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#i know its a joke but i was like. hmm okay that might actually be neat
astronomodome · 2 months
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maple prince
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the-s1lly-corner · 3 months
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Hugging Dethklok Hcs
depending on how im feeling after posting this i think i might make a second part including side characters (likely the second post will contain charles abigail and knubbler !! and maybe even some smaller characters that i feel deserve more love) anyways uhuhuh first official MTL post except it.. actually isnt, ive written for knubbler and the dethklok minute host before so yeah very nervous about this since im still trying to find my footing in how i wanna write the characters, so heads up that this might be VERY OOC and what better prompt to do than do one of my "i dont know what to write" ones written with reader as their partner vague mentions of like. sexual stuff but nothing explicit, i still wish to keep this blog as sfw as possible, really just implications of it than anything also some characters had bonus hcs of cuddling so uhuhuh
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NATHAN:
built like a mattress, though that can mean anything since not all mattresses are made the same... hmm.. have you ever hugged/cuddled one of those tiny headed kingdom plushies? very firm but not comfortable, i think thats what nathan feels like, but perhaps just a smidge softer. but how would nathan feel? i mean hes very protective of you, and being able to hold you gives him a moment to keep you close. not very affectionate otherwise, but this is nice. definitely the type to do hugs from behind, especially if theres someone trying to flirt with you
PICKLES:
short so theres a good chance youre around his height if not taller and he may or may not feel things about that (both negative and positive but lets save that for another post as i fully intend on keeping this sfw), i always thought pickles of being physically affectionate so him having a hand on you is a common occurrence. probably takes the opportunity to whisper something in your ear, usually something dirty or something incoherent with him being drunk or otherwise under the influence. oh yeah i can easily see him being the type to swing his limbs over his partner while he sleeps and trapping them there
SKWISGAAR:
maybe im cooking something doodoo, but i feel like skwisgaar may or may not struggle with non-sexual stuff, like being purely romantic and innocent with no intent to get your pants off is foreign to him. i whole heartedly believe the reason hes so sexual is due to being in dethklok and being huge, but also because of his mother constantly bringing new people home. so in the beginning he might actually be tense in giving you affection, definitely going to need to take some time. very cold, skinny people tend to be colder ive noticed so totally you shouldnt take this as an excuse to hold him closer (winks)... i DO think he would also have a hand on you a lot of the time like pickles, whether or not those hands have other motives is up in the air
MURDERFACE:
make him take a shower first/j
okay jokes aside, this man is so starved for attention and affection, but he would never ever EVER say it. you guys could be 100% fully alone in bum fuck no where and he still wouldnt say it. but its definitely there in his actions and body language. i think hes warm, and his skin is a little... i mean he canonically has dry skin with eczema, and while i dont have eczema i know what having that dry scaly skin feels like... perhaps we could tie in some self care with the reader helping murderface take better care of himself? i mean it would be one hell of a fight to get him to try but i think its do-able.. tight hugger, kind of lets his arms linger before sliding them down when you eventually pull away. wish i had more but i think murderface is the type to deny affection whilst also deeply craving it
TOKI:
probably the easiest to hug in terms of getting him to accept it, actually i think he might be the most likely to initiate one alongside pickles. very warm, though he sometimes hugs you a little too tight and might even tug you back in if you try to pull away before hes ready. full body cuddles into you when you guys sleep/nap together, arms and legs keep you in place so... good luck trying to slip away before he wakes up. i like to think he fiddles with your hair, too, though im unsure if that fits with his character... i think that, despite still having a love for all things brutal he still likes these smaller moments of just. affection. very clingy and possessive though so keep that in mind, i think he would hold you and physically try to pull you away if someone tries to flirt with you; a lot less subtle than when nathan does it
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gay-wh0re-slut · 5 months
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(sorry, english isn’t my first language) i’m not sure if you’re requests are open,but i wanted to tell you what an amazing writer you are.💜 you’re so gifted, i hope you never stop writing. could you do a Dom!rhea x inexperienced!fem fluffy smut. maybe like the readers first time, so rhea is supper attentive and caring… idk
just happy to be here😊
my requests are always open, but it might take me a while to get to them bc of my schedule but thank you so much, i’m glad you liked them!!! and of course i can, this is so sweet.
Gentle
rhea x fem!reader
content: super sweet rhea taking care of you in bed for your first time, super vanilla with an extremely tiny bit of praise.
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You and Rhea were sat on the bed across from each other, she was sitting criss-cross while you were sitting on the side of your hip leaning on your hand. She was fiddling with your rings on your free hand while you listened to her talk.
“We can take it as slow as you need to,” she started.
You were…not sure how you felt but you stated earlier that you were ready to go for it. The two of you had been dating for a good few months now and she never pushed you to do anything you didn’t want to but she always made some silly jokes with sexual undertones.
“Whenever you want to stop, just say so. I won’t do anything too crazy…yet,” she chuckled.
You laughed with her. She is always so caring about every aspect of your relationship, making sure you were okay in her big social events, making sure you got to your destination safely, and other things like that. You had never experienced such love before.
“Do you want a run down of what I am going to do or do you just want to play it by ear?” she continued.
“Hmm,” you thought as your heart thumped, “maybe… both? I’m not sure.”
“Well,” she scooted closer to you, “We’re gonna kiss that’s for sure. Then I’ll undress you, if that’s okay, of course, then-”
“Actually, I changed my mind. I’ll just go with the flow,” you spewed out.
“Okay baby, whatever you want. This is all on your terms,” she cupped your face rubbing her thumb over your cheek. She gave you a soft smile before kissing you.
“That’s so much pressure,” you looked down picking at imaginary lint.
“I know but it’ll be okay, I promise. I will not be upset if you want to stop,” she lifted your chin, “think of it this way, I’m doing most of the work, you just have to relax and enjoy, yeah?”
“Yeah,” you released a breath of relief remembering how good she was to you in everyday life, which made you feel better that it would be the same in this new situation.
“We’ll take it slow,” she kissed you again, “however slow you want,” kisses you again, “however long it takes,” she kissed your jaw, “this is just for you,” she continued to kiss down your neck as a shockwave sent through your body.
A small whimper escaped you but you stopped it immediately.
“No, don’t be shy, make all the noise you want, it’s more fun that way,” she said slyly. She kissed her way back up your neck to your lips.
You sat there a while, your lips dancing against hers. It wasn’t the first time you’ve made out, that’s happened a lot, but this time was different. It felt special, maybe because it was, but you knew that you had nothing to worry about.
“Lay down,” she whispered.
So you did and watched as she crawled on top of you, again this wasn’t the first time you were in this position but it felt like it was. Your hands roamed all over her back and muscular arms as one of her hands traced your body and sneaked its way under your shirt.
Slowly, she grazed her hand over your breast, “this okay?”
“Yeah,” you nodded as you held her face and began to kiss her again.
She smiled into the kiss as she gave a small squeeze and went back to tracing your body.
You stayed in this position for a while, her hands finding any skin she could get in contact with as you writhed under her.
The tattooed hand snuck its way to your waistband, “Can I take these off?” she breathed.
You hesitated a bit looking into her icy blue eyes, “yes.”
A devilish smirk grew on her face as she pulled your pants off of you, she didn’t go too far though and decided against taking off your underwear.
You shivered at the cool air but it quickly went away when she placed herself back on top of you. She rested on her elbow as she laid on her side with her leg over yours, pulling you in tightly with her free hand.
“Still okay?” she moved a strand of your hair out of your face.
“Mhmm,” you nodded with a smile.
“Do you want to go further or stay here a while?”
You thought about it for a minute, moving your hand over her thigh.
“You can go further,” you hesitated.
“Okay, baby. If you want to stop, just tell me. Again this is at your pace, I’m here to please you,” her voice was low and calm which calmed you in the process.
You nodded your head, biting your lip. Her free hand felt its way down your chest, to your stomach and down to your center. She gently slid her hand down making contact with your clit ever so slightly. Your hips jerked a little. She chuckled before going back to kissing you. The hand repeated this movement a few more times before adding more pressure. After a few moments of that, she changed her hand’s position and began to draw small circles over your sensitive bud.
“This okay?” she whispered.
“Yeah,” you breathed.
“Does it feel good?”
“Yeah,” you said with a little more confidence.
She smiled into the kiss in response.
It’s not like you haven’t orgasmed before, but this was the first time someone else was doing it. So it didn’t take long for you to realize that the familiar feeling in your stomach was starting to form. You didn’t want to seem too desperate so you tried to hold off as long as you could.
Your hips were moving against her hand perfectly though and your breathing was becoming heavier, you weren’t sure if you could hold it. Small moans and whines have been escaping this whole time but they’ve gotten louder within the past few minutes.
“I know you want to,” she cooed, “don’t be shy now, princess. You’ve done so well for me.”
You didn’t know you liked praise until this very moment. Thankfully, the knot in your stomach finally released, “oh fuck,” you whimpered quietly. Your back arched, pushing your ribs into her as your nails dig into her muscular arm.
She let you ride it out as long as it took, watching you squirm under her, smiling and thinking of all the ways she could make you do this over and over and over.
Once you finally relaxed, she rested her head on her fist and landed her free hand on her side. You lolled to your back with your eyes closed, after realizing you unknowingly turned yourself into her during the process.
“How are you feeling?” she asked calmly.
“Good,” you turned to look at her with a small smile.
“Oh… well, next time I’ll make you feel great,” she giggled.
“Can’t wait.”
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ryejifics · 8 months
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Dance practice
Type: fluff
Ryujin x idol reader
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"Ugh!" You groaned. You've been trying to get this dance right for 5 hours now. Over and over, you did it again. You kept messing up the footwork, and you knew you needed to have this down for your comeback next month. You turned the music on replaying it from the start. You were getting into the music, suddenly the door opened. You didn't realize it until you finished and heard clapping. Startled, you turned to see shin ryujin. She was the most gorgeous, jaw dropping woman you've ever seen. The only downside was you knew she was a flirt. You've liked her since your trainee days, ever since the day she pointed out your shoes were untied. The day she shook your hand and introduced yourself.
Flashback:
"Excuse me, ma'am. Your shoes untied." She looked at you concerned. "Since you're dancing its a little dangerous. What if you fall and get hurt?" She bent down and tied it for you. When she finally got back up she introduced herself. "I'm Shin Ryujin, I'm also a trainee." After a little conversation she walked off and got back to practicing.
End of flashback.
