#confirming what we kinda knew already like... crazy

[bandzboy]

#confirming what we kinda knew already like... crazy #palestine #free palestine #new york times

[callsign-datura]

putrid pride

pairing: simon "ghost" riley x fem!reader warnings: ghost being a dick, unrealistic character, sexual tension, oral (f receiving), ghost not fucking you as a punishment for you being a little brat a/n: he's had me in a chokehold for the past year. i kinda want to do a character analysis series not gonna lie song: get stoned ~ hinder

Sometimes you wondered why Price assigned you to be his partner. He thought it'd be a good learning experience for the both of you. Since you were a sergeant you were bossed around by everyone else already, and you've only been there for a few weeks. In most missions you've been assigned, Ghost has been part of it one way or another and you noticed that he treated you differently than his mates. Whether it was the fact you were a woman or the fact you were a talented sniper, or what, you didn't know. He always made these little jabs at you that could be passed off as light teasing or playful banter. You felt a bit crazy for thinking he was being rude to you because he wasn't rude to anyone else; why you? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Damnit," he grunted, his back towards you. "You always fuckin' do this." His tone was laced with anger and venom, and your heart sunk. "You never fuckin' listen." he hisses, turning around and taking a few steps towards you. The look in his eyes pissed you off. You made the right decision, or so you thought. Sure, you disobeyed his direct orders and nearly got yourself killed, but you completed the objective and came back in one piece. You got the intel, confirmed the target's identity and best of all, did it quick and quiet. Why was he angry? You did everything you thought you were supposed to, but here he had you, in his office and standing in front of his desk and staring at him blankly.

"You never fuckin' listen, always disobey my orders despite th' fact your ass would be dead right now if it weren't f'me." His accent is thick, his voice steadily rising as he gets more pissed. "Jesus fuckin' Christ!" In truth, he didn't even know why he was so angry. Was it because you had disobeyed his orders again, or was it the fact you almost got yourself hurt? Or maybe it was the fact you did the mission better than he would have? "I don't know why you're so intent on breakin' the goddamn rules, but it's gettin' old." He snaps, brown eyes piercing yours as he splays his hands out on the surface of his desk, leaning forward so his face was inches from yours, his breath fanning over your face, hot and smelling faintly of alcohol.

"Look, Lieutenant. I may have disobeyed your orders but I saved lives in the process--" "Nearly losing your own." "But I completed the objective." "But you put yourself in danger." "I came back in one piece, didn't I?" "Barely. You escaped that goddamn explosion by a hair." He hisses through gritted teeth, leaning back and putting his hand in his pocket. "You're always so reckless. Do you have no sense of self-preservation?" "You're one to talk about self-preservation," you snort, your eyes widening slightly in disbelief at the mention. "Don't tell me you've already forgotten the time you hopped in front of a bullet to keep a sergeant from taking it?" His eyebrows knit together and his eyes narrowed. "I knew what I was doin', girl. Don't question me or my choices. It's not your fuckin' place to do so."

You snorted again. "Oh, yeah? Don't like it when I call you on your bullshit, huh? If you would have done this, we would have been expected to thank you and ignore the fact you could have been killed. But the moment I do it, you get on my ass."

"I am your lieutenant. I make decisions, you follow them. You don't question why I do what I do. When I tell you to do something, you do it without a second thought. When I order you to not engage, you do not engage." He spits, his eyes narrowing further and his chest tightening in barely contained anger. "You're lucky I don't fuckin' suspend you. The decision you made was a thoughtless, reckless and stupid one." "At least Price would understand where I'm coming from."

His eyes widen, and he laughs. "You think he'd take your side?"

"I think he'd understand why I did what I did. I think he wouldn't give me bullshit for making the right decision."

"Well, sweetheart, that's the thing. He isn't your CO, I am. So if I'm givin' you bullshit for makin' a decision, you stand there and take it and make a goddamn change." You shake your head and laugh. "I know what I did was right. I'm not going to stand down just because you think my execution wasn't proper." He's practically fuming now. He feels his chest tighten further, and he balls his hands into fists. "You're such a brat. For what? Just because you wanna be right?" He steps around the desk, moving and getting in front of you, his frame towering over yours. "You wanna be right so goddamn bad because you're new, huh? You don't want people to think you're weak, hm?" He leans in, his face inches from yours once again as his hands tremble at his sides. Your eyes focus on his brown ones, piercing with a newfound depth you haven't seen before. You take in a breath through your nose and against your will you take notice of his cologne; woody, citrusy. He's so close to you. You feel your body start to tingle a bit from the closeness and the tension.

"Oh, well, look at that..." His head tilts, his eyes softening for just a moment. "Now you've got nothin' to say?" He says, his tone faintly mocking as he backs you up against the wall. He's painfully aware of this situation and he's painfully aware of the source of these feelings, but he's refusing to see it. He's stubborn and he knows you are too. "Nothin' to fuckin' say cause I'm in your face?" He growls, his gaze burning holes into you. He brings his hands upwards and cages you against the wall, looking down at you with an intense mix of lust and anger. To him, it's just pure emotion and you feel slightly intimidated by this newfound situation. So, you do the only thing you know how to do. "Fuck you," you hiss, moving onto your tiptoes to get in his face in return. A chuckle leaves his throat in a growl and he doesn't back down. If anything, he finds this show of dominance to be... charming. Endlessly fucking irritating, but charming. Some twisted part of him wants to crush it; crush your insubordination, make you finally respect him. He takes in a breath and the hairs on his neck stand up as your scent wafts over his senses, and his eyes twitch briefly before he grunts and moves closer. "So fuckin' feisty. But we both know you've got nothin' more than bark." He murmurs, his voice raspy and low and with a tone that makes your heart thump in your chest and your cunt pulse between your legs. Despite yourself, you feel him leeching the fight from your body. You growl slightly. "You don't know what you're talking about," you grumble, your tone just as low as his as your gaze searches his for something other than this overwhelming lust.

"I think I do." He murmurs, tilting his head and leaning in so he's right near your ear. You ball your hands into fists. "I don't think you can fight me, cause you don't wanna. You like it when we get into this, don't you?" He questions, one of his hands coming up and cupping your cheek. "I think you like seein' me pissed. I think you like bein' a fuckin' brat 'cause you know it irritates me, an' you wanna see what I'll do..." He smirks, and you can hear it in the way he talks. "Well, I think I know how to solve your little problem now, eh?" He moves, his hand coming down and cupping your throat, applying gentle pressure to keep you against the wall as he moves back, pulling his mask over his nose and leaning back in to nip at your earlobe. You grunt and you feel yourself melting in his grasp. His other hand comes and holds your hips, his fingers slipping underneath the hem of your shirt as he tilts his head and kisses at the flesh of your neck his hand doesn't engulf. Your body heats up and you suck in a gasp, tilting your head back slightly and unintentionally revealing more of your neck to him. "Mm-hmm." He murmurs. "Yeah, all bark, no fuckin' bite. You wanna be all tough? Takes more than just an act, sweetheart," he grumbles, words punctuated by rough little nips to the flesh of your throat as he withdraws his hand and slides it down your side and to your hips. He moves and lifts your shirt and once again, despite yourself, you lift your arms to make it easier for him. He throws it aside and his gaze travels over you hungrily, focusing on the curves of your chest and your waist, and the way your jeans sit on your hips. He grunts quietly and dives back into your neck, holding your hips and drawing you against him as he starts kissing and biting at your neck with renewed vigor. One of his hands slides to your ass, giving a little squeeze as he hoists you up, still assaulting your neck with kisses and bites. You whine out at him, the sensation making you shudder. He chuckles against your flesh and his other hand is already working at the button of your jeans.

He sets you down, working your pants and panties down your legs, tugging them off hastily before he's kneeling in front of you. A wave of embarrassment comes over you as he gazes up at you, his eyes twinkling with mischief. He grunts slightly and his gaze flickers to your cunt. He slides his hand up the back of your thigh and down before cupping your knee and pulling your leg up and to the side, humming in satisfaction at the way you follow suit and open yourself up for him. His gaze focuses on your cunt, glistening with your slick. You're soaked. He sees it, and he smirks and chuckles a bit when he sees your cheeks flush red. "Pretty fuckin' cunt," he murmurs, before leaning forward and letting his eyes flutter shut as he drags his tongue along your folds, letting out another hum as he tastes you. He grunts and his grip on your leg tightens, his free hand cupping your ass and squeezing as he slips his tongue between your folds and drags it upward along your clit. He swirls it with the tip of his tongue before closing his lips around it to suck gently, grunting as he tastes you and he feels you tremble. Your eyes roll back in your head and you tilt your head back against the wall, your hips arching forward in attempt to get more of that stimulation. He chuckles at your eagerness, giving your ass another squeeze. "Patience, dear." He murmurs against your cunt, before swirling his tongue over your clit with ease and pushing it down, teasing your hole with it before he pushes it inside briefly, moving back up to flick his tongue over your clit in a new pattern that has you trembling and whimpering in seconds. The hand gripping your ass comes to your cunt, and he rolls his pointer and middle fingertip against your hole, gathering your slick. You jolt at the feeling of his cool flesh and you whimper eagerly yet again, a harsh gasp leaving your lips as he pushes those fingers into you. Your walls make an embarrassingly wet noise as he sinks his fingers into your plush heat, and your face flushes and warms up. You're too distracted about how good it feels. He grunts in satisfaction once more, curling his fingers and brushing the tips against that spot along your walls that has your vision going white.

At the same time, he swirls his tongue a bit faster over your clit, using the opportunity of dual stimulation to send you spiraling. And he does, successfully. Your leg trembles and tenses, and your walls squeeze around his fingers as he laps at your cunt like a man starved. He grunts against you as you mewl and the coil in your belly tightens before releasing. Within seconds, you're coming undone on his fingers your back is arching, your hips are bucking, and your hands are pulling him closer. Your vision goes white and you throw your head back, your lips falling apart in a whine of his name, your fingers grasping at the fabric of his balaclava. Your walls tighten again on his fingers, and he helps you ride the orgasm out before he's gently pulling away and dragging his fingers out of your sensitive cunt. You pant and tilt your head forward, watching him withdraw his fingers from you. You whimper at the feeling and you tense up, your gaze flickering to his mouth. You're sensitive, but as you watch him kneeling under you, you find yourself wanting more. He smirks as he notes the way you're looking at him. It's taking a lot of restraint for him to not bend you over his desk and pound you senseless, but... he has a point to make here. He gets to his feet and he looks down at you, cupping your face and placing a chaste kiss to your forehead. "Get yourself dressed. Y've got some training to do." You swallow and blink up at him. "W-Wait... that's... it? You're not gonna--" "Fuck you?" He laughs, as if the suggestion is odd. Your face flushes in embarrassment. "Not after the way you've been actin', love." He murmurs, kissing your forehead. "If you start behavin', then maybe I'll consider givin' you what you really want, eh?"

#ghost x reader #ghost mw3 #ghost mw2 #ghost smut #simon ghost riley x reader #simon ghost riley smut #simon ghost riley #simon riley x reader #simon riley smut #simon riley #callsign datura

[kkami-writes]

waiting for us ― chapter twenty five. opening up cw. implied/referenced self-harm, homophobia, neglectful parents, kinda getting outted (tl;dr at the end) wc. 1.9k

Jisung is already sitting at one of the tables near the back, two drinks in front of him. When you slide into the seat in front of him, he slides one of the coffees to you with a smile. 

“I asked Ryujin what your usual was, hope it’s ok,” You move to take a sip through the straw before nodding happily. “You’re just like lixie, you know? He has to have his coffee incredibly sweet,” “At least I’m better than Hyunjin, who downs three americanos in one sitting,” 

“Touche” 

It’s silent for a few seconds and you squirm a little in your seat, anxious energy rolling off of you in waves. Jisung can tell, he knows the signs of anxiety like the back of his hand. 

“Yn” He calls out softly and your head flies up at the sound of your name. Your real name. It makes you flush involuntarily, it’s something you’re not used to, not having heard it in quite awhile. Minghao had refused to call you Mio, but he always called you by a nickname instead. He knew you didn’t want to be referred to as yn. 

“...Jisung,” It happens again. That all encompassing shudder running through every inch of your body. You shiver on reflex. Jisung has a similar stupid grin on his face like Jeongin had when you had confirmed your soulmate connection. 

“So um. You wanted to talk about something?” You try to get straight to the point, your anxiety hitting a boiling point. 

“Right! Um, so! We, as in the guys, talked a bit about how we were going to go about this and I just wanted to let you know what we came up with. If you don’t like anything please let me know and we’ll figure out another solution,” You nod your head, showing Jisung that you were listening. “We all would like to take you on a date, each of us individually first before anyone gets a second date or even group dates. I assume group dates would be too overwhelming for you right now,” Again your head nods. You do not even want to THINK about a group date with all eight of them. The amount of chaos that would bring is unimaginable.  

“If you’re free today and only if you want to, I was wondering if um. You’d like to do our date today? Nothing fancy or crazy, just maybe ordering takeout and watching some movies? I know it’s kinda simple but I wanted to keep it casual because I know some of the others might go all out because that’s just who they are and they wanna impress you. Something to kind of? Ease you in, nothing too overwhelming,” 

You can tell Jisung is as nervous as you are with how he fiddles with his hands as he asks you out. It’s endearing and you feel a lot more reassured that you’re not the only one feeling like this. 

“Yeah, that sounds great sung, I’d love to,” The nickname makes him flush but it doesn’t stop him from smiling. You found yourself definitely falling in love with that cute heart shaped grin of his.

“Um, was that all?” You ask because it seems like there was something else on his mind. You tilt your head slightly. “Yeah,” He swallowed thickly. “Um, so Jeongin let everyone know about your…issue,” You blink, nodding your head slowly, unsure where Jisung was going with this. “But I wanted to tell you that I have known since we started texting,” At this your eyebrows furrowed in confusion. You’re not mad, but you’re curious as to why. 

“He let me know because I’ve struggled with anxiety for awhile, and he was hoping that maybe we would get close and I could help you with different coping strategies. But that was not the only reason why,” He hesitates for a second, as if contemplating what to say next. Instead of words, he slides the sleeves of his hoodie up and places his arms on the table, forearms up. You can’t help the gasp that falls from your lips. Staring back up at your are all too familiar scars. Though these ones have healed, they are still very much visible. 

When you look back up at Jisung his smile has morphed into a sad one. He pulls his arms back, letting his sleeves fall back down over his hands. You frown. How is it that this sunshine boy, someone you don’t think you’ve even seen sad or upset since you met him, struggled with something like this? He seemed so happy. It’s then you realize your blatant naivety. You should know better, that you really can never know what someone is going through. The fact that you had just assumed they all had perfect lives pissed you off for a second. 

“When we said it wasn’t easy in the beginning we really weren’t kidding. I was…rather difficult to deal with at the start. I had been friends with Chan and Changbin hyung since middle school. We were practically inseparable even though we were different ages. Even before I got my soulmark I knew I was starting to have feelings for my friends. I struggled a lot with my sexuality, my parents having instilled the idea that marriage should only be between a man and a woman. So that left me really confused and scared. When I did turn 16, imagine my shock when I had 8 whole soulmates, 7 of them being men. My soulmark basically outed me to my parents,” 

“They were…not pleased to say the least. They had even tried to get me to sever the soulmate bond, only wanting me to keep yours but I had refused. Before this my parents were rarely around, both of them workaholics and now with a ‘gay’ son they stayed away more often. I often slept over at Chan’s house, his parents becoming more like my own. Due to being neglected by my parents, I didn’t really know how to ask for affection and I lashed out a lot. I even threw my wallet at Seungmin once,” He chuckles at his, but it’s rather devoid of any real feelings. “I didn’t know how to cope with my feelings and so I turned to hurting myself, because I  thought I was to blame for all my problems and therefore should punish myself. But the worst was when we met Hyunjin. We did not get along, and I admit a lot of it was my fault. If I’m honest I was incredibly jealous of him. He was gorgeous, rich and had a pair of parents who supported him,” 

“I really thought he hated me too, we’d get into arguments over the smallest things. We often had lots of sleepovers together. But during one of the first ones we had with all of us, minus you of course, I had felt out of place, like I didn’t belong there. That I didn’t deserve to be there with them, that I was the one who was ruining things and making it hard on everyone. I had excused myself to the bathroom but I had gone to cut. I guess I had been in there too long because it was Hyunjin who came to find me. He walked in while I was washing off the blood and I thought that he was gonna laugh at me, or worse, use it against me in one of our arguments. But he didn’t. He practically tackled me to the ground. He was crying and holding me close, begging me to not hurt myself anymore. It was then I realized that by hurting myself, I was also hurting my soulmates even more. You know how loud Hyunjin is so it didn’t take long for everyone else to come upstairs,” 

“We had a pretty serious talk that day but it was for the best. I had promised to stop and that I’d reach out if I needed help, that I’d learn to ask for affection that I was so desperately craving. Of course, it wasn’t easy. It’s hard to unlearn habits and just because I didn’t cut didn’t mean I didn’t stop feeling bad. But we managed and the guys never let me stew in my feelings for too long. I relapsed once during senior year but besides that, I am proud to say that I am two years sober,” 

You’ve been silent during his whole story, tears stinging at your eyes. Your fingers dig into your thighs, trying to find the right words to say but nothing feels enough. 

“Hey. It’s ok. I didn’t tell you my story to get you to tell me yours. I wanted to tell you so you know that you’re not alone in how you feel. That I would never judge you and neither would the others. But we do want to help you, if you’ll let us. I won’t lie to you and tell you it’ll be easy. Even now I still get the urge, the itch to just feel that sting. But I'm really lucky to have the others,”

You have your bottom lip between your teeth, biting hard that you’re sure you can taste the coppery tang of blood. Still, you nod your head, it’s barely visible but Jisung still notices. 

