked home because he couldn’t stand sitting in the cab with me all the way back—”

“Mick, c’mon!” Benten groaned, and Mick actually rolled his eyes and Nureyev was certain the man was properly annoyed.

“Okay man, Glass, whatever,” Mick said with an exaggerated sigh. “Do you like Juno?”

“Very much,” Nureyev said without a moment’s hesitation, which brought a smile to Mick’s face again.

“And you wouldn’t willingly put him in harm’s way?” he continued.

“Not if I could help it.”

“And you’re not blackmailing or forcing him to go out with you tonight?”

“Not at all.”

Mick narrowed his eyes at Nureyev for a minute, the silence between them dragging by, before he smiled and shrugged. “Good enough for me,” he said pleasantly.

“Seriously, Mick?” Benten asked sceptically and Mick nodded.

“Yup! Listen, JayJay can take care of himself, Ben. I’m not gonna go around deciding for him what he can and cannot do,” Mick said, shrugging a bit at Rita’s annoyed huffing next to him.

“Did you even listen to anything I told you about what this guy does for a living?” Benten asked.

“Yeah, Ben, but I think Juno is the best equipped for that anyway. But, I mean,” Mick trailed off with a shrug, his face turning properly serious. “Whether I like him or not isn’t what matters, same with you and Rita. Jay makes his own choices, so I say we just get comfy with the lady’s decisions and be ready to clean up after things if we have to.”

Rita and Nureyev stared at Mick for a few long moments, before Rita said, “Wow, Mista Mercury! That was real smart! I mean, I’ve been saying the same stuff and tryn’ to get Mista Benzaiten to see it that way, too!”

The compliment caught Mick off-guard, and for a moment or two he rubbed the back of his neck bashfully. “Gee, thanks, Rita. Trying to protect Jay just makes him more reckless in my experience.”

“God, Mercury,” Benten said with a roll of his eyes. “You can pull that kind of wisdom out of your ass for Juno, but not yourself?”

“I’m doing fine,” Mick replied with a shrug.

“Mick, I literally just saved you from a mugger,” Benten said flatly, to which Mick just laughed.

Nureyev checked his watch and sighed, his heart suddenly in his throat. “Well, I should head out,” he said with a small smile. “I have some work to do before my dinner with Juno.”

“Wait, you can’t just leave without lunch, Mista Glass! Lemme go grab you somethn’, on the house!” Rita said as she jumped up and hurried back behind the counter. She froze suddenly and pointed back at Nureyev with a fierce expression. “And you’re taking a bag, Mista Glass. Or else I’m never serving you anything ever again.”

Nureyev laughed at the threat, utterly confused by it, but not interested in questioning it or the cringes of Rita and Benten.

- - - - -

Nureyev fiddled with the cuffs of his blazer in the back seat of the cab before tugging at his gloves lightly. He was nervous about the upcoming evening, which meant he was nauseated and ready to stop the cab and flee. Though it felt cowardly, he couldn’t actually look when the cab turned the corner toward the cafe, knowing it would be in view.

The fear and anxiety seized his chest, and the urge to disappear rose up like bile in his throat all over again. But he knew disappearing was not possible, and chose instead to flat out ignore their destination until he absolutely had to face it.

The car stopped and Nureyev only had a few seconds to attempt to collect himself before the door opened and someone slid in next to him. Taking a deep breath, Nureyev turned to face Juno and was immediately winded by the vision that sat across the bench from him. It was a good thing he hadn’t looked ahead, because he was certain that he would have actually bolted if he had.

Juno was dressed very well for a dinner he insisted was not a date, wearing a yellow gown with off-the-shoulder sleeves and a belt cinched tight around his waist. Notably, there was a dramatic slit up the length of the skirt, exposing Juno’s entire left leg to Nureyev’s greedy gaze, showing off the lace boots he wore as well as a tangle of flower embroidery on his hip.

After a few moments of gawking, Nureyev met Juno’s gaze, taking in the dark lipstick, the dramatic smokey eye shadow and the crisp black eyepatch. As he stared, Nureyev realized that the detective’s cheekbones, jawline, and collarbones shimmered with gold highlights, and he was desperate to mess it up with his tongue.

Simply put, Juno was breathtaking. He was also incredibly tense.

Juno was watching Nureyev’s face, and had begun to mess with the hem of his dress. “What?” Juno finally asked defensively, biting the inside of his cheek.

“You’re stunning, Juno,” Nureyev breathed, and he couldn’t even find it in himself to feel embarrassed at how easily he was affected by Juno. When Juno dipped his head and smiled softly at the compliment, Nureyev felt like he was in free-fall for a moment.

“Thanks, you…” Juno trailed off, shaking his head. “You look good. Too, I mean. You look good, too.”

The ride most of the way to the restaurant was quiet, though not uncomfortable. At least, the quiet wasn’t. Nureyev, however, found himself utterly distracted by Juno’s bare leg, wholly visible from his hip to his ankle. Nureyev wanted to reach across the bench and touch, to feel Juno’s warm skin through his leather glove, to take off his glove and feel the softness of that thigh under his fingers and squeeze the meat of it.

Several times over the course of the short cab ride, Nureyev had to look out the window to catch his breath and school his thoughts to something less needy. His body was reacting to his thoughts, and it would be incredibly humiliating to soak through his pants before they even reached the restaurant.

“Hey,” the cab driver suddenly said, his voice stern. “I’m not gonna stop you or watch, but it’s a 300 cred cleaning fee if you mess up the upholstery.”

Juno choked as Nureyev’s eyes snapped up to meet the man’s gaze in the rearview mirror. Juno stammered for a bit, saying, “Wh-what!? N-no it’s not— we’re not—  there isn’t— what?”

The cab driver just rolled his eyes. “Whatever, just letting you know,” he muttered.

When they arrived at the restaurant, Juno stared out the window and made a noise in the back of his throat. Nureyev couldn’t tell if it was a sound of amusement or something else and that made him even more nervous.

“I said this wasn’t a date,” Juno said flatly, glaring over his shoulder at Nureyev. The cab driver snorted at that, and Juno turned a glower at full heat on him.

“I am aware, dear detective,” Nureyev replied.

When Juno looked at him again, there was something intense in his expression, his visible eye narrowed at him. “Then why did you bring me to the place in Hyperion City for dumb saps to propose?”

Nureyev was tempted to feign ignorance, but this whole endeavour was about being up front and honest with Juno. Lying, especially over something like choosing a romantic venue for a night he wished to be just so, seemed stupid.

“It’s still not a date, as long as you don’t want it to be, Juno,” he replied finally. “I also wanted to make it clear exactly where my interest in you lies.”

Juno bit the inside of his cheek, mulling over Nureyev’s words before nodding. With another firm look, Juno said, “Still not a date.”

Nureyev smiled broadly. “Of course, dear.”

Juno seemed distracted for a moment, his gaze glancing down and locking onto Nureyev’s mouth. Clearing his throat loudly, the detective shook his head and opened his door, slipping out. Nureyev watched him, particularly interested when the movement shifted the dress to show off even more leg as well as a hint of his ass. At that, Nureyev had to take a deep breath to calm himself and was interrupted by the cab driver demanding to be paid.

Juno was waiting for him when he got out of the car, staring up at the restaurant with some trepidation.

“Everything alright, Juno?” Nureyev asked, standing at full height and straightening his blazer.

“This place is expensive, Glass,” Juno complained, but there was something in his tone that Nureyev couldn’t quite place.

“Have you been?” Nureyev asked cautiously, and immediately felt some regret when Juno’s expression darkened a bit.

“Yeah, a long time ago,” he replied with a sigh.

“Well,” Nureyev hummed and offered his elbow to Juno, grinning toothily when Juno accepted it without question. “All of my expenses are paid.”

Juno snorted, allowing himself to be led up the stairs and through the doors. “You’re going to expense a date?”

“Of course not, detective, that would be incredibly unprofessional!” Nureyev said with a scandalized gasp. “Thankfully, as you keep insisting, this isn’t a date.”

Juno looked away pointedly, chewing the inside of his cheek at realizing his slip-up. The urge to spin Juno where he stood and kiss the breath from his lungs was strong, and Nureyev was almost embarrassed by how badly he wanted it.

When they reached the Maitre d’, Nureyev said, “Reservation for Duke and Dahlia Rose.”

Nureyev smiled pleasantly, even as Juno snorted rudely at hearing the aliases, and tugged him along behind the Maitre d’ as she guided them through the dining room.

“Dahlia Rose? Really?” Juno asked with another laugh. “The hell kind of name is that?”

“I’ve used Duke Rose before, years ago, and I figured you might want an alias, too,” Nureyev teased with a wink down at Juno. “‘Dahlia’ was the best I could do on such short notice. Not all names can be as pretty as ‘Juno’, dear.”

“Isn’t it, I don’t know, a bit obvious that it’s not a real name?” Juno asked, and Nureyev smiled indulgently down at him but did not answer right away.

Nureyev took a moment to look around the dining room, noting the number of occupants, potential exits, and possible threats. Once he was finished casing the room, he paid attention to the actual people and with some amusement, he realized that several patrons had stopped to stare at Juno as he glided past their tables, eyes locked on his bare leg and the flowers at his hip.

Once they arrived at their table and were left alone, Nureyev cleared his throat to say, “Our names would only be ‘obvious’ aliases to incredibly clever private eyes, I would think.”

Juno looked away, seemingly startled by the praise, but he was smiling. The reaction of some nearby patrons at Juno’s demure display was completely understandable to Nureyev.

“You’re sucking up again,” Juno accused.

“I’m complimenting you, Juno,” Nureyev said as a server approached their table and quickly ordered them a bottle of wine.

“It’s the same difference,” Juno said flatly, chewing the inside of his cheek.

“Hardly. ‘Sucking up’ as you call it implies some deception, as if part of what I was saying was a lie,” Nureyev began, pausing only long enough to sample the wine their server brought back and approve it to be served. He smiled at Juno’s frown over the rim of his wine glass. “Now, when I say that you are an absolute vision, the most gorgeous and clever lady I have ever had the pleasure of knowing? I am not stretching anything, lying, or teasing. I mean my words completely.”

“Whatever, Glass,” Juno muttered, obviously embarrassed but also somewhat pleased.

They lapsed into silence for a few minutes as they contemplated their menus.

“Ugh, I hate this,” Juno grumbled eventually, dropping his menu back on the table. “Just order me something. My eye’s too tired to read the fancy font. Nothing with mushrooms, though”

“Of course, dear,” Nureyev laughed. When the server returned, he ordered their food and turned his attention back to Juno.

The detective was lounging back in his chair, one arm crossed over his waist while the other held his wine glass just below his nose as he watched Nureyev.

“What’s on your mind?” Nureyev prompted and Juno just shrugged.

“This really seems like your whole… thing,” he replied, though his tone seemed to imply otherwise.

Nureyev couldn’t help the chuckle that bubbled up. “Does it?”

Juno’s eye narrowed a bit, though his expression was kept pointedly disinterested. “You seem born to it,” he finally said and Nureyev smirked.

“Do you think so?” he prompted.

Something shifted in Juno’s gaze, where it seemed even sharper than Nureyev had ever seen it, and then he shook his head a bit. “No. Rich people are white-collar through and through, even when they’re being shady,” Juno finally answered, his tone firm and sure, and Nureyev felt a shiver roll through him. “They rarely risk getting their own hands dirty if they can help it.”

“Good work, detective!” Nureyev praised, hunger settling in his gut when Juno looked away with a shy smile again. “I knew you were very clever.”

“It’s not that hard to figure out,” Juno attempted to deflect.

“Ah, but it is,” Nureyev disagreed. “You’re the first person I’ve known who guessed correctly as you have.”

“Okay, so you weren’t born to it,” Juno pressed, and Nureyev could tell he was trying to move the conversation away from praising him.

“It’s all learned, you are correct. Not necessarily an act, per se, but I had to learn it for the job,” he replied with a smile, allowing it to become something a bit sharper as he said, “Much of my work involves schmoozing with the elite.”

Juno’s gaze locked onto his mouth again, his visible eye traveling along his teeth and he chewed the inside of his cheek.

“So, how did… you grow up to become Rex Glass,” Juno eventually asked, looking into his wine glass for a moment.

Nureyev debated responding, instinctively retreating inward as he was wont to do. But that was counterproductive to what he was hoping to achieve that evening with his beautiful dinner partner.

“I lived on the streets for much of my childhood, until I was taken in by a mentor. I don’t remember much of my life before that,” Nureyev replied, savouring his wine while Juno mulled over his words. “What about you?”

Juno snorted and rolled his eye a bit. “Ma used to work for Northstar Entertainment. Lost her job, and then things were hard,” Juno said with a shrug. “I’m sure you’ve already looked all that up.”

“Not at all,” Nureyev replied with a shake of his head. “I looked up the information the HCPD had on you once, but nothing personal.”

Juno looked completely baffled by his confession. “Why not?”

Nureyev had no good answer for Juno, and had to forcibly keep himself from answering with something witty and useless. “I’m not even sure, Juno. Normally, I would have, but I hesitated with you,” Nureyev said slowly, shrugging. “I wanted to hear what stories you have in your own words, I suppose. Perhaps it’s because I saw you before I knew even the first thing about you. I don’t know.”

“What do you know about me then?” Juno asked curiously.

“You’re a sharpshooter, and a damn good one—”

“Haven’t been a sharpshooter in five years, Glass—”

“No, no, do not interrupt,” Nureyev scolded, and Juno’s mouth snapped shut. “You can’t go from your level of talent to nothing, Juno. I know you’ve been going to shooting ranges weekly, according to Rita.”

“Doesn’t make me a sharpshooter,” Juno grumbled and Nureyev decided he didn’t want to argue with him.

“Regardless, I know you left the HCPD, and that there were some disciplinary notes, but I didn’t read them,” he reassured. “They weren’t relevant.”

Juno hummed, studying his face and seemed to decide, ultimately, that Nureyev was being truthful. “Huh, interesting. So this is honestly a chance to get to know each other?”

Nureyev nodded and laughed. “I have been saying that this whole time, but yes.”

Juno smirked, or at least tried for a smirk but it really was just a small, happy smile. “Oh,” was all he managed to say for a while, waiting patiently as the waiter brought a basket of bread to the table.

“I’m curious,” Nureyev began slowly. “What have you figured out about me?”

“Not much,” Juno replied with a petulant pout. “I’m guessing you’re Brahmese, but that’s not too difficult if you know what you’re looking for.”

Nureyev raised an eyebrow. “And did you? Know what to look for, I mean?”

“No,” Juno admitted bitterly. “Thought your teeth could be used as an identifier, but turns out most of the people on Brahma share your general description.”

They were silent for a few moments, Nureyev mulling over Juno’s words, and Juno thinking about something impossible for Nureyev to parse out at all.

“Did you live up on New Kinshasa, or…?” Juno asked, his tone careful as he asked.

“No one is homeless on New Kinshasa,” Nureyev replied simply, aiming to leave it at that when he realized it wasn’t much of an answer. “I lived on the surface. My family… they either left or died, but I have no memory of them.”

Juno nodded and tore at his bread thoughtfully. “I’m… sorry?” he said eventually, and Nureyev smiled at the stilted attempt at sympathy.

“It’s the past, dear detective,” Nureyev waved it off. “My mentor took me in when I was quite young, and taught me everything I know.”

With another nod, and perhaps sensing there was no good way to elaborate on his mentor in public, Juno said, “My mom wasn’t that great. Ben wouldn’t want me saying it, but she was… she was terrible. I don’t know why he still defends her, but whatever.”

“Perhaps he knew a different side of her?” Nureyev supplied and Juno snorted.

“Yeah, he knew a different side of her, for sure,” Juno said sarcastically, rolling his eye. “She lost her job at Northstar when we were, like, four and she blamed me ever since.”

“Where is she now?” Nureyev asked.

“Dead. She went to Hoosegow after she tried to kill Ben—”

Nureyev dropped his bread knife, which startled Juno mid-sentence. “Excuse me?” he asked, sure he had misheard.

“She went to Hoosegow—”

“No, I caught that part, Juno,” Nureyev said with a weak laugh. “She tried to kill Benzaiten?”

Juno paused a moment before he nodded. “She thought he was me.”

Nureyev blinked at him for several moments before he said, “See, you keep saying things as if they’re supposed to make sense, but they don’t, Juno.”

“She hated me and wanted me dead, got Ben confused for me and had really shitty aim,” Juno explained in a frustrated huff. “She went to Hoosegow and then died a couple years later. There’s really not that much to it, Glass.”

Nureyev wanted to ask more questions, but Juno was visibly tense, his expression tight. Asking more would only spoil the rest of the evening and Nureyev couldn’t have that.

“Tell me about Mick,” he said instead, and immediately the dark clouds around Juno parted. “How does he fit in with Juno Steel?”

The rest of their evening went on like that, with them discussing the lighter parts of their lives and telling stories that had each other laughing out loud. 

