#because he could have had max this whole time instead of watching him on tv every weekend and remembering and wondering

[lilyrizzy]

Inspired by Daniel’s silly EA advert… hope someone enjoys!

It’s been a good day. A lot of the drivers hate this stuff, putting on the tap shoes for the sponsors and asking how high, but Daniel- He kinda likes it.

It’s something he’s good at, turning up to a set and being silly, making people laugh and being told good job Daniel. That’s great, perfect. The words give his chest the kind of buoyancy that has him feeling he could float the whole way home.

They’re a reminder that soon enough, he’ll be back in Melbourne where everyone will say his name with the same tenderness the director has given him, but this time wanting the best for him, instead of from him.

“Amazing job today Daniel,” Robert says again now, clapping a warm hand on Daniel’s shoulder. “I think that last part was enough just in the one take. You’re a natural.”

The pleased smile on Daniel’s face spreads easily.

“Cool,” is all he says though, “happy to help, I- Actually mate, I was hoping you’d let me have a little something in return.”

—

“Maxy!” Daniel calls, wrestling with both the front door and the giant box. “Where are you, baby?”

Their house in LA is big, his words bouncing off the walls of the grand entrance hall. Usually, it’s full of friends, sometimes family, but this week for once it’s just the two of them.

“Sofa!” Max shouts back, voice croaky like maybe he’d been napping. He’s probably not left the same spot Daniel left him in this morning. “How was the shoot, was it nice?”

Dumping his keys on the hallway table, Daniel follows the sound of Max’s voice. As suspected, he’s still stretched out across the cushions, belly up like Jimmy when he’s sunbathing in the balcony back home. His hand is shoved down the front of his shorts, but only idly. Daniel can see he’s not hard.

Still, for a moment his gaze gets caught there, before shifting back to Max’s face, his curious expression as he takes in the giant box Daniel is holding.

Right.

“I got you something,” Daniel says, setting it down on the coffee table. He opens it and begins to dig around. “A lot of merch swag and shit, but- Tah dah!”

He pulls out the game, proudly showing Max the box that has his own face on the cover. F1 2024.

“Oh,” Max says, and his smile is as sweet at the two happy pink splotches that begin to warm up his cheeks. “Thank you, Daniel.”

He sits up then, taking the game from Daniel’s hands and holds it like it’s something very special.

It’s not much of a gift really, because Max could get a copy for himself whenever he wanted. His people could call EA, or if he was feeling particularly desperate he could offer to do an ad of his own, but- He wouldn’t.

The only things he’s ever to gone out of his way to get are his championships and Daniel.

“I will have to wait for Lando to get his copy,” Max is continuing, but already he’s moving to crouch in front of their TV, his PlayStation, “or maybe Charles, for the multi-player but-“

“I can play,” Daniel interrupts, picking up the controller from their coffee table. It feels less foreign in his hand after a day being recorded holding it.

Max pauses, game disk spinning on one finger as he turns to look at Daniel.

“You want to play?”

He sounds confused, surprised.

“Sure,” Daniel says, all fake nonchalance. “I’ve even had a head start playing, I might be better than you.”

With a warmth fizzing in his belly, he watches the shock on Max’s face melt into quiet joy. He ducks his head to finish putting the game into the console, and when he takes a seat next to Daniel on the sofa, it’s close enough that their thighs are pressed together. Warm.

“I think if you want to beat me, you will have to hold it like this,” Max pokes at Daniel with a teasing grin, and then his hands are moving gently over Daniel’s to correct where he’s apparently holding the controller all wrong.

Daniel snorts, pushing out an elbow to nudge at the soft place Max’s ribs hide underneath.

“Fighting talk, baby,” he insists with far more confidence than he feels. “Just you wait, you’ll be begging for mercy.”

Max’s laugh is bright.

“Okay but I think we need to look at the settings first,” he begins again, “because of course I have the sensitivity set very high, and-“

Daniel lets Max’s explanations wash over him like music.

—

Later, Daniel manages to finally win a race by shunting Max into the first corner, speeding away while he’s still spinning in the gravel.

“That of course, does not count,” Max insists indignantly, though there’s a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. “That is cheating, Daniel.”

“Not what you said in Baku baby,” Daniel reminds him, and then pokes his tongue out when Max begins to trip over his protests that he has done nothing wrong, ever.

Daniel begins a loud rendition of ‘we are the champions,’ in favour of listening.

Giving up his attempts to defend himself, Max tosses his controller onto the coffee table with a sharp clatter, instead choosing to crawl over Daniel, pressing him down into the sofa.

“I will show you a fucking champion,” he mutters, his thigh finding its way between Daniel’s legs.

Daniel’s own controller hits the hard wood floor with a thud.

#written from my iPhone #half asleep this morning #haven’t gramma checked #enjoy!!!!😉 #fic #max/daniel

[shieldofiron]

When I See You Smile

Also on Ao3

He can't pretend it doesn't hurt a little.

Dustin and Mike Wheeler chatter about it on Max's little radio, how Eddie and Steve are spending so much time together, and how Steve had come out to them very seriously as bi, and Eddie was gay so they were hoping...

And Billy's hopes, the tiny thread of hope that he'd been nourishing without realizing it, withered and died right there.

Because Munson is a dealer, and kinda loud and annoying. But Billy is a murderer. He still has nightmares about it, waking Max and Susan some nights. What kind of monster kills their own father, inter-dimensional parasite or not? And it wasn't like Billy had been some kind of catch before that.

Steve smiles when Billy comes by the store anyway. Like he's not a murderer, a puppet for an inter-dimensional being, but a person. They had the same taste in movies, and sometimes they would sit there just talking for hours. Steve had been nice after starcourt, and it had made the crush that Billy had secretly harbored in high school bloom into a full on infatuation.

One sided infatuation, apparently.

So it was real cute, actually. Munson and Ste-Harrington. He decided that it would be cute, and it wouldn't hurt any more. Hell, if Munson and Harrington started dating, maybe then...

He didn't know what maybe was, but he was trying to be positive about the whole thing.

And when he sees the van parked by the video store, he just turns right around.

"Racking up those late fees, huh," Steve says with a grin when he finally does bring them back.

"Got a lot on my mind," Billy mumbles in response, hurrying because he thought he saw the van pull into the lot. And he's fine with Steve dating whoever he wants, of course Steve can date whoever he wants.

Billy just doesn't have to be there while it happens.

"Wait, uh..." Steve ducks his head down, and his hair falls over his eyes in that adorable way that makes Billy want to brush it back behind his ear. "How'd you like Ladyhawke?"

Billy glances back over his shoulder, his heart racing when he sees Munson waltzing up, "Good. Gotta go, Steve."

"Wait-"

"You are never going to believe the news I have for you, big boy," Munson smacks the door open and Billy winces.

"See ya," Billy waves his tapes in the air and ducks out the door that's still swinging closed from Munson's dramatic entrance.

He can't see Steve's expression, and he doesn't want to see how Steve smiles for Munson. Billy bets it's real special, all dreamy and doe eyed. So he just ducks into the camero and speeds away over Max's protests.

"You forgot milk duds, dick," She hisses.

"I had to get out of the way," He hisses right back.

"Of what?"

"Budding romance," He says, half sarcastically, throwing his hand in the air dramatically.

Max doesn't say anything back, but she must know. After all how many times has she dragged him practically kicking and screaming when he and Steve got to talking about movies and then tv and then sports...

Billy's certainly not about to come out to a bunch of snot nosed brats. But Max knows. She's heard what his dad called him enough to know what he is.

And it's fine. If there was only three gay guys in town someone was bound to be the odd one out.

That night she totally sides with him for movie night and they watch This is Spinal Tap instead of Against All Odds. She and Susan do watch along obligingly, Susan even chuckling at the 1960s jokes.

That night he can't sleep, tossing and turning in his bed when he thinks about Harrington's smile and that lock of hair.

---

Munson must be able to tell something is up because after that he starts acting really squirrely when Billy's trying to meet up. Which sucks because he could really use the weed right now.

Heartbreak being a bitch and all.

He's waiting in his car for Max to check out the videos she wants when Steve comes barrelling out of the Family Video, headed straight for Billy.

Billy blows a plume of smoke out the window.

"Alright, Harrington?"

"No," Steve isn't smiling. He looks downright pissed. "I'm not alright. You got some kind of problem with me and Eddie, Billy?"

Billy sucks in a drag and squints at the back of the van parked right up front of the store.

"Problem with what?"

"You know what."

Billy shrugs, "Enlighten me."

Steve huffs, and then deflates, "Look, I know you're working on being better. I heard about you working on basketball with Lucas, and I think that's really... great. But... I..."

Billy waits. And waits.

"You what?"

"You really don't know?" Steve blinks at him, and a shot with those big brown eyes sinks another of cupid's arrows deep into Billy's heart. He pushes his aviators up his nose to hide his face.

"Know what?"

"I thought," Harrington's blushing, and it looks so cute with the green of his vest. "That you heard that I like... that I'm... bisexual. And that Eddie's... um... And you had a problem with it."

Billy snorts, though he doesn't mean to. And Harrington cocks his head to the side.

He doesn't have a problem with it. He has an ache, a pain deep in his chest that he knows there's no cure for. It hurts so bad it makes him a little angry, a little reckless.

"That would be pretty hypocritical of me," Billy says with a sharp little laugh, "Not that I'm you know... dating material. For any gender. In any sense of the word."

Harrington just looks down, "I don't know about that."

Billy huffs, "You don't need to flatter me. I'm no threat to your boyfriend. Though you can tell him I'm gonna actually need to score soon or I'm going to go mental. My stepmother's into wreath making. You know what a wreath can do to a guy's reputation?"

He wants Steve to laugh. He wants Steve to smile. Even if it's just for a corny joke. Even if it's just as friends. He'd officiate their wedding if Steve would just throw Billy a smile once in a while.

"Boyfriend?"

"Oh. I mean," Billy waves his hand in the air, "Pre-boyfriends. Fucking. Whatever it is you all are doing."

Steve's cheeks are really pink now, "We're not... I mean... I like someone else."

"Oh," Billy pushes his aviator's up, trying to school his expression into something calmer, less manically happy. "I'm sorry, I just assumed-"

"No, I... we just gotta stick together, right. L and G and B and T... all... together," Steve makes a weird sort of half sigh sound.

"Yeah," Billy doesn't know where Steve is going with this, "That's you and me. Two B's. Sticking together."

He's never said it out loud before. He always imagined it would be terrifying, but Steve's smile smooths over some of the panic in the pit of his stomach.

"So you're not... sticking together with anyone, exclusively?" Steve rocks on his heels.

Billy snorts, "No. Plenty of girls to be not so exclusive with, but... no."

"Do you... want to do that with me?"

Billy's heart stops still in his chest. He doesn't know what expression he's making but he knows that Steve is smiling. At him. His eyes are crinkled up at the corners, and he...

"I like you, Billy," Steve's hair flops down and it's so easy to brush it back behind his ear. "Thought you were finally gonna break my teeth in about it, so I thought I'd do it first."

And Billy can, so he does. And for the first time in what feels like weeks, Billy smiles back.

"I would never," Billy sucks in some courage with his next drag, so he can say in a dry whisper, "Your smile is the best part of my day."

#ShieldofIron #harringrove #billy hargrove #billy x steve #steve harrington #steve x billy #harringrove fanfiction

[micah-drew]

Record of Ragnarok Headcanons: Horror Games Edition

—

CW: May be ooc for some characters, spoilers for some games

「 ✦ Round 1: Thor, Lü Bu, Randgriz ✦ 」 Resident Evil 4

જ⁀➴ Lü Bu and Thor were dead silent the moment they started playing, it was almost eerie how silent they were for the first hour. They were so focused…nothing could break them out of that trance.

જ⁀➴ Randgriz had made a small joke about they were reading each others minds and they shared a glance. Whatever that means! Randgriz just decided to just smile and continue watching the game.

જ⁀➴ The moment the Bitores Mendez boss battle started, it was only within seconds. Having the flying general and god of thunder working together in a horror game that involved fighting— yeah, nothing was surviving.

જ⁀➴ The two basically did a no hit run without even trying!

જ⁀➴ Randgriz watched the whole time. She picked up the controller once and almost immediately died, so instead she’s watching the other two play. Despite that, she handles horror pretty well! Nothing scared her too badly, aside from the first Regenerator.

—

「 ✦ Round 2: Zeus, Adam, Reginleif ✦ 」 Little Nightmares 2

જ⁀➴ Zeus didn’t have much to say about the game, and instead he just watched the other two do everything. Less work for him, the better…and the reason he wouldn’t admit, that being the controls frustrated him and he almost broke a controller earlier.

જ⁀➴ Meanwhile Reginleif is over analyzing every single detail. Looking into details of games and books? She’s a pro!

જ⁀➴ Adam liked Mono a lot, and thought the locations were interesting. He wasn’t too fond of the teacher though, watching as her neck stretched to try and catch Mono in the school.

જ⁀➴ Both Reginleif and Adam disliked the hospital by a lot. Why is the doctor on the ceiling? Why is he experimenting on people who are already getting distorted by the TV signals? And why are the patients acting like weeping angels— just why.

જ⁀➴ Eve walked in on the two at the wrong time, seeing Six drop Mono into the abyss as an act of betrayal. She didn’t understand what was happening, but Adam quickly got up to comfort her and had Reginleif finish the game while he consoled his wife.

—

「 ✦ Round 3: Poseidon, Kojiro Sasaki, Hrist ✦ 」 Phasmophobia

જ⁀➴ These three get absolutely nothing done, they’re absolute clowns in the sense Kojiro is just there for a good time, Hrist’s anger side just enjoys messing with the other two, and Poseidon gave up the moment he was handed a controller.

જ⁀➴ Poseidon is the king of dying in the dumbest positions, it’s actually amazing how many times it happens. He hates it, but Kojiro always takes a picture of it.

જ⁀➴ They almost completed one hunt, but got it wrong after Poseidon checked the wrong kind of ghost. Safe to say, he was beyond furious when it happened. Hrist and Kojiro were quick to reassure him though.

જ⁀➴ Kojiro takes every single important item and ends up dying with it on his person, and Hrist always has to rebuy everything.

જ⁀➴ Poseidon hates every second of the hunts, he isn’t amused by anything so anytime the ghost tries to mess with the team he completely ignores it— and gets killed almost every time. The other two are staring to think he does it on purpose to avoid playing.

—

「 ✦ Round 4: Heracles, Jack The Ripper, Hlökk ✦ 」 Five Nights at Freddy’s: Sister Location

જ⁀➴ Hlökk liked the characters designs! They were cute and pink…and then minus the cute part the moment Funtime Freddy’s face opened up. No longer cute, because what the fu-

જ⁀➴ Jack and Heracles got through the main story mode pretty easily, they did struggle in night four though with the spring locks. It took them a few times, but they eventually got it.

જ⁀➴ Then they began playing the custom modes at max difficulty, and everything immediately went to hell because there’s now story in the cutscenes?! All of them are determined to get those endings now, even if it means taking hours on a single mode.

જ⁀➴ They also got the secret ending by escaping going into the scooper room, but the moment Ennard entered the house Hlökk just stared. Jack had to refrain from laughing, and poor Heracles was equally as confused.

જ⁀➴ Managed to complete all the max modes! The three of them were so relieved when it was over, and they don’t exactly want to play that one again. The others? For the lore!

—

「 ✦ Round 5: Shiva, Raiden Tameemon, Thrud ✦ 」 Slender: The Eight Pages

જ⁀➴ Everything went well at first, which is…not surprising. It was tame, and things seemed to be okay. At least that was until they found the first page.

જ⁀➴ The moment Slenderman started showing up, immediately all three of them are challenging him. Shiva with his lust for a fight, he was ready to throw hands the moment he showed his face.

જ⁀➴ Raiden was doing well, at least until they got jump scared the first time and he screamed. It actually startled Shiva by how loud it was, and Thrud was just trying to calm Raiden down.

જ⁀➴ They got close a few times to getting all eight pages, but they finally manage to do it after an hour or two. It was difficult, but they did it.

જ⁀➴ After they completed the game, they weren’t entirely sure what else to do…so they just play again to see if they can do something different, or just see how much they can fuck around while playing. Raiden and Shiva are ready to throw hands with the fictional monster, and Thrud is just trying to survive.

—

「 ✦ Round 6: Zerofuku, Buddha ✦ 」 Poppy Playtime

જ⁀➴ Zerofuku chose the game, thinking it would be tame enough for him to handle. He was ready, he was totally prepared— and then Huggy Wuggy disappeared from the stage and he was clinging onto Buddha.

જ⁀➴ Buddha was pretty relaxed, due to his abilities he was able to predict how the game would go and told Zero to look away whenever he thought the other would get too scared.

જ⁀➴ Zero isn’t too much of a fan of Poppy. Creepy possessed dolls? No thanks! He didn’t like that one bit. Even Buddha didn’t like her, and he was just trying every second to skip the scene with her talking to carry on.

જ⁀➴ The moment Mommy Long Legs showed up they both just noped out of the game and put it down. They were both done with it, not because Buddha or Zerofuku hates spiders, but they were both just so done at that point.

જ⁀➴ Zerofuku loves Candy Cat though, and Buddha found him a small keychain of the blue cat. He would’ve gone bigger, but considering the things he learned about the game and the whole NFT thing, he’ll just get the keychain.

—

「 ✦ Round 7: Hades, Qin Shi Huang, Alvitr ✦ 」 Telltale: The Walking Dead

જ⁀➴ These three are immediately invested. Interesting opening cutscene, and the protagonist seems fun enough. Alvitr loves Lee and Clementine, she’d do anything for those two.

જ⁀➴ Qin Shi Huang and Hades are able to make quick decisions thankfully, but there are some points where they actually have to think because they both choose a different option. It’s a hard debate, but they do pretty well.

જ⁀➴ Alvitr is getting attached to all the characters, though she sometimes gets a bit too passionate. Whenever there’s a character death in a choice she tries to avoid it as much as she can, but then has to accept the inevitable.

જ⁀➴ Qin also gets attached to Lee and Clementine, and is absolutely devastated when Lee gets bit and dies. He saw their bond as something him and Chun Yan had before she also passed on when he was twelve. He had to take a small break before they started the next game.

જ⁀➴ Hades was pretty okay during all of it, but he fell completely silent when the more sad moments in the game happened. He was okay on the surface, but it still hurt after getting attached to the characters.

—

「 ✦ Round 8: Beelzebub, Nikola Tesla, Göndul ✦ 」 Mortuary Assistant

જ⁀➴ These three actually get the main objective complete, though it takes them a while to get there. Beelzebub is already going over the ways to get rid of the demons, meanwhile Göndul and Tesla are paying attention to every little detail.

જ⁀➴ Tesla gets scared twice, whether it’s the first jump scare or the demon straight up on the wall next to him. He isn’t a loud screamer, instead he just huffs and continues on like nothing happened.

જ⁀➴ The moment they have to cremate the demon, Tesla just utters the words “that’s unfortunate” before the player character is blasted into the wall behind them. Göndul tries her best to not laugh as hard as possible, and Beelzebub just gives a shake of his head.

જ⁀➴ These three manage to get all the endings, though they actually struggle to get the bad endings because they just want to do everything correct.

જ⁀➴ Honestly it’s a bit of a relaxed gaming session, they work together to finish the game and they all seem to like the puzzle linked to it. Though Beelzebub always correct the ways the demons should be revealing themselves to a mortal, but it doesn’t last long after he gets every so slightly startled when he turns in game, and the demon is just right behind him.

—

「 ✦ Round 9: Apollo, King Leonidas, Geirölul ✦ 」 Resident Evil Village

જ⁀➴ Leonidas and Geirölul are immediately just powering through everything, they aren’t wasting anytime whatsoever. Get all the good weapons, and get moving. Apollo is quietly watching the other two for the first few minutes, as well as admiring all the details in the locations.

જ⁀➴ They all just share a look the moment they see Lady Dimitrescu, just for a minute before immediately getting back into the game.

જ⁀➴ The moment all three of them got to House Beneviento, all hell seemed to break loose. Leonidas just proceeded to charge in, and then went dead silent the moment he picked up the flask and all his weapons were taken. It just got worse. How could it get worse!

જ⁀➴ The encounter with Mother Miranda right after Heisenberg was WILD. Even Apollo was getting into it right as that happened, all three of them were so hyped up on adrenaline it was insane. There was no rest, they were completing the rest of the game in that sitting.

જ⁀➴ Once the game was over they weren’t done just yet, no, they wanted to play the rest of the series. All three of them were excited to continue, and Apollo just liked watching the other two play. Also because he didn’t want to ruin his nails, he just did them!

—

Enjoy this while I try my best to write something more for you guys 💜

#ror thor #ror lu bu #ror randgriz #ror zeus #ror adam #ror reginleif #ror poseidon #ror kojiro sasaki #ror hrist #ror heracles #ror jack the ripper #ror hlokk #ror shiva #ror raiden tameemon #ror thrud #ror zerofuku #ror buddha #ror hades #ror qin shi huang #ror alvitr #ror beelzebub #ror nikola tesla #ror gondul #ror apollo #ror leonidas #ror geirolul #record of ragnarok #shuumatsu no valkyrie

[complicatedchelsea]

Fallen Through Time For You

Chapter Twelve: Built This House of Memories

Masterlist:

(gif not mine)

(Sydney's POV)

Halloween 1986

“Are you sure we can’t talk you into going, Stevie?” Eddie teased as we waited for Robin to come out of Steve’s house. It was Halloween and Robin insisted she had to get ready at Steve’s because her parents couldn’t know that she was going to party and what she chose to wear would give her mother a ‘heart attack’.

Steve crossed his arms from where he was leaning against the doorway, the sound of the younger ones yelling from the TV room was very prominent. “And leave the kids alone in my house? I think not.”

“Mom doesn’t want to go trick or treating this year?” I teased as I peered through the doorway to see them bickering over a movie.

They had all decided they were too old to go trick or treating, but too young to get any invites to a high school party. With one look from Dustin and Max, Steve had offered up his house for a horror movie marathon, refusing to go to a high school party when Robin offered. Eddie jumped at the suggestion saying that parties were a great place to make some cash and talked me into going because I had never gone to any. Plus spending the night with a potentially drunk Robin? What could  possibly happen?

“Fuck off,” Steve laughed as he nudged me. “Those kids in there couldn’t pay me to go trick or treating with them.” He looked Eddie and I up and down. “I’m surprised he managed to talk you into going.”

“More like she wasn’t going to let me go by myself,” Eddie said as he wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “Do you like our costumes? Sid picked them out.”

“She is right here, thank you very much.” I said with a laugh as Eddie twirled me away from him, dress flaring out. “I couldn’t resist.”

“Are they being gross again?” Robin asked as she made her way towards the door, fixing a generic witch hat over her hair. “I won’t be able to put up with it tonight.”

I stuck my tongue out at her. “You’re just jealous because you didn’t ask Vickie to go with you.”

Robin rolled her eyes with a smile. “Can we talk about your costumes instead? What made you think it was a good idea?”

“You saying I can’t pull off white, Buckley?” Eddie asked as he let go of me to sweep his arms out. 

Eddie let me have full reign over our costumes this year and I just couldn’t resist the duo. After all the shit that happened back in September and being harassed in public (which thankfully had come to almost a complete stop), I had decided that Eddie should be the opposite of what everyone thought he was. Especially if half of the school was going to try and buy from him tonight, I wanted them to work for it. 

I dressed Eddie as an angel. A white, blowy shirt that we definitely took from a pirate's costume, white-tight jeans that showed off his great ass, his white Reeboks that took way too long to clean, and some cheap angel wings we found when we went shopping with Robin. He put his hair up in a loose bun and the whole costume had me flushed since he first walked out of his bedroom with it on. 

Since he was an angel, he insisted on me dressing as the devil. A red colored lace dress, fishnets tucked into a pair of Robin’s boots, fake horns on top of my head, and we topped it all off with one of those plastic pitchforks. Robin thought the matching costumes were hilarious, Steve just shook his head with a sigh claiming he put up with our antics enough during the rest of the year. 

“You are going to be the talk of Hawkins High tomorrow,” Robin said as she hugged Steve and started towards the van. “I can’t wait to watch the jocks squirm tonight.”

“Call me if there are any problems?” Steve asked us before we left. “I’ll come straight over.”

“Don’t worry,” Eddie said as he clasped Steve’s shoulder. “No one is going to piss off the drug dealer at a party and risk getting thrown out.” Eddie shook his metal lunchbox. “Plus I’ve got my own personal devil watching over me tonight, what could go wrong?”

The party was in full swing when we arrived. Eddie parked further up the block, but we could still hear the music when we got out of the van. 

“I’m getting drunk tonight,” Robin said as she put her arm through mine and pulled me towards the house. “I can’t believe this is going to be my last highschool party.”

“Poor Steve is going to have his hands full with you.” Eddie said as he appeared beside me. “You’re not drinking, are you?”

I shook my head. “Even if I liked alcohol, I wouldn’t drink at a highschool party. But no, I’m staying completely sober tonight.”

“I won’t make you drive the van back to Steve’s,” Eddie said as got to the doorway. “If you really wanted to let loose.”

I shrugged. “Alcohol just makes me tired, plus I really don’t fancy my first time getting drunk at a highschool party. Have you seen what they do to the punch? No thank you.”

Eddie just smiled and pushed us through the door. The party was in full swing, music blaring and party-goers dancing around the house. We were barely three steps into the house when one of the Hellfire guy’s caught Eddie.

“Eddie!” He yelled and went in for a hug, punch sloshing out of his cup that Eddie had to avoid. “You made it!”

Eddie laughed and patted him on the shoulder before using that arm to pull me closer. “Wouldn’t miss it. The rest of the boys here?”

He nodded his head towards the back of the house. “Jeff and Gareth have already set a spot on the back porch for you.” Grant nodded our way. “Robin and Sydney! Looking good!”

