#don't ask me what dream is sick with because i'll probably say something like 'the slutty sickness'

[valiantstarlights]

[Dreamling Week Day 6: Sick] In Sickness

It's a fluffy sick fic featuring eldritch goo Dream of the Endless idk what else to tell you

CW: if you're fine with Dream being an eldritch being, then absolutely nothing. 😊 Enjoy! 🖤

Hob stares at the large black puddle of goo that flooded most of the living room. He just got back from work and found Matthew perched on a branch near his flat, looking as frantic as a raven could get.

Said raven is now perched on Hob's shoulder, eyeing the mess on the floor gravely.

Hob had been warned that Dream is 'in a state,' but he didn't exactly expect that 'state' to be liquid.

Because it is Dream on the floor, Hob can see that very clearly. Though the goo simply looks like dark glittery slime poured over the floor to the uninitiated, Hob recognizes a couple of nebulas on its surface. There, by the telly, is the Horsehead Nebula, there by the bookshelf that contained none of Shaxberd's works is the Trifid Nebula, and just by Hob's feet is the Lagoon Nebula.

"Darling?" Hob calls out, unsure if he's going to get an answer. This is his first time encountering Dream like this. "Are you alright?"

No answer.

He looks at Matthew a bit helplessly. "Do I just...scoop him up with my hands?"

Matthew fidgets. "Definitely don't vacuum him."

"Why the hell would I--"

"Well, why are you asking me? I don't know this shit! I was literally a human a year ago!"

Hob pinches his nose. They were like blind drunks stumbling down the street together. "Is he even sentient like this?"

The dark puddle vibrates, and Hob feels Matthew's talons dig into his shoulders from the jumpscare. He himself almost drops his suitcase. "I can hear both of you," the puddle grumbles, "and you are making too much noise for my liking."

"Oh, sorry, love," Hob says, his boyfriend instincts suddenly awakened at Dream's sulky morning voice. "Did we wake you?"

"I want some of your chicken pot pie."

"Chicken pot pie." Hob repeats. His brain is still processing the fact that his boyfriend is a literal puddle of goo on the floor. "Yeah. Okay. Let me just get some ingredients from the shops real quick. Can you get to the bedroom while I'm gone? I don't want to step on you when I return."

--

He leaves Matthew...not in charge, but overseeing goo Dream's long and arduous trek to the bedroom.

He hears the raven mutter something about this being like hell all over again.

Hob ignores that because he has a different set of problems to tackle.

--

Hob's panic sets in as soon as he gets out of the car carrying all the ingredients for chicken pot pie, as well as some other food and drinks good for sick humans.

Once the pie is done cooking and cooling down a bit, how will he feed Dream? Where is his mouth? Does Hob just...pour it on the goo and hope for the best?

What if that were the equivalent of dumping hot soup on his boyfriend's lap?

--

"Any improvement?" he asks Matthew, who has kept an eye on Dream while perched safely on the back of the couch.

Hob checked, and Dream's form is thankfully all contained in the bedroom, still looking like a lake of stars.

"Nope. But he says he wants you to make extra crusts because he likes that. I would also like some extra bits to snack on, if that's alright."

"Sure." Hob goes to do just that. Chicken pot pie for the boyfriend and a lot of extra crusts for the boyfriend and his raven.

No problem. This is all totally normal and fine.

--

"Dream? Darling? The pot pie is done."

The puddle looks a little smaller in size, and Hob can see a couple of hill-like formations near the middle of the mass. He hopes it's a sign that Dream is slowly getting better.

At his words, one of the islands move closer to him, like a shark. Its progress sends ripples throughout the lake.

"Finally," the island nearer to him says. Its peak splits open to reveal the inside of Dream's human mouth. "Feed me."

At this point, Hob isn't even questioning anything anymore. All he knows is how to be a good boyfriend, so he's gonna do just that.

He sits down at the very edge of the lake near the hill with the mouth, and scoops up a portion of the pie, making sure to blow on it before feeding it to Dream.

The hill hums in appreciation.

"Good?"

"Delicious," Dream's mouth says, before opening once more, like a baby bird waiting to be fed. "More. I want a larger portion of the crust this time."

Hob couldn't help the smile that bloomed on his face and obediently gets more of the crust for the next bite.

--

"What kind of juice do you like?" Hob asks, a few hours later. The goo now looks less like a puddle and more like gelatine that didn't set properly. It was on the couch, bundled up in one of Hob's soft knitted blankets, watching an earlier season of Game of Thrones with Matthew.

"What kinds do you have?"

"Uh, orange, apple, and pineapple. Oh, and I still got some banana milk from the Korean grocery store, if you prefer that. Or almond milk."

"All of them."

Hob and Matthew share an alarmed look behind gelatine Dream's back. "What, an equal amount of all those drinks together in a single glass?"

"Yes."

Hob looks heavenwards and prays for a little more sanity before complying.

And just for fun, he goes down to the Inn and gets a blue cocktail umbrella and a heart-shaped drinking straw to put in gelatine Dream's very questionable drink.

Gelatine Dream hums in delight and tells Hob he loves him.

Hob beams and kisses the top of the gelatinous mass, while Matthew chokes, very possibly because the scene on TV is Hodor...doing his thing, and that always gets to Hob.

(Matthew chokes because he is disgusted, he is revolted--)

--

Something thick and long, like an anaconda, slithers into bed with Hob, and it is only through his 600 plus years of living in this world does he calm his frantically beating heart and open his arms so big ass snake Dream can curl up next to him.

"I hate being sick," the snake hisses, its huge dark head tucking itself under Hob's chin. "I can't hug you like this."

'Please don't wrap around me and squeeze me to death,' Hob does not say. "I think you're adorable," he murmurs instead against Dream's coils, and kisses the nearest scaled skin in front of his face.

--

Dream is mostly back in his human form come morning, but he still dripped viscous dark liquid wherever he goes. It reminds Hob of Howl Pendragon from the Howl's Moving Castle Ghibli movie.

"How are you this morning, darling?"

"Wretched," Dream says as he drips onto his fry up. Hob mentioned preparing porridge for him as they got up earlier, only to be informed by Dream that he fucking hates porridge and would hurl it into the sun if he could. And so Hob cooked some fry up instead. "Must you go to work?"

Hob, already running late and in the process of putting on his shoes, stops and looks back at the pathetic picture Dream makes. He is sadly looking down at his perfectly cooked eggs, dripping dark sludge on the sun-yellow yolks.

"I'll call in sick," Hob decides, and takes his phone out to do just that. The department head is going to verbally flay him alive for only giving notice at the last minute, but nothing is more important to him than Dream. Hell, they could fire him over the phone and he'd be fine with it.

Dream hugs him around the middle as Hob puts his briefcase down, ruining his white dress shirt. Hob hugs him back and kisses the top of his head.

It's fine. He'll just buy another shirt, or get another job. But Dream is irreplaceable.

--

"Have I told you that you are the best thing that has ever happened to me?" Dream asks him a couple of days later, when they're both lying in bed after two rounds of fantastic sex, celebrating Dream's full recovery.

Hob kisses him on the nose and cuddles him closer. "Maybe once or twice in the last 24 hours," he says. "But it never hurts to tell me again."

--

Dream shyly hands him an unbreakable ceramic mug made from the sands of the Dreaming. It says, "The best boyfriend across all of time and space," in Dream's handwriting.

It takes Hob a solid month to stop grinning like a fool.

#don't ask me what dream is sick with because i'll probably say something like 'the slutty sickness' #but fr dream is too adorable here asdfghjkl #i was working on writing for the confession prompt but the story wasn't feeling it #so now we have sick eldritch goo dream of the endless and best boyfriend ever hob gadling #(sighs longingly) #manifesting for me to have a boyfriend!hob in my life tbh 🙏 #dreamling #DreamlingWeek #DreamlingWeek2023 #the sandman #my writing

[semperama]

maxiel, hurt/comfort, just a little something I threw together to comfort myself after today.

Somehow, Max ends up following Daniel back to his motorhome. His mouth is still going a mile a minute, but Daniel isn't hearing distinct words anymore, only a low and comforting hum. He's tried to remember to nod every now and then. To smile. Otherwise Max might stop.

"Don't you have a ton of shit to do?" Daniel says when he can find a gap. He digs his phone out of his pocket with his good hand, glances at the absurd number of notifications he has, then tosses it down on the table. He can deal with that later. Or never.

"Huh?" Max says, and when Daniel looks up at him, he seems legitimately perplexed, like he's completely forgotten where--and who--he is.

"It's your home race, mate," Daniel says. "Don't you have a fuckton of press or whatever?"

"Oh." Max looks at his watch, frowns, then shrugs. "I don't really care. They can survive without asking me the exact same questions for the hundredth time, I think."

Daniel snorts. Max is probably right. What are they going to do, fire him? "As long as you don't get me in trouble," he says. He turns and flops down onto the couch, then winces, hisses, when it jostles his hand. "Fuck."

"Careful," Max says, rushing closer, his hands hovering. His voice is so...it's like something he'd use with his nephews, admonishing and gentle, and Daniel feels his throat close up, his eyes burn.

"I'm fine," he says, flapping his free hand at Max. "They have me wrapped up so tight, you could whack me with a hammer and I'd be fine."

Max frowns at him. "Let's not test it, alright?" He sits down next to Daniel, gingerly. It's awkward, sort of. Daniel hates visiting with people in this cramped space--sitting on the miniature sofa, nothing to look at but the kitchenette, the tiny window filled entirely by a rectangle of the wall of the motorhome next door. And now, he's too exhausted and in too much pain to be entertaining.

Still, he doesn't want Max to leave.

"Did they give you good pain meds?" Max asks.

Daniel lets his head tip back, and he closes his eyes. "Yep," he says, "but I'm just on Tylenol right now. The other stuff makes me feel sick." He takes a deep breath in, blows it out slow, focuses on the way his chest rises and falls. He can feel Max next to him, the heat of him. He knows how much he'd have to lean sideways for their bodies to be touching. "I'll take something stronger before bed, maybe." Then, because it's Max and Max is safe, he adds, "I wish I could just go home."

Fingers--warm and gentle--on the side of his face, first, and then on his neck, then gripping his shoulder, squeezing carefully. "I can leave, if you want," Max says.

They aren't like this with each other. They touch each other, sure--fist bumps, shoulder pats, hugs if they haven't seen each other in a while, all carefully platonic--but they don't touch like this. Daniel can feel Max's thumb on the skin just above the collar of his shirt, and it's hard to breathe, suddenly. He keeps his eyes squeezed shut.

"You can stay," he says.

What is this? Pity? He wants to look at Max's face, but he's too fucking scared. Scared he'll burst into tears or--or something even worse than that. Things have been so good. He didn't even realize how much he missed Max until he was seeing him this much again, laughing with him all the time, catching his eyes from across a room or across a table or across Checo's oblivious head and feeling...at home. Feeling like someone understands him and wants him around and--and wants him. Just him. Just as he is.

But Max has his own shit going on. His own life. His own friends. A fame Daniel won't match in his wildest dreams. Sometimes it feels like their roles are reversed from when Max first came to Red Bull. They have a similar rhythm, but Max is slightly out in front.

And now Max is touching him, and Daniel's not sure he can catch up.

"Or you can go," Daniel adds, quieter. "Whatever you want. I might pass out soon anyway."

Max's thumb slides along his collar and dips underneath. Daniel sucks in a sharp breath, anticipating it when Max slides his hand back up to his jaw and tugs it carefully toward him. Daniel's eyes are still shut when Max's mouth presses against his.

It's weird how much it doesn't feel weird. Max's mouth is so familiar against his that, if it weren't for his heart trying to beat its way out of his chest, Daniel could swear they'd done this a hundred times already.

"I don't want to leave you," Max says, his lips soft against Daniel's cheek, then pressing again to the corner of his mouth, like he can't bring himself to put even an inch between them again. And yeah, Daniel gets it. He does.

"Fine by me," he says. If it weren't for his stupid fucking busted hand, he'd have pulled Max closer already. "Just be gentle with me."

It's a joke, kind of. He's not sure why he has to reach up and thumb a tear away from the corner of his own eye.

"Of course," Max says, and kisses him again. Again. "Of course."

#maxiel #f1 #my writing

[xoxogossipmal]

Can u do dating Johnny Cade headcannons plis

yes ofc anon 😝

⯌ Johnny Cade dating headcannons !

warnings : none

♡ A/N : JOHNNY MY ACTUAYL BABY PLS RISE FROM THE DEAD 🙁🙁🙁

₊˚⊹ ᰔ "oh, dream maker, you heart breaker. Wherever you're goin', I'm goin' your way."

first steps ᥫ᭡

I feel like Johnny is inexperienced with love. He knows a little stuff since he heard Dallas or Two-bit talk about girls by him. He doesn't listen that much though, since girls were probably the last thing on his mind probably.

Until he met you.

I have a feeling he would be deeply hooked when he saw you. He liked possibly everything about you.

I feel like when he made the first move he was like asking Ponyboy and Dallas what to do 🙁 and Dallas would be like "I'll do it for you she's kinda cute" and Johnny would literally shake his head and be like "nonono don't do that.. and I know she is."

When he DID make the first move he would be like "hi... uhmm, uhmm.. you're really uhmm.." and then he would get shy and run away. You'd be confused but hey he was a little cutie and you wanted to get his number!!

So, you did the first move instead. You came up to him and said "Hi, I noticed you from earlier and I was wondering if I can get your number?"

blud immediately said yes and dallas was cheering bro on

You guys talked for awhile, and he asked you out on a date and you said yes.

to speed this up, the date was fire and he asked you to be his girlfriend and you said YES!!! WOOHOOO!!! YES!!!!!!!

Dating ᥫ᭡

aaughh he loves physical touch soooo much and words of affirmation/ compliments.

he never got compliments from his parents or never had hugs and stuff like that so when he gets them he feels his heart get warm from them. especially from you.

auughh play with his hair. He loves that so much he'll just stay quiet in your arms while you play with his hair.

stargazing with him at the lot >>

Also! since you guys are dating he will either go to your house and stay over or he'll ask you to go hang at the lot with him. He does prefer your house though.

Dallas likes to tease you two alot. Johnny gets all sassy about it and he's like "Cut it out, Dal. Y/N, tell him to go away too."

omg he gets all sassy too with you. "Y/N come on!!! please play with my hair againn, please??"

sassy johnny for life guys put a bow on him

compliments you give him are like : "Johnny, you're so pretty!" or "I love your eyes." and he would be flushed and everything omg

HE LOVES CUDDLES. I'M TELLING YOU HE'S A SUCKER FOR CUDDLES.

if you want something, he'll get it for you. He might have to ask Dallas to steal it for you but hey, it's the thought that counts. (alot of ppl say this lmfao 😭.)

PDA isn't his favorite. He does enjoy hand-holding at the drive in, secret hand-holding underneath the table, pinky link, you get it. Not too much PDA since he's not a fan.

When cuddling, he likes to be a little spoon but he'll be a big spoon too.

When he introduced you to the gang, they didn't trust you too much yet. Once they saw how happy you made Johnny, they lightened up a little. Dallas swore if you hurt Johnny, he would like jump you or sum LMFAOO 😭

Johnny also likes to go to Dallas and Ponyboy and just started talking about you. They don't get sick of it, because aslong as Johnny's happy.

like I said, Johnny's inexperienced with love so everything is so new to him. He likes it though.

The gang trusts you and Johnny, because if he's happy then everything will be okay.

And as always, you guys are a very cute couple.

WAUGHHH I WAS GRINFING THAT WAS SO FUN 😭😭😭. This reminds me of 7th grade lmfao. Request more !!!

#the outsiders 1983 #johnny cade #johnny cade x reader #johnny cade headcanons #johnny cade imagine #johnny cade x y/n #the outsiders headcanons #ralph macchio #xoxogossipmal

[lovely-showtimes]

out on the balcony . . . ♡

characters - tsukasa, emu, nene, rui.

type - scenario.

contains - gn reader. reader having a nightmare while at a sleepover with wxs and is pretty freaked out by it, but no details of it are specified. reader is stated to be a big fan of jellyfish in rui's so i'm very sorry if you do not like them!

a/n - haven't been having the best of times lately, so i decided to write this. based on a daydream i've been having w/ these 4 ever since i got into project sekai pretty much. enjoy <3

You jolt awake in the middle of the night, your heart pounding in your chest. Your sweaty palms desperately grip your blanket as you try to make sense of where you are and what's real.