They had finished their dinner and were working on their second bottle of wine as Nureyev began waxing poetic about other planets. He had been spurred on by the mystified way Juno stared at him over the rim of his wine glass, his deep blue eye catching the candlelight in an almost magical way.

“Wow, sounds amazing out there,” Juno murmured as Nureyev finished describing Neptune.

Nureyev hummed. “It is,” he said softly.

“Have you ever thought about… settling down?” Juno asked after a moment, chewing the inside of his cheek. “I mean, stopping for a while?”

Nureyev thought he could see a glimmer of hope in the detective’s eye, one that the lady was obviously trying to hide or stamp out. For a moment, Nureyev wanted to lie, had it prepared on the tip of his tongue even, to keep that hope alive and see him smile. But Juno Steel would always prefer a hard truth over a pretty lie, which was something Nureyev found that he liked quite a lot.

“No, not at all,” Nureyev said gently. “Settling down for people in my line of work… usually doesn’t involve surviving to retire.”

Juno nodded at that, and Nureyev saw something shift in his expression, but it was so slight that he could not even begin to figure it out. Just then, their desserts arrived and Nureyev started in on his experiences on Venus.

Across from him, Juno shifted in his seat to cross his legs as he leaned forward to eat his dessert. Nureyev barely refrained from jumping when Juno’s foot trailed up the inside of his leg, stopping to rest against his chair between his knees. Nureyev looked up at Juno questioningly, but the look Juno offered him was the picture of innocence.

It wasn’t until Juno’s foot nudged his knee deliberately that Nureyev realized he had stopped talking entirely. Clearing his throat, he continued his story with a shaky voice. When Juno took a moment to lick his spoon just a bit too deliberately with entirely too much bedroom eye, Nureyev’s words stuttered to a halt once again.

“What?” Juno asked cheekily, and Nureyev stared at a spot of cream left at the corner of his mouth.

“You— you’ve got a bit of cream,” Nureyev begins, pointing at the corner of his own mouth.

Juno chuckled softly, as if he was truly embarrassed by such a thing, and wiped his fingertips through the mess before slipping them into his mouth. It was a simple enough gesture, and not even particularly suggestive on it’s own, until Juno’s blue eye flickered up to meet his. The heat in that gaze was intense, and Nureyev could feel the space between his thighs grow hot and damp.

Then Juno hollowed his cheeks as he pulled his fingers out of his mouth with a soft, yet perfectly audible pop.

As Nureyev dropped his spoon onto his plate with a disruptive clatter, a patron at a nearby table dropped something small which made a tinkling noise as it hit the floor. Clearing his throat forcefully, Nureyev picked up his spoon and resumed his story without looking at the scheming temptress across from him, instead watching the other patron frantically scoop what looked like an engagement ring up off the floor. With some amusement, if only to make himself feel better about being far too wet for not even being touched yet, he observed that both the patron aiming to propose and their partner were distracted by Juno.

Juno moved his foot again, slipping it further up Nureyev’s inner thigh, rocking up and down until Nureyev met his gaze again. The brat had an eyebrow raised with the spoon held between his lips, and his expression was molten.

With some alarm, Nureyev considered that he was being tested, that it was some sort of trap. A test was much more Benzaiten’s style, however— he couldn’t imagine Juno pulling the same sort of petty nonsense.

Nureyev knocked back the last of his wine and cleared his throat. “Would you like another bottle of wine, Juno?” he asked, his voice thick as he lounged back in his chair, allowing his blazer to fall open. Immediately, Juno’s gaze gravitated to his torso, tracing where Nureyev’s corset cut off just below his chest. Beneath the corset was just a lace shirt, completely see-through except for two notably solid patches of flowers.

Juno eventually hummed, clearing his throat and scooping up the last bit of his dessert with a shake of his head. “I don’t think so. We still have something to discuss,” he said before smirking suggestively. “In private.”

“Ah, of course,” Nureyev said a bit shakily, swallowing thickly. “We could go back to your apartment? If you would like?”

Juno bit his lip and cast his eye downward, a mockery of shy nerves. “I was thinking we should go to your hotel room? It’ll be quiet, empty… private,” Juno said demurely, shrugging a bare shoulder that all but demanded Nureyev’s teeth to mark it up.

Nureyev watched Juno’s face, trying to gauge how much of what he was saying was innuendo, and said, “Of course. We can discuss things at my hotel as long and loud as we please,” he said slowly, smiling to expose his sharp teeth a bit. “We could get quite heated and not disturb a single person.”

“Sounds good to me,” Juno said, and his voice was strained suddenly, as if he hadn’t counted on Nureyev rising to his bait.

Nureyev made quick work of settling their bill, hardly even looking at the amount before he stood and offered his elbow to Juno. When the detective accepted, he tucked himself much closer to Nureyev’s side, the heat of him warming through the layer of his blazer.

Sliding into the backseat of the first available cab, Nureyev was startled when Juno sat on the bench directly beside him. Looking down, Nureyev swallowed hard as Juno’s bare thigh pressed along his leg, and he shivered when the detective’s shoulder leaned into his side while he smoothed his dress down properly.

Very conscious of the placement of his hands, Nureyev kept them clasped together in his lap as he stared resolutely out the window. However, the scheming lady next to him was determined to make any attempt at professionalism impossible, what with the way he kept shifting his leg against Nureyev’s.

The short cab ride to the hotel was already shaping up to feel like an eternity.

“So, is there a plan when we get to the hotel?”

Nureyev tilted his head just so to look down at Juno, knocked nearly breathless all over again by the gorgeous lady looking up at him. But he schooled his expression, smirking just enough to flash some of his teeth, and Nureyev did not miss the way Juno looked at his mouth, or the way Juno’s own mouth fell open with a nearly silent gasp.

“What do you mean by that, Juno?” Nureyev prompted, saying his name with a suggestive drawl and raising an eyebrow.

He did not miss the way Juno shivered when he said his name.

Juno leaned closer to him, the glorious heat of his soft body flush against his side. “You have a way in where we won’t be seen?” he pressed, his voice low.

Nureyev chuckled and leaned into Juno’s space, putting his gloved hand down on Juno’s thigh near where it met his hip As he leaned even harder against Juno, he slid his long leather-clad fingers down between Juno’s thighs, the head of the lady’s cock mere inches away.

Juno shuddered, tipping his head when Nureyev bent low to brush his lips against the shell of his ear. With a toothy smirk, Nureyev squeezed the meat of Juno’s thigh until he gasped.

“We won’t be sneaking past any cameras, my dear detective,” he explained in a whisper, luxuriating in the gasps and shudders of his beautiful lady. “We will walk in together, keeping everything professional, of course.”

“Professional?” Juno bit out, his voice breathy and dripping with tension.

“Of course, and it should be easy enough,” Nureyev teased, his lips brushing Juno’s ear and for a moment he nearly bites it. “This isn’t a date after all.”

Juno nodded jerkily with a hard swallow, and heat absolutely radiated off of Juno’s face.

Nureyev chuckled, flicking his tongue out to wet his lips, which in turn caught the shell of Juno’s ear. Relishing Juno’s shudder, Nureyev squeezed the thigh in his hand tight enough to bruise, holding firm until Juno let out a soft sound. It was just a quiet vocalization on the tail-end of his sharp exhale, and Nureyev wanted more of it. He suddenly wished that he wasn’t wearing his gloves, wanting so desperately to feel the detective’s soft skin under his fingertips.

“I will erase any footage of us together when we go up to our room,” Nureyev murmured, inwardly flinching at calling it their room, a slip-up he had never made before in his career as a thief. Juno at least did not seem to notice his poor word choice, his head tilted to the side, visible eye fluttering as Nureyev massaged his thigh. It was then that he realized that Juno had wrapped one of his hands around Nureyev’s wrist, holding tightly, but not trying to pull his hand away.

Before he pulled back, Nureyev took a moment longer to press his nose and mouth to the side of Juno’s head, just above his ear. Breathing in the scent of coconut and something else, he let out a soft groan only for Juno to hear. Finally, he released Juno, withdrawing his hand with a teasing slide of his fingertips against his sensitive inner-thigh. At Juno’s twitch and gentle gasp, Nureyev found himself very interested indeed to find out just how responsive his beautiful lady truly was.

Sitting back, Nureyev looked at Juno again and immediately regretted every action he made leading up to that very moment.

Juno’s gaze was molten, his lips parted and his visible eye heavy-lidded. There was a very alarming moment when Nureyev wanted to grab the private eye and kiss the breath from him, to press him back against their seat and swallow every gasp, moan, and pleading word his detective might utter.

Pulling on the reins of his self-control, Nureyev sucked a deep breath in through his nose and turned his attention straight ahead. Next to him, he could hear Juno taking a few deep breaths himself before he settled finally. The tension in the backseat was palpable, and every time Nureyev met the cab driver’s eyes in the rearview mirror, she looked completely unimpressed.

When they arrived at the hotel, Nureyev was still paying the driver when the doorman opened Juno’s door to assist him out of the vehicle.

“Ah, Mr Glass! Welcome back to the Hyperion Hotel!” the doorman said exuberantly as Nureyev stepped out behind Juno. “Would you and your companion enjoy a bottle of champagne this evening?”

“Thank you kindly, Washburn, but this is merely business,” Nureyev said with a pleasant smile, and he did not miss the sceptical tilt of the doorman’s eyebrows at his claim.

“Of course, Mr Glass,” Washburn said with a knowing wink. “Enjoy the rest of your evening.”

With that, Nureyev and Juno entered the opulent lobby with at least a foot between them. Nureyev nodded politely to the associates behind the front desk as they all greeted him by name as well, and Juno made a noise in the back of his throat.

“It’s not, you know, weird that they all know your name?” Juno asked quietly.

“Not at all, my dear Juno,” Nureyev replied with an indulgent smile. “In a place like this, it’s industry standard for all employees to know any guest staying longer than two nights by name.”

“Sounds pretty risky,” Juno murmured and Nureyev laughed a bit.

“This is why I usually stay at little dives if I intend to spend more than a day in one place,” Nureyev agreed. “Employees at places like that are barely paid enough to show up to their shifts, and if you tip them nicely they’ll lie to Dark Matters for you if they have to.”

“Speaking from experience?” Juno said with a snort as they reached the elevators.

“Perhaps,” Nureyev teased with a sly smile, guiding Juno into the elevator when it arrived.

It felt as though the elevator was crawling up the floors after that, and Nureyev let out a sigh. “There are only three cameras on my floor, all of which are situated at the elevator bay,” Nureyev began, his voice low and serious. “One will be facing us when we exit the elevator, so you will have to keep your face low without actually looking as though you are hiding it.”

“Sounds easy enough,” Juno replied, and there wasn’t even an ounce of sarcasm in his tone. “The other two cameras?”

“They face down the two wings. Once we turn down the hall to my room, it will be behind us so it should be a simple thing with minimal risk,” Nureyev answered, and felt something shift in his chest at the curt nod Juno gave him.

“Got it,” Juno murmured, shrugging.

Nureyev was genuinely impressed by how quickly Juno was able to follow his lead as they stepped out of the elevator, keeping his head down by taking his comms out of his bag to fiddle like he was getting ready to call someone. His focus was remarkable, and Nureyev witnessed the exact moment when Juno relaxed again. He hadn’t even realized just how serious Juno had been until they turned the corner and had their backs to the camera.

Gone was the intense look and stony silence, and in its place was the simmering heat from the backseat of the cab again. Their gazes met once and Nureyev was nearly overwhelmed with the desire to pin the detective against the wall and have his wicked way with him right there. When they arrived at Nureyev’s room, Juno leaned against the doorjamb and smiled up at him in such a broad, open way that something ached terribly deep in Nureyev’s chest.

Nureyev was going to insist they talk once they stepped inside, he decided. He wanted the air to be clear between them, to make sure Juno went into anything they might do that evening fully informed. Juno knew he was a criminal, yes, but there was so much more to his job on Mars, things that were directly related to Juno. Nureyev knew he couldn’t move forward with that hanging over and between them.

The lock on the door chimed as it released, and Nureyev pushed the door open. Standing with his back against it to hold it open for Juno, he gestured grandly for the detective to enter. The smile on Juno’s face as he stepped into the darkened entryway from the hall was mischievous, and Nureyev narrowed his eyes a bit in suspicion when Juno did not continue into the suite.

There was no way Nureyev would have predicted what Juno had planned.

Hands grabbed the back of his head and pulled him down, his sharp gasp of surprise swallowed in a hot mouth and smothered by plump lips made sticky with lipstain. Nureyev was a weak man, however, and returned the hard kiss by meeting Juno’s tongue halfway, shivering as Juno pressed his perfect, soft body flush to his. 

He was effectively pinned against the door he was holding open, and he didn’t want to be anywhere else in the galaxy. Juno was making delicious little sounds against his tongue as he hitched his bare leg up, seemingly to wrap it around Nureyev’s waist, but their difference in height was too much. With a low growl, Nureyev grabbed Juno’s supple ass with both hands and hauled him up until the detective could find purchase with his legs around his thin waist and his arms draped over his shoulders.

All thoughts of talking things out with Juno first had swiftly flown from Nureyev’s mind, every coherent thought he might have had fled. He realized with some very distant alarm that they had somehow made it all the way through the suite and into the bedroom, as he found himself seated on the bed with Juno squirming in his lap. The detective was whining into his mouth, one of his hands tangled in his loose hair; Nureyev didn’t even recall taking the tie out of it and undoing the braid, which was almost concerning enough to snap him out of his lust-driven haze. Juno’s other hand was on his chest, groping one of his tits and flicking his thumb across the nipple.

Nureyev wasn’t very sensitive there, but he also wasn’t about to deny having Juno’s hands on him.

But Nureyev’s own hands were frantic as well, his desire to touch and hold every part of Juno taking over now that he could. One hand was on Juno’s thigh following the straps that wrapped his leg snugly while the other clung to the golden fabric of the gown at his hip. Nureyev slipped his gloved fingers beneath the straps to squeeze Juno’s soft thigh, and rested his thumb teasingly near the base of a very prominent erection. When Juno shivered, Nureyev pressed into the sensitive spot with a possessive growl, pulling a needy sob from Juno and swallowing it greedily.

Nureyev groaned at how responsive his private eye was and licked deeper and harder into his perfect mouth.

Juno tugged at his corset, fumbling with the clasps as he whispered against his mouth, “Fuck, Glass, been wanting this off you since the moment I saw you in it.”

Hearing his alias jolted Nureyev out of his lustful haze once and for all, and he was struck with the need to tell Juno immediately. He couldn’t allow it to go any further so long as Juno knew him as Rex Glass.

Nureyev turned his head away from Juno’s lips and shivered as the detective only moved his lips to his throat, mouthing, biting, and sucking at the pale skin. “Juno, we still need to talk,” he gasped, moaning and squeezing Juno’s thighs.

“Then you talk, I’ll finish undressing us,” Juno murmured cheekily, and Nureyev could feel his smirk. “Multitasking, yeah?”

“Juno,” Nureyev moaned, lifting his hands to grab Juno’s wrists and pull his hands away from his clothes.

When Juno made a petulant sound against his pulse, Nureyev’s willpower wavered dangerously. What harm could it do, waiting until his desire was sated and he’d had the lady who haunted his waking thoughts?

Then Juno groaned, “C’mon, Rex, we can talk later.” His tone had been teasing, pleading but not demanding, but it felt like a blow to Nureyev’s gut.

That had been the first time Juno had called him ‘Rex’, and he felt sick to his stomach at the thought of continuing. There was an alarming moment where his thoughts swirled around the disgust in himself for letting it progress this far so quickly, and then the fear that came with the intensity of his feelings.

‘Rex Glass’ was a fake name, a fake person, while Juno was so real and beautiful. Nureyev wanted— no, needed Juno to know his name, his purpose for being on Mars. He needed Juno to know him, even if he chose in the end to cast Nureyev aside. He knew, roughly, what it meant for Juno to be in his lap, pulling at his clothes and begging so prettily for more.

He didn’t want to fuck Juno while only offering less than half of himself when the detective was giving everything in return. He didn’t want to fuck Juno as Rex glass, he thought with a soft cry when Juno bit his neck again.

With a gasp of utter terror, he realized he wanted to make love to Juno Steel as Peter Nureyev, more than anything else in the galaxy.

The detective was still working bruises into the skin of his long throat when Nureyev turned his head to whisper, directly into Juno’s ear, “Nureyev.”

Juno froze, and Nureyev screwed his eyes tightly shut.

“My name is Peter Nureyev.”

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#the penumbra podcast #the penumbra fanfic #junoverse #juno steel #jupeter #gerry writes #bittersweet #full fic

[trashinaglass-archive]

Oh Ship

Y/n and Tom are dating but people think they are dating other people

Request: please please please do another write where everyone ships Tom and Zendaya but he’s clearly dating the reader (like maybe the reader is a famous actress?)

A/n: i made it so the reader is shipped with Kj Apa bc he’s a babe

I’m shit at coming up with fake movies and characters soooo all that’s up in the air

     “Please welcome the cast of the film,” the moderator said as he introduced you all to the panel. You were currently at San Diego Comic-Con promoting your new movie with one of your best friends, Kj Apa. Everyone knew him as Archie from Riverdale. He was a hilarious and cool guy- you loved him. And everyone loved you two together.