Robin rolled her eyes with a smile, “I bet you're telling everything lucky lady that tonight.” She looked past them and waved to someone further down the hall. “That is my cue. Find me in a bit?”

Eddie shook his head. “No need. Sweetheart,” Eddie jerked his head towards me. “Keep an eye on that one for me? Come find me in a while, maybe we can scare one of the jocks?”

Eddie wiggled his eyebrows but laughed as Grant started pulling him towards the back of the house and leaving Robin and I to our own devices. I heard Grant give Eddie some shit about his costume and I watched Eddie just shrug his shoulders with a laugh. 

“So alcohol?” Robin asked as she took my hand and led me towards the kitchen. We pushed past plenty of sweaty people, a few that Robin knew and a few that sent me some dirty looks. In the kitchen, there were a handful of people surrounding an orange looking punch bowl, and with one swing from a cup I could see the disgust on Robin’s face. 

“I told you so, babe.” I said, trying to hold back a laugh. “Was it worth it?”

“Shut up,” Robin muttered as she poured herself another cup. “Let’s go have some fun.” 

Robin’s definition of fun was to find the rest of her band friends and proceed to get tipsy as they played different card games. After losing UNO to Vickie again, I left Robin at her side and decided it was time to find Eddie. I hadn't heard anything come from the back of the house, but I missed him. I was expecting a bit more of his presence tonight and possibly getting a few kisses by the angel before the night was over.

When I pulled the sliding door and stepped onto the back deck, I could see the Hellfire boys rough-housing in the yard. Turning to my left, I could see Eddie in all of his “angel” glory sitting on the railing, metal lunchbox sitting next to him as some girl dressed as a cheerleader was handing him some cash. 

“Are you sure I can’t get a discount?” I heard her ask as I walked over. “Surely with how you are dressed tonight you can’t be a little gracious?”

I humphed as I got closer to the pair, making myself and my disgust to the statement known. 

Eddie smiled widely and held out a hand as I passed the girl to help me up on the railing next to him. I intertwined our fingers and used my other hand to wave at the girl. “Are we done here?”

She crossed her arms, pom-poms swishing with the motion. “And who do you think you are?”

I let my smile turn a little sharper and crossed my legs. “Ever heard of the phrase “angel on your shoulder”? Well I’m the “devil of this railing” and I suggest you’d pay the angel or move on.”

“He doesn’t belong to you,” She snarled. “He can do whatever he likes. If he wants to give me a discount, he can give me a discount.”

I laughed and turned to look at Eddie. “Do you not belong to me, baby?”

Eddie leaned forward,a manic grin on his face as he pressed his lips to mine in what I’d call a very possessive gesture. When he pulled back, his hand tugged me closer so I was pressed up against him, his hand falling to squeeze my thigh. “It’s written right here on my wrist, so I’d say I belong to her. Now are you going to pay full price or not?”

She gave him the money with a huff, making her way back inside and slamming the sliding door back closed. Eddie chuckled and tossed the money into his lunchbox before turning his attention back towards me. 

“Having fun?”

I shrugged. “I missed you. There’s only so much I can take from drunk nerds and their card games.”

Eddie laughed and leaned forward to press his face into my neck, his nose rubbing against me. “I missed you too, sweetheart. I’ve been so lonely without my other half tonight.”

“Anyone give you any trouble?” I asked as he sat back up, a loving smile on his face as he looked at me. 

“Just you,” he said as he closed the lunchbox. “I think I’ve sold enough for the night. Gotta keep enough for my regular’s tomorrow.”

A yell from the yard drew our attention as we watched Grant and Jeff try to dog pile on top of Gareth. They landed in a pile, resounding groans coming from them as the rest of the party goers continued around them. 

“So,” Eddie started to get my attention. I watched him check his watch, “We have almost two hours before we said we’d get Robin home. Do you wanna check on her and maybe find an empty room and give you the full party experience?”

“Edward Munson,” I gasped mockingly and pressed my free hand to my chest. “How easy do you think I am?”

Eddie’s face turned red and he gently shoved me as he jumped down. “It’s your mind that went to the gutter! I was suggesting getting high-my true party experience bu-”

I leaned forward to kiss him and stop whatever train of thought that was about to come out of his mouth. 

“How about this?” I asked as I pulled back to see the dopey look on his face. I flushed slightly at the thought that I was the one to pull that expression out of him. “Let’s go check on Robin and just maybe you can show me some of the highlights of a highschool party?”

Three hours later we had finally gotten a drunk Robin back to Steve’s. Eddie helped me drag her to the couch and I took off her boots as Eddie went to collect the rest of her stuff from the van. 

“I thought you were going to watch her!” Steve said as he pulled a blanket over her. Robin smiled drunkenly from the couch, going on about something Vickie and one of the other girls did in the one hour that Eddie and I was missing.

“We did! It’s not my fault she got talked into shots the one hour that I was occupied!”

“Occupied?” Steve asked with his signature hands-on-his-hips pose. “What could you have possibly been doing?”

When I didn’t answer, Eddie decided it was the perfect moment to enter the room. He was tying his hair back up, exposing all the work I did to his neck. 

“What’s all the yelling about?”

Steve took one look at me and how my hair was hiding my neck  and to Eddie, his neck now proudly showing off what we got up to in that hour. 

“You two,” Steve pointed between us. “Are taking the guest bedroom tonight. If you make any noise to wake me, I will not be happy. Got it?”

“Steve!” I exclaimed as Eddie laughed. 

“Don’t worry Stevie,” Robin slurred from the couch. “Vickie talked me into it, just a little bit of Vodka!”

Steve groaned and pressed the palms of hands to his eyes. “This is what’s going to finally kill me.”

Thanksgiving 1986

“Wayne, are you sure there isn’t anything I can do?” I asked from the table. Wayne was stirring a pot on the stove; he had been in the kitchen all day excited to prepare Thanksgiving dinner for the group that was coming tonight. Well, a group that consisted of Max and Steve. After I found out that Steve was going to be alone for Thanksgiving, it didn’t take much to persuade Wayne to invite him over. Same deal with Max, her mom was working the late shift for extra cash and I couldn’t just leave her across the street. Wayne always understood when I made requests like this; taking in Eddie when he had no one else. Wayne knew what it was like to have a mismatched family. 

 “I could at least-”

Wanye didn’t hesitate to send me the look that I had been well acquainted with over the last few months. I thought Eddie was stubborn? Wayne put the man to shame. I had been trying to barter with him all day, to let me do something to help out. But Wayne dug his heels in, claiming that what I made for dessert was going to be good enough. Dinner wasn’t going to be ready for at least another hour, but Steve had already called and said he was on his way, bringing over a movie that he claimed he always watched at this time when he was a kid. Max was already over, sitting in front of the TV with Eddie watching an episode of Scooby-Doo and the both of them were already in their PJ’s. It was a Munson tradition to wear PJ’s for the major holidays; Eddie said it was because of the shifts that Wayne used to work when he was younger. Eddie just getting up and Wayne getting ready to go to bed. 

“Sweetheart,” Eddie said as he outstretched a hand in my direction. “Please come sit with us. I promise it won’t kill you.”

“I just might if you get gross,” Max said from his side. 

“What about you and Lucas?” I asked as I rolled my eyes and left Wayne to his devices to sit with them. I took Eddie’s outstretched hand and he pulled into his lap without warning. Max made a sound of protest and rolled her eyes, but didn’t say anything else as she shared the blanket with the two of us. 

“What are you going to do when Steve gets here?” Max asked. “Can four people really fit on this small couch?”

Eddie sent me a mischievous look. “Well he can just sit on your lap then!”

Max snorted. “In your dreams.”

I laughed and Eddie just sighed dramatically and dropped his head to the back of the couch. “I guess he’ll just have to sit on top of you, sweetheart. It’ll be like a Steve and Eddie sandwich.”

I shook my head, the ridiculous image coming to mine. “Please don’t, the couch would just break under our weight.”

Max laughed and tugged on the blanket a bit in warning. “Here comes the good part.”

It was weird, watching an episode of Scooby-Doo a week after it came out when I had seen it from my time, way ahead of its actual air time. There was one week when Eddie was watching Saturday cartoons that I had spoiled the episode by accident because it was one that I had repeatedly seen in my time, but in this present time it was just airing. Eddie had pouted the whole day, refusing to forgive me until I had kissed it out of him later that night. 

Eddie was sitting mostly still, one hand rubbing up and down my back and the other messing with my fingers in my lap. I could tell he was excited. This was the first year that Wayne was actually here for the day of the holiday and he had more family over. He had woken me up so excited that morning, kissing every inch of my face as he rattled off all that he had planned. After dinner we were going to go over to the Byers-Hopper house (which came to a shock to no one when El showed up to invite everyone) for dessert, and Eddie had something planned for all the freshmen that he wouldn’t even tell me about.

It wasn’t too much later that there was a knock on the door before the door opened and Steve peered into the living room. “Happy Thanksgiving!”

Max echoed the sentiment with her eyes still glued to the TV as Steve sent the both of us a smile as he shut the door and hung his jacket by the door. “Scooby-Doo again?”

“How many times do I have to tell you, Harrignton?” Eddie mocked as he moved me off his lap to stand up. “If you are going to hate on Scooby-Doo, you won’t be allowed back in this house.”

Wayne made a noise in the kitchen. “Stop terrorizing our house guests! Steve, do you mind helping me with something for a minute?”

My mouth fell open in betrayal as Steve made his way into the kitchen, passing Eddie the movie he brought with him. Max scooted closer to me, laying her head on my shoulder and threading her arm through mine. “Thank you for inviting me.”

“Of course, squirt,” I said as I rested my head on hers. “I wasn’t going to leave all alone next door. You guys are the first family I’ve had in a long time.”

“Me too,” Max admitted to me, but she didn’t dare move her eyes away from the screen. “Since everything, Eddie’s made a point to check in with me, but since you’ve been here it’s like I have an older sister across the road. It’s been nice having someone else to rely on.”

I moved to pull Max into a side-hug. “You’re like the sister I never knew I needed, Max. Anytime you need me, just come straight over. I need you guys just as much as you need me.”

Max didn’t reply verbally, just chose to cuddle closer to me as we watched the episode progress. It wasn’t too much later before Wayne called for dinner, all five of us deciding to sit around the coffee table in the small space. 

“So,” Wayne started as he settled into his recliner angled towards the coffee table. He placed his coffee down and set his plate in his lap. “Eds and I have this tradition where we like to say one thing that we are thankful for that happened this year. I’d like to do that this year if everyone is alright with it?”

When none of us complained, Wayne smiled and picked his mug up. “While I have a lot to be thankful for this year, I’m thankful for the health of my nephew. I know that whatever happened during Spring Break was drastic, but I’m eternally grateful that he gets to sit here with me today.”

Wayne smiled at all of us. “Eds?”

Eddie cleared his throat, his face flushing slightly as he looked around the table and his gaze settled on me. He reached his hand over to grasp mine. “I’m thankful that I finally got to meet you this year, sweetheart. While it wasn’t the best circumstances, I’m so glad that I was able to have you in life. Even though you’ve only been here a few months, these have been the best months I’ve ever had.”

I squeezed his hand back. “I’m thankful that I was able to be with you, too. For whatever that brought me here, I have to be thankful that they brought me to you. My life was so boring without you, Eddie. And now I can’t imagine a day without you. You’ve given me a better family than I’ve ever had.”

Eddie sent a wide smile. 

Max cleared her throat. “Can I go now?”

It was two hours later that we found ourselves at the Byers-Hopper house. Wayne chose to stay back, wanting to watch the game and turn in early before his shift. He looked so happy as he hugged us bye, making us promise that we would bring him a piece of pie back. 

He stopped me just before I walked out, everyone already waiting in Steve’s car with Max arguing over the radio. “I wanted you to know that I’m thankful for you too, Sydney. With you being here, I’ve never seen Eddie so happy. You’re a part of this family now and for every future holiday.”

“Wayne,” I said as I felt my throat get thick with emotion. “You’re my family too. I’m so thankful that you took one look at me and decided I would be a part of your family.”

I was now sitting on the porch swing like I did my very first night, but this time I was watching through the window as most of everyone was laughing in the living room, some movie that Will put in was playing on the TV. Eddie had his journal in hand, Will and Jonanthan at his side as he made gestures to some conversation I couldn’t hear. I was okay with sitting out here to watch them for a bit, the love I was feeling making my chest feel full. 

“Sydney?” I turned to see El standing at the doorway. “Can I join you?”

I patted the seat next to me as El joined me on the swing, spreading a blanket over us that I didn’t see her bring out. “What are you doing out here?”

“I just needed a moment,” I said as I started to push us, El curling up beside me. “This is the first happy Thanksgiving I’ve had in a long time. No fighting, no passive-aggressive comments. I just needed a moment to soak it all in out here.”

“This is the first Thanksgiving I’ve had with everyone together,” El said. “Last year we were in California and while it was nice being with Joyce and Jonathan and Will, I missed Dad so much. I keep waiting for something to happen.”

“Me too, kiddo.” I said as I moved an arm to bring her into a side hug. “Nothing’s going to happen to us, all those people in that room would lie down their lives for you.”

“You too,” El argued. “You are just as important. We are all important to each other.”

I didn’t bother to argue with her and just kept swinging us. El was quiet for a few moments, following my gaze through the window. Joyce and Hopper had made their way into the living room, Hopper’s arm around Joyce as she laughed at something Steve said. 

“Dad says that he’s your guardian now, like he’s mine.” El said as she peered up at me.

I nodded. “Murray had to have a paper trail follow me here. The only way that he could do that is if he had me “placed” in Hopper’s care. Are you okay with it?”

El’s eyebrows furrowed. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

I shrugged. “I’m used to people not wanting me.”

El sighed. “Well we both now have people that want us. Does that make you scared?”

“It does.” I paused. “There are some days that I am scared that I will wake up back in my old life and have no way to get back to Eddie.”

El shook her head. “I’d never let that happen. I’d find you anywhere that you’d go to.”

I hugged her closer to me. “I know you would.”

El sat up, determination etched into her face. “I don’t think you do, that’s why you are sitting out here. Away from everyone. You are a part of this family, Sydney. You are my sister just like Hopper is my dad. We are not related by blood, but that doesn’t matter.”

I pulled El into a strong hug, her arms coming around me to hold me just as tough. I let her break the hug, pulling back to wipe some of the tears that gathered under her eyes. 

“If I wanted to have a family dinner, would you come?” El asked. “Just us and Dad?”

“You could make it a weekly thing and I’d be there.” I said as El smiled and tugged me off the swing. 

I followed her into the house with no complaints, only being stopped as Hopper pulled the both of us into a hug. Eddie was waiting for me on the couch,  arms wide as I sat in his lap.

“Are you okay?” He asked me quietly so no one else would hear.

I looked around at the group in the living room. Steve and Robin taking the other end of the couch and throwing popcorn at each other, Dustin and Lucas arguing on the floor in front of the TV, and Joyce and Hopper sharing a mug between them.  

“I feel really loved,” I answered as I snuggled closer to him. “Thank you for letting me be a part of this.”

Eddie pressed a kiss against my cheek in response and just tightened his arms around me. “Thank you for wanting to be a part of it.”

Christmas 1986

When I came to, it was to Eddie’s humming and the soft touch of his hands down my back. I laid there for a moment, soaking it in and wondering how I got so lucky that I could wake up to this now. That Eddie shared his touch so easily with me, like we couldn’t survive without each other. When I opened my eyes, I became aware of our placement. Sometime during the night, Eddie had ended up on his back, myself draped over him and curled to his chest. Eddie’s head was leaned back on to his pillow with his eyes closed but looking completely content in the moment. 

His eyes peaked open and glanced down at me. When he saw that I was awake, his humming abruptly stopped as a wide smile stretched across his lips. “Merry Christmas, sweetheart.”

I couldn’t help but grin back. “Happy first Christmas, baby.”

His eyes brightened in excitement. “Shit, it is our first Christmas. How does it feel?”

“Just waking up with you is making it number one for me,” I enjoyed the way Eddie’s face flushed. 

He groaned and his arms moved from around me to cover his eyes. “Do you have to be so sweet in the morning?”

I moved to straddle his lap and pouted at him. “You won’t let me be sweet on you at Christmas?”

Eddie peaked his eyes out of his arms. “Are you really asking me that, sweetheart?”

Before I could process, Eddie had flipped us, me underneath him as he straddled me now, moving his hands to my hips as he leaned down to kiss at my face, his curly hair tickling my neck. I laughed as he squeezed at my sides, legs kickin to get him off of me. 

“Eddie” I laughed out. “Get off of me!”

“That’s not my name, sweetheart.” Eddie sang as his kisses became more sloppy and moved down to my neck.  

“Baby,” I relented as I pushed my hands into his hair, still giggling. “Please!”

Eddie’s hands stopped and slid up to cup my face. “Was that so hard?”

I shoved at him before he caught my hands and held them over my head as he leaned down to give me a proper kiss. I sank back into the pillows, too occupied with his mouth to form a smartass remark.

A banging on the bedroom door broke us apart, Eddie’s face hiding in my neck as I felt the heat that came off his cheek from his embarrassment. 

“Kiddos! I made breakfast!” Wayne shouted from the other side of the door. “Come out so we can celebrate Christmas!”

I giggled quietly as Eddie groaned in my neck before he sat up in my lap. I raised myself onto my elbows as he stretched his arms over his head before looking down at me. I felt myself flush under his gaze. “What?”

He smiled before rolling off of me and standing next to the bed to help me up. “Just looking at you, sweetheart. Just looking at you.”

Similar to their Thanksgiving traditions, the Munson’s had their fair share of Christmas traditions. Wayne made a huge real breakfast in the morning, pancakes from scratch that barely took any begging from Eddie to have chocolate chips in them. Eddie turned the TV to a channel that was showing kid’s cartoons, claiming that when Wayne worked the night shift he would come home and watch a few cartoons with Eddie before opening gifts and heading to bed. Some Scooby-Doo episode played on the TV as Eddie made sure I was comfortable before heading to help Wayne in the kitchen. I couldn’t even complain before Eddie was throwing a blanket on top of me and giving me a mug of hot chocolate with a look that said not to move. 

When breakfast was finished, Eddie returned with two plates stacked high with pancakes and just downed in syrup. “Are you trying to give me diabetes?”

Wayne laughed as he dropped into the recliner next to me, his plate stacked just as high but missing the sugary syrup. “I don’t know how he doesn’t have it already with all the sugar he eats.”

I pouted as Edddie sat next to me, fixing the blanket in my lap and moving my mug to the coffee table.”You eat all this sugar but won’t let me be sweet on you?”   

Wayne let out a gruff laugh as Eddie’s face turned red and instead of replying he just shoved a bag of pancake in his mouth.

Eddie could barely wait for Wayne and I to finish breakfast, bouncing on the touch and taking the plates to the kitchen to soak while Wayne sat up with a groan and headed towards the tiny tree in the corner of the living room.  It was a whole event to get the Christmas tree up. I had never had a real Christmas tree before with my father being allergic, and Wayne had just pulled the most offended face and we went that day to get one. When Wayne had left for work that night, Eddie and I spent hours decorating the TV and different parts of the trailer with Metallic playing on low. Eddie had demanded that we spent the night watching Christmas movies and combating the coldness of the trailer. 

Now, in the present watching Wayne open the gift that the kids picked out, it felt like my first real Christmas. No being forcibly woken up to cook breakfast or either being given the cold shoulder because the gift wasn’t deemed “expensive” enough. But now, watching Eddie as he pulled out another Garfield mug to add to the collection, this felt like an actual Christmas. 

“Now,” Wayne started as he put the rest of the wrapping paper in a trash bag. “I have one more gift for you, kiddo. It’s not anything special, but I just wanted you to have it.”

Wayne reached into the tree and pulled out a tiny wrapped box. He handed it to me silently, choosing to take a seat on the coffee table in front of me. With a questioning glance at Eddie and one sent back at me, I unwrapped it to find a very tiny white box. 

“Wayne-” I started. 

“Sydney, just open it.”

Inside the box was a golden key. 

“Now I know that you have lived here for months,” Wayne started as I stared down at the key. Is this what I thought it was? “And you’ve been a part of this family since the moment Eddie brought you through that door. But you deserve a key because this is your home and I need you to feel like you are welcome here. No matter what happens kiddo, you always will have a home in this trailer.”

I felt my throat get thick with emotion and tears blurred my vision as I looked at Wayne. 

“Are you sure?”

Wayne let out a gruff chuckle and pulled me forward into a tight hug. I wrapped my arms tight around him in return, my new house key pressing harshly into my palm. “Kiddo, there is nothing more I want than you having a place here.”

I laughed wetly and felt Eddie wrap his arms around me, pressing a kiss to the top of my head. I was surrounded by my new family, one that I didn’t know how I got so lucky to belong to. 

Several hours later, Eddie offered the idea of going on a walk before the sunset and the temperature got too low outside. We left Wayne inside to a sports game and I got to lock the trailer door with my new key, Eddie laughing at my excitement.    

Bundled in several layers to ward off the cold, Eddie walked us around until we reached a rusted out playground on the other side of the trailer park. He wasted no time pulling me over to the iced over swings, taking off one his layers to place on the swing before forcing me to sit and push me gently. It started to snow softly around us, the sun becoming more and more amber in the sky, creating a beautiful sunset in the midst of the cold in Hawkins. 

“How does this Christmas rank now, sweetheart?” Eddie asked me from behind. His hands gently pushed my upper back, my feet making trails in the packed snow below me. “Is it number one?”

I planted my feet to stop the swinging, making Eddie pause for a moment before his hands left my shoulder and then he was kneeling in front of me. His beautiful brown eyes were glowing in the setting sun, his cheeks rosy against the harsh cold. I moved to take a glove off, wanting to touch his rosy skin with my hands. 

“Just waking up with you this morning already made it number one.” I confessed, my breathing coming out in a cloud of fog between us, his breath matching mine. “But I don’t think I’ve ever felt as loved as I have today.”

Eddie smiled widely, biting at his lip as he rested his arms on my dangling legs. “Really?”

In this moment, in front me, Eddie looked so perfect. With the snow gently falling around us and landing in his beautiful curls, to the way he looked at me. An emotion so great swelled in my chest, one that had been slowly building since I woke up here all those months ago. It was burning in my veins, feeling up every inch of me on the inside; fighting to get out and to be known to him. 

“I think I’m falling in love with you.” I confessed to him, my quiet voice carrying across the frozen wonderland. 

Eddie’s face didn’t change for a moment. His eyes searched mine before his cheeks flushed even more and his smile won out against him biting his lip. He leaned up at me to kiss me so softly, his gloved hands cradling my face like I was the most precious thing he had ever held in his life. The moment was so tender, so sweet, that I felt tears start to swell in my eyes. I had never been held this tenderly, kissed with this much emotion that I could feel it being passed back to me through the mark.  

“Sydney.” Eddie breathed as he pulled back and moved his hands from my face. He tore his gloves off in a hurry, his hand searching for my wrist and running his fingers over our mark. “Falling? Sweetheart, I fell for you the moment I saw my name on your wrist. I’ve been in love with you for all of my life, I just hadn’t met you yet. But I can wait for you to catch up, to be completely in love with me. I’ve waited lifetimes for you, what’s a little more?”

For a second time that day, I cried. I leaned down to meet him halfway again, kissing him with what I hoped was every ounce of love I had in my body. Eddie sighed quietly, and the adoration that he felt for me, I could feel that tenfold through the mark. He only pulled back when he needed to breathe and with a mischievous smile, he pulled me down into the snow next to him. Our laughter lighting up the snow-filled sky. 

1987

“So no vodka for you,” Steve said as he snatched the bottle out of Robin’s hand and replaced it with a wine glass that I believe was filled with a softer liquor. “I am not having a repeat of Halloween.”

Robin protested at Steve as he sat down next to her on the pool lounger, tugging his bottle of beer closer to his chest. 

I felt Eddie’s chest shake into my back as he wrapped his arms tighter around me, grabbing at the blanket that Steve threw overtop of us when he took all of us out here. It was a last minute decision to have a New Year’s Eve party at his house, but Steve wanted to be able to celebrate the new year with the people he loved. Even if that included all the underage ones in the house, watching the ball drop with cups of apple cider that they liked to pretend was alcohol. 

Steve, Robin, Nancy, Jonathan, Eddie, and I were all camped out by the pool, drinks in hand as the year was counting down. Nancy talking about how excited she was to be able to graduate and attend Emerson, Robin choosing to take a gap-year to figure out exactly what she wanted to do, and Eddie determined to make ‘87 his year and finally get done with Hawkins High. 

“Did you accomplish any of your new year resolutions?” Nancy asked me. “Do you have any in mind for next year?”

I smiled as I cuddled closer to Eddie, feeling his arms tighten around me in return and a kiss being pressed to the back of my head. “As corny as it might sound, I actually think I did. I, ah, I said that I was finally gonna get out there and find people of my own. I was going to try and move out from under my parents and become my own person.” I turned my head to look up at Eddie. “I kind of did all of that in one day, didn’t I?”

Eddie smiled sweetly down at me. “What are you gonna set for this year?”

“Ah, ah.” I said as I waved a finger at him. “I don’t think I should tell you, you might try to steal mine.”

Eddie gasped dramatically and pulled me closer to him, teetering us over the side of the chair. “The betrayal!”

I laughed and heard the sound of groans around us. Nancy cleared her throat and when I looked at her, she was smiling. “As happy as it makes us that you two are happy, I might just wish for a little less PDA this year.”

Steve raised his beer in agreement and Eddie’s mouth dropped open. “We aren’t that bad!”

Jonathan snorted into his cup and Eddie had the audacity to look shocked. 

“Baby,” I said as drew his attention towards me. “We are kind of clingy.”

“Clingy?” Eddie repeated and scoffed. “If they think this is clingy then they haven’t seen anything yet.”

Before Nancy could argue, the backdoor slid open with El and Will standing in the doorway. El was bouncing with excitement. “It’s about to start! Come in so you can do the countdown with us.”