“Yeah? You’ll let us help you?” You nod more firmly this time, still unable to find your voice yet. “I’m glad,” And even though you’re not looking at him, you can practically hear the smile on his face. “Then there is one last thing. It’s a rather big step and you can tell me to fuck off if you want. Do you happen to have what you use to cut on you?” Again you nod. “Would you be comfortable giving it to me? I can keep it safe for you, yeah?” 

Hesitation is written all over your face so Jisung waits, and he’s nothing but patient as you all but struggle with a couple of inner demons. You’re not sure how long you two have been sitting there but you finally move to dig through your bag, pulling out the small pocket knife. Jisung holds out this hand for you and with shaky fingers you place it in his palm, pulling away quickly before you can take it back. The smile on his face is soft as he pockets it. 

“Hey. This is a big step. I’m so proud of you. Thank you so much for trusting me,” It's these words that finally break you, tears falling down your face. How sad is it that you can’t even remember the last time someone had told you that, if ever? 

Jisung can feel his heart break and there’s nothing more he wants to do then slide next to you and hold you close. He doesn’t know how you’d react to that so he just sits, letting you take the moment for yourself. 

Thankfully it’s just a few tears, wiping them away and sniffling softly. “ ‘m sorry,” You murmur under your breath andJisung almost doesn’t hear it. 

“Hey, it’s ok. You’re fine, I don’t mind. Are you ok now?” You nod, trying to pull yourself together and Jisung gives you a soft reassuring smile. “Ok, enough sad talk. Are you still down for watching some movies? I’d understand if you weren’t,” 

“No, I’d still like that a lot,” Jisung’s smile gets even bigger if possible. 

“Ok, lets go. Oh uh- sorry in advance, the apartment might be a little messy. It’s hard living with two gym bros and a painter who thinks any white surface is the perfect canvas,” 

“Am I going to your apartment, or a mancave? Be honest,”

“Yes,” TL;DR !!! jisung opens up about his own struggle with self-harm. Having come from a very conservative family, he was outted as bisexual from his soulmark and his parents were not happy. They neglected him and jisung didn't know how to ask for affection from his soulmates and lashed out a lot. He turned to self-harm because he couldn't deal with his feelings. he is currently two years sober and asks yn if she'll agree to let them help her. in the end, yn hands over her pocket knife to jisung for safe keeping and then they go back to sung's appartment for their movie date. previous | masterlist | next waiting for us taglist (50/50) send an ask or sign up here!: @abbiestearsricochet @boo-ven9eance @adorawritesalot @melleus @inlovewithallmusic @alnex05 @borahae-reads @zonked-times @yoonrimin @slay-and-gay @loverlixie @katsukis1wife @realrintaro @0325tiny @adestayskz @minhwa @littleaprilcherryblossom @soobery @lillithathecat @ilychee08 @everglowdaisies @boi-bi-ahaha @yandere-stories @orchid-mantis-petals @minhoie @popcatx0 @tara-drabbles @super-btstrash-posts @gemi-moon @skz-streamer @jaiuneamesolitaiire @bozotwt @enchantedgrunge @corrodedthorn @143lix @ashitshowforalot @xrvrqs @lynlyndoll @txtandroll @kawennote09 @liknws @ritzy-dream-boy @hannieslove @hello-2-u-from-me @vampcharxter @jisuperboard @surefornext @puppy-minnie @freckleboilix @imwithurmother

#stray kids #stray kids x reader #skz #skz x reader #stray kids smau #stray kids social media au #skz smau #skz social media au #stray kids imagine #stray kids imagines #stray kids reactions #skz imagines #skz texts #stray kids texts #stray kids fake texts #stray kids fanfic #stray kids fluff #stray kids angst #skz fluff

[sage-green-matcha]

can you please do “there’s only one bed” trope with Ethan Landry and it’s pure fluff but reader and Ethan are just “friends”, pretty please and thank you 🩷🤗

THE PERFECT PAIR - ETHAN LANDRY 💐

“You know me, better show me that you could say it to my face. 'Cause you know we're the same, there's worse things I can take” - beabadoobee

Content includes: fluff!! Sweet Ethan!

A/n: thank you smm for the request! I hope u love it!

<3

<3

<3

"Damn Y/n, is your bag really that heavy?" Sam watched as your shoulder sunk to one side, the heavy bag pulling you down. "Yea you're struggling, do you really need all of that?" Tara chuckled.

"Okay well first of all, Yes. I do need all of this. Also yes, it's really heavy" you mumbled, kicking the bag in front of your legs as you walked. "Hey, woah! You're gonna snap yourself in half" Ethan lifted the bag off your shoulders, sliding it easily into his. "Thanks..." Chad smirked as you looked up at Ethan.

Everyone knew you two had a thing for each other, which is exactly why they made a plan. A very thought-out one, but not very original. "It's working!" Mindy mumbled with a big smile. "It hasn't even started" Chad looked back at the two of you with a smirk.

Ethan had confirmed he was crushing on you, accidentally slipping it out when he was tipsy. For days he begged Chad not to tell anyone. But the whole group already knew. That was just confirmation. "You sure this is gonna work?" Tara walked by his side. "I know this is gonna work"

"Okay! Pair up with your hotel room buddies" Everyone ran to one another, it seemed like you and Ethan were sick with how fast they paired off, avoiding the two of you. "Well uh, guess we'll be good roommates right?" You nodded, your heart beating like crazy. You didn't wanna room with him, you couldn't. Being next to him made you all giddy so staying in the same room with him? You could never.

"Okay, good!” Mindy smiled, walking up to the front desk. "We have a reservation.." You blacked out as she talked, nerves filling your body. This could go so wrong. Or so good. Or it could be the most mediocre thing that you're overthinking about. But you also knew that nothing that included Ethan was mediocre.

"Here's the room keys" she handed them out, everyone slumped as they walked over to the elevators. "I'm so tired" you mumbled, everyone, shaking their heads. "You slept the whole ride, Ethan's shoulder suffered from your fat head" "Mindy, shut up!" You glared at her.

You all got to your floor, everyone spreading out to find their rooms. "What number is it?" You stood on your tiptoes, holding onto Ethan's arm. "306" you furrowed your eyebrows. "Huh...that's separated from everybody else" he just shrugged, pulling up your bag while he looked around. "Looks like It's on the other side of the hall" 

You eventually found the room, swiping the key onto the door lock. You searched for the light, your eyes widening when you saw the bed. "Uh...are we sure this is the right room?" He plopped your bag down, looking around the room. "Well..? The key worked"

You ended up dragging Mindy and Ethan to the front desk, making her ask for a different room. "Sorry kids, that's the only one available at the moment. We're packed for the next couple of nights" You wanted to die. "Tara, please! You know damn well you're gonna sleep in the same bed as Chad. Just trade rooms please?" She shook her head, hiding her smile. "No, I'm not sleeping with a drunk ass Chad" you groaned, covering your eyes.

You asked everyone. They all said no. "You guys are so rude" you mumbled, walking back to your room in defeat. "So...what did they say?" Ethan prayed that they all said no. As much as this was uncomfortable for him he was kinda happy about it.

"They said no" You slipped off your shoes, sitting on the bed next to him. "I can just sleep on the chair…it’s fine! Really!” You shook your head. "It's whatever, we'll figure it out" You knew it was wrong, that you didn't wanna figure it out. Your heart bounced around inside of you, nervous for the night. It could be normal, one of you on the couch and the other on the bed. But maybe, somehow you two could end up together on the same bed.

After a long afternoon of chatter and laughter in Tara and Chad's room, you headed back to yours. You were too tired to even care about the bed, completely forgetting about it till you opened the door.

"What are we gonna do about the bed?" Ethan mumbled, wiping his eyes. "It's okay, we can share" "Are you sure? I don't wanna make you uncomfortable. I can just sleep on the chair..." you took a glance at the red chair in the corner of the room. "It's okay Ethan, trust me. That chair is way too small for you" his face got hot as he saw your smile, watching you grab your pajamas before walking into the bathroom.

A swarm of butterflies flew around in your belly, making your face heat up. You didn't wanna get too excited. You wouldn't even be facing him anyways. He was just a friend and nothing more, this was just a friend thing! You tried to convince yourself but you couldn't get that feeling out of your stomach. You felt creepy. He definitely didn’t feel the same way, but you decided to let your delusions take over for a bit.

As you walked out of the bathroom Ethan was already laying in bed. He cuddled up to one of the pillows, his face smushed against the fabric. He looked so cute.

“Is it okay if I keep one of the lamps on…?” “Uhm, yea it’s okay” You peeled back the white bed sheets, adding your favorite throw on top. The room was dark besides the lamp and the moonlight that peaked in through the blinds. The smell of cleaning products filled your nose as the sound of a fan played in the background.

You were glad Ethan let you keep the light on. You could never sleep with it being pitch black, it gave you the heebie-jeebies. You positioned yourself, trying to get comfortable as you faced away from Ethan. You tried your best to get comfortable but you couldn’t, turning around to face Ethan’s back.

Ethan quickly caught onto this, also feeling the same amount of discomfort you were in. “This bed isn’t very comfortable, is it?” His voice was low and raspy, facing you with a small smile. “Uh uh” your hair rubbed against the sheets, the small sound filling your ears.

You scanned his face as he stared back at you, noticing details that you never got to see before. The way his eyes crinkled when he smiled, small marks all over his skin. “You have really nice eyelashes” It just fell out of your mouth, but you meant it. “I- oh. Thank you” You noticed how his cheeks filled up in a pinky hue, gaining you some confidence.

You could go on and on about his face. How full his lips were, the pretty color of his skin. But you didn’t wanna creep him out, keeping it to yourself. “I like your lips…” you held back a smile, covering the bottom of your face with the blanket. “Thank you” your laughs were whispered, Ethan, noticing how flustered you were getting.

You felt yourself move back as he brought his hand up to your face, realizing how weird it probably was. “Sorry, sorry. I don’t know what l was doing” You chewed on your lip as he brought his hand down, pulling the side of your face closer to his. “It’s okay” your whisper was unstable. Your nervousness escaped your body through your voice.

You watched as his eyes scanned your face. From your lips to your eyes, an unorganized pattern of movements that slightly confused you. You could tell he was nervous, his hand getting warmer with each second that it was on your skin. His face was inches away, feeling his soft breath on your face.

You had begun to grow impatient, lips seconds away from touching. The anticipation made you go insane, only paying attention to the way his heart was beating with your hand on his chest.

As crazy as it seemed his was probably pounding harder than yours, lips on lips. “Don’t be a tease E” Your lips brushed against his, the feeling of warmth and satisfaction filling every pore in your body.

Your face grew hot, Ethan pulling you in as he became addicted to your taste. Your lips were soft and cushiony, perfectly fitting onto his. Breaths and words were jumbled as you two got even closer, Ethan’s hands finding their way to your hips.

All you could feel was fire. It was like a giant firework was exploding in your stomach. Your hands ran through his soft curls, noses touching as you pulled away for air. His face was so red. Making you giggle with a hand on his cheek.

“You look so cute when you blush…” you combed your hand through his hair, pushing it all back as he admired you. He pulled you closer, hugging your body tightly into his. “Better?” “Way better”

#ethan landry #fanfic #jack champion #scream #celebrities #cute #jack champion x reader #ethan landry smut #ethan landry x y/n #avatar #one bed trope #ethan landry fluff #ethan landry fic #ethan landry x you #ethan landry x reader #ethan landry oneshot #ethan landry drabble #ethan landry angst #jack champion fanfic #jack champion angst #jack champion headcannons #jack champion scream #scream movies #scream vi #scream fanfic #ethan landry gif #jack champion x y/n #jack champion fluff #jack champion oneshot #scream 6

[bu-blegh-ost]

Let's analyze Captain Rose's final message (ep. 113 spoilers!!!)

I have transcribed the entire thing into my notes, and there are few parts that I believe give us some subtle hints to important lore bits. So let's take a look at these fragments, shall we?

"Even with the Emperor’s gracious accommodations, I can never feel at ease unless I’m sleeping on the sea. Tomorrow, we depart this beautiful country for one last ride."

Nothing that crazy here, but now we have a better grasp at the timeline. So this confirms, that the last place Black Rose Pirates have been to, before they departed for the final adventure led by Hendrix's map was Onowa Country, and judging by what comes next, the chest was also created and left there during that last stay.

"But…if you’re hearing this, it means we all died."

If you recall, Drey mentioned few episodes back, that thier final excursion was of little significance, barely worth remebering. But here Rose is, about to embark on it, his last adventure before he retires, and he believes that he's going to die. That they all are. Rose must have hidden the true importance of this adventure from the rest of his crew. He KNEW that it's very likely they are not coming back from it, he KNEW he is not actually retiring. So, the question is, did Rose truly meant to leave life at sea for his wife and children, or did he chose to retire cause he knew he was about to die and he needed an excuse, to tie all the loose ends before he goes without alarming anyone?

"Even so, freedom can look so different for the individual. Not every pirate’s gonna play fair. I’ve been prepping for this moment a long time. The day I’d be outmaneuvered."

Something happened to Rose before that. If you ask me, something must have been put on Rose. A spell? A deal perhaps? Something must have happened between Rose and Hendrix (I can't be sure it was him ofc, but I feel like it is pretty obvious at this point). The map he gave him was a final retirement gift. Whatever happened, Hendrix surely did or offered something that made Rose unable to refuse the last adventure. Rose was forced to open the Hole in the Sea. He was forced to attempt to free the Nameless Prince, and he knew, he is bringing his crew to possible death. He knew they may not make it out of the sea in time, before whatever he had to do takes effects, before the sea turns black. I don't believe he would do this if he could find another way. This line makes me feel like he was tricked, finally cornered by Hendrix. It would also make sense why Rose never listened to Finn's warnings when he told him abt Hendrix hiding his true arcane ability. It's possible he knew already. It's possible he was already chained by it.

"Now I fear, we’ll be remembered for something we didn’t do."

The hole in the sea. The one thing people always mention when Black Rose pirates are concerned. He was right. But it only proves, that Rose in this entire game was a tool. Just a person forced to do another's bidding, to be at the right place, at the right time. A sacrifice, but not a player. Niklaus told Chip it was Rose who opened the Hole in the Sea. And he was right, kinda. TECHNICALLY it was Rose. But he was not acting of his free will. He was forced to do it. And who made him? Well, probably the one person who knows that it was him.

"Anyways, I think I should have cared about how my friends would remember me. My family…"

A beautiful comparison between Chip and Rose. Rose sought fullfillment, legacy, Chip sought to recreate his childhood, but they both realised that what they always wanted in the end was family. Rose realized it too late, Chip did so on time. And he did manage to create a family he can feel content about, be proud of. Rose's story is a reminder for him, of how things could have ended.

"If my wife is still alive, tell her, tell our child, her child, I’m sorry."

Rose left Onowa knowing he will not retire. He knew he lied to his wife when he told her that he'll raise their child with her. Did he ever mean it? Did he know that he is doomed from the start, or was there a true intention of going back to her, before Hendrix came and his fate was sealed? Also, that makes me think that Reuben is not Rose's biological son. "OUR child" refers to the kid they had together, "HER child" might refer only to his wife's son, to Reuben. Still, he must have cared for him enough to decide that he also deserved apology.

"Thanks for coming to look for us. I knew you would.

Take care, Chip. "

I wonder if he actually knew. Could Hendrix promise him that Chip would be saved? He didn't seem to expect anyone else to make it, so it's possible that either Chip was supposed to play a special role in some way, or maybe he already did, or he was guaranteed to make it out alive regardless of the circumstances to make the journey he is on now. That could mean that Riptide Pirates were truly always destined to meet.

Okay, that will be most of my thoughts! Feel free to share yours!

#jrwi riptide #just roll with it #jrwi #chip jrwi #jrwi spoilers #captain rose #jrwi captain rose #analysis #ep 113 spoilers #spoilers

[marunalu]

Soooo..... *kracks knuckles* time for my review of the newest chapter and OH BOY what a chapter it is! I dont even know where to start.

(Warning this post is long as fuck and NOT edited, so be prepared for some horrible grammatical mistakes 😜)

Okay so first of, as far as Im aware of, there is literally a feud going on right now on twitter with people debating if this chapter confirms that afo was true evil from birth or not. I did read about this opinion AFTER I read the spoilers and I have to say while I was reading the leaks not ONCE did I have the feeling the narrative was trying to tell me that baby afo was evil from the get go. Its a BABY guys! All what I did see was a child desperatly trying to survive in a fucked up enviroment which continued with the following years!

But lets start from the beginning. There were a few things in that chapter that really surprised me and then some things I reacted like: I FUCKING KNEW IT!!!

What surprised me was the backstory of afos and yoichis mother. Not gonna lie Im a little dissapointed, because I wanted to know more of her and not just "well, she was a prostitute that got pregnant without noticing and then died. End of story." But despite that I think it still works. It confirmed my suspicious from the start that afo and yoichi grew up without parents in a horrible hostile and dangerous world all on their own.

An other theory I had which was more or less confirmed here is that quirks are indeed a disease or what I like to call them "parasites" that take over their hosts body (vestiges). Its still not clear from WHERE or from WHO they originate from. The translation I did read made it sound like as if they either originate from rats and spread like the plague or its an sexually transmitted disease which could explain why afos/yoichis mother (a prostitute) had it. The only thing that seems strange is that the chapter says she wasnt aware that she was pregnant for 8 months, because she had some kind of memory lose and couldnt remember that it happend. So who knows, maybe its still possible that quirks originate from a failed experiment.