That... That was a dream, right? You think, exhaling deeply. I'm... I'm not in there. I'm with my friends now.

Quietly as possible, you roll onto your side to look at the other four. They're all fast asleep, snoring peacefully (some of them louder than others). Somehow, knowing that they're here beside you calms you a little.

But this living room, despite being massive, still felt way too stuffy to you. Making sure to not awaken your friends, you carefully get up and stumble away.

Emu's house was definitely way too large, and even though you've been here a couple times before, you still felt utterly lost. After blankly wandering about for a few moments, you finally manage to find a balcony overlooking the city.

The cool night air hits your face as you step out onto the balcony. It's a little chilly to be out here in only your pajamas, but you don't care about that right now.

Looking up, you can see the stars twinkling high above in the sky. There's something grounding about watching them like this, and you can forget about your nightmare for a while.

You're not sure how long you're out there, it feels like hours and minutes at the same time. Soon enough, however, you hear someone softly call your name from behind. You turn around and...

You're suddenly met with the warmth of a blanket wrapping around your shoulders, immediately causing you to feel warm and snug.

"You're going to catch a cold if you stay out here like this," Tsukasa lightly scolds you. "It's important that you stay healthy! I would hate for you to become sick."

You stare at him blankly for a few moments, shocked to even see him here in the first place (how does he not get lost in Emu's labyrinth of a house??), before realising you should probably say something.

"Um, thanks." You smile awkwardly, holding onto the blanket to make sure it doesn't fall off of you. "Do you just... carry a blanket around with you?"

Tsukasa chuckles lightly and shakes his head. "No, no. When you got up to leave, you accidentally nudged my arm a bit and woke me up. I thought you were just getting a glass of water or something, but you didn't come back for ages so I decided to come find you!"

Tsukasa folds his arms and frowns. "But then I found you out here, and... Listen, if you want some time alone, that's fine! I'll go back to the others! I just didn't want you to be cold, because I could see you shivering..."

You didn't realise you had been that cold in the first place. You barely noticed the cold, you'd been so wrapped up in your own thoughts.

"I'd actually quite like it if you stayed out here with me, if that's okay." You speak softly, gaze averted in embarrassment. It's such a simple request, but for some reason, you feel guilty asking for it.

"Of course that's okay!" Tsukasa declares, placing his hands on his hips with a grin. "I'd be more than happy to stay out here with you for however long you want!"

He strides over and leans on the balcony beside you. You both stand in silence for a few moments, and you wonder if you should say something. Do I tell him about the nightmare? Maybe it's best if I just keep it in...

You glance at him out of the corner of your eye, only to notice him staring up at the night sky above. He has a small, content smile on his face as he gazes upwards.

He looks so much calmer than usual. You didn't know he liked stars so much.

Without thinking, you shuffle over and lean your head on his shoulder. Somehow, he feels softer and warmer than the blanket swaddling you.

"Hm?" Tsukasa turns to you in surprise, before he soon relaxes again and wraps his arm around your shoulder, bringing you in close.

A sigh of relief escapes your lips as you relax against him. Being in his presence like this is making you feel so much more at ease than before. Your eyes begin to droop closed as the two of you stand together, your nightmare long forgotten.

"Oh, Emu. Hi."

The short pink-haired girl stands in the entryway, her head tilted to the left ever-so-slightly. She bounces on her feet ever-so-slightly as she rushes to you, skidding to a halt in front of the railing.

"You're awake!" She exclaims, wide eyes studying you carefully. "Aren't you super sleepy right now?"

"Not really." A yawn cuts in between your words, as if to prove you wrong. "I can't sleep."

Emu stays silent for a few moments. You feel like her bright pink eyes are going to stare right into your mind and pluck out your secrets for all to see.

"Okay. I'll wait until you're tired, then." Her forearms come up to rest on the railing, on which she rests her head.

You open your mouth to object, to tell her that it's fine and she should just go back to bed, but you realise you want her company. You turn to face the view once again.

The two of you stay silent for a while. It's not usually like this with Emu - she's always quite talkative. But right now, she's not saying a thing.

She's probably just tired, you reason with yourself. I doubt she's used to being up this late, unlike... some other people I know.

That's when she speaks up again to prove you wrong. You really feel like she's reading your mind or something.

"Do you wanna see something cool?"

You turn your head slightly. "Uh, sure. What is it?"

"Follow me!" Emu beams and takes your hand, leading you off the balcony.

You have to follow her for quite a while. You don't think you'll ever get used to this place, and you have to wonder if Emu ever feels lost in it herself.

Eventually, she starts leading you up some stairs into what appeared to be an attic. Emu hops up some precarious-looking stairs and opens a small window to the roof. She grins, beckoning you over.

"E-Emu, is this safe...?" You question, feeling apprehensive as you cautiously climb the stairs.

She nods enthusiastically. "Don't worry! I've done this plenty of times! You'll be just fine~!"

You don't have a choice except to trust her. You carefully climb the stairs and look through the window, where Emu has climbed through.

You're at a fairly high point of Emu's home, although not quite the highest. You're on a flat roof, with walls surrounding it so that neither of you would accidentally fall off.

"Oh," you murmur, climbing out and standing on the roof beside her.

Emu collapses on a couple pillows and blankets she has positioned on the roof and smiles at you invitingly. "Come sit!"

You take a seat beside her as she lays down and points at the sky. "Look! You can see the stars super well!"

Upon lying down as well, you realise she's right. The stars look even more beautiful from up here, and you love it.

"I wish I knew more stuff about stars," Emu sighs. "One of my friends loves them! I like listening to her talk, but she has such a calming voice that it makes me sleepy..."

You glance at her out of the corner of your eye. "I know a few constellations, if you'd like to learn, maybe?"

Emu's eyes sparkle in joy. "Yes, yes!! I'd love that!!"

You smile softly, before turning your attention to the sky and pointing. "Okay, see those up there? That's Ursa Minor..."

As you start to talk about the different constellations in the sky, Emu's gaze briefly wanders to you, and the content smile on your face.

They don't look so sad anymore, she thinks gleefully as she turns her attention back to the sky.

"Nene? What are you doing awake?"

The green-haired girl hesitates in the doorway, as if she's thinking carefully.

"I could ask you the same thing," she responds. "I just got up to get some water. Why are you out here?"

You feel pretty reluctant to tell her about your nightmare. It sounds embarrassing in your head to tell someone you had a nightmare, as if you were a child. You grow uncomfortable as your gaze drifts to your feet.

"...Can't sleep." Is what comes out of your mouth.

"So, you had a nightmare." Nene cuts in immediately, as if seeing right through you.

You clear your throat in embarrassment and turn away. You didn't expect her to figure it out so quickly. Was it that obvious?

Nene takes a couple steps closer. "Usually whenever I have a nightmare, I like to play some games for a while before I go back to sleep. It helps me get my mind off of it."

You glance back at her, brow furrowed slightly. "Don't you only play those violent shooter games? Wouldn't that just make it worse?"

"N-No," she splutters, cheeks tinged pink, "I-I don't just play those! I play some other things too..."

You can't resist the urge to smile at her embarrassment, which causes her to glare at you and huff.

"Do you want to play a game with me or not?" She demands.

You laugh slightly and nod. "Yes, I'd love to. Thank you, Nene."

She quickly turns around and heads back into the home. She's back soon enough, holding two handheld game consoles - yours and hers - as well as a blanket. She sits down on the ground, before tilting her head up to you.

"C'mon. Sit."

You sit beside her, pulling one end of the blanket around you as Nene takes the other half. You had just realised how cold you were, so you lean against her as you boot up the console.

"So, what do you wanna play?" You ask softly.

Silence. You thought maybe Nene was just thinking about it, but she's just not responding.

"Nene?"

She clears her throat as you prompt her. You catch a glimpse of her red face out of the corner of your eye. "Sorry. Um, I bought this game recently, and I think you told me you liked it...?"

You scan her screen quickly and sit up, beaming. "Oh, that's one of my favorite games!! I'd never thought you'd play it, because it's not really your style. Thank you, Nene!"

She hides her face in her hair as you speak so you don't see how red she's getting. Nene boots up the game as she speaks. "No... No problem, I guess."

You beam and continue resting your head on her shoulder as you open the game as well, eager to play it with your friend.

You come face-to-face with Rui, who's watching you with an odd expression. He's smiling as usual, but you can sense some concern in his gaze.

He walks over and leans on the railing beside you, before tilting his head in curiosity.

"Didn't expect you to still be awake at this hour," he comments casually. "What brings you out here?"

You look away, clutching the railing a little more tightly and bowing your head slightly. "Can't sleep."

"Are you sure? That's all?" Rui further prods, leaning his head on his arms. You feel like his piercing yellow eyes have already seen all your secrets, somehow.

You look away. "...Yeah. That's all."

You know that he knows you're lying, his soft "I see" after you speak tells you that much. You just can't bring yourself to talk about it right now.

You tilt your head down to stare at your hands. You're clinging to the railing so tightly that it's starting to hurt your hands, and you didn't even realise til now. You release your death grip, but continue resting your hands on it.

Suddenly, you hear something... mechanical? It sounds as if something is moving. You glance over to see some kind of contraption balancing on the railing. Instinctively, you put your hand around it, stopping it from falling off the railing just in case that would happen.

"R-Rui?!" You snap your head around to stare in bewilderment at the inventor. "You can't just put these guys on such precarious areas! What if it falls off and gets damaged?"

He only laughs at your fretting. "Its legs can stick to any surface it likes. Don't worry."

As if to prove this, the robot walks around the railing, hanging on underneath for a few moments before walking back up again. It beeps at you proudly.

You reluctantly remove your hands. "...Fine. What does it do, anyway?"

Rui pouts at you in the saddest way he can. "Ah, is walking around and sticking to surfaces not enough...? Don't you love him the way he is?"

The robot lets out a few small, sad beeps. Before you can respond to his antics, Rui's signature smile returns like it never left.

"Anyways, yes. It can create small projections in the air. For example..."

On queue, the circular top of the robot lights up, and a couple butterflies appear in the air, flying around without a care in the world. It was surprisingly realistic, enough that you were almost convinced that there were butterflies in front of you.

"...Woah." You breathe, watching in awe. "You made this?"

Rui nods, smiling warmly as the projections change - this time to a bird flying through the sky.

"You got its movements down so well," you murmur. You carefully reach out to brush your finger against it, but of course, it just goes right through. It is a projection, after all.

It lastly switches to a projection of jellyfish slowly floating through water, which makes you really excited. You love jellyfish, after all! They're just so pretty, and seeing them in front of you like this brings you so much joy. Even if it isn't real.

Rui chuckles at the way your eyes light up. "I had a feeling you'd like that one." He grins and leans his head on his hand as he continues watching you.

"And hey, you're not so down anymore, are you?"

You halt immediately, realising he's completely right. You'd totally forgotten about your nightmare thanks to Rui's little contraption.

"Yeah. Thanks." You offer him a small smile. "If you have them with you, could I see more of your robots?"

Rui's eyes flash with glee at being asked a question like that. "Why yes, of course! I'd be very glad to show you some more!"

He cups his hands and moves closer to you, where you can see a large variety of contraptions, way more than anyone would normally need to take anywhere.

Dumbfounded, you turn your gaze to him. "You seriously took all of these here?"

Rui shrugs, as if it's a normal occurrence for him. "I just enjoy being prepared. Now, look here. First, this one can bring small objects to you if you ask..."

#♡ ~ love letter sent! #project sekai x reader #pjsk x reader #tsukasa tenma x reader #tenma tsukasa x reader #emu otori x reader #otori emu x reader #nene kusanagi x reader #kusanagi nene x reader #rui kamishiro x reader #kamishiro rui x reader #imagines

[helpallthenamesaretakenblog]

so :D i wrote my first ever fanfic because i was intrigued and want to know if i could do it. i hope you like it :)) i nerded out way too much on this one so spare me pls be kind!

description: set during the battle of manhattan, tlo. slightly canon divergent. lot of percy angst. tw: su!cidal thoughts. percys pov. percabeth being cute. based on the poem 'stopping by the woods on a snowy evening' by robert frost :)

Miles to Go Before I Sleep- A PJO Fanfiction

I couldn't sleep that night. I paced the room for two hours until late night as if there was something terrible was going to happen. I was worried sick--about Annabeth, about the war, about everything. At midnight, moonlight streamed through the hotel window as I sat, almost lifelessly on the bed, staring into nothing. Suddenly, I heard a creak in the door, and I was about to snatch riptide before I heard a whisper, "Percy? You awake?"

In the shadows, I saw the familiar figure of Grover, tired after a long day of attending to the satyrs. He sat down next to me on the bed, and we both stared at the wall in comfortable silence. For a moment, I could almost close my eyes and imagine that we were 12 year olds at Yancy again. "The Apollo kids are seeing you through the hotel surveillance cameras. They sent me to ask you to sleep" "Since you're the only one right now who I'll listen to?" ".....yep"

While Grover rambled something about him being my unofficial mom right now, I looked at my bedside table, and there it was. Pandora's Jar. Man, I wished the stupid thing would stop following me around, and right now, it wasn't the best time for me to want to resist opening it. Unfortunately, Grover read my emotions. "You want to open it, don't you?"

The question, which had always been on the back of my mind, really stung now that it was said out loud. I think Grover could see I was breaking down a little on the inside, and wrapped me in an awkward hug. "I-I do," it came spilling out of my mouth, my voice cracking. "It just feels like the Fates are giving me an opportunity instead of a challenge. I feel like everything around me is falling apart. I'm not good at handling war. If I give up to Kronos, he'd kill me, as long as I'd make him promise he wouldn't hurt you guys. It's just easier. It's better for everyone else" My eyes felt wet, and I pulled away quickly. Grover looked so lost, I immediately felt bad for making him worry about me. "Go to sleep, Percy," he said in a painful tone, as if I was a delusional grandpa who had gotten loose from the nursing home bed. Before I could say anything, he pulled out his reedpipes. Before I could protest, he started playing soft, sweet music and before I knew it, I was asleep.

In my dream, I was sitting with Annabeth in the strawberry field, while she had a book in her lap. Annabeth was smiling, her hair glinting in the sunlight. She was okay. We were okay. It was a sunny day and all the campers were having fun. I remembered this day; this conversation had happened two months before the war. Woah. That felt so far away.

"I finally found the greek version of this poem!" she said excited, her eyes sparkling, which gave me butterflies. "This poem is really famous for the last four lines, wait-wait, I'll read it out to you" She picked it up. "So the English version of these lines are: "The woods are lovely, dark and deep, but I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep" I bumped her shoulder with mine. "Ok, nerd...what's the point?"

She rolled her eyes, but she was smiling. "It basically means that the poet wanted to die and found death a beautiful easy way out, but he realised he still had a duty in his life and that he still had a long way before his time to go, isn't that so poetic?" "I guess. You're better at this than me"

This didn't happen that day, but she opened her arms, as if about to hug me, probably due to Grover's magical reedpipe music, and for a second I felt elated that life felt livable again, before the ground opened up before she could, and I fell into endless darkness.

I woke up, shaking. I felt like I had been given a sweater in the cold before it got snatched away, leaving me back in the freezing winter. Grover was gone. I wanted to go back to sleep. I wanted things to be alright again. I wanted to see Annabeth happy and nerdy as usual and hug her. But sunlight streamed in through the window, and I forced myself out of the bed and went up the stairs to where Annabeth was.

When I walked up to her in the chair, my heart broke again. She looked so different from the dream. Her eyes were weakly staring at the view, she was shivering and her face was still a little gray. "Hey" she said. I checked up on her, talking to her about her health, which was slowly getting better, thankfully, but it didn't stop me from feeling guilty.

As I stared at her hopelessly, Pandora's Jar appeared on the table next to her. Annabeth studied my face. "We should put it in a place where it stays there"

I nodded my head in agreement. I took the jar gingerly in my hands. I looked out into the view from above. The whole city was in my sight. I saw demigods rebuilding the mortal's homes, some of which were damaged after the day's fight. I saw Nico rejoining a skeleton from his army's bones, with Will hovering curiously from a distance. "Is that a coccyx ?" "Gesundheit" If I died, he'd be the prophecy kid. I saw two tired aphrodite girls staring at a broken mirror, as if wondering where their life (and skin) started to break. I needed to keep them going. I needed to survive, I couldn't let them down. I needed to give them what they were fighting for. They were fighting for me. All my depression would have to wait for another day.