Jonathan laughed and pulled Nancy up with him as they started towards the door. With a ruffle of Will’s hair, the three of them disappeared into the doorway. Steve pushed Robin off the chair with a laugh and the two of them bickered as Robin threw an arm around El and they made their way into the house. As I stood up to take Eddie with me, he stopped me. 

“Do you think we could stay out here for this?” He asked me as I sat back down in front of him, his hand already reaching for mine. “I want to be able to kiss you and not hear any complaints from there.”

“You know they were just teasing us, right?” I asked him as I let him take my hand. I don’t think there would ever be a day that I wouldn’t not let him take it. “But if you want to stay out here, that’s fine with me.”

Eddie smiled and his cheeks flushed. “No, I know. I just want to be with you for the countdown. Bring the year in together, just us?”

I laughed and leaned into his space to kiss his cheek. “That’s fine with me.”

Eddie settled back against the chair and with grabbing motion towards me, I let him pull me back against his chest. He moved us forward just a bit so he could pull the blanket back over us, and then sighed as he settled down behind me. 

“So,” Eddie started, his fingers tracing shapes around my mark. No matter where we were, or where he was touching me, Eddie’s hands always seemed drawn to my mark. “I have to make sure before the new year comes ringing in. I’m your boyfriend, right?”

I let out a surprised laugh but stopped when I realized that Eddie had froze behind me. I moved forward in his lap so I could turn to face him. “Wait, you’re not serious are you? Of course you are, Eddie.”

Eddie’s gaze moved to his lap, his fingers twisting around each other. “It’s just, I didn’t think I asked you?”

“Why wouldn’t you be?” I asked him. “We are soulmates, aren’t we?”

Eddie groaned and pushed his palms against his eyes. “I just got nervous about asking you! I just wanted to make sure that we were going into 1987 being on the same page!”

“Baby,” I sighed softly and moved so I could take his hands away from his eyes and intertwine them with my own. “What’s going on?”

Eddie took a moment to look up at me. “You’ve been here about three months, right?”

I nodded and squeezed his hands. “And?”

Eddie shrugged. “I was just thinking about the future today. It’s about to be the new year. New year means that things are going to be changing. Are you going to go through these changes with me?”

“Baby,” I said as I moved forward to be completely in his lap. “Wherever you go, I go. Whatever we decide to get up to this year, I’m going to be right beside you.”

“Are you scared?” Eddie asked me.

“Not since the day I met you,” I told him and I meant it. Sure, I was worried and had a minor freakout about my predicament. But being with Eddie felt right, being here in 1986 with him I felt more at home than I ever had. 

Eddie smiled and we could hear the start of the countdown from inside the house. He wrapped his arms around me, drawing me closer to him with our chests brushing against each other. I felt his warm breath hit my face and the cold air around us seemed to disappear. 

“To making ’87 our year,” Eddie murmured against my lips as loud cheers reached our ears. He surged forward to bring his lips completely against mine, kissing me passionately as I heard the noise of some fireworks going off in the distance. When I pulled back, I could see the lights reflecting off his beautiful face. 

“I love you,” I breathed into the air between us. 

Eddie’s eyes searched mine, his chest rising and falling harshly against mine. When he found what he was looking for, a love-sick smile made its way across his face 

“I know,” Eddie muttered. 

It took me a moment to process his response before I reared back, leaning as much as I could out of his space with his arms around me. “I know? Eddie, did you just quote fucking Star Wars to me?” 

Eddie’s mouth dropped open in amusement and I just pushed against him trying to get out of his lap. “I take it back.”

“Wait!” Eddie laughed as I stood up and wrapped the blanket around me. “Sydney! Don’t walk away! I’m sorry, sweetheart!.”

“It’s too late!” I said dramatically as I pushed away his arm as he tried to stand up. “I can’t believe you quoted Star Wars to me the first time I said I loved you!”

Eddie fell off the chair and grabbed at my ankle as I went to walk towards the house.

“Sweetheart!” Eddie laughed and I could barely keep my laughter in. He knew I wasn’t mad at him, he could feel the adoration I had for him through the mark. “I love you! Please!” 

Valentines Day 1987

“Steve!” Robin groaned. “Do not start this now!”

“I’m just saying,” Steve argued back at Robin. “Eddie has the advantage that Sydney is literally his soulmate, she has to like his flirting. That aside, I don’t think Eddie is that good at flirting!”

Currently Eddie and I had gone into Family Video to rent a movie and were sucked into an argument that Steve and Robin were currently having. Steve was laminating about his lack of dates for Valentine’s Day while Robin had blamed it on his horrible flirting. 

I snorted and Steve sent me an annoyed look. “I’m sorry Steve. Objectively, I am not going to be able to help with your argument. I can hardly tell when Eddie is flirting half the time.”

Eddie’s mouth dropped open. “I flirt with you all the time!”

I waved my hand. “Point made. Social cues, not really my thing. If Eddie’s name wasn’t on my wrist, I don’t think I would have realized he was it for me until he literally had to spell it out in front of me.”

Eddie gawked at me while Robin tried to hide her laughter behind her hand. “Do you think you could do any better?”

I raised my eyebrows at Eddie. “Is that a challenge?”

Eddie moved to lean his back against the counter, elbows bent and resting there. I moved to step in front of him, Steve and Robin taking a step back from the counter to watch us. I took a moment to gather my thoughts before I let a small smile paint my lips. 

“Eddie, baby. Can I hold your hand?” 

I heard Steve scoff from behind Eddie, but I paid it no mind as I stepped into Eddie’s space and held my out for him to place his in. Eddie’s eyes were wide, but gave nothing away as he gently placed his hand in mine. I made a point to gently trace a finger around his palm before I flipped his hand over and traced at his knuckles. 

“As nice as your hand feels in mine,” I started as I gazed up at him under my lashes trying to hood my eyes. “I think it might feel better wrapped around my neck.”

Eddie sucked in a shocked breath, his face turning very red. I heard Steve sputter and Robin bust into laughter. 

“I-uh.” Eddie tried to say as he stood up from his slouched position, but making sure his hand stayed in mine. “Sweetheart?”

Steve threw his hands up and I couldn’t help but giggle as I leaned closer to Eddie. 

“Didn’t mean to fluster you, baby.” I said as I dropped his hand and moved to push a rouge hair from his ponytail behind his ear. “Just had to let you see how well I can dish it out.”

Eddie’s other hand came up to rest against his chest, his face still beet red. “You can’t say things like that to me in public, sweetheart.”

Steve slapped a case down on the counter behind Eddie. “That is so not fair. I can’t just say that to a girl!”

I shrugged my shoulders. “Maybe to the ones you are chasing. But the right one? You’ll have her melting in her seat.”

Robin had finally quieted down before reaching forward with her hand above Eddie’s shoulder. I slapped her open palm for a high-five while Eddie just rolled his eyes with a smile. “You gotta teach me how to flirt with girls like that. Steve is no help at all!”

Steve sputtered again. “Robin!”

“It’s okay, Stevie.” I teased as I moved around Eddie to pat his hand. “You know how to flirt with some girls. I might just help Robin with the rest.”

Steve just took a deep breath as he stared at the ceiling. We all gave him a moment, fighting smiles as Steve had to reel himself in. He cleared his throat. “To change topics, what is everyone doing for Valentine’s Day?”

Robin shuffled some cases around. “Vickie and I might be going to see a movie?”

“Robin!” I exclaimed excitedly. “Look at you!”

Robin shrugged. “I don’t know if it’s a date. How do you see if it’s a date without giving it away that you want it to be a date?”

Steve shrugged. “You’ll know.”

Robin groaned and lowered her head into her hands. “That’s literally no help.”

“I’ve got something planned,” Eddie butted in. He sent me a wink. “Something that you’ll definitely enjoy.”

“You’re not going to share with the class?” I asked with a smile as I leaned into his side. “You know I don’t like surprises.”

“Oh, I know.” Eddie chuckled as his arm wrapped around my shoulders to keep me there. “But you won’t know until than.”

That’s all Eddie gave me, and I had to wait days to find out. Valentines Day fell on friday, which meant Eddie still had to go to school and our plans had to wait until after. Before I headed to Steve’s for the day, I stuck an obnoxious card in his lunchbox for him to find during the day. When school ended and I tagged along with Steve for Robin pickup, Eddie was sitting at the back of his van with both doors thrown open. He didn’t waste any time throwing the passenger door open and pulling me from Steve’s car, twirling me in a circle.

“Eddie!” I laughed as I lost my balance and fell into his chest. 

“Sydney,” Eddie said as his arms wrapped around my waist. “You can’t just leave cards for me to find like that. I might think you’re in love with me.”

My face flushed as I peered up at him. “I love you.”

Eddie groaned and his head fell back. “You can’t just say things like that!”

I laughed and moved out of the way so Robin could get in the passenger seat. “Have fun!”

Robin gave me thumbs up as Steve drove off and it just left Eddie and I in the parking lot. “C’mon,” Eddie said as he tugged me towards the van. “We have to go back to the trailer to change and then we will be on our way.”

To my surprise, when we got back to the trailer Eddie insisted that we change into some PJ’s. Giving me a hoodie of his to wear, he sent me off the bathroom to change with a promise of dinner. Once we were both changed, we got into the van and Eddie started driving in the direction of town. No matter how much I pleaded, the man would not give any answers. 

When Eddie parked next to the diner that we usually go to, I sent him a questioning glance as he told me to stay put and raced to the doors. He came back a few minutes later with a bag full of takeout boxes that he put in the back and would not let me peek. After we were driving a few minutes, I realized that the area around us was getting more and more wooded. 

“Where exactly are we going?” I asked him as he turned off onto a dirt road. 

Eddie groaned but sent me a smile as he turned the music down. “I guess I can’t really ruin the surprise since we are already here. I figured I would take you to Lover’s Lake to enjoy a picnic and watch the stars once it got dark. I thought that everywhere else in town would be busy, and I know that you would be more comfortable out here.”

I reached over to grasp his hand. “That sounds perfect.”

Once we got to the lake, Eddie parked with the back doors to the lake. He jumped out to get the back situated and I was surprised to see the amount of blankets and pillows stashed at the back of the van. 

“Are we having a sleepover?” I teased as I crawled between the seats instead of getting out and going around. “Is that why we are in our PJ’s?”

Eddie shrugged with a smile. “Since someone has a habit of falling asleep against me, I figured we might want to be comfortable. Plus, it’s going to get chilly later and I hate for you to get cold.”

Eddie was right. Once we had finished dinner and laid out to watch the sky darken, it was so peaceful I could fall asleep right against him. He was so warm, laying against all the pillows in the back of the van, the cool air blowing through the open doors. His voice was gentle and with the tone he was using to tell me about the latest campaign, I felt so at peace with him here. 

“Sweetheart,” Eddie nudged me as the sky got completely dark and the stars were shining brightly in the sky. “Can I give you my gift?”

I let him sit me up as he reached for something behind the driver seat. I moved to my bag, pulling out a small wrapped box as well. 

“Can I go first?” I asked him as he moved to sit with his legs dangling out of the van. 

Eddie smiled and held out his hand for the small gift. He didn’t open it, motioning for me to continue. “I really didn’t know what to get you for Valentine’s Day. Sure, I could get you some material items, but I wanted to get you something special.”

When I motioned towards the box, Eddie ripped open the wrapping paper and moved to take the cover off the box to see a ring sitting in the middle of the box. I felt my face flush a bit. “I know that you already have all these rings, but I came across this when Robin, Max, and I went shopping a few weeks ago. I know that you already have my name on your wrist, but I wanted to see something else of mine on you too.”

The ring was simple. It had a thick band, colored dark gray, and had a small moth etched into the top of the ring. When Eddie turned it over, he could see that I had our initials engraved inside the band of the ring. With another glance at me, Eddie slid it onto his ring finger, sitting proudly with the others of that hand. 

“Sweetheart,” Eddie said as he cupped my face to kiss me. The rings cool against my cheeks. “I love it.”

“It doesn’t have to mean anything!” I rushed out to say it because of the load of anxiety that washed over me. “I just wanted you to have something else to look down on and remind you of me. Also, it seemed like a really cool vintage ring and this one you don’t have to tape to fit your fingers!”

“Sydney” Eddie laughed softly as his hands tightened on my face. “I know and one day it just might mean something else. But for right now, I know what it is.”

I know that I was smiling love-sick at him, but I couldn’t care. Not with the emotions that I felt in my chest and pulsing at my wrist. “I love you.”

Eddie dropped his hands to thrust his gift at me. “Open it.”

I took the box gently, carefully opening it to see his guitar pick necklace sitting there. “Eddie?”

“I love you, sweetheart.” Eddie started as he reached forward to get the chain out. In that moment when he leaned over, I noticed for the first time that I didn’t see that chain wrapped around his neck. “I had a similar thought. I know that my name is etched into your skin and just seeing it some days brings me so much joy. But I couldn’t resist giving you the necklace. Now when you have your wrist covered, everyone will be able to see that necklace and see that you are mine.”

For the first time in a while, I felt pressure behind my eyes as I willed myself not to cry. Eddie moved to clasp the necklace around my neck, leaning back to let it fall against my chest as it seemed to catch some of the light from the stars above. “Hey,” Eddie cooed softly as he reached forward to brush at my cheeks. “What’s wrong, pretty girl?”

I sniffled and moved to place one of my hands against his. “Nothing. I just didn’t think I would ever be here with someone like you.”

“Yeah?” Eddie asked me with a smile.

“I love you so much,” I told him. “And there are days that I just look at you and I can feel it tenfold back through the mark and I just wonder about how I got so lucky. I literally fell into your lap.” I laughed wetly. “And giving me this means so much to me. You wear this everyday, aren’t you going to miss it?”

“I have something else to wear now,” Eddie said as he wiggled his hand at me. “But I love you too, sweetheart. I will never have to doubt anything because there are days for me too that I just look at you and I can feel all of it.”

Eddie dropped his hand and with a wave of his fingers, I followed his movements so I was laying against him in the back of the van. We could still see some of the stars that were further out in the distance; but here now with Eddie, it felt like we were the only ones in our little world. With his arms wrapped around me and the feeling of Eddie tracing shapes into my back, I felt perfectly at peace. 

“Happy first Valentine's Day, sweetheart.” Eddie said and I felt a kiss at the top of my head. 

“How are you going to top this one next year?” I asked him.

Eddie laughed and I could feel his body shaking against mine. “That’s all on you sweetheart.” A pause. “But you know what would make this better right now?”

“What?” I asked him as I looked up at him, my chin resting against his chest. 

“If you kissed me. Kissed me alot, actually.” Eddie said with a mischievous smile. 

The first time I leaned up to kiss him, I couldn’t keep the smile off my face which barely made it a kiss at all. But when Eddie rolled us over so he was hovering above me, the kiss was definitely more passionate. 

And it was no one’s business if we ended up falling asleep out there under the stars. 

Only for us to be rudely awakened by our bladders several hours later. 

Sydney’s First Birthday in the Past

“Happy birthday to you,” someone was singing in my ear quietly as I was roused from sleep. “Happy birthday, sweetheart.”

I groaned and opened my eyes to see Eddie laying on his side beside me, a tired smile on his face. “What?” I asked, still on the edge of sleep. 

Eddie reached forward to tuck some hair behind my ear, biting his lip at me. “It’s your birthday, Sydney.”

I blinked a few more times before I was fully awake. “It’s my birthday?”

Eddie laughed and shuffled closer so he was laying against me, an arm wrapped around me and his forehead coming to rest against mine. “Well that’s what the government paperwork says. Is it true?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “What would you do if it was?”

Eddie pulled back a little to look at me. “Do you not like your birthday?”

I shrugged again. “It was always a mute point when I was younger. It always fell on a weekday so I had to go to school and my parents refused to do something for me when they got home for work. My brother, though? They would pull him out of school for the day and always take him out to dinner.” I tried not to show how much it bothered me. Eddie has already done so much, I didn’t want him to feel like he had to go all out for this too. “It just became another one of those things.”

“Well,” Eddie said as placed a kiss on my forehead and then trailed them from my cheeks to my chin. “We celebrate all holidays and birthdays in the Munson household. Sorry, sweetheart. You are just going to have to tough it out this year.”

I tried to pout at him, but his smile was so infectious that I couldn’t help at the one that tugged at my lips. “So Dungeon Master, what do you have planned?”

Eddie laughed and moved to sit up, pulling me along with him. He grabbed one of my hands in his, the other moving to trace lines against the back of it. “Wayne made you a special breakfast.”

I groaned in protest. “Please don’t tell me you dragged Wayne into this.”

A gruff chuckle tore my attention to the doorway to see Wayne standing there, sleeves of his flannel rolled up with a smile on his face. “All the boy had to do was mention that your birthday was coming up.”

I sent him a small smile. “Morning Wayne.”

Wayne nodded his head. “There are fresh cinnamon rolls in the kitchen if you are interested.”

“You made me fresh cinnamon rolls?” I asked excitedly. “No one has ever made them for me!”

Eddie chuckled beside me. “So get your ass in gear and get some while they are still warm.”

I threw the blanket off and followed Wayne into the kitchen. It smelled so great in there I couldn’t help but melt when Wayne placed a plate in front of me at the table. One bite and I was trying to hold back a moan. “Oh my god, Wayne. These are so good.”

Wayne laughed into this coffee mug, placing the comics he was reading from the newspaper back onto the table. “Don’t butter me up.”

“I’m serious!” I laughed and took another bite. “This is the best thing anyone has ever made for me.” 

In one second Eddie appeared behind me, smelling strongly of his body wash and leaned forward to take the bite off my fork. I turned to look at him, betrayed as he swallowed. 

“Go get ready, sweetheart.” Eddie said as he took my hand and helped me up from the table. “You’ve got a day ahead of you.”

I frowned. “Eddie, I don’t wa-”

Eddie held up his hand. “I already know you don’t want me skipping school. So I’ve made other plans for you.”

A threw a nervous glance at Wayne and he just took a drink of his coffee. “All I know is that we are meeting up later for dinner.”

I narrowed my eyes at Eddie. “What do you have planned?”

He winked at me and took another bite of my cinnamon roll. “Go get changed and you might just find out.”

I ran and took a quick shower, towel drying my hair as I grabbed one of Eddie’s sweatshirts to put on. It clearly was a P.E. sweatshirt, but the arms had been drawn all over with designs that looked similar to what was on Eddie’s D&D notebook. 

When I got back into the kitchen, Wayne was already in his recliner watching some morning TV while Eddie was on the phone. When he saw me, he abruptly got off the phone before making his way to me. 

“Comfy?” He asked as he leaned down to kiss my forehead. 

I raised an eyebrow at him. “What did you do?”

Eddie just smiled mischievously at me and motioned towards the door. There was no Max waiting for us at the van, and Eddie shrugged like he didn’t know who took her to school. I let him keep up his charades as we started the familiar path towards town, only slightly surprised when we pulled up to the police station. 

Hopper and Joyce were leaning against her car in the parking lot, their faces lighting up when they saw us pull in. I had only just gotten out of the van when Joyce had wrapped me in a tight hug. 

“Happy birthday!” She said really loud as she pulled back to look at me. “Do you feel any older?”

I rolled my eyes in amusement as Hopper stepped around her to pull me into a quick side -hug. “Happy birthday, kiddo.”

I smiled at both of them and felt when Eddie joined my side. “So what is the plan for today? Eddie won’t tell me anything.”

Joyce shrugged, but the smile on her face said otherwise. “I thought you and I could have a girls day. Give you a treat for your birthday.”

“Joyce-” I started to argue that it wasn’t necessary before she sent me a look. 

“You are one of my kids now, Sydney.” Joyce said as she reached out to squeeze my shoulder. “If I want to do things with you for your birthday, I sure as hell am going to.”

I laughed and nodded my head in defeat. “Okay then.”

Joyce made a happy noise and turned to start her car while Hopper waved at us and started to make his way into the station. I only turned to Eddie when I felt his fingers intertwine with mine, giving my palm a gentle squeeze. 

“Is this okay?” He asked me, nervously. 

I smiled at him. “It’s perfect.”

Eddie perked up and with a quick glance around he leaned down to kiss me. I let him, getting lost in the sensation of his body against mine, whining slightly when he pulled back. He chuckled, using his free hand to play with the chain that had been sitting against my neck for some time now. “I love you, sweetheart.”

My smile widened if possible. “I love you too, baby. Will I be seeing you after school?”

Eddie’s smile turned mischievous. “Well I still have a present to give you. But, I don’t know. Will you?”

Eddie stepped back from as I felt Joyce’s arm wrap around mine. “We ready to go?”

“Have a good birthday, sweetheart!” Eddie yelled as he got back into his van, the music blaring as he buckled himself in. “See you later!”

Joyce and I watched him peel out of the parking lot, some of the people walking around town shaking their heads at all the noise. When he was fully out of sight, Joyce tugged me in the direction of her car. “You ready to get our day started?”

Joyce’s first stop was a little bookstore a few town’s over. We roamed the shelves for a bit, me picking out a few books that I hadn’t read in years but seemed to be new releases here. I couldn’t resist the dragon bookmark in the fantasy section, but I knew that it wouldn’t be me using it and Joyce must have had a similar idea with the look of amusement on her face. 

Our next stop was a tiny hair salon two shops down on the same street. It was run by a lady that knew Joyce by name, taking me back to the chair and telling me whatever I wanted was already covered. I sent a look towards Joyce, but she just shrugged and sat down in the chair next to me, already talking away to the lady bringing her a coffee. 

I frowned in the mirror, one of the books that I bought sitting in my lap. “It’s been years since I’ve had my hair professionally done. What do you suggest?”

“Is this wave natural?” The lady asked me as she ran her hands through my hair.

I shrugged. “I believe so. If my hair isn’t down, most of the time I have it braided back in some way.”

“Hm,” The lady said as she moved to get a cape and secure it around my neck. “How about we cut a few of the dead inches off and go from there? What about a color?”

I moved my hand to pinch some of the hair between my fingers. All my life I had been a lighter shade of brown, borderlining on strawberry blonde. “Why not?”

It took a lot of debating and a long talk of my preferences before the hairdresser-Angela, asked me to trust her and I agreed. If I hated the color, I could always color over it? Joyce had finished not too long ago, sitting with me as I sat under one of those obnoxious hairdryers. 

“I think she picked a great color,” Joyce said with a smile. “Are you having a good time?”

“The best,” I smiled at her. “You know, my mom would never do something like this with me.”

“Her loss.” Joyce said, a tone to her voice. “You’re one of my kids now, sweetie. Anything that she wouldn’t do with you, I will. Don’t you worry about that.”

After my hair was processed and washed out, I let them keep the element of surprise as they turned my back to the mirror so they could style it for me. When they were finally finished and I got to turn around, I couldn't help but gasp. Angela styled my hair in soft curls falling down my back, nothing like the corkscrew curls that I’d seen at least two women walk out with today. As for my hair color, it was a deep copper color that really stood out against my skin tone and made my hazel eyes pop. 

“Woah,” I said as I reached up to feel a strand. 

Angela clapped beside me. “It’s a perfect fit!”

Her excitement was infectious and I couldn’t help but laugh along with her. “You did such a good job!”

With the promise of coming back for a touch up, I followed Joyce out of the salon and to a tiny cafe a street over. We had a small lunch, Joyce making small talk about the kids and Hopper but I could tell something else was bothering her. 

I sighed. “What is it?”

Joyce watched me for a moment. “You know you can talk to me about anything, right?”

I nodded. “Why do you ask?”

Joyce reached out a hand to place over mine on the table. “It’s just your first birthday away from your parents, your friends. Eddie was worried today might be hard for you.”

I frowned. “Why would he think that?”

“El might have told me about a conversation she had with you at Thanksgiving,” Joyce said with a shrug. “I realized I might not have been checking in with you as much as I should.”

“Joyce,” I let out a relaxed laugh. “El brags me to family dinners with you guys almost every other week. You see me all the time.”

Joyce nodded. “I do, but I just wanted to make sure you knew that you could come to me about stuff.”

I squeezed her hand. “I know that I can.”

Joyce took a sip of her coffee. “You know Murray mentioned something to me the other week.”

“Hm?”

She placed her cup down. “He mentioned that when his partner was brought to the past, a box of some of his more personal items showed up. Has that happened to you?”

“No?” I shrugged. “I didn’t know that it was possible for that to happen. Nancy never mentioned it to me.”

Joyce frowned. “He should be back in Hawkins for a few days. Maybe you could ask him?”

We didn’t stay too much longer, Joyce saying it was her turn to carpool, but letting me know that Eddie had planned to meet with us at the school. 

“Not that I don’t think of El as my own,” Joyce said on the drive back. “But I really want you to know that you have a place in my family.”

I smiled. “I know that I do. I think between you, Hopper, and Wayne acting as parents with Steve trying to prove that he is my brother; I’ve got all areas covered. I promise you since I’ve woken up here I haven’t felt truly alone.”

“Good,” Joyce said. “We’re a weird group, aren’t we?”

I don’t think I could have asked for a better one.

When we got to the school, I shouldn’t have been surprised to see the group that was waiting at Eddie’s van. I only had a second once I got out of the car to get bombarded by the younger ones, trying to pull me in hugs and El trying to sing me happy birthday. 

“Guys,” I laughed delighted at the love I was receiving. I almost had to stop for a second at the sheer feeling of adoration that hit me, but it wasn’t hard to place where that emotion came from when I met Eddie’s eyes. He was leaning against the van, a smile on his face as he waited for his turn to get to me. 

Steve stepped forward, pulling me into a quick hug before throwing an arm around Dustin. “Since you didn’t tell us how important today was, we didn’t have any time to throw something together.”

I shrugged, not bothered about it. “I didn’t want you guys to make a big deal about it.”

Steve pointed at me. “Well, we will. Just wait.”

After a few more minutes of ‘Happy Birthday’ wishes and hugs from everyone, they all split into groups between Steve and Joyce. I waved back at them as they all got in their cars, leaving Eddie and I in the almost empty parking lot. 