One of the things that actually surprised me is that afo and yoichi are actually TWINS! Its so simple but somehow I never really thought about that possebility, maybe because afo was ALWAYS framed as the older brother (which he still kinda is I guess if he was born first). So baby afo already possessed his quirk since he was in his mothers womb and "stole" her quirk (the reason why the "wart" on her arm vanished). Baby afo holding on baby yoichis arm is both kinda heartbreaking and creepy at the same time. Barely born and he already shows his possessive nature, BUT I want to remind everyone that it makes sense. Afo is selfaware enough that he calls himself a kleptomanic (the urge to steal and possess). This kleptomany is a negative side effect of his quirk controlling him (hence why I call quirks parasites). In other words, he never really had a chance to choose otherwise. This kind of quirk? In this kind of hostile enviroment to grow up alone without a loving parent? Yeah, no wonder dude turned out fucked up!

So the next thing we see is this

Yeah no nice place to grow up for a child and I want to point out the crazy parallel here between small afo and little tenko. Both get rejected by adults that should take care of them. The difference is that small afo sees these man who refuse to give him anything and decide to ignore him as a tread and lashs out at them.

The next we see is baby afo violently sucking at his dead mothers breast.

Its incredible unsettling and creepy to see a baby drawn like this. But I think thats more hori trying to give us the image of a monster baby we shouldnt feel sympathy for which is of course wrong. It makes perfectly sense that a new born hungry baby tries to survive by sucking at his mothers breast. I really dont think baby afo was aware at that point that his mother is dead. The next pictures we see is an toddler afo beating up (killing) some man. We dont know the details why afo attacked these man but we need to remember that the people living in the same enviroment as him are very dangerous and people with quirks were getting killed. Then I also want to point out what we see next.

We see little yoichi LYING ON THE FLOOR, with a BRUSED face and MISSING TOOTHS. Do you get what Im trying to say? Because all of a sudden it makes sense why small afo was beating these guys up, right?!

They hurt his brother!

Afo sees his brother as his possession (surprise surprise) and when someone hurts his possession there needs to be a punishment. Yoichi is of course a little angel and doesnt want people to get hurt. I saw a lot of people freaking out that small afo kicks small yoichi and not gonna lie its very hard to watch. But again I want to point a few things out. Yoichi while justified threw a cane at his brother and tells him to stop to hurt the people who were (most likely) about to hurt THEM first! So the kick is in respons for throwing a cane at him and standing up for a group of adults who most likely wanted to hurt them (or DID hurt yoichi). The kick is brutal from a readers point of view, but we also need to remember that small afo was NEVER teached which part of his behavior is wrong. There was no one who raised him or teached him anything. There was no moral in the world he lived only survival. In his eyes yoichi belongs to him/is a part of him. Yoichi has to do what his brother says because he is the weak one and cant survive without him (afos mindset). We can also see on afos visible ripps that he is malnourished.

A few years later we see yoichi finding the captain hero comics. (It breaks my heart to see how this two children literally have to live in FILTH! At least afo doesnt wear a trash bag anymore....)

We find out that they cant even read properly which makes of course sense since they dont go to school. And not gonna lie that picture in the left of them sitting and reading the comic together is actually quite wholesome 😢

Afo instantly fixiates on the demon lord of the comic! Why? Because the demon lord does the same things as he does (killing people) and the demon lord wants everything for himself. It makes sense why that would intrigue a small child that has NOTHING! If we look at small yoichi and then at small afo, we can see that yoichi looks actually better groomed. Afo wore a trash bag while he already wore proper clothes. Yoichi wore shoes while afo walked barfoot. This shows that, as fucked up afos mind set of seeing yoichi as property is, he took way better care of yoichi then for himself. He gave him the better clothes and shoes to wear, he maybe even made sure that yoichi was never to hungry while he is clearly malnourished. Afo sees yoichi as property.... because he is the only thing he has and so he takes care of him as best as he can. But lets remember he is still a child himself without a moral compass and without the knowledge what is right or wrong.

I saw a few people question why afo turned out so messed up while yoichi didnt. Its actually quite easy. Afo SHIELDED yoichi from the cruelty of the world they had to live in. He feed him, gave him clothes, a place to hide, protected him from danger. And thanks to that shielding yoichi was able to gain a conscience and moral. It also explains why afo feels so entiteld with yoichi. In his mind he does everything for him while there is NO ONE who actually does something for afo in return. Yoichi is to young to do that. All he can do is giving his brother love, but in this kind of cruel world thats not enough to survive. Yoichi has his brother who takes care of him. Afo has nobody. It makes sense why he wants to be like the demon lord who gets everything for himself. Afo wants everything for himself, because he has nothing. And the very tiny bit he does have... he gives to yoichi... because yoichi cant die... because if yoichi dies he TRULY does have nothing anymore.

And now it gets REALLY interesting

3 years later afo comes back and yoichi instantly realizes that his brother was in a fight. He is bleeding, looks tired and his clothes are in shreds. Afo explains that he killed the "glowing baby" (the older one) and stole his quirk (I FUCKING KNEW IT!!!) and has a whole ass rant that he cant understand how this person was able to gather 10 MILLION supporters who love him when in fact that "glowing baby" wasnt even the first quirk user and there were 50 people from india who got quirks before him. In other words afo only killed that "glowing baby" person, because he was fucking JEALOUS that he had so many supporters and people on his side showing love and understanding, while NO ONE was supporting HIM! Think about how afo is obsessed with gaining followers and supporters and HOW does he archive that? By "helping" them and by that forcing them to join his side because they are in his debt.

Afo has no grasp how to gain friends in a selfless way, because he was never teached how! He has no grasp of love and how to love in a selfless way (since his possessivness of his brother). Its not that he cant love or doesnt want to love - he simply has no idea HOW to do it in a healthy and selfless way! He killed the "glowing baby" guy simply just because he was LOVED by people, while he himself isnt and it pissed him off. Afo has no concept of love and doesnt really understand it. The love he feels for his brother is toxic and more possessivness then anything else. He never experienced parental love, never had a friend that loved him. And still what afo wants the most is to be loved. He wants everything for himself and that includes the love of people. Dude has just zero idea how to do that without killing people.

And at least a little dfo crump. Without a doubt we can all agree that afos concept of love is pretty fucked up. Personally I always thought that if dfo is canon then afos affection for inko and izuku would also be portrayed as toxic. Knowing a little bit more of afos backstory now and seeing how obsessed he is for wanting everything for himself including peoples love, makes me wonder how afo and inko could have meet. Maybe its not even because of some conspiracy theory like the inko shimura theory, but something way simpler. Maybe inko showed afo at one point just some kindness and afo with his completly messed up view of love interpreteted her kindness as love and became obsessed with her. So he startet to follow her (stalk her), organized some meetings that were of course completly "coincidentally" (not) and charmed his way into her life.

And at least I also want to say, that afo clearly lied when he said that his last name is shigaraki. The mother didnt had the chance to give her sons any name, so I guess that confirms that "shigaraki" is a fake last name afo gave himself at one point. And the question is also who named him and yoichi? Does he even have a name? Did he give himself one? Was he the one who named yoichi? Because yoichi means "first gift", and I could see afo giving him that kind of name. (And now Im picturing afo introducing himself with the name hisashi to inko, just because in that very moment a truck drove past them with that name on it 🤣).

Okay that was a pretty long post and I still feel like as if I forgot to mention something. But I think that were all my thoughts for now.

#bnha #bnha spoiler #bnha all for one #yoichi shigaraki

[blockgamepirate]

(that post was so banger it finally made me register an alt) Honestly, you are so correct about L'Manberg

I remember regularly lurking around mcytblr and reading analysis and I think I only saw coherent L'Manberg nationalism analysis from, like, Xephyr and a c!Dream blogger/fan. Which is crazy in retrospect, because the ease with which most of the fandom leaned into fictional country hardcore patriotism was/is kinda insane

And the ensuing anti Doomsday stance -- like we all know that terrorism is bad and shit, but absolute refusal to acknowledge that maybe Doomsday trio and co were not punished by the narrative for having done that was because they were right was. sure something!

omg that's very flattering thank you :D

By Xephyr I assume you mean @considermygenderminecrafted ? Because yes, xe has some of the best L'Manburg critique out there, as well as some of the best c!Wilbur critique, everybody should absolutely check it out immediately (altho frustratingly, I just tried to find some of their posts as an example but Tumblr's search function is still absolute garbage (Xeph, do you have some of your great posts at hand and if so, can you just link some of them in the reblogs or something?))

And yes. There are valid criticisms that can be made of the Doomsday Trio's tactics (which even Techno himself sort of acknowledged later), but at the end of the day, they were on the right side of history

(Well Dream's character less so, but I can't even be bothered to try to analyse him at this point because none of his plans make sense to me)

Also nobody ever seems to acknowledge that Doomsday Trio were acting in self-defence, since L'Manburg had already gone after both Techno and Phil, and was at the time trying to kill Dream as well, although he kinda beat them to the punch (possibly because he already knew they were planning to kill him? idk, I'm not sure if that was ever confirmed or not)

But yeah, the argument about them needing to be punished by the narrative was always absurd to me, and it just betrays the fandom's belief that L'Manburg was supposed to be objectively good, despite all the evidence that it very much was not, not even to its own citizens! And possibly also the unquestioned assumption of "state good, anarchy bad"

Meanwhile the actual narrative repeatedly shows that L'Manburg always ends up becoming toxic, corrupt and ultimately oppressive, even under the Good President, while on the other hand the anarchist commune eventually turns into a sanctuary for all sorts of people who need a safe place to stay (even arguably the aforementioned former Good President when he needs somewhere to hide his son from kidnappers)

And yeah, this is why I did get pretty heated about some of the debates at the time, and I kinda still do, because in the process of assuming that L'Manburg was always the good guys, they ended up repeatedly justifying just absolutely horrific state violence as well as excusing early L'Manburg's xenophobia (as comedic as it initially was), which unfortunately mirrors a lot of real world authoritarianism and xenophobia

To be fair a lot of this was probably also protagonist-centric morality, since most of these people also saw the L'Manburg side as the main characters, but then again what is nationalism if not a form of protagonist-centric morality where you see your own country as the protagonist of the world lol

I might actually need to make a proper post now since multiple people have shown interest, unfortunately I'm also very lazy and kinda made my main points in that low effort post already

Which would mean that it would actually have to be a high effort post to justify its existence

#asks #hopemadethisaccforsendingasks

[yellowloid]

my experience at am's show (rock in roma, ippodromo delle capannelle - 16/07/2023)

SO you know the drill by now this is the compulsory recap post i need to write because i'm terrified of forgetting about things and i also have so much more footage this time around (i basically recorded the whole concert while in paris i kinda did but idk i had much less stuff it was my first time so i was just too overwhelmed ajfnwidjsj). you knew it was coming i just needed to sort my thoughts out and i know some of those things have already been said but idc i'm writing them down anyway + i rewatched all my videos so i have a lot to say so LET'S GO

• first of all i want to preface this by saying that it was +40° degrees in rome and gates were opened at 3pm. opening bands started at ~6:30 and am came on stage at 9:40. needless to say everyone was cooking under the sun and slowly losing our collective minds i swear i've never drunk so much water my entire life and still felt like i was shrinking

• it was also my first proper concert standing in a pit + i was lucky enough to have tickets for the closest section to the stage and kind of a decent view despite the fact that i'm literally 5'2

• still i confirmed my opinion that i very much prefer seated tickets (not a big fan of standing in a crowd i must admit) ESPECIALLY when it comes to summer concerts because there was literally NO AIR just weed smoke and most importantly sweat i swear i couldn't breathe. we were fairly close to the stage but at what cost

• i wasn't particularly excited about the opening acts (as i wasn't for inhaler back in may) BUT i have to say they both slayed so hard??? willie j healey was so fucking cute and thoughtful with the crowd (we were under the shadow of the stage but the more far back section of the pit was directly under the scorching sun his whole set and he kept asking if they were okay) and the hives hyped up the crowd so fucking much??? their stage presence was incredible everyone loved them

• the breaks in between opening acts and am were filled with the festival replaying the same harry styles/rosalia/*random italian trapper* songs over and over again and at some point the crowd was about to riot because FOR THE LOVE OF GOD TURN THAT SHIT OFF not even joking when i say we heard the same hs song at least 30 times i swear dante alighieri used that as inspiration to write his inferno

• everyone was sweaty dirty tired and kinda fucked up from the sun and by the time am was about to come on stage i was contemplating my chances of not passing out and praying to god clinging to the bit of energy i still had in me to hold on for just an hour and a half more

• just making it clear this wasn't in any way their fault they came on at the time they were supposed to and everything turned out fine it was just. concerts in rome in the middle of july are.........something

• BUT ANYWAY after hours of us slowly decomposing it was finally time for am!!!!!!!!!

• they opened with sculptures and honestly THANK GOD because (maybe unpopular opinion? idk idc argue with the wall) that is just how it should be. not a big fan of brianstorm as an opener

• alex introduced teddy picker by saying "haven't you heard? teddy is back!"

• he also introduced the view with "let's go back to the very beginning" at which my heard did a bit of a !!!!

• after the view and before 4/5 he randomly went "feeling professional... 🎶 tonight 🎶

• he was feeling sooooo silly the whole show (<3) but he really went crazy with the spoken antics during 4/5

• he clapped his hands as he sang "with coloured old grey whistle test👏 lights👏" which weirdly scratched something just right in my brain

• "and that's unheard of... here in roma or anywhere else for that matter... nobody's done that!"

• he changed the lyrics and went "the only time that I stop laughing is to breathe or steal a kiss" and then proceeded to send a kiss to the crowd

• "four stars out of five... why don't you put that in your [pile]? / four stars out of five... ten times out of nine"

• "four stars out of five... that's right... that's why i like it! 😜" at the very end, said in the most adorable tee-hee way i can't even begin to describe it

• the piano interlude before high was sprinkled with the saddest series of "why... why... why..." ever uttered by man 💔

• after high he said " fantastic! ... what a night"

• "i wanna tell you about a girl that i made up... 💁‍♂️ ages ago 💁‍♂️" as an introduction to arabella

• i'm sure you've seen the video going around but during arabella he noticed a fan was (i think?) crying and asked "are you okay?" before resuming his singing

• "the horizon tries but it's just not as kind on the eyes...... ‼️RRRRRRROMAAAAAAA‼️......... as arabella"

• after the song ended he thanked the crowd by going "good work everyone... jolly good. grazie"

• he thanked the crowd a lot, said grazie/grazie mille a lot, and frequently said roma instead of rome (idk why i found that cute but yeah <3) and his way of rolling his r's when speaking italian was just too adorable i wanted to put him in a blender and drink him as a smoothie

• the version of do me a favour that they've been playing lately sounds slightly softer than the original and i'm all for it. it amplifies the vibe of exhausted resignation that lingers in the lyrics and it just sounds so devastating i love it

• he lifted the mic stand during the song +  pretended to break something in half during the "to start to break in half" line and yeah. that was also what he was doing to my heart

• no he did not have a mullet he just arranged his hair in a way that made it seem like it for a split moment. why did i see people on twitter hoping for the mullet........DON'T GIVE HIM IDEAS

• "tremendous.... thank you 💅"

• also about that rumour going around of him pointing at louise during the "may i call you her name" - he literally acted out the whole line, pointed to himself, then at a random hypothetical you, then sidestage; he was not pointing at anyone specifically + why would anyone want that song dedicated to them lmao like. did the people saying it's romantic read the lyrics or

• also you know who else was in the general direction of him pointing? that's right everybody. mr jamie cook himself. maybe he uses he/she pronouns and alex wants to call someone jamie's name. have you considered that

• okay i'm sorry enough with the bullshit

• he said something during cornerstone and right before dancefloor that i caught on video but i can't really understand what he says so i'll probably end up posting those bits to see if we can figure out wtf he was on about

• "crawling back to you..... ‼️OH‼️ ever thought of calling when you've had a few"

• "🎶 ~rooomaaaaa~ 🎶.... thank you for having us everybody, what a beautiful audience.... soooo predictable i knowwww what you're thinkiiiing"

• he was so obsessed with crooning "roma" every chance he got <3 the silly <3333

• "lone ranger riding through an open space... THANKS A LOT in my mind when she's not right there beside me"

• now a list of random things he does at nearly every show that i still found very endearing:

- the "squeezed me very tightly" bit which is always so 💞💞💞

- "NO! you can't call me her name" with the NO said in the most 'child throwing a tantrum but make it cute' way

- the way he directed matt during the mirrorball intro and matt going 'y'all hear sumn?'

- "5......0......5......"