"Great job, y/n!" She smiled. "You looked great." Snapping you out of your trance, you quickly mumble a thank you and try not to look at her for too long. She started practicing as well for the new Itzy comeback. You watched her perfect the moves in the mirror. As you failed yet another attempt, you groaned loudly. Ryujin watched you practice, so she knew some of the steps. "I think I get what you're trying to do. Here." She looked at you for consent before slowly putting her hands on your waist. She guided you through the dance and showed you the footwork. You tried to hide your blushing cheeks when she looked at you with her whisker dimples. You cracked a few jokes, so it was less awkward, and every time she smiled, you couldn't help but melt. Next thing you knew, the distraction was too much, and you fell. "Ah!" You stumbled over and fell to the ground. Ryujin was quick to pick you up, asking a billion times if you were hurt. "Are you okay?" She brushed you off and took a look at your knee. Once she saw it was bleeding a little, she grabbed the first aid kit and helped you. She pulled out a cream and applied it to your knee to clean it. After she grabbed some bandaid options. "Hmm, kitten or puppy?" You gave her your response excitedly, and she gently put the bandaid on. She also grabbed you an ice pack and laid you on the chair. She held it against your knee and found many ways to make you laugh. After a while, it was getting late. She grabbed her things. "You know.. I really enjoyed my time with you, but I don't want this night to end just yet. Would you maybe want to grab dinner?" Did THE shin ryujin ask you out?? You thought quickly before replying with "Well.. I am pretty hungry. Sure, why not?"
The two of you walked down the streets of Seoul to a nice restaurant she knew about. "The city lights are pretty, but they'll never shine as bright as your eyes." When she said this to you, you didn't even know what to say. You took a minute before finally saying thank you and how much you liked her whisker dimples. You two walked into the restaurant and sat down. After a while, she signaled something to the waiter. The waiter came back with a bouquet of your favorite flowers. "Ryujin! How did you know I liked these?" She smiled brightly, saying,"Lucky guess?" When really she asked your best friend, Yunjin. Ryujin has liked you for a long time. She always got caught staring when you walked by. Sure, she usually flirted with girls, but it was because she didn't think she had a chance with you.
"Y/n.. I've been meaning to ask you something. I know I'm a flirt with other people and that you might think badly of me because of it. But I actually really like you, I'd love to get to know you and maybe in the future be your girlfriend."
You looked at her shocked. You didn't know what to say. You thought about it as she nervously waited for an answer. "Y/n?.."
To be continued!
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daydream-believin · 4 months
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a real stand up guy ba dum tss
summary: you get stood up by an internet man. douxie, your waiter and secret admirer, remedies that jackass’s mistake.
warnings: uh. swearing, alcohol, i’m too lazy to proof, the yooj. oh and doux doesn’t know how to handle this crush without getting slightly into stalker territory sorry. its a red flag but i think its cute. you may not think its cute.
a/n: tumblr was glitching while i tried to post this so idk how many paragraphs i accidentally erased. i mean i tried my best to make that number 0. but anyways if something is off let me know. the challenge for this one is that im not allowed to use italics. which you should know was very hard for me agshjfkgjdjh
taglist: @moppetwithamanbun @alovesongshewrote @blixeon @prismarts @fantasyiswaybetterthanreality @ukuleles-and-roses
okay quick psa i know it’s been years so if you want off the taglist just hmu. also if you were on the taglist and got taken off thats bc tumblr says you don’t exist anymore
uh this was a request. i’m not doing requests tho dont think that. looking back yeah that ask if from march 2022 and this doesn’t even match up to what you asked 😂 im so sorry @rose-writes-shit
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you took a peek at your watch. 7:34 o’ clock. letting your head fall into the open palm of your propped up hand, you sighed.
coffee meets bagel boy was supposed to have met you at 7:00.
of fucking course. you let your plucky pink-haired coworker convince you to download a fucking dating app and make a profile, just for the only guy who had actually been interested enough in you to ask you on a real date to stand you up. makes sense.
it’s not like you’ve ever had luck with these kind of things. it’s not like you’ve ever had luck period. your kind might be the black cat of humans.
you’ve spent way too long eating the free bread at a mr. benoit’s of all places. it was the “classiest” establishment in the certain suburban hellscape of california you inhabited, albeit. you took in the scenery for the millionth time that night with a renewed sense of disgust. at least now you had a legitimate reason to hate this place.
your waiter slinked over, and you could tell he felt bad for you with the awkward shuffling gait to the pity grimace on his face.
“so, uh, perhaps more bread?”
you rolled your face towards him, arbitrarily throwing animosity his way with your dead eyes, just because he was there. but soon your compulsive desire to be the funniest pathetic wretch in the room won out.
“i’m considering burning this whole place down right now, actually,” you joked.
he grit his teeth, sucking in a breath, “could i perhaps convince you to do that on a night i’m not closing, instead? tomorrow is my least favorite coworker’s turn, for your consideration,”
“hmm,” you pretended to think, “i’ll take your suggestion then, it’s only kind,”
“thank you for your generosity,” he grinned, “now, are you still waiting for someone or?”
-
douxie had been watching you for over half an hour now. not creepily. he swears. he just got a little excited when he saw you come into the restaurant is all.
anddd maybe he might have badgered the host into giving you one of his tables. but again, he was just excited. he’s been looking for an excuse to talk to you for the past three months, after all. forgive him for jumping on the opportunity.
he maybe fancied you. just a wee bit. perhaps a rather large bit. or at least, the version of you he’s cooked up in his head from the way he sees you interact with people at house parties and the things he’s heard from zoe.
but he’s sure he’ll love you. as soon as he gets to know who you actually are. which, hopefully, is about to be sooner rather than later.
he did not anticipate this situation, however. whatever benevolent deity blessed him on this night decided to throw a jar of pickled herring in with the otherwise yummy pastry filled gift basket they left for him.
not long after you arrived at 6:56 pm, not that he marked the time you came in or anything he just happened to glance at the clock around that time, he watched you, how they say, deflate. your demeanor shifted from antsy to sad to downright annoyed.
you were dressed nicely. not fancy, not pretending like this wasn’t a benoit’s. but nice. orderly. like you wanted to make a good impression on whoever it was you were expecting to meet. so either a date, or mayhaps a job interview.
not that you didn’t look nice or orderly on other days. you just weren’t in your hex tech uniform shirt. or in the incredibly casual clothes you wore when he saw you around. you were just. clearly cleaned-up, is all.
whoever it was, it was obvious that they were not coming. doux applauded you for being patient enough to wait this long, but again, they obviously weren’t coming. which, if it was a date, was good for him, but bad for you. very bad for you.
and honestly who does this person think they are? letting you down like this? horrible. disgraceful. this person was a grade A jerk-off. they have to be dead from the neck up to leave you waiting here like this, publicly embarrassing you as you sat at a table set for two all alone at one of the busiest restaurants in town. shame on them.
he was glad you seemed to be in the joking mood, however. and about arson, too. oh, he’s always had a soft spot for arsonists.
he hoped you’ll forgive him for having to do his job. if it was up to him, he’d give you all the bread in the pantry just so you wouldn’t leave. but alas, he had to deal the killing blow.
“now, are you still waiting for someone, or?”
your eyes drifted downward to the empty wineglass in your hand as you swirled it sarcastically as if it were still full.
you sighed, “yeah, no, it’s clear he doesn’t plan on showing,” you looked back up at him ruefully, “i’ll order now. i shouldn’t have waited this long for an internet man, anyway, huh? could’ve made it less pathetic.”
“i don’t think there’s a way to make these things any ‘more’ or ‘less’ pathetic,” he began taking out his notepad, ready to write, “because i wouldn’t call it pathetic at all. getting stood up is a thing that’s done to you, not because of who you are, but because of who someone else chooses to be… unless you stole this guy’s car or something. then it’s your fault.”
you laughed. genuinely.
“no, no, it’s a first date. i haven’t known this guy long enough to steal his car yet. but thanks… that’s. a better outlook than mine. kinder,” you apologized, “… uh, can i have like, the cheapest bottle of white wine you’ve got back there? the whole thing this time.”
“i take it back. that definitely made it pathetic.”
while you shared a laugh, douxie mentally congratulated himself. you had just given him the information that a) you were single and b) you were into men. a good day to be a charming single man, then. he had a chance.
“so are you ordering any real food as well? or did you plan on just having wine and bread for dinner? have to say, i don’t think that’s wise, love.”
“well i suppose i gotta, since, i’ve, uh, eaten three baskets of complimentary bread,” you stumbled over your words for a second there, “and i’m sure it’d make the manager mad if it didn’t, right?”
“right you are. he’s uh,” douxie lowered his voice, “he’salreadybeenonmydickaboutyou so yeah, you gotta. plus i’m just— you should eat something, yeah.”
you awkwardly turned your attention to the menu as you did that thing where you hold it and pretend to look over the menu as you order like you forgot or something, “the duck confit sounds good for tonight, i think,”
douxie snorted.
“no, no, that wasn’t a joke,” you shook your head, smiling fondly, “i actually just like duck, i promise. no sarcasm. i do understand the irony though. i get it.”
he didn’t completely believe you, “well then, one order of duck confit, coming right up. be back shortly, love.”
doux grabbed the breadbasket on his way out.
when he glanced back to throw you a short and unnoticeable but longing stare, as he paused in the kitchen doorway, you were fidgeting with the flowers on the table. he should get that order in now.
-
when your waiter came back with food, he placed two plates down on the table. you looked at him like he had suddenly grown a second head as he took the other seat as well.
“what are you—“
“i called in a favor with the owner. i’m still working but, i’ve got a bit of free time now. if you don’t mind me joining you,”
you shook your head in astonishment.
“not at all,” you smiled, still absolutely flabbergasted that this man would do something like this for you, “you’re douxie, right? zoe’s mentioned you a lot.”
“oH—,” he coughed, “oh, uh, she has?“
“yeah,”
he awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck, “only good things, i pray?”
“oh, sure. sure. good things,” you took a demure little sip of your glass to torture him with the pause implying the contrary.
he swallowed audibly. nervous, then. what dirt did zoe have on him. you watched as he awkwardly shoved up the sleeves of his shirt, perhaps feeling a bit warm now. it was cute.
you’d be sure to ask zoe all about him later. how could you not. this was the most interesting thing to happen all year. and it’s december.
you racked your brain for what you knew of this guy for conversation topics.
“you’re in zoe’s band, right? the lead guitarist.”
his face lit up at the mention of it, “oh, yes. you’ve seen us?”
“once or twice, i believe.”
it wasn’t really your thing, live music. you mostly hung around the back of the bar when you got dragged to shows. you liked loud, sometimes. just not often. it really depended on how your brain was feeling that day.
“well, you’ve gotta come to the next gig, then, at least. i’m sure zoe’s already invited you?” you nodded. “the venue’s holding a wee little music festival, it’s going to be nuclear,”
“ah, that’s fun,” you smiled. that sounded like hell but now that two very enthusiastic wizards have invited you, you don’t have the heart to weasel your way out of it. you’ll bring the “XTREME” ear plugs.
“but yeah, the bands great. i love that i get to play with my mates now. a team that works as well together as we do is rare, so i really appreciate them.”
“speaking of,”
doux hummed inquisitively.
“what’s going on with zoe and that new girly y’all’ve got on the drums?”
“oh,” he paused to take a sip, narrowing his eyes mischievously, “they’re boning.”
you clasped your hands together excitedly, “thank you! you’ve just won me a betting pool.”
he almost had to spit the wine back into his glass,“hhhh. how many?”
“oh, just the entirety of the hex tech arcadia staff.”
“i’m not sure she’ll be happy to hear that.”
