#for curious parties nothing went wrong per se

[radiantseraphina]

I may have crashed and burned on the first day of teaching my composition class, but I looked fabulous doing it!

#i dressed very dramatically today #just like lord byron before me #professor bellemonte! #for curious parties nothing went wrong per se #the energy was just off

[roman-writing]

the spectres vain (1/2)

Fandom: The Haunting of Bly Manor

Pairing: Dani Clayton / Jamie / Viola Lloyd

Rating: M

Wordcount: 5,553

Summary: She had said before, ‘so many people mix up love and possession,’ and now years later she wondered if that was the reason why they had been given so much time. That maybe Viola thought this was love. That maybe she loved this. Loved her. Love them. 

Content Advisory: spoilers and horror. Also (eventual) ghost sex.

read it here on AO3 or you can read it below the break

“What is a ghost? Something dead that seems to be

alive. Something dead that doesn’t know it’s dead.

A painting, for instance. An abstraction.” 

    - 'landscape with fruit rot and millipede’, Richard Silken

 -

For as long as Jamie had known her, Dani had never liked having her picture taken. Whenever a camera would be pointed in her direction, it were as though the lens were the long blued barrel of a rifle. She would flinch and try to cover it up with a laugh or cough or some other small action -- like scratching at her neck -- even as she continued ducking her head to one side. 

Jamie lowered the polaroid. The flash had already gone off and the print was sliding out. She grabbed the end and yanked it free. “Sorry,” she said with a grimace, even as she waved the film like a fan in a futile attempt to make the slip develop faster.

“It’s okay,” said Dani.

“I’d just like some more pictures of us to go around the apartment, you know?” 

“Yeah, no, it’s okay. I get it.” 

Jamie stopped fanning herself with the square slip of film and was now squinting down at the image that was beginning to take form. “Christ, Poppins.”

“What is it? What’s wrong?” Dani asked. And despite her earlier camera-shyness, she had lowered her hand from her throat and was now peering at the film with a look that was equal parts curious and apprehensive. 

Jamie flipped the film between her fingers to show her. “You move too much,” she said with a grin, followed by a recriminating cluck of her tongue. 

With a furrow of her brow, Dani shuffled over and leaned forward to get a better look. Jamie sidled closer so that they could study at the photo together, their shoulders brushing so that Jamie could feel the scratchy wool of Dani’s jumper against her upper arm. 

The film took form slowly. The grey mistiness parted like a veil being lifted over a bride’s head to reveal the Dani of just moments ago. She had been caught mid-motion. The effect was that of two figures blurred together -- one standing straight, the other ducked down and clutching her hands to her chest, arms lifting to ward off an incoming blow. In the odd half-light of the morning, she almost looked like two entirely different people, their faces smudged beyond all recognition.

Jamie sighed and handed the photo over. “Ah, well. I tried.”

Dani took the film in both hands, pinching the white edge between thumbs and fingers. “I’m sorry,” she breathed down at the image. 

“Nah. It’s alright.” Jamie nudged Dani’s shoulder with her own, and winked. She waggled the camera in her other hand. “Just means I’ll have to take loads more.”

Lowering the photograph, Dani rolled her eyes, but smiled nonetheless. 

 -

They went on a honeymoon. At least, that’s what they called it, though there was no official wedding per se. Just a party, a gathering of their scant few friends and none of their family. The moment Jamie had mentioned her own shithead family in relation to the party, Dani’s face had gone pale as a sheet, and that was that. No family allowed. Especially not Dani’s. 

Honestly that suited Jamie just fine. There was nobody to make a fuss. Nobody to ruin the reception party -- no more than a private dinner affair with too much wine and champagne and cheap yet filling finger-food. The kind she could always make room for even after she was full. The perfectly boring not-wedding, to be honest. And Jamie was always unflaggingly honest. 

The honeymoon wasn’t more than a mountain retreat to a cabin nestled in autumnal woods. A small place. No sprawling manor house here. Just a private retreat where they could be alone together for a week or two.

Driving up to the cabin, it wasn't much, but it was still exactly what Jamie had imagined.

Except for the lake. They hadn't mentioned that in the brochures.

"Fuck," Jamie swore, slaming on the brakes and throwing the car into neutral, where the engine idled. "Shit. I'm so sorry. They didn't say -"

"It's fine," Dani insisted, but her eyes were fixed upon the body of water.

"We can go somewhere else. C'mon. I'll take us back to that town an hour back, and we can -"

Dani grabbed her hand where it gripped the steering wheel and squeezed. "Hey," she said softly, and she pulled her eyes away from the lake so she could look over at Jamie and offer a reassuring smile. "It's okay. Really."

In this light, her mismatched eyes were even more apparent. The early afternoon sun slanted across her face so that she was haloed by the gold of her hair, and her eye was blue and clear as water. The other was another matter. Jamie tried not to look too hard at that one. That wasn't her.

Breathing in deeply, Jamie nodded. She looked back out over the dash and through the windscreen. Their interlocked fingers were reflected in the tilted glass. She could feel Dani stroking a cold thumb across her knuckles. Her hands were always cold these days. Not like before. Now, Jamie had to be heat enough for both of them.

"Alright." Jamie grasped Dani's hand, lifted it up, then brought it gently back down atop the steering wheel. Then she slipped her hand free and turned the key in the ignition. The engine puttered to a halt. Jamie whirled the keys around one finger so that they clicked snugly against her palm. She offered Dani a puckish grin. "Let's go, then. I'm dying to see what mediocrity awaits us inside."

Dani gave a huff of laughter. "I'm sure it'll be lovely."

But Jamie was already kicking open the door and stepping out of the pickup. Leaves crunched under the worn soles of her boots. The air was brisk but the sun was warm. The lake steamed in the afternoon light. Licks of white curling from the smooth glassy surface. Jamie glared at the picturesque scene in suspicion as she began hauling their luggage into the cabin.

Water was trouble. And trouble was the last thing she wanted on a trip like this.

 -

As it turned out, she had worried herself over nothing. She never so much as caught Dani staring wistfully over at the nearby lake, only a stone's throw from the steps leading to the back entrance of the cabin. They didn't talk about the water at all, and it was too cold at this time of year to be so bold as to venture for a dip.

Indeed, the only things Dani seemed to want to do was relax and eat and fuck, which -- all things considered -- Jamie was not going to complain about. 

On the second day she wandered into the cabin after a walk to find Dani lying in the sunshine draped across the floor of their little cabin. Dani arched against her clothes, as if luxuriating in the feel of fabric against her skin. When she heard Jamie's footsteps, Dani opened her eyes and tilted her head back against the rug to look at her.

Awash in light, she was magnetic. Like something painted. Jamie could feel her own hand drifting to the camera hanging from her neck from when she had been taking pictures of the local flora on a short walk outside. She snapped a picture, the camera reeled noisily, and Dani blinked muzzily at her.

"Come here," Dani murmured, stretching out her arms.

And, well. Jamie couldn't resist an invitation like that. She set the camera aside and let herself be drawn down to the floor for a tumble. Dani tasted like warmth and sunlight, and Jamie was so caught up in the feel of her skin that she didn't even remember she had taken a photo. 

It wasn't until later that evening, when she emerged from the only bedroom to fix them the dinner they had forgotten to eat -- wearing naught but a long flannel that brushed her thighs -- that Jamie saw the square slip of self-developing film forgotten on the kitchen table. She changed route from the fridge and wandered over. Tilting her head to one side, she plucked up the picture and tugged it free from the polaroid. 

The picture had long since developed, but still the image was slightly out of focus. It was light-drenched and overexposed. The brightness had washed out any distinguishing features, until Dani was a mere human shape sprawled across a patch of pale glass, like a body floating on water. 

Lips pursed, Jamie chucked the picture into the bin and got on with making eggs and beans on toast for dinner. The scent of food drew Dani out. Like a sleuthhound she was. Her hair was glorious and sex-mussed. She was wrapped in nothing but a blanket. She came up behind Jamie and draped her arms over Jamie’s shoulders. 

Jamie flipped an egg in the sizzling pan. “You’re going to set that blanket on fire.”

“Mmm,” said Dani, kissing at Jamie’s neck, pressed all up against her back. 

Tilting her head to one side, Jamie set the frying pan onto a cold burner and turned all the dials to zero. Her smile faded. Her brow furrowed in confusion. She could clearly see Dani’s hands clasped at her collarbone, yet Jamie could feel another set of hands settling over her hips. Cold fingers dug in and gripped her into place.

Dani dragged her teeth against Jamie’s neck and whispered, “Come back to bed.” 

There was no denying her when she used that voice. Jamie felt herself being pulled away from the stove top by two sets of hands, like an unwary comet being sucked into a wicked undertow by some greater body’s gravity.

 -

It was on a night when it was Dani's turn to cook that Jamie pulled out a box from their luggage. It was an opulent navy blue with a gold logo emblazoned across the top. She hid it behind her back as she approached the cabin's little kitchen. The sound of sizzling greeted her, and a great bubbling of vegetables or perhaps a cauldron. Dani had her shirtsleeves haphazardly rolled up beyond her elbow. Her back was to Jamie, and she didn't so much as glance around when Jamie approached.

"Dinner will be ready soon. I promise," Dani said while stirring the pot. "Just a few more minutes. Hey, can you set the table for me, please?"

"Can't. Sorry. My hands are full."

"Huh?" Dani shot a distracted look over her shoulder at Jamie, turned back to the stovetop, then did a double take.

In Jamie's hands the box was nestled, held out like a propitiation. Dani nearly dropped the wooden spoon onto the ground, and had to turn back and fumble with it and all the dials to turn everything off before she could whirl back around, gripping the front of her oil-flecked apron in both hands.

Jamie opened the box to reveal a golden watch with an ivory face and gold-link chains, and Dani sucked in a sharp breath at the sight.

"Oh, you shouldn't have."

"Yes, I should've."

"But I -" Dani released the front of the apron and gestured helplessly around them. "I didn't get you anything."

"Sure, you did." Jamie held up her left hand and wriggled her fingers. The ring there was impossible to miss.

Dani laughed. "That's different."

"Maybe." Jamie took the watch out from its white velvet pillow and set the case aside. Reaching out, she gently lifted Dani's hand and began draping the metal links over her narrow wrist. "But you make me very happy. Every day. And sometimes -- just once in a while -- I want to give you nice things that I can barely afford. Because capitalism, probably."

At that, Dani snorted with laughter. Even so she had gone all flushed and pink with pleasure. She kept ducking her head and looking away while Jamie locked the links around her wrist, as though she were embarrassed to be receiving such an expensive gift. When Jamie was done and tried to step away, Dani grabbed her gently by the hand and pulled her back closer.

It felt like an unspoken dare, the first time they had kissed. This felt exactly like that. Jamie had already dared to love, and Dani -- well, Dani was bold as brass, really. Her hands drifted to Jamie's waist, pulling them flush together as the kiss deepened.

Smiling, Jamie pulled back just slightly. "What's the rush? I thought you were making tea? Or aren't you hungry?"

Dani nodded, but her eyes were transfixed. "Yeah. Yeah, I am."

Dani always seemed to be hungry these days. Hungry for food. Hungry for sex. As though she were eating and fucking for two appetites instead of merely  her own.

Jamie didn't complain when Dani brought their mouths back together. She stumbled backwards and allowed herself to be guided, step by step, into the nearby bedroom until the backs of her legs hit the mattress, and her knees buckled, and Dani was perched atop her.

Jamie tugged the apron strings free, while Dani fumbled with the button of her jeans. They had done this a hundred times before, and more even. Seven years since Bly, and still not enough time in the world. Still, Jamie could feel her heart race in her chest even as a familiar warmth pooled in her stomach as Dani's hand slipped beneath the waistline of her jeans. 

She was so caught up in the moment -- the shared gasp between them -- Jamie hardly noticed the way Dani’s touch seemed to linger even after she had moved her hands or mouth or tongue. The slide of her touch followed by a colder phantom caress. 

It must have been the glide of gold links. Nothing more.

 -

All through the week and the weeks following, Jamie would spy Dani running her fingertips across the gold watch in a somewhat nervous fashion. Until eventually over time her wrist gleamed with every turn in the light.

 -

Dani claimed to have never ridden a horse in her life, but it was clear from the moment she first swung herself into the saddle that she was a natural.

“Am I missing a strap here? And are my feet supposed to be so low?” Dani asked, shuffling around in the saddle and frowning down at the stirrups. “I feel like they should be higher, or something.”

“That makes two of us,” Jamie grumbled.

“Huh?” 

“Bloody western saddles.”

“Ah,” Dani said, though she still looked confused.

Sighing, Jamie explained, “English style has the stirrups a little higher. Especially if you’re jumping. That’s why you think you need an extra strap. To hold onto. You sure you’ve never done this before?”

Dani shook her head. “No. Never.” 

“Huh.” Jamie gave Dani a once-over. Her form was impeccable. She had shortened the reins to perfection so that the horse’s neck was arched for pageantry. Shrugging, Jamie tugged at the reins, her own dun-coloured horse reluctantly turning its head. “This way, then.”

Dani’s dark bay trotted after to catch up so that they rode side-by-side. “Where are we going?”

“Dunno. Anywhere.” Jamie ducked beneath a wayward branch. “The man said we would come across a split in the path in about twenty minutes. We can follow the trail on the left to a waterfall, or go right for a view of the hills.”

“Right.”

“Yeah, that’s what I said.”

“No, I mean - we should go to the right. On the right trail. I - I like mountains,” Dani added, and it was clear she was pretending not to see the look Jamie was giving her. “Reminds me of home.”

Jamie swayed like a drunk in the saddle as the horse moved beneath her. “Always thought of you as a city girl.”

“Well, yeah,” said Dani. She expertly switched the reins between hands so she could scratch at her neck. “But the northwest coast is never too far away from the mountains. Or the sea.”

“Feeling a bit homesick are we?”

Dani shook her head. “Not really, no. I just think they look nice is all.”

Jamie gave a non-committal hum in reply. 

The day was mist-shrouded and cool, but the morning sun was quickly burning away the low-hanging fog. The trees were a riot of colour, greens and reds and rich ochre golds the colour of Dani’s hair, which had been tied back high on her head. Jamie found herself admiring the way a curl fell against the wool of Dani’s dark-washed peacoat lapel. The surrounding countryside held little interest in comparison.

As surreptitiously as she could, Jamie dug the bulky polaroid from the pocket of her coat. She lifted it and snapped a picture just as Dani was passing beneath a low-hanging branch. 

“What about you?” 

Jamie lifted her eyebrows. “What about me?” she repeated. She tugged the picture free before tucking both it and the camera away once more without waiting to see how the film would develop.

“Waterfall or mountains?” 

Jamie snorted. “Neither. Home was always little towns and rolling hills stinking of coal dust. We don’t have nature where I’m from.”

Dani shot her an exasperated glance. “Oh, so we’re playing that game are we?” 

“‘Course we are! ‘Cause I always win. And I love winning.”

“You do not always win.” 

Jamie gestured to herself and said, “Completely fucked up family followed by a prison sentence.” Then she gestured to Dani. “Clingy dead boyfriend.”

“Fiancé,” Dani corrected her. “And a runaway father. And an alcoholic mother.”

“Big deal. Everyone where I’m from’s an alcoholic. Even the wains.”

“You’re such a liar.” 

“Am not!” Jamie said with mock indignance. 

Dani fixed her with a square-jawed stare, then pointed to herself and said, “Possessed by an evil ghost.” 

Jamie scoffed. “Oh, now that’s cheating.”

“Yeah, I win,” said Dani triumphantly, turning her attention back to the trail their horses were ambling down.

“That’s not fair! How am I supposed to compete with that?” 

“Get possessed by a ghost,” Dani offered blithely, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.

“Fine.” Jamie pulled back on the reins, drawing her horse to a halt. “I’ll swap with you.” 

“What?” 

“You heard me.”

Dani’s horse had continued taking a few steps, but she guided it sharply back around with nothing but a press of her knees. She stared at Jamie, her expression stricken. Her breath came in plumes from her mouth, and her cheeks were pink from exposure to the chill of the morning air. 

“Jamie,” she breathed softly. “You shouldn’t joke like that.”

Jamie jerked her chin up a fraction as though in a challenge. “Who said anything about joking?”

Dani’s hands tightened around the reins. Her knuckles flashed white and bloodless. “I mean it,” she said, and her voice grew stronger. “You don’t want this."

"That's for me to decide. Just as it was for you back at Bly."

"No. I - I don’t want to risk this. I don’t want to risk you. Or me. Or us.” 

“Have you never considered it?” Jamie asked. “Maybe we could swap her back and forth. Maybe we could buy more time. Maybe she would prefer it, having multiple hosts. Let me help.”

But all while Jamie spoke, Dani was shaking her head and biting her lip. Her eyes seemed unfocused, as though she were looking at something over Jamie’s shoulder in the middle distance. “No. No, it doesn’t work like that. We can’t just -”

“Why not?”

“Jamie, I’m serious. You shouldn’t -”

“Is there some law about supernatural possession that I’m not aware of? Hmm? ‘Can’t trade ghosts,’ it says, does it? Why don’t you even want to try something that might give us a chance?”

"Just -!" Dani had screwed her eyes shut. "Just because!"

"Because why?" Jamie insisted, a dog with a bone.

"Because!"

"Bollocks! Tell me why -!"

“Because she is mine!” 

A group of blackbirds launched into startled flight from the nearby trees. The horses nickered, stomping their hooves uncomfortably, their ears flicking to and fro. Dani’s voice still rang through the air like something dark and raw, hanging in twisted bloodied bits from the branches over them. 

Dani swallowed thickly. Her eyes were wide open now. Her face was pale. Her lower lip trembled. When she spoke her voice was small. “I’m - I’m sorry. I didn’t - That wasn’t -” 

She inhaled deeply and shakily. Her whole face twitched, and her shoulders, and her trembling hands. It seemed as though she were slowly curling in upon herself until she was gripping the saddlehorn, shaking, and gasping for breath. The horse beneath her took hesitant steps backwards, its ears flat against its skull, as though trying to escape the person slumped atop it.

“Hey,” Jamie said weakly, feeling helpless as she watched. 

When Dani began to slip from the saddle and towards the ground, Jamie struggled to dismount, half-falling to the earth and then scrambling away from her own horse, which snorted and balked. It turned tail and dashed back the way they had come, jangling with tack. She rushed over and managed to prop Dani up just in time to keep her from toppling right over. 