- him swaying his hips in a way that made everyone's knees buckle in a 10-mile radius

• about the interactions with the others: he didn't interact with them that much, i think he didn't even scissor with jamie during the body paint outro :( BUT we got the directing matt bit before mirrorball + a shout out to tom rowley

• i think in paris i noticed it less because i was seated, or maybe i just noticed it in a different way because i got some different songs (star treatment with the green/purple lights, pretty visitors with the red ones), but still - the lights are incredible and the fact that they create different lighting games for each song (like the blue ones for body paint or the golden ones for am songs) is so cool and fascinating i was mesmerised

• about the crowd: i made the mistake of getting into a telegram group of people who were going to see them and most of them were such casual fans they even believed the fake setlist that was going around a while ago as a joke on twitter 😭 the one with songs like the jeweller's hands. my brother in christ that's never going to happen

there were people going like "if they play r u mine i'm gonna die" and like bruh i appreciate the naivety but it's so painfully obvious they're gonna play it at least have a bit of creativity with your wishful thinking 😔

generally speaking the crowd was really REALLY hyped for am classics and wpsia/fwn oldies, while they were mostly completely dead during the car tracks it was disappointing to say the least. once again i was the only one popping my pussy

• BUT LET'S TALK ABOUT THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS. i was so fucking scared they wouldn't play cornerstone and perfect sense but mostly the latter bc it's much less likely to be played... and it meant so much to me to hear them live, i didn't get either of them at the paris show so i just. ugh. they're in my top 5 am songs if not my absolute favourites and they just mean so much i fucking needed to hear them

• AND THEY PLAYED THEM BOTH. they did it for ME. cornerstone had me so emotional and i'm not joking when i say perfect sense had me ugly sobbing while singing along

• i just. i love that song so much. he just looked so small on that stage singing such vulnerable lyrics, and even tho the crowd was mostly dead (rude if you ask me) he still finished the song by sending a kiss and saying the nth "grazie mille" and i just wanted to hug him so bad i was literally devastated i love him so much

• we also got the jet skis/star treatment/iwby mashup!!!!! most of the tiktok fans had no idea what was happening and kept singing the original lyrics while i once again popped my pussy rapping along with him. i'm so glad he decided to do it and i got to hear it live!!!! it just sounds so damn good ugh

• the setlist as a whole was everything i could've wished for i was so satisfied with it

• the show ended with him sending and catching kisses and just smiling so much i just wanted to tear him to pieces what who said that

• as usual they all sounded and looked INCREDIBLE and alex was just.......... ugh. the most gorgeous of boys. he's so beautiful it makes me SICK. the crowd was literally hypnotised by him, his charm and stage presence is CRAZY and everyone just can't help but stare at him in awe and reverence because his aura is just something else. no one does it like him fr. leaves me speechless every single time

• they're all so fucking beautiful and talented and seeing them feels like a fucking out-of-body experience every single time

• i miss them like air I MISS HIM LIKE AIR....... the pcd is hitting hard and i honestly have no idea wtf i'm gonna do with myself once tour is over and they yeet themselves out of the public scene for god knows how long i don't even want to think about it

• long story short i love them so much it literally hurts it's not even funny and i already want to see them again </3

• also bonus: after the show ended there was a HUGE traffic jam due to the fact that 35k people were trying to leave the place all at once SO we spent the next two hours (TWO HOURS) stuck in the parking lot exhausted dirty sweaty and still dying in the heat bc it was literally 1am but it was still so hot it was hell. then danza kuduro came on the radio and it was so random that was the last straw to send me k.o. for good

• overall crazy experience but yeah i love them so much i want to see them again sooooo bad </3 PLEASE COME BACK </3333

• so yeah that was my experience at rock in roma i hope you enjoyed my ramblings xx

#THIS IS SO MESSY IM SORRY IM SLOWLY LOSING MY MIND................. #arctic monkeys #rock in roma #the car tour #my show

[storiesbyjes2g]

3.53 New digs

Sophia gently grasped my hand and led me into my new residence: our home. As I looked around, I couldn't help but smile as I recalled my earlier thoughts about her during dinner: simple and elegant. The naked walls and bare essentials confirmed the theme yet again. Was there room for me in this tiny house? I didn't have much, but how could I live here without disrupting the flow? That was a thought for some other time because she stole my attention as she emerged from the bedroom, dressed for bed, beckoning for me to join her in the dimly lit room. I followed cautiously, minding my desires and not wanting to presume anything. She slipped under the covers, so I spun into my PJs and nestled beside her.

"Hold me," she whispered softly.

I obeyed and refused to let go. How symbolic. The first time we hung out, I refused to hug her because I knew if I ever got her in my arms, I'd never let go. And now, there I was, laying there with her in my arms, promising I'd never let her go again. At that moment, I had everything I needed and fell asleep content and satisfied, experiencing the most restful sleep in a while.

In the morning, I woke up, and she was gone. I got a chuckle out of thinking about how she escaped the vice grip I had her in while managing not to wake me. That took talent. I checked my messages, hoping to find one from her but not intentionally looking for one. I knew she went to work, but I just loved hearing from her. Sure enough, a message had arrived two hours prior stating she had left for work, would return around 3:00, and that I should make myself at home. Not that I expected anything different, but I loved how eager she was to make me feel welcome. I replied saying I'd go home to get some stuff but would be back before she got home.

With that out of the way, I surveyed my new home to gauge its vibe and figure out how we can merge our lives in this cramped space. Despite being the most decorated room, the bedroom still fell in line with the minimalist theme. At least it had curtains. The patio door left us exposed, but the massive boulders behind the house shielded us against potential peepers. Anyone who was desperate enough to climb up there to see us deserved a show.

She didn't have many clothes, so I could put a few items on the racks. The empty nightstand was a perfect place for toiletries and small personal items. She used the second room as her office. Despite its limited space, it had the best potential to not only put some of my things but to create a space that was ours.

I'd already seen the living/dining/kitchen space, but now I could get a good look at it. The kitchen was perfect. Almost too perfect, as if it never got used. I guess she was right about not cooking much. The idea of cooking for her regularly excited me. I wanted to take care of her without disrupting her autonomy, and that was the perfect way to do it.

After my self-guided tour, I took a shower and was glad to see her bathroom was nicer than the ones at Dad's house. Once I was ready, I headed to San Sequoia to break this crazy news to him. He was watching TV and smirking at me when I walked through the door.

"Another night of fun?" he joked.

"Yes, but not how you think."

"Ohhh. Well, that sounds promising."

"Uhhh...yeah, maybe..."

His eyes were laser locked on me, blinking rapidly and waiting for clarification.

"Okay, so... This is gonna sound really crazy, and you might be disappointed, but here goes... I kinda agreed to move in with Sophia."

"Dad? What do you think?"

"Are you sure about this?"

"Honestly? I don't really know. But what I do know is I've been too afraid to take risks. I feel like I can't grow as a man being afraid of what might happen. Plus, I really really like her."

Dad grinned from ear to ear.

"I think you more than like her. I'm so proud of you. That's a very big thing you've realized about yourself. It takes maturity to get there. You've always been thoughtful and have good judgement, so if this is something you feel you need to do, I support it. I'm happy for you."

That went waaaaaay better than I imagined. Dad wasn't someone who got upset much, but I imagined him being triggered by his own experience and being dead-set against it.

"So...I guess you're here to get your things, then?" he asked.

"Just the essentials. Her house is super tiny. Like...Copperdale tiny."

"Oh. Yikes. You gonna be alright with that?"

I shrugged.

"I guess we'll see."

"Alright. Well, don't let me keep you."

"Hey, Dad? Thank you...for everything. I don't think I could have made it here without your guidance."

He nodded.

"That's the job, son."

"I know, but... I don't know. You've been, like, really cool about it. You make sharing things really easy. I've enjoyed being here with you. I mean...I knew I needed you when I decided to move in with you, but I didn't know how much. And I... Well, forget it. I don't really know what I'm trying to say, heh."

"Come here," he said and stood. "I love you. You're always welcome here. You and Sophia."

"Thanks, Dad... Oh, and if you tell Mama about any of this, The Book of Luca will be closed. I know you two still talk about me."

He laughed.

"My lips are sealed."

#ISBI challenge #sims 4 story #sims 4 gameplay #adolting #adolting gen 3 #luca winston murillo #ali murillo

[lythea-creation]

Hiba's Puppy - Hiba x fem reader (Part 2)

Part 1

warnings: none

word count: 912

-----------------

“Wait”, Hiba proposed with a slight chuckle. “That kinda sounds like a love confession.”

“You know what? Forget it”, I mumbled and turned to leave.

I had at least expected her to take me seriously. But apparently I did not know her as well as I had thought.

“It is?”, Hiba reassured. “(f/n), look, I ...”

“What is taking you guys so long? Are you okay?”, Tasneem interrupted her.

“Yeah”, I claimed and used Tasneem's appearance to flee.

Hiba had just been searching for a gentle way to let me down, which was absurd in itself. After all she was not one to take care of other people's feelings. So I must have seemed extremely vulnerable.

The rest of the evening was pretty uneventful as Tasneem had canceled the game after the call with Omar.

After playing some more games with less drama, we decided to go to bed. Now I was regretting settling my stuff right next to Hiba's because I had to lay down next to her after the awkward ending of our conversation.

I purposefully turned my back toward her to avoid looking at her.

But after a felt eternity I still was not able to fall asleep, the day spooking in my mind.

I almost cried out when a hand wrapped around my waist and pulled me closer. It could not be anyone else but Hiba.

I figured that she was asleep, but that quickly turned out wrong when she started whispering in my ear: “Hey, I know you're still awake. You've been ignoring me.”

I stayed silent.

“Why did you run away when Tasneem showed up?”, she inquired.

“We shouldn't talk about it here. What if anyone hears? It's already been bad enough for me”, I considered.

“They're fast asleep. Trust me”, Hiba proclaimed.

“What do you even want?”, I questioned.

“Finish our chat from earlier?”, she supposed. “I didn't get to say what I wanted.”

I could feel her breath on my ear and it was driving me crazy. Why did she have to be such a tease?

“Don't worry about it”, I assured her. “You don't have to let me down slowly.”

“I never intended to, anyway”, she noted. “I've been having my eyes on you for a while now, but I always thought you were with one of the boys.”

I could barely breathe at her words, struggling to process everything she was saying.

“So what do you say?”, she wondered.

I loosened her grip on my waist to turn around and face her. The sight of her was reminding me once again how stunning she was.

“You like me, too?”, I uttered, not sure if I could trust my mind right now.

Her eyes moved from my eyes to my lips. “Yeah”, she confirmed.

A bright smile captured myself, making her chuckle quietly, before she closed the gap between us to kiss me.

At first it was shy and hesitant, but it quickly turned more passionate and desperate as we had waited for so long.

When we parted again, Hiba was grinning at me, pulling me back into her arms.

The next morning I woke up in Hiba's arms. So it had not been a dream after all. I smiled at the memory of last night.

The others had already gotten up, leaving us behind to sleep in.

When I turned around to try regain the feeling in my arm I had apparently laid on for way too long, Hiba stirred awake as well.

“Who turned on the sun?”, she grumbled.

I could not help but laugh. “The others are probably eating all our breakfast”, I assumed.

“Don't care”, Hiba mumbled, burying her head in the crook of my neck.

Hiba was probably the worst morning person I knew. So I granted her a few more minutes before getting up.

“So you two have finally gotten out of bed as well”, Enas pointed out as soon as we entered the kitchen.

They were already finished with breakfast, just like I had figured.

“You two were so cute by the way”, Tasneem remarked grinning.

She pulled out her phone to show us a picture of us sleeping in each others arms.

“Give that to me”, Hiba demanded, snatching the phone out of Tasneem's hand before she could react.

“Hey, don't delete it”, she complained.

But Hiba had not deleted it. She had sent it to herself, which I only knew because I was able to get a peak.

Later that day the boys picked me up to hang out.

“You guys would be so dead if the night had turned out any different”, I enlightened them.

“What exactly are you talking about?”, Noor questioned.

“What do you think I'm talking about? Your stupid call! Do you have any idea how awkward that was?”, I ranted.

“Hey, don't make her angry!”, Yasser scolded him.

“Nah, you're all off the hook because Hiba's my girlfriend now”, I announced.

“She is? Congrats”, Safaa exclaimed and patted me on the shoulder. “Though I gotta say that I'm a bit jealous.”

“Watch what you're saying”, I warned him, but my serious attire was quickly replaced by laughing at his horrified expression.

No matter how much shit these guys were getting me into, I just could not be mad at them for long.

-------------------------

Since it was requested, here's part 2. I hope you all like it!

Tag List: @sunwoniie

#al rawabi school for girls #hiba x reader #fem reader #lgbtqia #romance #fluff #drama #female reader #tasneem

[stranger-who-writes-fiction]

What's this? Another Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow post?? But it's 2024! Surely, there's nothing new to uncover with regards to this seminal work of sequential storytelling...right?!?!?

Well...kinda. XD

BEHOLD! Another Tom King podcast interview, wherein he discusses Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, and mostly confirms stuff we already knew, but! BUT! He does drop some new bits of info!

Right then. LET'S GO!

My usual disclaimer applies, recommend listening to the interview firsthand to get a more objective perspective.

But if you're cool with my (INCREDIBLY BIASED! ALWAYS! ALWAYS BIASED WITH THIS BOOK!) summary, then ONWARDS WE GO.

(And when I say 'biased summary' what I mean is that I will be including the bits that make me want to run a victory lap because my readings were SPOT HECKIN' ON, ALL YE NAYSAYERS!*)

Ahem. Anyways.

So I'm going to start off with some new-ish info (at least, it's new-ish to me. XD) The interviewers had asked about the title, specifically in regards to Zor-El's dialogue in issue six (I believe it's the portion where Zor is explaining to Kara why he's going to save her, and says something like, "tomorrow will come soon enough...and you will be a woman looking back on the many decades of your life..." hence 'Woman of Tomorrow') and whether that was planned from the outset, or if that part came about organically as he was writing it.

King said he'd originally written a completely different script for issue six (which we did know) but FUN NEW FACTOID TIME: Zor-El/Kara's origin (initially) weren't included in issue six like, at all. It therefore would not have come up at any point within the mini-series, had they gone with that first script.

But editorial hated it (King agreed with their conclusion, and another fun fact, we'll get to see said script in the backmatter for the new deluxe edition, YAY) and when King asked if there was anything in it that they liked, they said the tiny flashback to Kara's time on Argo was good.

SO. King then decided to expand that/incorporate her origin, because that would be 'easy', and this was back during his crazy COVID writing schedule.

(Folks will perhaps recall that he wrote issue seven in like...a day. What we did not know was that he rewrote issue six in that same week.)

And then it ended up being everyone's favorite issue so yaaaaay for editors! Unsung heroes of comics!

They are also comics' greatest villains but that's a discussion for another day!

Evely's art was mentioned at this point and King was like, 'I had to go back and make the writing more beautiful/esoteric to match what she was putting out.'

Also we stan a comic writer who lets his artists take as long as they need on art. (Though as he's mentioned before, Evely was able to turn in the art quickly on this book, which is heckin' WILD to me, have you SEEN that woman's pencils and inkwork??!??!?!??!?!)

They touched on the True Grit comparisons, only relevant/new bits there are that King feels it's the perfect novel (agree) and that the John Wayne version is terrible (also correct) and the Cohen Brothers' version is great (right again.)

Another bit we already knew: It was an editor who was responsible for the suggestion that Kara should be Rooster, not Mattie. (I think in the past he credited this to Jamie Rich, but this time he said he couldn't remember if it was Rich or Brittany Holzherr, and said they could fight over the credit if they want. XD)

Either way, THANK YOU, WHOEVER YOU ARE, b/c the alternative pitch, with Kara as Mattie and Lobo as Rooster, sounded awful.

Instead King went with, 'Kara will learn from the young naïf, and teach the young naïf.'

(Much better.)

MORE NEW, FUN TRIVIA!!!!

King said they had the first issue completely drawn, colored, and lettered--basically ready to go, and DC said, 'we can't publish this because Supergirl doesn't drink.'

King called Jim Lee, trying to make his case, that she was twenty-one, it was legal, it was a totally normal/human thing to do, and Lee was like, 'but we can't.'

King: Could I do it with Superman? Lee: Yeah.

Essentially it was a lot of tiptoeing around stuff like, 'girls can't get drunk and whatnot' coupled with 'Supergirl can't do that because she's perfect and pure.'

But! Lee ultimately was like, 'okay, you can leave the scene in, but you can't say she's drunk.'

So if you go back and read the actual dialogue/narration, there's no explicit language confirming that kara is three sheets to the wind.

(Which is so, so ridiculous to me because the art makes it very, very clear that she is. XD LOOPHOLES!)

King and the interviewers pointed out that this real world editorial incident ironically tied into one of the metanarratives of the character, that being the pressure placed on Kara, which Clark doesn't have to deal with.

Art imitating life etc. etc. XD

Feel like I've heard this bit in other interviews but it's sweet so it bears repeating: the green sun planet's name is based on King's nickname for his daughter, and she was the one who came up with the idea of a 'green sun planet' during a discussion at dinner one night.

So shifting gears a bit, the rest of the podcast focused specifically on various plot points that the interviewers wanted to discuss/had questions about; it's basically King offering his insights as the writer. And I really, really appreciate this, for reasons I'll get to further down. Now then, more summarizing!

One of the interviewers brought up a sticking point he had with the book: the execution of the Brigand in issue four. Ruthye says to Supergirl that she thought she would save him. To which Supergirl replies: Did you?

King explained that Ruthye and Kara are on opposite journeys in this book. In issue one, Kara is on the side of 'I don't kill, heroes never kill' and Ruthye is on the opposite side, 'Krem killed my father, I have to kill him.' At the end of the book, they are once again on opposite sides, but they've switched.

(I love the way King described it, that Ruthye becomes Supergirl, and saves Supergirl. More on this later.)

But specifically that part in issue four, where Kara doesn't step in, King confirmed that she's on that journey, she's going through that transition, but she hasn't crossed the line of, 'I'll kill him myself.' Rather, she's allowing the system to do what it will.

King also mentioned that this theme isn't especially new and has been examined in comics time and time again, of superheroes asserting their morality over governments, and how that spirals into fascism. He cited Kingdom Come, etc.

Further comments from King on Kara's character: she's conflicted, unlike Clark. Clark's soul and ideals are aligned one to one; Kara wants that. She loves those ideals and wants to uphold them, but she's not fully aligned like that because of what she's been through (read: She's Seen Some Things)

Loved this bit from King: "Supergirl's a little more human than Clark, in spite of being more alien."

King said DC probably would've let him have Supergirl kill Krem in the end, BUT (and it's a good 'but' tying into that earlier bit about Ruthye becoming Supergirl) he said that the theme of this book was 'what makes Supergirl awesome' (he admits this is kind of a dumb theme, but hard disagree, sir) and he liked that Kara's lessons to Ruthye are ultimately what saves her. Kara saves herself.