When I turned to him, he was still leaning against his van with his hands tucked into his front pockets. He pushed off the van and slowly made his way to me, reaching out to pull at a loose curl. “You changed your hair?”

He tucked a strand behind my ear, fingers trailing along my jaw. “Do you like it?”

“Like it?” Eddie asked as his other hand joined the one on my facing, moving to rub his thumbs against my cheeks. “Sweetheart, that color does wonders to you. Damn,” Eddie let out a groan and closed his eyes with a smile. “Are you trying to kill me?”

My laughter was silenced as Eddie leaned down to kiss me, my eyes fluttering closed at the intensity of it. When one of Eddie’s hands moved to grasp mine and his fingers brushed against my mark, I almost gasped at the feelings I felt thrown back at me. 

Eddie broke away from me, staying close enough that our lips lightly brushed when he talked or more like whispered to me. “As much as I enjoy kissing you, we do have dinner plans.”

“We do?” I whispered back. 

He stood up fully now, but never letting go of my hand. “Wayne wants to take you out for your birthday. Can’t argue with the man.”

I smiled. “Well if he insists…”

“Now you’re getting it!” Eddie exclaimed as he moved to open the passenger door of the van and help me into the seat. I see him sprint across the front and as soon as he turns the keys, the van is filled with the loud music of Blue Oyster Cult. Once we’ve stopped at the trailer long enough to pick up Wayne and let Eddie dump his stuff, before we are on our way towards town. 

“Maybe next year we can actually make a plan since I know when your birthday is.” Wayne said he slammed the door shut. 

“Wayne-” I started to explain before he held up a hand. 

“Eds was the same way.” Wayne said as he pulled me into a side hug, Eddie raced ahead claiming to get the best booth in the back. “The first year he lived with me he didn’t want to celebrate anything. But I get it, kid. One day, you’ll want to start celebrating it too.”

Wayne opened the diner door for me, ushering me and as I turned to try and find Eddie-

“SUPRISE!”

The diner seemed to be empty except for my mismatched family. Eddie was standing closest to the doors, my favorite smile on his face with his arms stretched out wide. Steve and Robin off to the side of him, eyes bright as their smiles. Joyce, Hopper, and Murray sitting down in the booth off to the side, drinks raised at me. Lastly, all the younger ones were standing right in the middle with Nancy and Jonathan behind them, balloons and party favors in hand. 

I felt my eyes get wet, and it took me a few blinks to convince myself not to cry. Wayne squeezed my shoulder before moving around me and heading towards the other adults while Eddie moved to stand in front of me, taking one of my hands in his. 

“This okay?” He asked as he squeezed my hand.  

“I don’t know what I would do without you.” I said instead. 

Eddie beamed, leaning down to kiss my forehead before moving to wrap an arm around my shoulders and led me to the chaos of my surprise birthday party. “You’ll never have to know, sweetheart. Now why don’t we get some of that cake?”

Ah, hello my beautiful people. It's been a few weeks, hasn't it? Well I'm back and better than ever (had a whole allergic reaction and I won't bore you with the details but I am better and on medication for it now so no worries :) ). So this is a long one, I hope you enjoy the meal! I've been anxious to get into the main part of the story, and it's going to start in the next chapter so be prepared! I figured we could see a glimpse of the life Sydney and Eddie are living before I get into the nitty gritty. Leave a comment telling me if you liked it!

Also just in case we need to know, what should be have as Sydney's Vecna song? I'm trying to decide between something that easily accessible (which means the song is already out), or the potential issue that the song hasn't been written yet. Let me know what you guys think!

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[alearicci]

fourth chapter. max verstappen x oc

Max Verstappen was standing in his kitchen and patiently waiting for the arrival of his girlfriend, Ashlyn Skyler. They agreed to meet in the kitchen about half an hour ago, but Ash still did not come, apparently, she was delayed again, doing her job or she was too caught up in the plot of the series. Max was already bored. Although, probably not, because he found a racing magazine on one of the bookshelves and decided to read it, since there was no time before that. Max lazily leafed through the pages of the magazine and involuntarily thought about the fact that there were indecently many photos and congratulations on the next Grand Prix.

Max grinned and thought: "Who says I'm decent?"

Apparently, at this time, his personal imp took over the management.

A couple in love decided to spend one of the rare evenings together cooking pasta – a wonderful dish of Italian origin.

Finally, when the door swung open and Ashlyn entered the room, Max smiled happily and put down the magazine, waiting for the girl to take a position next to him. But Ash picked up her phone and, clearing her throat, pretended to have a microphone in her hands.

"So, there is a cooking show on the air called: "Max Verstappen is trying to cook." Here is the main character of the show himself. Meet the audience, a damn beautiful and inimitable Formula 1 racer - Max Verstappen and a great host of the show – Ash Skyler."

Watching the whole show unfolding, Max somehow restrained laughter and hardly kept a focused face, continuing to listen to his beloved girl. She didn't take off her reading glasses, which made her look even funnier and cuter.

"Mr. Verstappen, say a few words to our TV channel, please!" said Skyler and put her phone to her boyfriend's mouth.

Max thought only for a couple of seconds, after which he cleared his throat and spoke into the "microphone".

"Okay, I'll say a few words." Max smiled slyly and said. "If we don't start cooking right now, then I'll have to put the host of the show, Miss Skyler, on the table and eat her instead of the future pasta that we wanted to cook with her." He grinned and kissed Ashlyn on the forehead, after which he went to the faucet to wash his hands.

The girl blushed slightly, because the mind painted a very piquant picture. As soon as she tried to think of something else, Max immediately made her laugh.

"And anyway, what an injustice, Miss Skyler, I can cook!"

"Mmm. Yeah. I agree with you, honey. More precisely, I agree with you, Mr. Verstappen, you are excellent in everything. Well. Shall we begin?"

"It's much nicer to hear you say "honey", and not "Mr. Verstappen", I feel like I'm at some event where I need to be a very important person," Max teased Ashlyn, after which he decided to apologize and said. "Before we start, I'll have to perform a little ritual. Come to me, honey," Max said and opened his arms for hugs, beckoned to his beloved with a gesture.

She could not resist the charm of her man and immediately went to the meeting, clinging tightly to his strong body. Her hands fell smoothly on his back, shoulders. Pulling back a little, she looks into the beloved eyes opposite her and rises on her toes to kiss Max. He does not let her touch his lips with his and mockingly pulls away, which is why Ashlyn pouts her lips with displeasure.

"Don't you want to kiss me, Verstappen?"

"Hey, hey, hey, I'm laughing, Ashley. You're very cute when you're angry, you know that?" Max said and took her chin in one hand, making her look into his eyes.

God, every time she drowned in his beautiful eyes. Those eyes always looked at her with tenderness and love, no one had looked at her like that before. Ash sometimes even jokes that she fell in love with Max just because of his eyes. After all, it was them she saw for the first time, when Max had not yet taken off his helmet on their first day of acquaintance.

"I'm not angry. I'm outraged! Max Emilian Verstappen, let me go now!"

Seeing that Ashlyn still continues to make humorous attempts to get out of the arms of her beloved, Verstappen grins in his playful manner and hurries to kiss her to finally force her to stay in his arms. The girl, of course, cannot resist the lips of her beloved and responds to the kiss.

"Still want to leave, my princess?"

"Let's leave the kisses and hugs for the evening, because otherwise, we won't have anything to eat, sweet," Ash smiled and ran her palms over the racer's back. She immediately felt his muscles tighten, causing a smug smile to grace her face. He obviously liked the kiss. She left a kiss on Verstappen's cheek for the last time and hurried back to cooking.

"Stop stop stop! Wait, I forgot a very important point!"

Ashlyn suddenly stopped and hurried to grab her phone. She did not turn on the camera on purpose, so as not to spoil such a homely and intimate moment with the camera at the same time and so as not to embarrass Max, who already sees lenses aimed at him almost in nightmares. Ashlyn takes a jar of tomato sauce and puts it on the table, right in front of them, now it's not just a jar, but a phone stand. She put her iPhone down so that it seemed to be filming and returned to Max.

"That's it. Now it's definitely done." she muttered a little embarrassed and smiled at her boyfriend. "Let's continue!"

She turned into the host of a cooking show with an imaginary film crew and a fictitious audience.

Max couldn't help but laugh at her playful enthusiasm. Wow, how did she come up with this? It was clear that Ashlyn wanted to make this culinary experience unforgettable.

With a twinkle in her eyes, she handed Max a neatly folded apron and directed him to the kitchen faucet, because this high-speed racer still hadn't washed his hands before cooking!

Max put down the "gift" and began to wash his hands thoroughly with soap. Then, he began to put on an apron. After removing the packaging from the apron, Verstappen opened it to see the drawing, and as soon as he saw what was drawn there, he immediately laughed.

"Darling, only you could give me an apron with a picture of my faces and victory trophies, I'm thrilled."

Ashlyn had her back to him, but it was impossible not to recognize her playful tone.

"This is my best purchase all year, champion. I'm glad you liked it. "

As the host of the show, Ashlyn began explaining the recipe step by step, as they do on cooking shows.

"So, together with my star guest, we will cook pasta with my favorite sauce. I really like to add cheese there, but it's a matter of everyone's taste. Do you remember how we made the dough first, and then the noodles themselves, sweet?"

"Yes, I remember. All our clothes had to be sent to the dry cleaners immediately because they were in flour."

"It's because someone is acting just like a little kid!"

"Are you telling your viewers about yourself?" Max grinned and nodded at the phone screen turned off.

"Wha-a-at?? Not about myself! You started it first! He smeared me all over with flour and I had to defend myself!"

Max leaned against the counter and folded his arms across his chest.

"Yes!" Ash exclaimed in despair and involuntarily laughed, remembering the day when they decided to cook pasta themselves.

It was a very fun day, which ended with the fact that they could not make pasta and they decided to trust the professionals and ordered the delivery of Italian food.

"This time we will use ready-made pasta, because the previous experience was slightly unsuccessful"

"Actually, we almost succeeded. It only needed a little..."

Tying her apron securely around her waist, Ashlyn tapped the wooden spoon on the countertop, attracting Max's attention.

"I needed a lot of concentration and less kissing. Little lion cub, get distracted now, and fill the pot with water."

"Little?" Max grinned.

"Good, good, big lion cub. Don't get distracted!"

"Okay, honey."

Max obediently took a large saucepan and poured the required amount of water into it.

When the water boiled, Ashlyn added a generous pinch of salt.

"This is very important," she said with mock seriousness. "We want our pasta to be perfectly seasoned."

Max nodded, appreciating Ashlyn's attention to detail.

While the pasta was cooking, Ashlyn busied herself with making the sauce. She sliced fresh basil leaves, spreading their bright aroma in the kitchen. Max, always an attentive sous chef, watched Ashlyn with admiration. Taking out a chopper, Ash put chopped basil leaves and garlic in there. Then I poured the resulting mass into a bowl and finally it was the turn of the tomato sauce.

Only he was nowhere to be found.

"Oh, Max. Have you seen the tomato sauce?" Ash scratched her head thoughtfully and tried to remember where she had put this jar.

"No, baby, I haven't seen him. Were you sure he was in our kitchen?"

"Yes, I'm sure of it! Without it, the pasta won't turn out the way I wanted!" Ashlyn visibly became sad and looked at Max with her big gray eyes.

"Hey, hey, sweetheart, don't worry! I'm going to find him now, since you say he's somewhere nearby," Max walked up to Ashlyn and kissed her on the top of her head, after which he began to look for this jar of sauce.

It took about twenty minutes, and the search was unsuccessful. Max grabbed his head and began to think which would be faster: order the delivery of the sauce or go for it personally? Considering how fast he is at the racetrack, maybe it will work out...

At this moment, his thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a notification coming. Ash was texted by her mom and she moved away from her seat to pick up the phone and answer her. But what was her surprise when she saw a jar of sauce.

"Oh my God, Max! I found him! He's been hiding behind my phone all this time!" Ashley exclaimed and jumped on the spot with joy.

"Wow, finally! I'm glad the sauce was found. Do we have to put the pasta on plates and pour the sauce over it?"

"Yes, my champion. I'll do the pasta, and you wash the vegetables and cut them. Can you handle it? They need to be handled carefully, and not driven at full speed, as you like to do on the track!" Skyler laughed, clearly pleased with her own joke.

Of course I can handle it, my little star. Hahaha, I'm disappointed, because I wanted to do something in the style of Max Verstappen." Max laughed too.

Humming a tune from his favorite song, Max washed vegetables and cut them into small pieces. After all, proper nutrition is an important key to success, he knew it well.

When the timer beeped, signaling that the pasta was ready, Ashlyn carefully drained them, leaving a small amount of starchy water from cooking. She explained, "We will use some of this water to create a sauce that will perfectly cover the pasta."

Max watched in fascination as Ashlyn mixed cooked pasta, pre-grated cheese, sliced basil and some cooking water in a large bowl. She mixed the ingredients, the steam rose up and filled the kitchen with irresistible aromas.

"Mmm... How delicious it smells. It smells damn good." Max said, inhaling the aroma of freshly cooked food with delight.

"Yes, we did our best. Put the plates on the table, and I'll get the cutlery now," Ash asked, and when Max bent down to pick up the plates, she gently kissed him on the cheek.

"You are the best man in my life, Max Verstappen"

The racer smiled contentedly and still put the plates on the table.

Ash did not keep herself waiting and put the fork next to herself and Max, sat down opposite her beloved.

"Well, are we trying our masterpiece? Oh, my God, no! Dear viewers, our show is over," Ash shouted into the void, causing Max to laugh out loud. "That's it, now we can eat."

Ashlyn began to eat pasta, and Max was still in no hurry to pick up a fork. He looked at his girlfriend and thought for a moment.

Ashlyn, with her warm brown eyes and beaming smile, has always been Max's mainstay both on and off the track. She was his biggest fan, cheering him on from the sidelines at every race, giving him unwavering love and understanding.

"You know, Ash," Max finally began. "I'm incredibly lucky to have you by my side," he said with special gratitude in his voice.

Ashlyn smiled and put down her fork and took his hand.

"And I'm just as lucky to be with such a purposeful and passionate person like you. Watching you succeed in your career is awe inspiring."

Max leaned back in his chair, keeping his eyes on Ashlyn.

"However, it wasn't always easy. The F1 world can be demanding and challenging. But you have been my anchor, giving me the stability and love I need. I appreciate you for that."

"Always, Max. I will always be by your side and will help you in any way I can, love."

"You are my biggest reward in life. No trophies and cups can compare with you, honey."

"Not even the world champion cup?" Skyler grinned and went back to the pasta.

"Hahahaha, even the world champion cup." Max declared with a grin and also began to eat their culinary creation.

Over plates of pasta, Max and Ashlyn recalled the moments that brought them closer, shared victories and occasional failures. They talked about the incredible adventure they found themselves in, which led them to travel around the world, plunging them into the exciting world of Formula 1.

In between eating pasta, they laughed, telling about the funny moments they encountered on their way: about the races that Max won, about dizzying overtaking and about their connection with Max's team and the entire Formula 1 community.

As the conversation progressed, they were reminded of the countless sacrifices they had made to preserve their relationship. Long-distance flights, separation during racing seasons and missed celebrations. Nevertheless, despite everything, their love remained unshakable.

The plate gradually emptied, and the pasta became less and less. Finally finished with the meal, Ash put their plates in the dishwasher and, turning around, immediately found herself in the strong arms of Verstappen. Ashlyn laughed as he lifted her into his arms and tightened her grip on his neck.

"Now let's go get some rest, my best cooking show host."

#max verstappen #super max #formula one #f1 #f1 2023 #f1 fandom #f1 fanfic #f1 imagine #formula 1 #imagine #oneshot #red bull racing #cookingwithlove #max verstappen fic #max verstappen x oc #youremaxverstappengf

[will80sbyers]

I used to think Mike was bi too, but S3 made me look at Mike and Eleven's relationship very differently. Outside of him calling her pretty one time in the first season, there aren't any moments where he seems genuinely attracted to her. He keeps his hands to himself when he kisses her and removes her hands from him in S3. There were also the two times (S1 and S2) where El leaned in to kiss him and he just froze up.

Now, just because I don't think Mike is/was attracted to Eleven and was misjudging his feelings or trying to be normal, doesn't mean he still can't be bi. However, I don't recall him ever finding another girl attractive.

Meanwhile, there are posters of muscular men in his room, Mike going to the wrestling club as a first pick when looking for a sub, him referring to El as Superman instead of a female hero, the focus on him when opening the sauna, the parallels to characters in other movies/shows that turned out to be gay, etc.

If he ends up being bisexual, that's totally okay. I don't think that takes away from him being Will's soulmate at all and yes, internalized homophobia isn't exclusive to gays. However, if people analyze evidence that supports him being gay and are confident and passionate about it, I think they should be allowed to feel that way. There are hostile truthers on both sides and people that claim ___ erasure. I don't think we should make one side out to be worse than the other. Let's just be supportive of the fact that the boy isn't straight.

That being said, it's been a while since I read up on bi Mike evidence and I'd be interested to hear more about it. I'm always interested in trying to understand him in different ways.

so because you said that you were interested in hearing more about it:

about the pretty thing that's not exactly true, Mike calls Eleven pretty a few times and tells her she's beautiful too during the snowball dance, he looks interested in her romantically to me, he's just awkward because they are kids and it's embarrassing to approach first relationships... I think Eleven leans in because she watched something romantic on TV (I could be wrong about this I have to rewatch to be sure) and Mike had just called her pretty again before that if my memory is correct (?)

then he kisses her first and then the second almost kiss is after they had already kissed but it's when she had just come back and I think he was just a bit awkward about the whole thing (I also think that him and Will spending so much time together in s2 made him a bit confused)

so to me it looks like he is interested in girls too... he meets Eleven in s1 and he has a crush on her so it's consistent that he wouldn't find other girls, like Max, interesting because he is stuck on her...

Mike was also kind of in a limbo of grieving her and hoping she would come back... he thought he had lost her for one year and that's pretty impacful imo... ( also bisexual ppl don't like every person they meet lol )

the other boys seem more interested but it could be because they did not meet a girl they liked in s1 so they talked more about girls bc of that

or Mike could be demisexual and fixated on her because he had an emotional bond with her but in the first seasons it's just a crush between little kids anyway so it's just sweet

for other hints that he is in fact interested in girls I think he tries to make Will dance with the girl because he thinks that Will could like her - because Mike likes girls too

he has a poster of an half naked girl too in his room but to me all these little hints about the posters are about him liking guys too... because for the girl part he literally already has a girlfriend lmao

I think they made Mike interrupt the kissing singing and all that because they just needed to stop that scene because having kids on screen kissing for that long is already tedious to watch

but I think they made them kiss because they wanted to show that all that El and Mike have in common is the fact that they liked each other a bit and liked kissing... it was basically puberty starting..

they made them codependent to make it clear that there is something wrong in the relationship and make Mike realize after that he actually couldn't say I love you to her because he doesn't love her like that, he cares for her but he is not in love with her, she makes him feel insecure and inferior and they are just incompatible and toxic in a relationship

also I think that in the fight he has with Will in s3 he was telling the truth, he says "It's not my fault that you don't like girls" meaning -> it's not my fault that you don't like girls... yet, I do... one day you will too because we are growing up!

the thing about supermen etc is because he likes boys too, the parallels and the movies associated with Mike could be about Will too but they could also be pointing to being queer in general... also the main parallels in the show like the Vickie and Robin one associated him to bisexuality because Vickie is bi

the sauna thing where he doesn't comment like Will could be because he's bi so he feels awkward about men too like he does for the lingerie for women because they are starting puberty in that season

about the s3 finale kiss I've answered here

I also believe he doesn't have internalized homophobia, he was just conditioned by heteronormativity and he's just clueless about his feelings for Will and doesn't understand yet, he's just starting now in s4 to notice Will in a more than friendly way and he's low key panicking about it lol but he also thinks that Will is straight and if he stays with Eleven he can ignore that part of himself... he now has to find out about the painting to understand his real feelings for Will!

again the thing about the wrestling club could simply be there because he is bi so he likes men too

I don't think and never said that people should not be passionate and talk about gay mike theories, I still read all of those theories when I find them, I've watched the tiktoks about it too and some are good theories that could be true!

I'm happy with every hc for Mike I just think it's more probable that he will be bi or demi because of how they constructed the story + how I see the story when I rewatch the show and also because I don't think they can make the audience have sympathy for him if it turns out that he never even liked Eleven a bit...

I know that it's completely normal irl and no one should feel guilty for dating while being confused but I don't know if they can pull it off in a good way in the show, it would be very complicated because the audience loves Eleven and it would feel like a betrayal because Mike and El are two main characters... but if they did like each other and just growing up their feelings changed it would be easier to relate to that because they probably had that experience in their life...

but they could still do it and I would be really happy to see it on screen if they did it well..

I just think they never planned for it because I interpret the scenes in a different way, to me it seems like they wanted the Mitskivan scenes to be a young romance, they like each other but they are young and growing up they find out that they are not compatible and Mike realizes that he always had feelings for Will too and his feelings for Will are so strong that he in the end chooses to be with Will because he realizes that he is in love with him!

of course with Eleven's blessing because she will realize too that they are not compatible (and I think she did in s4)

or they could make El break up with him and he realizes he loves Will after the time jump, after having mourned his relationship with Eleven and then when they talk it's like in little women where Laurie says to Jo that he loves her but the love he feels for Amy is different 💞

If you want to read more about this theory there is also my fixed post in the blog 😊

one thing for sure... that boy is not straight and the only proof we need is that his favorite holiday is Halloween 👻

#byler #will byers #mike wheeler #bisexual mike wheeler #byler theory

[pilotlala]

I Watched The Second Season of OFMD on a Flight...

I watched the second season of OFMD on a flight. “I’ve heard good things about this show,” I thought. “Hmm not sure if I’m in the mood for pirates, but we’ll give it a try.” Over the course of five exhausted hours, hopped up on migraine medication, my brain went, “gay pirates?! Is this fan fiction? Violent! But silly! I think I’m in love…” I got home and immediately signed up for HBO Max. I watched the first season over the course of a couple weeks, and emerged a completely unhinged trainwreck deeply obsessed with this show. 

I obviously knew the second season started in a dark place, but for some reason, I wasn’t expecting the first season to bring us there in such a devastating way. In season two, Stede is so clearly in love with Ed! I assumed that some sort of external circumstances must have pulled him away. “I’m sure he wouldn’t have left unless he absolutely had to,” went my ever-optimistic brain. I started season one excited about the love story and getting to know the crew better. And for the first seven episodes I got exactly what I signed up for! Beautiful slow burn romance, silly side plots, Stede learning how to be a pirate, Taika���s absolute gaga I love you eyes. 

Then episode eight hit and I realized we were running out of time for the happy couple scenes I was waiting for. Instead we got maybe the most romantic moments of tv I’ve maybe ever seen. Foot touch! Act of grace! And then that kiss-not at all the explosion of building romantic tension I was expecting but instead a tentative, very real-feeling kiss bringing sweetness to a scene otherwise thrumming with Stede’s uncertainty, shame, and fear. I was still shocked when he returned to Mary, though of course the whole season was building to this moment. How could Stede make any other decision while haunted by his past choices, all the people he’d hurt, and thinking he’d destroyed Ed’s life. He truly believes he defiles beautiful things and Ed is better off without him. Of course, I’m furious with him for making the choice he does. I think this show wrecked me because I was surprised by the turn towards darkness and the deep character work that brought us to this place. I never expected a tv show to make me feel like this!

And now I have the brain rot. These characters are real people to me and I think about them all the time. I feel a little late to the party, but maybe I’m not the only one. 

#ofmd #ofmd season 1 #I watched the second season of OFMD on a flight #Then the first season wrecked me #thanks Air Canada #Taika's I love you eyes #the kiss #first kiss #ofmd meta #you defile beautiful things

[thegeminisage]

THE FINAL FRONTIER breakdown

as always my first impressions were typed hastily and in shorthand w typos on my phone and i am translating them to proper readable language

opening scene was very reminiscent of mad max and the sound effects made me think of sybok as darth vader, lol. when i realized he was vulcan i knew exactly who he had to be

the first mind meld scene was like. weirdly sexual. that share your pain thing also reminded me so much of sound of my voice lol

cathy's reaction to the names in the credits: sighing heavily on seeing william shatner's name. no reaction to leonard nimoy's name. delight at seeing deforest kelley.

second scene of the movie i watched while blinded by tears because spock was there. to be fair to me i had been primed by the world's longest rock climbing scene ever in which i glorified in the sheer fact that i was NOT watching tng. i needed this so much. my reward for finishing most of the first two seasons which is some of the worst tv i have ever watched in my entire life.

cat lady with three tits. bill shatner is a fucking freak

every time there's a woman catherine and i have a bit where we gasp and go, in shock, a woman! but when it's a romunlan woman we really are shocked every single time. just like in the enterprise incident, so true

uhura is still super mega fucking hot in these movies btw. she's so beautiful. it's very cute that she's with scotty i guess (and i was really surprised!! i guess this explains why i see them as a side pairing in fics so often) but she could be marrying ME instead

thrilled to learn that bones can cook and that spock is. willing to sample his beans, as it were

i loved the whole camping scene. i understand the Plot of this movie is bad but the character scenes were some of the best in all 5 movies and indeed the entire tos series. like this is the most married those 3 old men have EVER been. "we don't have families but we have each other" THEY WERE LITERALLY DOING THE GAY FOUND FAMILY ON ACCIDENT. HOW DID WILLIAM SHATNER WRITE THIS???