“Hey, hey,” Jamie repeated. “I’ve got you. It’s alright. I’ve got you.”

Dani’s eyes were staring wide at nothing, and the reins had slipped from her grasp. “She’s mine,” she was muttering to herself. “She’s mine. She’s - She’s -”

“Okay,” Jame said, keeping one hand on Dani and snatching up the loose reins in the other so that the horse would not dart away. “Okay. She’s yours. She’s yours. Okay?”

Dani was nodding along desperately. She had grabbed onto Jamie’s arm to steady herself. Gradually she managed to straighten, but her shoulders remained hunched. All at once she looked like she had no idea what to do atop a horse, and she fumbled picking up the reins, leaving them slack. When she glanced around, her face fell.

“Oh,” Dani said. “Your horse -”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“But -”

Jamie patted her leg. “I’ll walk back.” For good measure, she grabbed a hold of the loose reins dangling from the horse’s bit, and began leading it round so they could make their way back to the rancher’s stables. “C’mon you,” she chided the horse, when it tugged its head slightly. “None of that, now.”

The ground was soft. Mud speckled the horse’s shod hooves and Jamie’s worn leather boots. Meanwhile Dani rode, utterly silent. In the quiet that descended over them, there returned the sound of wildlife, of chirping birds and the rustle of the wind through the trees. Jamie felt like a servant. Some sort of old timey stable boy, leading her mistress's horse back from a long ride. 

Above her, Dani made an abortive noise in the back of her throat.

Jamie cocked her head to glance over her shoulder, but did not stop. “Something wrong?”

“Apart from the obvious?” Dani asked dryly. Then she tugged the peacoat more tightly around herself. The lapels bunched up around her neck. “It’s going to sound stupid.” 

“I’m all for stupid. Love it. Can't get enough of it, in fact.”

Her attempt to make Dani loosen up, laugh a little, didn’t hit quite as effectively as it usually did. For a moment Dani made no reply. Then - 

“I wanted to see the mountains.” 

It was an almost petulant grumble. She was scowling down at the horn gripped in her free hand, as though the saddle had somehow wronged her. 

Smiling, Jamie shook her head. “I’ll take you tomorrow. We’ll drive. Fuck horses, anyway.”

"Yeah. Okay. That sounds good." There came the sound of a sniffle, and the rustle of cloth. "God, I'm hungry."

Truth be told, they had eaten not an hour ago. Quite a large meal, too. Still, Jamie dug around in her other pocket and pulled out a crisp apple, which she had been saving for just the purpose. She handed it over, and Dani took it.

"Thank you."

"No worries."

"No, I mean it. For everything."

"Like I said," Jamie shot an impish look over her shoulder. "No worries. Really."

Dani ate everything, even the core. She licked the juices off her fingers and chewed on the stem the whole ride back.

It wasn't until they had returned to the cabin some time later, when Jamie was emptying her pockets, that she came across the photo. Dani had waltzed off to the kitchen to make them a too hearty, too early lunch. Jamie cast her a quick glance, then turned the photograph over to have a proper look at it.

The Dani of an hour or so ago was poised in the saddle like a dressage rider. Mist and shadow clung to the edges of her. The leafy branch was half-cast across her face like an ornament, like an exotic hat, even. And from beneath the shadowy brim was a mask of a face with dark eyes that burned through the fog.

 -

The honeymoon couldn’t last forever. Sooner than either of them would've liked, they were back in their little apartment over the flower shop. There was nothing of the trip but a handful of cherished memories -- Jamie had kept none of the photographs. 

None of the photographs Jamie had taken in their years together had seemed to turn out quite right. And Dani had kept no photos of herself before Bly. They were, Jamie had been told, still back at her old home on the other side of the continent. 

It wasn't for lack of trying. Jamie kept a camera at hand most days in the vain hope that she might steal an image of her wife to hold and to keep after -- well. After. But she didn't want to make Dani uncomfortable, no matter how often Dnai told her it was fine, that she could take as many pictures as she liked. She tried to be discreet. 

The times she wasn't, when Jamie grew frustrated enough to ask Dani to stage herself for a quick snap and flash of the lens, none of those photos turned out right either. Dani wasn't herself in those. As though she were a plastic doll posed for her high school prom night on someone's arm. Somehow those pictures were even worse. Both Jamie and Dani would grimace and shake their heads, laughing in mutual agreement that it ought to be chucked in the bin.

Life went on. There would be time for other pictures. Tomorrow, perhaps. Or the day after. When the time came, Jamie would be ready, camera in hand. 

 -

They were seated at a cafe, waiting for their drinks to arrive, and Dani was staring at a dark-haired child. The family of three was at a nearby table. Jamie watched as Dani's eyes would lose focus mid-sentence, and drift in that direction, her voice trailing off until the words hung crooked from her tongue.

Jamie cleared her throat, and leaned an elbow on the table between them. "Yeah. I don't have the right kind of equipment for that, Poppins."

Dani's gaze jerked back towards Jamie. She blinked. "What?"

"But we could try something else," Jamie offered with a shrug. "If you like."

Dani's jaw dropped, so that her mouth hung partially open in shock as the realisation of what Jamie was saying dawned on her. "Wha -? No! No." She laughed nervously and self-consciously rubbed at the side of her neck. "Thank you, but no."

"You sure? Because if you want it, then -”

“I’m worried about -” Dani interrupted, but faltered herself before tilting her head and saying, “- her.”

Lifting an unconcerned eyebrow, Jamie asked, “And what does Viola want, then?"

Dani started slightly at the sound of that name being spoken with such sudden irreverence. "I - Well, I don't think it would help. A child. I don’t think a child would help."

"No?"

Dani shook her head. Then, with a surreptitious glance over her shoulder at the family, she leaned forward. Her gold watch clinked against the tabletop, and she spoke in a low voice, "Actually, I think it might make things worse."

Jamie frowned in confusion, but leaned forward all the same as though the two of them were having some clandestine meeting instead of talking right there in the open air of the cafe. "And why's that? I thought she wanted a kid or whatever?"

"Well, yeah, but -" The tip of Dani’s tongue darted out to nervously wet her lower lip. "I - I dunno. I just have a weird feeling about it."

"Bad weird? Or just weird weird?"

"I think -" Dani inhaled sharply and sat up straighter. She seemed to consider something in the middle distance, before coming to a conclusion and shaking her head, her nose scrunched up. "Mmm. No. Just weird weird. But also -- I mean -- she wants it. Really badly. But any kid of mine wouldn't actually -- y'know -- be mine."

"I don't follow."

Dani fixed her with a hard unblinking stare. "I'm saying: it would be hers."

Slowly the realisation of what she was saying hit Jamie, along with a corresponding image. Of a woman. Putting on a shiny new satin dress.

"Yikes," said Jamie.

"Yeah." Dani slumped back into her seat. She went back to chewing on her lower lip and staring over at the other table. Except that the waitress came by not a moment later. So, Dani jolted up straight again and said, "Oh, thank you so much."

The waitress flashed them both a brilliant smile. "No problem."

Jamie waited until she was gone before saying, “You never answered my first question.”

Dani had picked up a small silver spoon and was stirring milk into her coffee until it turned a shade of tan. “What do you mean?” 

“Do you want a child?” Jamie asked, as though that were the most obvious thing in the world. “Not her. You. You shouldn't let her stop you from doing something that you want to do."

Setting down the spoon so that it was balanced on the edge of the saucer, Dani picked up her coffee. "I know that.” She took a sip. When it was clear that Jamie wasn’t going to let this go, Dani set her cup back down but kept her hands locked around it. “I thought I did. Before. Back when I was -” She made a fluttering gesture with her fingers as though waving away a buzzing fly.

“Yeah? And what about now?”

Dani’s face slackened at the question. Her eyes unfocused. 

Jamie snapped her fingers. “Hey. None of that, now.”

Dani jerked. "Sorry. Uhm -" She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply through her nose. Her hands gripped the porcelain cup tight. Then she shook her head, a small twitchy side-to-side motion. "No. No, I don't. No. Not anymore."

With a shrug, Jamie added a splash of milk to her cup of bag tea. "Well, all right, then."

Dani's eyes blinked open. "And what about you?"

Jamie made a face. "I've spent enough of my life raising kids. Siblings. My own mother. You know how it is. So, no. But if it was something you wanted, then sure. I would be all for it."

"But if you don't want it, then -"

"I'm perfectly willing to make a compromise. Fortunately for us both, neither of us have to. It's the best of both worlds, really," Jamie assured her. She took that first sip of tea, then made another face. "Ugh. Why can't the Yanks ever make a decent cuppa?"

Dani had picked up her own cup for a sip, and smiled around the brim. "Want a conciliatory muffin instead?"

Jamie set her tea down with a grimace. "Yes, please."

“Wait here. I’ll be right back,” said Dani, already standing and leaving her coffee behind. She shuffled through her purse for her wallet. 

While pushing her tea away from herself in disgust, Jamie paused. She frowned. She gazed more intently at the cup Dani had left on the table. The coffee steamed faintly, yet there remained the imprints of fingers on the porcelain, as though she were still sitting there, gripping the mug between her cold hands.

Jamie’s head jerked around, and her gaze sought Dani. She found her at the till, exchanging cash for a blueberry muffin. Not taking her eyes off her, Jamie fumbled around in the pocket of her own coat, which was slung over the back of her chair. Finally, she withdrew the polaroid camera that never seemed to leave her side these days. She lifted the camera to her face, and peered through, pointing it in Dani’s direction.

Dani’s figure was distorted through the lens. She moved as though through water, turning and striding towards Jamie across the bottom of a lake. Her golden hair seemed to float. Or perhaps that was the breeze, a draught that had slipped benignly beneath the cafe’s front door. Every step lingered behind her; there were shadows in her footprints. As she passed by the table with the family of three, her attention drifted towards the child -- just for the barest of moments -- and through the camera lens her eyes were deep and dark as muddy waters. 

Jamie lowered the camera, and thought to herself that a change of strategy was in order.

#dani clayton #dani/jamie #thobm #the haunting of bly manor #viola lloyd #roman writes

[kkmm32]

So I made a Frenrey Fic-

I haven’t had two characters to ship together in forever and haven’t written since school ended so wHY not get some practice with both of em? At once??  Now don’t worry, it’s fluff (lord knows theres too many NSFW HLVRAI fics out there already...) and it’s probably like- mediocre but thats ok!!  So anyway, without further ado I bring you “Northern Lights” Enjoy!

It was late out when Gordon found himself staring up at the ceiling yet again.  How many times had he done this?  Three?  Five? Twenty?  it's not like he had bothered to count.  He had found himself startled awake by all too real nightmares countless of times, staring up at the ceiling or the sky, wherever they had decided to sleep.  It's true he had faced aliens, the military, death, to put it simply, right in the face hundreds of times while on their journey and at this point his nightmares should be just like any other day... or well any other day past the incident.  But unfortunately the human mind couldn't adapt to such things easily and thus his trauma forced him to relive the scariest moments of his life over and over, whether he liked it or not.  It's not like he hadn't tried to go back to sleep before, even if his dreams had caused him to wake in a cold sweat more times than he cared to mention.  But every time he tried he found himself too...awake, for a lack of a better term.  His mind had already been tossed into fight or flight mode and it would take a while for it to return back.  He had no choice but to wait it out every night.  Most times he would just lie there, motionless, staring up until he felt his eyes begin to droop, but he found himself too bored this time.  He had the need to move, do something.  The memory of his nightmare flashed in his mind and he'd rather distract himself from it than let it fester.

He hoisted himself into a sitting position, groaning as he felt his sore muscles tense.  The days of fighting and running around had left quite the toll on him and he could no doubt feel it.  He looked around groggily.  They were still in the rocket launch room, the "Science Team," as Coomer had called them, was sleeping peacefully, although they looked like they were in the most uncomfortable poses.  He chuckled slightly at the sight, though quickly regretted that as he felt his chest ache.  He let out a sigh and glanced over at the windows.  He couldn't make out much, as the moon and the stars were the only light illuminating the outside.  He did, however, notice the outline of a figure.  He almost jumped out of his skin when it moved to look at him.  He was taken quite aback at first when he saw who it was.

"Wuh...Benrey?  Is that you?" he asked hesitantly.

"In the flesh." Benrey replied in his unmistakable stoic voice.

"But...how?" Gordon started, puzzled.

"How what bro?  You gotta finish your sentences, Feetman."  Gordon huffed slightly at the jab.

"I mean- how are you here?  Didn't you get, y'know, incinerated by the rocket?"

"I jus' respawned bro.  Like a..uhhh...video game character or whatever.  Like Steve minecraft."

"Right, right, you can't die..."  He let out a long sigh and stared past Benrey, out at the sky, or at least what he could see of it.  "What are you doing up this late anyway?  Shouldn't you be sleeping?"  Benrey glanced at him, almost a glint of… confusion In his eyes.  He quickly shook his head though and went back to staring into nothing.

"Gotta keep watch brooo, can't let any of those military dudes get y- get us."

"I guess that makes sense..."  There was silence as Gordon struggled to come up with something to talk about.  He wasn't particularly a bad conversationalist, per se, but when it came to Benrey you never know what could send him into a flurry of nonsense.  It was like traversing a minefield, one wrong word and he'd become incomprehensible...well, more than he already was.  His stream of thought was cut short, however, by a high pitch sound that made his nose scrunch.  He turned back to Benrey, who was surrounded by colorful orbs of light that started at pleasant orange and dipped into a light blue.  They glowed faintly around him, lighting him up in an almost majestic way.  But as quickly as they had appeared they faded.  Gordon sat there for a moment before shaking his head slightly.  "Orange to blue?  What does that mean?"  Benrey looked at Gordon for a moment, almost contemplating, before stating-

"Orange to blue means a song for youu"

"So you're just...singing?"

"Yeah bro.  What, you got a problem with my singing or something?  Lil Feetman can't stand my tunes?"  Gordon growled at the comment.

"No I juST-"  Before he got any further with his sentence he took a deep breath and sighed, which prompted Benrey with a slightly puzzled look.  He glanced away as he stated "It just surprised me is all, usually they have meanings or something, or they like- have some purpose.  I didn't expect them to be for entertainment.. and your singing is pretty nice actually.."  Gordon was almost baffled at his own words.  It was unlike him to compliment Benrey, especially after he had just insulted him.  And, when he glanced back up at Benrey, it appeared he was caught off guard as well.  He let out a high pitched pink and quickly turned away.  "Pink?  What does pink mean?

"Itmeansyou- you stink!" Benrey quickly retorted, still turned away.  Gordon let out a huff of annoyance.  Just when he thought he was getting on some kind of good terms with Benrey.  He shuffled to his feet, giving a glance a Benrey.  He had turned back to look at Gordon but unfortunately his face wasn't lit, and Gordon couldn't tell if he was smugly smirking or not.  He turned away and made for the door that led outside, he figured it'd be best to get some fresh air.

He made it over to a comfortable looking ledge, or at least as comfortable looking as a ledge can get, and sat down, gazing out into the sky.  Gordon hadn't really gotten the chance to look at the night the past few days, what with being stuck in the stuffy halls of Black Mesa and all, so it was nice to finally relax and gaze out at the stars.  Of course, it wasn't long before Benrey was making his way over to antagonize him some more.  He plopped himself down beside Gordon, a rather blank expression on his face as he stared at him.

"What, have you come to insult me some more or something?"

"Naw bro just gazin' " he replied nonchalantly, though Gordon could swear he saw the slightest flicker of hesitance in his eyes.  He sighed and stared back out at the stars with Benrey.

It was sorta nice to just sit in silence and let his mind wander, even if Benrey was right there beside him.  As he let his thoughts drift he slowly came back to the sweet voice.  It was quite the marvel honestly, and he wondered why he hadn't questioned it before.  Benrey wasn't human, that was obvious, but how exactly did he get the sweet voice?  Was he born with it?  Was it something he learned?  Was the sweet voice even learnable?  He knew Tommy could read it but he wasn't sure he himself could use the sweet voice.  Actually, how could Tommy even read the sweet voice?  Who taught him how to?  Benrey?  Why would Benrey teach him how to read sweet voice?  Now that he thought about it Benrey never really explained the sweet voice at all.  Gordon knew it had properties, that was for sure considering it magically calmed his nerves countless of times before, but outside of that it was more or less a mystery.  Benrey seemed to be the only bearer of it though and nobody had ever really asked to know more about it...maybe all he had to do was ask and Benrey would tell him?

"Hey Benrey?"

"Wuh?"

"How exactly does the Black Mesa Sweet Voice...work?  Like- how do you read it?  What do the different colors mean?"  Benrey seemed to freeze for a moment before tipping his head to side with a smile, glancing away.

"That's classified info ffffeetman."

"What do you mean it's classified?  Are you going by Dr. Coomer's logic because I'm pretty sure that doesn't apply in our situation anymore-"

"Sorry bro, can't break the Black Mesa roolzzz."

"Why would Black Mesa issue a rule for the entire facility that only applies to ONE person?"  Benrey simply shrugged, which only further enraged Gordon.  He was about to speak again when Benrey promptly covered his mouth with his hand and stared Gordon down.

"Look bbbro I can't tell you, it's as simple as that, ok?  Just chill..." He removed his hand from Gordon's mouth and stared back up at the sky calmly, his stern look gone.  Gordon gave a grumpy huff and turned away, staring towards the ground.  Benrey glanced over at him, and looked towards the ground himself.  There was a moment of silence before it was Benrey who was the one to break it this time.  "You said you couldn't like....'sleep' or whatever right?"  Benrey asked, catching Gordon off guard.

"Yeah..?  And?"

"Just like- wait with your eyes closed for like.....uhhh.......5 seconds broo you'll see."  Gordon turned slightly to glance at Benrey from the corner of his eye, curious.

"Why do I have to close my eyes?  What are you gonna do?"

"It's- It- It'll be like....a big surprise yooo.  Epic surprise, super poggers.  You wouldn't wanna ruin the surprise now would you?  Be a lil- lil party pooper- lil bitch baby man and ruin the surprise?"  Gordon gave a long sigh and, though he hated following Benrey's orders, covered his eyes.  There were a few moments of silence before Gordon could hear the distinct sound of the Sweet Voice.  It lasted for quite some time and Gordon had to use a good portion of his self-restraint to peak through his hands at what in the world Benrey was doing.  Why would he have him cover his eyes if it's just the sweet voice?