“which is why you won’t tell her, mr. casperan,” you placed your hand over his with a cheshire cat grin.
well, he couldn’t argue with that.
dinner progressed. alas, you can’t say you lingered as long as you wanted to on conversation. you were kinda rushing things because you felt a little guilty doux was getting someone to cover for him while you had your little date. was this a date. it had to be. as mentioned, he’s going out of his way for this, and you can’t imagine he’d go through all this trouble because he wasn’t interested in you. but then again, you couldn’t believe he was interested in you either.
“do you like cryptozoology?” douxie tried his best to ask nonchalantly while he scratched the bridge of his nose to look a little less interested. he was feeling a bit energized since talking about the band. you had been paying attention to him like he’d been paying attention to you, if only in passing.
“a tad more than the average californian wizard, why?”
“well, later this weekend, i’ve got a job exterminating a goblin infestation in the next town over,”
“snelling?”
“yeah, snelling. the guy i was partnering with told me he was backing out this morning, so now i’ll be going it alone. and im sure you know how fighting goblins alone usually goes.”
“makes it easier for them to gang up on you, yes.”
“see, that’s why i’m asking if you’d be interesting in taking his place?”
“well, i’ve got the weekend off and nothing to do,” he knew that, he got the hex tech schedule from zoe every week(to know how to schedule band practice. and, if he also took a peak at your schedule, it was purely accidental. yeah.), ��so, i don’t see why not.”
doux grinned, both relieved he wouldn’t be fighting goblins alone, and feeling clever that he found an excuse to spend more time with you, “perfect, i’ll text you the details? but, oh, i don’t have your number do i?”
you were about to ask why he couldn’t just tell you in person right now, but he said that soo hammy. it took .01 seconds to understand what he was doing. you snorted.
“okay, okay, here,” you held out your hand and he gladly placed his unlocked phone in your hand. you made the contact and sent yourself a text of the first emoji he had in his recents, which happened to be🫀. ah, a goth romantic. you gave him back his phone.
“perfect. thank you, love.” he tucked the phone into his chest dramatically before placing in back into his pocket.
you rolled your eyes fondly, “you know, goblin smashing isn’t exactly my idea of the perfect second date, you might have to turn up the charm.”
“oh, i’m sure i’ll make it worth your while,” he let his head fall into his palm propped up on the table, gaze going soft, “so was this a perfect first date, then?”
you laughed, “hardly. all things considered. but—“
“but?”
“but i’m glad it happened this way. i’ve had a good time, mr. casperan.”
he grinned in agreement, “me too.”
you put your hand on top of the one he left resting on the table, and he took the opportunity to take that hand and gently lay a kiss to the top of your knuckles. he lingered for a moment, eyes shut tight to take in the tenderness of the moment.
alas, he has to go back to work now.
doux pulled out your chair and helped you to your feet. you thanked him as he started stacking the dishes.
“should i—?”
“no, god no,” he chuffed, “i’m the waiter, remember? i work here.”
“oh yeah.”
that reminded you. you shuffled for your wallet, but he stopped you.
“i’m paying for dinner, love. go enjoy the rest of your evening, i’ll text you after i close.”
“you sure?” it didn’t really sit right with you, considering he probably took a pay cut by not working the whole time you were on this little “date.”
“well,” he paused, and placed the dishes back onto the table for time being, “you could leave me a tip, if you know what i mean. just a teeny thing—“
“c’mere,” you snickered as you pulled him down by the lapels to kiss him.
chaste, just a peck. but perfect and sweet all the same.
when you pulled back, you watched as douxie held his eyes closed for just a moment longer than he need to before letting that blinding all encompassing smile bloom across his face.
“well then, a very goodnight to you, y/n l/n.”
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avatarmerida · 11 months
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Til You Make It
Okay so this was something I wanted to have finished for Valentines Day (and it shows) but then idk I just didn’t. But I wanted to finish it and at some point it became way longer than a drabble but I don’t have enough to do like a full multi chapter story so here’s some corny huntlow fake dating that’s king for no reason. Idk how I feel about it but maybe it’s just because I’ve been staring at it too long. Okay byyyyyeeee.
----
“...and then you pick truth or dare and we keep going back and forth like that,” Gus finished explaining the rules of the game. The boys had such a fun time sharing a room in the human realm they decided to have a sleepover and Gus was walking Hunter through the difference between sharing a room and sleeping over. The main difference was the games you played, according to Gus.
“Okay so I guess… truth?” Hunter said tentatively as they sat on the ground in front of Gus’ bed, their new matching Cosmic Frontier sleeping bags laid neatly beneath them.
“Okaaay,” Gus sang with a mischievous grin. “Tell me a secret…”
“Oh, well I don’t think we have any secrets anymore, I mean after everything that’s happened I think you must know most-.”
“... about Willow.” Gus finished, raising his eyebrow.
“Why would I know one of Willow’s secrets?” Hunter stuttered nervously. “A-and even if I did, I would never divulge one without her permission. Why would you-.”
“I’m preeeetty sure you have at least one secret involving Willow,” Gus cut him off as he reached for his juice box sitting on the nightstand. By now, Hunter’s massive crush on their friend was old news but Gus knew Hunter was making some progress, but getting him to open up about it presented its challenges. He thought this was the perfect game to get the ball rolling or at least see where the ball was. “But if you would rather do a dare…”
“No! No, it’s fine.” Hunter said, taking a deep breath. “There actually… is something I’ve been wanting to talk about. But everything stays confidential, right?”
“I’ll take the solemn vow of secrecy that Avery pledged to O’Bailey.” Gus said with a serious face that put Hunter at ease, knowing the severity of the oath. 
“Okay,” Hunter took another deep breath as he fiddled with his thumbs. “Right before… everything happened, I sent Willow a message…”
“Okaaay?” Said Gus, prompting him to continue. “What about?”
“I uh, well… we had been messaging a lot and I… really liked talking to her and she asked if I could push up my next day off so we could hang out and I said I might be able to after the Day of Unity and I said maybe we could even… goonadate.”
“What?!” Gus exclaimed, spitting out his juice. “Are you serious?!”
“That was before I knew what the Day of Unity really was!” Hunter sputtered. 
“I know that!” Said Gus, saving his mouth with a napkin. “I’m talking about you asking Willow out! Dude, that’s huge!”
“I know!” Hunter exclaimed, reaching for a pillow to scream into. “I nearly threw my scroll across the room afterwards. I-I don't know what came over me I just… said it! I didn’t really know what it meant! Darius joked about it, about me asking her on a date and so I just asked him what that meant and he said it was two people who liked each other spending time together alone and I… liked how it sounded. I didn’t really know about the romantic part until after but even then I… I think I still would’ve asked.”
“Hmm, I bet you would have,” Gus said with a smirk. “But, wait, why haven’t you guys gone on one?” Gus gave a little gasp. “Did she say no?”
“She never replied,” sighed Hunter. “Granted, it was late and she did mention she was tired so she might’ve fallen asleep. But then ya, know alot of stuff happened and then when I saw you guys at Hexside, I didn’t have my scroll to see if she saw it or responded. I mean, there was really no good time to bring it up! And I thought she didn’t bring it up because… maybe she did say no.”
“Well you have your scroll now! Did she ever reply?”
“Not to that message,” said Hunter, pulling it up and scrolling through a sea of messages. “After that it's mostly ‘are you okay?’ And ‘why are there scouts at the Owl House?’ She changed the subject, probably to let me down easy.”
“Or because she was worried about your safety?” Gus offered, knowing that was the real answer. “If we wanna know if she got it, we gotta ask her!”
Hunter’s eyes widened in panic. “No! There’s too many variables! What if she was gonna say no? What if she never saw it but would’ve said no? What if she said yes but she’s changed her mind? What if-?”
“What if she said ‘sure, when?’ but it never sent and she thinks that you left her on read?” Gus countered and Hunter gasped at the very notion.
“I would never!” He hissed. “Willow knows that! She knows… doesn’t she?”
“There’s only one way to find out,” said Gus.
“But… what if I waited too long and she lost interest or never had interest and I’ll just make her uncomfortable if I talk about it-.”
“Dude, stop.” Gus said firmly, cutting him off before he totally spiraled. “Even if Willow doesn’t like you that way, she’s still your friend and cares about you. She would never try to make you feel bad about having feelings.”
“You’re right Gus,” Hunter sighed, looking fondly at the profile picture of Willow smiling brightly back at him. “I should just come clean and express my feelings more directly.”
“Exactly!”
“In a handwritten note!” Hunter declared with flair.
“That’s… a start.”
---
So Hunter drafted his love note.
And then it turned into more of a novel, so he revised it so it wasn’t so overwhelming and got it down to a respectable page and a half. He carried it with him everywhere, waiting for the right moment. He had selected a simple light green envelope and doodled tiny flowers in the corners, as though he was worried the elegant way he wrote her name on the front in bold gold ink wasn’t clue enough that it was meant for her. 
He needed to ensure there was no confusion about whether or not she saw it.
---
“Guys, guys guys!” said Hunter in a panicky tone as he rushed to the lunch table with Gus and Willow sat and had just been wondering where he was. He quickly sat down beside Willow and lowered his voice as though he was on the run, his hazel eyes overrun with guilt. “I did something bad.”
“Cool! What?” asked Willow, in the middle of opening a pudding cup.
“Well, I was on my way here and I ran into Boscha-
“Ew.” said Willow, naturally. 
“And she… asked me out.” Hunter winced before proceeding to explain as fast as he could.  “And of course I said no but she wouldn’t drop it until I gave her a good reason so I panicked and I sort of lied and said that you’re my girlfriend so she’d leave me alone.” 
“Oh.” Willow said as Hunter examined her face for the disapproval he assumed his confession would warrant, but she seemed more focused on the stubborn top of her pudding. “So what’s the bad thing you did?” 
“I-I lied!” Hunter said, as though she had not heard.
“Yeah, to Boscha.” Willow shrugged, saying the name like it left a bad taste in her mouth.
“But I lied about you!”
“Yeah, to Boscha,” Willow repeated again with a small laugh. “Hunter, I know better than anyone how persistent Boscha can be. If lying about me being your girlfriend gets her to leave you alone, I’m more than fine with it.”
“Really?” 
“Really.” Willow assured him, finally opening the cup and placing the pudding in front of him before turning to open her own. She knew he was always running late to lunch because he had a habit of staying after class to ask follow up questions and the run in with Boscha had only delayed him more. 
“Oh, okay…”
“Ya know, I’m surprised Boscha would ask you out,” chuckled Willow before fully hearing how her words could be taken. Her eyes widened in a slight panic and she raised her hands as she tried to explain. “Not that I don’t understand wanting to date you! No, it’s just that I’m surprised Boscha could see how amazing you are! She doesn’t normally have such great taste. I mean uh, well you know what I mean.”
“Heh, yeah,” said Hunter, sipping the drink Gus had brought him as he tried not to think too much into what she said. Not that I don’t understand wanting to date you…
“Okay, I get not wanting to date Boscha but why did you say you were dating Willow?” asked Gus.