(STICK A PIN IN THAT ONE, FOLKS)

King once again stated, for the record, that Krem does not die in the end!

The two interviewers had differing interpretations, hence King needing to confirm. XD He even pulled out his script for issue eight, and the description does indeed say that Krem is unconscious, not dead.

And, AND, Evely even made this clearer in the art; the script didn't have Krem moving after Ruthye hit him, but Evely added Krem placing his hand on his head.

Another point the interviewers wanted to discuss: Ruthye writing that Supergirl had killed Krem.

King confirmed that this was to prevent the Brigands from retaliating against Ruthye, and instead focus on going after Supergirl.

In King's mind, Kara feels immense guilt that her father saved her over literally anyone else, so she spends her life taking on other people's pain, to make up for what she sees as taking someone else's spot on that ship.

The scene in issue seven, where Kara's falling through the atmosphere and pushes through in order to preserve the memories that she carries with her was inspired by events from King's life; his mother died unexpectedly, and when going through her things, realized that he was one of the only people who carried certain memories of his mother and grandparents; he described it as a kind of burden.

Last question from the interviewers: Why make Ruthye and unreliable narrator? Do we believe anything in this book, now?

King started off his answer by noting that he fought against using captions in his books for his entire career; by the time he started writing comics, caption boxes had sort of lost their vitality and had become the equivalent of thought balloons, which had long since fallen out of style.

But when he returned to them with Supergirl, he said, (and I have the full quote below)

King: "What I love about [captions] is that you can write things that contrast what's in the pictures, so that the captions can tell you a little bit of a different story than what you're seeing, and thereby enhance it--it's that idea of Ruthye being, she's narrating the story but we're seeing pictures of what's actually happening, creates an excellent sort of tension I think." (Bold mine)

And so, some THOUGHTS!

As always, I love learning new things about this comic. I wish this comic had a commentary track, with King (and Evely, Lopes, and Cowles!) talking about the creation/processes behind the book.

Next best thing is podcasts, I guess! XD

But IN ADDITION to fun, new information, as I mentioned at the outset, King has basically confirmed a bunch of stuff I mentioned in my deep dive posts.

To quote one of the interviews: "I was validated by Tom King!"

XD

This also debunks like. Every bad-faith criticism lobbed at the book. It's almost like a checklist of the month-to-month stuff I was seeing from those aforementioned naysayers, complaining on twitter that King had ruined Kara beyond repair.

They'll likely never listen to this podcast, but I wish they would! I think it would make them feel better. XD Like, hearing the insights on Kara/Ruthye/etc has just reminded me once again how good this book is, and how emotionally moving.

Like, again, I love the way King sums up how Kara and Ruthye work together in this book to shine a spotlight on Supergirl; Kara teaches Ruthye lessons, Ruthye becomes Supergirl thanks to those lessons, Ruthye then saves Kara, thus Kara saves herself.

(Which hey, I touched on in my issue eight post, way back when.)

(I'm also beyond thrilled that my assumption that the art is the true account while the narration boxes are Ruthye's recounting was CORRECT.)

(Which isn't to suggest this is a terribly deep, difficult to decipher text. I mean. It's a monthly comic book intended for mass consumption, starring popular IP--the writing isn't inaccessible by any means. XD But I just remember seeing SO MANY PEOPLE deliberately misreading these specific points as a way to Stay Mad, so I'm relieved that my glass half full interpretations wasn't just the result of desperate Evely Stan goggles, you know? XD)

TL;DR: I cannot heckin' WAIT for that big, beautiful hardcover coming out in July (IDK if I've posted about it here yet but Lopes said he recolored some stuff so you BETTER BELIEVE I'll be back on my Woman of Tomorrow nonsense this summer) and I'm also thrilled that this entire creative team has returned with a new creator owned title (EXPECT A POST ON THAT...AT SOME POINT???)

#long post #supergirl: woman of tomorrow #supergirl: woman of tomorrow spoilers #dc comics

[janetbrown711]

Best Worst Mistake

Tang comes back from a college trip to discover his partner adopted a kid in his absence and also needs him to care for the kid the next day.

Only problem is that Tang has no idea what to do with him.

Psst-- this fic was inspired by @ChopshopT 's fan art on Twitter, so go give that some love <3

If you like this you may enjoy my Dadsy of Two au!

Ao3 Link

“Oh my great sage– you did not–”

“I-i didn’t mean to-! H-he just kinda– you know– showed up!”

“You don’t accidentally adopt a kid Pigsy!”

“It was late at night! Practically closing hours! I had to make sure no creep ran off with ‘im.”

“Okay, but keeping him?! This is– this is crazy! You said you never wanted kids!”

“I know, I know– not exactly like it was an option before– but–” Pigsy sighed.

“Look… I know it’s sudden– I know we’ve talked about it– but… you know I can’t turn him into the police– it’ll ruin us both,” Pigsy looked his shaggy haired partner in the eyes.

Tang sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose, lifting his glasses as he did.

“How old is he?” He asked.

Pigsy sighed. “I don’t know– I just know that he was practically starving when I found him– not to mention naked and caked in dirt.”

If it weren’t for the sleeping child in the booth, Tang would’ve exclaimed, “he was naked???? Why didn’t you call the authorities???? What about his parents??? Did you even look around???” but he refrained.

“Does he have a name? Parents? Anything???” Tang asked instead.

Pigsy shook his head. “I stayed open a whole two hours more seeing if any’d walk by, but it’s been a week now, and I’ve had to basically close the restaurant to make sure he doesn’t get into anything– which you already know we can’t really afford– but I did– and nobody walked by.”

“A guy leaves for one week for a campus excursion to Shaolin Temple, and everything changes,” Tang laughed in an attempt to release his nerves.

“Y-yeah, I know this ain’t exactly ideal– I just–” Pigsy looked at the kid. “I didn’t know what to do without you here,” The chef confessed, and Tang kissed his cheek, but Pigsy turned and held his hands.

“So… whatever you thinks right– we’ll do it. Anything– leaving him on a doorstep, turning him into the police– anything. It’s your call,” Pigsy looked the scholar straight in the eyes.

“Woah– I-i don’t know– I-i just– I mean I know what’s legal and this– uh– isn’t– but–” Tang looked again at the kid snoozing away, and for the first time Tang noticed he was using Pigsy’s chef’s shirt as a blanket and stars above if it wasn’t the cutest fucking thing Tang had ever seen ever–

“Does he… like you?” Tang asked.

“Well– I uh– I think so..? I dunno, he doesn’t talk much, though he draws things sometimes– and he’s actually kinda good for a kid his age– and he listens to me when I explain things and he seems to really like living in our place– though I guess he’ll need a bed of his own with you back– I just– I don’t know,” Pigsy blushed and looked away. “I’m asking you though because I know you said you didn’t want kids ever either, so…”

Right.

“I…” Tang pulled on his scarf. “I kinda lied– I’m sorry– I know I shouldn’t have, but when you were talking about your dad and stuff and how you thought you’d make a bad father I was just like ‘oh yeah totally I get that, no kids, I’d never want any either, haha’ and you know– being gay doesn’t help, and if that wasn’t enough, being a human/demon couple means adoption would be off the table even if we weren’t gay and so i just kinda accepted it because I knew it just wouldn’t be possible– but as a kid I thought it’d be nice to have kids because I do like them– but also as I’ve gotten older I’ve gotten like– really bad with them, and I like– don’t know how to interact with them or do with them but i mean–” Tang took a deep breath.

“I’m okay if you’re okay.”

“Wow– that’s… a lot to process, but… if you’re sure..?” Pigsy still looked at him for confirmation.

Tang nodded. “I am.”

A smile slowly grew on the chef’s face. “O-okay then! W-we– we have a kid then!”

“We have a kid then,” Tang laughed. Upon realizing how crazy he sounded, he started to ramble.

“We have a kid, Pigsy-! Oh stars above, what do you even do with those little things??? you feed them, teach them– Maybe I can pick up some books from the library– what about vaccines? We have no way of knowing his records– we don’t even know his birthday!” He shook Pigsy’s shoulders.

“Hm…” Pigsy tapped his chin, then shrugged. “Maybe we can just say it was a week ago when I found him– and he looks about two, don’t he?”

“I know nothing about kids, Pigsy– and neither do you but–” Tang sighed. “If we don’t want him nabbed overseas, this is probably what's best– and who knows, maybe he can find his real parents one day.”

“Yeah, that– uh– makes sense,” Pigsy nodded with slight hesitation.

“So… where’s he gonna sleep?” Tang then asked.

Pigsy thought for a moment. “Well I don’t think we can afford a bed for him yet– or even a mattress- and he is kind of accustomed to our bed so..?”

“...You like cuddling with him, don’t you?”

“Our heating sucks! I couldn’t leave ‘im on the couch– that’s not safe– and yeah, maybe missed cuddlin’ with you– it was a whole week Tang! A week!” Pigsy defended his honor.

Tang burst into laughter. “You looooove me.”

“Shut up,” Pigsy’s face was a deep shade of red as he playfully pushed his partner away.

“Aw, it’s okay Piggy, I missed you too,” Tang kissed his forehead.

“Yeah, yeah,” Pigsy waved him off, his face still red as he went and scooped up the kid, who wasn’t disturbed the slightest by the transfer.

He looked so little and scrawny in Pigsy’s arms– fragile too.

How on earth a kid that small could just wander around Megapolis all covered in dirt and mud– it didn’t make even the slightest bit of sense to Tang. He especially wondered how anyone would let him– whoever this kid’s parents were, he wasn’t sure the kid should ever meet them, even if the opportunity arises.

As he looked at him more, the more Tang realized Pigsy was a total natural– swaying ever so slightly and supporting all the right things to keep him comfortable and upright. Tang watched for a moment, just kind of smiling like an idiot before Pigsy realized he was staring and his face flushed.

“W-what?” He asked, shifting the kid.

“Oh, nothing,” Tang waved him off, grabbing his suitcase while being unable to stop smiling. “Does the kid have a name?”

Pigsy shrugged. “When I gave him crayons, he wrote ‘MK’ so–? I dunno, we’ll have to figure that out later.”

“I don’t know– I kinda like MK– I think it suits him,” Tang looked at the kid.

“I kinda think so too– it’s just that that’s not long enough to legally count, so… I’ll work something out– I know a guy in fake IDs, we’ll see,” Pigsy shrugged. “Could you get the alarm?”

Tang obliged, doing the closing duties for Pigsy when MK suddenly started to stir in Pigsy’s arms.

“Hey there sleepyhead,” Pigsy chuckled softly. “How’re you?”

The kid blinked and rubbed his eyes, before noticing Tang and gasping, quickly burying his head into Pigsy’s chest.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay. That’s just Tang, remember? I talked about him a lot. He’s my partner, he’s gonna be living with us,” Pigsy rubbed the kids back.

Slowly but surely the kid turned his head back towards Tang, looking at him with big, dark brown eyes.

“Um… Hi, MK,” Tang waved awkwardly.

After a moment of intense study, the kid let one of his hands release Pigsy’s shirt and he waved to Tang with a smile.

Tang let out a surprised laugh and waved right back again.

“Looks like he likes you already,” Pigsy chuckled. “Usually he doesn’t even look at strangers.”

“Well that’s a relief,” Tang said. “Let’s get going to bed though– I’m exhausted from all the train rides.”

“Alright, let’s go,” Pigsy agreed, and after Tang turned off all the lights, the three of them headed up the stairs and into their apartment above the restaurant in all its one-bedroom glory.

Once upstairs, Tang got changed into his usual robe and silk pajamas, and Pigsy into his usual tank top and pajama bottoms– though Tang nearly lost it when he saw how Pigsy dressed MK for bed– literally just one of his old tank tops and wearing his socks– which were easily about three times too big.

“One of these days we’re gonna need actual money,” Tang joked as Pigsy put MK down on the bed. “He probably should have some real pajamas.”

“What? You don’t think it’s cute?” Pigsy half-joked.

“I never said that,” Tang rolled his eyes, taking off his glasses and setting them on his nightstand.

Just as he was going to turn his lamp off, MK started making noises, and pulling on Tang’s sleeve urgently.

“Yes, MK?” Tang asked.

“Oh– he– umm– is thinking you’ll sing to him,” Pigsy explained.

Tang gasped. “You sing to him?”

Pigsy blushed even deeper than before. “I– um– just a little– lullabies and all that when he wakes.”

“That’s the cutest thing I have ever heard,” Tang fawned at the blurry blob that was Pigsy. He then looked at MK– who was a little bit clearer. “I’m– uh– sorry, I can’t sing like Pigsy can. Go ask him.” He didn’t know if that was enough and so patted the kids head lightly twice before wanting to die of embarrassment.

The kid didn’t seem to care, as he just turned to look at Pigsy, who looked at Tang, his face still red as ever.

“You can’t laugh at me Tang.”

Tang let out an offended gasp. “Why would I ever laugh at you?”

“Because it feels stupid– I–” Pigsy sighed. “Just– pretend to sleep.”

“Alright, if it helps,” Tang teased him a little before turning the light off and laying down to ‘sleep’.

He was turned away on his side when Pigsy began humming a little tune for MK– the Eastern Cradle Song, if Tang remembered. It was incredibly soothing, and the kid was knocked out like a light in a matter of moments.

It reminded him how much he missed Pigsy’s singing– he hadn’t sang since– forever.

When it was finished, Pigsy layed down, cuddling with MK on the outside, so Tang rolled over and wrapped his arms around Pigsy.

“You sing like an angel,” He mumbled, pressing a tired kiss against his shoulders.

Pigsy laughed a little and cozied to his partner’s embrace, and the new family of three fell asleep.

.o0o.

Pigsy’s alarm had a terrible, terrible habit of going off when Tang didn’t want it to. Every morning, Pigsy blindly fumbled for the button, disturbing his most peaceful of slumber, until his precious, precious warmth was stolen from Tang.

“Pigggyyyyyy,” Tang pleaded with his lover when he could already shift to get up, even though he only hit the alarm five seconds ago.

“Tang, I gotta open shop– you know this. I know this,” Pigsy kissed his head.

“But it's so coooold without youuuuu,” Tang begged some more. If Tang was bothering to open his eyes (and also wasn’t blind as a bat without his glasses), he bet he’d be seeing Pigsy rolling his eyes.

“Pigsy sighed and hugged Tang, which the scholar mistook as a sign he had won and snuggled right back to him.

However this was not the case, as Pigsy kissed his head again and said, “Look, it’s gonna be my first time opening in a week– we need the money and you gotta study for finals so– can you watch the kid for me?”

Kid? What kid?

Tang opened his eyes, blinking at the sunlight before recognizing the blob on the other side of Pigsy and instantly recalling the previous day’s ventures.

“I-i– yeah, I guess that can be done,” Tang forced himself to sit up and stretch before he put on his glasses so he could finally see how relieved and thankful Pigsy looked.

“Great– so I’ll make a quick breakfast for you two, and then I’ll head on down to open,” Pigsy ruffled MK’s hair before getting up and getting dressed.

“Wait– you’re gonna head down? You’re–” Tang gasped dramatically– “You’re banishing me to this apartment?!”

“Tang– he’s just– This is a contained space. The public ain’t. And we need money, and besides, whenever you ‘study’ down there, all you do is give me googly eyes,” Pigsy pointed out, buttoning his chef’s shirt.

“Bah, you love my googly eyes,” Tang stated.

“Kid needs to be watched either way, Tang,” Pigsy snarked.

Tang looked at the kid, who to his surprise was looking right at him.

Tang gave a small wave and the kid waved back.

“Does he even talk?” Tang asked.

“Not much– yet,” Pigsy said, locating his socks and shoes and getting on the bed to put them on, to which MK got up and wrapped his arms around Pigsy’s neck, which made the demon laugh.

“He is a clinger though– hence why I don’t think it’s best to have him downstairs,” Pigsy patted MK’s arm with an affectionate smile.

“‘I don’t want kids’ my ass,” Tang thought with a tsk.

“Alright, alright, I hear you,” Tang said aloud before he cracked his back and started getting dressed while Pigsy went to make the three of them breakfast, MK still attached.

Once dressed and his hair thoroughly brushed and combed, Tang emerged from the bedroom to the wondrous sight of Pigsy’s rice noodles. If there was one thing Tang missed on his little excursion, it was his beloved Piggy’s cooking– not to mention free food.

Of course, Tang wasn’t “allowed” free food during business hours, but Tang “somehow” managed most days– and maybe he’d stop by for lunch or dinner because if there was one other thing Tang missed, it was his teasing.

Tang picked up his chopsticks and the moment noodles hit his tongue, he practically melted into goo.

“Pigsy, your food is soooooooo good,” He exalted.

“Wow, you really think so? Maybe I should be a chef,” Pigsy grinned, but Tang was too in heaven to give any kind of retort.

“Alright, well it’s roughly–” Pigsy looked at the clock and jumped, “ – 8:15, so I gotta get going.”

The chef then tried to get MK off of him, but once the small child realized what he was doing, he seemed to gain a death grip that Pigsy attempted and failed to loosen until Tang got involved and practically peeled him off of Pigsy’s back.

Naturally, this made MK start crying.

“Hey, hey, hey– I’ll be back I promise, I just gotta work and make money so we can get you real clothes more than the two outfits I found in a donation bin, alright?” Pigsy tried to assure MK in Tang’s arms, but from a distance so the kid didn’t try to latch on again. It didn’t really work, and Pigsy chewed his lip frantically as he tried to think.

Eventually he came up with an idea and hung his head a little.

“What? What’s the matter?” Tang asked, attempting to bounce MK but failing pretty miserably.