     Fans often shipped you together to the point of believing you were dating. You thought it was hilarious. It was even more funny to you that your actual boyfriend, Tom Holland, was in the same situation with his costar Zendaya. They were good friends, but nothing more than that. You didn’t hate her or anything, but you couldn’t deny getting a little jealous when people said stuff about them together- you were sure Tom felt the same when people talked about you and Kj.

      “If you could be in any film, which would you want to be in?” A fan asked the panel.

      “Spider-Man!” You said quickly as you raised your hand. “I’d be MJ or Liz, I guess. Any part that would let me make out with Tom Holland.” The crowd roared at your answer.

     “You think you could do the part better than Zendaya?” The moderator asked you.

     “Oh hell yeah,” you said instantly. “That girl- she’s nothing compared to me.” You stopped to laugh as everyone else laughed. “Her fans are gonna drag me. I’m just kidding- don’t take that seriously,” you clarified before everyone else answered.

     “What was the best part about filming?” Another fan asked.

     “I loved just getting to work with y/n- she’s an angel and so talented and kind and funny. I love getting to be around her as much as possible,” Kj said.

     “I’m not buying you anything so you can stop sucking up,” you said. Everyone laughed and Kj snapped his fingers saying ‘damn it’. “I loved how challenging it was. It was a lot different than anything I had ever done before,” you answered with a nod.

     “Kj and y/n, are you two dating?” A younger fan asked. You tried to hide your laugh as you looked at Kj, letting him answer.

     “Well, since you mention it. We do have an announcement to make,” Kj said putting an arm around you and pulling you into him, causing the crowd of fans to scream in excitement. You looked at him as you bit your lip to keep in the laughs. Kj looked at you and puckered his lips at you, acting like he was going to kiss you. You, keeping your face away from his, blow air into his face.

      “No, we aren’t,” Kj said as he moved away from you. Everyone booed, and you laughed out loud.

     “We aren’t dating, and if any of you see Spider-Man, you can send him my way,” you said keeping up the act that you had a huge crush on Tom. The panel soon wrapped up, and you walked backstage with Kj. You laughed about some of the questions fans asked and the things they said. You were sat in the back room and watched the tv that showed Tom’s panel that had just started.

     “What was your favorite scene to shoot?” A fan asked them.

     “There was one that we did, me and Tom, and I kind of just held on to Tom as he did his Spider-Man thing,” Zendaya answered. “It was really fun, I’ve never gotten to fly around like that.”

     You pulled your phone out and started to look at Instagram. The feed was heavy on the Tomdaya ship today. You decided to play around with all of the fans and poste a photo. It was a picture of you and Tom from a while ago where you were pressed together, noses touching and you were biting your bottom lip. The original picture was really cute and innocent, but you had cropped it so it only showed just under your noses down to your neck. You added a black and white filter and added the caption

“loose lips sink ships💋”

     You looked at Kj as you laughed. “Am I evil for this?” You asked as you began to read the comments. Everyone thought it was an announcement of yours and Kj’s ‘relationship’. If only they knew.

     “Let me see,” he said, and you handed your phone to him. “Damn, that’s.... sexual.”

“Kj’s jawline, I’m dying”

“I knew Kj and y/n were dating from the minute I saw them together”

“#YourShipNameForever”

     Kj laughed as he read the comments. “That doesn’t even look like me. Come on now,” he said.

     You noticed a few comments that realized it wasn’t Kj, but the majority of everyone was sold that it was him. You felt a little bad, but it was such a funny situation, you couldn’t help but laugh. Not long after, you saw Tom enter the room.

     “I didn’t even realize y’all had finished,” you admitted to him.

     “Thanks for paying attention,” he said sarcastically. You pulled the picture back up and handed your phone to him. He studied the picture before looking at the comments. “They think I look like him?” Tom asked looking confused.

     “I think it’s hilarious. They’re so convinced that we are dating,” you said pointing between you and Kj, “that they can’t even stop to notice that it’s clearly not him.”

     “Do you think we should go ahead and mention that we’re dating instead of teasing like this?” Tom asked. You tried to read his face- did he really want to make it public or was this another jealous episode?

     “Is that what you want?” You asked him. You knew it wouldn’t effect him if his or you fans knew y’all were dating- it would only effect you, really. That’s how it always worked, the girl got bashed, the guy was glorified.

     “Yeah, I want to talk about you- tell stories about you, share pictures, stuff like that. Are you okay with that?” He asked you. You nodded your head, telling him you were.

     “You should use this, and see what the reactions are,” you told him. He did just that.

     He posted the picture you posted with no crop or color filter and added the same caption.

“loose lips really do sink ships”

     You sat watching as people began to comment. The reactions were everything you had expected.

“WHAT THE ACTUAL HELL”

“Woah, when did that happen?”

“THAT WAS TOM NOT KJ LOL MY LIFE IS A LIE”

“That explains why she always talked about wanting to make out with him”

     You giggled at the last two the hardest. You got up, ready to go to the hotel for the night. You grabbed your bag and waved goodbye to Kj. You and Tom held hands as you walked to the hotel. Once you got to your room, you noticed many media sites posting pictures of you together sharing your relationship announcement.

     “This is hilarious, I love it,” you said absentmindedly.

     “I love you,” Tom said as he leaned down to kiss you.

     “I love you, too, Tommy,” you said as you kissed him back. “Much more than Kj.”

This turned into more of a reader x Kj ship than Tomdaya, but I really love how it turned out. Sorry it’s not exactly what you wanted, anon, but hopefully you still like it:)

#tom holland #tom holland imagine #tom holland blurb #tom holland one shot #tom holland x reader

[callunavulgari]

TOP 25 FICS OF 2019

1. these roads will take you into your own country by @notbecauseofvictories | American Gods | Laura Moon/Mad Sweeney | WIP | 33k

Here’s a joke for you: a Muslim, a zombie, and a leprechaun walk into a bar in Misery, Indiana. No one stares, because no one in the puckered, shitty asshole of Misery, Indiana gives a fuck. The Colts are playing.

Heather Says: So. It’s funny that another of @notbecauseofvictories‘s stories is at the top of my list again this year. Keep in mind this list is sorted by when the fic was read rather than favorites (because that would get real complicated real quick). Clearly there must be something about January. There’s just something about the writing that is easy to slip into, be it a Star Wars fic or a Labyrinth fic or even a fic about Johnny and the Devil. This was lovely and I can’t wait until it’s finished.

2. eighteen wheels on an uphill climb by @honkforhankcon | Detroit: Become Human | Hank/Connor | 91k

Hank is going to die. He’s going to die right here in Kentucky, 53 years old, halfway to broke, and tragically sober. Survived only by a nine-year-old St. Bernard and the 31-year-old twink who delivered the fatal blow.

Heather Says: I don’t think that this is the first DBH fic that I sought out after beating the game, but it is the first that I loved enough to make it to this list. I didn’t think that I would go for a modern au for this fandom, certainly not a modern au wihere Hank is a truck driver and Connor is a sex worker (albeit briefly?) but here I am.

3. Fuck pride (pride only hurts, it never helps) by ImogenGotDrunk | Detroit: Become Human | RK900/Gavin Reed | 41k

After the android uprising, Connor becomes a permanent fixture in the DPD. That’s fine. Gavin can accept that. The dipshit’s more human than he used to be, and a decent detective to boot. Gavin can deal with him being around. What Gavin cannot deal with is Connor’s replica; two inches taller, blue-eyed, and with a mouth that Gavin doesn’t know whether to punch or take between his teeth. The RK900 model has been assigned as his partner for the foreseeable future.

Heather Says: I also never thought that I’d like a fic with Gavin in it. But I got curious about all the Reed900, and well, this fic really won me over. The writing is fantastic, and it softens Gavin while still keeping him believable. Also, well, I like the enemies to lovers thing.

4. Almost Cool by @blacktofade | Buzzfeed Unsolved | Ryan/Shane | 30k

While filming the Yuma Territorial Prison episode, Shane gets bitten by what he thinks is a bat. Spoiler alert: it's not.

Heather Says: This is actually the first thing that I read for this fandom. In fact, this is the fic that got me into Buzzfeed Unsolved in the first place. I’d seen a lot of art and gifs and fics pass my way, but I was only ever slightly interested in what I saw until this fic came through my inbox and piqued my curiosity. 

5. Pride by @astolat | Game of Thrones | Jaime/Brienne/Cersei | 22k

Jaime didn’t understand why Cersei suddenly insisted on trimming his hair and shaving his beard, but he also didn’t care to fight her on it, even though he’d just as soon have kept the beard: it was bitterly cold in the small tower room with its arrow-slits. 

Heather Says: Wowza. This fic was intense. I’ve always loved Jaime and Brienne. I’ve loved them since the second book, which was read at least a few years before I started loving them in the show. Adding Cersei to their dynamic would have probably been almost impossible to pull off if it was anyone else, but @astolat lives to surpass my expectations.

6. Skin and Scales by Ernmark | The Penumbra Podcast | Lord Arum/Sir Damien/Rilla | 18k

The man glares, and this time, Damien is certain it isn’t a trick of the light: those eyes are violet as amethyst. He wears disdain like a second skin–- or, perhaps, like the scales that he is missing. “Lord Arum?”

Heather Says: I was one of those people who skipped through all of the Second Citadel episodes during my first listen through of Penumbra. The stories were good, but the pull of Juno was too great. A couple months after I finished, I went back and listened to everything I didn’t. And let me tell you. Lizard monster. Honorable knight. Bookish girlfriend. Poly. It hit every single button I had and then some. This fic really hit the spot when I ran out of story.

7. someone you like by caela | She-Ra | Adora/Catra | 5k

catwithabat u think ur so hipster but u just look like a lesbian 27m she_ra @catwithabat bc… i’m a lesbian. lmao 5m

Heather Says: Noooot usually a big fan of high school fics. Namely because I’m not in high school anymore and well, after you read so many in your teenage years they sort of lose their luster. This one was phenomenal enough to change my mind.

8. Sands of Time by @tirsynni | Legend of Zelda | Ganondorf/Link | WIP | 98k

Link awakens in the desert with no idea how he got there, to encounter his worst enemy...except it was the King of the Gerudo, not the King of Evil, he faced.

Heather Says: I have seen a lot of really good Link/Ganondorf art over the years, but never really stumbled across a fic that didn’t have judicious amount of non-con involved. But the Breath of the Wild 2 trailer happened, and everybody started drawing really pretty art, so I went looking. And lo and behold, @tirsynni saved the day with this gorgeous time travel/fix-it fic. 

9. killed with kindness by veterization | Persona 5 | Akechi/Akira | 52k

Goro can't quite figure out why so many people keep acting like they're his friend. (Or: the one where the Phantom Thieves decide to know thy enemy, befriend thy enemy, love thy enemy, crush on thy enemy).

Heather Says: I’ve read a couple of veterization’s fics over the years, and to date they have never disappointed me. They published this in June, and I think I clicked on it mostly because I was bored and hadn’t read any good P5 fic yet. This was basically just what the doctor ordered, and I was really happy to find something where Akechi’s story went ever so slightly different.

10. paper thin by @ebonybow | Buzzfeed Unsolved | Ryan/Shane/Sara | 9k

Shane’s new neighbors are a morning-sex kind of couple.

Heather Says: So I went into this one knowing very little about how Sara fit into things. I didn’t know she was Shane’s girlfriend. I’d never even seen her, but I clicked because I like poly and I trust the author. I was 100% not disappointed. There’s also another fic with a very similar dynamic here, which is also aces.

11. damn.nation, now available on itunes by @kaikamahine | Good Omens | Aziraphale/Crowley | 11k

When lowly tempt-pusher Amphora (formerly of Stairwell 7B North, before she Fell,) gets the notice that end times are nigh, she gleefully quits her job and cancels her Netflix subscription and takes her place among the legions of hell. This, it turns out, was a bad plan.

Heather Says: Elizabeth may have only written one fic this year, but she made it a damn good one. I’ve always loved her OCs especially, so I was pretty tickled that this is 10k+ of outsider pov. Also, demons! Demons are great! This demon is great! I want like 9 seasons and a movie about Amphora, just saying.

12. The Dragon and Her Wolves by hapakitsune | Game of Thrones | Jon/Sansa/Daenarys | 60k

When the truth of Jon's birthright is revealed, control of the North and Daenerys's claim to the Iron Throne are both called into question. To preserve their tenuous alliance and secure her rule, Daenerys puts aside her personal feelings to arrange a marriage of political convenience between Jon and Sansa Stark.

Heather Says: What do you mean season 8 didn’t exist and the show totally ended with a three way relationship between the two most powerful women in Westeros and Jon Snow? Never been a big fan of Jon/Sansa before this, but this is another of those writers that I would literally trust if they wrote a fic about a fork and a spoon.

13. never tell me the odds by @wildehacked | Wolf 359 | Eiffel/Hera | 9k

“I tried Star Wars," he says, adjusting the phone under his neck, "and it was way underwhelming.”

A shaky breath from her end. “Well, where did you start?”

Heather Says: I don’t remember which of @wildehacked‘s fandoms I started reading first. Most recently it’s been The Magnus Archives (more on this later). The point is, they’d written Wolf 359 fic and it had Hera and Eiffel and it was literally everything that I’ve been looking for since the series ended.

14. Find Me Somebody by raiining | Good Omens | Warlock/Adam Young | 11k

“You left me,” he said. “You both left me, for him. And I can’t even blame you, because I’d have left me for him too.”

Heather Says: There was an Art. The art was lovely. So I went looking, because that’s what I do when faced with beautiful art depicting a rare pairing. And I found the holy grail. Like, possibly my favorite Good Omens fic? Ever? 

15. flirting with fire by @brawlite | Stranger Things | Billy/Steve | WIP | 7k

Steve's a cop, Billy's a firefighter. It's not a grudge, it's just a regular old small town rivalry.

Heather Says: Okay so brawlite has written a lot of great stuff this year (more on that later), but I read this in bed at the beach house this August while I was reeling from both a horrible sunburn and like seven hours of mild to moderate day-drinking while everyone else was still throwing back shots right outside my bedroom door. Jaws was playing on the tv and I wasn’t even paying attention to it, because THIS. Long story short, I’ve been thirsty for more ever since.

16. gold, when you find me by mmtion | The Flash | Iris/Barry | 53k

It's not that Iris hates The Flash, per say - more that she hates writing about The Streak in a weekly, pun-heavy comic based on The Flash.

Heather Says: I never would have thought that a canon pairing would make it to my Top 25 list, but here we are. I like Iris/Barry a lot better when they don’t grow up together and spend a lot of time playing the Superman game, apparently. Also, this was really well-written, and sexual tension has never been something I’ve felt from Barry and Iris, but I felt it in this fic. Just. Damn.

17. never gets old by @brawlite & @toast-ranger-to-a-stranger| Stranger Things | Billy/Steve | 78k

Falling in love with a cam boy named KingSteve isn't the smartest thing Billy Hargrove has ever done, nor is it the most healthy -- but the good choice is rarely ever the fun choice, and Billy is all about living life fast and loose.

Heather Says: Told you I’d come back to it. brawlite and toastranger are a fantastic team. last year was cherry pie and under the covers, this year it’s camboys and cop/firefighter dynamics. Also, I have a really strange fascination with fics where a character has an instragram. It’s really, incredibly strange. Also also, every time I see this fic title I get that one Discovery Channel song stuck in my head. And no, it probably isn’t the one you’re thinking.

18. ways to save the world by @wildehacked | The Magnus Archives | Martin Blackwood/Jon Sims | 19k

“I left you,” Martin says softly.

Heather Says: And we’re back at wildehacked too! The Magnus Archives was a thing that happened to me. This is I think the first fic I read for it while listening, and it was so very close to what we got in canon. I think when it comes down to it though, I still prefer this fic, even if the ending of this season was pretty fantastic.

19. The Denial Twist by beethechange | Buzzfeed Unsolved | Ryan/Shane | 35k

“This is kind of surreal,” Shane says, taking a sip of his tea. It’s piping hot and delicious, except it tastes like hot chocolate and not like tea at all. “Sort of—Wonka-esque, right? Or Alice in Wonderland.”

Heather Says: While the vampire one is my favorite both because it is excellent and because it was my first, this one was bizarre and sexy and also I read it like only a month or so ago! The dancing was my favorite part, but having dreams to work with made this story fantastically interesting and I loved every second of it.

20. silver in our lungs by taywen | Spinning Silver | Miryem/The Staryk Lord | 4k

The marks had been with Miryem for as long as she could remember. There were a number of them, all the same shade, following one after the other around her left wrist. They were pale as old scars, though they felt no different from the rest of her skin, and her mother claimed that Miryem had been born with them.

Heather Says: I really like soulmate aus. There’s so many different ways to twist them and the way they can sometimes change the dynamic entirely and other times not change them at all is just fascinating. I’ve been hoping there would be more Spinning Silver content on ao3 and running into this while I was trying to decide what I wanted to do for yuletide was a real treat.