"i've always known i'll die alone" is maybe the worst thing kirk has ever said or will ever say and i don't want to talk about it.

my one point of complaint is "marsh melon" or whatever spock said. it was cute but i know his ass read and pronounced it alone in his quarters like 700 times first. it's like when you make castiel not know what an egg is. maybe he was being silly on purpose to amuse kirk and bones <3

LOVED their singing. i didn't think they'd actually do it but they did. times were different back then

bones was in fine form in this movie. he had a lot to complain about but he also jumped to spock's defense at least once that i remember right off hand. i swear he just gets progressively better with each season/movie the way uhura just keeps getting hotter. some things truly do get better with age ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

i loved how when spock had some distress re: potentially recognizing sybok they all had to go in their little longue and have a heart to heart together with him. i don't think this movie ever left anyone out - even in the voyage home, which i LOVE, bones was left out of the kirk-and-spock duo. but almost every single scene they had involved all three of them. truly a win for the throuple enjoyers <3

really mixed feelings about naked uhurua. i'm glad she got to sing her little song. and she is, again, extremely hot. AND i love when she gets to surprprise people even though nothing will ever beat her telling that little ensign to get in the fucking closet. but how could they DOOO that to her william shatner IS going to hell

"hold your horse captain" made me chuckle. also, can you vulcan nerve pinch a fucking HORSE?? i guess you can now. i bet they had to train those horses so well. how often do you see a fucking HORSE play dead

when sybok was like "well spock what do you have to say" and spock, outnumbered 100 to 1, guns pointed at him, obviously in deep turmoil, was silent and expressionless for 5000 years and then replied with "you are are under arrest." KING shit

sorry to be like this but spock with a gun was fucking awesome. i'm glad he didn't shoot his bro but still.

the three of them truly bickered like an old married throuple in the brig. bones coming to spock's defense was so funny he's like fine to gang up on spock until he realizes kirk is genuinely upset and then he switches sides because they're only supposed to gang up on him for fun

"STAND BACK" i knew those idiots weren't going to get the morse code in time and it was still funny. same with scotty like "i know this ship like the back of my hand! [BONK]" anyway he totally came in clutch i love him sm

i don't remember why i wrote "bones is so frail and waiflike" because we said it about 7000 times during this film but it's true

spock's rocket shoes saving the day nearly made me cry again except i got jerked out of it by my SHEER ECSTATIC GLEE that he got to take both kirk and bones ently in his arms while carrying them around. wow <3 love wins <3

"the people of your world once believed it was flat but columbus proved it was round" bitch the fuck he did. i'm blaming william shatner for that one. who knew that in 2023 they would still fucking think the earth was flat

the whole thing with bones's dad was fucking brutal. normally we talk through everything but we were dead silent for that bit. even though i knew what was gonna happen my jaw was on the fucking ground

spock's little baby vulcan ears...wait hold on

LOOK AT HIM!!!

that birth looked brutal. for once i'm giving aos some credit whatever they had going on looked much nicer. sarek seemed less disgusted too. maybe this was just spock's imagination he was like yeah my dad took one look at me when i popped out of the womb and diagnosed me with human cuz i was crying lmao

the second half of this movie was where the plot started getting dicey for me. i didn't really care what was going on before now bc i was having fun but when they started talking about the great barrier i got confused. i thought that was on the outside of the galaxy? and i thought at the center of the galaxy was some fucking anomaly and the devil lived there. cuz that was in the animated series. i know. i watched the whole thing.

like we get there and everyones like wow its so beautiful! like no offense cool rocks bro but ??? there's literally nothing there

the big ribcage rocks popping up out of the ground gave us a laugh. at first were like: hopeful: tentacles? no. just spikes. this place is not a place of honor etc

god as a giant inverted face over white light who shot lasers out of his eyes was the stupidest fucking thing i have ever seen in my life. i laughed so hard. i do love though that kirk is apparently an atheist who enjoys backtalking god. he talked to god the way he talks to computers when he's trying to suicide-bait them

i wish we had gotten some explanation of what that actually was? and why everyone thought it was god? but whatever. apparently this movie was also trying to say something about cults but it didn't. again, whatever, i was mostly having fun with whatever was going on so i didn't care but the plot was really very very bad

at one point in my hysterics i typed "LMAO GOD'S GONNA FUCK THE SHIP" as in "and make jim jealous because that's what he wants to do" but i don't remember why so i'll just leave it as the mystery that it is.

spock's little "get ahold of yourself" when bones started being frantic about jim being al;one down there after the two of them got beamed up. lol.

spock's little "damn you, sir" 🥰

metal as hell and also anime as hell that they killed god. what a ride that was. first i thought kirk was gonna do it. then i thought the klingons did it. then it was SPOCK that did it. i could not have asked for a better outcome

"not in front of the klingons" i finally have context for this. i had seen snatches of it in gifs and videos but it was even gayer than i imagined. WILLIAM SHATNER WROTE THIS???

genuinely in SHOCK they ended it with them camping again. i was like if they start singing i am Going to scream. and you know what they did?? yes. yes. yes.

i don't understand why everyone hates this movie. like, yes, the plot was bad near the end. the villain was bad. the stuff about god being In Your Heart was lame af. but the character moments were PERFECT and the movie was extremely funny and everyone was very charming. it boggles the mind that it almost meant there was no sixth movie. like it wasn't perfect but it had so many redeeming qualities!!

that said. i did watch it after some of the worst tng i have Ever seen AND on the same day i watched into darkness so maybe that has something to do with it lmao

#personal #star trek blogging #tff lb #one day i'll read the novelization...i just got stuck on wrath of khan because i can't find it in a good format

[eddieheart]

HOME

(Part 5)

Fandom: Stranger Things

Pairings: Steve X Billy

Words: 856

Description: Hopper invites Joyce and her kids over for dinner, Max and Will invite their friends. Things don’t go as planned.

Part 4:

The day had started out okay, waffles with El, pain meds, tv break, reading, lunch, pain meds, playing outside and now dinner. Just before dinner actually.

Hopper had invited Joyce over, along with her children which meant that max invited all her friends too. A whole gaggle of preteens were seated in the living room, Billy's space.

He'd been sleeping better after getting his old things from the house. The small locket kept safely in his bedside drawer, stuffed bear hidden in between his bed and the wall. Other trinkets hidden as well.

Though he'd never admit it, Billy liked spending time with the girls. El was sweet and she really seemed to like his sister and him for some odd reason. They'd been sitting peacefully when the herd had migrated into his natural habitat.

They all glared at him, as always, while stomping into the once quiet room. El had made a point of telling him all the kids names as if he didn't know already.

At first he thought he could handle the noise, the hustle and bustle, he was wrong.

Billy was sitting in the living room, it was dark outside, his head had in his hands. The room was filled with the loud chatter of children as they played their stupid dragon game.

Pushing his palms deeper into his eyes, Billy tried to push the sound away. His head was aching, ever since starcourt he'd been getting headaches, bad ones, along with muscle aches and spams, deep searing pains.

The little curly haired twerp, Dustin, was yelling about bards, Max and Mike were arguing about constitution or something and Lucas was being his normal brat self, glaring at Billy the whole time.

It got even worse when King Steve decided to grace them with his presence. The group had started yelling and jeering happily at his arrival. Hopper and Joyce had left to get some ingredients.

He just couldn't take it anymore, no matter where he went the noise never dissipated, his head felt like it was splitting open.

"Jesus Christ could please just shut the fuck up!" Billy shouted, arms waving. He stood up quickly and tried to turn away, but of course king Steve had to get in the way.

"Hey man why don't you cool off!" Billy scoffed and slipped away walking closer to the back door.

Steve reached out and grabbed the other boy’s arm. Billy jerked back into the wall with a loud noise. His head jerked to the side as soon as he realized what he had done, his eyes closed tightly.

Instead of the harsh slap he was used to, Billy was greeted by nothing but silence. He's so fucking stupid. Billy pushed Steve away and grabbed his lighter on the way out the door.

Max watched with wide eyes filled with fear. She'd never seen Billy flinch before, it made her heart hurt. Not because he flinched, but because of what the flinch meant. It meant that he was expecting to be hit, that it had happened so many times before he felt the need to prepare himself.

Steve watched as Billy stormed out of the house, shit. As soon as he heard the door slam shut, Steve jumped into action, chasing after the other boy.

Billy sat alone on the porch, head held in his hands. Steve walked over slowly, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Hey man, I'm sorry I didn't mean to-." He sighed and trailed off.

"What you come out here to see what's become of the Billy Hargrove, here to rub my nose in what a pussy I am?" He asked. Billy's usual bite was replaced with a weak anger.

Steve sat himself down next to the other boy, closer than he'd ever been before. He reached out a hand again, brushing over his shoulder softly.

"Oh course not Billy, I just- I shouldn't have grabbed you like that I'm sorry I-." Steve's words were stopped by shock as Billy's head whipped around, they were nose to nose.

Steve swallowed thickly and forced himself to stutter out a few words.

"I um- uh..." he was interrupted yet again by Billy jerking forward and crashing their lips together.

Steve's brain must have short circuited, because all thoughts left his head. All he could think about was how nice Billy's chapped lips felt on his own. All he could focus on was the way Billy's large calloused hands trailed up his back so gently.

Steve looped an arm around the other boy's waist, pulling him in deeper. His other arm came to rest gently on Billy's chiseled jawline, slightly peppered with stubble.

Steve could feel Billy brushing a hand through his hair and their foreheads touched. Finally they hand to pull away to catch a breath of air. Their foreheads stayed together, noses brushing softly.

All that could be heard was their rough panting in unison.

"You tell anyone about this Harrington and I swear-."

"Just shut up." Steve launched forward kissed the man again. They bled into each other, where one began and the other ended became blurred and blended.

Part 6:

@buggylad

#fanfiction #fanfic #stranger things #billy hargrove #hurt billy hargrove #billy hargove imagine #steve harrington #Steve x Billy #haringrove #max hargrove #max mayfield #lucas sinclair #will byers #mike wheeler #johnathan byers #jim hopper x joyce byers #jim hopper #joyce byers

[jamieroxxartist]

*I remember when this happened. It was an amazing Hack to me and my friends at the time. I remember my friend John obtained a video cassette of it like super quick. Like 2 days later and we were in Detroit and this had happened in Chicago so that was pretty quick for the time. Chicago was a 6 hour drive away and yeah we had all drove it at one time or another, but it just seemed so quick for him to have a tape of this. And it wasn't like the whole Doctor Who episode, it was just the hacks on the tape.

Well he wouldn’t tell us where he got it. He was radio guy, that was what he was really into. Radio. Like CB's and stuff and was always going on and on about how everyone was going to use phones in a couple of years and they were super easy too hack and you'd be able to listen in to anybody ... I didn't know enough about that to know if he was right or not. Maybe he was, because he sure called it that everyone would have phones. But I don't know about the listening in and all of that.

Anyhow he was also one of my ‘Computer Friends’ and I don’t mean we knew each other on the net. At this time there wasn’t a public net. He (and a few others and me) were really, really into computers. You know getting them to do things, instead of just talking to each other or playing games on. We were all into getting them to other things.

I was mainly into what they could do with relation to controlling machines etc. I had this thought of applying industrial CNC (computer numerical control) into really, really refined art like Painting. But anyhow that’s another thing. I was a weirdo artsy-fartsy teen.

So Anyhow John had this tape. And we watched it, and were amazed as only like 16 year old kids can be when they see such a Fantastic act of rebellion.

Because you really had to know your shit to hack a live TV Broadcast. And you would have to be like right there at the tower and it would take a ton of power.

This was not something you could do just from a keyboard siting around. I mean some serious planning and hardware would be needed. And also whoever did this had a pretty big set (at least enough room to spin that corrugated metal sheet behind ‘Max’).

And all of this really spun my head too. I mean I honestly thought that this could be the future of tagging. But instead of spray painting on a building… you could tag actual Live TV Broadcasts! Wowzers! How Amazing would that be?!!

but it wasn’t meant to be. I guess there's rebellion and there's a lot of work... And risk... I mean yeah we were all kids, but pissing off the FCC didn't seem like a good idea at all.

Anyhow they never caught who did it either, and yep here is one of the best video’s I have found about this Amazing piece of Rebellion from a million years ago when I was a teen.

Today in History: #TheMaxHeadroomIncident Nov 22, 1987 Two Chicago television stations are hijacked by an unknown pirate dressed as Max Headroom.

( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Headroom_signal_hijacking )

#Youtube

[ob-levi-on]

characters: modern day! levi ackerman x female reader, with minor mentions & dialouge interactions with other aot characters

content warnings (minors dni!): established relationship, public sex (kinda), oral (female receiving), doggystyle, creampie <3

word count: 5.141 (5,141)

author's note: it's been a little bit, my darlings! school and work has really taken a toll on me, but i'm glad i was able to release something for you! as always, feedbacks and reblogs are always appreciated :P i hope you enjoy!

it was a perfect saturday night. sundown was falling, with you and your lover cuddled on the couch. your head nuzzled in the crook of levi’s neck, and a positive hum escaped him. you blush, holding tight onto the blanket that covered you both.

you intently watched a romantic drama on the tv, while levi read a book. he wasn’t the type to watch too much television, instead, he put his attentive eyes onto a good book. but he would rather be with you every chance that he got. so, as you enjoyed your show, levi held you and read a mystery novel.

“oh my god,” you whisper to yourself, excited because a romantic scene was taking place. the overall comment makes levi curious. the raven darts his eyes from the book to the television, and the camera focuses on a shirtless man. levi nearly chokes on his own spit, and his hand tightens around the book.

levi’s stomach twists and turns.

“haven’t you seen this one before?” he states bluntly. the question was meant to be innocent, when in reality he couldn’t stand the idea of another man–shirtless and fictional nonetheless–catching your attention.

you didn’t catch onto the issue. “what’s wrong with rewatching something?” you ask, tilting your head upwards to look at levi.

had it been anyone else, levi wouldn’t have cared. but this is you that we’re talking about. the only woman who accepted him, facade and all, without any judgment. the one who never expected anything from him at first sight. the one who held him when he couldn’t bottle his emotions any further. the one who he deeply loved, with his whole heart and soul.

so yeah, he might’ve been a little jealous. the poor man couldn’t help it.

levi doesn’t know how to respond to your comment, because you’re definitely right, there really is no sin in rewatching anything. even so, the raven does not want to look into your eyes…because he knows that he’ll accept anything you say if he does. he can feel your innocent orbs gazing at him, and the man keeps rereading the same sentence in his book in order to focus away from you.

you opened your mouth to say anything, but the buzz from levi’s phone interrupts the moment. your partner sighs, setting his book down and reaching for his phone in his pocket. your body naturally shifts so he can read whatever notification he got, sitting cross-legged on the couch and watching your show.

other than the sound of the tv, it is quiet for only a few beats. after reading the text he got, levi glances at you and then at the tv screen. the shirtless man is gone now, and levi felt somewhat relieved. he takes the moment to kiss your cheek, and stands.

the kiss catches you off guard for just a moment, but you smile. “where are you going?” you ask, thinking that he wouldn’t actually go anywhere.

“there are some issues at work. carla needs me.”

the smile from your face slowly fades.

levi held a very important position at his job, so it was natural for him to be needed. but it was rather annoying that he would be called in from his days off, the only times where you two could really enjoy each other’s company in full. it’s happened more than once, and it was happening again.

“on a saturday? can’t it wait until monday?” you pout, looking at him.

the raven turns towards you, and leans down to plant another kiss onto your forehead. “i’m afraid not, love. it’ll be a few hours, max. after that, i’ll come straight back here. i promise.”

knowing that he was leaving made your gut wrench. after all, levi was your everything. the list of reasons why was too long and thorough to go through.

you wanted him to stay, you really did. but convincing him to do so would be difficult.

one of levi’s wonderful traits was the constant need to help. he did not care who you were or what was wrong–he would try to help you regardless of what was going on. he did not care if the world burned down in the background as he did so. in his mind, helping others in a time of need, no matter how personal or impersonal it was, was something greatly important for him to do–whenever he could. you admired that about him, since there weren't many people who thought or acted that way. because of that, you knew that there was really no chance of convincing him to stay.

you sigh, bringing out your pinky towards his face. “promise?”

levi playfully rolls his eyes, but nonetheless connects his own pinky with yours. “promise.”

“what time did he get home?”

“he left at 5:30 pm. didn’t come home until 2:00 am.” you state, playing with a box of cigarettes with your hands.

hange stares at you with wide eyes. “and this was for work…right?”

you only nod.

hange was your best friend, and also levi’s co-worker. while they didn’t work in the same department, she knew enough to understand your concerns.

“maybe i would understand if it was once or twice but…”hange trails off.

you shrug, taking a cigarette out of the box and lighting it. “do you know a carla?”

hange freezes for a moment. “i know carla yeager, wife of grisham yeagar, the new ceo of the company…”

you hum, inhaling smoke and then releasing it.

hange squints at you. “why?”

“levi said that carla needed him last night. and a few other times, too.”

“please?”

levi sat upwards on the bed, looking at you. the two of you were getting ready for bed, and you were doing your nightly routine.

you brushed your teeth, simply staring at him. you walk back into the bathroom to finish the process, coming back out when you’re done.

levi had already laid down. he faced you, laying down on his side, with open arms.

the sight was too cute and wholesome to ignore. you get into bed, cuddling up to your lover, who immediately embraced you the first chance he could.

you loved levi too much to stay upset at him for long. you were absolutely certain that levi would never be unfaithful to you, but the intentions of others recently has been putting you on the edge.

it was totally possible that carla truly needed levi for work related issues. but it is the fact that she takes him from you that riles up this sour taste in your mouth. the bitter flavor of jealously salivated there, and you did your best to hold it back. because at the end of the day, you didn’t like this feeling. the recent events and your emotions tried to make it seem as if levi was your property, which is not the case. he was your lover, yes, but in no way or form did he physically belong to you. that’s why you hated feeling so envious of others.

but you couldn’t help it.

“so?” levi asks, lightly resting his head on top of yours. his soft voice brings you out of your thoughts.

you sigh. “we went to the gala last year.”

“i know we did, babe. but it was strongly encouraged for me to be in attendance this year.”

strongly encouraged by who, you can’t help to think.

“will carla be there?” you ask.

levi was surprised you mentioned his superior’s name. but he answers nonetheless, stating,“it’s very likely. but so will my men–marco, mobilt, jean, and the others. hell, even those of hange’s department will be there.”

you stay silent, rubbing circles on levi’s chest.

levi continues. “i know you don’t like going to those types of things…”

the raven had noticed your silence, and he frowned. he lowered his head to whisper in your ear.

“can i tell you a secret?”

had you not been feeling somewhat blue, the whispering would have ignited a passionate desire. but you close your eyes and simply hum.

“i don’t like going to those things either. i would much rather be here, at home, with you…i’d do that a thousand times over than having to converse with those snobby bastards.”

levi’s words manage to put a smile on your face, a familiar warmth resting onto your cheeks. you snuggle your head further into levi’s chest so he wouldn’t see, and the notion warms levi’s heart.

a comfortable silence rested amongst you two. even though you didn’t respond to levi, the man would never force you to reply. the conversation stopped there. levi planted a kiss onto your head, before embracing you tighter and closing his eyes.

“promise me one thing, levi.”

“yes, my love?”

“don’t leave my side.”

“i promise.”

as your partner walks you through the crowd, you try to mentally prepare yourself for the evening. the lively and bright atmosphere made you a little anxious, and you hold onto levi a little tighter.

levi gives you a comforting smile. the raven was aware of your worries. these types of events always made you nervous. you were one to fumble under peering eyes, especially in an environment that you weren’t familiar with. that’s just how you were.

for that reason, he was so grateful you agreed to come. he would show you how grateful he was later.

“y/n!” you jump at the sound of your name, and levi holds you. you turn to the source of the sound, and you are relieved to see hange approaching you.

hange and her date, mobilt, stand in front of you. the woman smiles at you and glances at levi, her smile faltering for a millisecond before regaining her smile. her attention turns to you, and her eyes widen at your appearance.

“you look amazing!” she states, stepping in for a hug. you hug hange back, and release moments after.

“nothing compared to you!” you compliment, returning your hands onto levi’s arm.

mobilt, hange’s date, holds her. “y/n, you didn’t tell me that my boss was so romantic. the two of you are matching!”

“that was a mere coincidence.” levi states bluntly. you try to hide a smile, because seeing levi as a cold-blooded superior was so unnatural to you.

levi’s statement was quite funny, because you knew the truth. he, in fact, let you choose a dress first. the raven then picked his tuxedo after, and when you questioned him about choosing a similar color like that of your dress, the man simply stated that he liked the color (but in his head, he liked LOVED the idea of you two matching). still wary of his response, you turned your head and squinted your eyes at him. levi held your stare briefly, before winking.

for reference, levi wore a beige colored tuxedo, with a white collar. instead of a tie, levi wore his signature handkerchief–a tribute to his mother. you wore a champagne colored gown, with a high slit on the left side that revealed your leg.

the familiarity of the people around made you feel a little better about being at the gala. the atmosphere, tense for you only moments ago, was now much more relaxed.

and levi held his arm around your waist the entire time.

time passes. “so then mobilt ran some more tests, and boom! the formula worked,” hange says, looking upwards at her date with a fond expression.

“if it wasn’t for heichou and brains over here,” mobilt starts, glancing at hange. “the formula wouldn’t have been possible. i just did what i was told.”

levi rolls his eyes at the nickname. “oi, moblit, you ever heard about teaching your seniors with some respect?”

you laugh, and the group follows. levi grumbles, looking away for a moment.

the conversation continues, and you notice a woman approaching. the woman has a serious face as her eyes briefly meet yours, before glancing over to levi and letting out a grin. eventually, everyone notices her.

hange, who was laughing just moments ago, stops. as you eye the woman in front of you, you can feel hange peeking at you.

“i’m so glad that you decided to come, levi.”

“i’m happy to have made it.” levi states, nodding courteously at the woman.

“it’s nice to see you as well, moblit, hange,” the woman nods towards them. her eyes then land on yours.

“aren’t you going to introduce me to your friend, levi?”

“of course. carla, this is y/n, my girlfriend.” he explains, using his hand to gesture to you. the raven smiles at you warmly. “y/n, this is carla, my superior.”

you nod to the woman, despite your blood boiling. “it’s nice to meet you,” you greet.

“levi, how could you not tell me you had a girlfriend? she’s as lovely as a dove.” carla states. the older woman grins, but you’re not sure if it is sincere.

“you gotta keep the good ones hidden, ma’am,” mobilt responds, holding hange a little closer. “or else others will want to take them from ‘ya!”

levi nods. the man proceeds to look at you with a twinkle in his eye, his thumb caressing your hip. the man grins at you, and you can’t help but smile back at him. it was true–the eyes are the window to the soul. just with this gaze alone, you could feel the immeasurable weight of love that levi had for you. you hoped that your gaze felt that way for him, too.

“i suppose that’s true.” carla says loudly, and squints momentarily at the two of you. she changes her direction back to your boyfriend. “levi, there are some people who would like to meet you. i thought i would come and escort you to them.”

levi finally looks away to his superior. he nods. “could you tell me where they are? i’ll stop by in a moment, erwin needs to see me first.”

carla simply blinks. “well, since i’m already here, i thought–”

“that’s right!” hange adds, poking levi. “erwin asked you for a while ago!”

you furrow your brows in confusion, glancing back at hange to levi.

“i know, i know,” levi says. “carla, i would appreciate it if you told me where the people are. i’ll stop by later.”

you look at carla, and she almost looks dumbfounded. it is silent for just a few beats before she finally replies. “it is the table reserved near the bar. you can’t miss them.”

levi bows his head. “thank you, carla.” he says, and then turns to you. “let’s get going, yeah?”

you nod. the two of you politely excuse yourselves, and walk away. a few moments into the stroll, you lean into levi. “you told me that erwin wasn’t coming.”

levi’s face shows no emotional expression, but he responds. “i did tell you that.”

you blink at your partner. levi looks at you, and sighs.

“hange and i have this thing where if we want to remove ourselves from a work situation, we just say that erwin needs us.”

he looks at you, and your eyes are wide. the sight is quite humorous (and cute), and levi chuckles. “don’t worry too much. he’s in on the joke.”

you shake your head and chuckle to yourself. levi and you walk through a ton of people, until you stop in the middle of an empty hallway. however, it contained beautiful works of prehistoric art.

“figured you’d need a break from all this.” levi states, holding your hand. the action warms your heart, and you squeeze his hand in gratitude. and so, the two of you examine the art together, in a comforting silence.

a few minutes go by. “did i tell you how stunning you look tonight, madam?” levi suddenly says, turning towards you.

“i could say the same thing about you,” you state, stepping backwards as levi stepped closer. “but why the formality?”

your back hits the wall.

levi playfully rolls his eyes. “i was trying to be a gentleman. but it looks like that’s not your type.”

levi stops for a moment, suddenly leaning towards your face. you prepare yourself for a kiss, but in fact, levi aims to whisper in your ear.

“i know what your type is. you…like the bossy guy, right? the one who doesn’t hold himself back. the one who tells you what to do. and gee baby, you listen to him. you do whatever it is he asks of you. and if you do a good job, you love to hear the praise. am i…on the right track?”

you pant softly, not expecting levi to do such a thing. your partner pulls back from your ear, an innocent smile plastered on his face.

“no words, huh? guess i was right.” he states, his face only centimeters from yours. “thank goodness i’m actually a boss, don’t you think? i’m precisely your–”

you cut levi off, your lips passionately crashing onto his. the raven is briefly taken aback, but accepts your advances instantly. the two of you embraced each other with such a fear of letting go, and you were nearly one.

“i gotta show you,” levi pants, smothering you. “i gotta show you how thankful i am you agreed to come to this stupid thing…”

you hum against your partner’s lips, bodies naturally leaning towards each other. “you know i’d do anything for you.”

levi growls, hands exploring your body. “i want to this off of you, now.”

you start wiggling your shoulders so that the straps of your dress would fall, but levi pulls away. the man grabs your hand and takes you down the hall, your straps almost revealing your bare chest.

thankfully, no one was around, and levi opens the door to the women’s bathroom. he knocks briefly to make sure no one was in there. after hearing a prolonged silence, the man brings you in and locks the door behind you.

levi turns to you again, a lewd gaze in his eyes. “naughty baby,” he almost whines, placing his forehead against yours. “you were about to reveal yourself in the open, for anyone who passed by to see. you enjoy the thought of us doing dirty things in public, hmm?”

you blush, his words holding some truth.