“Well who else was I supposed to say?”
“Literally anyone else?” said Gus, fully aware that Willow was often already on Hunter’s mind and it was most likely the result of a reflex or wishful thinking. “Or like, don’t give her a name? You could’ve said she went to a different school or something. Even if Boscha did respect boundaries, you know how she treats Willow. She’ll probably try and break you up just to hurt her.”
“Hmmm maybe not,” said Willow, a thought forming behind her eyes. 
“What do you mean?” asked Gus.
“Well, she might try to break us up,” started Willow. “Ooor she might be too embarrassed for anyone to know that Hunter would rather go out with half-a-witch Willow over her.”
“I mean, I guess that’s not a lie,” Hunter reasoned. “Except for the half-a-witch part.” He reached over and placed his hand over hers and looked seriously into her eyes. “Please don’t call yourself that.”
Willow’s eyes fluttered from his hand on hers up to his face, looking at her with total sincerity, his value of her outweighing any nerves that could accompany the action. She felt like a butterfly was loose in her chest, flying rapidly around in her ribcage. 
“Ya know, I bet if she saw you holding my hand she would lose her mind,” said Willow with a mischievous grin, loving both parts of the sentence. 
“Oh! Uh, well yeah … I guess?” stuttered Hunter, not sure if he should remove his hand or not. “I mean, that’s not why I-.”
“I mean, if I’m gonna be your fake girlfriend then it’s gonna look convincing,” Willow decided, instantly onboard. “We should probably hold hands alot more, especially if we just started dating; we’ll have to be even more obnoxious than Amity and Luz.”
“Is that even possible?”
“Well, let’s find out,” said Willow slyly, turning her hand over to lace her fingers with Hunter’s. She continued to eat her lunch as though this multitasking was second nature. “Oh yeah, Boscha would hate this.”
“Haha yeah,” Hunter laughed nervously, unable to fully process what was happening but knowing it felt very nice. He put his elbow on the table and rested his chin on his other hand as he admired their connected hands as he tried to convincingly convey a  teenager in love. “She’d totally hate this.” he sighed with a dopey grin. .
“You know I’d do anything for you, right?” Willow smiled. “And if sticking it to Boscha is a part of helping you, well how could I say no?”
“Are you sure? I mean, I know it wasn’t the smartest thing to-.”
“Nah, it’s fine.” Willow insisted. “It’s kinda perfect actually, she was being a pest yesterday about how I didn’t have a date for Bleeding Hearts Day. It’s really none of her business but it’ll be kind of nice getting to see her face when it turns out that I do.”
“Oh, right.” 
“It kind of sounds like fun, actually, like an undercover mission. We can meet after school to plan our fake relationship, sound good?”
“S-sure, yeah.” 
“Well, I gotta go check on my bulbs before next period  to make sure they’re adjusting to their new soil, but wanna walk to class together, boyfriend?” She said the term in such an overly sweet way, Hunter thought his teeth might fall out. She said it the same way she would say his name when she thought he was keeping a secret that she knew she could work it out of him with very little effort. Was it because they shared a secret now or did she know something else was up? Either way, he wanted to hear her say it over and over again. 
“Oh, uh y-yeah of course!” He chuckled nervously. “We can uh hold hands too I guess…” he sheepishly sipped his drink and Willow just giggled, knowing he had not intended to get himself into this situation and felt out of place not being prepared. But luckily her mind was racing with solutions. 
“You betcha,” she confirmed, rising from the table and giving him a playful wink. “I’ll meet you by your locker?”
“I’ll be there!” he said with enthusiasm, waving to Willow as she walked away keeping his eyes on her until she left the cafeteria entirely. “Oh Titan I’ve made things worse.”  Hunter groaned into his hands once he knew Willow was out of earshot. 
“Sooo what happened to giving her the note?” Gus asked, taking a bite of his sandwich.“Isn’t this like skipping a few steps?”
“I-I don’t know! It all happened so fast!” Hunter mumbled. “I was about to put the note in Willow’s locker when Boscha walked by and took it from me!  She saw Willow’s name on the front and went to rip it up and hen I asked her not to, she read it. She read it in this ugly high pitched voice and threatened to tell everyone and I… panicked.”
“What did the note say exactly?”
Hunter’s face turned a bright shade of crimson, having intended for the note to remain personal and having it exposed once already today was a lot. “It… just said that I liked her and I wanted to see if she wanted to see a professional flyer derby game with me for Bleeding Hearts Day.” Hunter summarized, the real note had been hard enough to condense as he wanted to make sure he covered all his bases and thoroughly expressed his feelings. 
“Aww, Willow would love that!”
“Right?! Then Bocha tried to turn it into something bad like I should be embarrassed about liking her but I’m not. But she could tell I was embarrassed about something and so she threatened to tell everyone and I didn’t want Willow to find out from her so… I said that she was already my girlfriend. I mean, Luz and Amity send each other notes like that all the time so it’s believable, right?”
“So Boscha didn’t really ask you out?”
“No.” Hunter buried face in his hands and groaned. “Ugh, and I lied to Willow too! But I didn’t know how to explain to Willow why I lied to Boscha without telling her everything and now…”
“Now you get to show Willow what a great boyfriend you’d be.” Gus finished.
“What?”
“I mean, maybe you didn’t totally blow it,” Gus continued. “I mean, Willow didn’t seem upset about people thinking she was your girlfriend. Maybe that’s a good thing?”
“But it’s pulling her into my lie!” Hunter said. “Relationships shouldn’t be based on lies!”
“I mean, you tried pulling her into a coven and she still likes you,” Gus pointed out, as he continued to chew. “Fake it til you make it, right?”
“Right,” said Hunter with a small, uneasy smile. “Fake it til you make it.”
—-
“Hey boyfriend.” Willow smiled as she turned the corner to see Hunter gathering his books. Hearing her refer to him like that made his knees feel weak. It sounded so natural.
“Hey g-girlfriend,” he said, trying to summon the same confidence she had. But the word felt almost forbidden. But very nice. “H-how are your plants?”
“They’re great!” She exclaimed. “Thanks for asking, what a sweet attentive boyfriend I have.”
Hunter blushed, he had always asked her about her plants. 
“So Luz, Amity, and I are practically rom com experts,” said Willow proudly. “That, plus being around the two of them nonstop, makes me confident that I have the expertise to ensure that we can be a very convincing couple.”
“I mean, we would only have to be a couple around Bocha right? And we aren’t around Boscha that much so you don’t have to put yourself out for me.”
“Nonsense!” Willow insisted. “You’re still getting used to things but I know how high school works. Word travels fast, everyone is looking for gossip. We can’t risk the mission crumbling due to carelessness.” Her voice dived into a serious whisper that lured Hunter down to hear her better, her tone covered him in a sense of urgency as though this truly was the mission of a lifetime. “There are eyes everywhere.”
“Of course, Captain,” he said with a serious nod, his voice low and gravely which sent a chill down Willow’s spine.
“I won’t lie, there may be challenges,” said Willow embracing the theatrics of the moment. “After last time, Boscha will be looking for any reason to try and prove that I-.”
“‘Last time?’” Hunter asked. “What do you mean ‘last time?’” 
He knew he wasn’t referring to their scuffle at New Hexside. He knew Willow’s history with Bosha was complicated, but had he done something to worsen it?
“Okay, listen it’s not a big deal,” Willow began in a forced tone that suggested it definitely was. “But last year ago before Luz even got here, there was someone in a few of my classes that I kind of had a crush on,” she fiddled with her braid as she cleared her throat. “I thought they were really nice and cute but I was shy so I didn’t really have the confidence to talk to them. So I wrote a note to tell them how I felt and put it in their locker. A few days later they wrote me back and they… asked me to go to Grom.”
“And you said yes?”
Willow nodded. “I was really excited, I had never been asked out on a date before,” she recalled. “I even saved up to buy a new dress. And my dads were maybe even more excited than me, they were gonna take hundreds of pictures, and they waited with me for them to come pick me up like they said they would. And we waited, and waited, and waited. But they never showed up.”
“Did something happen to them?”
“When I asked them about it at school the next day…they just laughed. They laughed like it was the most ridiculous joke they had ever heard, going to a dance with me. Turns out, it was. They were never gonna show up for me because they had never really asked me. The note was from Boscha.”
 “No!”
Willow took a deep breath, it had been awhile since she had shared this story. “Yeah. She had somehow found out about the note and sent the fake one as a prank so I’d either show up and be humiliated or miss the dance all together. Kind of a win-win for her.”
“Willow, that’s awful.” said Hunter, feeling as though he was about to cry, sorry he was causing her to relive the painful memory. He wondered if Boscha had been planning to repeat herself when she caught Hunter trying to leave Willow his note. He shuddered at the idea of her getting a note like that thinking it was from him. His galdertone ached at the idea that she could've gotten his note and thought it was written as a cruel joke. 
“So it took me awhile to trust myself when I started liking someone, and even longer to believe that someone could ever like me like that.” said Willow. 
“Willow I'm so sorry that happened to you, that’s just… you don’t… Oh, I’m sorry I got you involved in this,” said Hunter. “I-I don’t know why I did, I mean I knew how Boscha treated you, I should've known she’d find a way to try and-.”
“Hunter, it’s fine really,” Willow assured him. “I know I still let Boscha get under my skin sometimes, but I know this time is nothing like that. Plus I’d hate for her to try and do something like that to you. We’re not doing this to prove anything to her, it’s to keep her away from you. But if she found out that we were pretending… she’d be unbearable.”
“I mean she’s already unbearable,” Hunter scoffed. 
“I won’t argue with you there,” said Willow with a light chuckle.
“So… have you liked anyone… since then?” Hunter tried to ask naturally.
“Um… maybe?” A subtle blush crept onto her face and she hoped he didn't notice. He thought he imagined it. “There is… someone I kind of…”
“There is?” Hunter's heart plummeted as his eyes widened in horror. “Oh my Titan, there’s someone you like and now I’ve roped you into dating me and now they’ll think you’re taken! Willow, I’m so sorry! If you wanna break up with me I can always see if-.”
“No! No, no it’s okay,” Willow insisted. “I think they’d understand. It’s fine, I promise.”
“You’re sure?”
“Absolutely,” she said sweetly. “I’m fairly certain that pretending to date you will not hurt my chances with him.”
“Okay,” Hunter sighed, confused and relieved. His mind raced with who this person would be, this lucky, mysterious, and apparently very secure person who Willow had her eye on. He didn’t ask more questions, not wanting to pry and not wanting to increase the creeping feeling of jealousy lurking in his chest. 
“Ya know, this will be my first Bleeding Hearts day with someone, even if it’s not totally legit,” mused Willow. “It’s still exciting though. It’ll be nice to spend it with someone I care about.”
“Yeah?” Hunter asked, unable to process that she had referred to him as someone special without air quotes or sarcasm. She really was looking forward to spending time with him on the most romantic day on the Isles? He had to make it worth her sacrifice. Luckily, he had the perfect day planned for months. “Well then, if you’re not doing anything already I was thinking we could go to a pro flyer derby match together.”