21. you got me begging, begging, i'm on my knees by plalligator | The Queen’s Thief | Attolia/Eugenides/Costis | 5k

Costis has a particularly enlightening evening. (or, that struggle when you're a guard who's in love with your rulers and it turns out you would kind of like it if they bossed you around a little)

Heather Says: I accidentally re-read the King of Attolia and it made me consider ships I had perhaps not previously considered. This was really lovely and just steamy enough.

22. something more alive than silence by pageleaf | The Queen’s Thief | Attolia/Eugenides/Costis | 21k

It was a good thing that six months after the king had promised to halve the guard, he still hadn’t done it, because since then, there had been two attempts on the king’s life.

Heather Says: I want to only type the words AGONIZED NOISES to describe this fic because that’s basically my headspace when I get 21k of a shiny new ot3, but I mean. Really. This is super good and maybe my favorite yet? Why didn’t I start reading this fandom when I first read the books?

23. Timing it Right by DragonBandit | The Bright Sessions | Mark/Damien | 14k

The dragon chooses, Mark knows that as well as any boy born in a weyr. He'd never considered what that would mean if the dragon picked someone you hated. He's starting to think that was a mistake.

Damien's gold rises at Whitney. Mark tries to make things right.

Heather Says: This should actually be somewhere back in March, but I apparently closed out of the tab at some point. I never really got into Pern much. I have the first three books, but got most of the way through the first one a long time ago and then never picked it back up. I didn’t think I would like this, mostly because of the fact that I hadn’t gotten into the books, but was surprised to find that I absolutely loved it.

24. Keep It In Your Sights Now by LuckyDiceKirby | Shades of Magic | Lila/Kell/Holland | 9k

Holland travels with Lila and Kell. Somewhere along the way, they reach an equilibrium.

Heather Says: I love the new things I’ve discovered during my yuletide trompings. I don’t think I ever actually considered this pairing when I first read the books, but I am just so enamored with the idea of the three of them together. Like, why did I not realize that potential back then? This was lovely, and I loved it, and I want so much more out of this pairing than what ao3 has to offer me.

25. Charioteer by petrichoral | The Queen’s Thief | Gen & Costis | 13k

Captured in battle and stuck in the Mede capital, Costis has given up all hope of seeing his country again. But Eugenides has a habit of turning up where he's least expected.

Heather Says: Technically this shouldn’t be on here because I only read it today, but it was really wonderful and so canon typical. Gen and Costis were perfect in it, Irene was perfect in it. Everyone was perfect and nothing hurts.

#heather says what #2019 #memes #new year's memes #top 25 #long post #the queen's thief #shades of magic #buzzfeed unsolved #the bright sessions #spinning silver #the magnus archives #stranger things #the flash #good omens #wolf 359 #game of thrones #persona 5 #legend of zelda #the penumbra podcast #she ra #dbh #american gods #serious apologies for the length of the post guys #i tried to keep it shortish #recommendations

[amarynceus]

State of the Artist - September 2019

Hello all.  It’s been a while since I did one of these.

Sorry for the lapse in communication; BronyCon drained me more than I realised, on top of fighting the general burnout and anxiety and minor depressive episodes I’ve had for some time.  I’m just coming out of one that ate the last week and a half or so (I managed to destroy a client's watercolour painting right as it was on the verge of completion) and am trying to get back on track.  I haven’t had energy for being online or interacting with people; about the only site I’ve been active on is Twitter, and only sporadically.  My apologies to those who have sent me messages lately; chances are I haven’t even seen them yet.  I’ll do my best to catch up on correspondence as soon as I can.

Now, a few items.

BronyCon Commissions

First of all, if you commissioned me at BronyCon but haven’t yet sent me your mailing address, please do so! I still have no place to send a half dozen or so of these commissions, and no way of contacting anyone.  If you’ve lost the business card I gave you when you commissioned me, please email me at [email protected] with your mailing address and a brief description of what you commissioned so I can match it with my notes from the convention.

My apologies for the delays on these.  I took too many (3 dozen!) and severely underestimated the time it would take me to complete them all, and am still only halfway through the list.  I’ve also had multiple interruptions and delays that have severely damaged my creative output for the last several weeks.  I’m back at work now, though, and will complete and send out commissions as soon as possible.  I still have 17 traditional comms to complete from BC, including all the inks and colours.  Thank you all for your patience.  A dozen or so have been mailed out, and I plan to have the rest of them completed within the next two weeks.

(I know that’s what I said a month ago when I took the commissions in the first place!  Con crud and general exhaustion took a greater toll than anticipated, quite apart from other life interruptions.)

BronyCon in Retrospect

BronyCon was quite the experience.  Way too many people for me, but it was really great to see so many wonderful horse people, and to see so many of my beautiful trans siblings out and proud. <3  I wish I had had more energy to do and see things outside of the vendor’s hall, but four days of vending took basically all of my energy. It was amazing to get to hang out with so many friends I've made online; that was by far the best part.  I didn't get to spend near enough time with any of you, but I'm thankful for the time I had.

Thanks again to all those who dropped by my booth at BronyCon to say hi or to buy my art.  It was quite the experience, and great to meet many fans in person.

That said, it was extremely exhausting. 11,000 people was a bit much for me, especially having only done one convention before.  I'm glad all the conventions I'm thinking of applying to vend at next year are much smaller affairs.

Patreon Paused

My Patreon continues to be on hiatus until I’ve caught up more on my past-due rewards.  It will be paused through October and possibly November.  Please note that I have ‘Charge Up Front’ enabled, so I’d suggest those interested in supporting my Patreon campaign sign on at the $1 tier for now, even if you’re eyeing a higher tier.

If you want to donate to support me during the hiatus, my PayPal is via [email protected].

General Commission Notes

I am very close to completing my current queue of in-progress works.  Once I do so, I’ll be going on holiday to recharge.  I’ve been running on empty for far too long.  

I’ll be taking on new commissions once I’m completely caught up on the art I owe people, and not before.

Burnout and Depression

As I’ve mentioned, I’ve been struggling with these.  This year has been difficult for me; I’ve been struggling with a lot of health issues, physical and mental, and it’s been extremely difficult to get any artwork done, either for others or myself.  Indeed, I’ve hardly been drawing for myself at all since the end of the 1000 Days of Doodles.  When I can manage to force myself to be productive, I’m compelled to work on my long-overdue commissions; I feel too guilty and anxious to work on my own projects most of the time.  This is most likely only further contributing to my general malaise with art.

I had a lot of plans and ambitions for this year.  By this point I was supposed to have created an artbook of the 1000 Days of Doodles project, be four months past the launch my long-delayed comic, caught up with all my patron rewards and gift art, completed all my commissions, and have finished two dozen more paintings that have been bubbling around for a while.  

I have managed to do exactly zero of these things, and I’m not at all happy about it.  After completing almost 550 individual artworks in 2018, I expected, once I had rested and recovered, to be able to turn that kind of energy and productivity on other things.  That has not happened, and it has been disheartening and disappointing, to say the least.  I’ve basically been feeling like a total failure and imposter, flawed and fake and worthless. (I know this isn’t true.)

Of course, one problem is that I never rested and recovered.  I gave myself a little time at the start of the year, but I tried to force myself back to work too soon, and have been paying the price ever since.  I kept telling myself, 'I’m just a bit tired, another week and I’ll feel fine,' week after week after week - it’s only lately that I’ve had to admit that I’ve actually been fighting burnout.  If I had taken an extra month at the beginning of the year, perhaps I could have averted this; that’s just idle speculation, though.

Anyway, I could go on and on, but I have to deal with things the way they are.  I’ll keep chipping away at the work and dig myself out of this hole.  Thank you for your patience.  I'll get everything done as soon as I can.

Cheers and take care of yourselves.  Burnout stinks.

- AZ / Amar

Again, if you haven’t sent me your mailing address for your BronyCon commission, please send it and a description of your piece to [email protected].

#update #state of the artist #september #azrambles #burnout #anxiety #depression #commissions

[claymoreme]

For the Good of the Kingdom

Words: 4,469

Rating: M

You are a princess, betrothed to the neighboring kingdom’s prince. Your royal guard, Sir McIntyre, helps soothe your nerves before your wedding night. 

Author’s note: This is, uh, a really sexually explicit work of fiction. Reader has breasts and a vagina and is referred to as a princess/woman. Some characters are inspired by real-life wrestlers/personas, but are not meant to represent real people. Contains some initial non-con ish contact and a slight age gap (3-4 years in my mind. Princess is late teens/early 20s, McIntyre early-mid 20s.) Sexually inexperienced reader. Not super historically accurate probably. Drew wears a quilted gambeson/tunic, trousers, and boots. Similar to what Kit is wearing here minus the cloak.

I’m tagging @haigrr @writtingrose and also @writinglionqueen @superrezzy00 bc I have a feeling your whole crew might enjoy this and I love your work so lets be friends pls

ps. I have literally never written something quite like this before so uhh b nice thanks and enjOY

It was near impossible to sleep that night. Your round tower room was lit by the bright starlight pooling on your pillow. The moon added to the glow, shining through a pair of ornate arched windows on either side of your four-poster bed. Not only that, but the summer air was heavy with heat, making it impossible to get comfortable even under your silken sheets. Tossing and turning, you tried to allow yourself to relax, but your mind simply would not rest. Perhaps, if it was just the air and the light, you could have managed. But there was something else.

Tomorrow was to be your wedding day. 

Your home kingdom, Valaris, had been clashing with knight factions from the  neighboring kingdom of Saoma for almost a month now. Armies on either side had been caught in skirmishes and raids across the countryside. Your father had been in peace talks for days with the neighboring kingdom, and the two kings had at last decided to end the conflict and secure an alliance together. An alliance, of course, through marriage. The marriage of the Princess of Valaris and the Prince of Saoma. You had no fear of the marriage itself. As Princess, you would do whatever needed to be done to bring peace to your kingdom. Besides, Prince Rollins was, well, incredibly good looking. You had seen him from afar in parades, always looking dashing with his long chestnut hair, well kept beard, and impish grin. It was said he was an excellent warrior, and your ladies in waiting had assured you he would make a fine husband. But there was one thing you were still worried about. One thing that kept your mind awake and whirring. 

The wedding night. 

You had heard, of course, of the tradition of consummation. Every wife’s duty is to bear children. Every wife’s duty began on that night. Those ladies in waiting who had experienced it told you that, while the first time may be uncomfortable, even painful, it wasn’t too unpleasant. Especially if your husband was good looking. Still, it sounded... strange. You had had your first blood and knew your own body, knew well the sensitive spot between your legs, knew how good it felt to rub it until your whole body tensed and then went limp with pleasure. But you could not imagine anything… entering you. Not without pain. Even the few times you had tried with your own fingers had not felt particularly good. And a man was, according to your ladies, much bigger. It would hurt, you were sure. And to have a man so close to your body… a man you’d never even spoken to…

You sighed in frustration against your pillow. No use ruminating on it now. Duty be done, pain or no pain. Perhaps some reading would calm your nerves. At least give your mind something to focus on besides tomorrow night. 

Sitting up, you swung your legs out of bed and reached for your bureau candle. Nobody else could possibly be awake at this hour. In fumbling to light the candle stub however, you knocked a heavy book to the floor. The book thudded to the floor and the sound echoed like a thunderclap in the still night. Jumping to your feet, you bent down to retrieve it but it was too late. The door to your room swung open.

Sir Drew McIntyre, the head of the palace guard, stood towering in your doorway. That’s right. Father wanted security for my room tonight, just in case. Drew was the most capable fighter in the whole of the palace knights. And not only was he the best at combat, he was physically outstanding as well. At least a full head taller than you and probably thrice your mass. He wasn’t in full plate armor but still cut an intimidating figure, standing there in a dark quilted gambeson over trousers and shining leather boots, sparring gloves and a massive sheathed sword tucked into the belt around his waist. He went without a chest guard or helmet while on guard duty, preferring to keep his long black hair tied back with a simple cord. His solid jaw and chin were covered with a close cut black beard and accompanying mustache. Piercing, intense blue-gray eyes looked out from under a furrowed brow.

“Are you alright, Princess? I thought I heard a disturbance.” His voice was a warm Scottish burr, powerful and low.

“Yes, I- I mean no, no disturbance, Sir McIntyre. I’m alright. This just, uh, fell,” you stammered, picking up the book and place it back on the bureau. 

“Are you certain?” The large man moved forward into the room, allowing the door to close behind him, and began pacing the perimeter, double checking for any signs of an intruder. You sighed at your clumsiness. 

“Yes, Sir. Just some trouble sleeping is all.” You expected him to turn to leave, but he didn’t. Instead he strode over to the window and gazed out into the night. You decided against ushering him out. It’s not like you were going to go back to sleep. 

“What worries you, Princess?” He didn’t look at you. Just clasped his large hands behind his back and fixed his eyes out the window, watching. 

“It’s… it’s nothing,” you insisted, a slight tremor in your voice. It’s not that you were scared of him, exactly, after all, he was there to protect you. But men rarely, if ever, visited your chambers, and it was usually your father or some other guards. But Drew being here was… different. You had seen him about the palace grounds, even seen him training a few times. He swung a greatsword like it was a feather. Once, when out with your ladies in waiting on a particularly hot summer day, you had caught a glimpse of him in the training yard clad only in rough trousers and boots. Shirtless, tan, sunlight glistening off impossibly broad shoulders, dark hair lining his chest and trailing down towards the muscled V of his hips. His hair had been loose, hanging in a curtain around his face as his powerful arms swung his weapon with ease, leaving the training dummy in a broken pile on the ground. You had flushed, and not just from the heat. Your ladies in waiting had tittered and hurried you away. Not proper for ladies to stare at such things. Heat rushed to your cheeks now as you recalled the memory and you couldn’t help but cast a lingering glance at his clothed form now. You had only stared at him from afar, but now… now he was here, in your chambers. Turning away from the window to face you. He took a step closer, cautiously. Like he was trying not to startle you.

“Is it the wedding?” 

“Yes. I suppose… in a way.” You gulped down the embarrassed lump rising in your throat and lifted your chin upwards jutting your chin upwards in an attempt to show confidence. “But Rollins is a good man. I am more than ready to do my part in making peace.”

“He is a good man. And a good warrior. The alliance, of course, will be good for our kingdoms,” Drew agreed. He paused. “But you are the Princess. I was assigned to protect you tonight. I’m not leaving until it’s clear to me you are safe and comfortable. So what worries you?” You were unable to meet his eyes anymore. Those stormy gray eyes, so intense, and yet so… gentle. Concerned. You turned to face the window. I shouldn't tell him. Why would I tell him?  So incredibly improper to tell him, a man, a man assigned to guard you and nothing more, but the worry weighed so heavy on your mind that you couldn't stop the words from falling out. Something about the private stillness of the night and the man in your room, assigned to protect you. Nobody else would hear.

“Sir McIntyre… I have never been… with a man.. in the way that- that a man is with his wife. In fact I-” your entire face and neck were surely bright red now, “I… have never even… kissed a man.” The last few words were barely audible. Why am I even saying this? To the captain of the guard, of all people? Silence fell in the room for a brief moment until it was broken. Drew was chuckling to himself. Those handsome features, so often serious and focused, were cracked with a gentle smile. He has dimples. Not so scary after all.

“‘’M sorry, Princess, I don’t mean to laugh. I understand your apprehension. ” You do?

“I’m sure.. I’m sure you’ve.. well, I hear that knights… often h-have many women,” you finished in an embarrassed whisper.  Drew chuckled again. 

“Aye, I am… experienced, yes. And so I know that everyone has nerves their first time. ’S only natural to be nervous.” The two of you were silhouetted in the window now, facing each other. A foot away. Almost nose to nose… well, nose to chest, really. He’s so close. 

“I will do my duty of course. As a Princess and as a wife.” You swallowed again, your eyes dancing from his broad neck to his dark beard to his heavy brows, avoiding his eyes. “I am just afraid that, in terms of actually… being with my husband… I feel unprepared,” you trailed off, blushing. This room is stifling. “I don’t even… I don’t even know what a simple kiss feels like.” Your heart was pounding. Drew smiled softly, showing just a trace of his dimples. Those dimples… His eyes locked onto yours. Gray swirling fog. The room was silent for a moment once more.

“It feels like this.” 

And then warm lips ever so softly pressed against yours. His beard lightly tickled against your cheeks and you felt one large hand cup the side of your face, brushing back your hair. He’s kissing me. Sir Drew McIntyre is kissing me. It was so unexpected, such a new feeling, that you froze, unsure if you were supposed to kiss him back or even how to kiss him back. Sensing your stiffness, Drew broke the kiss. “Princess.. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that.” He straightened up and backed away. You stood there, lips buzzing, head pounding, unsure of how to proceed. You knew it wasn’t proper. You knew a princess had to value her honor. And yet… It had felt so good. Good and gentle and right. 

“Sir McIntyre. Wait. Please.”