“i’m rather ashamed to say,” he whispers, his lips hovering against yours. “my ego can’t handle such things. i’d get too jealous. you’re just too beautiful, you know, everyone would want you. but i want you all to myself…is that so wrong of me?”

you can only shake your head, too stunned to speak. levi’s words were able to explain how you felt about him.

there are moments in one’s life where they know when they’ve made the right choice. as the two of you begin to heavily make out again, you realize that there is no one else you would rather be with.

when you were younger, you had asked your mother how love felt. she could only pat your head, and say you would understand when you were older. in your past relationships, love never made sense to you. it was confusing, hurtful, lonely, and more.

but from the first instance you met levi, you fell for him. the idea of love, loving someone until it hurt, loving someone until your last dying breath, had finally made sense. levi had made the concept and action of loving so abundantly clear that you couldn’t bear to ever let him go.

you’re thinking about these things and more, until levi pulls his lips away from yours. you hadn’t even noticed you moved slightly, with your lower back against the sink counter.

levi surprises you, suddenly going on his knees. you can only blink, as he quickly lifts your dress. because of the high slit in the dress, levi is able to lift your dress and look up at you easily.

at the sight of your panties, levi coos. “so soaked for me already, baby? whatever shall i do?”

the raven tauntingly massages your thighs, causing you to whimper in response. levi chuckles, continuing to massage one thigh but using his free hand to rub your clit through your panties.

levi knew your body quite well. he placed the right amount of pressure on your aroused clit, and your inner walls clenched in response.

levi smirks, stopping momentarily to remove your panties. at the sight of your pretty pussy, levi moans. he doesn’t hesitate for a moment, putting his mouth on you.

you gasp, throwing your head back. as levi works his tongue on you, your hips slowly grind onto his face.

levi is loving the view. he’s a simple guy. he loves to make you cum, it’s wild how he gets off on it. the sounds you make, the neediness your body portrays, the small beads of sweat that come down your forehead, your mouth which makes a cute “o” shape when everything just feels too good…what’s enhancing the nature of his sexual encounter is that it’s out of the bedroom.

thinking about it made levi rock hard. as a result, levi devoured your folds with a new sense of rush, almost as if he was hungry. the man also gets brave enough to insert two fingers into your aching hole, a much needed relief.

as levi devours you with his tongue and fucks you with his fingers, you whine in response, closing your eyes to bear with the pleasure. levi pulls away to breathe, saying, “you gotta look at me, baby, can you do that for me? please?”

like an animal in its natural habitat, levi once again places his mouth onto your cunt. it just felt so right. you gaze down at him, aroused from the look in his eyes being completely filthy–but yearnful at the same time.

the pit in your stomach grows denser. “baby, i’m–” you gasp, a moan escaping your lips.

levi moans on your cunt, the vibrations adding another level of gratifying stimulation. the raven pulls away again, breathing, “cum on my mouth, baby, lemme taste all of you…”

you came merely seconds after levi spoke those words. breathless, your body twitches, and even more so when levi slows down the movements of his tongue and fingers. he does this as you ride out your high, tasting and swallowing all that you have to offer to him.

levi stands once he cleans you up, his lips landing on yours again. this time, the kiss is slow, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t powerful. at the same time, you could feel levi’s cock against your thigh, and the mere fact that you could feel how big it was aroused you once more.

“turn around for me, love.” levi commands, pecking your lips. you could only nod. as you turn around, you make sure to perk your ass right on levi’s crotch, and levi groans at the action. due to the mirror on front of you, you are able to stare at your boyfriend.

you continue, rubbing yourself on him up and down, massaging his cock in the best way. levi can only watch, mesmerized at the pleasure he was feeling from you.

he can wait no longer, stopping you for a moment. the raven unzips his pants and takes his cock out through the opening of his drawers. at the same time, you lifted your dress.

you are just too perfect, levi thinks. he leans down to give your lower back a kiss, a heartwarming thing to do. levi then smacks your ass, and you yelp in surprise.

“god, i’ll never have enough of you,” levi groans, slapping his fat cock onto your ass. the sensation is quite riveting, feeling how heavy it was and how it was already leaking with precum. you couldn’t help but back your hips into him, begging for his cock to be inside you.

“why so impatient, baby?” levi asks, staring back at you through the mirror. “if anything, i should be the impatient one. having to hold myself back as you wore that dress tonight, being so goddamn beautiful…”

you’re flattered, but your head hangs low, desperate for any sort of friction. levi smacks your ass again, and you whine.

levi bites his lip, grabbing his cock and lining it up at your entrance. levi rubs his head there for a few moments, being aroused by how your hole clenches for him.

without notice, levi pushes himself into you. as the raven burrows his cock deep into your cunt, your eyes roll in mere satisfaction. he gasps, and lets you cockwarm him for a moment, so that you can adjust to him properly.

he really had to hold himself back, because he was so tempted to rut into you like mad when your walls choked his cock. but he likes to think that he’s a little more sophisticated than that.

levi understands that it’s time for him to move when your hips push back against him. levi firmly places both hands on your hips, and begins to thrust.

you can’t help but moan when levi enters you again, loving the idea of being completely full of his cock. you also whine as he pulls out, hating the absence of his thick cock.

levi develops a steady pace, his breath hitching as your cunt pulsates around him. the sounds of your ass smacking against levi’s hips echo in the bathroom, almost letting the two of you experience the thrusts all over again.

your pussy is deliciously addictive, and levi strives to feel more of this. levi speeds up the pace just a little, rutting his hips into you. levi decides to look straight at you in the mirror, and you blink back at him, unable to say anything due to the pleasure.

levi leans forward and uses one of his free hands to release your breasts from the confines of your dress. it was so effortlessly easy since the straps were already down, and levi’s hips stuttered for a moment at the sight of your bouncing breasts. he grabs one of them as he continues to fuck you, his fingers grazing your nipple before cupping it with his hand and massaging it.

“that’s right, baby, take my fucking cock, take it…” levi moans, showing no mercy to your cunt. you mewl, clenching and moving back against him in pure ecstasy.

everything is going perfect, but a knock on the bathroom door disrupts the moment. you look back at levi, who brings a finger to his lips.

levi begins to fuck you again, in a slower pace for the sake of the doorbell. but levi’s cock manages to graze your sweet spot in nearly every movement he makes, making it impossible to muffle your moans.

“is anyone in there?”

the voice stuns you both, recognizing the source of the voice as carla. of course, you think, out of all people, she interrupts this moment.

you look at levi through the mirror. levi simply blinks at you, and you are unsure what to do.

levi had noticed the sort of attachment carla had on him. he wasn’t sure of his thoughts, but tonight had proven his theories. he had begun to to notice the effects it had on you too, and he hated seeing you frown when he told you he had to go to work because she called him in. the only good thing about being called in was that they were truly work related–but he would have preferred to stay home with you instead. but now, an opportunity had risen. it was time to show her who he really desired.

so, levi decides for you. he thrusts deeply into you, causing you to cry out in surprise. he quickly picks up the pace, making you swear and cry out loud.

“let her know who’s making you feel good.” levi grunts, grabbing your throat with the hand previously held your breasts.

after so many restless nights, you were able to get some sort of revenge on carla. whether she was into your boyfriend or not, she would know now that you are his, and he was yours.

“fuck, levi!” you cry out, choking as levi pounded into you.

levi’s cock twitches at the sight and sound of you, throwing his head back. “l-louder, b-be louder for me, please.” he stutters, the pace of his thrusts remaining the same.

“feels too good, levi, feels so fucking good,” you hiccup, staring at the two of you through the mirror.

levi stares right back at you. “does it, baby? fuck, y/n, you’re gonna make me cum,” levi exclaims, trying to match your loudness. “gonna be a good girl and take this load inside you, yeah?”

levi smacks your ass hard, and you squeal in satisfaction. “yes, levi, cum inside of me, please!” you call out, panting heavily at his point.

it doesn’t help that levi decides to remove his hand from your throat and furiously rub your clit instead. at this point, you can’t help it. you are being very vocal with how levi is making you feel, making sure to mention his name over and over again.

“fuck, i’m so close, baby,” levi cries, his eyes nearly prickling with tears. “can you cum on this cock for me, please?”

you nod, and the two of you fuck each other for the next few minutes. you don’t hesitate to let out when it feels good or not, after all, you’re putting on a show for ms. carla (who is listening with rage).

quite nasty, but it turns the both of you on.

your bodies freeze as the both of you cum so fucking hard, too stunned to move. the two of you pant, with both of your orgasms feeling like overstimulation–which felt so good, but the both of you were so sensitive at the same time.

after a few minutes, the two of you were able to compose yourselves. as you cleaned each other up, short kisses and pecks on each other’s lips were exchanged–because you two are just unable to stay away from each other for so long.

“we should probably go home, huh? i don’t think the gala will get better than this.” levi suggests, helping you put your dress back on.

“it’s for the best, i’m pretty sure there will be security guards once we open those doors.” you state, and levi playfully rolls his eyes.

“we didn’t do anything wrong, though. you’re telling me that lovemaking is wrong?”

you blush, and levi pecks you on the forehead. “let’s go.”

to your surprise, no one was out waiting outside the bathroom doors. and like a bunch of teenagers, you and levi leave the gala, escaping into the night.

a perfect way, you think, to end tonight.

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[mypoisonedvine]

𝖙𝖜𝖎𝖈𝖊 II || professor!helmut zemo x reader

{𝖕𝖆𝖗𝖙 I} 

𝖘𝖚𝖒𝖒𝖆𝖗𝖞 : your illicit relationship with your (former) professor forces both of you to consider if the risk is worth the reward.

𝖜𝖔𝖗𝖉 𝖈𝖔𝖚𝖓𝖙 : 9k (jeeeesus)

𝖜𝖆𝖗𝖓𝖎𝖓𝖌𝖘 : smut (oral f and m receiving, rough sex, creampie, massive amount of dirty talk), zemo being super cocky, smoking (just zemo, not the reader), alcohol consumption (zemo and reader although the latter is moreso implied), angst (not a ton but yeah), strip chess (does this require a warning?), zemo’s friends being sorta sleazy, one mention of/implied anal, brief violence? (one punch)

part 3 coming asap!

                              You watched his eyes slowly scan the board, darting from his pieces to yours and back again.

“You’re stalling,” you accused, breaking the silence.

“I’m thinking,” he mumbled back right away, never looking away from the board as he rested his chin in his hand.

“Think faster,” you instructed with a groan, leaning back in your chair and looking out the window instead.  When you saw movement in the corner of your eye, you looked back again, but he just sighed and moved his hand back into his lap without doing anything.  “Oh my god!” you exclaimed, rolling your eyes.

“Wait, wait, I’ve got it,” he grinned, finally grabbing his knight and moving it forward.  “Check.”

You looked around the board to confirm he was right, and he cleared his throat expectantly.

“I said, ‘check’,” he reminded you.  “Stand up.”

“You’re really going to make me do this?” you pressed with a raised eyebrow.

“No, I’m not going to make you,” he smirked, “but you’re going to do it because your only alternative is to forfeit.”

With a sigh and a little smile of your own, you stood up and unbuttoned your shorts, sliding them down your legs and stepping out of them quickly.  His face was irritatingly neutral as he watched you strip, only your bra and underwear left now, but his eyes gave everything away as they examined you with even more care than they had the chess board.  

“You know, this whole ‘strip chess’ idea isn’t exactly going according to plan,” you frowned, sitting back down in the chair and crossing your legs.

“What do you mean?  Of course it is,” he grinned.  “Oh, you mean, your plan… yes, I hope my suit coat is keeping your entire outfit good company over there in the pile.”

You scoffed defensively.  “If you wanted to get me naked, you could’ve just asked.”

“I know, darling.  This was just to get you to slow down for once.”

You coughed a little, shocked by his brutal honesty.  “Damn, shots fired,” you mumbled to yourself, and he laughed.  

“Now, it’s your turn to see if you can get this tie off,” he smirked.  “And do hurry it up, so I can show you what happens when I get a checkmate.”

His apartment was, unshockingly, so much nicer than your dorm; so it wasn’t so odd that you spent most nights here each week.  Well, perhaps it was a little odd since you had practically moved in and you’d only been seeing him for a few months… but you were happy, and he was happy, and you were trying desperately not to overthink it.

Your schedule was carefully crafted so as not to include any Friday classes, but obviously as a professor his itinerary was a much more traditional 8-to-5 no matter the day of the week.  As a result, it was typical for you to lay around his place through most of the day, working on your laptop or occasionally mooching off of his HBO Max account.

You were doing just that when you heard the key in the front door, and you scrambled to turn the TV off so he wouldn’t think you were being lazy… but when he entered, you were still laying on the couch wrapped up in a blanket, so you didn’t exactly look productive either.

“Hey,” you greeted, sitting up and resting your arms on the back of the couch as he took his bag off his shoulder and hung up his jacket.

“Hey,” he mumbled in return, sounding a bit distracted and not even looking back at you.  You furrowed your brow as he sat down on the couch beside you, letting out a heavy breath and staring up at the ceiling.

“What’s on your mind?” you asked, pouting as you moved closer to straddle his lap and run your hands over his chest through his button-up.

“Well, the thing is,” he sighed, taking off his glasses with one hand to rub his eyes with the other, “tomorrow is my birthday.”

“Wh— that’s a good thing!” you scoffed.  “Let’s do something!”

“My fortieth birthday,” he clarified.  “Tomorrow, I will officially be twice your age.”

You sighed a bit.  “That really bothers you, doesn’t it…”

“Does it not bother you?  It should,” he snapped, deflating you instantly, and his tone softened.  “I’m sorry.  That was harsh… I just feel guilty, sometimes.  I wouldn’t want to take advantage—”

“I’m a grown adult, Helmut, I know I’m younger than you but I’m not a child and I can make my own choices.”

He nodded.  “You’re right.”

“So then what’s the problem?”

“I…” he paused for a moment, chewing his lip slightly as he gathered his thoughts.  “I would just hate to see you regret this.  And I think, when you’re older, you will.”

“Let me worry about that,” you frowned.  “The future can be dealt with later, we should enjoy the present while we can.”

He laughed softly.  “I think I have an idea of what you consider ‘enjoying the present’...”

You smiled as you leaned in closer, holding his face to press your lips against his.  It was pretty innocent at first, until his hands began to rest at your waist and you sighed slightly, feeling your hips shift above him.  He grinned, teeth gently nipping at your bottom lip.

“What do you know?  I was right,” he whispered.  “You’re turned on already.”

It made your cheeks burn when he called you out like that, like he was mocking you for how easily he could make you desperate, and you looked away in embarrassment.  “I can’t help it!” you defended in a pout.

“I know,” he cooed, kissing your cheek and neck softly.  “I think it’s sweet, really.”

That made your cheeks burn even more, and you looked back at him again to find his brown eyes sparkling.  “Really?”

“Really.”

You trailed your fingers over his cheeks, scratching his beard a little bit which made him scrunch up his nose.  “Well, I think you’re sweet,” you giggled.  “And you know something else?”

He raised an eyebrow and you leaned in to speak closer to his ear.

“I think it’s sexy that you’re twice my age,” you whispered.  “Well, that tomorrow you’ll be twice my age.”

“Yeah?” he pressed, fingers just barely grazing over your skin as they trailed down your legs.

“Yeah,” you nodded, moving your hands to his chest where you started to slowly unbutton his shirt as he sighed.

“That explains why you can’t seem to keep your hands off of me,” he chuckled, looking down to watch your fingers brush over the patch of hair on his chest and toy briefly with the necklace he wore.  

“Well, that’s more just because I know how good you can fuck me, and I’ll never be satisfied by anything else,” you admitted, biting your lip.

“Darling, I don’t think you’re even satisfied by me… I already made you come this morning, don’t you remember?”

“Yeah, but that was different,” you pouted, “that was your fingers and it was right before you had to leave and I was still half-asleep…”

“Whatever it is that you want, draga, just say it,” he ordered in a whisper, holding the back of your neck and pulling you closer so you had to look back at him.

It was a lot harder to say with him staring right at you, but you swallowed and did your best.  “Need you to fuck me.  Wanna feel you inside me, please.”

His only answer was a quick nod before he kissed you, rough and dominating, letting you cling onto him while he stood up and carried you to the bedroom, falling with you onto the mattress.

He made a big show of kissing his way down your body, tearing your clothes out of the way on his path, eventually leaving you in only your panties which he examined with a grin as he held your legs open.

A shiver ran up your spine when he caught the lace in his teeth and used only a playful bite to pull them down your legs.  

Once the panties were off your ankles and he had tossed them aside with a flick of his head, he held your thighs as he dove right in, lapping at you hungrily while you moaned and your back arched.

He purred against you when your fingers wove into his hair and tugged slightly, but you honestly didn’t even mean to do it: you just needed to hold onto something to keep yourself from falling back into oblivion, and it seemed like a more attractive option than the bedsheets.

His lips attaching onto you and sucking your clit hard was already overwhelming in its own rite, but then two thick fingers began to push into you and it was impossible not to cry out, your bottom lip falling from where it had been caught between your teeth.

“Fuck!” you yelped, hips shaking and trying to rock up against his face as he curled the tips of his fingers against your spot right away.

“Close already, draga?” he cooed, words muffled since he didn’t fully pull his mouth away from your body before he spoke.  “I’ve only just started.”

You could only nod and feel your face heat up even more; at this point you had no right to be embarrassed by how sensitive you were when he’d already proven to you over and over that he could bring you to the edge in minutes.  But still, apparently some little shred of shame was still left in you, and you could tell by the look in his eyes that he was determined to train it out of you.

“If you’re close then now would be the time to start begging,” he reminded you as he moved his fingers faster and teased your clit with the tip of his tongue.

"Please, Helmut," you sobbed as you writhed uncontrollably, "I'm so close— fuck me, please, I want your cock."

"So you don't want to come on my fingers, then?  You don't want me to make you come with my mouth?"

"No, I want you to fuck me, please… you know I need to come around you."

Not one to let you down when you pleaded like that, he pulled his fingers out and suddenly flipped you onto your hands and knees, chuckling when you gasped.

“This is how you want it, isn’t it?” he presumed as you heard him finishing the undressing process behind you until you finally felt the head of his cock pressing against your soaking entrance.

“Yes,” you breathed, “just fuck me, please—”

You cut yourself off with a high-pitched noise when he shoved into you, this angle giving you no relief from how deep he was filling you.  One of his hands was beside yours, keeping him balanced upright above you, and you watched it tighten into a fist while the other slid up to hold your neck in a way that was simultaneously intimidating and soothing.

When he started to move, each stroke rubbed against your swollen spot and you struggled not to fall apart right there and then.

“So perfect,” he breathed right against your ear, almost like he was saying it to himself more than you, “you feel so fucking perfect, draga.”

Of course that would make your back arch even more, pushing him deeper into you in search of not only more friction within you but more of his praise whispered to you.

Soon it was you pushing back against him more than him fucking into you, and you felt his proud smile press against the curve of your neck.  “You need it that badly, darling?”

“Need you,” you whined back, not really capable of a full sentence at this point. 

“I know,” he whispered, soothing you with kisses all over your cheek and neck and shoulder.  “I know, poor thing, you just need to come, yes?”

Your mouth fell slack as you nodded, rocking back into him faster and more desperately than ever.

“You need me to make you come?”

“Yes, fuck, please!” you cried, hoping he wouldn’t get irritated with you becoming so demanding, but thankfully he obliged and held your body tight as he really fucked you then, hard and fast and completely unforgiving— exactly how you needed it.

Every part of your body seemed to tense up in time with each other: your toes curled, your hands gripped the sheets beneath you in fists, your walls fluttered and tightened around him.  

When you opened your mouth to speak, you genuinely didn’t know if you should expect a scream or a whisper.  What came out was somewhere in the middle, slightly choked and completely fucked-out.  “Please, don’t stop…”

“Couldn’t if I wanted to, draga,” he groaned, his fingers rubbing your clit roughly as he fucked you even harder, slamming into the deepest parts of you until you were choking on your own sobs.

"I— hng, Helmut, I'm—" you tried to warn him, but you couldn't even put a few words together.

"I know, darling," he cooed, "shh, just come, go ahead and come for me."

He sucked hard on your pulse as your legs quivered and your body gave out; if it weren’t for him holding you tight against him, you would’ve fallen on your face onto the bed (and you may not have even noticed if you did, since you were suddenly going numb and tingly everywhere).

Just past the ringing in your ears you could hear him muttering curses against your skin, in a few languages you didn’t speak, before switching back to English to praise you in a growl.  “I love feeling you come around me, draga, keep going— you’re squeezing me so tight that I can barely keep it together.”

Tears streamed down your cheeks from the force of it, and his hand reached up to wipe them away— a gesture much too tender considering the way he was pounding into you like he was out for revenge.

"Fuck, I'm close, so close," he breathed, grunting with every thrust into you.

"Come in me, I want it so bad, I need it…"

His teeth sunk into your neck, his lips sealing and sucking on the delicate skin, as he let out a muffled moan and began to fill you.  The warmth of it was always indescribable, but perfect; a heavy exhale of relief sunk from your chest out your lips.

You were able to stay like that for a long moment before he let you go and you inevitably fell limply onto the bed, just barely beginning to catch your breath and come back down to reality.

“Fuck, that’ll leave a mark,” you groaned as you rubbed where he’d bitten you, but you were smiling, too.

You watched him get up and stretch briefly; you were pretty impressed he was still energetic enough to do anything but collapse onto the bed beside you, though you certainly didn’t mind the view as he walked to the window and acquired a cigarette and his lighter.

“Isn’t smoking after sex a little stereotypical?” you chuckled softly.

He smirked back at you as he placed the end between his lips.  “It’s the only time I smoke, so I’m going to blame you for how many packs I’ve been going through,” he countered, words slightly muffled from holding the cigarette.  He struck his lighter and carefully lit the end, taking a slow inhale before letting the smoke out through his nose.

“Believe it or not, I didn’t have such an… appetite, before you,” you admitted.

“You’d never had anything worth craving before,” he shrugged; how dare he be so casually cocky like that?  How dare he be so accurate?

Deciding you definitely needed a shower (though you would’ve loved to lay there catatonic for a while longer), you managed to sit up and get off the bed.  The only problem was that you severely overestimated the awakeness of your legs, and when you tried to stand on them, they buckled right away.

He dashed across the room to catch you, concerned at first but then smirking around his cigarette as he looked down at you in his arms.  "Are you alright, darling?"

"Yeah, I'm good," you nodded breathlessly, balancing on his arms as you found your footing.  "Thanks."

“You don’t need my help in the shower?” he pressed.

You rolled your eyes as you laughed, letting go of his hands.  “We both know your ‘help’ isn’t going to get me clean.”

“You’ve got me there,” he admitted, raising his hands in relent as he returned to the window while you finished your delicate trek to the bathroom and reached into the shower to turn on the stream of hot water.

Though the shower thankfully did get the sweat off of you and (most of) the come out of you, it could never wash away the feeling of his touch, the little bruises in the shape of his lips or fingertips, and thank god that it couldn’t— your heart might break if they ever faded.

Of course, that made you start wondering which made you start overthinking (a common shower pastime for you) and suddenly a pang of fearful guilt started to throb in your gut as you wondered if your feelings were becoming too strong.  

You pushed the thought away and finished up your shower, deciding now was not the time to worry where this affair was going.  Didn’t you deserve to do something fun and crazy and a little bit dangerous for once?  At least you weren’t in his class anymore so what you were doing was less ‘wrong’ and more just ‘probably a bad idea.’

But this bad idea had been going on for a few months now and sometimes it felt like you were barreling towards an inevitable breaking point.  Could any relationship that began in the way yours had find longevity?  Is that even what you wanted?

Okay, so maybe you didn’t really manage to successfully stop worrying about it, and you sighed absent-mindedly as you dried off with a borrowed towel.  If anything could soothe your racing mind, it was coming back to the bedroom to find Helmut in bed, his cigarette finished and replaced with a book and his reading glasses.

The way he smiled when he saw you was infectious, and he extended his arm out in invitation for you to join him and, well, that offer was irresistible.

You beamed as you jumped onto the mattress, which had settled from its bouncing by the time you found a comfortable spot on his shoulder and lifted your leg to drape over his.  

Your head found a place on his chest while your fingers traced over it, trailing down at one point to his stomach where you delicately traced over the scars there— the ones you’d been too afraid to ask about before now.

“What happened?” you asked softly.  “The scars…”

“A dog mauled me when I was little,” he remembered flatly as he turned a page in his book.  

“Oh no!”

“Not as bad as it sounds, I can’t even remember it now,” he shrugged.

“Anything interesting?” you asked, motioning to the book and looking up at his profile as he returned to his thoughtful reading.

“Something horrifically boring,” he answered flatly, looking over at the bedside table when his phone vibrated on top of it.  Setting the book down and grabbing the phone instead, he squinted as he looked at the bright screen.

“What is it?” you asked after a brief struggle not to be nosy.

"Another professor in the department is offering to take me out for drinks, for my birthday," he explained as he examined the message.

"That's sweet of him," you smiled.  "You should go!"

"Well, actually it's a 'her,'" he corrected.

Oh no, there it was, stirring in your stomach: jealousy, for no good reason, with no right to start stirring in your chest.  Of course in your mind, this female professor was sexy and sophisticated in a way you couldn't be, someone who could keep up with his discussions about history and politics that you barely understood, someone who could do all those things you couldn’t do. 

Including, you know, going to bars… like the one she was inviting him to now, on the night of his birthday.

“Well that’s… nice,” you mumbled.  “Is it just you and her, or…?”

He paused as he processed the question, before suddenly smirking and setting his phone down to stare back at you.  “Do you think she’s asking me on a date?”