"Ok broo you can like- open you socket stuffers now"  Gordon cringed at that usage of words but removed his hands from his eyes regardless.  He was...stunned.. baffled.. amazed.. it was a range of emotions to say the least.  Benrey had somehow managed to spread a wide variety of pinks, oranges, and blues all across the sky above them like little fireflies.  They showered the area in a faint glow that looked..incredible and Gordon couldn't help but stare in awe.

"Benrey... you... how.. why'd you.."  Benrey settled down beside Gordon as he spoke.

"You said you couldn't sleep bro, doesn't uhh... pretty stuff help people sleep?"

"I mean I guess I just... I never expected you to.."  Gordon's words drifted away as he stared.

"What d'ya think tho?  Pretty poggers right?"  Gordon paused before turning to face Benrey as he placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Benrey it's... it's beautiful."  Benrey paused for a moment, almost as if he was processing what had been said before turning away, covering his mouth to keep any sweet voice from escaping.

"Well- psh- yeah duh.  I mean it's- ahaha- it's like...supposed to be bro.  Be pretty pointless if it wasn't, right?"  Gordon let out a hearty laugh at Benrey's response.

"Yeah, I guess so."  They stared up at the now colorful sky for a long while before Gordon spoke again.  "Hey Benrey could you..."  he paused hesitantly.  "Could you sing for me?"

"...Huh?"  Gordon quickly tried to make the situation less awkward by elaborating.

"Could you- could you sing for me?  To like- help me sleep?  Music usually helps people sleep and the Sweet Voice is pretty calming and I was just thinking-" before he could finish his sentence Benrey abruptly cut him off.

"Sure bro"  He began to sing out blue's and oranges once more and Gordon found that, while looking at the colorful orbs in the sky, though there weren't much left, and listening to Benrey's voice, he felt very peaceful for once.  It had been days since he had felt even a smidgen of peace and somehow, sitting here with Benrey, it was stronger than ever.  As he felt himself relax, leaning onto Benrey, his eyes began to droop and soon he was plunged back into the dream world.

#HLVRAI #Frenrey #Bendon #fan-fiction #writing #Benrey #Gordon Feetman #Black Mesa Sweet Voice #fluff #I...love them so much........... #long post #my writing

[maliby]

When The Night Comes | CH. 2 (special Halloween chapter)

↬ Pairing: Jimin x Reader | Taehyung x Reader ↬ Story Genre: smut, angst, vampire!au ↬ Warnings in this chapter: blood, violence, death, gore, horror shit ↬ Word count: 5.6K ↬ Summary: Your school has two courses: the day course, and the night course. Rules say that it’s strictly forbidden for both courses to interact but can you really follow the rules when you see the same eyes that have been showing up in your dreams for months on a mysterious hot guy from the night course?

↬ a/n: this is a special chapter with a little bit of horror to celebrate Halloween. If you get too scared or don’t like to read this type of stuff don’t worry, it’s just one little scene. Happy Halloween <3

tag list: @godzillagirl-14 @joons-dimple94

CH. 1

You were in a state of shock, your thoughts all scrambled into one big mess trying to make sense of everything. “You erased my memories?"

"Do you really think I would let you leave while remembering everything about this place? I couldn't risk it." His velvet-like voice was hypnotizing, almost like he was trying to keep you from completely freaking out.

"So if you erased my mind then why do I keep seeing your eyes in my dreams? Are you like new at this or something?"

Your question was a genuine one, and in no way did you intend for it to have the effect that it did on him. It seemed like you had just hit some sort of nerve, the change in his demeanour making the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.

"I can guarantee you that I am no amateur." The way his silver eyes sparkled was telling you that he was part mocking you, like he knew something you didn’t. He clearly didn’t like to be called an amateur, and something was telling you that he was way more powerful than you thought.

After a few moments of silence, he decided to go back to the conversation as nothing had happened, catching you off guard. “I guess your mind retained my eyes in your subconscious and latched onto them.”

“Does that ever happen?”

“Not that I know of,” he said nonchalantly.

“Then why me?”

“I don’t know. All I know is that you’re back here, so I’m gonna have to erase your memory again.”

He was moving closer to erase your memories when you placed your hands on his firm chest to stop him. “Wait, wait!”

“If you think I can let you go back to your normal life knowing the secret about my kind and this place you’re wrong.”

“How many times have you erased my memories now?” You asked, capturing his interest.

“Four.”

“Four times? So, four times now, I’ve wandered back in here even after you’ve erased my memories. Don’t you think it’d be safer if I remembered that there are vampires in here? What if I wander back and someone tries to eat me again?”

“Again?” Something about your statement was making him all tense again, like he didn’t like that someone tried to eat you. Maybe it was because there was some sort of rules, but you couldn’t help but have the feeling that this went beyond the rules.

“Well, he didn’t really try to eat me he just...nevermind.” You were too embarrassed to tell him that a guy you had just met touched you over your panties and you liked it. Not that there’s any shame in that, it was just that that was usually not you.

“He what?”, Jimin insisted.

“He...touched me.”

“Who?”

“He said his name was V…” For a moment it seemed like Jimin was blinded by some sort of rage, and for the first time, you felt really afraid. Those silver eyes were piercing and haunting, like you were back in one of your nightmares, making you even more scared. All you could hear was him mumbling ‘that rusty piece of shit’ before you decided to reassure him that everything was okay. “He didn’t force me to do anything”.

“That doesn’t matter,” he stopped for a moment to take a big breath, realizing how angry he was getting. “I’ll let you leave with your memories, but you have to promise not to come back here. It’s not safe.”

“O-okay,” you didn’t know why he was so bothered by V, but you were glad he was going back on his commands and letting you leave with your memories for the first time since you’d started coming in here.

“I’ll take you back to your dorm,” he said after a brief moment of silence.

“Isn’t it against the rules for you to go to the daywing?” you asked, realizing that he might get in trouble for taking you back.

“You’re worried about the rules? Weren’t you the one who said a big ‘fuck you’ to them when you came in here in the middle of the night?”

“Yeah…”

“Don’t worry, if I happen to get caught I’ll just tell the truth. I’ll say that I found a very curious girl from the day course wandering around our wing and I was just making sure she was escorted safely back to her dorm.” You could note a slightly mocking tone in his speech like he was finding it very funny that you would clearly be in trouble because of him.

“What? You can’t do that! I’ll be in trouble!”

“I guess some people only learn their lesson once they’re punished.”

You felt your cheeks burn at the implications of his words. For a minute your thoughts were carried to a dark and lustful place, where this handsome brunette with hypnotizing silver eyes would tie you up and do sinful things to your body. You just couldn’t help it, it seemed like when it came to these vampire boys your flesh was way too weak.

“Come on, it’s getting too late for good girls,” he started walking away, leading you out of the nightwing. As you walked you couldn’t help but notice that everyone seemed to make way for him. Maybe it was the way his walk conveyed confidence, with his back straight, his chest puffed out and his chin held up high, or maybe he just held a big status in the night course. The more you thought about it the more the latter made sense in your head.

“What are you thinking about?” Jimin asked, catching you off-guard.

“Why is everybody staring at you? Are you like the vampire king or something?”

He chuckled, your curiosity clearly amusing him. “Something like that.”

“So is that why you were in the daywing talking to the president?”

“You are quite the nosy little bug aren’t you? Haven’t you ever heard that curiosity killed the cat?” he said in a strict tone, making you realize that maybe you were overstepping your boundaries.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to..”

“Listen,” he stopped you in your tracks, the both of you now being the only ones in the corridors of the nightwing. “I know you mean no harm but I’m going to warn you that the world is much darker than you could imagine, so if you want to be safe and live your normal human life stop asking questions and stop coming into the night wing, because I can guarantee you that you won’t like what you’ll find in the dark.”

“O-okay…” he wasn’t threatening you per se, but you just couldn’t help but feel intimidated.

The rest of the walk back to your dorm was silent. All you could think of was how hot and cold Jimin was. One second he’d be flirting with you and next thing you know he’d do a 180 and be very serious and intimidating. Whatever the case you decided you’d just let him take you back to your dorm in silence and not ask any more questions.

“This is it,” you said as you stopped right in front of the door to your dorm.

“Stay out of trouble, and stop coming to the nightwing,” you heard his voice from behind you as you opened up the door.

“Jimin,” you turned around but were met with nothing but an empty hallway for he had completely vanished. “Thank you…” you whispered.

It’s been a month since you last visited the nightwing or saw any of its students. You obviously never told any of your friends about it. You could already imagine Lisa bombarding you with questions about Jimin and the nightwing. And if by any chance she found out about your little encounter with V then oh boy, would you never hear the end of it.

The dreams never stopped after that night, but they did become tamer, not making you wake up all startled and in a sweat in the middle of the night. Yujin theorized that your subconscious was at peace because you met Jimin and saw that those eyes belonged to something human and non-threatening. She, of course, had no idea of how wrong she was about that last part.

For the past month, even you must admit, that you’ve been very weird. You couldn’t help but doze out and get lost in your own thoughts, but how could you not when your entire notion of the world had just been torn apart? Not only were vampires real - and dangerously hot - but they were living in the same place as you.

Are vampires the only thing that is real? Or are there other creatures that wander through the night? What was Jimin’s warning about? Was he just trying to scare you or was he being serious? More and more questions kept coming up in your mind, and you could honestly say that if your brain kept this up you might actually go crazy.

“Y/N, did you hear anything I just said?” Lisa was snapping her fingers right in front of your eyes, making you wake up from your dozed off state. She had just joined you, Yujin and Eunbin at lunch.

“Sorry Lisa, I was just thinking about something.”

“Jesus Y/N, you’ve been so out of it lately. My ‘boy problems’ sensor is tingling,” Eunbin said as she placed two fingers in both of her temples as if she was using some psychic powers.

“Y/N boo, I’m just gonna ignore the fact that you may be having boy problems and you’re not telling us because I’m just so freaking excited!” Lisa said.

“Okay, first of all, I’m not having boy problems. Second of all, what are you so excited about?” You said as you took a bite out of your now cold cheeseburger.

“So I was just with Chungha, and she told me that this year, for the very first time, the Halloween party is going to have the participation of both the day course and the night course. Isn’t it amazing? We can finally have a go at all those hotties the night course is keeping away from us!”

Your body froze. Is Jimin gonna be there? If so, then how is he going to react when he sees you? Is he gonna talk to you? Then what about V? Fuck, V is definitely gonna talk to you if he sees you.

“Wow, Chungha and Doyoung must be over the moon with this, they love organizing big parties like this,” Yujin noted.

“Yeah, she told me they have so many big plans that they can’t even keep track. She wants the night course’s student body to be blown away by our student body’s party,” Lisa said.

“Do you know why the school has decided to join the 2 courses?” It simply didn’t make any sense as to why the president was allowing a bunch of vampires to go to a Halloween party full of drunk human students. It was like a disaster waiting to happen.

You were sure that the president knew about the night course’s little secret. He just must have. Otherwise, why would there be so much secrecy about the whole course? The only thing you didn’t know was why were the vampires in this school. It wasn’t like you had anything against them, it was just that there was something fishy going on and you wanted to find out exactly what.

“I don’t know. Chungha said the president told her some crap about promoting synergy between the two courses,” Lisa answered as she took a big sip of her coke through the metal straw she carried everywhere.

“Synergy?” Eunbin asked.

“Yeah, who cares? All I know is that this is a great opportunity for me to pick the sluttiest outfit I can find and get me some night course dick,” Lisa smirked, surely already thinking of some option in her head.

It was then you realized the implications of what she was really saying. “No!”, you practically yelled. She couldn’t fuck a vampire! What if he hurt her? Yeah, maybe not all vampires were evil, but was it so bad to worry about your friend’s safety?

“What’s up, Y/N?” Yujin asked, worried as always.

“N-nothing, it’s just that we don’t know these guys. I mean they were kept exclusive for a reason, w-what if they’re some sort of mafia people or...I don’t know,” even you had to admit that that excuse sounded lame as fuck, but it was the best you could think of without sounding absolutely crazy.

Lisa, who was in the middle of drinking her coke, spit all the liquid out, her laughter travelling through the whole cafeteria. “I think Y/N here is worried I’m gonna steal that guy we saw last month from her.”

“What? No!”

“Don’t worry baby, he’s all yours. Sisters before misters right?” She winked at you, letting you know she would not break the girl code. Little did she know that the girl code was the least of your problems.

The day you had been waiting for had finally come - the Halloween party. After weeks of building expectations and endless debates about which costume each of your friends was going to wear, it was finally happening. You must say you had your reservations about the dangers of the party at first, but then you figured that if the president was doing this it was because he thought it was safe.

“Hey Y/N can you help me put this collar on?” Yujin was wearing a Playboy bunny costume, which everyone agreed was the perfect choice for her. She was wearing a black bodysuit, some see-through black tights, black pumps and black satin bunny ears.

“Sure.” As you were helping Yujin complete her costume you heard two knocks on the door, “come in!”.

“What’s up bitches,” Lisa said as she came in your dorm, Eunbin following right behind her.

As soon as you saw their costumes both you and Yujin whistled. Eunbin was wearing a Catwoman costume, the black leather suit hugging all her forms, as for Lisa, she was wearing a devil costume, with a red leather bodysuit, red thigh-high boots, a red devil pitchfork and little red horns.

“Wow girls, are you planning on murdering everyone at the party?” Yujin asked.

“That’s the idea,” Lisa winked. “But looks like we’re not the only ones coming for everyone at the party, look at you guys!”

“Y/N you look so sexy and innocent at the same time in that angel costume! I’m glad you decided to wear that silky white loose mini dress instead of the bodysuit. It looks so much better!” Eunbin came closer to inspect the silky fabric.

“Those wings are to die for! Are they heavy?” Lisa asked.

“No, not at all. But I’ll talk to you at the end of the night after I had one too many drinks,” you said, enticing a laugh out of all of your friends.

“So girls, are we all ready to go?” Eunbin asked, everyone nodding in response.

“Let’s give them hell,” Lisa said as she made her way to the door like she was the captain of your hot bitches gang.

When the four of you got to the cafeteria you were all in awe, for it all looked so amazing that it didn’t even feel like you were in your usual cafeteria. There were so many little details on the decor that you couldn’t possibly even notice them all. The walls were full of cobwebs, spiders, cardboard bats and bloody handprints and smears. The ceiling had several floating fake candles and most impressive of all, glowing ghosts.

“Wow ladies, looking to smash it are we?” Chungha and Doyoung approached all four of you, the both of them masked as Harley Quinn and the Joker, the ever so power couple that they are.

“Oh my god, Chungha this is amazing! You guys must have barely slept taking care of every little detail,” Lisa said.

“Tell me about it, I feel like when this is all over I’m gonna hibernate for a month.”

“Those glowing ghosts are amazing! How did you guys do it?” You asked, amazed at their creation.

“You’d be amazed at what you can do with some saran wrap and duct tape,” Doyoung explained.

“Now if you’ll excuse us ladies, we have to keep circling the party and make sure everything is in perfect condition. Have fun and go get yourselves some drinks,” Chungha grabbed Doyoung’s hand and give you girls one last smile before walking away.

“Thanks Chungha, we certainly will,” Lisa responded.

“Okay, let’s do some shots ladies!” Yujin said.

As the amount of time you spent on the party increased, so did the level of alcohol in the blood. It didn’t take long for Lisa to be sticking her tongue down a sexy fireman’s throat, for Eunbin and Yujin to be playing beer pong (using balls that looked like eyeballs) against sexy Mario and Luigi, and for you to be dancing alone on the dance floor.

You didn’t mind that you were alone, for your slightly intoxicated state made it so you didn’t give a fuck about anything and just let yourself go. In fact, you could say that you let yourself go maybe a bit too much since you started to feel up your body more and doing way more body rolls than you’d usually do, attracting the eyes of almost everyone.

There was one pair of eyes though, that you felt more intensely than all the others - the guy in the skeleton costume in the corner. You had no idea who he was, for his face was covered with a skeleton mask, but the way those silver eyes shined through the black around them gave you an idea. There were only three options: either it was Jimin; another vampire with silver eyes; or just some guy wearing contact lenses. There was only one way to find out though, and that was when you started making your way to him.

As you walked towards him some girl dressed up as the corpse bride accidentally bumped into you, making you break eye contact with him.

“I’m so sorry,” she said.

“No problem.”

You looked back at the wall where the skeleton was standing by, but he was no longer there. Your mind suddenly remembered that night last month where Jimin took you back to your dorm and disappeared into thin air. You had no idea if that was really him, but something inside of you told that it really was.

“It’s such a shame I’m going to hell and I won’t be able to see an angel like you.” A voice spoke from behind you, a voice you couldn’t forget. lt was that same deep and seductive voice you had heard that night, one month ago. The voice of the whole embodiment of fire and danger - Taehyung.

“Guess I’ll have to enjoy it while I can...my little angel,” he whispered in your ear, making all the hairs on your body stand up.

When you turned around you were met with his signature copperish eyes. Eyes that were burning with sin, and bad decisions. “You’re dressed as a vampire?” you said as you noticed his costume.

“I know, isn’t it perfect? As soon as they told me I had to bring a costume I thought: is there even any other worthy choice?”

“Is the blood on your chin real or fake?” The last time you were with him you weren’t as brave as you were being now, but at this moment all your inhibitions were out the window due to the alcohol.

“Why? Are you jealous?”, he said with a smirk on his face.

“No.”

“Sure,” he chuckled. “How about I go get you a drink? You look thirsty.”

You could feel your panties moisten just by the way he emphasized that last word, and there was no doubt in your mind that he did it on purpose. “Sure, can you bring me a Bloody Mary Margarita?”

“Of course, I’ll be right back.”

As you were waiting for Taehyung you scanned the room and saw that Eunbin and Yujin were now both making out with Mario and Luigi. You searched a bit harder for Lisa but she was nowhere to be found and there was no doubt in your head that she was getting the dick she wanted.

Five minutes passed and Taehyung was back with a drink in each of his hands, “there you go angel, one for you and one for me. Cheers?”

You clinked your glass with his and took a sip of the blood-like cocktail, immediately feeling a different flavour to what you had tasted before. “What did you put in this? It tastes funny.”

“Yeah, I’m sorry, a guy accidentally bumped up to me when I was putting the hot sauce in,” he said as he took a sip of his drink.

“No, it’s fine. It��s not that bad.”

“So, are you enjoying the party?” Taehyung asked.

“Yes, it’s amazing! Everything looks great.”

“Good. We want you to feel safe,” he said as he took another sip of his drink.

“Safe?”, you questioned. “Oh...because you’re all vampires?”, you whispered that last word to make sure no one heard you.