"It must be annoying," Annabeth said. "Don't you ever just want to open it?"

"Nah," I gave her my bravest smile, as I carried the jar to the door, where I would give it to be locked in a storage locker in the hotel. "I have promises to keep; and miles to go before I sleep"

#pjo fic #percy jackson fanfiction #percy jackson angst #percy jackson #pjo #annabeth chase #rick riordan #percabeth #pjo fandom #pjo tv show #percy jackon and the olympians #pjo tv series #percy series #pjo series #annabeth pjo #perseus jackson #percy pjo #the last olympian #percy jackson spoilers #pjo fanfic #annabeth percy jackson #percy and annabeth #annabeth #grover underwood #nico di angelo #pjo hoo #hoo #rrverse #pjo hoo toa #solangelo

[returnsandreturns]

christmas writing prompt: both matt and foggy get sick right before the holidays and can't go to the nelsons as usual. so they spend christmas just the two of them. maybe actually talk about things they haven't talked about yet because there's not much else they can do

this is not QUITE that but a bit of it

--

"I think this is your fault," Foggy says, cheerfully, sitting tucked next to Matt on his bed under the same blanket. "Insisting on spending all your time in the library studying for finals. It's a germ factory in there. Full of desperation and seasonal illnesses."

"You think it might have had something to do with you kissing every single person at that party I skipped?" Matt asks, laughing.

"That's an exaggeration," Foggy says, scoffing.

"Not what I heard," Matt says, lightly.

". . .well, I had five tequila shots, my own bespoke mistletoe and a dream," Foggy says, leaning against him heavily with a sigh.

"And a communicable disease," Matt says.

"You're just jealous that you weren't there," Foggy says, nudging him.

"If I'm going to kiss you, I'd prefer there not be a virus involved," Matt says, laughing and then going distinctly squirrely and pink.

"What would you prefer?" Foggy asks, teasing even though there's a little voice in his brain saying maybe this time? MAYBE THIS TIME? like it does every time they banter hard enough that it's basically flirting. "I mean, I'll plant one on you right now, Murdock. You probably can't get double the flu."

"I don't know if it's worth the risk," Matt says, smirking a little.

"Ask every single person who went to that party," Foggy says. "I have a lot of references."

"And possible victims," Matt says, shifting against him, angling his head a little. Even pinker. "You can kiss me. Round out your numbers."

Foggy's instinct is to make sure he's not just joking, because they could easily still just be playing what has felt like a two and a half year long game of chicken. He says, "I don't know. If I'm going to kiss you, I'd prefer to not be so snotty."

"What would you prefer?" Matt asks, with a smile Foggy's pretty sure he'll remember forever, leaning a little closer.

"Any time, anywhere," he says, genuinely. "As long as you mean it. I already packed up the mistletoe, all kisses must have romantic overtones until next December."

Matt's smile gets even more perfect.

"I'll mean it," he says, leaning up to kiss him on his forehead. "That's okay, right? Because I--I mean it."

". . .fuck it, we're both disgusting right now," Foggy says, pulling him into a real kiss, snot and fevers be damned.

#daredevil #mattfoggy #my fic

[theaspen]

summary : Jay seems to keep appearing in your alternate nightmares. He acts as your night in shining armor, always helping you in your sleep. But when you try to stop the nightmares altogether he doesn't like it.

Genre : Thriller, angst.

pairing : Jay x you

Warnings: Graphic descriptions of blood, death and suicide. If you are sensitive to these subjects please don't read!!

___________________________________________

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

____________________________________________

Authors note: It's honestly SO embarrassing that I'm posting this now LMAOAOAOA.

Uhm. I'm sorry. I hope you guys enjoy and leave some nice comments or feedback or anything tbh. And send me an ask, or comment below to be added to the tag list.

____________________________________________

Are you sure?” My uncle asks sceptically.

“Yes I'm sure.” I tell him firmly. 

This is the 10th time he's asked me this question today alone. What's a therapist gonna do? Besides, I'm sick of him pretending to care. 

“Uncle, I'm not really sure why you're so insistent on this. Is it because the press is outside? They want to interview you?”

It's a sharp dig at him and I know it. He's never cared about his own brother, never visited.

He scowls at me, “Careful, might I have to remind you that it isn't your father that's taking care of you, putting you in the best room with the best doctors.”

I glare at him as he walks away from the room. Well atleast the pathetic nice act is gone. 

Kyungsoo enters my room soon again, throwing a careful glance at my uncle. He was a big shot after all. With his more than successful firm.

“You good?” He asks.

“Yeah, um I think I'll just go for a walk.” I tell him rather shortly.

“Sure.” He says quietly, probably assuming I had an argument.

But truth be told, I'm avoiding him. I'm getting attached to someone who's just tolerating me for their job. It's not his fault I know but I can't get attached to those who won't stay once I'm up and gone. 

My mind goes to Jay for a tiny second. Hm. Maybe I should talk to a therapist. The dreams stopped for two days and usually I would be overjoyed at the idea of not just one but two full nights rest.

But I woke up feeling uneasy, I made a promise to Jay, someone who exists only in my head. But I made a promise nevertheless. 

There are so many things I want to ask him, so many. 

Why do I have no dreams? Why is it that I only ever have a blackout or nightmares?

Why is he saving me? 

I know I shouldn't, but my curiosity has gotten the better of me. I look down at my fisted hands and open them. There are two sleeping pills, I stole it from a nurse's bag when she wasn't looking. 

Sleeping pills and I aren't the best of friends. Sure they help me not have a meltdown from not being able to sleep for almost 20 hours but they also give me the worst types of nightmares.   Which right now happens to be something that I need. 

“Goodnight.”Kyungsoo tries to smile at me.

I meekly smile back , eager to down the pills and meet the one person who actually wants me to stay.

_________________________________________

The pills go down my throat ten minutes later. The small light creates a shadow of me in front.  The shadows shift, turning and twisting and I watch fascinated as they give a performance for me. 

I'm not afraid, a part of my brain thinks. What are the shadows going to do? They've been with me forever. Taunting me, trying to manipulate me. I've never given into any of their tricks. I've never trusted them. 

But when I'm all alone now, in a tiny closet peeking out from the hole and watching the shadows linger my heart picks up its beat. 

They come and they disappear again and again. I look through the tiny peep the closet gives and realise soon as they go behind every nook and creek that they are looking for none other than me. 

 

My hands reach out to clasp my mouth shut. My body folds itself as small as it can possibly go. Will the shadows think to look here too?

I shut my eyes forcefully. My other senses heightened until I could feel everything around me. The musty smell of the closet, my fingernails digging into themselves.  My feet numb, paralyzed. 

My breathing becomes slower, my arms start to unclench. I think they're gone. I think I can get out now. Escape to a place where they can't catch me. 

Before I know it, before I can even pull my hands away from myself. There's a strange hiss that comes inches away from me. A hand grabs my ankle and pulls me hard enough that I don't have time to scream. 

My head bangs against the hard wooden doors as I'm being pulled away. The impact is so hard that I can only clutch my head and groan as the hands keep pulling me away, dragging me on the rough wooden floors.

The splinters catch on clothes and skin. My chin is bleeding, but I can't even stop. Can't even catch a hold of myself as I try to catch myself breathlessly.  

There's a sharp turn to the right, and that's when I know that the shadows aren't just pulling me along aimlessly , they have a destination in mind. 

My eyes scan around desperately trying to catch hold of something to stop. 

Just then, a hand- a solid, real and warm hand catches me. A sudden stop to the journey. 

I know who it is before I can even look up. I clasp my hands with his. The shadows aren't pleased, they hiss and linger around My ankles. 

But when his hand keeps tugging me in, the shadows start to dissolve, materialise into nothing, losing their power. 

Jay's hands pull me again, even when the shadows disappear, he doesn't let go and I don't either.

When I gain a little strength into my limbs I finally pull away from the embrace. I look into his eyes, they are wide and scared, maybe even more than mine.

“Thank yo-”

“Why didn't you come?? You made a promise and you leave me all alone here?!” Jay yells angrily.

I pull away completely.  I was happy to finally see him again, but seeing his bloodshot face. The look of absolute rage in his eyes makes me stop. Brings the familiar uneasy feeling back into my stomach. 

“I'm sorry.” I mumble.

Jay looks at my crestfallen face, and immediately his face softens. 

“I’m sorry, I shouldn't have yelled at you. I was just scared you left forever.” He says softly, “You're hurt a lot this time. Come here, let's clean you up.” 

He rips off a piece of his sleeves and starts dabbing it on my wounds.

His reassuring words don't chase away the moths in my stomach. 

“Jay..do you think I should see a therapist?”

Jay frowns at my words, “A therapist? What's that?” He asks curiously. 

“Umm. It's someone who helps you with your problems, like stress, anxiety…nightmares.”

Jay stiffens upon that. His hand paused on my chin. 

“But why…? I can save you. I save you every time.”

I shake my head,

“I can save you again, you won't even have to get hurt next time. Just trust me. That's all you need to do!”

I take his hands in mine, his eyes are trembling, 

“What happens when you can't?”

“..what”

“What happens when one day you can't save me? I can wake up, but what about you? What if something happens to you instead?” 

He shakes his head intently, “I don't care, I only exist because of you. If you're gone, then I'm alone again, I have no purpose.”

I stay silent at that, avoiding his eyes. 

The world around me seems to shift again, faster than it did before. 

“I think I'm waking up now.”

“Yeah.”

“Can't you…can't you appear in my dreams too? Not just nightmares?”

“I don't know.”

I can feel my resolve slipping at the sight of his tired face. He looks my age, but at this moment his face seems to have gone through a millenia worth of sadness. 

“I'll come back okay?” 

Jay just nodded. His fingers slip away from mine as he watches me disappear again. I never stay for long. He wonders whether it's because I can't or I don't want to. 

Jay fidgets with his fingers even after I'm gone. 

He thinks long and hard about how he could make me stay. Every time I've left, it's only because he saved me.

What happens when he makes me believe that she can't escape the nightmare anymore? 

________________________________________

Taglist : @sunjaylove @ryejigyu @keikeu

@excusemeimquirky @lollllllliiiiiiiiiiiipop

#jake #jay #enhypen fluff #enhypen angst #sunoo #jay enhypen #enhypen headcannons #Sunghoon #Heesung #Niki #enhypen oneshots #enhypen drabbles #enhypen fanfic #enhypen fantasy #enhypen smau #enhypen social media au #Jay oneshot #jay scenarios #enha x reader #enha #enhypen scenarios #Enhypen cute #enhypen thriller #horror prompts #enhypen vampire au

[lowkeyremi]

𝙏𝙚𝙖𝙘𝙝𝙚𝙧'𝙨 𝘼𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙣𝙩 -> Aizawa Shota x afab!reader

➼ Sum: In short, you're fired from your main job. The worry and stress hits you while you're ugly crying outside of the building of your old workplace. You happen to meet a man who can give you a job. The question is... should you take it?

➼ Chapters: 0, 1

➼ Content Warning: Implied fem reader, reader has fem parts, eventual sexual content, suggestive language, all characters are aged up, eventual relationships, strippers, reader is struggling. (I'll add more as time goes on)

Chapter One - A Fresh Start.

banner by: cafekitsune

Your week was very uneventful, meeting Eraserhead felt like a fever dream. He hadn't called or texted once which caused you to believe maybe he'd been lying about that job offer.

Your laptop was sitting on the coffee table staring back at you. It's tempting to look for a new job just in case Eraser is a sick liar who liked seeing people struggle.

Surely he isn't... right? Your thoughts get cut short when your phone starts to vibrate. Where the hell is your phone? You scramble around for it, tossing your blanket around. Wow, it was wedged in the couch.

"Hello?" It takes about two seconds to realize you didn't check the ID caller, even though it's probably Eraserhead.

"Good afternoon, L/n. How are you?" Eraser's deep voice asks and it gives you goosebumps.

It had been a long time since someone asked how you were feeling, "Tired, I really need to get out and do something."

"Well, the principal would like to have a brief meeting with you." His voice sounds so smooth over the phone.

"About what? If you don't mind me asking." You were already going to agree because of desperation. You just wanted to hear his voice a little longer.

"He hasn't informed me on why, but I'd assume it would be about your credentials and details on moving into one of the apartments our school provides." His answer is logical and makes since.

"Okay, when does he want to have this meeting?" You stare at last night's dinner on your coffee table, laziness has taken over you since you don't have much to do. You tried to take an extra shift at the coffee shop, but they insisted that they didn't need the extra help.

"It might inconvenience you, he said today works for him. Sooner rather than later." There's a moment of silence between you two. You break it, "Yeah today works. I'm not doing anything anyway."

"Alright, I'll text you the details. See you soon, Golden Kitten." You can hear the smirk in his voice.

The line cuts before you can even say some stupid remark to him.

'It’s golden tiger!’ You message him, you wait for a minute and your message is seen. He doesn’t even reply to it, that guy.

Now the most important question is, what to wear? You can’t show up looking like all you’ve done is played videos games day and night. At the same time you don’t want to look too preppy, there’s a chance you’ll be called a show off.

Ding! It’s a message from Eraserhead with all the information you’ll need. According to Eraser, you’ll be stopped by security on your way in. The principal will let you in though.

Motivation starts coursing through your veins. Your place needs to be cleaned and you need to find something to wear. First impressions are important in the work setting. What is Eraser's impression of you?

-------

Your music is very loud in your car, a little distraction is all. "I was a college student for two years before I dropped out," you recite for the seventh time.

Parking wasn't too bad, if you don't count the fact that you almost flipped someone off for taking your parking space. Your loafers reached the ground and you stepped out of the car. In the end you chose a cute beige sweater along with your favorite high waist pants and dark brown loafers.

As mentioned security stopped you, "Excuse me miss, you have an ID?" A tall woman asks her arms crossed around her chest. She's very pretty, her not so cute uniform looks good on her.

"-ello? Miss?" Her head tilts waiting for an answer.

"Oh, uh- I'm waiting for the principal?" All the confidence you gained on the way here is gone. It's easy to tell she doesn't believe you.

Your eyes watch as she grabs her walkie and brings it up to her lips, "Backup on standby. Potential intruder." She gets a few responses.

The silence is so thick and awkward. In your mind it feels like it's been hours when in reality it's only been a few minutes.

"You must be Miss L/n! Come in!" You look around to see where the voice is coming from.

"Down here!" Surely enough there's a talking- creature smiling at you.

"I am so- so sorry, I-"

"Oh don't worry about it, most people don't notice me the first time," he waves you off. The creature who introduces himself as Nezu.. Principal Nezu leads you to his office.

"You know, I was shocked when Eraser said he wanted you as his assistant, not because of your previous job but because I brought in plenty of professionals and he declined all of them. He sure does have interesting taste!" Nezu says his arms waving everywhere while he talks.

You always thought people like that would end up smacking someone by accident.

"I honestly have no clue why he chose me." You say quietly. Nezu pushes his office door open for you and you quickly bow and take a seat.

"He sees potential in you, is why. I know he wouldn't choose just anyone." Nezu smiles, he gets comfortable in his seat and begins unpacking the heavy stuff.

"So you majored in (dream major/current major) and dropped out. Any particular reason?" He studies your face. He can't help but notice the long sigh you release.

"I started hanging out with the wrong people, met this guy who convinced me to drop out and live with him, cheated on me, and left me to figure everything out on my own. One of his friends told me about the club. I was desperate so I decided to get a job there. Along with my coffee shop part time." Talking about it was never pleasant. It was embarrassing even, why the hell did you let some guy who didn't even love you convince you to drop out?

You could have graduated. "Wow, that's a lot." He takes a sip from his tea cup. When did he make a cup of tea?

"Yeah..." He's moving more papers around and quickly scanning what's on them.

"Do you think you're cut out for the job?" He asks it doesn't have any heat behind it, it's just pure curiosity.

"No? I mean I have experience with children, none with teenagers. I was one about seven years ago." Your nails just so happen to be very interesting all of a sudden as you pick at them.

Nezu chuckles, not a normal chuckle... something like maniac. "At least you're honest. That's always a good quality. Do you have a quirk?"