You couldn’t parse at first if he was asking you because he thought you were being ridiculous for thinking it, or because he genuinely wanted your perspective— as if he would be happy if she was.  It made a lump form in your throat that you couldn’t quite swallow down.  “I… I don’t know, maybe?” you shrugged.  “How old is she?” you, morbid curiosity getting the better of you.

“I don’t know, 30-something?  Like I will be for the next—” he paused to puff his cheeks with a sigh and glance at his watch— “5 hours or so.”

You tried to hide your disappointment that he didn’t give a number like 60 or more.  “I don’t think you’re allowed to say 30 ‘something’ when the ‘something’ is 9,” you snorted.

“Okay, she’s in her late 30s then,” he decided.

“Well, that’s…” you trailed off. 

“What?” he pressed.

“I guess it’s probably a date, then,” you decided.

“It’s definitely not,” he shook his head.

“Does she know that?” you shot back, regretting it once you said it.

“Seriously?” he laughed.  “Do you think something is going to… happen between her and I, at this bar?”

“Well, maybe not at the bar, she’ll probably drive you to her place in her BMW or whatever,” you scoffed.

“Draga, she’s a history professor, she can’t afford a BMW,” he smirked, kissing your forehead.  

“Okay, but she has a car, and an apartment, and a job— you know, maybe she’s more ‘in your league’,” you proposed.

He laughed again.  “Yes, maybe she is.  And maybe you’re out of my league.  So I think we’ve established that it would be entirely uneconomic for me to be with her instead of you.”

You noticed the way he said ‘being with’ and not ‘date’ in reference to this.  Because you two weren’t, technically, dating, even if he did take you on what could be considered dates by most of the population.  “People do uneconomic things all the time,” you mumbled back, and he let out a little sigh as he looked down at you.

“Darling, I am entirely disinterested in pursuing another woman… as well as physically incapable.  I can barely keep up with you, how do you expect me to entertain somebody else?”

You swallowed, feeling a bit guilty for bringing it up at all.  “I’m sorry, it’s really none of my business,” you sighed, “I didn’t mean to ask you for anything, you can make your own decisions and I know we said this wasn’t—”

“Shh,” he interrupted to hug you tighter, “you’re overthinking again.  I’m not going to sleep with someone else—”

“But I’m saying you could, if you wanted to, I’d just want you to tell me since we aren’t using condoms and we would probably just call it off—”

“Baby,” he smiled, making you look up at him as he reached down to hold your face in his hand, “I just want you.”

You choked on nothing in particular, feeling so vulnerable so suddenly.  “O-okay…”

He held your head close to his chest and wrapped his arms around your shoulders, while you were still reeling from that statement; you didn’t know exactly what it meant— it certainly implied exclusivity, but not necessarily any romantic contexts, right?  To ‘want’ someone can mean a lot of things… sexual, mainly, which is what you assumed he was referring to.

And you were definitely not disappointed if he only wanted you in only that way, but you couldn’t swallow down the longing stirring inside you, the unforgettable knowledge that you wanted him in every way that could be meant.  Best of all, you wanted him all to yourself, but you were too self-conscious to bring up the exclusivity talk and you were too happy now to risk messing it all up with pesky emotions.  It was just amazing sex, between two people who thankfully managed to get along well outside the bedroom as well, and there was absolutely wrong with that.

If nothing else, you knew a lot more about history than you did a few months ago, so if it all ended tomorrow, at least you would have some fun facts about Sokovia to show for it.

When your friend Kacey told you there was a house party this weekend, you were originally going to say no… but the house in question was actually just down the block from Helmut’s apartment, so you knew if you hated it you could leave easily.  Maybe getting out would do you some good, and it was the same night that Helmut was going out with his friends for his birthday so the timing was convenient.  He encouraged you not to wait for him alone and bored all night; this seemed like the perfect way to avoid that.

And maybe if you were getting dressed up all sexy to go out to a party at the same time he was supposed to leave for the bar, you could convince him to ditch them and spend his birthday fucking you senseless.

When he caught a glimpse of you while he walked past the bathroom, he stopped suddenly and you grinned as you turned to face him.  "Whaddya think?" you asked proudly, letting him get an eyeful of your outfit.

“You look…” he trailed off, scanning the skin-tight dress with wide eyes.  “Do you always dress this way for parties?”

You shrugged.  “Most of the time, yeah.”

“Remind me to take you out more,” he nodded.  “Or never let you go out without me again.”

“You don’t think it’s too revealing, do you?” you teased, stepping closer.

“Oh no, don’t play that game with me,” he laughed.  “Don’t try to make me jealous just so I’ll get rough with you.”

You frowned, crossing your arms.  

“Does that tactic usually work on whatever boys you were seeing before me?” he smirked, and something about the way he called them boys made you feel all tingly and suddenly you were not the one in control anymore.  You nodded shyly and he stepped up to you, pulling you into a soft kiss.  You tried to deepen it but he moved back too soon, leaving you wanting more like he could do so effortlessly.  “I’ll see you tonight, have fun at your party.”

He left you with one more kiss, to your forehead this time, and you were almost more impressed than irritated at how he managed to make sure you’d be thinking only of him all night long.

Not too much later after he’d driven off, you left on foot for the party— though you definitely considered cancelling last minute and just moping around his apartment, staring forlornly out the window wondering when your husband former professor turned not-exactly boyfriend would return from the war bar.

But you had a point to prove to yourself, as well as Helmut and Kacey, and so you finished primping and found the walk rather pleasant in terms of scenery (if irritating in terms of fashion).

As far as house parties go, it wasn't quite a rager but not exactly a casual hangout either; you could hear the music from across the block, though faintly, as bass reverberated through the ground and into your platforms while your friend waved you down from the porch, calling your name.

She met you at the sidewalk just in front of the house, pulling you into a tight hug; you had been worried at first that you were overdressed (or, in a certain sense, underdressed), but her outfit was significantly more revealing than yours; a two-piece with her stomach and belly button piercing exposed.  

“You look hot,” Kacey beamed when she pulled back from the hug.

“You think so?  I’m a bit out of practice,” you admitted.

“Glad you could dust off the heels and join us,” she winked.

“Us?”

She glanced back towards the house.  “Yeah, Pia’s here— somewhere…”

Another junior in your major; as the most social girls in the computer science undergraduate stratosphere, the three of you were sort of forced to be friends, but thankfully it wasn’t for naught and you got along well.  Sometimes Kacey could be a bit… effervescent for your taste, in the sense that she was one of those bubbly outgoing types and had more energy than you knew what to do with.  Pia was more reserved but acquiescent, which meant she ended up pulled along on whatever adventures Kacey got herself into you.  And then there was you, who had been blowing them off every weekend with a list of increasingly-absurd excuses: sick dog, sick cousin, sick self (both migraines and menstrual cramps), heavy homework load— you know, the usual suspects— all in the name of hanging out with Helmut.

You considered yourself lucky that they still wanted to hang out with you, after you’d been AWOL this long, and you feared that they would understandably want an explanation.

Following Kacey inside the house, you tried not to wince at the volume of the music— a live band, it turns out, and not a very good one— and grabbed a stray drink from a table on your way to wherever you were being guided.

Pia was sitting on the arm of a couch, listening to a very stoned young man talk about the meaning of life and the universe, but she smiled when she saw you and Kacey, getting up to greet you.

“Hey, I haven’t seen you in forever!” she frowned playfully, hugging you quickly.

“Yeah, sorry about that,” you mumbled.  

“We should catch up!  How have you been?” she pressed, tilting her head.

“You’re sure you don’t wanna miss this TED talk?” you snorted, glancing over at the guy who had changed topics slightly and seemed to have confused string beans with string theory.

“I’ve heard better philosophy from the back of cereal boxes,” she laughed, but right as she said it the band finished their song and everyone glanced in your direction, including the heartbroken hippy himself.  “Uh, sorry,” she winced, and Kacey laughed as she guided the three of you away.

“I’m gonna get us some drinks, wait here,” Kacey decided once she found a new corner to lounge in, but Pia abandoned you soon afterward in search of a bathroom, leaving you to do what you did best at parties: stand around and avoid everyone’s attention.

You were surprised to hear your name from behind you, and when you whipped your head around you saw a tall guy with a wide smile looking down at you.

“Professor Zemo, right?” he asked with a raised eyebrow, and you nearly choked on your drink.

“Wh— what about him?” you stammered out.

“We had his class together,” he explained.  “I sat behind you.”

“Oh!” you smiled, relieved.  “Right, um, yeah…”

“Trey,” he finished for you.

“Trey!” you repeated, nodding.  “I knew that… hi, Trey, good to see you.”

“How’s life been treating you since you set the curve in that class?” he grinned.

“I don’t think he even graded on a curve,” you mumbled.  “But, um, good.  Just… livin’ it up,” you decided, cringing internally at your own wording.

“Yeah?  I haven’t seen you in any other history classes,” he noticed.

“Oh, I’m not a history major,” you explained quickly.  “Computer science.”

He chuckled incredulously, wrinkling his eyebrows.  “What were you doing in a history seminar?”

Fucking the professor.  “Elective,” you shrugged.  

“So you’re just a hobby history buff then?” he presumed.

“No, I actually kinda hate history, I prefer to live in the present,” you decided, “but, y’know, underwater basket-weaving didn’t have any seats left…”

He snorted out a laugh, a little too hard for the quality of the joke, and you realized this was probably flirting.  You’d never really seen it up this close, so you couldn’t be sure… and considering how he looked in his jeans with the shirt half-unbuttoned, you weren’t exactly mad about it…

But it made you feel sort of sick to your stomach.  It made you feel guilty, on behalf of Helmut but even moreso for Trey who was totally sweet and smart and deserved to be spending this energy on somebody who could appreciate it.

“Want another drink?  Looks like yours is almost empty,” he motioned to your red plastic cup.  

“Oh, um, I would but… I think my friends are coming over here,” you dismissed, hoping he would take the hint without taking it too hard.  He seemed to understand, giving you a nod and a wave before he disappeared into the crowd right as Pia grabbed your arm.

“Who was that?” she asked right away, giving you a look that you chose to ignore.

“Trey, he sat behind me in my history class last semester.”

“He’s cute,” Pia winked, leaning against the wall beside you.  “And definitely into you.”

“Well, that’s… good for him, I suppose,” you stammered.

“Are you gonna go for it?  Get his number?” she pressed.

“Uh, probably not,” you decided, “I’m gonna get another drink—”

Before you could walk away, she grabbed your wrist and pulled you back.  “Hey, what’s the deal?  You seem kinda out of it.”

“Oh, well, I just— I guess I’m not as much into the party scene as I used to be.”

“I’m using my psychology major mind-reading powers,” she warned, waving her fingers at you like she was casting some mystical spell while you leaned back and squinted.

“Um, that’s definitely not how that works—”

“You’re acting weird becaaauuuusee… you’re totally hung up on somebody else and feel guilty flirting with guys here even though you know you shouldn’t,” she announced, crossing her arms proudly when your dumbfounded expression gave away her accuracy.

“How did you—?”

“Lucky guess.  So who is it?!” she grinned.

“Uh—”

Kacey, summoned by the smell of gossip, seemed to appear from thin air at your other side.  “Who is who?” she smirked.

You glanced around at the crowded room of students and decided this was definitely not the place to talk about such an illicit affair, taking them by the hand and dragging them into a more private room of the house.  Finding a seat on a chair as the girls gathered around you (oddly reminiscent of a childhood storytime, except this story was going to be a lot more mature than those), you prepared to answer as many of their questions as you could.

As a European, Zemo was quite well-practiced at going out to bars with friends, but in America it was a very different experience.  It took him twice the alcohol to get half as drunk as his colleagues, meaning by the time he was feeling a decent buzz, everyone else had foolishly tried to keep up and ended up totally sloshed.

The person who had initially suggested this event (as well as the one you had foolishly felt some sort of jealousy for), Dr. Josten, had actually respected her own limits and left first while she was still good to drive, meaning Zemo was left only with men who couldn’t hold their liquor or their tongues.

Case in point, a bunch of his fellow professors were now trying to convince him to go up to the bar and flirt with a woman in a red dress.

“No, no way,” Zemo shook his head, “I’m not doing that.”

“You could totally take her home, just tell her it’s your birthday!” Professor Bram, from the English department, suggested with an elbow digging a bit too hard into Zemo’s side.

“Does that normally work?” he asked bewilderedly.

"I mean, not for me… but it could work for you!  Ladies love an accent."

“You’ve been teaching stateside for over a year now, Zemo, it’s time for you to experience American women,” one of them laughed.

“Who says I haven’t?” he mumbled to himself before another sip of his vodka, but unfortunately some of the others heard him as well and he got a playful punch to the shoulder.

“I can’t believe you didn’t say anything!  Was it just a hook-up or what?”

“No, I… well, I’m seeing someone, I suppose is the way to put it,” he clarified.

“How long?” Kacey asked you first, right away, as she leaned in excitedly.

“Um, a few months now,” you realized.

“No, I mean how long,” she smirked, gesturing with her hands to indicate length, and you snorted.

“Jesus, I’m not telling you that!”

“Buzzkill,” she rolled her eyes.

“Plenty long enough, that’s all I’ll say,” you laughed.

“How’d you meet her?” Professor Carpenter (another history department veteran) asked.  “I mean, you’re never anywhere but work… is it someone you work with?”

“In a sense…” Zemo trailed off.

“So, is he in one of your classes?” Pia wondered aloud.

“Um, he was, last semester,” you agreed.  It wasn’t false, by any means, but definitely not the entire truth, either.

"So, another lecturer,” Professor Chen (Zemo was about 80% sure he was in the political science department) nodded thoughtfully.  

“Gotta be somebody from the Women’s Studies department,” Bram smirked proudly, despite it not being a statement to be proud of at all.

“Or is it that woman here on the visiting scholar program, the temporary lecturer in neurology?” Carpenter jumped in.

“No, he said she was American, c’mon, keep up,” Bram frowned as he slapped Carpenter on the padded shoulder.

“Delta or Sigma?” Kacey squinted, like it was an interrogation.

“Not a frat guy, some of us have standards Kace,” you scoffed.

“Hey!” Pia gasped, offended on Kacey’s behalf.

“Nah, she’s right,” Kacey soothed.

“She’s not a lecturer, okay?” Zemo hissed, tired of having basically every department of the university listed to him (including some he didn’t realize existed).  “She’s not faculty.”

“...staff?” Chen posited.

“What, you mean like the janitor?  No, not staff,” Zemo rolled his eyes.  “I shouldn’t have said anything.  It’s none of your business.”

“It doesn’t matter!  What’s with the secrecy?”

“I haven’t told anyone about it yet, and I don’t think I’ve had enough alcohol to start now,” he frowned.

“Which of your classes was he in, then?” Pia asked, shifting her line of questioning (and unfortunately looking in the right direction).

“Um, that history thing I took last semester,” you answered.

“That guy from before was in your history class!  Should we just ask him who it is?” Pia grinned mischievously.

You cursed yourself for giving away too much.

“I’ll go find him and see if he’s going to give us more to work with you than you,” Kacey decided, already standing up to walk out of the room.

“No, wait!” you yelped, pulling her back; you didn’t want to tell them anymore, but you couldn’t afford if someone like Trey found out.  Telling Kacey and Pia wasn’t ideal, but at least they could be trusted with a secret.  “I’ll tell you, okay?  Fuck, I don’t even know how to say this…”

Chen tossed up his hands in defeat.  “Alright, the only reason you could be so weird about this is if it’s somebody totally forbidden—”

Zemo’s chest tightened as he worried they would figure it out.

“Like, I don’t know, an adjunct or something.”

“An adjunct?  Are you out of your mind?” Zemo spat.

“Hey, no judgment in brainstorming,” Carpenter defended.

“You think I would be this protective about it if it was an adjunct?” Zemo continued.

“Listen, we’re not gonna think less of you, whatever it is— and we’re not gonna tattle on you,” Bram assured.  “Just get it off your chest while the liquor’s flowing, half of us aren’t even gonna remember it tomorrow anyways.”

“I’m dating a professor,” you blurted out.

“She’s a student,” he finally interjected, the entire table suddenly going dead silent.

“...a grad student?” one of them pressed, making Zemo swallow uncomfortably.

“Um, no… she’s actually… twenty,” he admitted.

“Holy shit,” Pia gasped.  “You actually did it…”

“We bow to your hoe powers,” Kacey spoke reverently, clasping her hands as if in prayer.  “We’ve all dreamed of bagging a hot professor and now you made it a reality.  Please, O Queen, teach us in your ways.”

“It’s not like that,” you defended.

“Is she at least getting a better grade out of you for it?” Carpenter joked.

“No, it’s not like that,” he dismissed, “she passed my class with flying colors quite some time ago.”

“Okay, but was that before or after you slept with her?”

“It was irrelevant to the fact that I slept with her.”

“So, after,” Chen assumed with a smirk.

“Yes, after,” Zemo finally admitted, “but she’s not my student anymore.”

“Is she your girlfriend then?”

You gnawed on the inside of your cheek.  “We… haven’t really had that conversation yet.  I keep meaning to, but then… one thing always seems to lead to another…”

“Oh really?” Pia grinned.  “So what’s he like?”

“Sensitive…” you mumbled right away, “patient, weirdly funny though I don’t think he realizes it.”

“I know I’m going to sound like every creep who ever preyed on young women, but she’s very mature for her age,” Zemo explained.  “Incredibly thoughtful.  Wise beyond her years.”

“No, no,” Johnston shook his head, “what’s she like.”

"It's nothing like how it is with guys our age,” you gushed, clutching your blanket tighter to your chest.  “He's so attentive, and sensual, and he can go for hours," you explained as your teeth sunk into your bottom lip at the memories playing on repeat in your mind.

"You must understand that she's nothing like women our age, at least not any that I've met," he nodded as his friends set down their drinks to lean in close.  He was sure this was more attention than he'd ever gotten for one of his lectures.  "She's… insatiable.  She wants to go again and again and I'm just trying to keep her from getting injured or something, poor thing."

"So she likes it rough?" one of them presumed with a toothy grin.

"She's so inexperienced she doesn't really know what she likes yet.  She's learning with me.  So we try everything."

"Everything?" one of the girls repeated as she widened her eyes.

Your face warmed up as you cleared your throat.  "I mean… yeah…"

"So, anal?"

You choked on nothing, which said more than any answer could.

"I shouldn’t talk about this with you,” he decided, shaking his head.

“Come on, you don’t have to tell us everything, just give us something to work with here,” Carpenter pleaded.  

“I don’t want to know what you mean by work with,” Zemo shuddered.

“At least tell us how you got her to sleep with you,” Chen compromised.

“Or let us do a guest lecture in your class so we can try to find our own undersexed sorority girls,” Bram added.

“Jesus, how many times do I have to say it’s not like that?” you frowned.  “I’m not turning this into some fucked up teacher-student dating service.”

“You keep saying what it isn’t like but you won’t tell us what it is,” Kacey noted.  “I mean, is it serious?”

“All I can say for sure is that I feel pretty serious about it,” Zemo tried to explain.  

“...are you in love with her?”

He cleared his throat, suddenly deciding now was the perfect time to finish his drink.

“Love?” you repeated, voice cracking.  “I don’t… know about that,” you stammered.

But the really upsetting thing was that you did know, and you hadn’t let yourself think about it until now.  It hadn’t been long enough to justify feelings like that, and the last thing you wanted to be was the naïve girl who caught feelings when all the guy was looking for was sex.

“It’s not just sex,” he announced.  “It’s something really real.   I didn’t know that I could—”

He stopped himself.

“I haven’t felt this way since—” he began, but stopped again.  “I don’t know.  Just, be careful how you talk about her.”

“Oh, you’re really whipped,” Bram chuckled.

“She’s incredible; you’d understand if you met her.”

“Then let us meet her!”

For a moment, he actually considered it; he wasn’t sure if you thought that you were at the ‘meeting friends’ stage, and considering the cultural difference it was going to be a unique one for sure.  Would you ask him to hang out with your friends?  He didn’t even know what that would look like.

“She seems like someone worth getting to know,” Bram agreed, and Zemo grimaced at the predatory look in his eyes.

“Fuck off,” he sneered, and Chen patted him on the back.

“Good move.  I’d be keeping her to myself, too… otherwise she might end up upgrading to a tenured professor like myself,” he beamed.

“Better watch out before Chen here steals your girl, Zemo,” Carpenter warned.

“She can’t be stolen,” Zemo assured.

“Yeah, you say that now…” Bram trailed off.

“Care to finish that sentence?” Zemo snarled.

“Well, think of it this way.  Most students wouldn’t fuck their professor,” Bram explained.  “But those that would, usually wouldn’t only fuck one.”

He didn’t punch him in the face because it was crude.  Sure, that was a factor, but it wasn’t the real reason.  He punched him in the face because it sounded like it actually made sense.

He punched him in the face because he couldn’t understand why it made him so angry; so what if he was just one of your exploits?  What difference did it make?  After all, you’d just said the night before that he was free to pursue others, and he couldn’t quite appreciate yet why that didn’t feel like freedom at all.

From a certain point of view, he knew he should just appreciate that you were with him at all, irrelevant to whoever else you might be with or would potentially be with in the future.  But from another, and much more salient, point of view, he wanted you all to himself.  And he hated that.

Like all good anger, his anger in that moment was born of fear, and he’d never been so afraid that he was just the lucky target of your promiscuous phase.  As selfish as it was, he wanted to think of himself as more than that.

And now that he was getting thrown out of a bar on his own birthday, contemplating the paperwork he would have to fill out tomorrow after punching a coworker tonight, he’d never thought of himself as less.

Much to your delight, he returned relatively early for a guy coming back from a bar on his birthday— 11:57 p.m., specifically— but it made sense for him being a responsible professor and all.

Well, mostly responsible.  After all, he still had his former student waiting for him when he got back, perched on the couch expectantly.  As fun as the third degree had been with Kacey and Pia, you wanted to be here when he got back— and now that they finally understood the real reason you were leaving early, they were more than supportive (perhaps a little too supportive, with their rather graphic suggestions and… hand gestures).

You didn’t stay on his couch for long, though; you got up and met him at the door as he slipped off his coat and hung it up nearby.

“How was your night out?” you asked softly, reaching up to rub his chest through his shirt.

“Um, it was good,” he nodded, “I missed you though.”

“I missed you, too,” you sighed.  “I was here all by myself thinking about the present I want to give you.”

“I told you not to get anything for me,” he remembered, gasping slightly when you pushed him back against the door.

“Just be gracious and accept your gift, okay?” you whispered, starting to kneel down and open his belt.

“O-oh,” he breathed.

You palmed his cock through his trousers, biting your lip as you felt it swelling already.  “I didn’t wrap this gift… and I forgot to get you a card to go with it.”

“Somehow I think I’ll find it in my heart to forgive you,” he chuckled, though his smile dropped when you pulled his cock out and stroked it slowly.  You had meant to tease him a bit but you found yourself sucking on the head already, too desperate for even your own plans; not that he had any issue with it, you could hear his breathing quicken as you bobbed your head slowly and stroked what your lips couldn’t reach.

He was still getting harder and the feeling of it on your tongue was so hot it was almost distracting, it made you want to reach down under your dress but you knew you were going to need your full attention on him if you were going to do this properly.

Closing your eyes, you kept taking him deeper and deeper until your lips met the base of his cock while his tip was lodged deep down your throat.

“Fffuck,” he hissed, “where did you learn how to do that?”

You pulled back and took a breath, stroking his cock as you responded.  “I’ve been practicing, all for you.”

It made his cock flex in your hand to imagine you gagging on your fingers or a toy in hopes of learning how to deepthroat him, let alone to know that it worked.

You took him in your mouth again, swirling your tongue around his slit until he reached down to grab your hair— not hard enough to guide your movements, he was still letting you set your own pace, but hard enough to tug at the roots and make you moan around him.  Slowly, you sunk down again, humming and swallowing around him, and he sucked in a sharp breath.

“You’re too fucking perfect,” he sighed, watching closely as you pulled off of him even slower, running your lips and tongue over every part of him.  “You— fuck, you really don’t need to do this.”

“I want to,” you breathed, darting your tongue out to give a wide lick to his head.  “I’m already so wet just from this, Helmut… I want you to fuck my face.”

“Shit,” he cursed, gripping your hair tighter.  “You’re sure?”

You smiled and nodded.

“Then open your mouth."

Never one to turn down an instruction like that, you let your mouth fall slack and hummed a bit as he pushed his cock forward past your waiting lips.  After that it was just a matter of letting your throat relax and focusing on your limited chances to breath as he held your head and guided you.  

Whatever discomfort came from having your throat filled so deep was heavily outweighed by the incredible feeling of being used— it sounds debasing, but the way he stammered out praises made you feel anything but degraded.

“So good,” he grunted, “look up at me, darling, show me how good you look choking on me— fuck, you’re so beautiful.”

You were trying to be sexy, here on your knees in this tight dress and heels, but he had you feeling small and delicate saying things like that.

“Such a good girl,” he breathed; you had to shut your eyes then because you couldn’t hear that and look up at him or you were going to end up having to throw these panties out.

The volume of his moans was one thing, but the desperation in them was another; and both of them made it clear he was close, and you wanted to finish him off like this more than anything.

“Fuck— I’ll come,” he warned, “is that what you want?  To swallow it?”

You hummed in appreciation, hoping that would get your message across well; and it certainly seemed to, considering he bucked up into your throat more erratically than ever, moaning loudly with each thrust.

Hot come painted the back of your throat, so deep you never really got a chance to consider the taste although you imagined a night of drinking wouldn’t have done him any favors there.  Not that you minded; it was him and that was enough to make you moan with delight as he filled your mouth.

“Fuck,” he sighed, pumps of come slowing down to a stop as he relaxed against the door and caught his breath.  The moment of calm didn’t last as you started to gently suckle on his softening cock, making him tense up and suck in a sharp breath through his teeth.  “Nonono,” he chuckled breathlessly, pulling you off of him as you smiled mischievously, “it’d be a shame if I died on my birthday.”