“Oh no, it’s because you’re all in danger. Why do you think the president chose now to unite both courses? We’re here to protect you,” he said nonchalantly.

“Protect us? F-from what?” you started to get freaked out, more so because what he was saying actually made sense. Why else would the president forget about his rules now?

“Just some low life rogue vampires that want to make a feast out of all of you.”

“What?” you screamed, getting the attention of everyone who was around you. You wanted to know more, and you knew by the way he was so casually telling you everything that he would do it. So, you grabbed him by his hand and guided him to a secluded place in the garden, a place where you could both talk.

“Oh you naughty little angel, you want to fuck out here in the open like an animal? I love that,” he was starting to get closer to your mouth to kiss you, but you immediately pushed him away.

“Now it’s not the time! What were you talking about? Why are those guys threatening us?”

He sighed, upset he wasn’t getting what he wanted. “They are rogue vampires, they do what they want, and what they want is to have you all terrified as they create a bloodbath and feast on you.”

“Oh my god…”, if you were getting freaked out before, now you were feeling completely petrified.

“They said they would attack at your Halloween party, so the president decided we would join your wonderful party just in case anything happens.” Your face must have shown the true horror you were feeling because right then and there Taehyung held up your hand and gave it a gentle kiss. “Don’t worry angel, I’ll protect you.”

You barely knew Taehyung, but you must say that seeing him being so caring was reassuring. There were no games, no flirting, no second meanings, just pure care, and that was making you feel a lot safer. But not two minutes later you heard the rustling of the bushes behind you, and the fact that Taehyung turned around immediately and put himself between you and the bushes made your fear kick up to a maximum.

“Stay behind me,” his arms spread up and he got in a stance that meant he was ready to attack an protect you.

You grabbed his clothes, like somehow the action made you feel safer, and watched over his shoulder as two deranged looking vampires came out of the bushes. Their eyes were completely red and rivers of blood were running down their mouths as if they had just fed.

“What do we have here?” The taller of the two said.

“She smells absolutely...heavenly,” the shorter one said, making a clear joke about your costume.

“Sorry pals, she’s mine. So why don’t you do yourselves a favour and go running back to whatever stinky hole you crawled out of?”

“Aren’t we feisty for a vampire who is outmatched?”, the taller one said.

“Oh honey, I’ve got tricks up my sleeve you two sleazy dogs couldn’t even dream of,” Taehyung chugged down the rest of his drink and then broke the glass in his hand, now having a large piece of glass as a weapon.

“Bring it on then,” the taller one said as they both got ready to fight.

In a blink of an eye, Taehyung was already on top of both of them. All three of them were moving so fast that you could barely understand what was going on. All you could hear were the sounds of the punches they were throwing each other.

At one point you heard one of the rogue vampires loudly scream, and the splash of blood that flew out made you believe that Taehyung had sliced him with the glass somehow. And then, out of nowhere, you saw the head of the tallest flying to your feet, his headless body crumbling right at Taehyung’s feet.

“You son of a bitch! I’m going to fucking kill you!,” the shorter one yelled out in a rage as he threw himself up back at Taehyung.

Once again, their movements were too fast for you to realize what was going on and who was winning, but since the odds were fair now, you were feeling more positive about Taehyung’s victory.

They kicked, and punched, and threw until at a certain point the sound of a big slash reached your ears and rivers of blood became visible: the guy had stolen Taehyung’s piece of glass and gushed a deep wound in his neck.

You were in absolute horror. You had no idea of how vampires died (besides the reaping of the head, as you just witnessed), but the fact that Taehyung was immobile on the ground grabbing his neck was certainly not good. “Taehyung!” you screamed, immediately letting the glass you were still holding fall down to the floor.

“You thought he was gonna be able to save you, sweetheart?” His sinister laugh made you truly scared for the horrors that awaited you. “There’s no saving you now angel, I’m gonna suck out all of your delicious blood in front of him and he won’t be able to do a damn thing about it.” It was then that the vampire proceeded to kick Taehyung’s head and body like he was nothing but a punching bag.

“STOP!” you ran to him to try and grab him but you were no match for his speed and strength. He grabbed you by your neck and threw you to the floor, your lungs immediately having difficulty to breathe.

“How sweet of you try and save this piece of trash,” he said as he made his way closer to you.

You looked over at Taehyung and you saw him hunched over on the ground, bruises forming and blood coming out of his throat and mouth, blood that looked just like his eyes - copperish red. And then you remembered all the brief moments you spent together. He was a little out there, and maybe he was a playboy, but he tried to save you. He did his absolute best to try and protect a girl he barely knew and now he was on the floor like he was nothing.

“You can look at him all you want,” he got near you and pulled you up by your hair. “He can’t save you now…” his mouth touched your neck and his tongue ran through your jugular, making you both scared and disgusted. “No one can save you now.”

You were so terrified that you couldn’t even scream. You couldn’t even move one tiny muscle, except your eyes, the ones you were closing right now as you waited for the fatal bite that would ultimately end your life.

That bite never came though. The only thing that came was a bone-cracking noise and a fountain of blood splashing on your face. You felt the body of the rogue vampire release you and drop right in front of you. When you opened your eyes you noticed that he was laying headless at your feet. As you looked up to try and understand what had happened you noticed a guy holding up his head - the fireman who was previously making out with Lisa.

“W-what..a-are you? V-vampire?” You couldn’t even speak like a proper person, the events of the past minutes taking a toll on your speaking abilities.

“Yes. But there’s no time to explain, V needs help,” he dropped the head of the rogue and immediately made his way to Taehyung, you following right behind him.

“Fuck! He’s hurt really bad!” the fireman said as he analyzed his injuries.

“W-will he be okay?”

“He needs blood to heal faster.”

“I’ll give it to him,” you promptly moved up closer to him and were putting your wrist near his mouth but the fireman stopped you.

“He’s too weak to take a bite, you’re gonna have to cut it and give it to him,” he looked around and found the piece of glass Taehyung had used to fight against the rogues. He tried and give it to you but you refused.

“Could you do it?” you offered him the palm of your hand. You wanted to help Taehyung, but you were not sure if you’d be able to do it yourself.

He simply nodded and proceeded to cut the palm of your hand, blood immediately pouring out. You put your hand directly on Taehyung’s mouth and waited until he started sucking. The sucking started off slow, but as his wounds began healing and he got stronger the suction became more vicious, making you wince.

“Easy V, we don’t want to kill our little angel here,” the fireman said as he forcefully removed your hand from Taehyung’s mouth.

“Thanks Chanyeol, I owe you big one,” the boy named Chanyeol offered his hand to Taehyung so he could stand up.

“No problem V,” he let go of his hand and started looking back and forth between the two of you. “Okay then, I’ll leave you two alone and go take care of these two dead fucks. Don’t want anybody running up to these.”

“Are you alright?” he asked as soon as his friend Chanyeol left.

“Besides feeling a little weak and being disgusted by all this blood on me, I’m okay.”

“You need to go eat something, take a shower and then get a good night of sleep,” he grabbed your hand to guide you inside but you didn’t even move.

“Taehyung…”

“What is it?” he looked closely at you, worry ran through all of his features.

“Thank you,” you said, before shyly placing a kiss on his cheek.

“Get away from him,” a voice you’ve heard before said from a distance - it was Jimin’s.

As you looked behind you noticed the skeleton man from before getting closer to you, only this time he wasn’t wearing his mask, and he looked really angry.

“Care to explain to me why the fuck is she covered in blood?”

The question was aimed at Taehyung, but before he could even reach the both of you your saviour turned to you and said: “See you in your dreams, angel.” And just like Jimin did a month ago, he disappeared into thin air.

“What did he do to you?” Jimin interrogated as he closely inspected your body for wounds.

“Nothing! He saved me from two rogue vampires,” you quickly tried to explain but it all fell on deaf ears as Jimin noticed the cut on the palm of your hand.

“And this? You can’t get this deep of a cut from a simple fall.”

“Taehyung was hurt really bad, so I had to feed him my blood so he could heal,” you grabbed your hand with the other hand to apply pressure and try and stop the bleeding.

“Fuck! That fucking bastard!”

“Why are you so angry?” Jimin was fucking pissed now and you had no idea why. All you did was try and save the guy who saved you, why was he acting like this?

“There were no rogues Y/N, I’ve been keeping a close eye on everything all night, and I can assure you that there were absolutely no security breaches...he made it all up!” he was running his fingers through his hair in desperation.

“B-but, I saw them! I felt one of them, he grabbed me! How could he have made it all up?” At this point, you weren’t sure which one of you two was the crazy person, if it was Jimin or you.

“It’s his fucking power,” he sighed loudly. “Each vampire has one or more unique powers, and his is to be able to create illusions.”

“But...why would he fake this?” You were in a state of shock, why would he make you go through something like this? Just to have his fun?

“Isn’t it obvious?” Jimin grabbed your bleeding hand and pressed it hard so the blood would squeeze out of the wound, “to get your blood.”

“W-what?” Realization dawned on you. How could you be so freaking stupid?

“When a vampire feeds on a human he can track them down no matter where they are in the world. It doesn’t matter where you are, it doesn’t matter what you do, he will always be able to find you.”

#jimin #v #taehyung #bts #kpop #bts jimin #bts v #bts taehyung #jimin scenario #jimin smut #jimin angst #jimin vampire #jimin horror #jimin halloween #jimin x reader #jimin fic #park jimin #jimin fanfic #jimin fanfiction #taehyung scenario #v scenario #taehyung smut #v smut #taehyung angst #v angst #taehyung vampire #v vampire #taehyung horror #v horror #taehyung halloween

[mazzelloiii]

Cheesy Christmas songs - TGIC gift for @fallingprincess

hi @fallingprincess, i’m your secret santa for the fantastic Thank God It’s Christmas event organized by @dtfrogertaylor ❤️ i hope you have a great day filled with many many amazing things!!!!!!!!!!!

this is your gift, a lil Ben x reader fic i wrote. hope you like it!

title: Cheesy Christmas songs

pairing: Ben Hardy x reader (but the whole borhap squad is in it)

warnings: none, really. (i just wanted to say that english is not my first language, so if there are spelling mistakes or wrong structures or whatever, just let me know)

words count: 2.2k

summary: Since you moved to England, your life has been nothing but work. With Christmas just around the corner, you find yourself hating everything holiday-related because you don’t have anyone to share the magic of Christmas with. Or do you?

Christmas was all around you. Decorations were hanging everywhere you went, people overcrowded the streets with their hands full of bags, still shopping for presents, and you could hear All I want for Christmas is you or Baby it’s could outside in every shop, café, even in your workplace and in your apartment, coming from your neighbours’ place.

It was a downright nightmare.

You hated it, and so you had been in a bad mood since the beginning of December.

To be fair, it wasn’t that you hated Christmas per se.

Actually, you loved it when you had the chance to spend it with your family and go all out, hanging mistletoe everywhere in your house and putting a massive tree up in your living room, drinking hot chocolate and blasting Michael Bublé’s entire discography at all hours of the day. Yes, you were just like all those Christmas-crazed people in the streets you had almost yelled at.

But this year… everything had changed. You had moved to another country, and that meant that you didn’t get to see your family during the holidays, and that already put you in a bad mood. Add to that the fact that even though it was the holidays you were going to work most days, because you needed as much money as possible to pay your rent, and that you hadn’t met more than a couple people since moving, and it all explained why you were acting like the Grinch.

You couldn’t help it, really. You wished you could spend the holidays being carefree and light-hearted, but it was all so much… you felt overwhelmed.

Having responsibilities really sucks, you thought while retrieving your small apartment’s keys from the pocket to open the door.

In that very moment your phone started to ring.

-One moment, just one fucking moment!-you yelled, as if whoever was calling you could hear you.

It probably was an advertisement call, or your boss telling you that you had to cover someone’s shifts.

When you saw the caller ID, your eyebrows shot up in surprise.

Lucy. She was a coworker, a fun girl you really enjoyed talking to in between shifts or during breaks, but you still weren’t so close that you would dare to call her a friend. Even though the relationship you had with her was probably the closest thing to a friendship you had made since moving in that goddamn place called England.

You answered, curious as to why she was calling you. You had never talked on the phone, nor you had exchanged texts.

-y/n! Fucking finally!-she said with a laugh. You could hear other people talking in the background, as well as music. Needless to say-a Christmas song.

-Sorry, I was opening the door…-you replied, a little embarassed.

-Oh, it’s okay. Don’t worry. I was calling to invite you to the fucking-best-Christmas-Eve-party eveeeer!

She had sung the last part, and you heard whoever was with her laughing and mocking her.

-Oh yeah, she’s definitely coming after that stunt-said a deep voice, while another added:-Sorry if I tell you this, Luce, but singing is not your greatest skill.

You thought for a moment. Why was she inviting you? You weren’t even that close… and she was clearly in good company already. Was it out of pity?

-Listen, Lucy, thanks for the offer, really, I appreciate it, but I’m really tired, so I think I’ll just get in bed really early…

She interrupted you mid-speech:-Oh, stop already with that, Grumpy! Come on, you’ll have fun. My friends want to meet girls and at first I got really offended because they have me and don’t appreciate me enough, but then I thought that they would really like my amazing coworker. So just come… please?

Despite everything, you found yourself smiling.

Maybe… it wasn’t a bad idea, after all?

You had just got home from a shift, and your next one was tomorrow afternoon. You had plenty of time to stay home nursing a hangover in case things got a little too crazy at that party… for fuck’s sake, you deserved some fun.

-Yes, Lucy. I’m coming.

-Yesss! I’ll text you the address. Come as soon as you can.

Maybe your Christmas was going to be a little less shitty than you originally thought.

 You got out of the uber, trying to find balance on your heels. You had been trying to find the right outfit for what felt like forever, finally opting for a simple red dress that showed your shoulders, elegant but not too much. Then you had put on a layer of mascara and a coat of lipstick.

You didn’t want to look like you had put too much effort into it, even though it was the first social event you were attending since moving to England.

You approached Lucy’s building and quickly got in, feeling a little nervous as you found the right floor and rang the bell over the tag that said Boynton.

The door opened and you found yourself in front of a guy with blond hair and the most striking blue eyes you had ever seen. He was tall and quite muscular, but he was wearing the most obnoxious Christmas jumper you had ever seen, red and green with little Santas in different positions all over it.

-Nice jumper-you grinned.

He immediately blushed at your words.

-I’m Ben, and I don’t usually wear clothes this ugly, I swear-he said-you must be y/n.

You shook hands and you felt a shiver go through your body at the contact… who knew Lucy had such attractive friends?

When you walked through the door, you were welcomed with the smell of baked cookies and the view of Lucy sprawled across a couch with another guy, plus Ben who had just joined them.

-y/n!-Lucy yelled-come here, join us, I want you to meet everyone!

You sat with them and the guy introduced himself as Rami. He seemed quiet but fun, and he and Lucy were quite the pair, him all silent and her screaming at the top of her lungs.

-Sorry for her, when she drinks she always gets like this…-Rami explained to you with a smile.

-I didn’t drink anything! Stop saying bad things about me, you meanies-she retorted with a pout, then she hugged Rami and put her head on his chest.

Ben gave you a meaningful look and stretched you his hand to take:-Why don’t we go see what Joe and Gwil are doing, y/n?

You took his hand and he led you to the kitchen just around the corner, where two other men seemed busy with a tray of gingerbread. Ben’s hand left yours, and you had to stop yourself from reaching for it again. It had felt so warm…

-y/n, you are here! Come taste our cookies-said the shorter man of the two, who had reddish brown hair, with an American accent.

You felt kinda dizzy for a moment, realizing that in only five minutes you had had more social interactions than you had in months.

You smiled and took a cookie from the tray.

 -These things you baked… what the fuck are them?

Ben’s question caused Gwilym and Joe’s immediate indignation: the tall Welshman you had met in the kitchen flipped him off, while the other man blew him a raspberry.

You just laughed at their shenanigans.

The four of you were sitting on the living room floor, on the carpet right next to the Christmas tree, sipping hot chocolate and eating gingerbread cookies. Rami and Lucy were on the couch engulfed in each other’s arms, their eyes closed but not quite asleep yet.

-Really, were they supposed to be gingerbread men? This one I’m eating looks more like a rugby ball.

-Shut up. y/n likes them. Don’t you, y/n?

You nodded exaggeratedly at Joe’s question.

-Yes. They are perfect. Don’t listen to this one, he’s just mean-you said, gesturing to the blond man sitting right next to you.

At your words, Ben’s mouth gaped.

-Et tu, Brute?

You shrugged and showed him your tongue.

-I thought you were on my side-he pouted.

-Aw, but I am, you poor thing-you replied sarcastically, but you couldn’t help but smile at his petulant expression.

-Doesn’t seem like it.

You comforted him with a caress to his shoulder, and out of the corner of your eye you saw Gwilym and Joe exchanging a glance and smirking.

You felt your face heat up.

Was it that obvious that you were really flirting with him? But most importantly, was he flirting back?

-So, are they… a thing?-you said out of the blue pointing to Lucy and Rami, trying to divert the general attention from you and Ben.

-Not officially. They are making us suffer so much, for fuck’s sake. It’s so obvious that they are into each other, but first there’s Lucy coming to us worried that Rami doesn’t like her back, then Rami calls me and says he’s sure Lucy doesn’t like him like that. It’s like being back in middle school, Christ-Gwilym answered, his eyes rolling up to the ceiling.

-And you, y/n? Do you have someone special, a boyfriend, girlfriend?-Ben asked you nonchalantly.

-Oh, no. I moved here just a few months ago… I barely have any time to eat or sleep, left alone to find a boyfriend-you said, a little embarassed.

-And no one’s tried to make a move on you? Wow.

You didn’t know what to answer to that, so you just chuckled lightly. So he was flirting back with you.

-Ben, why don’t you show y/n the balcony? Gwil and I will go make some other cookies, since you ate all of them-Joe said, getting up and heading to the kitchen with the other man.

-Shall we go?-Ben asked you, extending you his hand.

You took a deep breath and took it, nodding.

 -Pretty, isn’t it?-Ben asked you.

You were on the small balcony of Lucy’s house, looking down at the park just across from it.

-I mean, it’s not the greatest view, but it’s really rare to find a house with a balcony in London-he added right after.

You nodded and leaned against the white wall next to you, closing your eyes and enjoying the cold air of the night against your face.

Then you let it all go.