You could lie and say you do. Make up something dumb, but something tells you he already knows the answer.

"I don't, which I'm afraid makes me no use to the students." You worry you'll put them in danger by not having a quirk.

"Thank you for your honesty, but safety won't be an issue! Eraserhead is a very protective teacher and he's got a very helpful quirk. At most you'd need to report to someone about an attack." Those words are quite reassuring, you sigh a little.

Nezu goes on about how surprised he was about Eraser choosing you. Then he moves on to pay and moving into one of the apartments.

He has you look over some paperwork and sends you on your way with Present Mic to tour the school.

"Changed your life for the better?" He asks with enthusiasm about your situation. How the hell does he even know? Isn't your business supposed to be confidential?

"Must be wondering how I know, huh? I was the one who dragged Eraser to the club! It was his thirty-sixth birthday and I figured he should let loose! Didn't think he'd bring back a stray." The blond chuckles, hands also swinging all over the place as he talked.

Eraser doesn't look thirty-six to you. You'd thought maybe he was twenty-nine or early thirties. "You're young aren't you?" Present Mic asks.

"Twenty-six." You reply quietly. You scanned every inch of the school with your eyes. It's a very VERY big school and a lot to take in. Apparently, Mic is only showing you the part of the school you'll be in, but even that's huge.

"How cute! You're adorable and young! No wonder he's taken a liking to you." He exclaims. The hell is that supposed to mean? Without context that sounds creepy.

"I'm not 'cute' or 'adorable' I'm a grown woman." You clarify, he grins and waves you off.

"L/n." You pause upon hearing that mesmerizing deep voice.

"Eraser." You respond mimicking his comment.

"I'm assuming all went well, since you're being dragged around by this idiot." His voice is teasing and a small smirk rests on his face.

"Idiot?! Come on Eraser! We agreed I'm the smart and hot English teacher!" Eraser just shook his head.

"Whoever called you hot was trying to spare your dignity and feelings." Eraserhead responds and motions for you to follow him.

You do, without hesitation actually. "This is my classroom." It was just like some of the other classrooms, plain, blue, and boring.

"No posters or anything?" You ask playing with the apartment key in your pocket.

"Students are here to learn how to be heroes, not to stare at some posters." He walks over to his desk and looks through some papers.

"I just think it would make your class more appealing." You try to reason.

"I've been teaching for a good while, Kitten. I know what I'm doing." He sits down at his desk and sighs looking one of the papers.

"Kitten?!" Present Mic gasps dramatically.

"You don't get it." Is all Eraser offers him.

Present Mic turns to you expecting some kind of explanation.

"I should probably start planning this move." You change the subject.

"And I'm not a kitten!" You groan and he chuckles. You can feel the vibration of his laugh.

"I'll see you out," Mic offers and you accept only because you'd get lost otherwise.

_______

"Hello, yes. I'm calling about breaking my lease." The price for breaking it isn't as bad as you thought it'd be, with this new job you could earn that back in a little while.

Next on your list was to call the movers. It was an awkward conversation because you were nervous to talk to them. Once you got everything settled you ate some leftover food.

The movers are to come around nine a.m. on Sunday which is soon...

You probably shouldn't call him for something so dumb but you call anyway.

"Is everything okay, L/n? You're calling pretty late." You could melt, his sleepy voice is so sexy.. you shouldn't be thinking about him this way.

"I'm sorry to wake you but the movers are coming on Sunday and I need help boxing up my stuff." You explain.

"Right now?" He asks, you can hear shuffling over the phone followed by a little yawn.

"Um... now would be nice. It's Thursday night which means I only have the whole day Friday and Saturday..." he makes a little noise and clicks his tongue.

"Message me your address." Eraser yawns again.

You do as you're told and you hear nothing but static for a few minutes, "I'll be there in thirty."

"Okay, thank you." You sigh in relief, stress would have torn you apart and you'd be panicking if you had to pack all by yourself.

Eraser's pretty cool, you think. You give Present Mic a silent 'thanks' for providing you and Eraser the chance to meet.

➼ AN: Hey guys! I finally got the motivation to finish this chapter, rn I think I'm aiming for 10-12 chapters? Maybe some extra side stuff at the end, but as of now we're getting somewhere. I just had to add Aizawa calling you kitten it's too cute ;)

#bnha #mha #aizawa #mha aizawa #aizawa shōta #shota aizawa #aizawa shouta #aizawa x reader #bnha aizawa #eraserhead #aizawa shota x reader #aizawa shota #shota aizawa x reader #multi chap #multi chap fic #multi fic #post bnha wars #aizawa x y/n

[iwritesickfic]

Surprise, part 2

(part 1 here!)

It's a difficult night. Very difficult. Theo can't seem to get to any consistent sleep, which means Seamus can't sleep either. Sometime around 2 or 3 in the morning his throat is too sore to speak again, though his delirious mind doesn't quite understand, so for the brief time he is asleep, he's trying to talk. Whether they're dreams or nightmares Seamus can't tell, just that Theo murmurs in an endless string, only quieting when Seamus strokes his hair and hushes him.

He falls asleep sitting up, Theo between his legs, curled against his chest, and sleeps so deeply he wakes up in exactly the same position when his alarm sounds at 8 the next morning.

The first thing he registers is the scalding, shivering body on his chest, chapped lips moving wordlessly. He tries not to wake him as he reaches for his phone to turn off the alarm, but Theo jolts awake with a shaky breath.

“Shh, shh,” Seamus says, almost automatically, and Theo makes a hoarse sound before coughing weakly. “Don't talk, baby.”

Theo pushes himself up, wincing as he swallows. He opens his mouth again, as if to speak, before closing it. He starts to look around, like he's missing something.

“What?” Seamus asks, and Theo points at the phone in his hand. “Here,” he says, handing Theo his phone from where he left it on the bedside table.

His hands are trembling as he does whatever he needs to do, and Seamus kisses him as he gets out of bed, stretching. He's so stiff from sleeping in such an odd position, and more than a little sweaty. His neck cracks as he reaches his arms up. He desperately needs a shower before Theo’s doctors come over. Theo probably needs one too, but Seamus doubts he has the energy for it.

A robotic voice half startles him - “what the fuck is going on?” Seamus turns around to see Theo with his phone held out to him, open to text-to-speech.

“What do you mean?” He asks back, rolling his stiff shoulders.

Theo looks down at his phone, fingers shaking as he types, before the stilted female voice starts again. “I have a million missed calls from Emma and Z.”

He doesn't look angry, just exhausted. Seamus sighs and sits on the edge of the bed.

“I told Emma last night I thought they should cancel the shows until next week,” he pauses, looking at Theo’s face for any sign of anger or frustration but finding none. “I know it's not my choice but I really, really think you should consider it. I made a couple doctor appointments this morning too, I think you might just need your tonsils out.” He cups Theo’s cheek, his skin burning beneath his palm. He looks completely miserable, totally sapped of energy.

He looks down at his phone, typing for a while before pressing play again.

“I want that so bad but they're never going to let me. I'll have to cancel the rest of tour if I get my tonsils out. also can you please please please make me some tea? my throat hurts like a bitch”

Seamus leans in and kisses him gently, and despite how drained he is Theo kisses him back, resting his forehead on Seamus's as they pull apart. His body follows Seamus's as he pulls away, as if tugged by a magnet.

The only thing Seamus can feel is his heart aching in his chest. It's tight and sore. Part of it is because selfishly, he's missed this so much. To share this tenderness again after so long apart is enough to make him cry. And the other half, of course, is the heart wrenching pain of knowing how sick he is. It's so clear, the way he's so desperate to be close to him. Altogether, it’s almost debilitating. He doesn't want to do anything other than hold him and rest his lips on his temple and stop his shivering. He wants to give Theo exactly what he wants, whatever he wants. But there's too much to be done.

“Everything is going to work out exactly like it should,” he finally whispers. “We’re gonna do what the doctor says and they’ll have to listen, and I'll be with you no matter what.” He forces himself to pull away and stand, Theo’s hand still holding his. “And yes, obviously. What flavor do you want?”

Theo offers him a weak smile before typing again.

“throat coat,” the robotic voice says and Seamus nods, almost laughing.

“Yeah, that'd make sense wouldn't it? Alright, well, I'll be right back, ok?” he says, and Theo nods. He gives him one last kiss on the forehead before going into the closet to throw clothes on. He grabs two of everything from his side of the wardrobe and gives half of it to Theo before heading downstairs.

As he's making his way down, he finally puts his glasses on and takes a look at his phone. He’ll need to cancel everything he has in Ireland for the near future, or convert as much as he can to video meetings. His mind is racing with the logistics of how he's going to make staying in the States work, when he gets a call from Zeke. He picks up within a single ring.

“Hello?” he says as he rounds the corner at the bottom of the stairs, walking into the dark living room.

“Hey, morning. How's it going?” Zeke asks, and Seamus scrubs his hand over his face as he flips the lights on in the kitchen. He puts the phone on speaker as he starts the familiar routine of making tea.

“It's going,” he says, voice clipped. He's still not quite over the anger from last night.

“Look, I'm sorry. It's a very…a very delicate situation. And to be honest, I thought you knew.”

Seamus flicks the kettle on and grabs two of their biggest mugs.

“Of course I didn't know. If I’d known a month ago it never would've gotten this bad. And I wouldn't have been in Dublin jerking my fucking dick,” he says, though it lacks any real bite.

“This isn't your fault,” Zeke says, and Seamus sighs. He leans against the countertop.

“I…” He trails off, then picks up the phone as he heads to the pantry. “I just should've known. I should've been able to tell,” he says, looking through their meticulously organized boxes of tea before plucking out two tea bags and grabbing the bottle of honey. Zeke sighs now, his voice muffled over the phone.

“There’s no way you could've known. Did he say why…” Zeke trails off.

“Because he knew I'd react like I'm reacting. But I'm reacting fine! I'm completely justified.” He keeps rambling before he can stop himself, “His voice could be ruined. He could've fallen off stage and broken his neck or gone septic or ended up in the ER. And honestly I’m not even mad about the what ifs. He's suffering, night after night, for what? For money in the pockets of assholes who don't care if he lives or dies?”

“You know it's more complicated than that, Seamus. C’mon.”

“No, Z. It's not. We can reschedule the dates. I know you have the contingencies reserved already. What are they for if not this? How much sicker does he have to get? Because he’ll get there, and you’ll have to do all this anyway. And it won't be optional.” His hand shakes as he pours the hot water. He takes a deep breath, trying to calm down. “And I know there are people's jobs. Of course I know that, but it's not like we’d leave them high and dry. I wouldn't let that happen at least. And people will be upset but I think they'd be more upset if he fainted in the middle of their precious fucking show.”

“No, I know. Trust me, I’m with you. The promoter and the label are resistant because they'll have to manage a lot of fallout, but I really don't see it affecting the bottom line that much,” Zeke finally says, his voice tired.

“Exactly! Thank you. I mean if it really is an issue of fucking money, I have money. Christ.” He's stirring in the honey now, and forces himself to unclench his jaw.

“It's gonna come down to what the doctors say. Keep me updated, I'm in meetings today trying to figure out what's going on, I'll let you know if we need anything,” Zeke says.

“Ok, thanks. I'll talk to you later,” he says, grabbing a wedge of lemon from the fridge.

“Later,” Zeke says before the line goes dead. Seamus lets out a heavy sigh and rubs his eyes.

–

By the time the doctors have come and gone, Theo's mug’s been refilled four times. He's sitting up in bed now, his damp hair tied in a ragged bun, wearing a hoodie of Seamus's. He looks even more miserable than he did when they first woke up, if that's possible.

The doctor was pretty quickly able to diagnose him with tonsillitis, but what Seamus didn't expect was an abscess. And in turn, Theo needing surgery. Urgently. They’ll need to leave for the hospital in a few hours and likely spend the night, and there's certainly no way he’ll be on stage any time soon.

It's frightening hearing about how severe things really are. The doctor said that only a day or two more without intervention the abscess would've burst and sent him septic. He tries not to think about what would've happened if he didn't come.

Seamus feels terrible for him. He knows the guilt of canceling a show, the weight of letting all those people down, is crushing. And he knows what thoughts must be running through his head - what if he never sings again? What if the surgery goes wrong and his voice is fucked forever? How long will it be before he’s better?

He doesn't bring any of it up, just lets Theo rest against him as they watch reality TV and refills his tea and kisses his forehead. He's so looking forward to the day where his body isn't so nerve-wrackingly hot, but that's not likely to be anytime soon either. Even after they take everything out, he’ll probably have a fever for another five days at least, the doctor said.

“It's normal for it to get steadily worse over the week post surgery, then a huge improvement,” the doctor had said. He'd said a lot of things, and Seamus had tried to write it all down, but he definitely missed most of it.

He's never seen Theo like this. So listless and drained and sick. And silent. Granted, that speaks more to his physical state than mental, but still. Theo always has something to say.

–

Theo is fairly sure this is the worst day of his life. One of the worst, at least. Physically, it's agony. He hurts all over, a throbbing, hot pain in every muscle and joint and bone. He's freezing, he can't get warm, but he's dripping so much sweat that his hair is wet and his shirt is stuck to him. And his throat. His fucking throat. Never, ever has it hurt this bad. Without the oxys or whatever the production medics were giving him every four hours it's unbearable. He dreads swallowing. It's so bad that he finds himself focusing all his energy on trying not to swallow, his tongue feeling heavy and awkward in his mouth as he wills himself to keep still.

Mentally? It's nearly as bad. In a few hours there will be scalpel dangerously close to his vocal chords. 70 thousand people will find out, or have already found out, there won't be a show tonight. Or tomorrow. Or the day after. There’ll be tabloid stories about him in rehab or arrested or some other insane explanation for why he’ll need so much time off.

But right now, he's curled in Seamus's lap, and they're watching something, and all he can really think about is how badly he hurts. And then every so often Seamus will give him a blessedly cool kiss or touch and he’ll be overwhelmed with gratitude. I love you I love you I love you. If he could speak, that's all he'd say.

He came so close so many times in the last month. So close to calling Seamus and begging him to fly to wherever he was and hold him and rescue him from his own personal living hell. One particularly bad night was a rain show in Arizona, and he'd been so sick that day that every time he came off stage they'd take his temperature. He wasn't sure what number he wanted to see after a while. It was pouring the whole night, his clothes soaked while he shook with chills.

At the hotel that night he took a very ill advised hot shower, then laid on the cold tile floor and stared at his phone. If Seamus called now, he told himself, Theo would tell him everything. “How are you, love?” he'd ask in his heavenly voice, and Theo would tell him. “I need you, I'm so sick, I need you.”

Then he'd dream about him. He'd dream of his cool lips and hands, melting through the heat of his fever. But he'd always wake up just as sick. And just as alone. And if he was lucky he'd have a day off to sleep in the sweat soaked sheets of his hotel bed. If he was less lucky, he'd have to be up and performing by 7 that night.

He's beyond grateful now, even though the weight of about a hundred thousand people's disappointments are pressing on his shoulders. They'd probably bought plane tickets, hotel rooms, taken off work, all for a show that he wouldn't be having. The rest of the tour is probably moot, his throat is fucked beyond repair. It'll take months for him to recover.

On the other hand, even a week of dedicated rest sounds unimaginably good right now.

He's drifting in and out of sleep, nestled between Seamus's legs, leaning back on his chest. He'd never move from this spot if he could. But he’ll have to. Eventually.

–

Seamus feels like he's had a thousand cups of coffee as he sits by the side of Theo’s hospital bed. He hasn't, of course. He's barely had water since Theo went into surgery. His nerves feel frayed and his anxiety is in overdrive.

Theo's still asleep from the anesthesia, his body looking so pale against the stark white sheets. His hair sticks out like a sore thumb, vibrant red auburn on the pillowcase.

He's going to be fine, Seamus repeats to himself. The surgery has gone off without a hitch, he's just fine. But Seamus won't really believe it until Theo wakes up.

Nurses have been in and out, most doing a double take at him and their clipboards before talking to Seamus. They all know who he is, and Seamus is just grateful for privacy laws. That doesn't stop random nurses from all over the hospital from coming and peeking their heads in though.

A nurse is adjusting his IV, making idle chit chat with Seamus, when Theo makes a soft sound, his eyes fluttering. Seamus’s throat tightens, and he can't grab Theo’s pale, hot hand fast enough.