“Pretend you’re not listening,” Pigsy ordered, and Tang realized he was going to sing again.

“Do my sleepy words mean nothing to you?” Tang sighed dramatically before Pigsy gave him a look and so Tang obeyed, looking away (because his hands were full– what exactly Pigsy expected, Tang didn’t know but he was fine with it so whatever).

He then started singing the Song of the Sunshine, which he’d clearly sung with MK before because of just how strong and positive his reaction was. Most importantly, it got him to stop crying, and after a brief hug and a passing of tissue, the tears stopped entirely.

Pigsy was about to head out, though right as he touched the doorknob, he snapped and turned back to Tang.

“I have a library book on the coffee table about kids his age you can read when he’s napping and/or you finish studying– oh by the way, he naps around one and usually sleeps for an hour but after that he’s hungry but lunch is before nap time at noon, so just give him some of the peach snacks I have in the cupboard– he really likes those– and if there’s an emergency you can just call– oh and also I’ll make lunch and dinner downstairs too, so don’t forget,” Pigsy listed off.

“Wow, you’re really treating us,” Tang smiled smugly.

“Consider it wages for babysitting or whatever,” Pigsy pushed him jokingly, before looking at MK who was looking at him with big puppy dog eyes.

With a sigh, Pigsy hugged both Tang and MK, giving the former a kiss on the cheek, and MK a ruffling of his hair.

“I’ll see you soon, alright?” He looked at MK. MK looked up at Tang, then at Pigsy, then at Tang again before nodding.

“Alright. See you soon,” Pigsy patted the kids back before he really had to go, and so scrambled down the stairs.

And then it was just the two of them.

Tang’s first move was setting the kid down– since his pathetic nerdy noodle arms were not meant for carrying a (maybe???) two-year-old for long lengths. When he did the kid looked up at him vacantly, making Tang wonder if there was even a thought behind those eyes.

“So…” Tang looked around the apartment, bouncing on his heels and snapping while he tried to think of something to do. The kid certainly wasn’t any help, as he just continued to stare.

“Guess we should get you dressed then, no?” Tang decided, going into their bedroom and finding the two outfits Pigsy mentioned. MK was the one clearly calling the shots there though, selecting the blue shirt and overalls with a monkey on the pocket. Tang was glad it didn’t turn into a whole thing like he knew kids could do. Though there was a bit where it seemed like MK was going to bite his hand off when Tang tried to take his bandana, so he steered very clear of that.

After that though another big question mark hung in the air. Objectively, Tang knew he had to study, but also it didn’t seem like there was much to do with the kid in the meantime.

“Well… um… soooo… do you… like..?” Tang looked around for something– anything a kid would like, but their TV was basically useless, the books were a billion years more advanced than MK could possibly hope to understand, the boxes were too small, and they didn’t have toys– not by a long shot.

MK did seem to have a thought though, as he walked out of the bedroom and towards a countertop where a stack of legal papers were and–

Oh! Pigsy had a box of crayons.

“You want to color?” Tang asked. MK nodded and reached up enthusiastically. Tang grabbed a solid stack of the legal documents, grabbed the crayons and set them on the coffee table so the kid could actually draw on a hard surface.

To his surprise, the kid got to work straight away, and while Tang had literally no point of comparison, he seemed to be pretty good for a kid his age– whatever that was.

Tang left briefly to grab his laptop and books he needed, and when he returned the kid ran up and showed him his work. From what Tang could tell it looked like some trees, though they could’ve been giraffes, the sun in the corner, and right in the middle was a big brown swirl and a waterfall? Unless that was supposed to be the sky, and that swirl was a snake?

“Nice, MK,” Tang would’ve given a thumbs up but his arms were full. He carried his things past the toddler, who kept trying to show him the art.

“Yes, yes, MK it’s very nice, I love the trees– er– sky? –er– the sun especially,” Tang wasn’t sure what the right answer was, especially as MK had a little frown with each attempt, though seemed satisfied at the “sun” compliment and went back to his crayons.

…Tang didn’t understand kids.

But it was fine, this was fine. He had… time. Forced time, but this was just day one– he was crazy– was he seriously thinking a toddler was judging him??? Maybe Tang ought to see a therapist.

Tang took a deep breath to force himself to relax before he cracked open his book and laptop and started “studying” for his economics final.

Pigsy had always believed in Tang and his ability to be smart and know things, but really, Tang was a fraud who was just trying to delay the inevitable that when he finally got his PHD he wouldn’t find a job and would remain a financial burden to Pigsy– and now MK– till the end of his days, and he’d just be a burden like his parents always believed.

With a grumble, he started reading.

“The price, or market, system is the predominant allocation mechanism in most industrial societies today because–”

A piece of paper was slapped atop Tang’s book, making him jump.

“You– um– draw fast, don’t you MK?” Tang immediately set the paper aside, but MK huffed and put it back over his book.

“Look, how’s about you draw five drawings while I study and then you can show me then, hm?” Tang proposed, but the boy just stared vacantly.

“Right. You don’t know numbers,” Tang rubbed his forehead, before looking at the drawing.

This one was slightly more decipherable than the previous, as there was a bunch of pink scribbles roughly in the shape of Pigsy, and— what appeared to be a monkey on his shoulders? It was hard to tell, since it was red and also very crude. There was also another figure, bright yellow but it was hard to tell if that was supposed to be a sunbeam or tree or heck– even Tang. Again there was a waterfall (?) and some maybe-rocks maybe-hedgehogs???

“Is this supposed to be Pigsy?” Tang asked, pointing to the pink scribes. MK nodded.

“Aw, that’s sweet; I’m sure he’ll love it,” Tang smiled and set it down, though that made MK upset, as he picked it up and put it over his book again.

Tang groaned. “Kid, you’re really cute and all, but I need to study otherwise I will be failing everyone I know. Please just– go back to drawing?” Tang pleaded but the kid didn’t budge.

“Look– I–” Tang rolled his head back. “I don’t know what this drawing’s of. I’m sorry.”

MK took his paper back before going to the table and drawing more.

Tang sighed a breath of relief before going back to his textbook.

“–it is generally the most efficient. Yet not all exchanges take place in a market system. Many medical services–”

Tang was going to gouge his eyes out if he had to read any more of that money mumbo jumbo and so put it back in his back and swapped it out for his Taosim and Buddhism: Face to Face textbook and tried reading that for all of five seconds, before MK slapped the paper down.

The only thing that changed really was that the yellow figure was very clearly not Tang anymore and seemed to have some kind of flowers around him? Her? Them? and also adding a mountain in the background. The creature on Pigsy’s shoulder also had added detail– most importantly what looked like a bandana.

“And is that supposed to be you?” Tang pointed to the red– um… monkey? Spider? Cat?

MK nodded and smiled, jumping on the couch and pointing to the mountains and the yellow figure.

“Yes, yes, you’ve certainly improved your background work here,” Tang remarked. “But who is this person? Is that your mother or father?”

MK shook his head.

Somehow the figure not being one of his parents made it stranger– especially because MK deemed them so important he added more detail.

“Well they’re very lovely either way,” Tang patted his head and MK gave him a big toothy grin– which surprised the scholar.

“Yes, yes– well then, I’ll give this back to you so you can give it to Pigsy at lunch–” He said, handing him back the drawing– “and then I will get back to studying.”

MK was about to get off the couch when he suddenly gasped and pointed urgently to a picture in his textbook.

Tang stared at it and blinked. “That’s the Queen Mother of the West– she’s the wife to the jade emperor.”

At that MK nodded and started trying to turn pages in the book, which Tang tried to stop, but soon realized all that would do was rip the 5541.52 yuan book and so let him have his way. The kid flipped through page after page, until another picture showed up and he pointed to it eagerly.

“Oh, that’s the Bodhisattva Guanyin– she’s a figure of mercy and forgiveness and second beginnings,” Tang explained. Again MK flipped until another photo showed up and Tang realized he was curious about who all the people were.

“That’s Prince Nezha– he killed a dragon when he was young, and because of that his own father disowned him and he died–” Tang told and MK gasped.

“I-it’s okay though! He came back and got his revenge, though remains permanently twelve– I think,” Tang tried to recall before MK flipped pages again, and this time tapped it repeatedly to show his overwhelming excitement.

“Ahhh, I see you’ve taken an interest in Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, hm?” Tang chuckled and MK nodded excitedly.

“I see you have good taste, because he’s probably the most interesting figure in this whole book,” Tang joked. “He’s from a story called Journey to the West where he helps guide a monk to deliver scriptures to the Buddha and goes through personal trials until he reaches enlightenment– though not before causing some serious havoc in heaven.”

MK laughed– he laughed– and Tang felt his heart melt a little before MK started trying to get his head under his arm. Tang was confused, until he realized he wanted to sit in his lap to see the pictures better, and so Tang let him.

“See this one?” Tang pointed to a picture on the top left. “That depicts when he fought off the entire heavenly army after he was kicked out for stealing their wine, pills, and peaches.”

“And this one here–” he pointed below– “that’s when he got trapped under the Mountain of Phases after Buddha successfully tricked him.”

MK tilted his head curiously, tracing it with his finger before looking back up at Tang.

“Yes, yes, a little harsh, but he goes through worse punishments later, as before he was ready to go on the journey with the monk Tang Sanzang, he was given a circlet that would hurt him if he disobeyed,” Tang expanded, turning the page to reveal such an image, which made MK gasp and whimper.

“Yeah, it looks like it hurts a lot, doesn't it?” Tang said, examining the picture closer. It was weird– he hadn’t ever thought about the thing that closely before, but looking back, it was pretty torturous.

“It’s okay though– Monkey King always got back on his feet and got enlightenment like he always wanted, isn’t that nice?” Tang asked, and MK slowly nodded, though his lower lip trembled a bit.

“Aww, it’s okay MK,” Tang patted his shoulder, which MK took as an invitation to hug the scholar, which while it surprised him, he wasn’t against it.

“Here– how’s about I teach you about some of the happier parts of Sun Wukong’s life, hm? Like when he fought the permanent twelve-year-old Prince Nezha? Or when he had a cool shapeshifter duel with Er Lang Shen and his dog? Or– oh! What about when he fought off the Monstrous King of Havoc and freed all of the other monkeys on Flower Fruit Mountain from being eaten or enslaved?” Tang proposed, which instantly put MK in better spirits.

And so Tang started telling him tales, and MK slowly got off and started drawing the scenes Tang described, which was pretty impressive since sometimes Tang could actually see what was going on, which was nice. Plus, it was fun to see him so engaged in his stories.

It was… strange, watching this boy who had been nothing but a confusing vessel become so passionate and alive and giggly as Tang talked. Sometimes Tang actually thought he’d respond with words, but his laughs and nods were good enough for him.

Tang talked and MK colored for hours and hours and hours on end, until the landline rang to life, and Tang left MK to draw Er Lang Shen and his dog while he answered.

“Zhu residence, this is Tang.”

“TANG! Have you looked at the time??? The kid’s s’posed to be havin’ lunch by now!” Pigsy scolded on the other side.

“Oh wow– has it really been that long?” Tang laughed, seeing the clock said 12:15.

“Uh– yeah! Geez– does the kid’s schedule not even matter to you?” Pigsy griped.

“O-of course! It’s just– we were getting so caught up in drawing and The Monkey King– it really is something–”

“I thought you were supposed to be studying,” Pigsy pointed out.

“Yeaaahhh, well a little break never hurt anyone,” Tang totally glossed over the fact he never really started in the first place. There was a bit of pause before Pigsy spoke again.

“So uh– you and the kid been bonding?” Pigsy asked, his tone far less harsh now.

“I– um–” Tang looked over his shoulder at MK, who gave him a big flashy grin. “We have.”

“That’s– That’s really good, Tang, I’m glad,” His partner praised. “I thought’d take the kid weeks to warm up to you based on how he is with other strangers– this is good though.”

“And you left me up here with him alone anyways?” Tang pointed out jovially.

“I am literally just two stories down, Tang.”

“Yeah, yeah– let me do the teasing sometimes.”

Pigsy laughed on the other side. “Alright, alright– just get you and MK down here or else I’ll still charge you for your lo mein,”

“Alright, alright, I’ll get him there,” Tang rolled his eyes. “Love you, Piggy.”

“Love you too, Tangy. But seriously– get your ass down here.”

“I will. Bye.”

“Bye.”

And with that, Pigsy hung up.

“Alright MK, are you ready to see Pigsy again?” Tang hung up the phone too.

“Dadsy!” MK cheered, drawing in hand that he quickly showed Tang.

“Woah– Dad-sy?” Tang fawned over that so much did didn’t notice MK holding out the picture for him to take.

“Mhm!” MK nodded, shoving the picture in Tang’s face since he clearly wasn’t looking down enough.

The drawing wasn’t the one from earlier– no, this one was probably the clearest of any. On the right was clearly Pigsy, looking much better than his scribbled counterpart, and also very clearly holding MK, who was drawn with proper yellow and brown, with red saved for the bandana. And to the left was–

Him.

He could tell too, because the stick figure was wearing his robe and had huge messy circles around the eyes to be glasses, plus he was wearing a biiiiiiiiig old scarf. He was smiling, Pigsy was smiling, and MK was smiling too. There was also a rainbow, and a bowl of what Tang hoped were noodles and not worms, as well as MK written in the corner in big shaky letters.

“Oh MK– is this us?” Tang took it from his hands and felt himself start to tear up a little.

MK nodded excitedly.

“Dadsy an’ Tang!” He bounced on heels and flapped his hands.

Okay now Tang was definitely crying, and he quickly knelt and gave MK a hug.

“You know, I don’t meet a lot of kids, but you’re easily the coolest one out there, MK,” Tang complimented, giving him a good squeeze.

MK laughed and hugged him too.

“Now c’mon– I bet you’re starving, and I know I could certainly go for some noodles right about now,” Tang booped his nose before standing, at which MK did grabby hands upward. Tang chuckled and handed him back his drawing before picking him up.

“Alright, let’s go give your Dadsy a visit,” Tang was loving the nickname already and was more than certain Pigsy would just about die of cuteness when he heard it too– especially with how happy it made MK to hear it repeated back.

It was strange how much Tang felt he’d changed in a day, but hey, maybe that was just how parenting was–

God– it felt weird, to say it, but Tang was a parent now– Pigsy too. Of course, Tang still had a PhD to obtain, and Pigsy a restaurant to run, but together they were a team and with MK, they might even be a family.

Wow that was a lot to think.

But still, it brought as much of a smile to his face as it did anxiety, and if that wasn’t parenting, Tang didn’t know what was.

#lego monkie kid #lmk #freenoodles #tang lmk #pigsy lmk #mk lmk #domestic freenoodles #fluff #dadsy #dad tang #MK is an absolute precious baby #I legit think the only reason we didn't see tang at first was bc homeboy was gone #and because of that he missed the deadline to be considered a dad sorry bro #you're demoted to father figure but not father #fjdaskl;fjdsa #i'm rambling now #just read it

[gaotlek]

🎀Midsummers🎀

JJ Maybank x black reader.

Kook reader x JJ.

Reader is also known and described as the Kook Barbie. You are Kie's cousin who goes to Outer Banks every summer. You are friends with Kelce, Topper, Rafe and Sarah. You met JJ before at the keggar/ party they threw in the first episode.

⚠️ this is so cringe💀💀I am so sorry in advance 😭😭😭🫶🫶

It's weird how a simple fight made you start looking at your friends in a different light.

Maybe it was just how they handled it even though you saw your childhood friend quite literally try to drown someone, then bring up the fact that a gun was pointed to them like it wasn't the consequences of their own actions.

What's more messed up is that you found the guy that pointed the gun to be so attractive.

If he tried to kill your friend (in the defense of his) , then what makes Topper that different? Is it their intent?

But the point still stands, you found the guy attractive and if your friends found out, were they going to lynch you as well.

･ ｡ﾟ☆: .☽ . :☆ﾟ ･ ｡ﾟ☆: .☽ . :☆ﾟ ･ ｡ﾟ☆: .☽ . :☆ﾟ ･ ｡ﾟ

Before long, midsummer came. You were practically dying of boredom since you didn't find your friends to be good company anymore. You spent the rest of the time planning your outfit rather than doing work. To be frank, your so-called hard work paid off. Your outfit of your dreams came along with a sing songy friend when you called to thank her for bringing the dress.

"I send you to Chapel Hill to pick up my dress, and you come back with feelings for a boy." You deadpan, unsure on how the hell your friend can fall in love with someone that quickly.

"Well, he's different, okay? He's not like the country club boys we're around. Like he's so fun and kind of weird." She breathes.

You swear this feels like a Disney princess moment we're she's describing her feelings towards a guy she's just met. You kind of want Sarah to break off into a song to really cement your thoughts.

"Right." You muse. "Do I know the guy at least? I don't feel that good knowing that you like a stranger you just met."

"I think you do, we talked about him before. He used to work here for my dad."

You gasped. "Sarah. Is it the scuba thief?" She confirmed your suspicions when she couldn't look you in the eyes directly. "How the fuck did that grow from 'He's the biggest jerk in the universe' to 'I kinda like him'."

"I just got to know him. You don't get to judge me, Miss 'I think I like the guy that pulled a gun on my boyfriend.' "

"Mine is well justified since your boyfriend tried to drown his friend." You defend.

You gasp. "Wait, hold on, does Topper know about your lover. Okay, let me rephrase that, did you break up with Topper?" You quickly change the subject from the disaster of a crush you have.

"Well, not yet. I'm going to do it tonight at the party. I already know what you're thinking, I'll deal with it, okay?"

You just laughed in disbelief as you openly judged your friend.

"I'll drop it. Now tell me what shoes should I wear to the party." You say as you show her the different pairs you were thinking about.