Her eyes sparkled. “Really? I would love- wait, do you mean the match on Bleeding Hearts day between the Sirens and the Harpies?”
“Yeah! I-if that’s okay….” Hunter started, pulling the tickets out of his pocket where he had been keeping them safe. “I actually already got us pretty good seats, so if you-.”
“Hunter!” Willow exclaimed, taking them carefully from him to admire them. “Are you serious? How did you ever… I mean this is so… I don’t even know what to say! This is so amazing I could just kiss you!”
“Hehehe uh well I guess technically you could…” he said quietly as he scratched his face. Willow was too engrossed in the tickets for Hunter to tell if she had heard him. “But I uh, got them as a thank you. For, ya know, being my… girlfriend.”
Willow smiled as she wrapped him in a tight hug, burying her face in his chest as she lifted him off the ground. “So that does that mean… you wanna go?” he strained to ask as she squeezed him tighter. She laughed as she gently put him back on his feet, taking delight in the red mesmerized look on his face. 
“Of course! What kind of girlfriend would I be if I didn’t?” She giggled, only slightly embarrassed at her impulse.She knew it was for show, but truthfully she couldn’t imagine a better evening than yelling in the crowd beside Hunter. How had Boscha managed to accidentally arrange one of the most perfect nights of her life? She was finally good for something, it seemed.
---
Pretending to date Hunter was unsurprisingly easy. 
They spent the day adjusting their routine to that of a couple, and it turns out they needed to adjust very little.
They already went out of their way to walk to class together, so now they walked closer and linked pinkies as they walked. 
When he dropped her off at her class, she always sent him away with an enthusiastic farwell, now she blew him a kiss before he left.
During study hall he sent her paragraphs worth of ideas for pet names. Terms of endearment tailor made for Willow that she couldn’t help but feel he thought of way too quickly, as though he already had them handy.
Such little things that made the biggest difference
During their time in the human realm, they would create little backstories for themselves to help them blend in and get adjusted to things. It was something silly they did to take their mind off the uncertainty of things and help the time pass, but now it was just a silly thing they did for reasons they couldn’t explain. Willow knew  plenty of couples weren’t overly affectionate and they didn’t need to go so deep undercover, but she was willing to commit to the bit as much as he was. It was another thing they would do back in human realm, see who would break first or who would be the first to have nothing new to add. But this was one time Willow was hoping for a draw.
 All through class she watched the clock, so eager to see him again and add another detail to their story. Her favorite part was when the bit reached a point where it felt like an elaborate inside joke that blurred the lines between fact and fiction. Hunter was always the best at creating with her. Sometimes it took him awhile to find the character, but if his Golden Guard days taught him anything it was how to adapt. 
---
At the end of their first day “together”, any guilt Hunter harbored had vanished with Willow's collection of ideas suggesting she really was excited for this plan. If only asking her for real could be this simple. As they walked to the Owl House for their usual Friday hang chatting as they always did, they did so hand in hand only to remember halfway there that since they were out of school they didn’t technically need to be. But neither said this aloud. They were both convinced the other was simply dedicated to the ruse.
“... and I thought we could go official on penstagram but we have to do matching profile pictures first,” continued Willow. “I thought we could do one where we’re each doing like half a heart with our hands so when the ‘in a relationship’ update happens they’ll be next to each other and it’ll look so cute.” 
Hunter had made it clear that he was fine with whatever Willow was comfortable with and he assumed that meant they would hold hands in the hallway for a couple of weeks (which was more than enough to make his head spin) but she was fine with everyone on the Isles thinking they were romantically involved. He knew Boshca didn’t have so much influence that the effort was necessary, but he convinced himself that Willow was simply covering all their bases.
It was for the bit.
As they reached the front door, Hooty was absent from his usual spot which signaled to Willow and Hunter that the weekend festivities were in full swing. Willow went to open the door with her free hand when suddenly a thought struck her and she turned to her co conspirator with a look of concern.
“Hunter, you did tell Luz we were only pretending to be dating, right?”
“I didn’t tell her anything,” he said, having not seen Luz since this morning when she saw them off before heading to her school in the human realm. “Only Gus knows that we’re pretending. I haven’t even talked to her since this morning, I don’t even know how she would know.”
“Oh Titan.” Willow said, the color draining from her face. “I think we might be in trouble.”
“Why would you say that?” Hunter asked as he opened the door for Willow and the answer to his question presented itself as they were instantly ambushed by the force that was Hooty. The bird tube wrapped them into a tight hug, crying about how excited he was for them as Hunter and Willow saw he was not alone in his sentiment. 
“Congratulations to the happy couple!” Luz exclaimed as Hooty loosened his grip on them so she could toss confetti in their faces. 
“Oh, that’s why.” Hunter whispered to Willow as they both regulated their breathing after being stuck in Hooty’s grip.  All they could do now was smile awkwardly as they both took in the display Luz had prepared. A “congratulations” sign hung behind Luz in the doorway, the letters decorated in pink, purple and blue and then pink, yellow and blue. They had set up Eda’s old projector and a slideshow of pictures of Willow and Hunter played on what appeared to be a loop. There were a decent amount. It was just the kind of celebration a new couple would really appreciate.
If only they were a real couple.
It also happened to include nearly everyone from school, so correcting Luz right away wasn’t an option.
“Wow this is so… uh, you guys really shouldn’t have,” said Willow as she took it all in. She didn’t dislike it, no that wasn’t it. Hunter tried to place her tone, thinking that by the redness in her cheeks she might be embarrassed. If he didn’t know any better he might think she was… committing to the bit. That’s all it was. 
But he couldn’t help but feel as though everyone had been expecting this celebration to take place sooner or later. 
“Are you kidding? It’s not everyday your best friend starts dating your brother!” said Luz as she pulled them both into a hug,and they looked at each other nervously behind her back. She leaned back to offer them both a wide smile, practically jumping out of her skin as Amity joined her. 
“Yeah! It’ll be nice to go on double dates!”
“Oh man, if I had known your crush didn’t go away, I would’ve set this up months ago!” added Luz.
Their eyes widened simultaneously, each thinking Luz was referring to them only, unaware how mutual the feeling was. They spoke at the same time, hoping to move on before she revealed too much. 
“Oh! Well you know we don’t have to-.”
“Actually, we were thinking that-.”
“Hey there lovebirds!” Gus said, rushing in to save the day. “Why don’t you come to the kitchen and get some pizza?”
“Yes! Yes, of course!” said Hunter, happy for the save as he took Willow’s hand before following Gus back. “My girlfriend loves pizza!”
“Awh, look at them,” sighed Luz, resting her head on Amity’s shoulder. “He knows that she loves pizza.”
Once in the kitchen, sure no one was listening in, Hunter turned to Gus in a panic but the younger boy simply offered him a calm, knowing look.
“Gus, why didn’t you tell them we were just pretending?” whispered Hunter.
“I didn’t have time!” he said. “I showed up and Luz told me before I could even say hello!”
“Well who told Luz?” asked Willow. 
“Who didn’t tell Luz?” laughed Gus. “Someone saw you two holding hands and one thing led to another and by the time I got here Luz had already talked to half the school. I didn’t wanna blow your cover so I went with it. I just assumed you two were just doing another bit like we used to do all the time.”
“Gus, this isn’t like trying to convince the lady at the flower shop that Willow used to be an actual willow tree and that’s why she can make the plants grow,” said Hunter. “This is serious!”
“Hunter, it’ll be fine,” assured Willow, placing her hand on his shoulder. “We can always explain things to her after, we just need to do some extra pretending tonight. If it’s too hard, we can always leave early.”
Hunter wasn’t worried about it being too hard, he was worried about it being too easy. He was worried Luz would let it slip exactly why it was too easy for him. Luz had honed in on his crush early on, maybe even before he was aware of it, and it stood to reason that she believed Willow was also aware of it now. How do you tell someone your girlfriend doesn’t know about your crush on her?
“Right,” he said, grateful for Willow’s support. They had been through worse, through deadlier and more dire things, surely they could survive a night of awkwardness. 
Surely they could survive the flyer derby team’s stream of questions as Willow convinced them they kept it secret as to avoid drama on the team.
Surely they could survive everyone at the party mentioning how they knew it all along.
Surely they could survive the video Luz had somehow made (dare they assume she had it prepared in advance?) to summarize their relationship becoming official. As they sat on the coach, watching every picture he and Willow had ever taken together move along the screen while a song neither of them had ever heard played softly in the background. From the corner of his eye he watched Willow watch as the screen zoom in on a group photo where he was standing beside her looking at her with a faint blush as she pulled him into frame, her hand tight on his waist. 
Her finger twirled her braid as he failed to read her expression for how she was feeling. He didn’t want to feel overwhelmed if she wasn’t. With the other bits, he always followed her lead. But the difference was that he had been the one to rope them into this one. And it wasn’t something they were doing to fool a stranger they would only see for five minutes, this was basically everyone they knew. 
But she didn’t seem to mind.
She actually really seemed to like it.
“Don’t worry I made you copy to show your dads when you tell them.” Said Luz as the presentation came to an end, proud of her work. “I mean, unless you’ve already told them.”
“Well, we-.”
“Oh, they must’ve,” interrupted Amity. “I know how strict they are about this type of thing, there’s no way Hunter would ask Willow out without their blessing.”
“Oh, actually-.”
“That’s right!” Hunter interrupted this time. “I did ask them! And they said… no!”
“They said no?” Amity asked, surprised.
“What?” said Luz and Gus together. 
“Wait, did you- I mean, yes! That’s right!” Said Willow, catching on. “He asked them and they said no but we are dating anyway! So it’s a secret!” 
“Yeah! We are secretly dating!” Confirmed Hunter. “So we should not mention it to them. Because of the secret aspect of it.”
“Oh, yeah of course.” Said Amity .
“Yeah, we won’t say anything.” promised Luz. 
“Good, because we-.”
“Why did they say no?” Amity asked. 
“Huh?”
“I mean, it’s kind of odd, right?” She went on, stroking her chin. “I mean, they seem like they really like Hunter and they always tease you about him being your boyfriend, so what changed?”
“Uh…” Willow thought nervously, having not told Hunter about all the time her dads had “accidentally” referred to him as her boyfriend when his name came up (which was honestly quite often). “They caught us… kissing?”
“Kissing?! You two have kissed already and neither of you told me???” Luz exclaimed. “How long have you been going out that you’re already kissing?”
“Uh, well…” Hunter tried to start, starting to sweat. He and Willow had established a fairly thorough cover story, but they had never discussed this. Even hypothetical, Hunter knew he couldn’t muster the courage to bring it up to Willow. But now it was all he could think about. Between imagining that and trying to create a story in which it could believably happen, Hunter felt as though he was about to malfunction. 
“Two weeks ago,” said Willow calmly.
“What?!” Luz exclaimed.
“What? I mean, yeah! We kissed two weeks ago!” said Hunter with a nervous laugh. 
“Well? C’mon! Do we not get a story?”
“Um it uh was… a day-.” started Hunter.