“No, Princess. I’m sorry. I should never have entered your quarters. I will find another guard to relieve me tonight.” He reached for the door.

“Please don’t go. Sir McIntyre… I… want you to stay.” He stopped at that, one hand on the door. Turned. You had no idea where this sudden confidence came from. There was something driving you towards that man. “I order you to stay.” The words crept from your lips as a whisper. His stormy eyes met yours. Clouded. Unreadable. 

“As my Princess commands,” he murmured, holding his ground. Your steps swiftly closed the distance between you two. Mere inches away from him now. Rising to your tiptoes, trying to get closer, to show him you wanted this. Your hands gingerly reached to his chest, splaying your fingers over the quilted cloth, feeling his heartbeat thudding under them. Drew obligingly dipped his face closer to yours, and this time it was you who leaned into him and joined your lips together again in a tender kiss. Large fingertips softly took hold of your hips as your mouth moved against his. He felt warm and gentle and good. You pulled away for a moment, breathless, lips burning. Without even realizing it, your hands had begun to pull at the laces of his quilted shirt. But a pair of powerful hands took your shoulders and pushed you away.

“Princess.” There was need in his stormy eyes even as he held you at a distance. “I cannot do this. You know as well as I that it is far from proper. You are to be married to Prince Rollins tomorrow. I cannot dishonor that.” He’s right. He is. And yet… Your stomach dropped at the thought of him leaving. You felt as if your blood was magnetic, pulling you towards him, yearning, needing to get closer to him. You wanted this. Damn being proper.

“I know. I just think… I think maybe my fears would be less if- if I knew… what to expect. For the good of my nerves. For… for the good of the kingdom.” Drew took your chin in one powerful hand and tilted it up, meeting your eyes with a serious gaze. His voice was a low rough rumble. Like it was hard for him to allow himself to speak.

“I… have always been in awe of your beauty, even from afar. I am sworn to protect you. I would never want to dishonor my Princess. But, if you truly desire… I could ease your fears tonight. Only if you want this.” Your heartbeat quickened and your breath caught in your throat. Holding his gaze, you nodded. 

“I want this.”

With that, he bent forward and enveloped your lips in another searing kiss. Your hands went for his chest once again and he chuckled, smoothly unbuckling his belt and laying his weapon aside before helping you undo the laces to his shirt. Clad only his trousers and boots, Drew was… magnificent. There really was no other word. Tanned skin and trails of dark hair rippling over chiseled muscles. You ran your hands across his heated skin, marveling at his physique, wordlessly tracing the dip of his hips. Drew sank down onto the bed and pulled you towards him. Another quiet chuckle graced his face as his big hands encircled your waist, guiding you in between his legs. He leaned his forehead against yours and looked into your eyes. One of his hands rested on the small of your back, while the other began to drift lower, gently caressed your backside through your shift. 

“Is this alright?” You closed your eyes and nodded, breathing heavily. They moved lower, and lower. Began to toy with the hem of your shift that rested midway down your thighs. Your breath caught in your throat as you felt his warm fingers begin to slip underneath the fabric. “Is this alright?”, he asked again.  This time, you responded by kissing him. Kept kissing him. You wanted, you needed, to be closer to him. Tangling your hands in his long, dark, hair, you let Drew slide his hands up the sides of your body, taking your shift with them and pulling it over your head. You leaned into him, straddling his lap, your bare chests pressed together, heated skin on skin. Settling down, you could feel a straining bulge in his trousers. A wave of heat stirred in your belly. One large hand gently brushed up your side to softly cup your breast. “You are so beautiful,” your knight murmured into the crook of your neck, before trailing kisses all the way down your chest. Rolling one of your nipples in his flushed lips, grazing it ever so slightly with his teeth. His beard tickled against your bare skin. Then in one swift move, he scooped his hands underneath you and spun you around, dropping you delicately on the bed.  

Your breath grew shallow and quick as Drew lay you out on your back and knelt over you. Will it happen now? Drew must have noticed your increased anxiety. He kissed you gently, and murmured into your ear. “Don’t worry, Princess. I’m going to help you get ready. If you want me to stop… just tell me. But,” he smirked, “I think you’ll enjoy this part.” He pressed his lips to yours once again, slightly open, hot breath ghosting into your mouth. He peppered more kisses down your jawline, moving smoothly down, sucking and nibbling small love bites into the delicate skin on your collarbones. Drew slid off the edge of the bed and kneeled, curling his broad arms around your hips and sliding you towards him with gentle force. His face was now situated directly between your legs. You looked down at the man nestled between your thighs and felt a wave of embarrassment. You must look so unappealing from this angle. But the Scotsman between your legs didn’t flinch. He pressed a kiss to the inside of your thigh. Just seeing him there, eyes heavy with desire, his massive arms curling around the outside of your legs, fingertips digging into your skin to gently pry hold your knees open… your core quivered. Drew slowly laid a kiss on the inside of your thigh. Such sensitive skin. Another kiss. Another. Oh god, he’s moving closer. The ladies didn’t mention anything like this. 

And then you felt his hot breath directly on your sex. Even just him breathing there somehow felt better than you had ever felt touching yourself. When his mouth finally touched you, you let out a moan. Any self conscious thoughts fled your mind, replaced with sheer pleasure as his lips caressed your most sensitive spot. Gentle suction between his lips made shivers of electricity run all through your body. Sucking and licking and stroking. His tongue running softly between your slick folds. Your own fingers couldn't even come close to this. It felt so good. And god, you were starting to ache. Ache in ways you’d never felt before, your body yearning to feel him on the inside. You groaned out loud as his tongue dipped towards your entrance, and his lips curved in a smile. Obligingly, he pressing his tongue just slightly into your hole. Oh, god. That was what you needed. More of that. Tentatively, you rolled your hips towards him and let your legs relax open. He was right. You were enjoying this. Finally rising up and resting his head against your thigh, Drew looked at you with heated eyes. His lips were flushed and his bearded chin was shiny and damp. He spoke in a rough whisper. 

“Princess. I’m going to use my fingers now. You tell me if anything hurts.” You nodded, still reeling from how good his mouth had felt. Drew once again dipped between your legs. His rough beard gently scratched your inner thighs as he placed more moist kisses on your sex, his tongue dancing around your entrance before being replaced with one of his fingers. Gingerly slipping it inside of you. It felt.. strange but good. Like your insides were craving to be touched. Slowly, his finger moved in and out, curling, stretching you slightly. Another pressed against your entrance and slid in easily. Like you were made for this. You whimpered as the stretch of a third caused a twinge of pain. Drew gently kissed the crease of your thigh and slowly curled his fingers, massaging you just right and your back arched of its own accord. How could this feel so good? You clenched around them out of sheer need.  All thoughts of being proper were gone from your mind. 

“Do you want to keep going?” You sat up slightly and nodded with no hesitation. You had never been more sure of anything in your whole life. Drew rose from his kneeling position at the foot of the bed, bulge in his trousers even more prominent than before. He unlaced them and slowly pulled them down until he was standing there, fully naked in front of you. You blushed as you stared. Good lord. How will that ever fit? His cock stood out proudly from his body, long and hard and glistening. Dark hair clustered around the base. He gazed at you laid out on the bed, legs open for him, and one hand began to stroke his thick shaft. “You look amazing, Princess.” His deep voice was heavy with desire. So do you, you wanted to say, but you couldn't form words. Drew climbed onto the bed between your legs. Nestling back on his heels, his muscular thighs were on full display, as was his erect cock. It throbbed against his toned hips. You juices still lingered on his lips, adding a slight tang when he leaned forward and kissed you. Leaning his body ever closer to yours. Apprehension must have shown in your face for he gave a gentle smile. “I’ll go slow. If you want to stop, tell me.”

His strong hands eased your knees up onto either side of him. He took care to give his fingers some extra slick from his mouth before reaching down and slipping them through your warm folds once again. Making sure you were nice and wet. Making sure you were ready. Then he bent down, leaning his forearm next to your face and pressing another warm kiss to your lips as he positioned his cock between your legs. You felt the head nudge ever so slightly against your entrance, sending a shiver through your body, and looked up into the Scotsman’s eyes. He didn’t ask aloud this time. But his eyes told you that he would stop if you asked, that he was here for you, that he wanted to make sure this was your choice. You nodded. Your whole body thrummed with need. Holding your gaze with his, Drew shifted his hips and slowly began to press forward. Oh god. What if it doesn’t fit? He still felt wider than your entrance would allow. But Drew had made you so wet that his cock slid easily into your waiting heat. Gently, slowly, he eased his way inside you. And it felt so good. As much as he had prepared you with his fingers, Drew’s cock stretched you further still, with a twinge of pain but so much pleasure. Your head hung back as a guttural sound escaped your throat. Drew must have felt the same way, as he let out a long exhale, muttering a curse under his breath. He pressed a bit deeper before stopping and allowing you to adjust. You felt so full. His eyes had grown dark with lust and he placed another searing kiss against your lips as he slowly withdrew his cock before thrusting into you once again. Oh god, Drew… He was stretching you so deliciously around his thick cock. Rolling his hips forward and back, in and out, nudging slightly deeper each time, making you his. Your hips tilted on their own, opening up for him. Taking him in to your wet needy heat. Breathing heavily. Drew pumping in and out so slowly, so gently, strong arms on either side of you caging you in, his body pressed against yours. It felt so good. Like nothing you could ever have imagined. You wanted more.

“I… I want you to go deeper,” you half moaned, half panted to the man above you. Drew gave a devilish grin and bucked his hips up into you with more force than before and you could feel his cock driving deeper. Touching you in places you’d never been touched. Your moans and nods telling him it was okay, it felt good, you wanted this. You clenched around him instinctively and he breathed in sharply. On the next thrust, his shaft pressed against something on your walls that felt amazing and you couldn't help but cry out.

“There?” he asked, not slowing his strokes.

“Y-yes, right there, Sir McIntyre, I-”

“Drew.” He growled into your ear. The sheer intensity in his voice made your whole body quiver. He angled his hips slightly and began to pick up speed, pounding into just right. Your legs wrapped around his broad back, bringing him in as close to you as possible. 

Drew buried his face in your neck and covered it in kisses, his beard running leaving tiny lovely stings on the sensitive skin. His hands fisted in your hair, grasping it until it hurt but you didn’t care. One of your hands tangled in his own long dark hair as the other scrambled along his back mindlessly, leaning tiny scratches of their own. He was relentless as he continued to pull out and drive back inside you. The sound of skin on skin filling the air, Drew’s hips colliding with yours, balls heavy and slapping against your ass. Hitting you just right over and over again each time until you felt your pleasure coming to a peak deep in your belly, your walls starting to clench on his cock of their own accord.

“Drew I- I- oh, God…!”, words failed as you spasmed around his cock. Electricity flooded your veins and your body clenched, every nerve buzzing with pleasure. Drew let out a drawn out groan as his thrusting slowed, wet heat seeping from the tip of his cock so deep inside your belly. You were seeing stars. A long moaning whine escaped from your throat as you came down from your high, panting, blood pounding in your ears. He gave a few more lazy thrusts before withdrawing himself, leaving you feeling so empty after being stuffed full. You were both panting. He rolled off of you onto his side and left one broad arm draped across your heaving chest. 

“Well, Princess,” he asked after you had both caught your breath, “Did you enjoy that?”

“I didn’t know I could feel that good.” Another of his low chuckles. Good lord, his dimples. Now there’s a sight I wouldn’t mind waking up to. 

“Aye, as it should be. Get some rest,” he murmured, pressing a kiss to your temple before rising to pull his trousers back on. “I ought to head back to my post. And, Princess,” He added before he turned to leave, “if you can handle me… you'll be ready for Rollins.” The mention of your husband-to-be barely registered. You only cared about the fact that Drew was about to leave. You wanted to protest, make him stay here with you, fall asleep nestled against his broad chest with a pair of strong arms wrapped tight around you… But you knew how it would look. You’d been improper enough tonight. Right now, sleep was calling.You sighed and fell back against the silk pillows, body still thrumming with the aftershock of your orgasm, tiny shivers running through your veins. Drew cast one last look at you as he turned to exit the room, watching you lazily drift into velvet sleep. He didn’t say anything. But his eyes, usually so stormy, were calm water on a cloudy day. He smiled, showing a hint of his dimples. Then he closed the door. 

You slept like a babe that night after all.

#THANKS OK GOODNIGHT #drew mcintyre #drew McIntyre fanfic #drew McIntyre fic #wwe #wwe fanfic #wwe smut #drew galloway #my writing #writing #fanfic #fUCK I tried you guys

[whatsupstairs]

At that point the subsequent stage is to send a guarantee and they caution in large strong letters: If you send two cases, we will deny your guarantee demand!!

I nearly feel like i'm causing them a genuine bother with my guarantee. mastitis, engorgement, child encouraging, not having a siphon for about fourteen days are for the most part issues that they appear to be extremely indifferent about.

Purchase this siphon. Truly, quit looking, get it. This audit is long yet will ideally respond to any inquiries you have. Or on the other hand post one and I'll attempt to answer it.

Not long ago I had twins conceived at 34 weeks. They were progressing nicely, yet spent some time in the NICU. At the point when children are in the NICU, you become overly fixated on how a lot of milk they are getting. They can't return home until they take their "essentials" and put on weight. Subsequently, I've essentially been solely siphoning since they were conceived. My young lady would hook, yet I was unable to tell the amount she was getting and she would get drained following a couple of moments and wouldn't take the remainder of her jug. My kid had breathing issues from the start and was being sustained with a cylinder for the initial 10 days. After that he needed to figure out how to eat and would get worn out, so I didn't attempt to nurture him. Since I needed to sustain two and needed to share my stock, siphoning was the best approach.

Since I had preemies, my protection paid for me to utilize a Medela Lactina siphon. This is the huge blue thing that is "medical clinic evaluation" and retails for a boatload ($1500 for hell's sake!). I utilized the Lactina for the initial two months yet needed something increasingly compact (I purchased a vehicle connector so I could connect it and siphon in the vehicle on long outings). What's more, the Lactina is noisy as anyone can imagine, which was irritating and I really secured it with a cover to stifle the sound so I could siphon in a similar room my significant other and multi year old little girl were sitting in front of the TV in so I could be a piece of the family. I thought about getting a Medela Freestyle, however read blended audits about having the option to look after stockpile. Having twins I would not like to hazard my stockpile going down.

I went out on a limb an and purchased this siphon utilizing gift vouchers for about a large portion of the expense. I assumed if it didn't work in any event I wasn't out all the cash. Best. Choice. Ever.

Marvelousness:

- It is SUPER peaceful contrasted with the Lactina. I have no clue how it analyzes to different siphons, yet it will be pleasant to have busy working and have the option to pick up the telephone while siphoning.

- It is entirely versatile. I needed something I could clasp to my belt and stroll around the house, yet that is the Freestyle and I was unable to hazard it. This is really lightweight, and I'm really thinking about getting a strip through the handle and putting it over my neck. It never bombs that when I'm siphoning my significant other is out of the house and my more established little girl needs something. At any rate, I've put it on with my sans hands siphoning bra (Simple Wishes brand-purchase that as well) and had the option to put it on the kitchen counter to make containers or lunch or whatever. Haven't had a go at preparing supper yet, yet that may occur.

- Nightlight is truly flawless, and has two levels.

- Timer is a cool component. Most people don't have to siphon for more than 15-20 minutes, yet most people don't have twins. The clock close the siphon off following 30 minutes which is to what extent I siphon for. I used to set a clock on my telephone, however don't have to do that so much any longer.

- Massage highlight is entirely clever. This siphon nearly beats when making suction. It was somewhat unusual from the start since the other siphon didn't do it, yet it really makes siphoning truly agreeable. The "rub" include accelerates the siphon and is intended to invigorate frustration. When you have setback, you should kill the back rub include. (I don't, I like the quickest speed for my siphoning. Yet, once more, twins.)

- Memory include the siphon recalls what your last "typical" and "knead" settings were and returns to them.

- Vacuum control-I utilize the siphon on either level 2 or 3. It has 12 levels. Stunning. As a medical attendant I'm truly pondering who might require level 12. Perhaps for somebody with modified areolas. Possibly if the battery ever gets frail I'll have to go up.

Idiosyncrasies:

- It required some investment (most likely 12 hours) to completely charge the battery when I initially got the siphon. It additionally says it can run connected, which is valid, yet so far as should be obvious really utilizes the battery whether or not or not it is connected. I could not be right.

- If you utilize the nightlight include while siphoning it will deplete your battery quicker, and you will probably not get an entire three hours of siphon time. Presumably not an issue for a great many people but rather important.

- The containers and siphon pack are quite modest. That would likely be my greatest issue about the entire thing. In the event that we are spending this a lot of cash on a siphon, the pack ought to be outstanding. (Most siphon units are quite horrendous, so this is about decent.) But everything isn't lost. The parts of the bargains really fit into my unit I had been utilizing with my Medela. Likewise, and this is an issue with most siphon units, most ladies would need to lean forward to get the milk to drop down when sitting upstanding. Along these lines, my Lactina pack had removable spines which I quickly hurled and utilized the calculated ones from Pumpin' Pal. (Purchase those as well.) Also, I purchased a siphon connector unit that worked with the Playtex bottles I was utilizing so I could siphon legitimately into the drop-in liners. (Cleaner that way, in the end the containers will get gross regardless of what you do.)