-Tonight seems so crazy to me. I hadn’t been around people like this in so much time… I only worked and studied, and barely took care of myself. Hanging with you guys made me realize that this is all real… I really moved and my life is continuously changing every day. And I’m so fucking terrified.

He turned and looked at you, but remained silent.

-This is all such a cliché-you laughed then. The whole situation seemed absurd.

He looked startled at you.

-What is?

-Everything. Me, my life right now, you flirting with me and taking me out to show me the balcony… I thought you would use a better excuse to get me alone, to be honest.

He snorted at your words.

-This was all Joe’s doing, actually. He tries to be a good wingman, but I would do much better on my own. Is it working, by the way?

-What?

-Me flirting with you.

You felt butterflies fluttering in your stomach but tried to hide it with a snarky smirk.

-Oh… I’ll have to think about it. Try harder, maybe?

He rolled his eyes, then his face became serious and he took your hand into his gently, giving you time and space to retract it if you wanted. You didn’t.

-And about what you said… I get it. Moving away from home is scary and hard, and you are a hero for enduring it all on your own for so much time. But you don’t have to figure it all out alone. We are all ready to help you if you want. Lucy, Rami, Joe, Gwil and me, of course. I can be your friend, before we try to be anything else, if you want to.

-Wow, I… Thank you.

You were at a loss of words, and you could feel your eyes welling up with tears. Don’t cry, don’t fucking cry now, you told yourself.

You hadn’t realized how difficult it all had become to do everything on your own and not have anyone to share your daily life with, and now you were feeling all the weight you hadn’t even known was on your shoulders leaving you, and the sense of relief was amazing. You didn’t have to do it all alone. Thanks God.

Before you could say anything else you felt loud cheers coming from inside the house, and then someone put on Mariah Carey’s All I want for Christmas is you.

Ugh, cheesy Christmas songs. Maybe you could start to like them again, after all.

-Looks like it’s midnight. Merry Christmas, y/n.

You smiled at Ben. Then you did something that surprised even yourself: you got closer to him, so close that you could feel his breath on your face, and gently put your lips against his.

He immediately responded to the kiss, putting his hands on your middle.

It was quick and sweet, just a brush of lips against lips.

When you pulled away, you both had your cheeks red.

-Merry Christmas, Ben-you whispered.

Maybe your holidays weren’t going to be as bad as you originally thought.

#ben hardy x reader #ben hardy headcanon #tgic #tgic gift #my writing #fallingprincess

[365daysoftododeku]

4th December 2019

Author: Mara

________________________________________________________________

Fire Alarm

Izuku didn’t mind the dormitories. Yes, he missed home, but it was nice. He shared his dorm with a guy named Iida Tenya. He couldn’t have asked for a better roommate, as Iida cleaned up his things, knew how to cook, remember to do the groceries and could help Izuku with some of his homework, if necessary. His neighbours were nice too, guys and girls his age who all suffered under the strain of college, arranged impromptu movie nights and one of them was a stress baker. If there was one person he would want to room with other than Tenya, it would be Hagakure Tooru. She might be a little bit messy and loud—not that Tenya was quiet per se—but she was a stellar baker. Everything she baked was worth dying for (one guy nearly died from it, but that was because the fool hadn’t asked about the ingredients and apparently had a garlic allergy). Soon after the rumour spread around that the guy was a vampire, but nobody had proved it yet.

There was one thing he didn’t like about the dormitories, and that was that a group of just-adults lived there. Like, they weren’t teens anymore, but definitely not adults. Wild parties were held weekly, sometimes the stairs were occupied by idiots sliding down them on sledges. Every floor had at least three students who know first aid, as people did the most ridiculous things. You even got some discount if you knew first aid because that meant it was unlikely the landowner had to deal with it. And the fire alarm.

People were allowed to cook, perfectly fine if people actually knew how to cook. The issue was, most of them just tried things. Izuku was one of those people, no shame in admitting that. But he had never set the fire alarm off. Others, however, weren’t all that successful. Izuku knew the emergency protocol on the top of his head by now, and he has been living there for three months.

~*~

When the fire alarm went off, Izuku wanted to nothing else but burry himself underneath his pillow and ignore it. But Iida wouldn’t allow it, yelling that they had to leave. That this was not a drill. It probably was nothing, but Izuku knew that Iida would drag him out of bed if necessary. Not breaking the rules today for Izuku.

Rolling out of bed, Izuku slipped into a pair of flip-flops and grabbed his jacket. He was already wearing a flannel pyjama—a bit embarrassing but he at least wouldn’t freeze his arse off outside—and they jacket would keep any remaining cold out.

Grabbing his keys, wallet and phone, he shuffled after an unfairly awake Iida. He would never achieve the level of awakeness Iida could. The alarm hadn’t been blaring for more than two minutes, yet Iida looked like he hadn’t slept a wink. No, he looked like he had woken up on his own and not by the noise. Izuku most likely looked like he just had risen from the grave.

Once outside, the square the dorm room was located it (together with a few more) was filled with students. A few were like Iida, wide awake and herding the students to the cold outside, but most were like Izuku. Barely awake, bleary-eyed and dressed in sleepwear. He spotted a few familiar faces, a couple of his neighbours, some of his classmates. Then his gaze landed on a familiar figure that made Izuku’s heart beat fast.

He still had no idea who the guy was, aside from being a student, but Izuku was smitten. Well, attracted to him. The guy was wearing sweats and a worn t-shirt, his long, pink hair was tied up in a messy bun. He didn’t look like he had just woken up, neither clearly awake nor bleary-eyed. More like he just had to go to bed.

Realising the guy was probably freezing—it was Winter after all—Izuku overcame his nervous jitters and stammering heart and walked over to his crush. Was it a crush? Maybe.

“Hi,” Izuku greeted, waving awkwardly.

The guy jumped, looking at him with wide eyes. A look of guilt was written all over his face.

Realising that the guy probably was the one who had triggered the fire alarm—there was no other reason to act so jittery—Izuku pondered if he should bring it up. It was really obvious, from his reaction, but he didn't want to make the guy feel uncomfortable. It could happen to everyone.

“Isn’t it cold?” Izuku pressed on, toying with the cuffs of his jacket.

The guy shrugged, though he pressed his arms closer to his body. Goosebumps run all across his bare arms.

Shrugged off his jacket, Izuku pushed it in the guy’s arms, “here,” he offered. “It might be a little short, but it would suck if you get ill from this.”

Taking the jacket from Izuku’s grip, the guy put it on. It didn’t fit him all that bad. What the guy had in height, Izuku had that in width. It fitted illy around his shoulders, but that made the sleeves long enough to properly hit his hands.

Almost disappearing into Izuku’s jacket, the guy muttered a ‘thanks’.

 “I’m Midoriya Izuku,” he offered the guy his hand, in the hope to finally learn his name.

Reluctantly, the other guy took his hand, “Todoroki Shouto.”

A silence fell over them, one that made Izuku feel jittery. The guy was clearly uncomfortable, probably for causing this whole mess, which meant that it was up to Izuku to start a conversation. So Izuku did what he did best and start to talk about whatever popped up in his head. Ranging between his roommate, his mother’s cooking and his teachers, Izuku managed to keep himself occupied through the entire inspection.

When the fireman gave them the all clear, Izuku stopped talking. He had been so caught up in talking that he hadn’t realised that Todoroki hadn’t answered at all. Izuku probably had bored him to tears with all the chatting.

Looking at Shouto, he was proven wrong. The guy looked a little startled, blinking a few times while frowning.

“Why did you stop?”

Izuku started at the guy in surprise.

“Because we can go back inside?” Izuku said awkwardly, pointing at the thinning crowd. “And I was talking too much.”

Todoroki’s cheeks started to grow even redder and he looked away, toeing the ground.

“I like listening to you talk,” Todoroki admitted.

Oh. Izuku felt his cheeks heat up. That was really sweet, but also a bit sudden. The guy didn’t know Izuku at all, unless—

Had Todoroki been looking at him like Izuku had been looking? With interest, but keeping it at fleeing glances, afraid the other would catch them?

“You should go,” Todoroki muttered, still refusing to make eye contact. “Your boyfriend is waiting.”

Confused, Izuku looked over his shoulder. Iida was waiting for him, well, sort off. He probably was waiting for Izuku, but also making sure that everyone was back inside and hadn’t fallen asleep outside, risking getting hypothermia.

“Iida is my roommate,” Izuku pointed out.

Todoroki looked surprised, finally making eye-contact with Izuku. He was really pretty, but also adorable. With the bright blush staining his cheeks, his eyes almost sparkling. The pink hair helped.

“So, you’re single?” Todoroki asked bluntly.

Flustered, but seeing no reason to lie, Izuku nodded. Feeling a little daring, and since he had nothing to lose anyway, Izuku decided to ask the same question, only sounding a little more nervous.

“You’re single too?”

“Yes.”

Izuku’s brain was overloading a little. He was flirting, with this guy, this absolutely gorgeous and adorable guy and he had no idea how he was even an option for Todoroki. So Izuku ended up doing what he did best, talk. And that included blurting out stupid shit.

“Did you set off the fire alarm?”

There was a long moment of silence before Todoroki snorted and shook his head, “did it once, in the first week I think. But not this time around.”

Izuku was sure that his face was resembling a colour close to Christmas-red. Seemed that he was in the mood for an early Christmas.

“But you looked so startled when I talked to you—I’ve been told I don’t look all that menacing.”

Todoroki muttered something Izuku couldn’t catch.

“What?”

“Nothing— do you drink coffee?”

Izuku nodded.

“Would you,” Todoroki stammered over his words. “Join me for coffee, tomorrow?”

“Sure, um.” It took Izuku way too long to realise that Todoroki was asking him out. “Before morning classes?”

Todoroki nodded, fidgetting with the zipper of Izuku’s jacket.

The mood around them turned awkward and feeling tired, jittery, cold and with his heart beating erratically, Izuku offered Todoroki a non-verbal goodbye and fled like the coward he was.

 Iida greeted him with a curious expression, eyebrows subtly raised.

“Where is your jacket?”

Izuku looked back at Todoroki. He now was talking with another guy, who looked like he had just woken up. Not thirty minutes ago, when the fire alarm went off, but a minute ago.

“I will get it back tomorrow.”

Iida’s eyes lit up, “so you have a date with Todoroki?”

Izuku wanted to ask why Iida knew Todoroki, and why he had never told Izuku that, but he just felt giddy. He was going on a date with Todoroki, and only because some fool had set off the fire alarm. If he ever found out who had set it off, Izuku would send them his portion of Hagakure’s homemade food.

________________________________________________________________

Would you like your work to be featured in the 365 Days of TodoDeku Project? Apply here! (≧∇≦)/

#Story #lavanderstarctacher #TodoDeku #365DaysofTodoDeku #TodoDeku365 #365 Days of TodoDeku #tddk #Shouto Todoroki #Todoroki Shouto #Izuku Midoriya #Midoriya Izuku #Boku no Hero Academia #BNHA #My Hero Academia #MHA #Todoroki x Midoriya #Shouto x Izuku #TodoIzu #long post

[sergeantjbuckybarnes]

Poly!Tomdaya x F!Reader Headcanon # 3

read headcanon # 1 and # 2 here: 1 & 2

the start of something new:

it hits you like a train

like holy shit, I have a crush

not just on zendaya 

but tom too ???

you are f r e a k i n g out

and it’s starting to scare you

so as any child of the internet would do

you went to our trusty friend google

so apparently the word your looking for is:

polyamory 

which by definition is the practice of engaging in multiple sexual/romantic relationships with the consent of all the people involved.

you pull an allnighter trying to read everything you can find on it

from articles to youtube videos x 

everything is confusing and its a whole mess

but one thing’s for sure

you are never going to tell either of them

like why would you ??

both tom and zendaya are high-class celebrities

and you are just a part-time intern

like their way out of your league

and besides,,,

there’s no way they would even be up for a polyamorous relationship

so you’ll take what you can get 

even that means suffering in silence

meanwhile

tom and zendaya are both having either own personal crisis

because it’s becoming very apart that they both have feelings for you

like starting to fall hard type crushes

and neither one knows what to really do about it 

it’s zendaya of course who finds the answer

in the form of a book she found online 

x

it takes her three days to finish the book 

but holy shit

it makes sense 

she brings it up to tom over dinner one night

it’s a long conversation

but an important one

they decide to sleep on it and see what they feel about it in the morning

they’re crushing on you hard in the morning

like that was going to change overnight 

they decide that they’ll start flirting at first

see if you like them too

test the waters per se

somehow you three manage to spend a day together when it's possible

going out for brunch 

 finding a bookstore 

driving around hollywood in general

the day ends with dinner in your apartment/house

the whole day was spent with one of them having a hand on or near you 

tom’s hand close to yours when you were sat at tables

zendaya’s hugs were just a tad bit longer than normal

all in they say it was a pretty good success

apart of you knows that they’re flirting with you

but yet you think they’re just being extra nice to you

video chats are longer and more intimate

text messages have more flirty emojis 

heck, even the way they speak to you is different

poor you, bub is confused as heck

you wonder what it would be like if you did flirt back

nothing major

just maybe being your extra cute self

you start when you get see tom for a comic con

you were assigned to help him from panel to panel

you may have smiled a bit too much

or maybe stood too close to him

but oh boy Tommy boy is going crazy

he makes zendaya jealous when he tells her about it

she’s a pouty princess :(

she low-key wants you to flirt with her 

but she ain’t mad at tom for getting the first move 

it’s not for several weeks and many trips later when you two meet up

she has you over a mini girl’s get together

spa facials, trash magazines, junk food

the works

and so maybe you sit a little too close to her

laugh at her jokes

maybe even be bold and give her a wink during karaoke 

(p.s you were totally singing curious d o n ‘ t l i e x )

you don’t think that anything will come out of the flirting

that is until,,,

you somehow get suck in london for a couple of days???

(that’s wack but whatever)

it’s a bad rainstorm that has ironically have you, tom and zendaya stuck in tom’s apartment while it passes

which will take at least a couple of days to pass

until then, ya stuck

high-key freaking out

like how are you going to stay sane around the two people you’ve been flirting with

it’s not easy oh boy

the first day was mostly calm

watching old school movies

being squished in the middle of them

falling asleep on their shoulders

soft hands brushing your hair out of your face

forehead kisses

you think you’re going crazy

the second day

you can tell that something’s different 

the energy between you three is almost romantic

it’s stifling

tom and zendaya spend time behind closed doors with whispered voices

way too low to make anything out of it

at some point, you hear

“we should tell her, I can’t wait any longer”

you replayed it on loop in your head

on the third day, the storm had passed

which meant it was now safe for you to fly back out

when you come out from the bathroom

 both tom and zendaya are sitting on the couch

both look sad as hell ngl

when you ask what’s wrong

they give each a look

they have you sit down next to them

it’s tom that explains that they’ve been flirting with you

its zendaya that explains that have feelings for you

you.exe has stopped working

like your brain must be short-circuiting

there’s no possible way that they would like you

no nope nada none

you look like your on the verge of crying

you get pulled into a hug

“it’s okay if you don’t feel the same way, we just needed you to know”

you heart gets stuck in your throat

because, of course, you feel the same way

you’ve never felt like this before, even with past relationships

you whisper you like them too

“really”

two pair of arms pull you to them

like a sandwich

but the question on your mind 

how’s this going to work ??

when you bring it up

you know that conversation has to happen before you leave

communication is important babes

you delay your flight

just so this can happen

still giddy over your confession

zendaya pulls out the book she’s been reading

and lets you look at it

you admit to searching about polyamory as well

it turns out that the conversation takes a few hours

placing boundaries, limits and making sure all three parties consent to it

in the end, you three lay in bed together

all just smushed up in there 

but you’re the happiest you can be.

#tom holland x reader #zendaya x reader #tom x reader x zendaya #tomdaya x reader #poly imagines

[kurtty-drabbles]

Mulan au (fashion)

N/A: Something merciful short just to keep this au alive.

@djinmer4 @dannybagpipesarecalling @sailorstar9 @discordsworld @bamfoftheundead

Genosha heard great tales about Kitty "James" Pryde and once the kingdom that used to be sexist is no more sexist( fight for equal rights is always a constant, always, but, the Queen and all the other women know how to fight now) the woman is free to do what she wants once again.

She wasn´t fired, far from that, she was almost canonized in a new Joan of Dark (a big exaggeration on their part as Kitty does not fancy being burned) and could have any job, any position she wanted...and Kitty stay there for a while, until the Queen gave birth to the princess and until the princess is now ready to rule.

Maybe, Kitty Pryde is not a person to grown roots in any place, however, when Genosha invites Kitty to a ball, something Kitty does enjoy very much, the woman has no problem in show up.

Even when she found out, thanks to her connections, that the necromancer will be there as well. In fact, she would be disappointed if he wouldn´t show up.

"Michael" Kitty speaks to one of her "sons" who is a boy with dirty blonde hair, green eyes and is taller than the others. "Do you want to take your big mom to the ball? I don´t have any date and well, you never went to a ball before"

"Sure, mom, I´ll take you there, wait, is that fancy ball in Genosha?" Kitty nods and Michael ponders for a moment letting the food on his plate get cold by the minute "will I need a really fancy outfit?"

"Yep"

"Ok, then, just checking"

____________________

The ball of Genosha is just like they were imaging, extremely fancy and full of powerful people, Kitty and her descendants live in a nice citadel under the mountain of Wish and across the great lake of Hope, by the names, it is clear to notice that Zaorva´s follower found the citadel and still live in peace and harmony with nature and among themselves.

Kitty Pryde is wearing a nice gall, however, not even her decedent knows if the dress is white or blue, and on another topic, while the dress may be pretty is not following the fashion.

Many women are wearing a different dress that does not match in the slightest the dress Kitty Pryde is currently wearing, but, Kitty Pryde does not seem to care.

Giving a soft smile to her descendant, the woman is fixing his tie and speaks in a calm and gentle tone. " The dresses may be different, but, those parties are the same, have fun tonight, boy, but not too much fun or else you will end up in a surprise marriage" she jokes as her lips twisted slighted.

"Har-har, is that what happened when you were young?" Michael asked and Kitty punched his arm softly.

"Brat, and...sort of, I still remember a friend of mine that dance too much with a certain gentleman and well, let´s say it wouldn´t be proper for them to end the dance so soon" Kitty speaks and Michael does not need to know more about euphemism.

____________________________

King Magneto greets Kitty Pryde as if she is a friendly manner as well in a polite fashion, Kitty Pryde is not a noblewoman, but, noble blood means nothing to someone as powerful as Kitty.