“It was after our match against Glandus, it had gone into double overtime so it was late and Hunter was walking me home like he always does,” started Willow, to a room of “awhs” and “how sweet.” “But we were still taking our time, talking  about the game and then all of a sudden, clouds start forming and we realize it’s gonna rain. We’re almost to my house so Hunter picks me up and uses his teleportation to rush me to the door before a drop can hit me. So then we’re standing on my porch and he’s standing really close so the rain won’t hit him and he just looks so cute… I dunno, I guess it was the adrenaline or something but I just pulled him down and kissed him.”
“Awh, that’s so sweet,” said Luz, brushing a tear away. “A first kiss in the boiling rain? It’s like something out of a book.”
“Yeah,” said Hunter, looking over at Willow. He remembered that day. It wasn’t something Willow invented to help sell their lie. They had gone into overtime and he had walked her home and he had rushed her onto her porch before the rain statered, But in reality, they had lingered there. He remembered their faces inches from each other, close enough to feel her breath on his face. She had been close enough that pulling him down would’ve been easy. And he thought about it, he did. Or at least, he knew this was the kind of moment where that kind of thing happened. They stood in silence for a few moments and he told himself later that it was because they wanted to make sure they were safely out of the rain. But truthfully he forgot about the rain, he could only focus on the lingering face paint clinging to the sides of Willow’s glasses and how he was close enough to see it so clearly. How he was close enough to… 
But her dads had opened the door and welcomed the pair inside for a celebratory dinner before that possibility could be explored 
That was the only thing she changed.
She didn’t need to pick that moment, she could have invented something totally new and Hunter would've gone along with it. But the fact that she did… well Hunter didn’t know what that meant. She would often sneak little jokes into their larger ones, but was this a joke within a joke or a reimagining?
“Yeah,” said Hunter, his voice soft and dreamy, transported to Willow’s improved version of the day. “That’s… that’s what happened.”
“So uh, actually we’d better get going,” said Willow, sitting up as she sensed Hunter was growing overstimulated. “Ever since then, they’ve been really strict about my curfew. And I know Hunter has a potions essay to work on.”
“Oh okay!” said Luz as she wrapped them both in a tight hug. “But I will be texting you a million follow up questions. You too, Hunter.”
“Cool, sure,” said Hunter, knowing that meant he and Willow would be on a video call making sure their answers lined up. He hated to think that he was enjoying inconveniencing her so much. 
“Now go walk your girlfriend to the door, I bet you wanna kiss her goodnight,” teased Luz and everyone in the room let out an ohhhh
“Haha! You bet!” Said Hunter with forced enthusiasm, his voice cracking ever so slightly  as he felt the room get hotter. “Willow! Let me walk you outside and we can kiss like we always do!”
Willow smiled in spite of herself  and followed Hunter outside, waving goodbye to her friends as to keep up appearances. She couldn’t help but take a little delight in how nervous Hunter was. She always really liked that part of the bit.
“How are we gonna convince them we’re out here kissing?” Hunter whispered on the verge of a panic attack as the door shut behind them (luckily Hooty promised them privacy). “I can see Luz peeping through the curtains. 
“Like this,” said Willow calmly, placing her hands on either side of his face and pulling him down close to her. As she did, she sneakily placed her thumbs over his lips and placed her lips against her thumbs, a nearly invisible barrier to the nosey on lookers inside
It was fake and staged but Hunter couldn’t help the way his heart raced, still being so close to her. He knew he had to sell his end but he didn’t know how to look like someone who was casual about kissing Willow Park. So he did the only thing he could think of and kept his arms at his sides, lest they do the wrong thing. He didn’t know if this was right, but he knew he wouldn’t know what was right so that made it right, right?
She closed her eyes and so he did too. He heard her hum and his lips formed a smile against her thumbs as their noses brushed against each other. 
When she pulled away she gave him a small wink and patted his cheek to signify it had worked. It really had. No one at the party could deny that he was head over heels for Willow Park. Absolutely no one.
“Oh, okay,” he said, not knowing what to say but feeling like he should say something. “Uh… thanks.”
“Sure, yeah,” she said, trying to remain composed. There was no reason not to be, nothing had happened.  “Anytime.”
It was just like that day on her porch. 
-
“Why do you bring Willow flowers everyday?” Gus asked 
“I don’t bring her flowers every day,” corrected Hunter as he handed Willow a small bouquet. “I mostly bring her seeds and clippings so she can grow her own flowers.”
“But why?”
“Because Willow loves plants? It’s kinda her whole thing? Well, that and-.”
“No I mean, why do you bring Willow flowers if you’re not actually dating?” Asked Gus.
“Because if I was really dating Willow I would try and bring her flowers everyday,” said Hunter simply and Willow hid her blush in the collection of red and yellow flowers Hunter had brought her.
“You mean if you were dating anyone, right?”
“Well not just anyone,” Hunter corrected him again. “Not everyone can handle the responsibility of plant care like Willow can.”
“But what if you were dating someone who wasn’t good with plants?” asked Gus.
Hunter looked at Gus like that was the most ridiculous question he had ever heard. “Why would I do that?”
Willow just giggled as she grabbed her books and held her flowers close to her chest to go add them to her garden in the greenhouse before class. As she walked away, she blew Hunter an over the top kiss as had become their tradition. He reached out his arm and pretended to reach for it as though it had nearly flown over his head before finally catching it and putting it in his breast pocket for safe keeping. Willow giggled as she turned the corner and Hunter wore a very convincing dopey grin as his eyes lingered on her until she completely left his sight.
“I know you’re trying to play it off as part of your ‘fake dating’ bit or whatever, but you always give Willow flowers before school and no one even sees you do it,” said Gus. 
“I mean I… I guess I just need to thank her for doing this,” he admitted. “I mean, it started out as lying to Boscha but I’ve been lying to her too! And I know it’s wrong but I’ve really liked spending time with her and it’s easier this way for some reason? And I’ve tried telling her, I really have, but everytime I try she adds something to the story and I just… I think I’m in too deep.”
“Hmm, it’s almost like she enjoys being your girlfriend,” said Gus as he closed his locker. “Go figure.”
---
Hunter sat on the end of the couch, his back against the armrest as his arm rested around Willow’s shoulder as she leaned against him with  her knees tucked to the side as she showed him a video on her scroll as they waited for Gus to started the movie .The scene was very cozy, very natural.
Very unnecessary. 
“You guys don’t have to do that, ya know.” said Gus, walking in and promptly sitting down on the ground in front of the couch, placing the popcorn on the coffee table. “I’m in on your little ruse, remember?”
“We know it’s just… an easier way to sit?” said Hunter as Willow let out a bright, airy giggle. “I mean, there’s not a lot of room so…”
“Uh-huh,” said Gus, looking next to them where two full cushions remained unoccupied. “Sure.”
“Plus, it’s like being undercover,” offered Hunter. “You need to be prepared, you never know who could be watching.”
“In my house?” Gus asked with a raise of his eyebrow.
“Yeah Gus we’re undercover,” said Willow, making herself even more comfortable at his side, resting her head on his shoulder as though that was where it was always meant to be. “Besides, we’re gonna break up soon.”
“Oh, really?” Gus asked skeptically, rolling his eyes as paused the opening of the movie, wondering when his third wheeling would become official. 
“Yes, really,” said Willow smugly, reaching behind her to grab the notebook off the end table. “We’ve been brainstorming.”
“Sure, that’s totally what you were doing,” he said, his sarcasm loud and clear. “So then, what do you have so far?”
“Okay, well…” Willow hesitated to start. “Here’s the thing…”
“It’s empty, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, it’s empty,” said Willow, sitting back against Hunter’s arm. “We just… can’t think of a reason to break up.”
“Not a believable one, at least,” added Hunter. “We want it to be mutual so it won’t be suspicious when everyone thinks we’re just friends again. I mean well, not ‘again’ cause we always were, like the whole time, heh.”
 “Yeah,” she sighed, as though it was a real problem. “So we tried to think of something less personal. Like, not something about one of us but maybe because we’re too busy and don’t have time for a relationship.”
“But then we thought, that might not make sense since we do spend a lot of time together,” Hunter continued. “We still play flyer derby together and we’re in some classes together. Not to mention we have movie night with you every week…”
“I mean, it doesn’t have to be a big or flashy reason,” Gus offered, knowing they didn’t really try very hard. “You can just say you're better as friends. People shouldn’t question that.”
Except they definitely would, because Hunter would definitely still have a crush on Willow. He would still look at her with the same dopey grin, the same wide eyes, and the same rose colored flush in his cheeks. He knew he would because nothing about her had changed, she was still so wonderful and funny and smart and brave and beautiful. Titan, if anything this whole thing has made him like her more. And he didn’t mind still feeling this way, as confusing as it was, but he worried that his infatuation would make their story unconvincing. They would claim it was mutual and there were no lingering feelings, but now all eyes would be on them to see if it were true and there his feelings would be: lingering. 
And he worried people would somehow find a way to make Willow the bad guy. He knew Boscha was grasping at straws trying to ruin Willow’s reputation, and being a heartbreaker might be the straw she needed. He would deny she had broken his heart, but when it came down to it he didn’t think he could convincingly state he did not still have feelings for her. 
And that might be enough to make things weird. 
“I mean, we should at least stay together until Bleeding Hearts day,” said Willow. “We can figure out something after that.”
-
“Okay, I stand like this?” Hunter asked.
“Yeah, and then you prop your elbow against the locker like this,” instructed Willow, guiding him into position. “And like you can put your other hand on your hip or something and then I’ll stand against my locker…” Willow carefully put herself between Hunter and the locker so she was looking up at him. “And there! Just like the movie poster.”
“So this is flirting? Standing like this?”
“Well, standing and talking technically,” said Willow. “But if we stand like this, everyone can tell just by looking at us that that’s what we’re doing. Like a real couple.”
“Okay,” said Hunter, starting to understand. “Do we have to say anything in particular?” “I dunno, maybe you can try and say something funny?” Willow suggested coyly as she twirled the end of her braid around her finger. “Oh, and twirling my hair will also let them know we’re flirting too.”
“Okay okay,” said Hunter. “But should it be funny like clever funny? Or something more low brow? A pun? Or maybe one of those door jokes?”
“Hmm, we can always just pretend you said something funny and I’ll do a fake laugh,” said Willow.
“Wait, am I not funny?” he said with a fake scoff.
“I didn’t say that,” she said with a chuckle as she flicked his hair noodle.”You can be very funny.”
“That doesn’t sound like you think I’m funny,” he teased, absentmindedly leaning down closer to her. 
“You are funny,” she insisted, tapping him lightly on the shoulder. “When you’re not trying to be.”
“When am I not trying?” he said, his voice carrying a certain twinkle in it. 
“I dunno,” she said, wrinkling her nose at him. For some reason she felt bubbly, seeing Hunter pretend to act as though he was in disbelief. She felt like laughing now but tried to suppress it. Hunter noticed. 
“You’re laughing right now!” he declared victoriously. 