- If you are not utilizing their reverse valves, you have to focus on your tubing. I am not, and have gotten some dampness into one of the cylinders on the end. I simply blow it out with a hair dryer in a few seconds. The tubing is not much and you could undoubtedly supplant it with something from the tool shop on the off chance that you expected to. It would likewise be quite simple to jerryrig the tubing from another siphon pack, which I may do so I can join the reverse valves.

The "cons" I recorded here may appear to be a ton, yet to me it wasn't sufficient that I would remove a star. I've had it for about fourteen days and I love it, and haven't saw a drop in supply. I'll refresh this audit in the event that anything changes, yet I don't see that occurrence.

So go purchase this siphon. Or then again put it on your library or list of things to get. You won't be grieved.

Connections for the items I referenced:

Pumpin' Pal Super Shields, Angled Pumping Flanges, the Best Flanges By Far in a Complete Set of All Sizes Mom Will Need

Straightforward Wishes Hands-Free Breastpump Bra, Pink, XS-L

Playtex Drop-Ins System Breast Milk Storage Kit

Refreshed 10/16/13 - A couple more item connects for all the parts I'm utilizing with my cobbled-together custom made unit. You truly needn't bother with anything other than the calculated spines and sans hands siphoning bra, however on the off chance that you needed to sort something out that is more easy to understand, here are the connections:

Medela Personal Fit Breastsheild Connectors - Medela 87071

Medela Valves and Membranes (Set of 1)

UPDATE 10/28/13-I've returned to work and am taking this siphon to and fro. I simply put it in a little tote pack I had at home. I made two siphon units so I can leave one at home and one in my office grinding away and all I reclaim and forward is the siphon. That likely wasn't fundamental, however I presumably would have wound up overlooking something one day so this was my approach to ensure that didn't occur. Siphon is magnificent, and no one can hear it when I pick up the telephone. The specialist in the workplace beside me is siphoning also, and you can hear her siphon a few doors down...

- Also, I at last appended the reverse valves. I essentially simply cut the tubing and connected one piece to either side of the valve. It's a little test to get the tubing on the huge side, however it fits. Presently I can even now stick the finish of the tubing into my hand crafted Medela pack and it works incredible and I don't have to stress over dampness getting into my siphon.

On the off chance that you have questions, post them and I'll put forth a valiant effort to reply! (I should likely simply make a video...)

Best siphon ever (just siphon I've utilized however just a single I will ever require!) I am an all day working mother. I was fortunate to get 13 weeks of maternity leave. I was concerned when I had my infant since I have bosom inserts (beneath muscle). Be that as it may, after birth (by means of csection), my child hooked and we were good to go.

I breastfed just for initial 3 weeks. At that point I presented 1-2 siphons per day. I didn't get a lot yet that was normal. Around the 5-6week imprint I started siphoning and reserving all the more much of the time. When I returned to work at 13 weeks pp I had 800oz in my profound cooler.

My infant is presently 23 weeks old and I have 1750oz in my profound cooler she despite everything medical attendants. This siphon is AMAZING! It's pleasant to have the portability of a battery-powered battery Bc I can siphon and do tasks and even siphon in the rearward sitting arrangement of a vehicle while another person is driving.

I have been isolated from my child for as long as 20 hours and this siphon is astounding! I would enthusiastically prescribe to anybody over any of different brands. I have even persuaded some regarding my second time mothers to change to this siphon (since it is free w protection) and they have adored it and expressed gratitude toward me a 100times over.

The joined pictures are of my solidified milk stash and the other is an image of my morning siphon (subsequent to breastfeeding my infant young lady).

Cheers and glad infant sustaining!

I bought this siphon out of pocket and afterward sent receipt and repayment application to tricare and they restored my cash 100%. So justified, despite all the trouble supposing that you experience a retailer they will just give you the S2 (which isn't battery-powered).

[severusdefender]

With a Bunch of AUs Combined, I am CAPTAIN PLANET-W8, wrong fandom

(Askbox is too small so I guess it’s time to show my AU spewing username I guess lol 0///0 hi…)

AUs & HCs: NotaMarauder!Remus (Possible Future Snupin) + Jily Didn’t Date-Marry Drunk1NiteStand to make Harry + DiffDads Lily&Petunia + Resurrected FaeLily AU

A Post Idea So Long that it’s almost like a Fic Outline: An AU where Remus was never a Marauder could actually is super interesting, because it has a spiraling implications on canon. Remus, Severus and Lily is like the sweet trifecta of book & magic nerds. Also like, being friends with Remus would drive Sev to research Werewolf remedies and care? Also be Concerned about his friend’s life.

But like, I’m not sure that Lily and Sev would do the exact same thing that the CanonMarauders do (learn to be Animagi and leave the Shrieking Shack w/ Remus even when he’s not supposed to). Maybe Severus trying to make Wolfsbane more accessible/cheaper? Or better yet, both him and Lily approach this like ethical scientists.

But on the other hand as a frequent consumer of Werewolf fiction I don’t really like how traditional and human-centric the version of Werewolves that JKR used in her ‘verse? Like, what is a werewolf like when they’re emotionally stable, feel secure, healthy? Why would they be hostile to humans in general? Why generalized feral hostility? Is it actually ingrained or a result of underlying mishandling of socialization/emotional-social support? Because obviously, Canon!James who turned into a freaking Stag didn’t get eaten so there must be something to the state of Lycanthropy. Is it a possibly segue into being a Skinwalker? Lost or suppressed information?

Would Lupin theoretically be able to keep his mind and not attack his friends or have the choice overall with better, calmer support?

Back to the AU, something that would keep Lily from drifting out of her friendship with Severus could be Remus? I’m remembering that whole, Remus Morality post thing you referenced a while back. And intense loyalty seems like a thing Remus could bring to the table? I’m not sure how else not being a Marauder would affect his personality though. Thoughts?

But since Sirius doesn’t have a Werewolf to Prank Severus with anymore I wonder what would happen then? Would it be more James or Sirius or Peter trying to snoop into where the three go during the full moon nearly every month? How would that spiral? Sev and Lily trying to close ranks around Remus, whom they don’t quite know if Dumbledore is willing to back that horse for too long compared to those with “higher” status like, James & Sirius?

Maybe a part of Sev’s radicalization that drove a spike between his and Remus’ friendship could be Severus trying to court Remus to the Dark Lord’s party? Because they were recruiting both poor and marginalized populations after all, also I *think* Remus is a pureblood technically? I forget. And Remus would’ve gotten so PISSED because he knows that would be condoning/supporting all the bad things people say about Lily, one of his only other very close friends, plus a bunch of other bad things that DEs are doing. 

The friendship split between Lily and Severus would be longer, more protracted and hurtful, not just one big blowup and a final death knell slip of the tongue. But Lily and Remus trying to reel their friend back in on top of all their other baggage (they are destined, by social constructs and WW societal standards, for mediocrity, struggle and poverty after all) and Failing. And that hurts.

And when they all graduate, Lily shortly after joins the Order, or is invited because I guess they want skilled people, and Lily Was Exceptional. But she brings along Remus, who James, Sirius & Peter (and an 4th OC or something if we need to replace, but not really tbh) may distrust him because of the thing that happened when they followed? If James /actually/ changed (that Felix Felicis-enhanced talking thing) though he might be not be shitty about it though, but I can’t really imagine Sirius letting it go what with his terrible maladaptive coping mechanisms and all. Remus might get outed among the Order, maybe, idk. That could sow distrust of him, and why they don’t tell when they shove Lily and James into a cottage with their Bastard child together in hiding.

Then it goes like that from canon, Peter is made Secret Keeper, with Sirius as the obvious decoy keeper. Severus tries to curry favor from his grunt position as a DE and accidentally spells the death knell for his estranged friend Lily, is flipped when he finallyyyy realized he’d done super-fucked up and goes to Dumbledore.

Then James & Lily get attacked by Voldie & DEs, James takes a couple DEs down before dying via AK, Lily had been researching a bunch of dark/new magic things to protect herself and her kid (who she deliberated on and eventually decided to keep). She takes a bunch of DEs down, and gives Voldemort a run for his money, but lets down her guard when Peter shows up because up until this point, despite the bad blood in school, she’s known him as a comrade in the Order.

Peter basically cripples her in a surprise attack, and then Voldemort comes up to gloat, monologue and eventually finish the job. Lily spits in his face while dying.

The underlying new ritual/shield/magic-whatever Lily cooked up while in hiding goes on not quite as planned because it overlaps with Voldemort’s accidental-Horcrux making that basically ghostifies him. But Lily still dies the first time. 

Cue Sirius getting falsely accused and Azkaban’d, Harry going to the Dursleys because supposed Blood Wards (which actually would be fine with just Harry himself and what he considers home I guess, maybe). Remus gets cut out of the picture because of his financial and career instability, also Werewolfism and other dumb prejudice, so he’s out of the loop and isn’t told about Sev being a flipped spy either. 

Cue a few years later, turns out that Lily’s biodad is actually a Fae of some kind that she had minor contact with him through postcards and letters during her life. But eventually, he pitched in on some magical doohickery for the magical design stuff she did while in hiding in Godric’s Hollow. Then everything kicks off again a mostly Amnesiac FaeLily crawls out of her grave and gets a burning treewand branch of a Groot-Arm.

Somehow this culminates FaeLily accidentally getting the band back together and yoinking Harry. Then cue shenanigans and reconciliation and character development/interactions and possibly romantic Snupin and maybe an earned happy ending somewhere because my heart is soft and I’m a total weenie and this post got way longer than I thought it’d be lol. Overall thoughts? Impressions? Anything I missed while stringing these half-baked ideas together? X3

Thanks for reading and responding to so many of my posts. Your takes and posts are always a delight to read! <3333

Part2 of the AU Multi-fecta Thing I Sent Earlier

Some stuff I forgot:

-Tempted to name this Sweet Insane Combo of an AU: 2 Gryffindors and a Slytherin Walk into a Traincar

-Maybe add some shades of the Cons of Cokeworth AU idea (yes I sent that too, I’m literally a neverending fountain of AUs and theories for literally every fandom I get into, it’s a gift). –Lily constantly worries over money (Petunia’s biodad’s the gambler?) and is bitter over the way society is structured, leading her to grow into an excellent, Hard-working Con & Swindler-of-those-that-deserve-it (like how she’s been fleecing James, Sirius, Peter and others for all 7 of her Hogwarts years while trying to maintain good PR without being known as a money grubber or a thief bc Anonymity is Key)

-TBH i feel like she’d just cook up a plan to live with her 2 friends after school because “it’s cheaper” and she figures that they could’ve kept up the Werewolf research stuff easier by being housemates, but hilariously and sadly forgetting to tell said 2 friends about her plans before starting to work her ass off to scrape up as much money as possible. –“We all know Rems would guilt himself into living like a fucking hobo, and Cokeworth is a place where dreams go to die, so of course we’re getting a fucking house.”

-Yanno, then the AU-version of the Friendship split and Voldemort faction gains even more traction with the 1st WW Civil War going on.

-Trawling through the wiki again, Remus’ parents basically isolated him a pretty unhealthy amount I feel (like they probably thought they were doing the right thing at the time, which solved an immediate problem, but ends up compounding into a long-term host of issues)? Which I don’t think did Lupin’s socialization and emotional stabilitygrowth sloshing down into his Werewolf form any favors perhaps?

-So basically Remus refused to move back in with his dad (because he didn’t want to burden his dad I guess), despite him being alive, so Remus living in poverty-plus probably in and out of homelessess as well as the medical and security complications of being a werewolf without access to necessary resources? Also okay I forgot that Remus was a Halfblood too, whoops

-There’s an Irony in that Severus is the most human (species-wise) between the 3 AU Friends, what with Werewolf!Remus and Post-Resurrection Fae!Lily

-There’d be a whole mystery as to the intentions of Lily’s mysterious Fae Parent father(?), which may or may not be good intentions, they just don’t really know atm

…Okay I think that’s it… Whew, thoughts?

X'3

Nice to finally meet you @markala5 

ok wow this is a lot. first of all i love it and it feels whole so i don’t know what i can say. it’s the found family trope subverted a little because things fall apart but they get back together when lily is resurrected. and voldemort and his death eaters get to be the big bad. plus dumbledore as the leader of the order who is starting to realise that harry needs to end voldemort and his horcruxes but lily can’t imagine letting her child do that because she’s grown to love him after forgetting him so instead of the golden trio, it’s lily, severus and remus finding the horcruxes but harry needs to die and the three of them are frantically researching a solution but it needs to happen. they send him off in a manner similar to canon except they’re alive and later they see harry’s body and he’s so small and it’s so heartbreaking until he runs from the death eaters. 

this au has so much potential

#severus snape #pro snape #remus lupin #lily evans #submission #headcanons #au

[oneunicornaway]

Hey how about a bartender au!! Peter is working at a bar for some reason and Juno is a frequent customer...

“Sir, I’m not sure…” tried Ernest Walter asa client asked for his fourth glass of rather expensive, rather inebriatingwhiskey.

“It’s fine.” Sighed the client. “Vicky willput it on my tab.”

That was a weak excuse at best, anoutrageous lie at worse, but Ernest Walter was a mousy, nervous kid, new to thebusiness, and as much as he didn’t want to get fired by his new boss, he wouldalso have been terrified of angering the man currently standing only a counteraway from him.

“Are you sure…”

“Listen kid,” the tone of the stranger wasbrusque, but Peter could tell he was trying to look as unthreatening aspossible. “I promise you, Vicky knows me. Hell, even if she didn’t,she’d sooner come after me than after one of her own, no matter how new or hownaive they may be. Now, if you really want to, you can call Todd on me as soonas you give me my drink, but please. Please. Please. Give me. Mydrink.”

“O… okay.”

Ernest fumbled with the glass bottleseventually managing to give the man his dose, maybe even a bit more than that.

What could Peter say? He’d always been asucker for a beautiful face.

“Thank you.” Said the client, in a gratefulbreath, before downing a good half of the drink.

Peter had to admit to being impressed. Hewas himself notably terrible at handling his liquor, but the man had justthrown back his three and a half whiskey with no problem, and while his movementshad gotten slower, he didn’t seem to be nearly as wasted as Peter would haveexcepted anyone to be.

He would, of course, have loved tointerrogate this stranger, who seemed to be so totally out of place in VallesVicky’s establishment looking more like a common thug - with rough edges and anose crooked in a way that suggested it had been broken repeatedly - than thepolished clients Ernest Walter saw during the day. His cover wouldn’t have feltthat way, however, not yet, and Peter couldn’t afford to blow this up for onepretty face.

He caught sight of Todd across the room,coming back from the main public entrance. Ernest sent him a panicked glance,pointing a significative stare towards his scruffy client.

“Juno.” Todd said as he reached the bar.“Why are you here?”

“Hey Todd.” Juno said, glancing at Peterfrom the corner of his eyes. “Finished my job for Vicky. Figured I could checkout the perks before she sends me back.”

Peter carefully stayed focused on his work.He really hadn’t pegged Juno for one of Vicky’s men. If he’d had to guess, he’dhave thought him to be some kind of down on his luck good-doer. A cop maybe.Rough but ultimately kind, which, admittedly, seemed to be a rarity in HyperionCity.

But it meant Peter could now justify gainingmore information on him. If Juno really was working with Vicky, then maybe, he’dbe useful to gather the information Peter needed.

“You should go see her now,Juno.”

“Yeah yeah, sure. I will. Just let mefinish my drink and…”

Todd placed a huge hand down on Juno’sshoulder. It seemed to Peter that he was gripping him a bit tighter than was strictlynecessary.

The lady, getting more and more mysteriousby the second, sighed at that.

“Fine. Going… going…”

He put a bill down on the counter even ashe was dragged away.

“Thanks for the drinks, kid.”

Juno, Peter learned during his research, full name Juno Steel, was a former cop whose carreer had ended messily in a mysterious affair involving mafias, corruption, and worst of all, politics. Considering his previous record, though, it was entirely obvious that his demise was the result of a cover up, effective enough to attract Peter’s attention without revealing him much.

It seemed he worked with Vicky as a private investigator of sort, finding dirt on unpaying clients and grabby assholes, gathering informations on ennemies, and solving the right crimes at the right times to delete Valles Vicky’s concurrence.

He was, in a word, as clean as he could get away with while working for Vicky, and Peter couldn’t help but wonder how he’d ended up helping an art smugler of all things. From what snippet of conversation he’d managed to hear here and there - bringing Vicky her wine at just the right time, loitering around her door when he wouldn’t be missed, listening in through the tiny recording device he’d placed in the ventilation system - she liked Juno at least as much as he annoyed her. She kept yelling at him and threatening him, but from what he’d been able to gather, he was also an invaluable asset to her, and she trusted him with most of her business.