(Plus Magneto knows that people can get royal blood easily. She used to be a mercenary in the past, even if she said it was for a good cause, what´s stopping her to get a noble name? What´s the importance of a noble name for a woman as powerful as Kitty)

"Miss Pryde, I´m happy you accept the invitation," Magneto notices the pretty, but, old dress along with the Davi Star(nothing wrong with the dress, per se, is beautiful and elegant, but, it gives away she is not the age she appears to have) his tone is friendly as much Magneto can have.

"Thank you, Erik," Kitty said as if she is talking to a child, well, to Kitty Magneto as young as a child, so, this time he will let that slice. "I really love balls, even if I´m out of the current fashion sense" Kitty jokes. "by the way, this is my descent, Michael Pryde, this is his first ball in Genosha"

"Then, I hope Michael Pryde enjoys the ball" Magneto replied with a smile as if talking with his own son. (Michael would frown at this comparison as Magneto and Quicksilver have a turmoil relationship) maybe this thought was too loud to even Magneto to hear or maybe Michael is being paranoid because Magneto calls for his second daughter, Lorna, to dance with Michael if Kitty is alright with that.

"I told you to have fun, boy" Kitty mess with his hair but a secret look sends a message to him. Be careful. That Michael can do.

Offering his arm to Lorna he takes the princess to the ballroom to dance. ___________________________________________

The Necromancer is in the ball a request his daughter made(that infuriates Wanda to no end) as she wishes to spend time with her father, of course, Scarlet Witch can be there for her daughter and ignore the existence of the Necromancer too.

The man does like Genosha´s parties, but, is even happier to know of all the guest that Magneto could call with such pompous and elegancy, he chose Kitty Pryde.

This prompts the man to go to talk with Kitty, their first meeting still fresh in his mind, but, no resentment is being held, and so pleased that he is using his best outfit.

He did notice the dress, out of fashion by 50 years, by no means she is ugly, but, that dress is something not even Wanda´s mother would wear and Kurt think is curious Kitty would wear something like that(unless she is trying to revive this old-style, well, like it was mentioned before, she does look good even in an old style)

"Enjoying the ball?" Kurt asked and Kitty gaze to him, her doe eyes are indeed beautiful and Kurt can see why people call her Belle(well, she has many names linked to her, some flattering and some not so much)

"Oh, yes, I´m very much. And you, Mr Necromancer? Are you going to be extra tonight? This dress is my favourite I would hate to stain with your blood tonight"

"Katzchen, I wouldn´t dream with that" He speaks in an easy tone "this is a ball that my daughter waited and planned for" this caught her attention "why waste such ball, such moment fighting when we could dance?"

"You have a way with words, Mr Necromancer!"

"Thank you, I try"

Kurt offers his hand and before Kitty takes she gazes upon a man with brown hair dancing with a woman with green hair, of course, that is Lorna Dane.

"That´s my son, that´s his first ball here," she said with warmth in her voice and is impressed how the young man is being a gentleman with the princess.

Kurt looks between Kitty and the young man feeling the excitement all of sudden. Kitty takes his hand. "Your son? Is he enjoying Genosha?"

"Michael Pryde, and yes, well, he never saw Genosha before, but, seem to be having fun" and adds "you are smiling"

"I´m happy to be dancing with you, Katzchen"

"Uhm, wait, are you here to dance with me or to make anyone jealousy?"

"Just to dance with you, Katzchen, no jealousy plot here, I promise and you can use your blessing on me"

"Already did, elf, just to be sure ...I´m a big fan of Scarlet Witch and don´t want her to be mad at me"

"...she hates me, Katzchen, it was one-night stand" Kurt won´t tell how sometimes she tells people that she conceived Talia by magic just to excluded Kurt of her life. "and you?"

"Michael? it was a marriage full of love"

Well, that won´t stop Kurt Wagner that´s for sure.

#mulan au #kitty pryde #misuderstood #kurt wagner #evil wizard kurt #kurtty yet #Miachel and Polais? Why not he is much better than Alex #Magneto has an agenda but he is being sincere with Kitty here #I know Kitty usually has a bad taste in fashion but her dress here is the Cindy´s dress of disney #old but pretty

[archivepolarisornah]

Let’s have some fun | Tina

Tina had been at the Callahan party for a decent amount of time, and she had a reasonable amount to drink in that time. She wasn’t “drunk”, per se. More tipsy than anything. But she was drunk enough for the mischievous part of her brain to completely over-ride the sensible part when she caught a glimpse of one James Hook on the other side of the street. (Not that it was particularly hard to do that anyway. She just had to be around Peter for three seconds for the same effect.)

The sprite of a girl had been perched on a wall at the front of the house. It was humid inside, due to the sizeable crowd, and she desperately needed some fresh air. The red cup in her hand was filled with half-melted ice cubes and a lemon wedge that she had stolen from the fridge when no one was looking. Those ice cubes subsequently spilled across the pavement when she sprung from her perch and bounded in James’ direction. She didn’t know why nor did she have a plan for when she got there, but one thing was certain - Tina was totally going to push all of Hook’s buttons.

The drinking in the new bar had been a bit disappointing to him, perhaps that was why he wasn’t even wasted as he had wanted to be. He’d hope the new bar would attract quite a few of his fellow adults but alas nothing he could do about it. He did have a drink with Jack but their conversation was brief and certainly not enough to stay there. He was about to get home when a very familiar person came walking (well he wondered if he could call this walking) towards him with an all too familiar cup in her hand.

“Tina?” His voice dripped in surprise, and part of him worried as the contents of the drink splashed on the ground as she walked over. Was she already better? Normally one who has been sick wouldn’t risk themselves by getting drunk, but he too made a few poor choices when he was a teen. Eventually, you make different decisions later in life because of the reckless things you did as a child and a teenager.

“Is something wrong?” He was surprised she even came up to him, it was after hours so technically he wasn’t her boss right now.

“Heeey,” Tina sang, skipping to James’ side. She had absolutely no plan for the conversation, but the sparkle in her eye suggested she was well on her way toward mischief. Peter was inside somewhere which could only lead to the kind of chaos she was craving and surely he would be pleased with her if she could find a way to totally mortify Hook in front of a room full of young adults.

In her tipsy state, Tina had all but forgotten why she had been given time off. Or the implications of talking to your boss while drunk. His question was deliberately ignored.

“What’ya doin’?” Tina asked in the same sickly-sweet, sing-song voice she used when she had to butter up Mr. Smee.

Heeey. Yes Tina was obviously drunk after all she never seemed this happy around him. He took note of that mischievous smile of hers. “Alright what are you up to little troublemaker.” He raised his eyebrow and offered her a smile of his own. Part of him already wondered what she was up to, but he was a patient man and quite curious to find out what was happening. He already took notice of her decision to be drunk after being granted a sick leave so this was bound to be a fun night.

“I just came from the bar, but it lacked people. Guess the adults don’t see the appeal of the new bar just yet.” He shrugged. “What are you up to Tina?” He asked her, simply playing along with what her drunk mindset was telling her to do. As an adult, it was better that he’d take an eye out so she’ll return home safely. Or she had a place to stay for the night.

“Troublemaker? Ugh, I am offended sir. Honestly!” Tina let out a small giggle, as if this would somehow help with the buttering-up plan than was forming in her head. So far it went as follows: Get Hook inside of the Callahan House. Ply him with drink, and if he doesn’t take the drink, make it totally clear that he is an old man and that he’s ruining the mood. If he does take it, then find every way possible to embarrass him for showing up to a college party and getting wasted. Then find Peter and let him finish the game! Tina and Peter triumph, Hook is defeated, they all live happily ever after!

She wasn’t really listening when he replied and was taken a back - she wasn’t really expecting an answer.

“Oh, that sounds really boring.” For a brief moment her smile dropped and she sounded like stone-cold sober Tina. But it didn’t last long. She was back to batting her eyelashes and swaying on her heels in the time it took her take a sip of melted ice from her cup.

“I am at a party and just totally minding my own business.” She had switched back to that same sparkly voice for a moment prior. And then she feigned a bright idea, linking her arm with James’. “Oh my god, you should totally come to the party!”

“You do realize you don’t have to call me sir outside working hours. I’m not your boss at the moment.” James pointed out though a small smile carried on his lips as she told him she was offended. It was as if part of him already guessed that there was someplace giving alcohol to these college brats, but he just needed to figure out where. And more than that it seemed like she was quite interested in chatting with him. Which probably meant one thing, she needed something.

“Oh it was, very,” James admitted, arms crossed at the sudden change of tone but it was quickly back to her drunk chatter. “I honestly think you are drinking water at this point with all you spilt.”

When she invited him to the party his smile grew. “You don’t say-” He wondered if she was thinking straight inviting an adult to a party. She probably just begged to be disappointed. “Well, I cannot say you have any bad ideas. You know what, sure. I’ll join you.”

Tina quirked an eyebrow and she might have smirked a little. The plan was already going far too well. She could already feel the triumph. Peter would be so proud! “Okay, whatever you say, James,” Tina drolled. It felt horribly unnatural to call him anything but ‘Sir’ or ‘Mr. Hook’.

“Wha– Aren’t you proud of me?” She gave the cup a shake, so that whatever was left of the ice rattled against the plastic. “I’m totally being responsible. Imagine that!” (Maybe the cool night air had hit Tina and she was actually little bit drunker than she initially thought.)

Tina giggled gleefully when he took her up on the invitation. She even pulled his arm closer. “It’s gonna be great!”

He couldn’t resist the small shake of the head when he took notice of that smirk. She really must think she was a clever girl right now, certainly up to no good. “Exactly, Tina.” Well, he wouldn’t allow her to call him James during working hours, but off the clock, he truly didn’t mind.

“Oh, very.” He clapped his hands to stroke her ego even more. “Yes, I’d never would have guessed. Such a big girl.” He also wouldn’t have guessed he’d end up babysitting her after-hours ended. He was used of it when it came to Peter. Who considering Tina was at this party, he would put some money on it Peter wasn’t far off either.

“Lead the way princess.” Though the nickname slipped, he could always blame it on the whiskey he drank rather than a simple playful gesture.

Tina was feeling mighty proud of herself by this point. In a more sober state this would have been embarrassing as hell. Usually her manipulation attempts with Hook were very different. Shameless flirting only worked on Smee, and she wouldn’t ever think about trying it with James within a ten mile radius. But she was unabashedly shameless when drunk, apparently. Drunk Tina’s brain was telling her that it was the flirting that was totally working in her favour, and that was why James was going along with her plan, unaware of the consequences she had planned for doing so. Blissfully unaware that he probably felt sorry for her and could turn him in to her babysitter at any moment.

Tina beamed proudly, sticking her nose in the air in accomplishment. (Her ears might have flushed a light pink when he called her Princess; she was not above taking a endearment from anyone.) The arm she had firmly planted around James’ arm now slipped and she took hold of his wrist, pulling him triumphantly toward Nancy Callahan’s bustling house. “You know, James…” Still felt weird. “I don’t even know who’s party this is.”

There were a lot of things running through his head with that last line she gave him, but he settled with one he felt was more important. Thank god, I’m not the parent that will receive a heart attack when coming home to the mess these kids have created. Or even more: Thank god I’m not the child who started the party. Neither roles sounded appealing, he’d be the man who was going to check the damage and perhaps if he was in a good enough mood, he’ll even send Peter to clean up part of the mess.

Though he was well aware Peter never would. He had hoped Peter would mature a bit under his care but Peter had proven that he had a strong will, and wasn’t one to take directions. Even if he gave him shelter and food there was no hair on that kid’s body that trusted him. Which at days was a bit of a stinging pain. James would never tell.

“Well, does it matter whose party it is?” He asked her. Back in the day, a party was a party. It could belong to the biggest geek there was if there was booze people would show up. Did that already change with the next generation?

“Not really! I just thought – seeing as you’re an old man and all that – that it would be an important thing you’d have to know. Or something. To be, like, polite or whatever. Y’know, send them a thank you card or whatever it is your kind do these days.” It seemed that in the short time it took them to walk to the door, Tina had decided that her flirting had worked, and now she could say absolutely anything she liked. She hoped it would sound endearing, but her penchant for insulting, unfiltered chatter was swiftly taking over.

Tina let go of James’ wrist when they made it to the door, though she stayed close enough that she could guide him toward the most potential for damage. The kitchen, maybe, or the liqueur cabinet she had spotted earlier that was filled with drinks that could easily knock her out with half a glass. The people around them were already so intoxicated that an adult - a real adult - walking through the crowds barely caused a stir, much to Tina’s disappointment. At the very least it would have been amusing to see some of the kids panicking that they would be caught out past curfew or doing questionable things with total strangers.

“Old man, I’m only 35 years old.” She made it sound like he was ready for retirement. He was still young, but his demeanour and the way he spoke might have aged him more than he was. It was simply an act to look more professional, he’s been in a fair share of trouble before. He was no saint, though he tried his hardest now to have his conscious clean. “Thank you card? I feel like you watch too many movies and picture me as a tv dad or something.”

Who in their right mind sends a thank you card? Maybe for a wedding or something but for an invitation to a party? That would be beer, wouldn’t it? Tina really could be strange at times but her drunken self truly was something. “Tina, I do hope you are aware that adults are quite capable of having fun, and aren’t ‘polite’ all the time.” He let her guide him to the kitchen, his eyes fell on how empty the, what he assumed the liquor cabinet to be. That’s a lot of drunken teens.

At least the place wasn’t on fire.

“So this is the party-” He wouldn’t say he pictured it grander, but it was exactly that. “Guess I’m more into pool parties.” He mumbled more to himself. There were just a bunch of teens drunk, wobbling and laughing. These kids are way too nice.

Maybe it was just because he was her boss, and a very present authority figure in her life (of which she had next to none) but James seemed significantly older to Tina than he actually was. Peter’s attitude toward him didn’t help the matter. Anyone who wasn’t young and reckless was automatically old and boring. Referencing TV dad’s didn’t help much either. Tina grimaced slightly, as if this was some realization that she hadn’t anticipated and hoped that she would forget about when she was significantly more sober. “To be fair,” she replied through a wash of existential dread. “A TV dad is the closest thing I have as a reference point, so, like, can you blame me?”

Without much thought, Tina replaced the red cup in her hand with a new one sitting on top the counter, and lifted a nearby, almost empty bottle of… something… from it’s precarious position on top of a chair.  “I have yet to be proven otherwise on that ‘Grown-Ups are fun’ thing, but, like, feel free!” Her smile returned when she spoke again. Her ears pricked up, and Hooks comment didn’t go unnoticed.

She stood on tip-toes and moved closer as if telling a secret. “They do have a pool…”

“Well, it’s not like it’s much different to me.” If he was realistic the closest a father figure came to him was this male nurse who took care of him in the orphanage. “I’ve been an orphan ever since birth, I had a nurse, If I were to base a father on someone it’ll be that guy I suppose.” It never had bothered him, after all, he ended up a successful businessman, though by foul deeds. In the end, it didn’t matter, his business was thriving and existed. “I know I’m far from a father figure, and I have a life after hours. It’s a bit silly to think an adults life is just work and no play Tina.”

He chuckled as he took the red cup out of her hand. “You already got quite a bit of a drink, and I had none. Why don’t you leave the drinking to someone who can actually hold his liquor.” When she revealed that there was a pool the man’s eyes began to shine and his smile widened. “You don’t say.” He scooped her up into his arms and smiled. “Guess you won’t mind a swim then?”

“That sounds, like… super tragic, man,” Tina nodded, feigning sympathy. Really, she didn’t think people needed father figures. Hadn’t she turned out perfectly fine without one? By now she was giving the bottle in her hand a shake, trying to read the sticker through bleary eyes, and pouring what was left in to the cup. When empty, she set the bottle back on the counter. “Y’know, you could totally prove me wrong and let us have fun at work…”

James took the cup from her hand and she blinked in confusion before a flustered huff escaped her nose. “Heeey, that’s not fair,” Tina whined, reaching for the cup and stomping her foot on the ground. A pout formed on her lips. How rude! Tina could, like, totally hold her liquor, and she was holding it fine had James’ not just taken it from her hands. “I can tot-Oh!”

Tina suddenly felt considerably too far away from the floor. (She was small, so any height was too far off the floor.) Her attention had previously been on reaching the red cup, and she now found herself gaping in horror in James’ arms. She came to the realisation that her taunting and flirting had backfired just as quickly as James’ had lifted her off the ground. “Wh– No! You wouldn’t! Please don’t…”

“Is it though?” James shrugged. “Think about it, we humans are capable of taking care of ourselves when being placed in the right learning environment. And that can be everything, even the streets.” You learn how to live, to survive. He chuckled. “But Tina, there is a rule created that being you separate work and pleasure.” Which meant, even if he was the stern and boring boss on the work floor, he was one that could enjoy a bottle or two after hours. “It’s all about keeping a face in our business. What about I’ll allow you some fun when I close up?”

“Neither is life.” James teased. As his arms eased up around her. Well, maybe he shouldn’t have drunk a bottle of whiskey alone. Yet she went out to bother and probably get him into trouble. Foolish. He was quite capable of that himself. Yet he couldn’t blame her, she only knew the facade he wore for business.

“I would. And I will.” James smiled carrying her near the pool. “Ready to become a mermaid princess?”

“I… I guess…” It felt, weirdly, as if Tina had walked out of a fun, exciting party and straight in to the office of her course Councillor, who liked to lecture Tina repeatedly about the path she was choosing in life. And those lectures always sounded just like those Charlie Brown cartoons, where the teachers only spoke in a series of ‘blahs’. How much had he actually drank at the bar before he got here? Tina had heard that gin makes you cry, and that whisky probably turned you in to a sap. James certainly seemed the latter. Absolutely not what Tina experienced at work. “I don’t know that your idea of pleasure and fun is the same as mine,” she replied, increasingly worried about the prospect of being dunked in the nearby pool.

“Mermaid? No! I’m– I’m more like a, uh, a gremlin! Don’t feed me after midnight, and don’t get me wet! Please, it’s better for us all if this doesn’t happen!”

As they neared the pool, Tina found herself grasping at James’ shirt for dear life. She really, really, did not want to go swimming right now! Maybe if she held on tight enough he couldn’t get the momentum to throw her in to the pool. Maybe she would look totally desperate (she did) and he would feel awful about and change his mind.