When you said your goodbyes, you were both ready for the event. You were quite excited to show off your outfit to the people and ready for the compliments that were about to come.

･ ｡ﾟ☆: .☽ . :☆ﾟ ･ ｡ﾟ☆: .☽ . :☆ﾟ ･ ｡ﾟ☆: .☽ . :☆ﾟ ･ ｡ﾟ

You were quick to find Topper and Kelce. Not willing to stand next to your brooding cousin who was mumbling profanities about how she would rather be anywhere than be here. So you opted for your friends. Crazy right?

"Top, where's Sarah? Weren't you guys supposed to come together?" You asked him, wanting to stir up something that can keep you entertained for a while throughout the night.

Morally wrong? Yes. Entertaining? Most definitely. So in your eyes it would be just fine.

"I don't know . We were supposed to walk in together, but she's still not here. Do you know where she is?"

"I wouldn't ask you about her if I knew where she was. Think, bro. Anyways, who are you glaring at?" You asked as you followed his gaze to someone by the barbaque area that was currently talking to Kie.

"Some pougue that sunked his boat. He sure has some balls to show up here." Kelce replied keeping his eyes locked on the poor guy.

"Wasn't he the guy you jumped at the golf course?"

"He is. He was on the wrong side of the island, and we helped him find his way to where he belonged."

You eyed him. You could understand why the poor guy did what he did. Honestly, if you were in his position, you would've done much worse. You secretly praised him for his patience dealing with Topper and his shitty nonsense.

Before you could berate him and start a rant on how to treat people better, the Cameron's walked in, officiating the beginning of the event.

You smiled at your friend and before you could even begin walking towards her, her dumbass of a boyfriend pushes past you to talk to her.

Rafe came up to you guys and gave you a drink. You take a small sip, repulsed by the sour aftertaste.

"Whats in this? Alcohol ? Rafe, you know that I don't drink, right?" You complained as you gave the drink back only for it to be put back into your hands.

"Don't give me that nonsense. We're drinking tonight. You can't be the odd one out again. You hear me, sweetheart?" You cringe at the nickname and punch him lightly on his shoulder, only for him to laugh in your face.

Back onto the couple, Sarah storms off and Topper just stands there looking at her in disbelief.

"Trouble in paradise?" You tease expecting a light insult back but instead he just scoffs at you.

"Yeah, what was that about?" Kelce chimes in, resting his arm on your shoulder.

"It's nothing." Topper dismissed.

"Doesn't matter. We're getting shit faced tonight." Rafe said as he took your drink back to give it to Topper.

･ ｡ﾟ☆: .☽ . :☆ﾟ ･ ｡ﾟ☆: .☽ . :☆ﾟ ･ ｡ﾟ☆: .☽ . :☆ﾟ ･ ｡ﾟ

"I swear he speaks at me, not at me. Like he's so condescending when he speaks to me. It's like he doesn't believe anything I say." Sarah rants as she recalled their conversation.

"At least you're breaking up with the guy tonight. You don't have to deal with him. But honestly, Sarah, on a serious note, when you guys do break up, that means that I automatically have to choose between you or him. And when I choose you, are you going to dump me for your pogue can I say that? Like, it's not offensive if I say it, right?" She quickly reassures you that it's fine to say it and that it's not a slur.

"Anyways, are you going to leave me for him? Like you did with every guy before Topper?"

She freezes. And in your gut, you just know that your concerns are very likely to be true. Honestly, it kind of hurts. More than you thought it would.

Like you don't want to be with Topper and the others but if Sarah's going to br running around Kie and her little boy toy you can't help but feel scared that you're going to be alone for the rest of your time here.

"That was so rude. Im so sorry. You don't have to think about it like that, but that's just how I feel about it. I'll be inside if you need me."

And with that, you turn around and go inside.

You were met with some friends in the dining hall, which you, of course, greeted and thanked when they offered you a seat. You politely declined and went to the bathroom.

There, you looked at your disheveled appearance. You were quite happy you wore something long sleeved, you didn't want an unnecessary conversation.

Your makeup was smudged and in the comfort of the bathroom, you took out your eyeliner and lip products. You turned on your playlist and started making yourself more presentable.

In the midst of you singing along to one of the songs, the door opened.

Here comes the boy you were flirting with a few days ago. The guy who quite literally pulled a gun on Topper and if you're being honest, it was one of the hottest things a boy has ever done.

He quickly shuts the door behind him. He glances around the room, studying his surroundings, and then his eyes land on you.

All of a sudden, his panicked expression leaves him and a look of confusion appears.

"What are you doing here?" He questioned.

You give him a look that just screams 'seriously?'

"Do you work here?" You asked, completely ignoring his question.

He scoffed at you, "I highly doubt they would hire me here. But no I don't work here."

"Then what are you doing here?"

"What is this an interrogation? To answer your question, I came here to give Kie something. "

"Right," you muse. "Well, as you can see, she's not here. So you can leave now."

You turn to face the mirror to continue doing your makeup.

"You really do live up to your name." He said suddenly, filling the silence when you were in the middle of lining your lips.

"Which one? Kook Barbie? In what way?"

"I mean that you look absolutely gorgeous. Like seriously, out of this world type of beauty. "

"You flatter me too much."

"I think I can do a little more than flatter you."

"What, this is the second time we've met, and you want to play nurse. You know, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you'd be trying to do other things than nurse me to health. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind if you're offering."

"Okay. You look like you got run by a car." Yoy quickly changed the subject. "Do you mind if I just get a first aid kit and like help you out for like two seconds. I really think you need it."

"It hasn't even been 2 minutes, and you're trying to see me naked. Take me out first, then I'll think about it." You giggle before leaving to get the first aid kit.

You set everything down as you start to put the disinfectant onto the piece of cotton. He stops talking when you bring it towards his bruises.

"Wait, are you serious. I mean, I don't mind. Do you like surfing? We can do a beach date. Or are you the fine wine and dine type. I don't mind anything." He rambles.

You don't say anything when he continues planning your future date. You're really trying your hardest to seem indifferent when your heart is going 100 kilometers per minute.

You lock eyes with him as you bring the cotton to his wound. He closes his eyes and hisses. "Shit! I wasn't ready. Warn a guy next time."

"I'm building your character, so shut up." You joke. He glares at you and mumbles something under his breath.

You mumble an apology as you gently clean the area. You place a bandage and do the same with his many wounds.

When you're done, you clean up the area, leaving him sulking on the door about how you made his injuries ten times worse.

"Kiss it." You give the boy a look. "To make it hurt less, kiss the wound. Please. "

"There's no way in hell I'm doing that. "

"Come on, you made it worse, so kiss it to make it better. I promise I'll keep quiet after you do it. "

You look over to the lil kid you had forgotten about for the past ten minutes. Surprisingly, he's fast asleep. You guess that he slept past JJ's groans about how much it hurts.

You sit back down and start to kiss his wounds. Stopping on his last one on the corner of his lip. You readjust and slowly bring your lips towards it. You smile, feeling his lips lifting slightly.

You slowly back away, holding eye contact with him. Your smile mirrored him. His hand rose to the back of your neck, and he leaned in, his lips meeting your own.

You swear you felt yourself melt in that moment. Your lips brushed with his. It was slow and sweet. Both of you guys shy at first, but then his grip on your neck tightened, deepening the kiss. Your hands reached his dirty blond hair, making him groan.

You broke apart and took a deep breath before meeting once again. Him taking the lead this time, repositioning you so that you're on his lap.

When you finally broke apart, you smiled at each other content about the situation at hand, the outside world long forgotten.

"Are you free on Friday?" You ask, breaking the silence.

"Huh? Oh yes, I am. For what?" He stutters.

"For our date. You're picking me up, right?" You now stand up, grabbing your lip liner and lip gloss from your pocket.

Facing the mirror, you see his reflection on the floor, and you could see him smile.

"Yeah, of course. It's a date. On Friday. Be ready. I'll see you at the dock." He finally stands up and faces the door, hand holding the door handle. "You don't want to kiss me goodbye?"

"JJ leave."

"Yes, ma'am." He salutes on his way out.

You let out a little squeal as you face the mirror. Not sure if you're happy or worried that things went from 0 to 100 very quickly.

Not even two seconds later, the door opens again. And instead of JJ, Rafe and Kelce along with their minions, show up. They looked around the room.

"Did you happen to see a Pogue running around here, have you?" Kelce asked, still surveying the room.

"No, why? What's going on?"

"No, I haven't seen him. I was here fixing my makeup. On that note, what do you guys think about my lip combo it's good, right?"

"One just happened to sneak into here pretending that he works here. I swear these Pogues, man and ruining shit." He explained.

So that's why JJ came into the room in such a hurry and mess.

You start to ramble about what lip liner and lip gloss you used to achieve this look, then proceeded to say the ingredients along with what is good for your skin in order to buy JJ some time.

There JJ was by the looks of it security had gotten to him before he left the premises. And boy, was it not a shit show.

They shut you down halfway through your lecture about skin products to use for sensitive skin, saying that they're going outside.

You didn't want to be in the room by yourself, so you promptly followed them after makingsure that you looked decent.

You moved towards your cousin and her parents.

"You can't just boot him. I invited him here . I'm a member of this club." Kie said, despite her parents trying to keep her quiet.

JJ drops a glass, "Sorry about that. Hey, mandatory power hour at Rixon's, Kie." He then points at Pope, the guy by the barbaque, "Pope, you as well, all right? Rixon's Cove. Let's roll."

"All right, Kie, come on. Workers of the world unite. Throw off your chains!" He continues, walking backwards towards the water.

Your uncle starts, turning to face Kie, "You can't hang around these kids."

"I can't. I'm sorry." Kie says as she turns around to leave and follow JJ.

Her parents turn to face her, "No Kiara." Your uncle shouts as he turns to follow her.

JJ and the scuba thief salute each other. You're unable to hear what their saying, and you bring a hand to your mouth, unable to stop smiling as the whole situation is just ridiculous to you.

When you arrived home, you ran to your room and changed clothes and started your night routine. So when your head hit your pillow, you immediately thought of JJ and your kiss.

You lock eyes with Sarah, who finds this situation amusing, and the two of you start giggling. You immediately stop when you lock eyes with your uncle.

Your long journey home was filled with your uncle talking about how Kie's friends were horrible influences for her. The whole rant made you want to disappear just like Kie.

You traced your lips, remembering how his felt on yours and the fit of giggles and squeals started.

That night, after many, you slept with a smile on your face. Content with the events that happened throughout the day.

･ ｡ﾟ☆: .☽ . :☆ﾟ ･ ｡ﾟ☆: .☽ . :☆ﾟ ･ ｡ﾟ☆: .☽ . :☆ﾟ ･ ｡ﾟ

Author's note: I cannot help but feel like I'm dragging the world building for the setting, which is like most of you guys know the show and what and how certain characters are. But next time, I will end the world building and just write the story without that.

Anyways, thank you so much for reading. Please remember to drink water and stay hydrated.

Lots of love

☆katli<3☆

#jj mayback x reader #obx fic #obx fanfiction #jj maybank #jj x you #fem reader #reader is black #kook reader

[revserrayyu]

2.1 Penacony thoughts [part5]

**BIG STORY SPOILERS** Chatting up until the end of the current story so if you haven’t finished it yet then I’d encourage you to do so before reading any further.

Before all the big reveals happen, I appreciate these few dialogue options we get right after the Aventurine fight. It sounds like they’re all asked in rapid succession and the last one is completely valid considering how often we actually switched viewpoints during this update.

Once Sam appeared, I knew it was finally going to be the moment where we learn who he truly is. As they list out the other hunter’s specialties and his own lack of one, he mentions “there is only one method that I use,” and I wanna say it’s deception..

..because lo and behold, everyone was completely right and the person beneath the armored suit is indeed Firefly herself. I’m not surprised, just interested in learning about her reasons. Was that death of hers planned and why? Has she always been Sam, even way back during the Jepella Rebellion trailer? Or does that device in her hand allow her to appear as Sam? Because didn’t we hear to talking to a “mecha” in that one dreamscape last patch? She just seems so out of place among the other Stellaron Hunters but I’m eager to learn more about her once we pick up here next update.

Also, I’m just gonna say it.. I wasn’t truly upset over her “death.” I feel like we were kinda forced to care for her after she gave us a tour of Penacony, but that alone wasn’t enough for me to get properly attached. That time was real brief and only took up a small section of the previous update. Not to mention the many weeks in between updates where I spent much time thinking about almost everyone else aside from her. Most other characters we’ve met on this planet received trailers, drip marketing and so much more to get me invested into learning about them while Firefly’s presence was short lived. I would genuinely be upset if anything bad happened to Black Swan, Acheron or Sparkle and I’m already emotional over Robin, Aventurine and maybe even Sunday. There’s stuff going on with Gallagher and Misha that I’m still curious about and we haven’t even properly met Boothill yet but I’m so excited to see him. Maybe my opinion on Firefly will change during the next update, but for now I really don’t have any strong feelings about her other than simple curiosity. I am pleased to see her still alive for the Trailblazer’s sake, but if she somehow survives this entire story and Aventurine doesn’t..hmpf.

All that aside, the scene with Gallagher and Sunday was.. a lot to take in, but once again we have someone else calling Sunday crazy. Perhaps he should go to therapy.

The framing of this scene is nice and sorta confirms those purple nightingales do in fact see everything happening on Penacony, acting as Sunday’s eyes and reporting back to him. At least that’s the vibe I’m getting.

This is quite unexpected? Honestly I feel like every time Sunday is involved there’s a new plot point that’s introduced into this giant story. Both sides definitely have it out for each other, that’s for sure.

What in the hell is this twist??

Sunday thinks Gallagher is in disguise, but after the hound tells him to take a closer look, Sunday starts to notices all these little details about him that seem reminiscent to 52 other members of the Family.

I wish I could say this idea is foreign to me, but it actually reminds me of Kamui from the second season of Psycho Pass and how his body is made up of 184 different people and 7 personalities. Kamui was also unable to be detected by any scanners and that also reminds me of Gallagher and how almost no other Bloodhound knows who he is.

And I haven’t the faintest idea on what Sunday means here but I noticed the voice over doesn’t even say “minion of the Enigmata” no matter how many times I tried to replay this line over.

It’s at this moment where I started to waiver with my distrust towards Sunday and actually start to feel bad for him a little bit solely because of the strong emotion in his voice when he questions why Robin had to be killed. It at least prevents me from thinking he had any part of it.

Then we head into a cutscene and dear god, things happen quick. This one shot of Gallagher reminds me of his light cone just because of the lighter.

This frame of Sunday looking down on him feels so intense and I kinda love it with both the intense shadows and harsh light.

And then..? Our angelic and handsome man gets killed?? Presumably by another memory zone meme I guess I dunno it happened in an instant and all I have to show for it is splatters of goo??

Oohhh my goodness.. this story took such a turn. Many of them actually. Seeing how Sunday is a puddle on the floor similar to what happened to Firefly, I wanna believe that he’s gonna be okay? If she could survive, surely he can too. Maybe? I’m still not to sure about Robin’s condition and I’m being so darn hopeful that Aventurine is alive somehow. That’s definitely the death that hurts most for me if true. Anyways, I’ll end it here and just say there’s many answers to look forward to with the next update. As always, I’m not trusting anyone! Astral Express family only!

(originally written on 3/30)

#honkai star rail #sam #firefly #gallagher #sunday #gameplay #revsposts

[fandom-imagines-stories]

Decennial Part One

Season One Episode Eight

Dr. Spencer Reid x Reader

Words: 3884

Series Masterlist

Summary: In the week leading up the ten-year anniversary of your friends and classmates’ deaths, a copycat appears to be picking up where your mother left off. 

Notes: Oh my god guys we're getting there! Here is the two-part season finale! This one is also kinda long and chaotic, so bear with me. I love this series so much and it's crazy that it's coming to an end... Just kidding! I am already working on season two and hope to have it out in a reasonable amount of time! As always, continue letting me know what you guys think! It means the world to me.

Warnings: Panic attacks, violence, trauma etc. etc. 

-

The pounding at the door told him all he needed to know. JJ had called him earlier that evening. There was another body.

And the news had gotten a hold of it. 

He opened the door to your furious, tear-stained face. Reid stood behind you, looking worried and apologetic. 

“Were you planning on telling me?” You snapped, forcing your way in before he could stop you. 

Reid followed you. “I tried to explain,” he exasperated. “But she insisted on coming here and I didn’t think she was in a fit state to drive.” 

“I’m fine, Spencer,” you said, whipping your head back towards him. “I can’t believe you both kept this from me. This is the case JJ was called about, isn’t it? The reason you had to leave dinner.” 

“We didn’t know if it was a case then-” Aaron started, but you didn’t let him finish. 

“But you knew it was connected to me!” The cries made your voice sound warbled, shooting a pang through Spencer’s chest. 

“We couldn’t confirm that what happened at first was connected to your mother,” Spencer said. His voice was soft and pained. Seeing you like this hurt him more than he thought was possible and the fact that he’d kept it hidden from you ate away at his heart.

A bitter scoff rumbled your throat and you turned your burning glare on your brother. “You didn’t tell him who the first v-” The word stuck to your tongue as if it were afraid to escape. “Who the first victim was, did you?’ 

Aaron turned away, running a hand down his face. 

“Did you know them?” Spencer asked. 

You nodded, keeping your eyes on Aaron. “Jeremy Derrickson. My first boyfriend.” You pulled down the collar of your shirt. “The one that gave me this on accident. The stupid scar that started everything!” Your body shook as you spoke and you placed your hands on Aaron’s chest, shoving him back. “And now he’s dead, Aaron! Jeremy is dead because somebody is starting it again. Now someone else is dead too. Who knows who else they’re going to go after.” 