His brows are immediately furrowed in pain, and he whimpers softly when Seamus strokes his hair.

“Hey, love,” he whispers, and Theo swallows hard, wincing.

“Hey,” he chokes out, and his hand with the IV tries to fly to his throat before the nurse catches it. “Fuck,” he hisses, squeezing his eyes shut.

“You're ok, you're ok,” Seamus murmurs, running his thumb back and forth over the back of Theo’s hand.

“You want some water, honey?” the nurse asks, and Theo turns his head to look at her.

“S’over?” He mumbles, and the nurse smiles as she finishes securing the IV.

“Yup. Quick as a blink. All done,” she says. “Water?”

Theo nods, and she leaves. He looks back at Seamus.

“That was it?” he asks, and Seamus nods, smoothing some hair off his forehead. He's still so feverish, it makes Seamus's heart clench in worry even though realistically it's no threat anymore.

“You don't have to talk if it hurts. I won't be offended,” he tries to joke, and a smile just barely tugs at Theo’s lips.

“I love you,” he whispers back, and Seamus has to fight to swallow the lump in his throat. He lifts Theo’s hand to his lips and kisses his knuckles. Still unnervingly warm. He makes a soft, contented sound and just stares at him, eyes half lidded. “So beautiful.”

That makes Seamus laugh. His hair hasn't been washed in days, and he's in his spare, thick rimmed glasses.

“Thank you, Teddy,” he says, and strokes his hair back out of his face. There are only a few strands out of place, but it gives him something to do. It gives him an excuse to touch him.

“So fucking gorgeous,” he whispers, looking totally lovestruck. Seamus laughs again, but before he can reply the nurse is back with the water, and Theo gives her a smile as he takes the cup in his shaking hand. “Isn't he just so pretty?” he asks the nurse, and Seamus feels his cheeks heat. She chuckles.

“Definitely. Like a model.” She's making notes on her clipboard.

Theo’s smile widens slightly.

“Mm. I know,” he whispers. “And he's mine.”

“Drink your water,” Seamus says, feeling the heat of a blush on his cheeks. The nurse shoots him a smirk before leaving again. Before Seamus can say anything else, his phone starts to ring. Zeke.

“Hey,” he says, his hand still in Theo’s.

“Hey, what's up?”

“Nothing much. He just woke up. It went well, he should be discharged in a few hours.”

“Awesome, that's a relief. I hate to bother you guys with this but they want some kind of social media post. He can't, um…?” Zeke trails off, and Seamus is glad he seems to understand how stupid the request is. Theo is giving him a look as if to ask who it is and Seamus rolls his eyes in return.

“No, but I'll talk with him and post something. How's everything going over there?”

“It's…ok. It's fine.” There's some muffled conversation in the background, then he can tell Zeke is talking to someone across the room. “Fine! Fine!” he says, before getting closer to the receiver, “Are you there?”

“Yup.”

“They- We all think it'd be good to include a photo. Of him. In the bed.” Zeke’s words are clipped and forced. Seamus sighs.

“Ok, so…” He takes another deep breath. Theo's still staring at him, looking half asleep and half infatuated. “No. We’re not doing that.”

He can almost picture Zeke throwing his head back as he groans.

“Come here,” Theo says in his barely-there voice, and Seamus squeezes his hand.

“It…It gives credibility. It gives sympathy,” Zeke says, clearly parroting back what he was told.

“No, I know. But no one is owed a picture of him like that.”

“Just ask, ok? Just ask him,” Zeke concedes. Theo tugs on his hand.

“Ok, ok. I have to go.”

“Ok, just send us the statement. Soon. Ish. Soon as you can.”

“Ok. Bye.” He hangs up before Zeke even replies.

“Come here,” Theo says again, and Seamus brings his limp fingers to his lips.

“There's no room. When we get home,” he says, and Theo’s big brown eyes soften. Silently begging. “I know. There's no room. And I feel like it's probably against the rules.”

Theo snorts softly.

“There's no rules. I'm famous,” he says, and Seamus laughs again. He's glad he's at least feeling well enough to make jokes. “Just-” He cuts himself off, swallowing hard and wincing, “Just unplug some shit. I don't care.” His voice is growing more wavering and desperate.

“Soon. I promise. How are you feeling?”

Theo shifts in bed.

“Not very good,” he says after a long silence, almost whispering. “It's like… It hurts. Less, but more at the same time.”

Seamus nods like it makes sense, even though he's not sure what he means.

“And I think I might still have a fever,” he mumbles, and Seamus bites his lip. It's glaringly obvious. He lays his palm on Theo’s forehead, even though he already knows. He hums.

“Yeah. Definitely.” It's not quite as bad as it was this morning, but still probably around 102 if Seamus had to guess. “They…” He trails off, reconsidering whether he wants to tell him. “They said it could be a few days before it breaks.”

Theo's mouth tightens.

“Days?” he finally asks. Seamus's heart breaks for the thousandth time. He just nods, and Theo screws his eyes shut. “No. No, I can't…”

“It's gonna be fine. We’ll just lay around and drink tea for a few days. I'll let you wear all my clothes, you can pick what we have for dinner-” Theo shakes his head. “No, it’ll be ok. It will.”

#my writing #sickfic #whump #illness kink #oc theo #oc seamus #fever #thanks for the nice comments on part 1 i appreciate them so much :) #still another part to come!!!

[marvel-and-chicago-fan]

Sick Sister

First Tumblr post ever, i work on wattpad but i want to also post my stuff on here. Anyways hope you enjoy

Requested: No

Warnings: Fainting, Hospitals, and one mention of ambulances

______________________________________________________________

Mattie’s Pov

“Mattie” you woke up to Jay pulling your covers off.

“Jay stop, it's so cold in here, did you turn the heat down or something?”

“No, I even turned it up last night cause I swear I could hear you shivering”. Jay said while going to feel Mattie's head.

“Gosh Mattie your burning up”

“I'm going to go grab the thermometer and call will, I'll be back”. Jay said while walking out of your room.

“Alright Mattie, I'm back”.

***

Jay called Will six times in the past hour taking the hint that he was busy or he just didn't want to answer so he called Connor in hopes that he would answer.

“Hello? Jay?” Connors tone confused on why his co-workers brother would call him

“Matilda has a fever of 103.1. I gave her tylenol around an hour ago and doesn't seem like it's working”.

“As her doctor im saying you should bring her in, but if you think she's ok then you can keep her at home”.

“I'm going to bring her in and-”. Jay stopped mid sentence hearing a loud thump. “Mattie, Matilda?”

Connor could hear Jay running up the stairs trying to figure out what happened.

“Jay-Jay, what's going on? Talk to me”

You felt a familiar feeling in your stomach, either it's because you're hungry or you need to throw up the crackers you ate.

As soon as you stand up get really dizzy you try to shake off the feeling but you can't, so you attempt to head down stairs but as soon as you take your next step you feel your body hit the floor and everything goes black.

According to Will and Jay you tend to faint every time you get sick but you don't remember so you just believe whatever they say and go with it.

The first time this happened Jay thought someone broke in since it was 6 in the morning. You swear you heard will yell that it was just you and not a criminal but your brushed it off thinking it was just a dream”

***

“It's Mattie, she fainted aging” .

“Make sure you put her feet up i'll let will know”

Before connor could finish jay hung up to call an ambulance”

***

“What've we got, Maggie”? Will asked as the paramedic handed over the young girl to the hospital.

“Matilda Halstead, 15 years old, found unconscious by her brother… Will you can't handle her, you the hospital protocols, I swear i didn't know”

Will was just left standing there as he watched his little sister being taken care of by other doctors.

***

Wills/No Ones POV

“At this point i think we should just put in the hospital with 24/7 surveillance everytime she gets sick” Will trying to make a joke

“First of all she hates hospitals and needles so that's a no, and i just realized that i forgot to tell voight i wouldn't be there. Haileys probably thought i've gone missing from not answering anyone's phone calls”.

Just then Connor walks in “Ok so she's ok now and you can see her now, she's dealurios but that will wear off soon. I wanted to run a few tests and it looks like she suffered from heat syncope. It looks like it's what causes the fainting every time she gets a high fever” .

“Thank you Connor”. Will replied

“Anytime guys, anytime”.

***

Mattie’s POV

Just then you saw your brothers come in and will told you to stop playing with your iv 

“Ha you two look alike for some reason”

“That's because we're brother mattie” Jay said while coming sit down next to you

“Mattie? But the doctors told me i was matilda am i impersonating someone” You whined

“No Matilda, we call you Mattie for short so you're not impersonating anyone, '' Jay said, trying to contain his laughter.

“Hey, stop laughing at me. Your so mean” You said almost crying

“Oh mattie jay just a 3 year old in an old man's body” Will sighed trying to calm down mattie

***

The rest of the night was filled with mattie making everyone laugh then connor discharged her

“Is she asleep?” Jay says when will comes down stairs

“Yep she finally let herself relax and sleep”

“She's just like you jay”

“And how she's more like you” Jay gasped

“She loves to be babied when she sick just like you” Will chuckled 

“Since you wanna keep coming at me like that you're in charge of waking her tomorrow morning”. Jay commented

“What?”

“See you tomorrow night will”

Will sat there thinking about how he's raising two children instead of 1 little sister.

#x reader #will halstead #jay halstead #chicago #chicago pd #halstead sister #halstead brothers #one chicago #sick #fainting #hospital mention tw #hospitals

[ask-the-prose]

Hi there!

I’m starting a new Anne of green gables fan fiction story. I want to make a good strong opening for the first chapter. I want to get readers on fan fiction hooked from the start. How can I do that? I would love to get as many reviews on this story as I can. I have written other Anne of green gables fan fiction and I just don’t seem to get reviews and I can’t understand why. I want people to enjoy my stories. I have the summary written up and the beginning of the first chapter written up if you would like to see it.

Thank you!

Hey! Thanks for the ask :) apologies for the delay. I’ve been sick with a nasty cold! That said, this is a great question and one that I regularly play around with, and because of that, I have A LOT to say. This got long. Sorry!

Fanfiction is a great way to build your storytelling skills, and I personally love writing fanfiction myself! Writing fanfiction and writing original fiction has a lot in common, and so a lot of advice can be applied either way. But there are some things that fanfiction does differently that original fiction just doesn't have the same pre-ready audience for! So let's look at fanfiction a little closer, and I'll use this ask as a basis for a quick little fanfiction guide!

The Differences Between Original Fiction and Fanfiction

If you're writing fanfiction you probably already know the difference between original fiction and fanfiction, but for those looking to use this guide for their own purposes, I want to talk a little more at length about how fanfiction and original fiction really differ beyond just the dictionary definition.

Fanfiction is creative content using characters or setting from an already established piece of work that you did not create yourself. Whereas original fiction is original to yourself.

This difference is important to understand because when writing your work, you do need to understand your audience and why things work the way that they do. For original fiction, you're working with an audience that you have to connect with. But with fanfiction, the audience is pre-made, already invested in the characters, the setting, and sometimes the plot as well.

With fanfiction you have some leeway with how to write your story because readers are coming to the fanfiction already knowing that you are not the original author. That being said, there are a lot of FF readers who expect your fic to resemble the canon work, and so with all fiction, you will need to choose your audience and who you are gearing your work for. Your work will not appeal to everybody, even if your audience is pre-built. Everybody has different tastes, so what works for some won't work for everyone.

Take Advantage of Canon

You're an experienced fic writer, from what you've said, so you are familiar with canon and I'm betting you've read other fics within your fandom, right? This can be used to your advantage.

Some of the most successful fics I've seen, and some that I've found are most appealing to me, are the ones that incorporate canon into the fic in new and reimagined ways. One way to do this is to match your writing style, which is a fun challenge if you're ever up to it. Another is to use symbols, motifs, and other aspects of the story in new ways or settings. One most relevant to your question, though, is to reference canon in your own fic.

It can be assumed most of the time that if a fan is reading your fic, there was something about the canon source that appealed to them. So if you're unsure how to start your fic with a hook, take a look closer at the canon. Really pick it apart, and take a look at what appeals to you and why.

Does the source start in media res (starting the story "in the middle")? Then you know that in media res would be an effective hook on this audience. If canon starts with a dream or another cliche, then using a cliche yourself may be forgiven at the least or even appealing to your audience. You know your fandom better than I do.

You don't HAVE to use whatever tool canon uses if you don't want to, but it is an excellent place to look first when making creative decisions about your fic.

The key to the hook involves tension. A good hook gets the reader engaged in the story by asking questions and making them wait for the answers. Your reader wants to know what's going to happen next, and the best way to do that is to read the rest! Tension is created using stakes, so you don't necessarily want to wait to give your reader a reason to care, but a little mystery goes a long, long way.

Getting Comments

This is where my personal advice may get disappointing.

Getting comments and reviews on your work is something that the writing community has always had a problem with in regard to how to get them and how to get more of them. I tend to stay away from this part of the discourse myself because my opinions tend to be unpopular, especially with newer writers. But the best thing I can say on this topic is this: comments and reviews are completely outside your control.

There isn't a magic system or style or process or cheat code that will get you more comments or reviews. And believe me, I've tried. I've written since I was literally 12, and in fandom, you will find the most engaged readers across any platform and any media. Original fiction is infinitely harder to get engagement with (you might see writers on tumblr talk about this at length) than fanfiction. And so when it comes to engagement, you have 1 point going in your direction by simply what media you've chosen.

Fanfiction, by its nature, is designed around a pre-built, already excited, and already engaged fan base. The people reading your fic already love the original source and are also probably discussing canon with others, searching for and enjoying fan art, memes, meta, whatever. So these people are already engaged. I've found that no matter how well you write and how interesting your fic idea is if your already-engaged audience doesn't leave comments in general, it's going to be hard to get them to do that differently.

I'm not familiar with Anne of Green Gables myself, so I'm not familiar with the fandom. But I've been in a large number of fandoms over the years across many different platforms. Comments on ao3 are not as common as comments on, say, ff.net. Wattpad is difficult to get readers on, let alone commenters. Royal Road and others have very specific user bases that engage with some content more than others. So comments can depend upon where you are posting your fic.

Comments can also depend on how large your fandom is and the specific fandom-wide attitude toward comments and discussion. I write fic in a small fandom right now, and while my views and kudos are pretty low compared to my larger fandoms, my comments are higher because there are fewer of us, and we all recognize each other's URL. Big fandoms may result in people being more comfortable with anonymity and choosing to lurk instead. That doesn't mean people don't like your work. They, for whatever reason, just don't want to say anything to anybody.

Fanfiction also has a lot of differences in engagement when talking about tropes or kinks. When tagging your fic, always tag it appropriately, but there will be a portion of your readers who clicked on your fic because of one or more of your tags. If you're writing explicit fic, people specifically looking for the kink you're writing for will be more engaged and more likely to comment because they want to see more of their chosen kink. The same goes for tropes like "enemies to lovers," "soulmate au," or "coffee shop au."

An 18-chapter soulmate au I wrote 5 years ago in a huge fandom got 68k views and 300+ comments. So looking at those metrics, you can say, large fandom +1, popular trope +1, it was a popular ship +1, and it was on ao3 +1, and 18 chapters = 18 times I was on the first page of the "recently posted" dashboard. Those boosted my chances of getting comments. On the other hand, let's look at what really matters here: ratios. If you count all of those comments, which about a third to half were response comments from me, then out of all of my viewers, .4% of them left a comment. Less than half a percent of my readers said anything to me. And that number goes down when you take out the comments that were mine. Taking out my responses and dividing them by chapters, that's about 8 unique comments per chapter. Not much when 68k pairs of eyes saw the fic, right?

Now if we look at a more recent example, I have a current fic that is in a small but engaged fandom, arranged marriage au (related to canon), and that one had about 20 comments and 500 views. That's 4% of people who clicked on the fic and left me a comment. I didn't respond to many of those comments this time around, so that ratio doesn't go down all that much depending on how we filter comments.

I've played around with trying to engage my audience. Things like asking a question in the author's note to spark conversation in the comments worked somewhat but not all the time. Responding to comments doesn't seem to affect that number either. People aren't really looking at whether you've talked to others in your comment section before leaving a comment themselves. Simply saying, "I'd love to hear your thoughts!" Tends to do enough for my taste, but ultimately that won't always work.