James hummed as he earned an agreement of her. It’s what experience does in life. He was never well-treated. Yet he still had a steady business and worked hard to make up for all he lacked throughout life. He held no shame in being abandoned if anything he wore it as a medal of honour. He had not relied on his parents to achieve anything in his life, he didn’t even know who they were. And even if he would eventually find out he had no desire to know them any longer.

“Little Gremlin Tina?” He was a bit surprised. “Guess the princess fits you more.” He did wonder why she shouldn’t be fed at midnight, yet then again this might just be women being worried about their body figure. Or she had a weak stomach, yet seeing what she was drinking before he doubted that. “Oh truly?”

She certainly didn’t know him is she truly believed guilt would stop him from getting her in the pool. But he had the nature to worry, so he decided she wouldn’t be the only one that would get wet. He could use a sober up as well.

Instead of just throwing her in, he tightened his hold around her and smiled, before jumping in himself. Perhaps it was due to his height, or the pool simply not being too deep, he found the ground at ease, and managed to easily hold Tina in a princess carry despite being completely soaked. “All is well if anything you can get some spare clothing at my place.” He teased. “The water is quite nice don’t you think, not as cold as I thought it would be. I suppose it’s a heated one.”

“No, no, no. Definitely a Gremlin! Like… the one with the lips…” Tina insisted. To begin, she made a point of not swimming. She just wasn’t a strong swimmer. And any pranks that the Lost Boys may have tried that involved water ended with Tina going absolutely ballistic. There was nothing that would be considered Princess-like when Tina was soaking wet and on the war path. “Really, truly, honestly, this is bringing me no pleasure whatsoever.”

Now she was rambling away in an attempt to distract from James’ plan. Why wasn’t it working? It should totally be working! Why are still going right toward the pool?!

A horrified squeal broke through the music of the party, followed by the splash. Tina’s arms had flown from her vice-like grip on his shirt, to an equally tight hold around his neck.

It took her a minute but she finally stopped holding her breath. Her death grip around James showed no sign of giving up, however. “I’m going to murder you in your sleep,” Tina stated, barely above a whisper, into James’ shoulder. And then she shook her head harshly, glaring up through already-smudged eyes. If her face burned any hotter, the water would have boiled them alive. “This is not fucking nice, I want out. Now!!” Eyes of party goers were turned toward them now, and she was utterly mortified.

“HmmHmm, No I don’t see it,” James said. She was petite like a fairy rather than a gremlin. James could swim well, be it in the sea or in a pool. And she was held quite strongly so she wouldn’t get hurt. He wasn’t too worried about it if she couldn’t swim, with how the pool looked he could probably reach it with his feet to keep her afloat. All is fine. “Well bringing you pleasure is never my purpose now is it, Tina? I’m your boss, I should give you agony instead.”

The walk continued and though he had noticed her distress, yet that really prevented for what happened next.

He laughed as she holds onto him. “Isn’t it refreshing?” James teased her, knowing well aware in the next couple of seconds she would go from startled to complete rage.

“That would mean you will have to come to my bedroom, and princess I’m very sure you won’t do that.” The smirk on his lips betrayed his amusement, and her thread went in no man’s ears. “My aren’t you turning into a red one.” He laughed. “But Tina, you told me yourself - I? I am not Nice.” He twirled her around in the pool a final time before bringing her back to the edge. “Now, seems like you got quite some eyes on you. And I should get some dry clothes at my place. Tata Tina.

#James #Tina #007

[swanqueen-is-the-story]

sq prompt: regina and emma go to a kinky party together

Hiiii, thank you!

Sorry it took me so long, but this turned into a multi-chapter fic. Here’s a teaser from a later chapter to show the vibe:

Emma fled the Fairy Room, Regina hot on her heels, laughing. “Regina, this was not funny! I’m scarred for life!” “Well, dear, did you think fairies were real nuns? I made them nuns to piss them off! Fairies, nuns, nurses—““Don’t fucking remind me! I’m still trying to erase the image of a naked Leroy with that weird mushroom!”“Well, he certainly didn’t seem Grumpy.” Emma glared at her, unamused; Regina chuckled.

And here’s part one! 

CHAPTER I - Getting to the Party

“Are you sure about this, Swan?” Regina asked, unable to stop the little tremble in her voice.

“Oh, ‘Swan’ again?” Emma said, a smirk on her lips. She was leaning against the door frame of the Queen-elect’s bedroom, watching her put on her makeup. “I am sure, but if you aren’t, we don’t have to go….” Regina sighed.

“It’s not that I don’t want to go per se…. I just … I don’t know…” She brought her face closer to the mirror, putting some eyeliner. Emma walked up to her and stood behind her, admiring her reflection in the mirror. Watching Regina putting on make-up was much more enjoyable than watching Hook do the same just a few hours earlier as he was getting ready to go out with his crew.

“We can just go there, and immediately leave if you’re feeling uncomfortable, we don’t have to stay.” Regina smiled slightly at Emma’s words, leaning back a bit to admire herself in the mirror.

“Alright!” She was trying very hard to appear confident. She turned around and started ‘fixing’ Emma’s tie before undoing it completely and redoing it from scratch.

“Hey,” Emma said softly, gently stopping Regina that was going to undo the tie again, “come on, we’re going to be late.”

The ride was silent. Emma often glanced at Regina but the brunette kept gazing out the window, staring into space. Not a word was spoken as Emma opened the bug’s passenger door and watched Regina step out. She pulled the lapels of her coat tighter around her and wrapped an arm around her midriff, her other hand clutching the chain of her purse. Emma smiled tentatively at her, a gentle hand on her back.

The street was empty, the street lights barely fending off the darkness of the night. Emma pulled out her phone to check the address as Regina kept looking around, her posture more and more stiff.

“So….?” She asked impatiently. Emma kept looking around.

“I don’t know… it’s supposed to be here….” Regina sighed impatiently, tapping her Jimmy Choos against the pavement.

“Give me that!” She snatched the phone from the blonde’s hand and started walking down the street, trying to find the building with the address. Emma rolled her eyes and followed her.

“Regina, it’s not that way, it says we’re supposed to be at 2020 and we’re already past 2028!” Regina groaned and turned the other way, going back in front of the building they had stopped in front of to begin with.

“Well, that’s the damn number! Do you see an entrance that seems open??” She asked impatiently, shoving the phone back in the Sheriff’s hands.

“Calm down, Regina.” Emma said softly, not wanting to anger her friend.

“Fine…” She grumbled, crossing her arms with her head held high.

“Okay… so logically we should hear music coming from the building…. Maybe the entrance is on the other side, the building’s pretty big…”

“Or maybe we arrived at the wrong place.” Regina mumbled to herself; the blonde had heard though and shot her an unimpressed glare. Regina raised an eyebrow and shrugged.

“Let’s just go around it.” Emma guided Regina to the left of the building with a hand on her back, hoping to ease her nerves just a little bit. She could sense just how stiff Regina’s shoulders were. “Relax, ‘Gina…” She said softly, smiling at her, “It’s an adventure.”

“First of all, don’t call me that, and I don’t feel adventurous at all.”

Emma sighed slightly at Regina’s attitude but didn’t reply. They kept going all the way to the left but there was still no sign of the building being open. All the windows were blocked so no one could see inside and no doors were open.

“Maybe we should just leave…

Let’s just try on the other side, and if there’s still nothing open, we’ll leave.” Emma said.

Regina reluctantly nodded and they made their way to the other side, the absolute silence of the street only broken by their footsteps. Soon enough, some music started to echo and Emma smiled brightly.

[Read on AO3]

“Can you hear it?! It’s that way!” She started walking a little faster, an excited smile illuminating her face. She looked like a kid on Christmas morning. Regina followed with a stiff smile.

Soon enough they found themselves at the bottom of a few steps leading to the entrance. Through the glass door, you could see the sort of reception and the quite aggressive white lights spilling out on the street. They went up the steps in sync and Regina frowned as the reception came into better view.

“Are you sure you’ve got the date and place right? It doesn’t really look—

Well, look at how people are dressed, I think we’re at the right place…” Emma whispered to her while trying to appear casual as if she wasn’t discussing people’s appearances in front of their faces. Regina hadn’t even noticed at first and now started looking everyone up and down. Her posture got impossibly stiffer.

“Emma, I don’t know…” She sounded quite unsure.

“Hey, it’s okay, let’s just go inside, and if you want to leave, we leave right away, okay?” Regina swallowed the lump in her throat and nodded.

They stepped inside and went to the makeshift reception desk. It had a black cloth covering it. They went straight to the two ladies sat at the table.

“Welcome ladies!” Astrid, the nun-fairy, said loudly with a warm smile, a mischievous glint in her eyes that widened when she realized who she was facing. “Y-Your Majesty? What are you doing here….?”

“Minding my own business…” She mumbled to herself; she never really liked fairies.

“She’s just accompanying me… I was intimidated at the thought of being here on my own…” Emma came to her rescue. Of course she would be all chivalrous and save her from embarrassment. Regina did come because Emma had asked her to, but Emma wasn’t intimidated at all by the evening ahead. No, the blonde had been eager and enthusiastic.

“Well, welcome to the first annual BDSM party of the United Realms!” Astrid exclaimed with a much too happy voice for Regina’s liking. The Queen blushed furiously and glared at the nun.

“Can’t you keep your voice down?!” She whispered a bit harshly, the smile fading from Astrid’s lips.

“Regina, we are all here for the same reasons…” Emma deadpanned, earning herself a glare. “Just relax, Regina!” Regina huffed, crossing her arms in front of her with a scowl. “She’s just nervous.” She told Astrid, stage whispering. Regina slapped her arm. “Ow!!!” Emma rubbed her arm then smirked. Regina narrowed her eyes at her and squealed loudly when Emma pinched her waist.

“Emma stop; this is not funny!” Regina growled, stepping away slightly. Emma rolled her eyes.

“You’re not fun.”

Astrid was watching their interaction with an amused smile and a raised eyebrow.

“Tinkerbell will give you a tour of the place!” The nun said. Emma scowled and Regina raised an eyebrow at her reaction.

“What are you two doing here?” Tink asked with a chipper voice, walking them down a corridor. “And where’s that flirty husband of yours?” Seeing how Emma was staying silent, crossing her arms with a pout that frankly looked a bit childish, Regina took it upon herself to reply.

“Emma was just curious about the place and didn’t feel like coming here alone… or with her husband.” She said that last word with disdain which only made Emma brood even more, shuffling beside her.

“I see!” They stopped in front of a grand double door. “Here we are! So let me explain a few things before we go in! This is a BDSM party, you can walk around the place and watch people do their thing but never interrupt a scene being played out and if you want to join the fun, you’ll have to be invited by the participants.” The two women nodded; they didn’t plan on participating anyway. “No sexual activity in the play areas—

“S-sexual… I mean… I’m married…” Emma tripped over her words, blushing.

“Are you okay, Miss Swan?” Regina purred with a shit-eating smirk. Emma glared at her and Tink rolled her eyes.

“As I was saying, no sexual activities in the play areas, there are red rooms in each section devoted to that. The green rooms are for aftercare. If you use any equipment, they are to be cleaned and sterilized after use. If you have any questions, or concerns about something you see or experience, there are Dungeon Masters that are here to enforce the rules and to make sure everyone is safe and consenting. Blue is one of them; if you don’t see her and wish to summon her, just say her real name—ONLY WHEN NECESSARY!!” She exclaimed as she saw Emma open her mouth. She closed it with a sheepish face. “Do you have any questions?” Emma and Regina looked at each other, then back at Tink and shook their head.

The fairy opened the double doors and they entered a spacious room. Music was blaring through the darkness, the lights very low. Regina relaxed slightly when taking in the room that basically looked like a club. The bar was in the middle of the room, in a circle, a few barmen making drinks for patrons and tables were scattered all around. Tink leaned closer to them.

“There are different rooms all around this space, each of them has a different theme and has both a red and green room.” Tink practically shouted to be heard over the music. “Have fun!” She quickly disappeared, leaving the two friends alone.

#swan queen #SQ fanfic #SQ fanfiction #swan queen fanfic #Anonymous #swan queen fanfiction

[melonoverlord]

What is Xo's opinion on everyone in the party, and also chocolate

When theyfirst joined the Queen’s mission, they didn’t care at all for what they wereactually supposed to be doing and definitely didn’t care about the people theywere travelling with. All they cared about was getting the immunity forthemself and Yaya, but as someone who latches onto and becomes attached topeople, this attitude didn’t last long.

Breda

Breda was the first one they feltattached to and wanted to protect both because they’ve always had a soft spotfor small creatures, and because Breda reminded them so much of Yaya and sinceit was the first time Xo had a hope they’d find her instead of trying todestroy themselves in grief, they gravitated towards anything that remindedthem of their baby. Now they appreciate Breda’s positivity and tiny fightingprowess, but still sometimes think that the Halfling is too positive for whatthe situation constitutes.

Tarel

Xo didn’t know what tothink of Tarel, but wanted to get close to him because they figured that two fuck-upsshould stick together, especially after they helped him out when he gotbranded. Now that she’s gotten drunk and high with him, they definitely thinkthey have the potential to be friends but both have walls up that they refuseto bring down. Right now Tarel is the closest thing they view as a friend,which is one of the first friends they’ve ever had. They also think that he andYaya would bond over being archers, especially seeing how both haveaccidentally shot them- it’s definitely more forgivable when the shooter is 5and not in his 80s. In the situation they’re in, they definitely want to starta slave revolt and steal things with him. Maybe it’s the perfect way to bond.

Ellie

Ellie was a littleharder to make assumptions of. Up until they played Never Have I Ever, Xo sawher as the leader of their ragtag gang, and definitely too smart and a littlestuck up for them to ever match up to. It wasn’t anything that Ellie did wrongper se, but as someone with limited education and guardian of such a smart andcurious little girl, Xochitl always felt insecure about how they couldn’t giveYaretzi the education she deserved. Even now they still see Ellie as the leaderof the party but now distrusts her a little seeing that she has a cultfollowing complete with shackled slaves, especially considering the environmentthey grew up in. Knowing that either Ellie or at least someone who looks a lotlike Ellie used to live in an environment similar to the one that caused theirchildhood trauma, they don’t know if they can trust her as much anymore.

Arzan

Xo still doesn’t likeArzan that much mostly due to his very aggressive and abrasive nature, butrespects him and appreciates the things he’s done for the party includinggetting them their new armor and naming his horse Dwayne “The Horse” Johnson.They wish they could get a little closer to him since they literally knownothing about him, but doubt that will happen anytime soon.

Mae

Xochitl always respected Mae even though she was part of the group that cursed a town to get attacked by animals. In the end, without the curse Xo never would have found Buttons and they’re eternally grateful for that. They also think overall that Mae is very interesting and cool (though not appreciative of the sass she gave them in the caves) and wants to get closer with her. It’s a little hard when Mae doesn’t know common and Xo can’t fuckin read, but they hope they can make it work.

Buttons

Buttons was the first shred of happiness Xo felt in a long time, or at least since Yaya went missing. It sucks they wouldn’t even have met if the Qun didn’t curse a town or that they had to brutally murder Buttons’ mother, but she’s glad she has someone to care after until they find Yaretzi. Now that they’ve traveled all this way, they’re sad that their good precious little bear daughter had to be dragged through all this including being a slave for a couple days, but they would be crushed and probably refuse to go on living if something happened to their baby.

Chocolate

The only othersubstance that Xo consumes as much as alcohol or weed is chocolate. When Yayawas kidnapped, in attempt to get themselves killed, they only at chocolate fortwo weeks. Unfortunately they didn’t die, they just felt very sick for a longtime. Now that they’re out of the caves, they’re definitely finding the nearestchocolatier and eating their body weight in chocolate.

#my characters #tales of regalia #Xochitl

[userlando]

First Times (Ethan x Reader)

Summary: Requested by anon: “hey! i really, really like your writing. you have a gift! you probably have loads of requests right now, but when you find the time, could you whip up an imagine about how the reader and ethan meet like the one you wrote with gray?” Word Count: 1,819 Warnings: None. A/N: Okay so I lost monopoly and decided to unwind by writing this little thing. Hope you enjoy this xx Read Grayson’s version here!

The first time you saw Ethan was at a small house party. Your best friend had the house to herself and she’d asked - more like begged - you to come, insisting that it was just a small get together and that there wouldn’t be a lot of people. The house was packed though, music booming inside, reaching the end of the street and you had rolled your eyes. Obviously a small get together for her was a huge party for you.

But you had walked in, pushing through the sweaty throng of people and made your way to the kitchen where it seemed to be less people. You had looked around for your friend and it didn’t take long for you to find her, standing next to two guys that you couldn’t recognize since they had their backs to you. Her eyes flickered over to you coming up behind them and they lit up like a Christmas tree.

“Y/N! There you are!” She exclaimed, reaching for you when you got close enough, grabbing you by the arm and yanking you into a hug. She smelled of vodka and smoke, making you wrinkle your nose as you hugged her back.

“I thought you said this would be a small get together?” You asked into her ear, trying not to sound bitter, but you weren’t really in a mood to party and the atmosphere in the house was just too electric and high for you to enjoy.

She pulled back slightly, smiling sheepishly at you, “Yeah... About that. I may have twisted the truth.”

You snorted and let your arms fall to your sides. Just then you noticed the two guys she was talking to and you froze, staring at the twins. Sharp jawlines, pink lips, hazel eyes and amused smiles on their faces. They had different hairstyles, one in a quiff and one in a more wild and unruly hair, a purple stripe on his fringe. He was definitely cute, and you couldn’t stop staring. Your friend could sense it and you could almost feel her smirk as she gestured between you three.

“Y/N, Ethan and Grayson, Ethan and Grayson, this is Y/N.” She introduced, almost sounding smug as Ethan was quick to wave, smiling brightly at you.

You felt your stomach flop and breathed out a small hi, before turning back to your friend who was - as you predicted - smirking at you. You tried not to glare at her, but you couldn’t help it. So it was her plan all along.

“I’m going to the bathroom.” You said, nodding politely to the boys before disappearing up the stairs.

An hour had passed and you were sat in your friends room by her huge window, nursing a beer and looking out, watching as people came and went, huddling close to their coats and jackets.

Ethan had found you like that, opening the door and stepping inside before closing it after himself. At first you had thought that he was looking for you, but judging by the way he startled as he rose his eyes to meet yours, you knew he was just trying to get away.

You had patted the space beside you and you both had sat by the window sill, talking until late night.

The first time Ethan kissed you was when you were playing pool. After that house party, you’d exchanged numbers and texted non-stop for a week. Your best friend was smiling smugly every time your phone vibrated, looking like she was so pleased with herself.