“I am not!” she denied, trying to hide her smile.
“Yes you are!” he said, adopting a chuckle of his own. “I know what your laugh sounds like, Captain!”
“Well, maybe I’m-.”
“You guys know Boscha’s been out of school all week with the common mold, right?” Gus asked, breaking the trance the pair had reentered with ease and had forgotten he was there.
Hunter offered him a quizzical look. “So?”
“Huh, no wonder things have been so peaceful around here,” Willow realized.
“Yeah, so without her around there’s no reason for you two to keep up this little act of yours,” Gus pointed out and Willow and Hunter realized they hadn't noticed Boscha’s absence because at some point they had stopped checking for her all together. 
“Hmm, I guess you’re right…” said Willow slowly, wishing he wasn’t. “But, I mean, the common mold usually lasts a week so she’ll be back soon.”
“Yeah,” Hunter agreed. “Plus, she might have spies reporting back to her while she’s out.”
“Spies?” Gus said, unconvinced with a rise of his eyebrow. “Really?”
“I mean, that does sound like Boscha,” said Willow. “Having…spies.” She knew it sounded silly. She knew what Boscha was capable of, but even that was a stretch. Hunter stopped leaning against the locker and stood up straight, trying to read Willow’s expression. 
“Congrats on being voted cutest couple!” Skara squeaked in delight as she bounced at them from seeming nowhere.
“What?” they exclaimed in unison.
“Awh!” Skara gushed. “You two are so in sync! So cute!”
“Skara, what do you mean-.”
“Just look!” she said happily, handing them a piece of paper. “It’s just a mock up, but that’s what it’s gonna be in the year book! I wanted to be the first to tell you, ya know in case you wanted to use a different picture or something.”
Willow looked down at the photo Skara had chosen. It was a photo of them after a flyer derby match, the photo captured Willow tackling him in a hug to celebrate their victory as Hunter caught her in his arms and spun her around, wearing a wide smile to match hers. They were looking at each other, totally unaware a photo was even being taken. He remembered that day, he could hear their laughter echoing as he spun her too quickly and they had fallen onto the ground right after the moment the photo was taken. He vividly remembered the smell of grass, the way the setting sun rested in her hair, and the way the sound of her laughter made his heart skip a beat. The picture was taken well before they had started “dating” and yet…
“It’s perfect Skara,” said Willow, her tone much different from what it was mere moments ago. He wondered why they stopped flirting if it was meant to convince people they were together. He had been enjoying himself and now he felt guilty. His cowardice had made this whole thing spiral out of control, and now their lie was to be preserved forever. In the back of his mind he remembered that Willow liked someone else. They were supposed to break up once everyone was convinced. How had they gotten so off task? How could he let Willow keep bailing him out in such a major way?
As Skara ran back to the classroom, an unsettling silence floated between the pair. Had it been any other story, any other bit, they would’ve come clean by now, right? 
They knew this. Gus had gone out of his way to remind them and they brushed it off. But now, it was hard to deny it was a harmless but. It was a pretty big commitment for someone you weren’t committed to. 
Willow had done all that for him and he couldn’t even be honest with her. He at least owed her that much. 
“Wow,” Willow chuckled nervously, trying to fill the silence. “That’s uh, that’s a pretty big honor.”
“Yeah,” Hunter agreed, searching his mind for how to word what he really needed to say. 
“I’m sure Amity will have something to say about it,” Willow chuckled lightly. “Since she and Luz have been together longer. But Luz doesn’t even technically go here, and I don’t think anyone would-.”
“I don’t wanna lie anymore.” 
She looked up to see Hunter’s face flushed, his fists balled at his sides as though it took all of his strength to bring out that sentence. Willow had to admit, it was not what she was expecting to hear. It was not what she was hoping to hear. 
“Oh.” was all she could manage to say. She didn’t need to ask what he meant. She could ask why, but she didn’t think she was up to it. “Um, okay.”
The bell screamed as Willow tried to process the whiplash that had just occurred. She could tell Hunter had more to say, but she felt as thought she had lost the ability to hear as static echoed in her mind. She was sure she said something about having to get to class, but she felt as though she was outside her body watching a blurry reenactment of a scene as her feet carried her away. They had joked about breaking up, because it was a joke. Because there was nothing really to break up. But then, why did it feel so real?
---
A few days went by and Willow and Hunter didn’t speak. He wasn’t waiting by her locker after class and miss practice after school. She assumed he needed space or assumed he assumed she needed it, but either way it was there. She knew the mature thing was to discuss the next steps, the story they would tell she had gotten so used to their new routine she had never prepared herself for its end. She thought he felt the same way.
“Well well well, if it isn’t Hexside’s most famous half-a-witch.” came a shrill voice Willow hadn’t heard in weeks interrupting her thoughts. She tried to ignore her, she knew that’s what was best. But of course, her timing was impeccable. 
“Where’s your loser boyfriend?” sneered Boscha, following her victim down the hall, having much lost time to make up for. “Oh let me guess, he finally dumped you right? He realized what a loser you really were and decided to cut his losses?”
Unbeknownst to Willow, Hunter was hiding nearby working up the courage to greet her by her locker to try and explain himself. He had tried writing another note, but this time would read from it instead of trying to get it to carry more than it should by itself. But he heard Boscha beat him to the location and any nervousness left his body and was promptly replaced by fury. He knew Willow could handle herself, but he knew his lie added fuel to the fire that were her words.
“It’s really none of your business, Boscha.”
“I’m right though, aren’t I? I knew there was no way someone like you could convince anyone to date them. What, did he lose a bet or something?”
Willow kept walking. Hunter wanted to scream. Boshca knew it wasn’t true and Willow was smarter than Bocha, surely she knew it too right? Surely she knew.
“Didn’t you learn your lesson last time, half-a-witch?” snickers Boscha. “The only way someone would ever date you would be as part of a joke. No doubt he got sick of having to see you everyday and realized-.”
Before he knew what he was doing, Hunter teleported beside Willow who looked surprised to see him. Before she could greet him or question him or say much of anything, he placed his hand on the side of her face and pulled her close to him as she had done that day after the party. 
But with one tiny major difference.
Willow quickly got over her surprise and leaned into the accidental kiss, dropping the books in her arm to the ground as she elected to rest her hands on Hunter’s chest, clinging to his shirt collar. He held her face in his hands like it was something delicate as their noses nestled beside each other like puzzle pieces meant to be like that. Willow did not need to rise to her tip toes to kiss him better as he leaned down to be closer to her and her foot popped in the air as his hold on her grew more secure. His lips were dry but surprisingly gentle as they found a comfortable placement against hers. Emotions of surprise and hesitation melted away as they had no place in a moment like this.
At some point during all of this, Bocha had left. Her grumbles and rude comments had gone unheard by the pair, far too engrossed in each other to consider there was anything else in the world worth caring about. 
Somehow Hunter managed to stop himself in the middle of what felt like a familiar yet impossible dream. He pulled back to see Willow’s eyes closed and her face flushed as reality caught up with him and prevented him from savoring the moment further. “Oh no, I didn’t do the thing.” 
“Really? I think you kinda did.” Willow giggled, looking at him with dreamy eyes, feeling like her chest was a fire bee hive as she allowed Hunter to be her balance, leaning forward happily to be caught any way he intended to catch her.
“No I mean the thing with my thumbs so I wouldn’t… so we wouldn’t…”
“But we did.” She said plainly, averting her gaze and playing with a loose thread on his uniform by his shoulder, she couldn’t bring herself to leave the bubble just yet. “Is that… okay?”
“I mean I… I don’t mind but I know that we’re technically broken up I think and that we were never even… I’m sorry,” he cast his eyes to the ground, and removed his hands from her face. “I-I just heard Boscha saying those awful things to you and I-I don’t know what came over me.”
“Don’t be sorry,” said Willow quickly, turning his face back to her to see his eyes. “For any of it. You just… got caught up in the moment. I’m sure I would’ve done the same thing.”
“Really?” Hunter squeaked and Willow nodded, her hand still resting on his check. “The uh… the exact same thing?”
Willow bit her lip as she moved her hand from his face to the back of his neck. Her other hand still had a steady hold of his collar and she planned to bring him back down to her to answer him without words but before she summoned the courage to do so, a loud gruff voice broke through their bubble as it flooded the hallway.
“Hey you two! Did you not hear the bell?” The voice demanded. They hadn’t, there were more important things holding their attention. So of course they didn’t know there was no one else left in the hallway. 
Except a very grumpy teacher who did not find lateness romantic. 
 “You’re late to class! Detention, both of you!”
---
“Willow, I… I owe you an apology.” Hunter said as they sat beside each other in detention, whispering as to not wake the teacher at the front of the classroom. 
“Hunter, it’s okay,” she whispered back. “It’s not the first time I’ve gotten detention.”
“No, not about that,” replied Hunter. “Well, yes about that too actually but I mean when I said I didn’t wanna lie anymore, I meant I didn’t want to lie to you anymore.”
“What? How were you-?”
He took a deep breath. “Okay, the truth is, I did run into Boscha that day,” he said quickly, trying to keep his voice steady. “But she didn’t ask me out… she caught me trying to ask you out.”
“What?”
“I was trying to put this in your locker,” he began, taking out the carefully folded note from his pocket and handing it to her. He had kept it, hoping there would be a right time for it. Hopefully this was it. “Because I didn’t know how else to do it and I thought it would be easier but she caught me and read it and threatened to tell everyone and I asked her not to because I didn’t want-
“People to know?”
“-you to think it wasn’t true,” he finished. “I-I thought if you heard that I liked you from Boscha, you’d never believe it since she’s always lying. And I didn’t wanna mess it up again so I panicked and that’s when I told her-.”
“Wait, ‘again?’” Willow repeated, confused. “What do you mean ‘again?’ When did you- oh! Do you mean your… wait.”
Her eyes told Hunter she knew exactly what he was referring to. He held his breath. “You did get it.”
“I did,” she said with a smile finding the answer to her question in his wide eyes. “I just… well, your autocorrect was always doing weird things and I didn’t want to assume… I mean not that I didn’t want to assume but I…”
She had hoped.
“But it doesn’t matter,” he sighed. “I shouldn’t have let this go on as king as it did, I’ve caused you so much trouble. You can keep the tickets, you can take Gus. I just… hope you’re not too mad and that maybe eventually we can-.”
“Hunter, when exactly did the thing with Boscha happen?” 
“Um about three weeks ago?”
“And you bought the flyer derby tickets for us to make it look like we were dating?”
“Well, I mean I knew you’d been wanting to go so I thought it would be a fun way to say thanks for being a great girlfriend.”
That was technically not a lie. He truly had been hoping he could say that by the time the event rolled around.
“But I guess what I’m asking is, when you bought the tickets you bought them with the intention of us going to the game as a date for Bleeding Hearts Day, right?”
“Yeah, I did.”
“Hunter… the date on these tickets says they were purchased months ago.” Willow said with a smile.
“Well, it’s your favorite team playing their biggest rival so tickets we’re gonna sell out pretty quick and I wanted to make sure we got good seats so once it was announced I-.”