Juno was also, it seemed, incredibly paranoiac.

“So, what did you tell Vicky?”

Ernest looked up fearfully at Juno. The skittish bartender was, for the most part, reassured about the client’s character after a few weeks of not getting attacked doing his job, but Juno still cut an impressive figure, and Ernest was nothing if not impressionable.

“W… what?”

“Drop it, kid. This doesn’t work on me anymore. You’re always there when I come talk to her, and you may not look like it, but you listen to… just about everything I say, don’t you?” He leaned in, causing Ernest to take a cautious step back. “So, what do you say? Is this her way of making sure I’m not going to, I don’t know, betray her?”

He snatched the glass Enerst still hadn’t given him, studying the bartender with eyes, percing enough that Peter felt as though maybe he would be able to find him under the layers he’d carefully applied to his self.

It sent a shiver down his spine, cold and burning.

“You’re not a PI… I know those… A spy, maybe? But, why would you work for Vicky then…”

He took a gulp of his drink, still looking at Enerst through the distorted glass. The fretful man finally gathered himself enough to respond to the - frankly quite ridiculous - accusations.

“Sir, I think maybe you’ve had too…”

“Unless you’re not.”

“I… What?… Sir?”

“Unless you’re not. Working for her, that is.”

Enerst Walter was not entirely dumb, but he wasn’t the smartest tool in the box, either.

“I… am? Sir. I’m a bartender, you might have noticed.”

Peter, however, was following the conversation with interest. Juno was getting awfully close to figuring him out, and that would be a problem.

“What’s your name?”

The question was abrupt enough that even Peter was surprised.

“Me? I mean… It’s really none of your… business…”

Juno looked at him, unnervingly still. Ernest wasn’t a very courageous man.

“Um… Ernest. Ernest Walter.”

“Ernest Walter.” Juno repeated. “Right. And how long have you been working for Vicky?”

“Sir, I really don’t…”

“Humor me.”

Ernest was getting angry. To be fair, Peter thought, at this point most people would have been. Someone insisting you weren’t yourself tended to have that effect on people - Peter would know. But he wasn’t quite angry enough yet to forget that Juno Steel could very well resort to a violence he wasn’t ready to match.

“Three months.” He said through his teeth. “Now, if you will excuse me…”

“Sure. Wouldn’t want to put a wrench in your plans.” Juno winked and it was so incredibly smug it almost looked familiar to Peter’s eyes.

Peter was seriously starting to consider calling this whole long con thing off.

“Sir.” Enerst had come a long way. He’d gone from scared to annoyed to long suffering. “Are you following me?”

“Hello, Ernest.” Juno was insufferably chipper, and Enerst wanted to kick him. “I just thought I’d go to my meeting with Vicky on foot. Lovely weather today.”

Enerst made a show of glancing at the threatening clouds overhead.

“And you just happenned to be passing by my building, I take it.”

He didn’t bother to make it a question.

“Oh, you know… small world and all that.”

Juno was terrible at fake chitchat. Externally Ernest was rolling his eyes at the man, while internally Peter had to refrain from laughing at Juno’s very poor technique. The man had been - quite subtly he had to admit - following him for the past two weeks, and although Vicky now trusted him, constantly having a shadow had been a major pain in the ass.

“And I’m sure Vicky will be happy to learn that you’re keeping in form for your actual job.” Ernest’s sarcasm had still a long way to go, but it was steadily improving.

“Vicky will be happy not to be stabbed in the back.”

“Vicky trusts me.”

Juno snorted at that.

“Don’t feel too special kid, Vicky trusts everyone working for her. Doesn’t mean she should.”

“I” Ernest was starting to get fed up with the pseudo PI, and Peter was regretting then more than ever to have made him as stuffy as he was “am not a child, and Vicky has every reason to trust me!”

Juno stopped, and looked him dead in the eye. Ernest took a careful step back, and even Peter felt himself. Juno seemed like a good enough person, but he still had something of a dangerous lady underneath it all. A controlled violence that neither Ernest nor Peter really knew how to thread with.

“Your name isn’t Ernest Walter and I will find what you want from Vicky if it kills me.”

And before Ernest had any time to respond - before Peter had any time to respond - he stormed off. In seconds, Ernest was left alone in an empty street.

“No need to be so dramatic about it.”

This job really wasn’t going to go well was it.

….

Link to the chapter 2 !

EDIT: Link to the chapter 3!OTHER EDIT! Link to 4th chapter (last chapter)

Alright this is the first part! I’ll put up the second part tonight or tomorrow and the rest (probably two other parts) within the week… this is posted with minimum correction bc apparently I can’t make drafts out of answers, so I’ll come back to it once everything is posted.

#me #my writing #bartender au #jupeter #juno steel #peter nureyev #alcoholism mentions

[actuallyadork]

Getting started learning Japanese.

Here’s some resources I’m using to learn Japanese and what I think they do well and not so well. This is all based on my own experiences and what works best for me.

I will be rating based on the following criteria: Cost, Is it easy to use?, How much does it cover?, Pros, Cons, Overall impression.

Tofugu

I’m replacing a previous recommendation with this one. Far superior. I’ll just get right to it.

Free. Easy to use.

Pros: articles on just about everything. Theres a podcast. And every month they post resources for learning japanese. I highly recommend this website for these posts alone.

Cons: some content you gotta pay for but as far as i know they don’t duck around with people’s trust. They are the creators of wanikani and they gotta make money somehow.

Overall: far more useful that the first website i had on here. Maybe I’ll add more details later, but I just wanted to update this one as quickly as possible.

Japanese from Zero (video series)

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOcym2c7xnBwU12Flkm5RcLIEhvURQ8TB

Cost: free

Easy to use: yes. Theres a nice playlist so all you have to do is sit and watch.

How much does it cover: You start out knowing absolutely no japanese and by the end of lessons you will know two writing systems. Basic sentence patterns and grammar. There is even a kanji series.

Pros: nothing is easier than sitting and watching videos to learn. You can play it anywhere at anytime. George has been teaching/speaking Japanese for years so he knows where students get stuck. He gives good explanations and examples on when to use new content and when not to use the new content.

Cons: because its a series, sometimes George refers to previous lessons or his book and you may be missing some context if you start in the middle or skip through some lessons.

Overall: The first lessons were painful to get through because It starts out with romanization and if you already know the writing systems, seeing the romaji on screen is like listening to nails on chalk. Not to mention I have a personal beef with numbers and counting as well as the common phrases like “おはよう”

But it is called Japanese from Zero and it is meant for someone who knows absolutely nothing about japanese so I can forgive the painful beggining lessons. Once I got past the introductory stuff the videos became more enjoyable.

Duolingo (app)

Cost: free

Easy to use: yes

How much does it cover: basic japanese sentence patterns, all three writing systems and a handful of new vocabulary.

Pros: teaches new words and sentence patterns and really drills them into your head. Gives you a few new words at a time so you can take the time to learn them without being distracted from all the other words you need to learn. You can go into the course as a Japanese person trying to learn English and really get the most out of Duolingo because the japanese version starts out with Kanji and even gives polite and casual sentence forms.

Cons: very repetitive. I don’t find fault with this but a coworker of mine found this to be very annoying and I can understand why. Duolingo says the lessons will get harder but instead its the same lesson except now you have to review it 10 times instead of 5. That’s not exactly hard, that’s just tedious. My biggest gripe with duolingo is that it doesn’t explain particles or why the kanji has different readings. In order to figure that out I had to go and do my own research which isn’t a big deal but if you’re only using duolingo by itself it makes it harder to understand why you keep getting things incorrect and subsequently how to fix it.

Overall: I will admit I am biased towards duolingo because I’ve used it for Spanish, French, Italian, and now Japanese. I was there from it’s early days when it was absolute shit and it has come a long way. I recognize the issues with Duolingo right now but I know that they are constantly updating. Painful as it may be to keep hearing 六時六分です it really is teaching you sentence patterns that you can use to make your own sentences. You just have to go out and do a little extra work yourself. It is, by far, the easiest to use and the method I use everyday.

TinyCards (app)

Cost: free

Easy to use: yes

How much does it cover: it covers a lot of vocabulary phrases and even sentences. You can probably get a lot mileage out of this one if used correctly and if you’re willing to put in the work

Pros: dozens of pre-made flashcards to choose from and the ability to make your own. Cards come in sets that you can unlock by finishing the first set similar to duolingo. A lot of other flashcard apps work in a similar way except they make you pay for the rest so I appreciate that this one is free of charge. Plus you can find flashcards specifically from the duolingo courses so you can study the vocabulary in isolation rather than in a sentence. Interactive flashcard system. So you don’t just flip cards and call it a day, occasionally you will have to write out the translation in the target language or pick from several choices.

Cons: the difficulty can be a little inconsistent. Sometimes you just flip a card and say I remember that one and other times you’ll have to translate a full sentence in Japanese. Even if you get the kanji right, you may get the answer incorrect because the card wants the hiragana and vice versa. And because there are so many card sets to choose from, not all of them are useful.

Overall: a sister app to duolingo it seems. Cards come from the community of learners and are not limited to japanese or languages. You can also learn about history, art and pretty much anything else. I appreciate the interactive aspect as most other apps don’t do this and the ones that do are muuuch more inconsistent than this one. I found similar interactive flashcard apps that would sometimes show Vietnamese translations instead of English translations. I’ve only recently been using this one but I pretty much gave up on using other similar apps bc they were very inconsistent. I haven’t used it very much though because I’ve discovered that I’m not a flashcard learner. If you learn best with flashcards then I would recommend it.

Tae Kim’s Guide to Japanese (website/pdf/app)

Cost: free

Easy to use: relatively. Just read the damn thing. I get it though. Reading is very tedious

What it covers: It really is a beginner to advanced beginner guide covering the same things as all the above. Basic grammar, writing systems and such. One thing that is very unique about Tae Kim’s guide however is that it also includes cultural notes such as explaining casual vs polite speech. Male vs female speech that a lot of the other resources don’t even touch on

Pros: A very good starting point that covers so so much. The website has an option to show/toggle translations. Additional cultural notes plus examples. Almost every“how to learn japanese” guide points to this website

Cons: one of the reasons I was holding out on making this list was because I haven’t finished going through all the resources so I don’t have any cons for this yet. I’m only part-way through and I’ve yet to have any issues with it. Maybe just that once it gets the point across it immediately moves on. You don’t really have time to digest the content so It’s like a very in-depth crash course in japanese. You may need to go out and do extra research in order to really understand the content. If you don’t understand what is being taught, just read over it again and keep it in mind. I’ve found that I’ll come across more examples as I continue my studies and it all starts to fall into place

Overall: It doesn’t sugarcoat Japanese or treat the learner like a baby. If you read the introductory page, you’ll know what I’m talking about. Definitely influenced my approach to learning despite not having gone through all of it. Like other resources, it builds on top of topics already covered but it’s nice having a book-format with conjugation charts and lessons separated by chapters. Videos and podcasts are nice but Tae Kim’s guide also acts as a manual to supplement your learning. Maybe you want to write a sentence in the masu-form and need a quick reminder? Just flip to the page in the guide. No skipping through videos trying to find the part you need because it’s already there.

Manga Sensei (podcast/website)

Cost: mostly free. I believe theres some extra stuff you can purchase. I’ve seen a special podcast that requires payment and comes along with a free pdf. But for the most part, you get a lot of free content.

Easy to use: relatively. Havent been on the website much so for all i know it could be a mess

What it covers: the podcast covers a lot of grammar points and occasional vocabulary and cultural notes. Gives you a good foundation to build on top of. The website has more details on what the podcasts are about but I haven’t spent much time on the website as I have the podcast.

Pros: grammar points in 5 minutes or less. Differences between common words. Good for improving listening skills. If you’re driving or on a bus, you can learn on the go.

Cons: so much to choose from you kinda have to sift through what you need. Most of it is useful and there are a couple of repeat lessons as Manga-Sensei has a beginner’s guide every year. Because its audio only, you may be learning new words and grammar but you may not be able to identify them as quickly on paper. Best to supplement with some type of visual. I believe the website has something to solve this and I’ve heard there is a youtube channel as well? Although I am not sure.

Overall: If you’re going on a long car ride, folding your laundry or even just working-out, this is a great way to stay on top of your studies. Manga-Sensei has talked a lot about his projects such as his manga, alternate podcasts, and pdf. Even though I haven’t taken a look at all of them, it’s clear he’s working hard to bring content for listening, reading, and conversation skills. That being said, the podcast is just as good for learning as any other method. You can still understand the lessons (which are meant to be short and simple anyway)

Japanese Ammo with Misa (Video Series)

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBSyd8tXJoEJKIXfrwkPdbA

Cost: free although she has a Patreon as well if you want to support her.

Easy to use: yep

How much does it cover: A Lot. From basic videos about grammar to more complex videos breaking down japanese songs as well common phrases and little notes that you may not find in a textbook

Pros: Her lessons have a lot of examples and good breakdowns of the grammar and tense. If a verb is in the past-negative tense, she will break down how to get to that point from the plain form or dictionary form. The best part about her videos is that she has her examples on-screen and color-coded. It may seem like a lot at first, but once you adjust to it, it helps to retain the information.

Cons: Because there’s so much content packed into her lessons, I recommend getting a basic knowledge of Japanese first. She has a video series for basic/introductory Japanese. I would suggest starting with that series or George’s series, or Tae Kim’s guide. Just so you don’t get an information overload.

Overall: There is one video in particular that I recommend to watch and I’ll make another post about it, but I really enjoy her content. Even though some of her videos are very dense with information, the comments suggest that its still easy to follow. I just think that while you can still learn a lot as a newbie, you might retain more if you already understand some grammar.

Japanese (app)

Cost: free holy shit!!

Easy to use: relatively

Pros: search using english, japanese, radicals, or drawing the kanji itself. Flashcard system, where you can build your own decks or use a pre-made one. The flashcards operate on a spaced repetition system. Plus it provides example sentences, compound breakdowns, stroke order, conjugations and JLPT level.

Cons: The drawing search method is sometimes hit or miss but i’m impressed the app has this option at all, let alone that it does not crash the app (like some others I’ve tried). The pre-made decks can have up to 400 words or more which is great if you have that kind of patience but I rarely find myself excited to sift through all of those words only to have about 10 of them be useful to me.

Overall: Okay it’s not like this app is super amazing or revolutionary but it’s a dictionary and flashcard sytem all in one. Say you want to keep a record of the new words you learn to refer back to them later? Make a new deck! Or if you’re reading a book or newspaper and come across a word you don’t know? Add it to the list or make a new deck! I try use new words as often as possible to drill them into my head And although my studying has slowed a bit, this app is perfect to double-check spelling and usage. (At least until jisho.org gets an app). Plus it’s easier to learn and remember words when you’ve come across them on your own.

#日本語 #japanese #learn japanese #dork speaks

[desdinovas]

award show || brad simpson

not my gif

pairing: Brad Simpson x Female Reader

word count: 2,031

notes: got this request a few weeks ago and it’s probs my fav thing anyone has requested so far, hope this is good enough

“Brad, this is literally the millionth suit you’ve tried on today,” you pointed out from your place on your shared bed.

You actually didn’t mind helping him with his outfit at all. Watching him try suit after suit, one looking better than the other on him. I mean, who wouldn’t want to see that? Ever since he found out his band would be attending the Brits, he got way too excited about it and wanted everything to be perfect that night. And that includes, of course, his outfit.

“I know, love, but none of them are good enough.” Brad argued back as he studied his reflection in the mirror standing in front of him.

“You look amazing in all of them.” You stood up from the bed and walked towards him, hugging him from behind and standing on your tiptoes so you could let your chin rest on his shoulder.

“I’m still not convinced,” he said as he scanned his wardrobe.

A few seconds passed before his eyes landed on a very unusual suit. He had actually forgotten he bought that one. It was an impulsive buy and he never got the chance to wear it —mainly because he tossed it to the back of his wardrobe as soon as he came back from the store, making him totally forget about its existence.

“How about this one?” Brad asked as he took it out from the closet and started analysing it.

“Isn’t it a little too bright?” You asked back with furrowed brows. Oh, did I forget to mention the suit was bright red?

“Yeah, but Con told me he’s wearing a red suit as well so maybe we could match.” Brad shrugged.

“I thought I was your date to the red carpet.” You teased, pretending to be hurt by his words.

Brad chuckled under his breath and turned his head to kiss your cheek. “You’re wearing a white dress, right?” He asked even though he already knew the answer since you went dress shopping with him and it was him who ended up choosing it.

You nodded your head a bit confused, not knowing where he was going. “Then I’ll pin a little white rose on my suit. That way we’ll be matching.” Brad explained as he winked an eye at you.

You gave him a smile and he got himself into the bathroom to try on the red suit. Although there was no need to bother on going to the bathroom to get changed —since you’ve seen each other naked like a million times— he wanted to surprise you with the final result, rather than watching him during the process of getting dressed. Why? Because he absolutely loves your reactions.