In general, engagement on fics has gone down in recent years. I don't have the numbers to back it up. I've been around a while, enough to have lost original documents for my works at least three times. From my experience, though, fandom has changed its culture from what it used to be. I don't have the answers, but I do know that there are clever ways to engage your audience that can still make fandom a fun place for you.

Ultimately this is a long-winded way of saying that you can't control other people's actions. Even some of the most incredible writers I've seen have struggled with the comment conundrum. It has nothing to do with you or your writing and everything to do with the other person and the millions of unpredictable factors that go into why they made the decision to leave or not to leave a comment. Believe me; it's hard not to let reader engagement affect your sense of pride in your own writing. And I've found the "write for yourself!" advice mostly useless.

The best you can do is the little things that drive clicks and increase eyes on your work. Everything else is up to the reader.

– Indy

#writing advice #writing tips #writing resources #writeblr #amwriting #writers of tumblr #writers on tumblr #writblr #writing help #writing guide #reader engagement #fanfiction #fanfics #fic writing #writing fanfic #ask answered #fic comments

[poppy-thatcher]

Just a Dream (Tomura Shigaraki) - Pt 2

Chapter 1

A/N: This is an obvious continuation of my "what if" story for Shigaraki, the villain I prefer over all the rest. Though, if you saw my drafts you'd think I'm obsessed with Dabi. Something about him is incredibly easy for me to write about. My longest stories all circle around him. And stories like this one even have him as a pivotal character. It's probably because I write him immensely out of character. Part of me believes, and I'll say it here in this chapter too, that Dabi is someone completely different behind closed doors. I think once you legitimately gain his trust he'd be incredibly loyal. But anyhow...

And then, suddenly, his face was looming over my own. I inhaled sharply, marveling at the sight in front of me. He looked so unequivocally real. Had my hands not been strapped down, shackled to my very sides, I would have run my fingers across his cheek. Daintily pushed my hand into his hair, even, just to see how truly real this dream felt.

Warnings: None for this chapter. Reading the first chapter will probably help, but I suppose it's not necessary. I can't make you do anything you don't wanna anyways. 😂

“I’m not sure what you’re getting at, but this is very real. And if you keep spouting nonsense I’ll decay you without a second thought.”

“Why… why am I tied up? What is even going on?!!?” I said, trying to calm down and be rational, so I could try and figure out how to wake from this damned dream.

“Someone found you in the common room of our hideout, passed out. No one knows who you are, where you came from, or if you even have a quirk,” he quickly spoke, his gruff voice sounding completely done with our conversation. “We put a quirk-stopping cuff on your ankle for everyone’s protection.”

“I…” and I exhaled, unsure how any of this information would be taken, “I don’t know if I have a quirk either. And I’m not sure how I even ended up here. Shigaraki, there’s something strange going on and I don’t know how to explain it to you because I don’t fully understand it myself.”

“How… how do you know who I am?” worry laced clearly in his voice.

“Where I come from, you’re a villain… in a tv show. I wait every handful of months for the anime to be released. And then I binge-watch it with my online friends. You and your gang of misfits are not real, in my world. I just… I don’t understand how the hell I got here. This… has to be a sick joke. I’m high off my ass at home, or I hit my head. No doubt something stupid happened, I’m sure.”

And then, without warning, his face was looming over my own. I inhaled sharply, marveling at the sight in front of me. He looked so unequivocally real. Had my hands not been strapped down, shackled to my very sides, I would have run my fingers across his cheek. Daintily pushed my hand into his hair, even, just to see how truly real this dream felt. The red in his eyes was so very vibrant. I couldn’t focus on anything else. 

My mind switched gears when I finally noticed how angry he was. Panic set deep into my bones when I recalled what happened to people who made him angry.

“Your quirk is decay. You work closely with Dabi, Toga, Twice…, and a few others. Kurogiri takes care of you and the gang. I swear, I’m not trying to do any harm to you or your cause. I just… I want to go home.”

Shigaraki smirked, his scar catching my eye.

My heart fluttered, knowing very well that his smirk couldn’t have meant anything good.

“I hope you know that isn’t happening. You know too much. You’re just going to have to hang out with the league until we can figure out what the hell is going on with you. I’ll undo your wrists, but don’t make me regret doing it. Understand?” he asked, watching me closely.

I nodded my head and took a deep breath in.

True to his word, he loosened the restraints and set my wrists free. I quickly took them in my hands, rubbing the red marks to offer some form of relief. 

“Thank you, for setting me loose. I know this is a lot to take in. But I promise you, I’m the farthest thing from your enemy.”

His eyes stayed trained on me, scrutinizing my every action, I had to look away. His crimson gaze made me blush, forcing my face to feel overly hot.

Are we seriously blushing at a time like this?!? Get it together, idiot!

The door swung open quickly, cutting through the silence of the room, as Dabi pushed it haphazardly while leaning against the door frame. 

“Well hello there, gorgeous,” he smirked, his eyes scanning me from head to toe.

“Shut the hell up,” Shigaraki said, rolling his eyes and pushing past Dabi, intentionally knocking his shoulder with his own.

I smirked, seeing Dabi in all his glory. My best friend would have completely lost her mind at the sight before me. He was every bit of handsome that she always claimed he was. It wasn’t that I didn’t agree with her, I did to an extent. Those vibrant turquoise eyes were even more alluring in person. But I was fatally, head-over-heels, infatuated with Tomura Shigaraki.

He stepped up to my side, like an animal stalking its prey, and leaned into my personal space. The smell of freshly stoked fire and pine mixed in the air. I didn’t back down from his advances. I had my theory that Dabi was really easygoing when he was alone. If my mind was playing tricks on me, I had to have the courage to see if I was right on this one thing.

“What’s a pretty little thing like you doing in our place?”

“I’m not from your world.” I said unmoving, watching him under my eyelashes, waiting for his next move, “And I’m not falling for that charm either.” I smirked back at him.

He smiled nice and big, his pearly white teeth on display like the Cheshire cat, letting you know he was up to trouble.

“Playing hard to get?” he asked, his index finger tracing my collar bone that was on display.

“Nope. you’re pretty and all… but Shigaraki is more my type,” I said, being honest.

“Good one.” he chuckled, looking at me from under his eyelashes. I didn’t laugh. “Wait, you’re serious?”

“Dead,” I said, smiling at him.

“No shit. Wow… he should shoot his shot. You’re fine as hell and he should be so lucky that someone is looking at him like that in the least bit. The boy needs to get laid sometime this lifetime.”

I couldn’t stop the words that flowed freely from my lips. Dabi was a deeply traumatized character. And this vengeful path wasn’t going to lead him to any sort of peace. I needed him to stop everything now before he got too far.

“You should stop the villain work,” I said to him, making his eyes stop trailing over my body and meet my gaze, “You’re going to get severely hurt… and I don’t want to witness that.”

“Does your quirk have to deal with the future?” he asked me, quickly.

“I don’t know if I even have a quirk. Where I come from, this world is merely a tv show. Something made for everyone’s entertainment. If this is real, and not just some stupid dream of mine, the path you're on won’t end well, Touya. I need you to be safe. This road… it  won’t lead you to safety, it won’t lead you to peace.”

His cerulean eyes met mine in a stare so beguiling that I lost all air in my lungs. My heartbeat felt as though it was pounding in my ears as I quietly stood, awaiting his next move. He cleared his throat, nodded, and walked out of the room, leaving me standing by myself.

I exhaled what little air I was afforded, wondering what possibly compelled me to say his real name. I had known better. I had seen, firsthand, the sort of scene that unfolds when everything goes down between him and his father. I knew what that name meant to him. And yet I couldn’t stop myself from saying it.

Maybe, just maybe, it was in part to make him believe me. To allow me the luxury of having someone here that I could confide in. Someone who believed the words that flew effortlessly from my unguarded lips. My typical loneliness was something I wasn’t going to get over. Not even in my dreams could I pretend to be someone who didn’t seek comfort in making any sort of connection.

As my mind wandered, overanalyzing every little detail I said to Dabi, a voice cleared in front of me, breaking me from my task.

“Your room is this way, miss.” Toga said, smiling brightly to display her sharp canines and lead me to a room not far from where I was located.

She swung the door open and pushed me inside, guiding me to the lone bed that was the center of attention.

“It’s not much. But we can gather you new things as we go.” And she shuffled back to the door, “I’ll bring you some towels and some necessities for your bathroom.”

“Thank you,” I said slowly sitting on the edge of the bed, suddenly feeling like this dream was far too real to wake from.

“Sure thing.” And she closed the door behind herself as I sat, contemplating my next steps.

It wasn’t every day, or ever, that you got thrown into one of your favorite anime shows. Having to make the best of a bad situation seemed a little daunting, even more so when the company was a little less than inviting. 

I took a deep breath in, pushed myself back into the bed, and lay down closing my eyes tightly. More than ready for this dream to end and for my mind to wake in its rightful place.

Chapter 3

#tomura shiragaki #tomura x y/n #shigaraki x y/n #shigaraki x reader #mha shigaraki #bnha shigaraki #mha x reader #dabi #touya todoroki #league of villains #lov #isekai #turning him into the hero #because his backstory broke my heart into a million pieces #and I'll never get over it #he wanted to be a hero #tenko shimura

[2darklymelanatedstories]

Nameless crush (ft Piccolo)

Part 1: Curiosity

So beautiful. I found a perfect spot in the forest. A beautiful view of the sun resting on the horizon. Gohan took me her a few weeks back when we were trying to escape fangirls and paparazzi cause I asked to take a picture of him in his Great Saiyan Man outfit. I chuckled at the memory off Gohan almost being stripped naked by a bunch of fan girls.

I stared at the horizon as the fresh breeze hit my face. I enjoyed every minute of it. The peace, the fresh air, the view, nature. You couldn't find any of these in the city. Other than that there was something else about this place that drew me in, I don't know if its just the beauty of mother nature but something in me keeps telling me to come back. Like I'll find something more.

But every time I came back there wouldn't be anything out of the ordinary. I took out my earphones from my pocket and placed them in my ears. A song was already playing, probably because I never turn my music off. I listen to music more than I listen to people so I like to something playing just incase I need to tune out someone.

I laid there on the grass and looked up at the semi dark clouds in the sky.

"Hmm, could rain soon."I said to myself. Though I didn't really care if it rained. I don't mind getting wet. I closed my eyes and dozed off. Drifting into my secluded dream world.

I felt a wet, icy drop hit my cheek, though I dismissed it and went back to sleep. It wasn't until I heard a sound of someone moving, that I shot up and looked around, scanning my surroundings.

"Probably just another animal walking past."I said to myself as I let out a breath of relief. Though I couldn't help but feel like I was being watched. It started raining harder. I took out my earphones, my I've already went through my whole playlist so my music stopped playing a while ago. I looked up at the sky, letting the water stream down my face.

"Shouldn't you be indoors right now?"asked a deep, male voice from behind. It startled me but I didn't show it.

"I could ask you the same thing."I replied, my face still enjoying the cool rain. "Its raining cats and dogs out here, why aren't you inside?"

"I like training in the rain sometimes."the man said. "Whats your excuse?"

I stood up and cracked back, my back still facing the man.

"I like the rain out here and I don't feel like going back to the city. Its so peaceful here."

"Don't earthlings usually get sick from sleeping in the rain though?"he asked. "Earthling?" I thought.

Is this guy one of the aliens I've heard of or just weirdo. I heard him take a few steps closer. With my guard up, I turned quickly turned around to face this strange man.

I jumped back in shock to see him right in front of me. His chest so close to my face. It looked like...is he green? His purple gi that stuck to his green, wet, toned body and a white cape that gently flew in the breeze.

"Ok so he's clearly an alien. Dare I look up at his face?"

I slowly lifted my head up at the green man...alien. His dark, ivory eyes looked down at mine. I tried my best to hide my nervousness but I guess he could sense it becuase he took a few steps back.

I stared at his face, his features for a while. He didn't look that bad, actually pretty handsome.

"So are you gonna answer my question or just keep staring?"he questioned with an annoyed tone. It snapped me out of my thoughts breaking me out of the trance I was in.

"Oh yeah, sorry. I was just-"

"Staring at the hideous monster before you?"

I waved my arms frantically in the air, with an embarrassing blush on my face.

"What!? No, no. I mean I was staring but," I trailed off. "You're not hideous, you're actually pretty handsome for an alien. Gah! Not that I'm saying aliens are ugly but-"

He raised his hand, cutting me off. "Its fine. I understand, most people react this way when they see me",he said. "At least before running away screaming. Which I believe now is your cue to do so."

"Why would I do that?"I asked.

"Why not? Most earthlings do." He seemed curious.

"Well I'm not most. Thats stereotypical."I said, glaring at him. His dark, cold eyes staring back.

We glared at each other for about a minute until...I sneezed. He chuckled a bit before going back to his stoic state.

"Whats so funny?"I asked.

"I guess that answers my question."he teased. "You should head home, before it gets worse." He turned and flew up a few feet in the air.

"Hey wait, you can fly? Then why not give me a lift!?",I yelled out. He stopped mid-flight and turned to me with a grin on his face.

"I don't pick up weirdo's who like sleeping in the rain.",he responded. "Sorry but you're on your own. I also noticed that you didn't come here with a car, better start walking."

He then flew off, leaving me here.

"Why you big green–ugh!",I yelled, stomping my foot on the wet ground.

"Guess its my fault anyway. But he could've been a little helpful."

I walked back to the city, it wasn't to far from where I was. Plus it wasn't that bad since the rain lightened. Everything I had on was soaked and the uncomfortably wet clothes made it almost unbearable. But I made it nonetheless.

I opened the door to my apartment, tracking water and mud all over my floor. I stripped and got into the bath. After what happened I didn't feel like another shower. After the 20 minute soak I got into my fuzzy PJs, and slippers and made myself some tea while binge watching My wife and kids. I didn't pay attention to most of it as I was busy thinking of that alien guy I met. I silently cursed when I realised I didn't get his name. My God he was handsome. I needed to take a picture of him next time.

~

I couldn't sleep. My thoughts of this guy kept me up. Question after question hitting my brain whenever I tried to sleep. I needed to know more, to see more, to hear more. I got up around 3 in the morning and packed all my stuff. I wore my favourite black and yellow hoodie, dark jeans and purple sneakers. I left the apartment and headed to the same spot. Multitasking trying to tie my hair and eat a chocolate bar for my "breakfast".

I headed to the spot, the sun started rising in between the moutains. Letting nice warm light hit my face.

"Oh, it's you again." That deep voice, it was definitely him. "Though I didn't expect you to be here so early.",he said, he sounded intrigued. "Or do you always do this every morning?"

"Nope, I couldn't sleep so I decided to come here and explore the forest.",I said.

"Oh really. There's a lot of places to go to but you decided to come to this exact spot. Why?"

I wanted to turn around and look at him but fear of staring into those eyes stopped me.

"I just wanted to enjoy the view first.",I said nervously.

"Ok let me not stop you. Enjoy.",he said somehow knowingly. I heard him walking further away from me with each step.

"Wait.",I said. He stopped. "What's your name?" I turned to him. His back facing me. He glanced over his shoulder, his dark pupils got a glimpse of me.

"Piccolo."he said.

"Piccolo." His name felt sweet when I uttered it. Leaving my lips tingling.

"Nice name.",I happily said.

"I believe this is the part where you tell me yours." He came closer but this time I showed no nervousness. I tried to keep a neutral face but a smile crept out when he took his final step.

"Nope. I don't feel obligated to go around telling my name to strangers."

"You're a weird one."

"Really? Thank you, I was always told I wasn't normal. Now here an alien is, proving everyones point by calling me weird.

He gave me a small smile before levitating with his legs crossed. His eyes never leaving mine. Like he was observing me.

"Didn't anyone tell you its rude to stare?"I asked.

"Thats funny coming from someone who couldn't take their eyes off me yesterday."

I couldn't say anything. I just stared at him as a light blush appeared on my face. A soft chuckle escaped his lips, like he found this amusing.

I let out a fake cough. "What?"

"Why are you nervous?",he questioned. I snapped myself out of it and stood confidently.

"I'm not. Why would I be?" I folded my arms and turned to the side avoiding his gaze.

"Your face."

"What about my face?" I then became self conscious. Was there something on my face?