He had invited you and your friend over for drinks and a movie, claiming that it really was just a small get together this time, and not a trick to get you to party. And he had been true to his words when you knocked on the door, a Saturday night, being greeted by his smiling face and a cozy hug from him that had you feeling things you didn’t know a human being could feel.

At first you had all sat together by the kitchen counter; your friend, Ethan, Grayson and three of their other friends. You’d played cards and sipped on your drinks, laughing and exchanging stories. It was pleasant and you had a good time, feeling like you were on top of the world every time you’d catch Ethan looking at you, giving you a secretive smile.

By the time you had popped in a movie, Ethan had grazed his hand against yours from where he was sitting next to you on the couch, giving you a look. He had risen up, walking slowly to a door and you followed, ignoring everyone’s curious and teasing looks as they watched you two walk away. It turned out to be a game room, a pool table sitting in the middle.

“Are you any good?” He asked and gestured toward the pool table, grabbing two pool cues.

You watched him move around, too mesmerized by how good looking he looked that you missed his question. He looked up and caught your eye, smirking. You blushed and rolled your eyes jokingly before walking over, grabbing a cue from him.

“I’m aces.” You said and immediately regretted it. Aces, really?

Ethan grinned, “Alright, wanna bet?”

You walked around the table, watching him setting up the balls on the green cloth and nodded.

“Alright, what did you have in mind?” You asked and he placed the other end of his cue on the floor, resting the palms of his hands on top of each other on the other end of the cue.

It took everything in you to not jump him, the way he was looking at you made every inch of you tingle.

“If I win, I get a kiss. And if you win, you get a kiss.” He said and watched your face for a reaction.

You bit back a smile, although it was impossible because it broke through. You grinned, feeling your face flush.

“How is that a bet?” You laughed. “But alright, I’m in.”

You both played your turns and it turns out you were in luck because you were almost winning. He wasn’t a bad player per se, you had just made sure to arch your back a little more and subtly wiggle around whenever it was your turn. You had two more balls to sink in, and including the black one, when Ethan decided that he’d had enough. He crept up behind you when it was your turn to take a shot, touching your waist in question. You had turned around, feeling heat rising in your cheeks as he had bit his lips to hold back his beautiful smile. When he got the slight nod of approval from you, he had picked you up, setting you down on the edge of the table. You peeked up at him, placing your hand over his that was stroking your cheek. You closed your eyes and within seconds, he had leaned down to press his lips to yours.

The first - and only - time Ethan asked you to be his girlfriend, it was during a fight. He had invited you over to watch a movie, and you being so whipped had said yes immediately, rushing over, eager to see him after having been apart for two days.

It had been nice, candles had been lit and placed in a few corners of the room, popcorn already in your system and a blanket over the two of you. You were snuggled up on the couch, but not for long. Because when you began to feel bored out of your mind, it was hard to stay focused on anything but the feel of Ethan’s fingers playing with yours mindlessly. It didn’t take long for you to end up on the couch, him on top of you and your lips locked in a heated kiss.

After a while, he claimed he was gonna get something more to drink, kissing your cheek and giving you a smile before climbing off of you. You pouted at the lack of contact but laid still, sinking your teeth into your bottomlip, smiling at the ceiling. A vibration had pulled you out of it though, and you automatically reached for it thinking it was yours. But one look at the screen and you realized it was Ethan’s. You were about to place it back when the text he had received caught your attention.

From: Annalise Hey babe, what u up to?

You felt your heart sink to the bottom of your stomach and you sat up, ignoring the dizziness you felt from having been laying horizontal for an hour. It was at that moment Ethan came back, smile disappearing from his lips as he took in the sadness in your eyes. His eyes flickered to his phone in your hands.

“Y/N?” He asked, sounding confused. “What’s wrong?”

“I have to go.” You whispered, feeling your throat close up as you stood up, walking past him and shoving his phone in his hand.

He looked down on it.

“Y/N? Wait! What happened?” He asked, voice rising as you hurried away from him to the hallway. He set down the drinks in his hand on the table, hurrying after you.

You looked at him, feeling anger flare in you at the panic and confusion written all over his face.

And that’s when the screaming match started. He’d assure you she was just a friend that liked petnames, and you accused him of going behind your back. But techincally you weren’t his and he wasn’t yours, so that made you even more sad and upset.

He had taken your hand in the middle of it all, shushing you as you rambled angry cuss words at him. And he’d confessed his true feelings for you, asking you to be his girlfriend. You had cried then which took you both by surprise because you never cried, but all the feelings and the moodswings in the fight had left you relieved as he murmured sweet nothing in your ear. And you had nodded against his chest, pulling him in for a kiss as if to say yes.

The first time you saw Ethan cry tears of happiness, was when he went down on one knee, asking you to be his forever. You had gone down on your knees, crying as you yelled yes between the tears, and you’d seen his slide down his cheeks, flushed from happiness.

The second time he cried was when Grayson had set up all the cameras in the livingroom, where you both sat down as you announced to him that you were having a baby girl. He’d cried then, screaming out in joy as he ran around, pulling his phone out to call his family to tell them the news. Then he’d gathered you up in his arms, wetting down your shirt with his tears.

#ethan dolan #ethan dolan imagine #ethan dolan one shot #ethan dolan x reader #dolan twins #dolan twins fic #dolan twins x reader #dolans #grayson dolan #grayson dolan imagine #grayson dolan one shot #grayson x reader #one shot #one shots #imagine #imagines #thedolangifs #first times #ethan x reader #requested

[everyday-effing-therapy]

09/07/2020

Hello,

I have been really lazy for the last couple of days. Every single day I was thinking about writing. 

Around two weeks ago we had a full year since I created this blog and posted my first post. It’s not the first blog I’ve ever had and it’s also not the longest I’ve written a blog so far, but it’s my first one not in my mother tongue and also, I guess it really became some sort of therapy for me.

This year was crazy, full of unexpected and unfortunately, disappointment. I am trying not to regret anything and I guess I am becoming better at that, but it’s a long journey. 

I changed, in a way, but sometimes it feels as if I am constantly stuck in a one place.

So, I had a lot of thoughts during Rose’s party. It turned out better than I expected, which is good, I talked to my friends, we sang happy birthday for Black on midnight, and one of my friends kissed me. 

Now, I know what you might be thinking, but I can assure you, we will not be together. Not just because I am moving away in literal two months, but also because we don’t match ith our characters AT ALL.

And if I learnt everything this year, it is to look whether you are compatible with your crushes, cause it might save you a lot of pain.

So, she’s a cutie, but she also loves feeling wanted and popular. There is nothing wrong with that, per se, cause I feel the same way, but she can be quite overbearing with her stories that seem impossible and the overall need to be liked and talked about. More talked about than liked.

So, apart from being a bit touchy-kissy, we didn’t do anything alse and soon separated. Besides that, I had a great time talking to my friends. We talked about my university, me moving abroad and Marigold and Black congratulated me and cheered me on, which was incredibly sweet of them.

I had to come home by bus though, because no cab wanted to pick us up. V slept in my house and in the morning I went to vote in our elections. Then, we went to my grandma’s house and V came back home.

To tell you the truth, V started being a tad bit more emotional with me, as she knows that I will be leaving, Because she had a long-ass arguement with Su, I became even more of her listener and I guess it must be scary to know that your best friend will be leaving. They are good now and yesterday we met up for a sleepover. We had lots of fun and today, when we were bidding our farewell, Su hugged me for a long time. It was, quite probably, the last time I’ve seen her before I will be leaving for my university in August. 

Which means that we will see each other around Christmas.

Now that sounds crazy. After six years of seeing her Monday to Friday and then seeing her after classes or talking on our convo, knowing that I am saying goddbye to V and Su sounds weird and unfamiliar. 

Two days after Rose’s party, she invited me for a sleepover. It was really out of nowhere, it was 21:30, I was already in my pajamas, reading a book, when she called and truly, I was so glad for that. On that day we had a meeting with our biology teacher, where eight people came and it was super nice and pleasant. We had lots of fun, laughed and gossiped and truly, I am so thankful we got that teacher for our senior year. She quite possibly has saved us. 

However, as soon as the time came to come back home, I started feeling really uneasy. I didn’t feel like being alone and truly nothing arose my interest. I started reading two books and neither of them is captivating enough to make me really want to come back to reading them. One of them is way more interesting than another, but it’s the length that truly discourages me, cause it is around a thousand pages.

So, when Rose invited me I was really happy. I came round, we talked, drank some wine and ended up hugging while falling asleep, which was something I truly needed but didn’t know before. Rose is adorable and loving and life certainly wasn’t easy on her, but she feels things. 

Now, I know that Rose isn’t interested in me romantically and honestly, I am not interested in her that way either, but I consider her beautiful and am going to miss her like crazy. 

Her mom and sisters were amazingly nice to me and complimented me on a lot of things which made me love them from the very start. I got compliments on my glasses, hair and character, which made me really warm on the inside. 

So, all in all, I have been having great fun. Then, a couple of days later,  met up with V and other close friends of mine for an alcohol sleepover. We ate so much pizza, drank some beer and gossiped, but I ended up falling asleep at 2am anyways. 

The days of staying up all night and feeling alright are long gone, it turns out.

The day after we were invited to a bonfire. Su and Opal couldn’t come, the same goes for Black and Marigold, which I guess is good cause I ended up bonding with others ana making good with what I had. It was a completely different party than all that I went to before, but in a good way, which I am happy for.

On that party, Gold started hitting on his ex-girlfriend again and although she claims that nothing unordinary is happening, she held another bonfire two days ago and spend 3/4 of it glued to him, with him hugging her all the time. Good for them, I guess, but their relationship didn’t last long and I am just curious whether it would be better now.

Her bonfire was good but even fewer people came and I was incredibly tired for some unknown reason. She lives far away so I drove myself there and didn’t drink any alcoholic beverages for the night. I ended up coming home fast as I really didn’t have as much fun as I hoped. 

It turns out that my extreme tiredness stems from the fact that I don’t sleep much, but I exercise a lot and my body is physically drained. What is more, when I am completely knackered, the possibility of me having nightmares increases, which only makes me even more tired.   

I’ve been having quite a few bad ones recently and I’ve already had enough.

I am doing Chloe Ting’s workouts and I love them, because they are not as hard that they would discourage you, but they are demanding and you will be all sweaty and ore afterwards. Apart from that, I came back to the gym where I do cardio and I feel like that has the smallest effect on how my body looks like, but it is good for my stamina and how my body behaves. I started yoga as well, and yoga is somehwta in the middle when it comes to shaping my body, but it’s the best for clearing your head, relaxing, being thankful and making your body feel healthier and more stretched out. 

As you can see, every single activity is better for achieving some particular results and not as good in other categories. That is why it’s important to mix your routines up and try new things. Still, I feel like I went way overboard which ended up doing more harm than good.

With that being said, I will go to sleep now, cause I feel like I need to so badly.

With love, 

C

#23:31 #09/07 #night post #still 11 pm #c posts #journal #journal entry #diary #life #nightmares #workouts #friends

[cltwtb-blog]

Hi, I’m old.

I saw strange aeon’s video on the whole tc thing - obv she has a tumblr as well but i don’t know what it is, haha. Anyway, I’ll get to the point. 

To all the teens out there in love with your teachers - I’ve been there too. I understand how much it sucks. Obviously every situation is unique but the general theme is wanting somebody who isn’t allowed to want you back, even if they did. Which, to be clear, they probably don’t, If I were a teacher, I’d much rather have a wank and remain employed. 

I wanted to write this because I did feel like, wow, I don’t know her name, but Strange AEons’ reactions were, while not “wrong” per se - not entirely empathetic. 

The main thing I want to say is - even if it were to happen, you would both regret it; maybe not immediately, but you would. I never dated a teacher (boy did I want to), but my first boyfriend was 30 years my senior - I was 17 at the time. But hear me out.

The thing with relationships like that, is that (as SA said) you aren’t equals - no matter how much you think you are. And a teacher/student dynamic, while it can be hot af, is neither healthy nor fulfilling. At the risk of sounding condescending, as a graduate student in developmental neurology I can truly say that your brain isn’t developed in some really specific and nuanced ways - no matter what you’ve been through, you might have a lot of foresight but there is some inexplicable element of wherewithal that you really don’t get until your 20s (sometimes later).

(tl’dr this paragraph is neuroscience warning) (If you’re curious, your brain finishes sorting itself out from a caudal (near your neck) to rostral (above your eyes) direction - the frontal part of your brain (maturing in your 20s) is involved in complex executive function like empathy and planning. Your emotions, however, are a bit earlier to mature; so to put it (very) simply, emotional maturity is not the only factor in how “ready” or “right” you are/it is to have a relationship with such a massive social connotation attached to it.

(neuroscience over) 

Let me tell you my story. I met David when I was 16, having snuck into a nightclub. He was 47. I’d always been attracted exclusively to older guys; I was lucky in that it had never been a struggle or anything for me to accept that. But I digress. 

David, believing I was 18 (legal bar entry age here - also the age of consent is 16), was very charming and gentlemanly. He was here for work, he was married  (to a woman - she didn’t know he was gay) - he could easily have been a teacher. He wasn’t pushy, and I was there with friends, so nothing ended up happening that night. I’d given him my MSN (throwback!) and we talked on there the next day. We were both also avid gamers so we got to know each other over the next few months very well over a lot of Halo. 

We met in November, then he came back (he was a 3 hour flight away, a different country) the next February. Suffice to say we both disappeared for the weekend (i was still in the last year of high school - notably less interested in the teachers though, ha). I turned 17 that March, and in April, during a holiday, he came back and we disappeared again, this time for over a week. Keep in mind the whole time his wife believed he was at a conference. 

Over these months I became extremely lost in my (our) own little world. This wasn’t to do with the age so much but I did want to mention it because looking back I see I neglected a lot of my friends because I was obsessing over this one person whom I loved so deeply that truly nothing else mattered. By April I was heavily anorexic, and I thought as much about food (and not eating it) as i did of David. I wanted to be perfect for him.

I’ve just realised I’ve gone a bit off topic to the tc theme so I’ll skip ahead a bit. 

We end up together, and we couldn’t be happier (minus the crying and screaming phonecalls from his wife) (I know. Married men...) We have a place, he’s working the same job, after about half a year of adjusting and being in love I decide I’m going to start studying. 

The one line from this time that really reverberates in my mind was “I like my boys to look like boys”. It was funny, at first. I was a very feminine boy to start with, long and thin (still very anorexic - 6′2 and 53kg (don’t know what that is in lb sorry), with long blonde hair, armed with Maybelline dream matte mousse and some mascara. I wasn’t trans (was I? I was still figuring that out - but that’s another story), but I did enjoy playing with makeup on my self, a lot. 

David didn’t mind at first. But a subtle narrative began to arise over the later months. It was a narrative of “I’m the boss” on his part, and “I’m bored so I’m rebelling” on mine. It’s hard to describe so I can only really explain examples. 

When you’re a teen obsessed with someone, and you don’t really know what a relationship is, the boundaries can be a little grey. When you’re an adult and you’ve grown up in toxic/abusive/jealous relationships your whole life, you mightn’t know any different or better. While I cringe heavily to think about it now; we were both obsessed to the point we would read each other’s phones. I don’t know if it was trust or jealousy or what. But it was mutual - for a time. As the months progressed I grew weary of it. I’d never have cheated on him, and as the months passed I assumed he would never have cheated on me, so I lost interest in his phone. But he kept on checking mine. 

I didn’t have any friends there. We joined Grindr and had a profile for both of us, just looking for friends. We met a few people, they were alright, one in particular stood out to me. Cody was super cool, a runway model, super nice, etc. He invited me to parties a fair bit. I never went - at first I didn’t want to, because David was self-conscious (likely beingnearly 30 years older than everyone else there). But with time I did want to go, I was bored and there are only so many videogames one could play, and weed one could smoke, before one becomes restless. So I took Cody up on his offer. David was furious. He didn’t explicitly say no, but he emotionally made it very clear he did not approve. 

I don’t think it was intentional, there were so many aspects of out relationship that were unhealthy looking back now, but he was as oblivious to a lot of it as I. Was he just keeping me stoned 24/7 to fuck me? Was he emotionally blackmailing me when I tried to escape his control? Did he realise how much I loved him, how much I cared and would never have cheated on him? Did he consider how young I was, how I might have been a little naive or not ready to leave home to a new country with no friends and no plan? 

And I know you could easily say “Well it’s your life, you’re a fucking idiot for dropping out of high school (did I mention that?) and eloping with no plan” - and to that I would reply, yes, but love makes you an idiot with no plan. 

I hope I am getting across just how negative this became. Those are just a few examples but it started to feel like if I didn’t conform to his idea of “be a good boy (emphasis on “boy”), stay at home, relax” that I.. Well, I didn’t know. I still haven’t entirely resolved everything in my head and I’ve had a fair bit of baggage when it comes to relationships ever since.

A part of the lack of resolution was how David and I came to end. We were still ok afterwards and he told me later he had been suspecting something, but he came home early one day to find me doing a webcam show. I was exploring a few things I won’t mention here but suffice it to say David, in his absolute well-meaning vanillarity (it’s a word now ok cool) would have never been in to. Maybe he would have tried things for me, but I knew he would never actually be “into” it; maybe it was just in my head. Or maybe I’m just making excuses for him. Either way, more repression of a then-18 year old, still figuring out life and sex and gender etc. 

Whether it was out of a need for control (and not in a hot way) or just out of incompatibility, I would say the overarching theme of the latter days of our relationship was “suppression”. Looking back I feel like I was controlled, manipulated, repressed, emotionally abused - and it was entirely consentual. 

I just... I hope my story speaks for itself, I’m probably missing a lot as it was a while ago and it’s hard to think back to then, but please, tc community, have all the wet dreams you want, and maybe some of you will have a fuck, or a fling, but dear god do not expect to spend your life with someone who might not even be teaching you next year. It’s delusional. As kind and sexy and dominant and whatever the fuck you want that they are, it’s really not worth it. When it’s all over, you get left with three broken hearts (his, mine, wife), and enough baggage to sail around the world with - not to mention potential ruined careers, jail if you’re a minor, infamy (not the good kind), potentially debt for court fees, broken families, who knows. 

(names were changed btw)

#tc community #tc #trigger warning #story #storytelling #advice #my story #gay #coming of age #storytime #things ive learned #morale #lgbt story #new blog #teacher crush #gay teacher #gay teacher crush