“So? What do you think?” Brad asked as he stepped out of the bathroom. What he didn’t know this time was that your jaw would literally drop once your eyes fell on him.

“Holy fucking shit.” Was all you could say.

Your eyes were wide as you studied every single detail, not once finding a flaw. How can someone be this hot without even trying? He was wearing a black shirt while the rest of the suit —including his tie— was red.

“Is it that bad?” Brad asked at the lack of feedback from you.

You blinked a few times before answering; “are you kidding me? You look unbelievably handsome.”

“Do you think so?” He questioned as he stood in front of the mirror, carefully studying his reflection with his nose wrinkled. “Isn’t the colour a bit extravagant?”

“I mean, I thought that too.” You began, not being able to stop yourself from shamelessly staring at his bum. But he doesn’t have to know that. “But that was before I saw it on you. Bloody hell, red is definitely your colour.”

“Are you sure?” Brad asked again, and that was enough to tell you that he was insecure about it.

“Absolutely,” you nodded your head. “Red is definitely my new favourite colour after seeing it on you.” You said in all honesty and he gave you a small smile. “Look, if you’re not wearing that to the awards then I’ll be very disappointed.” You said as you wrapped your arms around his neck, your faces almost touching. “Trust me, you look amazing.”

“Babe, do you think I should wear my-“ Brad stopped in his tracks as soon as his eyes landed on you. “Oh, my good God.” He gasped.

You turned around as you finished applying your makeup and gave Brad a confused look once your eyes met his. “What? What is it?”

Brad shook his head repeatedly. “Nothing, it’s just that my girlfriend is the hottest thing in the world. That’s all.”

You could literally feel your cheeks going red as you shot him a small smile. “Stop.” How did he manage to make you feel like an actual school girl?

“No, I’m serious.” He said as he walked closer to you and placed a hand on your waist. “You’re absolutely stunning.”

You smiled again and pecked his lips. “You don’t have to win me over. We’re already dating, you know.” You joked before stroking the few curls growing on the back of his head.

“Just speaking the truth,” he said giving you a cheeky grin that always sends you flying —and today was no exception. He leaned over to catch your lips in his, smiling into the kiss.

“What were you about to ask me?” You panted as soon as you broke apart from the kiss.

“Oh, right.” Brad nodded his head, remembering why he went into the bedroom in the first place. “Should I wear my glasses to the awards? Because I figured I won’t be able to see shit from our seats.”

“Of course you should, baby.” He smiled at the pet name. “Why shouldn’t you?”

“I don’t know,” he hesitated his next words. “Do you think they make me look dorky?” He asked with the most adorable concerned look. He was so insecure about everything lately, you just wanted to sit down with him and lecture him on how perfect he is.

You shot him a warm smile as you stroked his right cheek with your thumb. “No, Brad.” You reassured him. “If anything, they make you look even more cute than you already are.”

Brad frowned at your last sentence. “We’ve been through this, darling. I’m not cute, I’m a man.”

“Fine,” you playfully rolled your eyes at him and decided to tease him a little bit more. “You’re a cute man, happy now?”

“That is not what I meant.”

You jumped into the limo that was waiting for the two of you outside of your house and greeted the rest of the band, who were already there.

“You look great, (y/n).” James said as he shot you a smile.

You smiled back at him. “Thank you.”

“Hey, watch it.” Brad playfully said in a warning tone. “She’s my girl.” He glared at James. And although he was kidding, everyone knew there was a bit of truth in his words.

A few minutes went by before you felt Brad shifting on his seat beside you and making quiet noises. You turned your head to be met by him frantically touching his blazer.

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m just trying to pin the rose,” Brad answered with his brows furrowed. (p.s here’s a video to give y’all an idea bc me writing about it doesn’t do how cute he is any justice)

“Need some help?” You asked with a raised eyebrow and an amused expression on your face. “Seems like you could poke yourself any minute now.”

“Please,” he whined and you laughed at how adorable he was. You took the little white rose in your hands and pinned it to his suit soon enough. “Thank you, love.” He smiled before kissing the top of your head.

“We’re here.” Connor announced and the five of you hopped off the limo to be met by a huge wave of cameras flashing at you.

Brad’s arm was immediately around your waist and tightly holding you close to him in a protective way. You tried to ignore all the questions the paparazzi were asking you as you made your way towards the red carpet.

Brad turned to you and your eyes finally met his. He gave you a reassuring smile. “I’m gonna go take some pictures with the boys. I won’t be long, okay?” He gently stroked your cheek with his hand.

You just nodded your head and watched him join the rest of the band on the red carpet while you stood where all the paparazzi and interviewers were standing. You watched the boys pose for an awful lot of different cameras and started wondering how it was possible for one human being to be so good looking without even trying. Brad was literally just standing there doing absolutely nothing but faintly smile, and yet it was the most beautiful thing your eyes have ever seen.

“C’mere, baby.” Brad rushed to where you were standing and you shook your head, trying to get rid of your thoughts.

You intertwined your fingers with his and he guided you to the red carpet. Your eyes wandered to look for the boys and soon you found them talking to an interviewer. Brad wrapped an arm around your waist and leaned his head down so he was whispering in your ear. “Just relax, okay? I’m here.”

You faintly nodded your head and took a deep breath just before the flash from all the cameras started blinding you.

You tried to smile at a numerous amount of cameras so you wouldn’t be looking at the same one all the time, but it was quite hard to figure which camera you were looking at with all those bright lights shining into your eyes. Brad leaned in to kiss your cheek and you subconsciously closed your eyes and smiled. The sound of various cameras shooting was heard and you made a mental note to yourself to look for that picture online later.

After a few more seconds of posing, Brad squeezed your waist gently and walked you over to where the boys were talking with the interviewers.

Just as you two stopped beside the boys, the middle aged woman who was interviewing them smiled before saying, “here they are! We were just talking about how cute you guys are.”

Brad smiled as a light shade of pink coloured his cheeks. “Thank you. Although, I must say, she takes all the credit.” He said while turning to give you a sweet smile as his hand gently stroked your waist.

You just smiled back at him, hoping the camera behind the woman wouldn’t be able to capture your flushed cheeks.

“You two have been dating for quite a while now, does it ever get hard when it comes to the distance?” She asked before placing her microphone in front of Brad for him to answer.

“Distance is definitely hard,” he began. “But we’re determined to make this work, so we try not to make it such a big of a deal, you know? Whenever I’m away for tour one of us is always trying to find some time to visit the other one.” He concluded with a sided smile.

You just kept smiling the entire time, not feeling the need to answer the questions. They were all aimed for Brad anyways.

“You must really love each other.”

“Yeah,” Brad nodded with a huge smile as he looked down at you. “I love her, she’s great.” You looked up to smile back at him.

After the boys were done with the interviews you all proceeded to the actual award show. Once you were sat in your designated seats, Brad placed his hand on your thigh and gave it a little squeeze.

“You were great, darling.”

“I just smiled the whole time.” You chuckled as your eyes met his.

“And that’s enough,” he said with a reassuring smile and you went to peck his lips. “Did I tell you how bloody stunning you look tonight?”

You shot him a wide smile. “Only about a thousand times.” You teased.

“Well, here goes again; you look absolutely stunning.” You just smiled as your eyes were still locked with his. “I love you, babe.”

I’m also leaving a few pictures of him on that goddamn red carpet cause holy mother of god, this boy is a snack lol who am I kidding he’s a motherfucking full course meal

#the day i can properly finish a fic i better get an award #brad simpson #the vamps #bradley simpson #brad simpson imagine #brad simpson imagines #brad simpson fic #the vamps imagine #the vamps imagines #the vamps fanfic #the vamps fic #bws #bradley simpson imagine #bradley simpson imagines #bradley simpson fic #bradleh simpson fanfic #brad simpson + fem!reader #bradley simpson x reader #brad simpson x fem!reader #brad simpson + reader #brad simpson x reader #bradley simpson + reader

[jazzarray]

Riju Production Post

So I’m mostly doing this for my own references (and as a reminder to take more pictures while working on costumes for proper progress posts/threads), but I just wanted to take the time and put together a post on my process and methods while working on my fave cosplay to date, Riju from Breath of the Wild!

This post will be really photo heavy. And text heavy. Just heavy overall, so watch out on mobile (sorry ahead of time) - 

WARNING for hand closeup in the last image, scopophobia,

First things first, I gathered as many reference images as I possibly could. I went into the game itself and used nintendo’s handy dandy screen shot feature to take some pics. I also lurked around online in various boards and things to see if anyone else had taken some good detail shots of things I had missed. Here are some that i found the most useful:

Full body shots are always necessary. This one also gave me the bonus of being able to estimate how many coins to put on her skirt as well as a reference for the print inside of the skit

Much needed detail shots of the armor she’s wearing. I wanted to nail down the shape and dimension of everything as much as i could

And, since I love a good Prop, I had to make the Thunder Helm. The construction seemed maybe not simple but not ridiculous enough that I felt I could confidently reproduce it

Then I decided to do something I had sort of done before, but not to the extent that I did with Riju. I needed to draw everything out, write what materials would be used and where, how much I would need, the techniques I would use, etc. To save space, I’ll link to the post where I uploaded the four pages of breakdown I did for her --> here

I started on her probably later than I should have, around late Feb, March of this year (the con I debuted her at was in May). And then I messed around and didn’t get started on her as soon as I could have even after all my materials were bought.  Speaking of which, let’s do a quick materials breakdown and where I got stuff

I bought about 3 yards of a slightly see-through, light weight black knit from Joanns. I was also able to find a heavier cotton blend printed fabric that, from the wrong side mimicked perfectly the pattern on Riju’s inner skirt. 

I drafted my own patterns. The top was essentially a slightly bigger sports bra. The skirt I think I just kinda wrapped the fabric around myself and had my sister cut the angle I wanted. I used that piece to cut the inner lining of the skirt.

I hand painted the design on the top with 3d fabric paint. Some of the colors had to be mixed, particularly the gold. And i had to mix them multiple times bc I couldn’t finish it all at once lol. That was a pain. 

JSYK, you can mix fabric paint with regular acrylic and it’ll still be just as flexible.

I stretched out the top on a cutting board I had and held it there with wonderclips lol. Bootleg, but it worked

This was also my first time working with bias tape! It’s kinda rough in some sections but it gave the top a really nice finish, i think. I also added some lil shoulder straps on with the rest of the tape I had, just for added support.

Jewelry, Belt, Armor, etc Everything not fabric was craft foam of varying thickness. Everything was either primed with glue/water or was coated with a few layers of plastidip. The detailing on the chest and belt pieces were done with 3D fabric paint

The only pieces not foam or fabric are air dry clay and hot glue casted gems. I made my own silicone mold with pure silicone + corn starch + a bit of baby oil. I think I used oven bake clay for the negatives and just filled those babies with hot glue. Sanded down the sides to get the defined lines I wanted and painted them with nail polish. 

The air dry clay pieces coming off of the chest armor  were strung together with more invisible thread and kinda shoddily held together with hot glue. But It Worked, Okay?

Everything that needed to be put on that wasn’t clothing (chest armor, jewelry pieces, belt, the petal sash looking thing) was strapped purely with velcro. 

The shoes were just a thrifted pair of black heels and I painted the lines on with Angelus brand leather paint (this stuff is godly and a little goes a long way)  

Here’s the base of the front of the helm unpainted. 

I used 8mm eva sheet foam and 8mm dowels the from TNT Cosplay Supply as well as some basic 2-6mm foamie sheets from any store with a craft sections (I think i got mine from michaels? and some backup 2mm sheets from walmart)

The helm was a bit odd to pattern. I spent a lot of time doodling out shapes in my sketchbook. I made some v elementary templates out of poster board and had a Lot of re-working, especially with the slightly curved base of the front of the helm, the actual mask part. I knew it had to be two pieces  because trying to make it one would make the curves at the top wrong potentially. It also gave me a good guideline for the midline of the helm itself for coloring.

Everything was held together with contact cement and shaped with a heat gun. I learned with this project just how pliable even 8mm thick craft foam can get when it’s hot. I reinforced some of the curves by scoring the curves and gluing the cut section back together.

I primed this all with glue/water mix and everything was spray painted that base gold.

I....completely freehanded the non gold sections. I painted the brown of the front of the helm first and then remembered the gold sections going down. I think I tried to sketch out the lines at first and then just went “fuck it” and free handed everything. Took a lot of careful brush strokes and correcting but I think it turned out well.

if you look closely at the pieces with the half question marks on them, you can see where I attempted to correct some lines with hand mixed acrylic and didn’t exactly get the color right lol whoops. It’s only noticable in closeups tho.

The front and back pieces of the helm were held together via velcro. I wanted them to be able to come apart, especially since I knew I was going to travel with it. The whole thing is rather Rigid so it needed some way to be more travel-with-able.

Close up of the Helm. It was extremely light weight, if only a lil awkward to tote around. I made it way too big so it couldn’t even be worn properly lol.

Weirdest snail I’ve ever seen

Base wig was Buttercup in Rust Red by Arda . I also got a bunch of their long wefts in the same color as well as their red jumbo braids. I used their tutorial on how to style a Rapunzel wig as the basis for how to do the braid.

I ruined my first pack of jumbo braid hair and had to order more last second. The wig was one of the last pieces to get done. 

As in the rapunzel method, the braid is separate from the base wig and attached with hook/eye closures. It was still really dragging the back of the wig down, but I managed to braid in most of the base hair of the wig into the braid to hide the worst of it. It was so long, it reached all the way to my butt, i was so happy

The styling of the front of the wig was....mostly me winging it again. I knew theoretically what I needed to do -- tease the front bang a bit, add on wefts so that the hairline looked natural. But when I started doing so, I got impatient, like I normally do. To be fair the wig turned out way better than i thought it could given how much of a rush job the hair line and the bump + pinwheels were but hey

Everything got a generous helping of got 2 b glued spray

the side loops were completely separate pieces. I initially intended to sew them into the wig, but it was easier to put on and take off when they were separate

these were fabric hoops i stuffed lightly with pillow batting and, in another rush job, glued some wefts onto the loops. The gold rings were also just craft foam

 Aside from the lipstick, I didn’t do the best with my makeup as I could have lol

I didn’t properly plan out what to color my eyebrows with. And covering them up was a serious rush job -- I didn’t practice before hand like I should have so I didn’t get them as smooth as I wanted

I also used....regular lipstick as the color, not even a drying matte, so anytime my hands went near my face (which was often bc of the helm, I had to whip out my mirror to do a smear check

The eye makeup was lipstick as well, but a matte one! It’s colourpop, I can’t remember which shade. The lipstick actually on my lips was a cheap drugstore brand I found at a beauty store.

First pair of ears were i think from Aradani?? I can’t 100% remember; there was a booth at Katsu this year.... 

Second pair, bc i lost the first pair somehow, was borrowed from a good friend lol

Now I know how to make my own latex ears so that’ll be what I do in the future

Contacts were from Alice and Rabbit’s Shop

I’ve got a decent amount of (what I would/could have done betters)

I need to figure out a better strapping method for the jewelry. The velcro I used was pretty thick and i found multiple scratches where they rubbed against me all day (a couple of em briefly scarred lol)

I wasn’t able to isolate a good enough image for the sand seal emblum that’s actually printed on her skirt. I might just hand paint it on if I can draw a decent enough template

The back piece of the helm, the band that connected to the circle, was...a pain. Since I was in the heat, it lost its shape pretty quickly when not attached to the front part and having to reshape it caused it to crack quite badly. 

The aforementioned circular piece also wasn’t as securely connected as it could have been (i’m still trying to figure out what I could have done better. Maybe pins or something through the foam?) and I had to rush to the cosplay repair booth when I got to the con to make sure it didn’t completely rip off.

I found two pairs of black heels and neither of them fit well enough to walk in all day! so I would up taking a bunch of photos in the wrong shoes bc I had switched them out and forgotten to put the actual shoes back on lol. 

Practice the makeup!! Practice, practice practice. Especially eyebrow blocking bc mine are pretty thick and bushy and it Did Not work as well the first time lol. 

And last but most importantly: GIVE YOURSELF ENOUGH DANG TIME TO NOT RUSH

i was so hesitant to cut into anything, especially the foam, that i wound up working on things down to the wire, aka friday night before I was set to wear Riju.

Take time,especially when doing new things you’ve never done before

don’t be afraid to think outside the box and even reach out to someone, even if they’re a non-cosplayer, for help and ideas because they will probably save your ass (thanks dad)

So here is my little love letter to my Riju cosplay. It’s...admittedly in shambles kind of now. Half of my armor pieces had some bumps or breaks that are repairable but not a priority. The wig is a mess because the back kept tangling on my armor pieces. The band/back of the Helm is also a wreck, cracked to hell and back.

But!! I want better pictures of her, so I want to try and fix her up so I can at least do a decent photoshoot somewhere. I also wanna make a patricia plush! Maybe enter her into a contest??

Only time, patience, and a Lotta Money will tell lol

#jazz says shit #jazz takes pics #cosplay ramblings