"Nothing. So you're not going to tell me your name?"he asked, changing the topic.

"No, why do you wanna know anyway?" At this point I was just trying to distract him with questions so he'd stop staring.

"Just curious."

The sound of his feet touching the ground made me quickly turn to face him. He glanced down at my bag for a second before looking back at me.

"Guess I'll see you tomorrow then.",he said before walking away.

"How do you know I'll be here tomorrow?",I asked suspiciously.

"I know you will.",he stated before taking off.

I sighed. Sweet breath of relief. His charcoal coloured eyes stopped staring into my soul. At least I knew his name now.

"Piccolo."

#piccolo #piccolo x oc #dragonball z #dragonball super #dragonball #dbs #dbz #piccolo x reader

[lovebillyhargrove]

Happy endings only. Life's a quest, innit

When Steve arrives at the hospital at around 7.30 pm on August 27th there's unusual commotion at the reception. He sees a couple of doctors who are not normally here so late.

"Good evening, Mrs. Marshall. How are you do.."

The nurse glances at him nervously. One glance, and Steve's worried sick. Did something bad happen while he was away ..

"Is everything alright?"

"He woke up, Steve! He woke up!!"

"What..?? Wait, that's.."

Steve's heartbeat deafens him. Is it real, or is he dreaming? He literally pinches himself, hard, has to make sure he's not sleeping and imagining it all.

"That's .. Really?!"

"Yes!"

Steve exhales, there's suddenly too much air in his lungs. He's feeling dizzy. Oh my god, he's going to faint, he's fainting..

Steve's grabbing the counter.

"When?"

"About an hour ago."

"Can I go see him?"

"Well, doctors are with him now, and I .. I really don't think it's a good idea right now. He seems.. disoriented. And angry."

"Angry? At who?"

"At everyone? He keeps asking why nobody told him and something else about a huge alien .. or a monster that is going to infect all of us .. he's probably still not in his right mind. We really hope his brain .. Doctors must run some tests to .. "

Mrs. Marshall looks at Steve and stops mid-sentence

"Everything is going to be alright. We called Dr. Owens, the one who brought him here on July 4th? Luckily, he was in Indianapolis. He is expected to arrive shortly."

"Yes, yes of course. So .. I can't go in? I just want to see him, even if for a second."

"Oh I don't really know, Steve.. Well, definitely not right now because the doctors are examining him at the moment. Everyone is so excited. Poor boy .. But you can stick around for a bit?"

"Sure. Thank you. I'll just wait here."

Steve is sliding down on a chair near the reception. He wants to see Billy so bad, he's been hoping for this moment for so so long, and now.. he's definitely happy but he's feeling physically unwell.

Steve sees a doctor opening the door of Billy's room and calling Mrs. Marshall in. The doctor is looking a bit .. disheveled. How many people are in there? What's going on? When can Steve finally see him?

Ten minutes later people are starting to leave Billy's room. Three doctors and two nurses.

Steve is getting up and looking around. His legs are bringing him closer to the room on autopilot. He'll just get a peek, no harm done. Just to make sure Billy's really woken up.

Steve opens the door slowly and sticks his head inside. Billy's is propped up in bed with pillows around him, wild hair and wild tired eyes.

Holy shit, this is real. He's awake.

It's another miracle. Billy is so thin and pale and he looks like a sick little child .. But he's awake. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Steve's not sure what or who he's thanking right now, but he really wants to let it out in the universe.

When Steve moves a bit further and opens his mouth to say something, Billy turns his head slightly and the tormented and very unchildlike look is landing on Steve's face.

"Oh hey, Harrington. What are you doing here?" In a raspy voice,

And not waiting for an answer.

"Get the fuck out."

"But Billy I just want to .."

"I don't want to see anybody. Get the fuck out. NURSE!!!!!!"

Steve shuts the door quickly and gets back to his chair. That did not go how he'd pictured it would. Oh fuck. His hands are trembling.

Billy's voice sounded so husky, so rough, just on the verge of frantic

Yet it was like music to Steve's ears. "Harrington." He fucking missed it. No-one calls Steve "Harrington" like that. Only Billy.

Mrs. Marshall rushes into Billy's room. She only stays there for a couple of minutes. When she's out, Steve's already at her side

"Why didn't he want to see me?"

"Oh, Steeve .. give him time. Can you imagine being in a coma? .. You can't. I can't. Give him time, everything will get better." There's almost motherly concern in Mrs. Marshall's voice. "The boy has been through so much."

Steve wants to say "You can't even begin to imagine through what" but bites his tongue. He hates it, that he can't really talk about what happened with someone, except Robin, Nancy and the kids. He'd really appreciate adult perspective on all of this. He'd really like to just .. talk to someone older than him. Hopper is missing, believed to be dead, Mrs. Byers is gone. Steve likes Dr. Owens, but it's not like he can stop by for a chat any time.

Steve sits down on the chair again. He's clearly not welcome here, but he doesn't want to go home.

What he really wants to do right now is to get on the rooftop and shout till his voice gets hoarse.

In Steve's mind it was, of course, more like .. he would hug Billy or .. or at least talk to him. He certainly didn't expect to be told to get the fuck out. Ouch.

Steve decides to stay here some more, because he literally can't imagine going home now. To do what? .. eat dinner? watch fucking TV?

Owens does arrive soon. He goes straight to Billy's room, nodding at Steve as he's passing him by.

Steve notices that twenty minutes later all doctors leave Billy's room and Owens stays there alone with Billy. When he finally goes out and addresses everyone who's waiting for him, he says:

"Well, he is a handful. If there's anything you need, contact me right away. We'll send in our person tomorrow to start psychological therapy. Thank you all for your service, you've been doing exceptional work here. We'll keep in touch."

He shakes hands with every doctor and every nurse.

"Steve! May I have a word with you?"

Owens remembers Steve. They had so much to talk about after the 4th of July.

***

Next week Billy proved to be very difficult. He only talked to the doctors and the nurses of the hospital. The ones who had been taking care of him for the last two months.

He threw a crutch at the psychologist who was sent by the government to have sessions with Billy. Next time the man returned, it was an open cup of jell-o.

He refused to see Max. When his father and step-mother came by, he pretended to be asleep, so their visit only lasted two minutes or so. They came back a couple of days later but Billy just happened to be asleep again. The nurse didn't let Neil wake him up. "Sleep is very important at this stage, Mr. Hargrove. Billy's gaining his strength back."

Steve could swear on his life, Billy and the nurses were in some kind of conspiracy. Hospital staff seemed to have a strange kind of rapport with Hargrove.

Dr. Owens came by again and managed to stay for 30 minutes in the room with Billy and, apparently, have a decent conversation. However, when it came down to signing non-disclosure, even Owens couldn't find the right approach to Billy and left with nothing but Billy's promise "to keep his mouth shut."

Steve has heard from the nurses that Billy's body is very weak. Repaired and not majorly broken anymore, but the muscles have gone weak. Atrophy. There's a long way ahead of him. But he is a determined one. A fighter. He gets off the bed, has already started walking around the room. Refuses to be helped in the bathroom.

Steve? Oh, he still keeps coming by every day. Today is day 7 of his visits when he actually doesn't get to see the patient. Comes to the hospital to hang around the reception. He wonders if the nurses are fed up with him already.

"Excuse me, Mrs. Miller, can you maybe ask him if he will see me today?"

It's easier to get an appointment with the Queen of England, for fuck's sake.

Steve doesn't mind.

He firmly believes in miracles. The universe has not let him down so far.

Mrs. Miller returns back smiling.

"It's a yes! He rolled his eyes and said "Whatever". I guess he's in a better mood today," - she says encouragingly.

Well, this is it. Steve's running a hand through his hair. He hopes he looks good.

He opens the door and looks inside the room

"Billy?"

A pause.

"The book's overdue at the library."

"W .. what?"

"Were you reading Shakespeare to me, Harrington?"

"Uhm.. yeah? Yeah, I was."

"Are you out of your mind? They all died in there. Way to motivate a guy to wake up from a coma."

"Well, it's the book that you.. do you remember? Was it you??"

"I remember, Harrington. My brain is fine. And I said they lacked communication! Speaking of, why the fuck no-one told me Hawkins is fucked up to unbelievable levels, huh?"

Here it comes. Steve's made it into the room and is standing near Billy's bed, contemplating if he should sit down or remain standing.

Here it comes.

"Billy, we .. we weren't really.. friends. Besides, we thought it was all finished when El closed the portal a year ago."

"Oh so only friends are allowed to know the truth? Only the chosen ones?? What about the rest of us, peasant folk? Not privy to the Knights of the Round Table shenanigans?"

"What.. ? What round table? Billy, listen. I know it's fucked up.. there's government involved and it's not so easy. Like.. they make everyone sign these non-disclosure papers .. you can't walk around talking about it with anyone you want."

"And yet, a bunch of snoopy kids were in on it."

"Exactly. Snoopy. They were just .. in it together basically from the beginning."

"Even Max?"

"Well, she .." - Steve's scratching his eyebrow. "Not .. not from the very beginning."

"Thought so."

"But I, I did sign that confidentiality pledge. They'll make you sign one too."

"Fuck them. They tried. I won't sign shit."

"But they will .."

"What, Harrington? They will what? What leverage do they have on me?"

"I don't know .. your family? Your life?"

Billy laughs bitterly

"My family? There are certain things about my family, that make me really doubt it can be used as leverage."

Steve's registering the words. Definitely needs to come back to that later.

"My life? I just nearly lost it. They can have it."

"Don't! Hey don't say that."

It's now or never.

Steve takes a deep breath and carefully touches Billy's fingers with his own.

"Your life is precious."

"That's just bullshit."

Billy's tensing up. His eyes slowly travel down to the place where Steve's touching Billy's fingers

There are so many things unsaid, the air is galvanized. It doesn't make it less real though.

It makes it surreal.

Billy's looking

But doesn't say anything

Steve takes Billy's hand in his own.

"Don't touch me, Harrington."

Hargrove is a handful. Steve wants it, all of it.

"Why not?"

"Because."

Steve is still holding Billy's hand in his own.

"Okay, look. I'm sorry, Billy. I am. I'm sorry I didn't warn you about any of that. But I didn't even know you were involved in this whole mess. Until I saw you there. It's a .. fucking long story and if you'll let me.. I'll explain everything."

Billy takes his hand away. Steve doesn't stop talking.

"And please, don't be so hard on Max. Just let her see you. Talk to her. They are kids and they were all alone with what they were dealing with. Usually there are .. adults .. to uh .. help in such situations. Or me. But I was held captive in a Starcourt underground base, and Hopper and Mrs. Byers, they were .. somewhere figuring some related stuff out, so the kids.. They didn't really have any guidance."

"Yeah tell that to Heather. To her parents. To the fucking families, Steve, who got killed."

"Billy .. It's not your fault. It's not my fault either, or Max's or any of the kids' who were involved in that. It's .. just Hawkins, man. Evil. Horrifying shit happens here. Thank god you got out of it alive."

Billy is silent. His eyes are closed.

"Okay."

"Okay?? That's it?"

"I'm tired."

"Alright. I'll come by tomorrow."

"Why?"

"Because I want to see you. And I want to talk more."

"Bye, Steve."

"Yeah .. Sleep well."

Steve's leaving the room. He wants to stay, he wants to tell Billy how much he has missed him, he wants to tell him that he still keeps all the notes in the drawer near his bed, and he keeps rereading them, he's learnt them all by heart.

Steve wants to .. say so much. Do so much.

They have time.

***

"Listen! It's raining. September rain."

Steve opens the window and fresh fragrant air is flooding Billy's room.

Steve visits Billy every day. He stays late and they talk, hushed voices in the dimly lit hospital room. It even feels kinda nice. Feels a bit like home.

Billy inhales the sweet autumn air with his whole chest. Slowly lets it out. Looks at the wall.

"So what are we now, Harrington?"

Steve both expected and isn't prepared for this question.

"Uhm .. I uh.. I guess we'll have to wait and see."

Hargrove's chuckling.

"How soon you're gonna be able to walk properly?"

"Why? Don't want me as a cripple??"

"Not that, you idiot."

Steve is taking Billy's hand. That's really all they've been doing. Holding hands like dumb teenagers.

"It's just.. it's the hospital. Like.. there's no privacy."

Steve's looking at Billy's lips. He wants to kiss him so bad

But he turns away and looks at the door. It doesn't even have a lock.

"See, any second anyone can walk in. I don't want our first kiss to be interrupted by a fainting nurse or a shrieking Max."

"Maybe nurses here are way more chill than they look."

"Yeah maybe. But still .."

Steve's looking at Billy's lips again. He wonders how long he'll be able to fight the urge, really? They are so kissable. Magnetic

"You know, I uh .. Billy's closing his eyes and putting his head back on the pillow. "I want to thank you. For coming here. Harrington. When I was unconscious, I heard you. I heard your voice mumbling something and I even felt your fingers touching my skin."

Billy opens his eyes and looks straight into Steve's. Drawls

"C'mon let's kiss. Just a small one, c'mon Steve.." Smiles. Pouts his lips, just a little

Steve's giggling

"No, Billy, not like this. Oh my god, you're so .."

"So .. what?"

"When are you getting out of here?"

"I don't know. Doctors are always going on how unsure they are I can take care of myself on my own. But .. I'm planning an escape, Harrington. Can't stay here any longer. Enough."

Billy's eyes are closed again, his lips part a bit and it looks like he's dozing off. Steve's watching him and can't, he absolutely can't stop himself. Steve gets closer to Billy's face and kisses him lightly on the cheek.

"How's that for our first kiss, Hargrove? It's not much but.."

It's the most tender kiss he's ever had. The most meaningful one.

There's life and death in that kiss, and Steve's falling even further.

If he's losing his mind over a little kiss on the cheek, what would happen when he. When they .. You know?

He kisses him again. On the cheek. And this time? Billy moans. Just a slight moan leaving his lips, and he turns the head to the other side

And, excuse me, this quiet moan?

It goes straight to Steve's dick. Bypassing his brain, his heart, literally any part of the body that's supposed to be engaged in the chemistry of love processes

Just goes straight to his dick.

Billy's eyelashes are fluttering like feathery wings of an exotic butterfly.

"Didn't take you for a pervert, Harrington." - he's whispering.

"You don't know me, Hargrove. I'm a wild ride."

"Shit, and here I thought that my dick was brain dead."

The sheet on Billy is visibly tenting.

"Look how easy I am. When you're close to me."

Steve's in heaven. And they haven't even tried anything yet. Fuck. This is .. everything. Mind-shattering. Intoxicating. Magic potion is spreading in Steve's veins.

***

Billy definitely calls Steve "the pervert who first kissed me in my sleep".

Steve's defense is always the same

"You looked so beautiful. Like a sleeping beauty. I couldn't resist."

"You know there's a name for it. You're a somnophile, Harrington."

"Oh yeah? You fucked me last night when I was half asleep. I guess it takes one to know one."

***

Years later when they are older and have grown into each other's skin and flesh, Steve's thinking

Well. Who knew that having Billy as a boyfriend would be so much fun.

A lifetime of together with Billy fucking Hargrove is actually the best miracle that could've ever happened to Steve Harrington.

#harringrove #billy x steve #harringrove fic

[claudiajcregg]

i'd love to hear any behind the scenes you have on 'say it's here where our pieces fall in place' bc i read it and loved it and i want to know about it 💜

Welp, I've been thinking about this since you sent it and I feel I won't do it justice! I feel like I could say a lot if I went chapter by chapter, but many tabs of unread fics stare back at me. I'll skim and try to say something, though.

Some commentary on say it's here where our pieces fall in place under the cut! I am sick and rambly. And lbr I can never shut up anyway, but this might be too incoherent even for me. (Original ask post here)

It was sort of an unofficial NaNoWriMo project, in that I set myself a goal to tackle “longer fics” or ideas I wanted to cover but hadn't. From my notes, I had this idea to write a ficlet per year because I always enjoy this kind of story, and I know I'd tried to approach different ones in the past. I started writing in late October/finished in Nov 2021. (The other fic I started was never finished, even if dammit, it hits.) I posted it in January, so it wasn't that bad, considering I'll often take months.