You pushed him again before breaking down. Spencer’s arms went around you to keep you from stumbling. With you trying to fight him off, he led you to the couch and sat you down, keeping his arms locked around you until you calmed down. 

“I can’t do it again, Spence,” you whispered. “I can’t I can’t I can’t. They’re going to come after me. I can’t do it again.” 

He looked up at Hotch, desperate for some kind of answer. You were right. If someone really was replicating your mother’s crimes, then they would mark the anniversary by going after the people that survived. And since your mother had been institutionalized for the last decade- that meant you. 

“Nothing is going to happen to you,” Aaron said, kneeling in front of you. “Whatever this is, we’ll figure it out. The team has been asked to consult, but we’ll have someone sitting on your guys’ apartment. You don’t start work for another few weeks, right?” 

You nodded, huddling closer into Spencer’s safe embrace. 

Aaron continued. “I will find out who’s doing this and I will make sure they don’t get anywhere near you, Y/N. I promise.” 

The tone of his voice was unmistakable. He was angry- possibly angrier than Spencer had ever seen him. His fierce protectiveness had been pushed to the brink and he would take down whoever threatened to take away the life you’d built. And Spencer knew he would follow Hotch to the ends of the earth to help. 

-

Spencer took you home while Hotch called in the rest of the team to present them with the case.  

You kept your head pressed up against the window the whole ride, the sinking feeling in your chest growing stronger by the minute. Someone out there wanted to kill you. Who would they hurt in the process?

And you only had two days left before the anniversary. 

As soon as you got the door open, you flew into your apartment and checked behind every curtain, around every corner, inside every closet. Your chest heaved and your vision darkened at the edges. Spencer dropped his keys on the table and rushed over to you. 

“Hey, deep breaths,” he said. “Here.” He pulled a chair over to you and urged you to sit. “Put your head between your legs. Just breathe.”

You resisted at first, but eventually did as he said. You couldn’t remember the last time you’d had a panic attack and it was scary as hell. The only thing keeping you in one piece was the man kneeling in front of you, taking deep breaths with you until you could sit up again. But as you looked into his eyes, all you could think about was everything you had to lose. 

You pushed away and stood up, walking to the kitchen. Shaking hands opened the cabinet door for a glass. You filled it with water, but no matter how much you had, that itch in your throat wouldn’t go away. 

Spencer followed you, approaching slowly with quiet footsteps. “Please talk to me,” he begged. 

You said nothing and refilled your glass. 

“I know you’re upset that I didn’t tell you.”

“You don’t know anything,” you muttered, finally turning around. 

He took another step towards you. “I know that you’re scared. I know that you probably think that whatever is happening is somehow your fault. I know that you’re less afraid of whoever is doing this coming after you and more afraid that something will happen to the team trying to catch them.” 

“How…” Your mouth opened, but the words stopped in your throat. You set the water glass aside. 

Spencer closed the space between you and put his hands on your shoulders. 

“Because I know you.” 

He lifted a hand to your cheek, brushing tears away with his thumb. You leaned into his touch. He was right, of course. Damn profilers. 

“I don’t know what to do,” you said. 

He pulled you into his arms. “You don’t have to do anything. Like Hotch said, we’ll stay here. Someone will be outside at all times. No one is getting anywhere near this place.”

Your shoulders lifted and your body set itself, almost too straight to be comfortable. Even in his embrace, you hardened. The hysteria vanquished itself from your mind and your two previous outbursts burned away like dying coals. All of the fear, all of the panic was replaced by something stronger- determination. 

You pushed away. “I can’t just sit here and do nothing, Spence. I should be out there with the team, with you and Aaron, figuring this out. What if they come after one of you to find me? I can’t just wait here for that to happen.” 

His hands fell to his sides. “Y/N, you can’t be serious.”

“I know more about his case than anyone else in the world. I’ve studied every last detail.” You ran your fingers through your hair to try and stop their shaking. “I made it my life.” 

His eyes changed. For the first time since you’d seen the news, you stopped focusing on your own fear. His voice cracked as he spoke. 

“Don’t let someone make it your death, too.” 

Spencer’s chin quivered and tears tumbled onto his cheeks. You threw your arms around him, letting him bury his face in your neck as you both cried. He knew it was selfish- you were the best chance they had at understanding exactly what was happening- but he didn’t care. The more involved you got, the easier it would be for the unsub to make you his final target. 

“P-please stay,” he whispered against your skin. “Stay here with me and we’ll be safe.” 

He thought of Elle and Gideon and even his father. The people who were gone. The people he’d lost. He thought of Tobias, of every nightmare where you were hurt or calling out for him. Every nightmare where he lost you, too. 

“Spencer-”

“I can’t l-lose you.” His voice held a desperate terror that even exceeded your own. “Promise me that I won’t lose you.” 

He didn’t care about the numbers or the theories or the human inability to truly control. For once in his life, Spencer didn’t care about the probabilities or statistics. All he knew- all he could wrap his head around- was that if you were here, in his arms, he could stop anything from happening to you and he would do what he had to to keep you there. 

“Okay,” you said softly. “I promise.” 

Standing there, in the middle of the kitchen, you wanted to make it true. You wanted to ease everything on your mind and on his, to do what he said and just stand here in the moonlight and listen to his slow, soothing breaths. 

But the case needed you and you couldn’t do that from behind the doors of your apartment, or in the embrace of the man you loved. Jeremy didn’t deserve to die. Whoever was doing this was doing it for a reason and you were the only one who would understand why. 

Beneath the hum of the refrigerator and Spencer’s quiet murmurs, urging you to come to bed and get some rest, you heard her voice. 

Your mother. 

There was something she used to say when you told her you’d be home at a certain time, or when you promised to be careful when going out with your friends. She would smile knowingly and kiss your cheek. 

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep.” 

-

The team filed into the briefing room. Between Hotch’s grim expression and the late night hour, everyone knew that this wasn’t a regular case, if what they did could ever be referred to as ‘regular.’ A dark tension hung in the air and they could all feel it. 

They took their seats and Morgan glanced around. 

“Where’s Reid?” 

“He won’t be joining us, but he’s already been informed of the situation,” Hotch said. He turned to JJ. “Did you arrange for a team to sit on their apartment?” 

She nodded. “Law enforcement both here and in Fairfax have been updated. They should be sending a car over there now.” 

“Thank you.” Despite the reassurance, his demeanor remained uptight and paranoid. 

“Can someone please explain what’s going on?” Prentiss asked. 

“Fairfax police contacted me in regards to a homicide two days ago,” JJ began. She pressed a button and a picture of a man in his mid-twenties laid on his kitchen floor, his hands crossed on top of his chest. “This is Jeremy Derrickson. He was found in his home on the east side of Fairfax. His neighbor,” she clicked again and another picture, this time of a woman- seemingly the same age- in the same position, “Cheryl Burkieser, was discovered this morning when authorities were canvassing the neighborhood.” 

“Fairfax,” Garcia said. “Isn’t that…” She trailed off, afraid to be right. 

“Cause of death?” Rossi asked, but the churning in his gut already told him the answer. 

JJ’s wide eyes scanned the room, landing on Hotch. He nodded. “Each victim was forced to ingest Strychnine. They would have choked to death.” She clicked again. “There’s one more thing.” 

Now, the screen showed six bodies, teenage girls all laid out on the floor with their hands crossed over their chest. 

The room fell silent. Garcia covered her mouth with her hand. The reality of what this meant weighed on everyone. Morgan stared at Reid’s empty chair. Hotch broke the silence, announcing what everyone already feared. 

“We believe someone is trying to replicate the Lydia Y/L/N murders.” 

“Oh my god,” Garcia cried. She put her hand on top of Morgan’s, if only to have something to hang onto. “Does she… does Y/N know?” 

Hotch gave her a single, grim nod. “We’re posting officers at her apartment. Reid’s with her now.”

Prentiss watched him and her heart sank. He was scared. Really scared. 

“How much danger do we think she’s in?” She asked. 

Morgan leaned forward on his elbows. “If someone is replicating the murders, then they could be trying to finish the job. And since Lydia Y/L/N is unavailable, that leaves one main target.” 

Rossi sighed. “Y/N.” 

All eyes went to Hotch. His expression remained stony, disconnected, while his head was reeling with panic. 

“Which is why we need to solve this as soon as possible. The decennial of the murders is the day after tommorrow and we already have an idea of what they’re doing to commemorate.” He collected his files. “It’s a half hour drive to Fairfax. We leave in ten.” With a tap of the files on the table, he dismissed them, but everyone seemed too stunned to move. 

He went back to his office. 

“Aaron, wait,” Rossi called after him. The older agent followed him into his office. “There’s something else, isn’t there?” 

“We need to get going,” he said, though he could feel his stoicism begin to crumble. Dave put a hand on his arm and waited for the real answer. Hotch sighed. “Our best chances of understanding what happened that day are either in an institution in Oregon or-” He inhaled sharply. “Or she’s the main target of our unsub. The more she gets involved, the more danger she’ll be in.”

“And we both know she’ll want to be involved,” Dave concluded. His expression softened and he gave Aaron a sympathetic glance. “How are you holding up? Seeing those pictures again… it’s a lot to bring back.” 

“I’ll be fine as soon as…” He trailed off, a spark going off in his mind. 

“What is it?” Dave asked. 

“The pictures. The way the bodies were displayed.” He moved to the other side of his desk, dialed a number on his phone and hit speaker. 

“Hello?” 

“Reid, is Y/N with you?” Aaron asked. His voice was forceful, frightening almost. 

“No, she’s in the shower,” he said. “Why? What happened?” 

“Has anyone called her? Has anyone from Fairfax tried to reach out in the last few days?” 

“Not that I know of…” Reid’s voice changed as he understood where Hotch was going. 

“The details of the crime scene were never released,” Hotch explained, looking up at Rossi. “Those pictures would have only been available to detectives on the case or the girls’ families. The unsub displayed the bodies in the same way Lydia Y/L/N positioned the girls when she killed them.”

Reid ran his fingers through his hair. “Y/N knows the unsub.” 

Hotch nodded to Rossi. 

“I’ll go tell the team,” Rossi said. 

Hotch picked up the phone. “Reid, if she gets any calls, messages, anything, you call me immediately.” 

“I know,” Reid let out a low sigh. “There’s a different problem.” 

“What?”

“She blames herself, Hotch,” he said. “She wants to do this herself so that none of us get hurt. I’m afraid that she’ll-” He checked the hall again to make sure the bathroom door was still closed. “I’m afraid she’s going to try and find them first.” 

Hotch’s jaw tensed. He should have seen this coming. “Just keep telling her we know what we’re doing. We’ve dealt with anniversary unsubs like this before. She has to trust us.” 

Another call chimed. 

“Reid, I have to go.”

“Let me know if you need anything.” He paused. “Stay safe, Hotch.” 

“You too,” he sighed. “And tell Y/N we’re going to figure this out.” Aaron switched calls. “SSA Hotchner.” 

“This is Officer Jameson,” the man on the other line said. “You told me to call if anything weird happened while we sat on the apartment,” he said. “And this definitely classifies as weird.” 

“What is it, officer?” 

“Well, I went out to get us both coffee and my partner must have dozed off. We checked in with Dr. Reid and he said no one has been up, but when my partner woke up, there were half a dozen birthday cards underneath the windshield wiper.” 

Hotch’s blood ran cold. “Did any of them say anything?” 

“Yeah, actually. They all have a date on them. Day after tomorrow.” He read over the card again. “And then it says ‘can’t wait to see you then.’ It’s written on all six.” 

“Sweep the building and check the cameras. If anyone has been in or out who doesn’t live there, call me.” He knew it was a longshot that the unsub had gone in, but he had to be sure. Schedule or not, they could have tried to get up to your apartment. 

“Yes sir. I hope you guys can catch this creep.” The officer hung up and Hotch slammed the phone back onto the receiver. 

“I hope so too.” 

-

Spencer had convinced you to lie down. He tried reading to you and playing your favorite record, if only to get your mind off the case long enough for you to get some sleep. You couldn’t have been asleep for more than an hour when your phone rang. 

Your body went rigid, as if your heart knew before your mind. 

“Hello?” 

“Y/N, hey,” the voice on the line sniffed. It was Jackie, one of your former co-workers. “I thought that you should hear from me since you two were so close.” She paused, trying to compose herself long enough to form the words. “Lyla’s dead.” 

You nearly drop the phone. In your stunned silence, Jackie continued. 

“I-I found her in her office… it’s just awful,” she cried. “Her head, oh god.” She had to take another moment to collect herself. “I’m sorry, I-I didn’t mean to say that. I just thought you should know. I’m sorry.” 

You listened to the dead buzz, unable to move.

“Hey, I thought you were-” Spencer started. He’d been talking to the officers about the cards they found, but he didn’t think it best to tell you just yet. Judging by your expression, something worse had happened. 

“It doesn’t make any sense,” you muttered.  

Lyla didn’t have anything to do with your past. She didn’t even know about your mom or what happened. 

They killed her to get to you. 

Her death was your fault. All of it was your fault. 

“What happened?” 

You shot out of bed. Your hands found a few pairs of clothes and stuffed them into your bag. It was only a half-hour drive, but you didn’t plan on leaving until this was finished. 

“Y/N, what are you doing?” 

Ignoring Spencer’s voice, you could only hear Lyla. Telling you about her husband and their two little boys and the vacation they were all going on this summer. Now, they’d have to plan a funeral. 

You threw a pair of shoes into the bag. 

“Y/N, stop.” Spencer grabbed you by the arms, forcing your feet to stop. 

“Get off of me, Spence,” you growled. You tried to push away from him, but his grip held firm. 

“No, I won’t.” His tone was equally as firm and determined as yours. “Who was on the phone? What happened?” 

“Jackie from the college called me, Spencer,” you said. He knew the venom in your voice wasn’t really meant for him, but it still stung to hear it all the same. “They killed Lyla. The sick son of a bitch killed my friend and she doesn’t even have anything to do with my mother.”

He finally dropped his hands and you continued packing. “I should call Hotch.” 

“No,” you snapped. “Let me. In fact, I’ll call him on the way to Fairfax. You’re driving.”

“Like hell I am.” He held up his hands again, this time in a pleading motion. “Y/N, we talked about this. This kind of unsub, you can’t give them what they want and what they want is for you to die like you were supposed to ten years ago.” 

You stopped, limbs going limp as his words sunk into your chest. 

Spencer immediately realized that his bluntness had gone too far. His eyes widened, mortified.  “I-I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that-” 

“You’re right,” you said. “I wasn’t supposed to survive and now people are dying because of it.” 

“That isn’t what I- '' He stepped towards you again.

You step back. “Look,” you knew that if you could reason with his logical side, you’d have a chance of convincing him. “The unsub went after Lyla to find me, right?”

His shoulder slumped, a mix of guilt and defeat weighing them down. “Since she has no connection to your mother’s case, it’s likely that the unsub went to her to find information and when she didn’t give it up…” 

“Which means I’m no safer here than I would be at the station in Fairfax with the rest of the team.” 

Spencer thought about the officers downstairs. If the unsub had already figured out where to find you, it was only a matter of time before they made their move. Maybe taking you to a different location would throw them off enough to catch them. 

You slung your bag over your shoulder. “You can either come with me or stay here, but either way, I’m going.” 

Spencer didn’t say anything. Instead, he just went to his closet, grabbed his go bag and turned back to you. You raised a brow. 

“Well, I’m not letting you go by yourself,” he said. “Hotch is already going to kill me.” You started for the door, but he grabbed your hand. “Wait.” 

“Spencer, I’m going whether-”

He cut you off. “I’m sorry about your friend.” His hand moved to the locket around your neck. He held it between his fingers, watching the way the metal reflected the streetlights outside. “And I’m sorry about what I said. I’ve been trying to detach from the case so I can think clearly, but all I can think about is keeping you safe.” 

You wrapped your hand around his, bringing his knuckles up to your lips. 

“I know.” 

Wordlessly, the two of you grabbed anything else you might need.

Once you stepped out of the apartment, Spencer kept his arm around you at all times, with his other hand near the gun on his hip. He opened the passenger side door for you and you climbed in, eyes scanning every person milling around on the sidewalk. 

“Hey!” One of the officer’s shouted from their car. “What’s going on?” 

Spencer looked back at you and muttered a plea to himself that hopefully wouldn’t lose his job. He turned back to the police car. “Change of plans!” 

Officer Jameson thought for a moment and shrugged, giving him a nod of approval. 

Spence glanced back up at the apartment, the sinking feeling in his chest leaving doubt still burning in his mind. 

“Please let this be the right thing.” 

Not that he had much of a choice.

He got in the car and felt your reassuring hand on his shoulder. At least, with the team, he knew you’d have plenty of protection he trusted. 

As he pulled the car away, another car started its engine, but left its headlights off. It waited until Spencer turned the corner and trailed after him into the dark. 

-

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On to the Season One Finale! ->

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[girlwithfish]

the crazy thing is i didnt even need to move back w my parents immediately the leasing office just told me i would have to give a 60 days notice to get myself off lease hence responsible for my half of rent during that period and then they told my ex something different (that i dont have to give 60 days) and we confirmed w them so lol. that kinda changes everything. i could have found a place in raleigh or whatever idk but i already immediately got discharged from my therapy program bc i thought i couldnt stay in raleigh anymore so this is rly annoying its like constant whiplash LOL. and now i got a man in charlotte to so idk what to do. i prob need time to recharge anyway so im just staying w my parents for now but i dont view it as a sustainable environment thats good for me in the long term so ig ill just figure out what i wanna do. but anyway would habe been cool if the leasing office knew what was up Last week before they told me wrong information but