“But what a way to go, hm?” you laughed as he helped you up from the floor.  “Not your birthday anymore anyways,” you noted, tapping on his watch, “it’s 12:02.”

“I hope you don’t think that means the party’s over,” he smirked, picking you up suddenly, making you laugh in surprise as he started to carry you to the bedroom.  “I’m officially a man in his forties with something to prove, so we’ll be going all night, draga.”

#taglists coming later im too busy to do it right now #helmut zemo x reader #baron zemo x reader #professor!zemo x reader #helmut zemo smut #baron zemo smut

[soft-boi-eli]

Ayo do you write for poly relationships?

If that's so, could you do a cc!Karlnapity x male reader? Quackity is hella stressed because of law school and is very tired so the others just

Do little things for him, like acts of service and just, being supportive---

Feel free to say no if it makes you uncomfortable :>

Yep. I myself am poly but not in a relationship yet. So I am perfectly comfortable with it.

We believe in you.

Summary: quackity needs some tlc. With the stress of law school higher then ever you, karl, and sapnap decide to take care of him while he studies.

Pronouns: he him his

Quackity. The hyper happy streamer. Was in his office/streaming room studying for finals.

The stress he was under was immense and all you and your two other boyfriends wanted to do was comfort him and help him through this intense time.

You were monitoring how much he has eaten or drank today. That counter was at zero. The amount of times for a stressful break was monitored by karl. And the bathroom breaks by sapnap. With all of the counters at zero you guys went to work.

You were the only one that could cook in this house. The others would burn it down. So you were always on dinner duty. Or lunch. Even breakfast.

Whipping up some tomato soup and grilled cheese you were quick to plate it. These we're quick simple and the best thing for them to consume.

While sapnap and karl were harassing him to get up you were setting up the living room for a mental break for him. Setting it up for two episodes of the show you guys were watching you yelled up to them. "guys I'm done. And if you have to drag him."

You were making him take this break. Whether he liked it or not. Cramming can be useful yes. But not all the time. Not for hours on end with no food or water. Watching your two boyfriends literally dragging your third one down you smirked.

"So. You thought that you could get away with not eating, drinking, or even bathroom breaks. You thought wrong." Quackity stared at you. That look. He's seen it before.

"No. No! If I don't study I can't pass!" He was desperate to get out of their arms. Walking up to him you squished his cheeks. "Hun. It's gonna be an hour at max. You need to eat. Get some water. We're worried. You haven came out of that room for over 6 hours. Meaning you haven't eaten, haven't filled your water bottle, haven't used the bathroom. It's not healthy. And your brain needs fuel. Not energy drinks." He looked at you for a moment.

What you said was true. Every human needs it. But he just wanted to finish his notes. The ones that he said would be done in less then three hours. The ones that he could study for the final exam with.

But all three of your guys puppy dog eyes won him over.

"Fine. But no longer then an hour." He fully gave in. Letting go of his face you smiled. "Great! I made grilled cheese and tomato soup." Quackity looked over with stars in his eyes.

"You could of just said that Mi Amor. You know I would die for you soup." Rolling you eyes to him as he quickly picked up his plate and bowl.

This man.

He was scarfing it down like he was a starving man.

I mean waking up, studying, and not eating at all does that to you.

As the show played quackity seemed to relax a bit more. That was all you wanted. Him to sit back, relax, give himself a break.

Sadly the two episodes were over faster then they began. Leaving quackity to go back upstairs. Laving his three worried boyfriends.

"Okay guys." They looked at you confused for a sec.

"Every hour we bring him something. Water, a snack, blanket, hot drinks, cuddles. What ever you want. Just make sure he's taking care of himself alright?" They nodded.

"Good. Who's on first hour duty?" Karl was quick. He was nearly springing out of his seat as he raised his hand.

You were fine with it because your took at least two hours.

You were making cookies.

You knew the boys couldn't resist any of the baked goods you made. After all you were a cooking and baking youtuber.

So as the hours passed by the guys kept reminding quackity to take breaks. Telling him to go to the bathroom, stretch his legs a little, have a hug.

So when you finished the last batch it was your turn up there. Bringing a plate full of cookies and milk with you, you knocked gently.

"I swear to God sapnap if you're there again I'm going to ki-." He opened the door and looked directly at you. "Not sapnap this time I brought cookies though!" He greedily grabbed the cookies and milk, letting you in as he did so.

"So studying been going well?" He shrugged. "Could be better could be worse." Laughing lightly you sat in one of the chairs there.

"But way better now that you brought me cookies." Shaking your head you stretched. "Honestly if I didn't decide to learn. I would of never met you guys. But boy am I happy for that. Now I'm with my three handsome boyfriends. One of them ever so cuddly. The other quite the amazing voice. And lastly my extremely smart boy who is going to help so many people when he passes his finals." He tilted his head at you.

Standing up you kissed his forehead. "I belive in you alex. Just remember that your mental health is just as important as this exam." Your voice was soft on his forehead.

"Yeah! You are one of the smartest j have met! Don't you dare give up. But don't you dare mentally strain yourself!" Sapnap was loud.

Rolling your eyes you looked at the two in the door way.

"Yeah! We're here for you alex. If you need a small break we'll always be right here for you! Be it a hug, kiss, cookie, a tv break. Even just an hour of us laying in bed doing nothing except talking. We're here for you!" Karl was quick to add on. God you loved them yet they always tend to get way to cheesy.

"God you guys. I have no clue what I'm going to do with you three. I can't thank you enough." Quackity was about ready to break down in tears. With the ruffle of the hair you smiled brightly.

"No need. You are going through something that you need to work hard on. We aren't going to let you not take care of yourself." You opened your arms. On arm around quackity already.

You were inviting the other two over to join the hug.

Rushing over their arms over layed quackity and you. Squeezing the life out of you both.

God. Don't let this dream come to an end.

Bouns:

At the end of the day. All you, sapnap, and karl knew was the day coming to an end. This wasn't going to end with out quackity.

"Hey. Alex. How close are you to being done?" He turned to you. You hadn't really interuped him the whole time only every once in a while to bring up a snack. He looked up and down your pajama clad body.

He shook his head lightly. "You get comfortable with karl and sapnap. I'll be there in about 15-20 minutes." Nodding lightly you walked up the stairs. Leading to the massive room. This was the room you all shared. While also having your own room for when you wanted to sleep separately.

Karl and sapnap laid awake in their respective spots. "He's not coming to bed?" Sapnap asked. You shook your head.

"He said 15-20 minutes." Crawling between the taller ones you left space for quackity to crawl in.

He was a little off from the 15-20 minutes. He took 30 instead. But you weren't complaining one of your main sources of heat for the night was now in the bed, curled up, head on your chest, hands lightly intertwined with the other two.

Leaving your hands open to lightly comb his hair back and massage his scalp and back. This man was studying for at least 12 hours. And he deserved it.

There was no complaints from anyone. Not even quackity which was quite unusual. Except for the fact he had passed out almost as soon as your fingers started at his scalp.

His little snores brought a smile to your face while little giggles came from karl. While a chuckel came from sapnap. It's unusual for quackity to fall asleep first. But you wouldn't change it.

Not for the world.

*Ahem* I am now one year on testosterone! God it's been a weird journey but I do feel happier about myself.

Also I loved this fluffy tooth rotting oneshot. It made me happy to shower quackity, karl, and sapnap in love. They deserve it!

Anyways I hope you enjoyed and have a good day/night/morning/evening.

Eli out.

#karl x reader #karlnapity x reader #dsmp karl #karl jacobs #karl jacobs x reader #karl jacobs x you #karl jacobs x y/n #quackity x reader #quackity #quackity x y/n #quackity x you #sapnap x reader #sapnap x y/n #sapnap x you #karlnapity

[ben-101-rewrite]

-Ben 101 Rewrite Note-

Devin was a pure Osmosian, one who left his homeworld to join the Plumbers, being interested in the idea of helping people. After a few years of training, learning, and experiencing, he eventually found a place in the Plumbers located in the galaxy around where earth was. Because of this, Devin had heard of Max Tennyson, and how well known he was, and while the two bumped into each other a few times, they never really knew each other. However, on one mission that was on earth, Devin ended up meeting a human woman named Quinn Levin, who now knew about aliens and the Plumbers by mistake. After discussing things with the Plumbers, Quinn agreed to stay quiet about the whole thing, with Devin watching over her for the next few weeks to make sure she didn’t tell the public. What Devin was not counting on was Quinn’s outgoing nature, often inviting him to hang with her instead of watching from afar, and pretty interested in his alien life. From acquaintances, to friends, to lovers, the pair found themselves getting married, and eventually having a son they named Kevin Ethan Levin. After Devin had seen and heard about situations of other Plumbers having families, and often growing distant due to their jobs, Devin wanted to retire and spend the rest of his life with his family. However, just before he could leave, the Plumbers approached him, asking for help on one final mission due to his powers being needed, needing to take down a criminal named Ragnarok. Feeling guilty, Devin ended up agreeing, while promising his wife this would be the last mission he would ever go on...Unfortunately, it was his last mission, and he never came home after that. Quinn was sat down by the Plumbers later on, being told that her husband helped catch the criminal, but died doing so protecting others. Overwhelmed by grief, Quinn lashed out at the Plumbers, blaming them for her husband’s death, as they were the ones to pull him back into the business last minute. She cut contact with them, and went home to raise her son on her own for a few years. And it wasn’t easy, due to Kevin having his father’s powers and traits, things Quinn had no idea on how to raise to understand. She later remarried to another alien, who was hiding away on earth since aliens were still not unknown on the planet. His name was Harve, and he did try his best to help Quinn and Kevin, but he too didn’t know how to handle Osmosians powers, leading to many situations where Kevin blew up the tv, broke a wall, and almost getting caught seeing his alien side by other people. Seeing the stress he put on his mother, and struggling to get along with Harve as he felt like he was replacing his dad, Kevin began to feel guilty. So, one night...he left. He didn’t want to be a burden on his family anymore, along with feeling misplaced on earth, and so he ran out onto the streets and began living on his own around the age of 10. Quinn and Harve looked for Kevin for ages, but could never find him. Quinn even began to lose hope when seeing a mutant monster appear on the News, one that had something familiar about him, but vanished eventually before she could learn the truth... It wouldn’t be until years later, when Kevin was 16, that he would reappear in her life. He appeared at her house, with a ginger haired girl dressed in blue by his side, greeting his mother right before she tackled him into a hug, finally having her son back home...

#ben 101 #Ben 101 AU #Ben 101 Rewrite #Ben 101 Note #Ben 10 #B10 #ben 10 ultimate alien #ben 10 original series #ben 10 omniverse #ben 10 alien force #Ben 10 Kevin Levin #Ben 10 Devin levin #Ben 10 Quinn Levin #Ben 10 Harve #Ben 10 Ragnarok #Ben 10 Osmosians #Ben 10 Gwevin #Ben 10 Plumbers

[tiptapricot]

tipstie PLEASE tell me about tlb turning human/ human AU

Absolutely my dudes 👁👁 (this is also all hcs about how vampire rules work so just go with it)

So for me a human TLB AU isn’t one where they die and turn human, it’s one where Max is killed after being found out one way or another before any altercation with the boys happens, and they revert back to humans as a result

The reason this happens is because all the boys were sired by Max, and while they are technically full vampires, they aren’t independent vampires

Sires act as a sort of guardian to the vampires they turn, watching over them and guiding them until they believe they’re ready to take care of themselves

This is why they have a certain level of control, influence, and power over the vampires they turn, they have a bond

When sires think the vampires they’ve turned are ready to make it on their own, they sever that bond with a ritual that relinquishes complete autonomy to their vampires

But Max never did this

He wanted a family, and families have to stick together, so until his death he still clung to that small sliver of control over the boys, and that last step to complete and independent vampirism remained incomplete

And so, when Max is killed, there’s a sort of backlash, a glitch

The bond is broken, but broken wrong, and the small piece of the boys that’s still human, the piece that still remains deep down, starts clawing it’s way out

It hits Marko first, since was turned most recently, chills and fever and body wracking pain, like his body is eating itself from the inside out

It’s nothing like any of them have ever seen or heard of before, and they don’t know what to do but sit with him and try to lessen the fever

Paul follows a few hours later, exactly the same, and Dwayne helps David carry the two of them a little over halfway to the Emerson house before he collapses too

David gets them the rest of the way there, feeling worse and worse the longer he goes

He knocks on the door and Michael opens it, and David only manages a raspy “Need your help, Michael,” before he’s pitching forward into his arms

The next week or so is a blur

Michael convinces Lucy and Grandpa to help, and for Sam to keep the Frogs away while they figure out what’s going on

Star calls that night, and says she and Laddie were out when they felt themselves change back, and that she didn’t wait to find out why

She caught a bus to her cousin’s place in LA and took Laddie with her, but wanted to make sure Michael was ok

He says he’s fine, and promises to call again with more details, since “it’s a little hard to explain right now” and they hang up with plans to talk that weekend

Meanwhile the boys are going in and out of feverish half awake states, never lucid enough to do anything except drink water and groan. The Emersons take care of them in shifts, and Michael helps Grandpa research what might be happening to them. They don’t find a lot

Marko is the first to come out of it, after about three days

He’s groggy and confused, waking up to Lucy wiping his forehead with a damp towel

She gives him something to drink and helps him sit up, but there’s something... wrong

There’s a weight in his chest, a thrumming, heavy heartbeat, expanding lungs, heat

He’s breathing again, he’s alive again

He’s human

Paul wakes up in the middle of that night, to Michael in the room this time. After getting the general “you’re human but we don’t know why” pitch, he’s taken to a guest bedroom where he finds Marko curled up on the bed. He slides in behind him and pulls him close, and he knows Marko isn’t asleep because he can feel him shaking

Marko’s always been good at crying quietly

Paul’s pretty personable as they wait for David and Dwayne to wake up. He talks with the family and reads comics on the living room couch, and fetches food and stuff for Marko, who’s basically refusing to leave the guest room

Being back in a human body is bringing back too many memories for him of the shitty life he escaped from, and he’s having a hard time dealing with it

But Paul is there, and the Emersons are alright, and he’s eventually able to be coaxed out to have an actual meals with the family, and that’s nice too

Dwayne wakes up the Saturday after the boys first arrive, in one of the rare times no one was in the room to keep an eye on him and David

He interrupts breakfast by barreling into the living room looking extremely lost and worried, and shakily rushes over to pull Paul and Marko into a hug when he sees them staring wide eyed at him from the table

“Couldn’t hear you...” he mumbles into Marko’s hair. “Can’t hear either of you anymore...”

Lucy has him join them at the table and gets him his own plate of food, and they explain what they know. It still isn’t a lot, but it does give him a reason as to why the mental link the boys had is gone

The following days are strangely quiet. Michael and Lucy help the boys adjust, reminding them to eat and helping them when they forget they don’t have super strength or magic healing

The boys start talking more too, mostly out of necessity since they can’t communicate mentally anymore (which Marko thinks is extremely annoying) but also because life in the Emerson house is... surprisingly comfortable

Michael explains the whole thing to Star over the phone, and after a moment she laughs

“Maybe they needed this,” she tells him, “maybe this is good.”

A week and a half after the boys arrive, two things happen: David finally wakes up, and the Frogs find out who the mysterious house guests Sammy’s been keeping them away from are

David comes to in a dim room, with Michael dozing against the wall

He grunts and pushes himself up, and only just registers the heat of his own blood and the scratch of breathing in the back of his throat when there’s a commotion from somewhere outside

Michael wakes up with a slight flinch, rubbing a hand over his face, and makes eye contact with David right as the door slams open and Dwayne, Marko, and Paul come rushing in, followed quickly by the Frog brothers and a frantic Sam

It takes a bit of explaining, but they eventually come to an understanding

The Frogs are still a bit hesitant to believe the boys are human, but it’s not like real vampires could walk in the sunlight or show up in the hall mirror, so that’s good enough for them

The boys continue living with the Emersons after that

They find ways to help out here and there, with cleaning or dinner or dishes or farm work

Sleep schedules become basically non existent as well, and it’s a common occurrence to find at least one person up at all hours of the night

Each of the boys has... a moment or two, where it really settles in that they’re human again

For Marko, it’s when he pokes himself while trying to resew one of his patches. He hisses when he pricks his thumb, and when the blood beads up on the pad of his finger he just... stares at it. It doesn’t heal right away, and he can’t even smell it. He sucks on it to try and make it go away, and tasting blood again, when it no longer has the same rush or necessity, makes him cringe. He puts a band aid on it, and doesn’t mention it to anyone.

For Paul, it’s when he goes to a concert on the beach. He manages to get lost in the music, in the crowd, in the loud drums and the guitar riffs and the warm press of bodies and the intoxicating energy, and he doesn’t, not once, think about sinking his teeth into anyone around him. He only realizes about halfway through the second song that he’s actually hearing the music, too, instead of it just being the background noise for a cacophony of heartbeats. He goes home that night drunk on sound and life, and doesn’t know if he’s ever been happier in his life.

For Dwayne, it’s when he has his first cup of hot chocolate after turning back. It’s at the beginning of winter, and everyone is crammed together on the couch to break in the TV that Sam finally convinced Grandpa and Lucy to get. Michael and Sam are bickering about what movie to watch, Paul and Marko are having an animated conversation with the Frogs from their place on the floor, and Lucy and grandpa are laughing about something in the kitchen. They come out a bit later with snacks and drinks, and Dwayne is handed a big mug of cocoa with a heaping helping of whipped cream and marshmallows. He takes a sip without really thinking, and then stops. There’s a moment, when he just feels the warmth spread through his chest and belly, and then all at once it’s like he’s hit with this wave of emotions he can’t quite place, familiarity and relief and joy, and there are tears mixing with his whipped cream mustache. The movie is good, but the cocoa is definitely better.

For David, the first time is when he goes outside after waking up. He’d seen the sunlight through the windows, and knew it didn’t hurt him anymore, but feeling it, actually smelling the fresh air and hearing the birds and cicadas and feeling a warm breeze... it’s a little overwhelming. Michael finds him sitting on the back porch wiping at his eyes, and joins him

The second time is when he notices that his roots are showing, that his hair is growing again. Any cutting or dying was effectively permanent when he was a vampire, since their hair didn’t grow, but now... Getting a reminder that his body is living and changing again is strange. He decides to let it grow out a bit, just to see where it goes

The boys are very touchy with everyone. They were already before they turned back, but now that cuddles involve body heat, they happen much more often

So do visits to the mall, oddly enough. Lucy takes them once to get them some new clothes, and they have way too much fun popping in and out of different shops and all trying to fit in the photo booth at once. They may, technically, get banned from a few stores for causing too much of a ruckus, but that doesn’t stop them from coming back

Dwayne and David both get really into cooking, and Paul and Marko experiment a lot with mixing different things to “remember what tastes good” again. Usually doesn’t have the best outcomes, but they’re definitely adventurous

David forgets he has to sleep sometimes, but he’ll be out like a rock if anyone pulls him into bed or lets him lean on them while watching TV

Overall, adjusting is strange for all of them, but there’s a goodness to it too. Even when things are hard they figure them out eventually, and no matter what they always have each other

It feels like a new life, a new start, where they can finally get things right

Headcanons masterpost

#the fruit is talking again #the fruit is headcanoning again #tlb #the lost boys #the lost boys 1987 #michael emerson #sam emerson #lucy emerson #david the lost boys #marko the lost boys #paul the lost boys #dwayne the lost boys #the fruit is answering again

[mourntheantagonist]

#HarringroveApril Day 20: Breeze

***

Steve never volunteered himself as the party’s designated chauffeur, that life simply chose him. He was gifted with his own walkie, which felt less like a gift, and more like their little leash on him, making sure he didn’t have the excuse not to drive them somewhere. It would be nine in the morning and Dustin’s voice would sound over the speaker, high frequencies from interference piercing his ears making falling back to sleep seem like something impossible, especially considering Dustin Henderson was absolutely relentless and would continue to scream for Steve to wake up until he ultimately gave into his demands to drive them to the arcade or the mall or anywhere really.

And Steve was just glad to have a reason to get dressed and get out of the house.

So Steve was their little emergency hotline that was never actually used for emergencies. So he wasn’t surprised when Dustin called him up early on a Saturday morning for yet another ride, he just picked up with a “Where to this time? Arcade again?” in a groggy voice, his eyes squinting from the morning light blinding him through his window.

“No. Skate park actually.”

Steve shook his head like he’d heard that wrong. “You don’t skate.”

“Yeah, but Max does.” Dustin said, in a tone suggesting that Steve was being ridiculous.

“Dude I thought you were over her. Isn’t she with Lucas?” Steve was just rubbing at his eyes trying to make sense of the whole thing.

“She dumped him.”

“Again?”

“Yeah, again. That’s why we need you to drive us so he can get her back.”

Steve didn’t feel like asking why she broke up with him, or more precisely, what Lucas did to make her break up with him, way too tired and he was sure he’d get an earful on the drive over anyway. He just said a tired “Alright” and pulled himself the rest of the way out of bed.

Steve didn’t usually stay to hang out. He was more the “drop off” and “pick up” kind of chauffeur, but the sun was out and the temperature was warm but not too warm and there was a comfortable breeze on his skin. He was already dressed and had nothing better to do, and he was sure that watching Lucas beg for Max back would be far more entertaining than anything he could get on the TV at home.

While Dustin, Lucas, Mike and Will all stood in the corner, huddled together while they went over the “game plan”, Steve took to a bench on the side and watched some of the skaters in the bowl.

He watched a kid who couldn’t be much older than twelve wipe out as soon as he dropped in, scraping up his hands and knees and it took a lot out of Steve not to go all “mama bear” and help him. Fortunately some older kid had dropped in and helped him up before Steve felt like he had to. The guy gently picked him up and lifted him up to the side of the bowl and handed over his board.

“Shake it off kid. You’ll get it eventually if you keep practicing.” He said, tousling the kids hair causing him to wipe away the tears and smile, and Steve knew that voice, and he should have realized instantly just at that dirty blonde mullet alone.

And of course he was the next to drop in, and unlike the kid who preceded him, he didn’t fall over.

Steve watched as he did his tricks, he didn’t know much about what he was watching, but what he did know was just the fact that Billy was still upright and on his feet was impressive in its own right. Max had to have learned it somewhere.

He was wearing a white tank and short, very short, green shorts that definitely looked to be just a size too small.

Steve was staring, he was definitely staring.

But surprisingly enough it hadn’t been the tight little shorts that hugged his ass, or the exposed muscles of his arms glistening with just the slightest bit of sweat that caught his eye for the most part. Instead of his eyes traveling down, they traveled up. All the way to that hair that had to have grown at least two inches in the past couple of months that blew out of his face as he salted from one side of the bowl to the other side.

Steve would have sworn he was watching an advertisement of some kind because he looked like a fucking model. If only Jonathan had been around to snap a picture, because Steve would love to have that moment saved and pinned to his wall like a teenage girl cutting pictures out of a magazine.

Billy jumped out after just a minute, but to Steve it felt like forever, and at the same time, not nearly long enough.

But the breeze was still there, gently blowing his hair back and out of his face, exposing his neck full on to the crowd and Steve’s brain short circuited just a little bit at the sight.

And he completely powered off when he watched Billy from the other side of the bowl as he waterfalled some water out of a bottle into his mouth, his head tilted back and missing a little bit so he had drops dripping down his chin and onto his chest and maybe it was a little weird but Steve found that hot as hell.

“Earth to Steve.”

He wasn’t even pulled away by the sound of his voice, but by the snapping fingers that blocked his view. His really nice view. He jerked his head to the right where Dustin was staring at him with that plain look of disgust that had practically been his signature look.

“Please tell me you weren’t looking where I think you were looking.”

“No idea what you’re talking about.”

Dustin’s eyes widened and his mouth dropped open. “Steve you’re blushing!” he said with a pointed finger.

“Shhhhh!!!” Steve pushed Dustin’s hand away and tried to steer the conversation elsewhere. “How did it go between Max and Lucas?”

“She stomped on his foot and told him to come back with a better apology, so… progress?”

Steve laughed, kind of upset he had to miss that.

“Now back to Billy Hargrove. Why?!”

Steve put his head in his hands and started to regret once again divulging that information about liking dudes to this kid who just never shut up about it once he found out.

“I’m not talking about this with you here!”

“So there is something to talk about.” Steve didn’t respond, chose not to entertain him any further. “Looks like your eye candy is coming over. I’m going to make myself scarce.”

Dustin wasn’t lying. Billy was already walking over and Dustin was already walking away so Steve was left there trying to dry off his sweaty palms on the thighs of his jeans.

“You the taxi driver again?” Billy asked.

“No, that would imply I’m getting paid to do this.”

Billy laughed and it was just so odd seeing him like that. So free with his guard down, allowing him to smile, real and genuine and not something that was trying to be menacing.

“Did Sinclair apologize?”

“Yes, but apparently not to Max’s standards.”

Billy looked over his shoulder to see Max about twenty feet away, just kicking her board into the fence.

“Damn she looks fucking pissed.” Billy said, and Steve could only agree with that assessment. “I better get her out of here before she snaps it in half. Will I see you around?”

Steve just nodded, unable to think of something to say. Just watching as Billy turned himself around and his eyes caught sight once again of that hair just perfectly flowing in the breeze like the air stream was coordinated just to make him look like that. And he couldn’t stop himself from letting the words come out of his mouth.

“Hey Billy, uh,” Steve said, and Billy stopped to look back at him, and the turn itself, it was all just so cinematic. “you looked great out there.”

And Steve wasn’t talking about skateboarding.

And with the way Billy smiled back at him with a blush that matched his own, maybe Billy picked up on that too.

#harringrove #billy hargrove #stranger things #steve harrington #mandi writes tresh #ficlet #harringrove april #harringroveapril #this one is kinda dumb but I couldn’t think of anything else 😅