It's maybe important to note that I had only finished writing “The Monster (affectionate)” (aka the 148k-ish word IM AU) in early September and I felt a bit burned out after spending five months writing that (would’ve been less but the struggle was real for the last third of the story. Oddly reminiscing of you-know-what story these days). This arbitrary deadline helped me get back into writing. Granted, I wrote a couple of fics in those five months, but I wanted to try another multichapter.

Anyway. I picked some random, perhaps not obvious choices for the vignettes. It was partly to avoid writing something I might have potentially covered at one point, and also a challenge. Some are also strange (the dream!), but I kinda loved it? (Fun fact: the fic references the Sherry-Netherland, whose exterior is the establishing shot in Internal Displacement. I swear there is some thought put into my writing.) And as the A/N I wrote to myself, I definitely wrote and rewrote bits and pieces of this on my way to and from therapy, haha.

Let me find a fun fact about each of the chapters, if I can think of any.

1998: actually repurposed some campaign fic idea I distinctly remember writing in spring 2018, while I was still in uni. It also has GLOVES. I live for that.

1999: I like the idea of exploring Danny and Abbey's relationship! They presumably have a good one and yet, I don't think we ever see them interact. (And god. Danny's recent, pre-campaign breakup is a recurring theme in my campaign stories too, loool.)

2000: Danny and Josh are an underrated friendship, and I like the references to Rosslyn. There was so much in those months in Midterms that we didn't see, and I like thinking Danny visited his friend.

We also got two back-to-back chapters focused on Danny - I remember trying to make it even, so that the focus was more or less evenly split.

2001: the Manchester fuckup! And it's one of the dream chapters! There were two of them? (We're 3 out of 4 in which I was surprised by the focus, but now I kinda want to re-read it all properly?) I'll say that I can see some vague, unconscious inspo from Freefall by KadeeFalls in this chapter (esp since I was just talking to you about it)... But I'm mostly obsessed with the magical realism (there's another term that my foggy brain cannot think of rn) of dreams, and how it can help us clear our heads.

2002: I remembered this was set after Simon! I know it's probably an odd, controversial choice but they both tried to move on (at least, we know CJ did), and it felt disingenuous not to include it. There are moments when she almost admits to her previous (?) feelings for Danny, but stops.

As with most thus far, there were fluffier and probably better choices for 2002 (Christmas!!), but... My brain wanted it to appear like CJ couldn't really bring herself to think about Danny.

2003: Aw, the specialty store is inspired by a franchise over here that had Goldfish (not many flavors) and I took a dramatic license and added it over there. I also added a small flashback because I love thinking Danny doesn't think they're all that but likes them. (But will tease CJ about it.) Plus, some more resolution to moving on!

2004: Yeah, the formatting is weird. (This is one I'd have to go back and do a blockquote or something.) Danny winning a Pulitzer for the Shareef stuff is a mostly accepted headcanon. CJ seeing his picture on the paper and having feels is just something I love, especially if he mentions someone else. (Look. I'm all for letting him pine, but he deserves to move on and fail too.) Plus Josh teasing her!

2005: The Sherry-Netherland! fwiw, I'm sure I had finally figured out this was the place and decided it would be so cheeky to add it here. I'm so sMaRt. Flowers when she gets promoted! And my spin (in this story) of CJ vaguely shunning him. This is the angst before the fluff.

2006: I remembered this one was a dream at some restaurant! (Again the formatting is not great, but I didn't want to tip my obvious hand.) The same way I think CJ's dream in 2001 was about her wondering how Danny would have reacted, this is about Danny realizing he needs to reach out to her... But with the added family ~tale~. Def inspired by that lyric in "Sad Beautiful Tragic."

2007: I feel like having it at some random dinner with Josh and Donna was an odd choice, but I loved the idea of a double date! The scarf scene is just so! And the chaos siblings energy is great. It was a reprieve from the angst.

Meeting at LAX was right there! I had written a story or two trying to do it justice, so I'm guessing that's why it's not. And fwiw the airport story I wrote shortly after that is the one being posted ~soon~. (A rewritten, slightly expanded version.)

2008: Pregnancy mood swings! It hurt to make them fight, but it's so fluffy otherwise. From what I remember, it has various references to things that happen in the story (particularly from the first two chapters) but it still manages to close it rather nicely, showing how strong their marriage is. I hope.

Okay. This has gotten way too long and it's probably useless.

I've always said I could have written another 11 chapters using different scenes, because there are just so many, even outside the obvious ones... Though I feel I wouldn't be able to recapture the magic.

I do definitely want to reread this for real. As with many fics, it's one of those I used to reread often before posting it (especially the last quarter/third) and then just ignored after. See some other recent examples, such as memoir fic, Portland fic.

Thank you for asking, Ally! God, I used to be a good writer. What happened?!??!

#fanfic director's cut #ask games #onekisstotakewithme #asks #it's taken me an hour or so to write it alskdjasdasd

[sgcairo]

My Dearest Darling (Irnes X Fatui! Reader Part Three)

Somehow, we made it to 200+ followers! Here's the third part of the series, and I believe I'll probably need a masterpost soon for what I have planned... This part is mostly letters, for those wondering. There's a little bit at the end that isn't letters, but here's all of Irnes' major writings to you! Still SFW, Irnes is a smitten man and the mortifying ordeal of having to explain why there's a nude painting of him in the mail would probably give him a heart attack. So here you go, some letters from Irnes during your time apart!

Seventh of Winter

My darling,

I used to write all the time, when I was much younger. But since my body doesn't work as well as it used to, I've found that writing my observations and letters is much harder than it was. Regardless, I will do my best for you, as you're all alone and I can't bear to leave you that way.

Today is the seventh day of winter. You left yesterday, yet I can't stop thinking about you. It's around this time that my pain starts to act up from the cold, so I've been sequestered in my chair by Sergei so I don't hurt myself. But there's so much to do! The projects for the Doctor will not finish themselves, and I have several reports to finish! Alas, Sergei is vehemently keeping me confined, I'm only allowed to walk with his assistance (though I'm quite sure I don't need it). However, that is not of any importance, as my thoughts have been only on your lovely voice.

There's no greater force in this world than passion and love. I know this well, subjects put under extreme duress in impossible situations are invigorated by the sight of their true desire, whether it be relation or object. In this case, I am the subject, so dearly in love with you that I would do anything, survive a bludgeoning that would kill a man. Oh how I love you, my dear, it pains me to know that you're so far away, across the sea and serving Her Majesty in the name of progress.

I cannot confess it to your face, but clones do not... dream, at least, not often. It's not that we're incaptable, no, it's that we have nothing to dream about, other than our beloved creator's goal, which is rather boring to think, let alone dream about. But I've found that my dreams have been solely occupied by you, to the point that Prime would have written it off as an illness. It is not an illness, I know that much, but it really is peculiar. I've never dreamed like this before... Can you believe that?

But enough about me, how has your trip been? By the time you read this letter, I predict you will be in Sumeru, so I must ask how it went. I don't know if you get seasick or not, but I hope not, otherwise I would have made a little something to make you feel better. Do let me know, I'll send a package for next time! I forgot to inform you, but I have given Omega express orders to make sure you're well, a favor that he's been dying to pay off. If he is unkind to you, tell me and I will ensure that his return will be anything but pleasant. I will also tell Prime, because I am physically incapable of smacking him upside the head with sufficient force to get through that thick skull of his.

Anyhow, I know you don't have much time to read an essay worth of words, so I will stop here. Do take care of yourself, my love. I wait for your reply.

With love, Irnes

Eleventh of Winter

My dear,

It has been a few days since I have written last, but only because I seem to have fallen ill again. Even now, Sergei is writing this for me, as I am not allowed to leave my bed or do any strenuous tasks. Though I'm fairly sure that writing isn't a strenuous task when you have nothing to do... Do not worry about me, however, my sickness is nothing serious, just a small cold. Sergei is merely overreacting, I am perfectly fine, I believe that I am being forced to rest as a precaution, nothing more.

I miss you so much. I cannot wait to hold you in my arms again, I do believe that the saying "in absence does the heart grow fonder". I've found myself somewhat distracted from my work by thoughts of you, and Sergei is giving me a look as I say this. I should apologize to Prime, now that I think about it. No matter, I will get to it eventually. Eventually.

I've been thinking about our future recently. Being sick gives me too much time alone with my thoughts, it seems! When you return, I will speak more of it, but I think that perhaps- if you weren't opposed- we could make it somewhat official? I quite like the idea of you being mine. Perhaps it's my brain's response to theoretical death that's saying this... but I also like the idea of being yours. I like that idea better, actually. Being yours would make me truly happy.

But do tell me about your adventures in Sumeru! There are these particular creatures called Aranara that you may run across during your adventures, do send any pictures if you find them! They have little hats and usually dance around near trees. You may need a child to find them, but they are positively adorable! I have also sent some pressed flowers from my collection, one of them being a wild glaze lily. Fully intact, preserved for a few years, though the exact number of years escapes me. Consider it a bribe! Just kidding, but Sumeru really is a fascinating place. I think you will enjoy it immensely.

Anyways, my throat hurts and Sergei is glaring at me. Do take care of yourself, my love. I promise that I'll be alright, don't worry about me. Enjoy your time away, I will be here waiting for you.

Yours, Irnes

Sir, Irnes is delirious and will not be writing to you for some time. I apologize for the inconvenience, but he needs rest. He is also trying to escape, so please do write to tell him to stop running out in the cold with minimal clothing. By that I mean almost nothing. Thank you.

Sergei

Twentieth of Winter

My dearest darling,

I think it will please you to know that I have fully recovered since your last letter, in which you expressed much concern over my health. I can assure you that I am back on my feet! Prime is working me to near death, but it is the busiest season, as the deep cold keeps specimens from falling apart as easily. We also have new segments that have to be taken care of... Having naked ones running around is amusing, to say the least. They have no concept of morality or language yet, which has made for a few fires.

Anastasiy also has been discovering the concept of cookies lately, he has been hoarding them in his room. I have been pressed to make more, though Lord Pantalone is threatening to have me disbanded for getting him addicted to sugar. I can't help it though, his eyes have that little twinkle when he sees them! Oh well. I'll be sure to make you some once you return, as they are best warm.

Omega has notified me that you've been working quite hard under his jurisdiction. Don't let him pressure you into working more, my dear! He may be your superior, but I will come to Sumeru myself and knock him upside the head, just you wait. The warmth would keep my joints nice and loose, just for his ass kicking.

Do make sure that you're getting enough water and food! Sumeru can dehydrate you, especially in the humid areas! I would hate for you to get hurt or pass out because of it! Sleep is also important, especially in a land with no dreams. Without dreams as an indication of deep sleep, do try to get the advised eight hours a night (though I am fully aware that your schedule may not allow it). I have sent some herbal teas with this letter to help you sleep well, should you require them. They are a blend I procured and mixed personally, do tell me if it is not to your liking.

It's good to hear that you're doing well in Sumeru. Your stories are quite amusing, that Maksim of yours really is a mischievous man. I am glad that your comrades are taking care of you, despite getting goo all over your uniform. And do not worry about the uniform, dear. I happen to know how to get stains out of any fabric, and we can even get you a new one, should it be unsalvageable.

I wish I could hold you through a letter, but I'm afraid the universe has concrete limits. I send all my love to you, and I hope to hear from you again soon. Take care, my dear.

Yours, Irnes

Second of Spring

My star,

Snezhnaya does not have much of a spring season. It doesn't exactly have seasons, either. Though I look forward to summer, at least the cold relents ever so slightly. It's nice, on the old aches.

I have been invested in a project recently. It may be a bit forward of me, but I suppose I will simply have to show you in person. It will take some time to complete, however. Oh dear, it definitely

In your previous letter, you mentioned your family. I would very much like to meet them, that is, if you would like to be seen with someone like me. I don't know what's come over me lately, but things feel... wrong. It's nothing to do with you or any of the others, I simply feel strange in my own skin. An ache has started in my chest, the mirrors feel awfully oppressive as of late. I apologize, I know I shouldn't burden you with my thoughts like this.

I should write at another time, I suppose.

Third of Spring

My dearest,

I do not know how long you'll be gone, but it's almost been a season since you've left. I'm almost tempted to come visit you, though Sergei says it's a bad idea. Travelling in my condition... It would certainly be painful, but I would do it just to see you again. It would be worth it, every small pain. Though I know you wouldn't approve, so I will stay here and wait.

I do have some funny tidbits from my days taking care of the new clones. It's only been a few weeks, but they still insist on causing chaos, fairly standard of their base instincts. Though one of them in particular is very interested in vandalizing the holding room with... phallic objects. I've caught him in the act not once, not twice, but THREE times. I audibly sigh just thinking about it, is this what raising children is like?

Speaking of which, what are your opinions on children? Merely out of curiosity, as you seemed to have an aversion when I introduced you to Danya. Though I did see children in that family picture of yours... I must ask if you have siblings! Perhaps cousins, if not... It puzzles me, the children do look remarkably similar to you... blood relations, I'm sure. Please help me, my dear! I'm dying of curiosity!

I have inquired further with Prime about Sumeru out of my own curiosity. How wondrous! I wish I could be there with you, I hear that Sumeru City truly is a beautiful place. I also received those pictures of the Aranaras that you sent! They are quite adorable, and they have been taken from me by those ungrateful and greedy little creatures that Prime calls his image. They are currently begging me to ask you to send more, though I know you are quite busy and have little time to yourself, so do not feel pressured to comply.

In exchange for those marvelous pictures, I have included one of a rather disappointed segment in the bath and a few setting fires. I do hope you will be amused by them, it is quite embarrassing for them, but deserved after they stole my pictures. I am a man of spite, my dear, and I will not hesitate.

I love you, my dear. I hope that soon you will return to me.

Yours, Irnes

Fifteenth of Spring

My dear,

I should tell you the story of how I got these burns, hm? I have little to talk about nowadays, my time is rather mundane while serving Prime, so I suppose this may be the best way to tell you. While I would much rather say it to your face... Part of me knows that I would lose my courage in that situation, and for that I am sorry. You deserve nothing but my best, but I should tell you that I can be quite a cowardly man when it serves me. Or perhaps when it matters most.

It was many years ago. So many that it's only a vague recollection. I was in charge of a ruin guard factory, a short distance outside of Liyue Harbor. In fact, I believe it is still there, albeit abandoned. I was working in Prime's place, during one of his obsessions. I was quite proud of being promoted to a manager of such an important project, so much so that it seems foolish now, looking back on it. I was young, fresh out of the pod and eager for responsibility. It was stupid, in hindsight.

The accident itself involved that very hubris I held. At first, it was just my coat getting stuck in one of the open gears of a nearby incinerator. The next, it was my glove, then my hand. It hurt, it hurt so much. The gears crushed my skin, my bones. The fire burned through muscle, it felt like I was being torn apart. The open flame spread, until I was fully ablaze. I cried for help, but it was too late. The severe burns on my right side are what remains of that accident, as well as the crookedness of my arm. I don't remember much after catching fire. Just voices and flashes of light. I thought I was going to die.

Somehow, though, I did not. When I opened my eyes next, I was back in the cold of the motherland, the sky full of stars. That was the first time I'd ever seen the stars above my home. It was beautiful, like something out of a dream. The next time I woke up, it was with Prime holding a bone saw in front of my face. I almost wet myself, I'll tell you that much. It was terrifying. He planned to use it to cut through the skin as well! Blasphemy!

I couldn't walk and barely spoke for a few months after that. It took me a year, perhaps a bit more, to fully be able to walk again. Even then, it was embarrassingly haphazard. Still is, if I'm being honest.

I don't know what has come over me, writing this. I apologize, my dear. But know that I care for you, and that I wait for you to return.

Please keep safe.

Yours, Irnes

Forty Third of Spring

My dear,

I have not heard of you for some time. I do hope you're alright. Perhaps it is because you're busy, but I hope it's not because you're wounded. That would hurt more than you not having time...

Please take care of yourself.

Yours, Irnes

Eighth of Summer

Tsaritsa have mercy, it can't be true. Please, don't let it be true. Please. It's a lie, a clever prank by Omega.

Please.

It's summer. It's the warmest that this horrid place will ever get. I planned... I had so much planned.

Don't leave me alone. Please. My heart can't take it. It's selfish, I know. But please don't leave me.

I love you, my dear.

#irnes #fatui reader #fatui x reader #fatui x gn reader #il dottore's clones #fatui #fatui harbingers #genshin impact #this made me very very sad #beat me with a stick i deserve it