“But… you couldn’t have known months in advance that we would pretend to be dating when the game was happening,” Willow pointed out, a deep blush covering her face. 
“You… you knew?”
“Kinda? I mean, I knew a little bit,” she admitted. “I didn’t actually know what I knew but I… uh, anyway.” She cleared her throat as she tried to steady her voice. “What I do know is, I’ve really liked getting to be your girlfriend.”
“Oh uh, good. I’m glad I… just wanted to make sure you were uh…”
“I also know that I don’t wanna lie anymore either,” she said softly, inching her chair closer to his.
“Oh, yeah of course I mean I understand if you just want to-.”
She placed her hand atop his on the table, effortlessly lacing their fingers together. “So let’s stop lying.”
He looked down at their hands in awe. A part of him wanted to make an excuse, to link it to their ruse. But a louder, kinder voice in his mind told him to squeeze her hand back. That so many words weren’t needed right now, to stop complicating it. Questions rolled around his brain trying to make him doubt this was what it was but he pushed them back, but then one slipped through the cracks.
“But what about… the other person you like?” He asked sheepishly. “Don’t you… I mean, aren’t they…?”
Willow looked at him with playful eyes as she bit her lip and Hunter felt like the smartest and stupidest person in the world.
And also the luckiest.
“Oh.” He said, understanding her look and not questioning it. His face was red and he knew it but didn’t care. He tried to summon the coolness he was convinced he had when they were only pretending. “Don’t you uh, wanna read the note first?”
“How about you summarize it for me?” She smiled.
“Okay uh…” he tried to pick his favorite metaphor when he realized he was doing it again. She didn’t mind that he was complicated and careful in fact she liked it. She liked him. And she was waiting for him. “Willow, would you wanna… go on a date… with me?”
“I’d love to Hunter,” she said softly, and he felt as though he heart was melting and exploding at the same time. “Lucky for you, I happen to have two great seats for a flyer derby game this weekend.”
“Wow, what’re the odds?” He chuckled, over the moon to find them back in their rhythm as he rested his head on his hand, admiring the scene finally presented in reality.
“Ya know, this means you’ll have to actually ask for my dads blessing for real then right?”
Hunter beamed, his face envied the suns brightness at her response. “I’ll go as soon as we’re out of here,” he assured, his heart racing at securing her blessing to ask for his blessing. 
“Great, so you can explain to them why I got detention today,” she said, with a wink. Hunter laughed before realizing Willow was in detention because she had gotten caught kissing him. Not exactly the first impression Hunter was hoping to present as a suitor.
Maybe he’d ask her dads after their first date, just in case.  
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pinazee · 3 days
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Weekend warriors is one of my fave episodes for a multitude of reasons
The way Shawn flirts with Sally Reynolds at the briefing was fantastic. Shes such a memorable one off character and she doesn’t really do much. I credit that to Clair Coffee and her dazzling smile.
One of the best moments of Shawn showing just how amazing his memory is, and the little montage was wonderfully set up. But Gus really shouldn’t be surprised by now. Out of everyone (except maybe his dad) he should be the least amazed by his gifts.
It has my favorite most stupidest joke i still laugh at to this day actually ive been promoted. Its Captain Crunch now.
I have a deep appreciation of this show for never shying away from the fact that Gus is black. It seems like a lot of 00’s shows simply avoided the topic altogether (if they even had a black main). Starting from the pilot when gus placed his hands on the dash when the cop pulled them over. It goes to show how important it is to collaborate with your actors, particularly if your writing room demographics don’t correlate with your acting talent.
The fuck are you talking about henry. It took him 4 months after he was born to smile at you and thats when you acknowledge him??? I mean, i think they both know thats crap, but still lol
Solid Juliet moment. I love that they showed she was scared, but was brave enough to continue. Too many shows try to do feminism by making their female characters not feel fear for some reason? Or like, they’re kind of crazy and seek it out. Idk. Its nice that shes allowed to be afraid and vulnerable. It makes her feel like a real person.
THIS!
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That end scene is the saddest fucking thing ive ever seen, and might be the most heartbreaking little shawn moment in the series. Im going to word for word this because i need ppl to share in my awwws
Shawn: Gus, when we grow up, think ill ever be as cool as you?
Gus: You’re better at kickball
Shawn: Not what I asked
Gus: We talking about your dad again?
Shawn: mm-hmm
Gus: Come on dude, the guy respects you
Shawn: Not like he does you
Gus: I’m not his son. I mean, he might like me okay, but he loves you
Shawn: Did he say that?
Gus: No.
Shawn: Well then how can you be sure?
Gus: You mean he’s never said it?
Shawn: Come on Gus, we’re guys.
SO MUCH TO UNPACK HERE but i’m going to do that in my henry analysis ep. Theres just too much to say.
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call-me-a-simp · 11 months
Text
Heal My Wounds
Shopping with Dom Dom (part 26)
Rhea Ripley x Reader
Summary: You are in a toxic relationship with an abusive man but manage to run away. A tall, black haired woman picks you up from the streets just in time so your ex doesn't get you. But who is she and why does she seem so familiar to you? As you get to know each other you start to notice weird feelings you never had before whenever she's around.
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It's been a week since you said yes to Rhea's proposal. Since then you were non-stop thinking about your marriage.
You bought lots magazines for inspiration and spent all day flipping throug them and looking up different things on the internet.
But today you didn't have time for that since Dom took you out to look for the perfect wedding dress. You didn't expect it but Dominik had a surprisingly good taste in fashion, especially when it came to dresses. He just somehow always found exactly what you were looking for.
You get out of the shower and wrap yourself in a towel before walking over into your bedroom to pick your outfit for today.
"Hey baby" Rhea smiles at you. She was sitting on the bed, reading. "Why are you still wearing a towel everytime you come out of the shower, I think it's pretty unnecessary by now" she chuckles.
You stick your tongue out at her, making her grin even more and shake her head. "What are you still doing here anyway? I thought you had an appointment today?" you ask her.
"Yeah but it got canceled last minute so I'm kind of killing time now by reading until you're back" she shrugs. "Oh, okay" you say and turn your back at her to change.
"Why aren't you coming with us? You don't have a dress yet too, do you?" you suggest. "Na sorry, first of all should the groom only see the bride in her dress at the wedding and second of all I don't plan on wearing one" she winks at you.
"So you're attending naked?" you joke. "Ugh idiot, of course not" she laughs and gets up trying to tickle you. "ah no, hey" you laugh out and run away, closely followed by her.
She eventually catches you and pick you up from behind. "hah, got you" she shouts in victory before letting you down again.
You turn around to look at her, both of you still smiling and breathing a little heavy. "Have fun today okay? And don't you two walk outta that store without the perfect dress!" she dares you.
The doorbell rings, letting you know Dominik is waiting. You kiss her goodbye and make your way out. You greet Dom who waves at Rhea who followed you to the door.
"take care of her" she grins and he gives her a thumb up before getting into the car next to you and starting the engine.
It's almost a 30 minute drive, but it doesn't even feel that long as you're listening to good music and singing along to it.
You enter the store and are greeted by a woman, whose dark hair is already streaked with gray. "Hello hello, how can I help you" she says. "Hi, we're looking for the perfect wedding dress for this young lady here" Dominik smirks at you.
"Wonderfull, but you are aware that the groom is not supposed to see the bride until the actual wedding ceremony?" the woman asks with a raised brow.
"Oh, no no, he's not my fiancé, he's just a friend" you immediately correct her. "Oh, I'm sorry, well then follow me" she leads you to one of the store windows and takes out some magazines.
"Do you already have an idea of what you might like?" the lady wants to know. "Hmm.. Not really, what about we take a look again together Dom Dom?" you turn to him.
He nods and the saleswoman hands you the catalogues. You sit down on two stools next to a little coffee table and begin to flip through the pages, pointing out a dress every now and then.
"Ouh what about this one, its got a slightly purple and black touch to it. Reminds me of the judgement day colors you know?" Dom hands you his magazin. You give a positive hum and scan the store for the woman from earlier.
"Oh, hi, there you are, do you have this dress here by any chance?" you ask as soon as you found her. "Oh, yeah, let me get it for you" she says and walks away.
You give Dom, who is still sitting in the corner looking at more dresses and marking the ones he likes, a thumbs up and he smiles.
The woman returns with he exact dress and you go to try it on..
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Part 26, decided to leave out the Tw thingy now because its unnecessary ._.
Taglist:@babybatlover @legit9thlunaticwarrior @thatonepansexual2000 @nox-fire
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gifti3 · 8 months
Text
3k words of smut for my nightmare inspired AU where MC temporarily stays in a cathedral with Asmo (they are the only one who can see him) and during their stay they start to befriend a priest i outlined everything in different post
this is like 99% focused on MC and Asmo though :] reader is referred to as MC, theyre gender neutral and afab
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"Asmodeus please don't play with me right now."
Your heart really couldn't take false hope right now. You truly liked the lusty demon, and you couldn't control these seemingly foolish feelings. 
"I'm not! Why would I joke about something like this?"
The bed creaks underneath you as you shrink in on yourself.
Asmo gives you a look of distress as he realizes just how anxious you really are. "MC I know I might have a bit of a reputation, but I would never take you or your feelings lightly. You're really important to me!"
Your brows raise. 
"I'm in love with you, and I can prove it if you'll let me."
You stare at him surprised. The usual air about Asmo you were accustomed to was nowhere to be found and was instead replaced by one much more serious. One that you had not been exposed to before.
"You don't need to prove anything. I didn’t expect this…” It takes a moment but you gather the rest of your words. ”I honestly was just trying to confess to get closure. And I guess I was so nervous I reacted poorly when it didn’t go the way I thought it would."
"Ehh really? I thought I was pretty forward though…"
"Asmo you're forward in general."
You scoot closer to him and put your hands on his shoulder. You're so relieved you break into a grin. "But let's start over okay?"
Your hands move to his cheeks, and he gives you one of the softest smiles you've ever seen. It feels as if he has a literal grip on your heart.
"Asmo?"
"Hm?"
"Can I kiss you?"
"Please."
You lean forward and press your lips against his. It was quick and innocent, but you go in for another realizing you want more. Asmo takes the chance to wrap an arm around your neck and deepen your second kiss. And it doesn't take long for his tongue to make its way into your mouth. You sigh from the feeling but start to regret it once you realize he wasn't giving you much room to breathe. 
When you finally pull back to take a breath, Asmo immediately starts pressing kisses against your cheeks. 
You giggle, “Jeez Asmo, save some for later.”
“Not sorry. There’s so much time to make up for honey." He presses another kiss to your chin and stays close, dropping his voice. “In fact, if you want we could do more…”
You nod wordlessly.
Asmo continues his onslaught and once he’s happy with your face, he trails kisses to the crook of your neck. He unbuttons the front of your shirt as he continues down your chest.
And without thinking, one of your hands finds its way onto his horn.
"Hmm, don't be too handsy up there MC."
He presses you back against the bed and enthusiastically starts to strip you of your clothes.
"We can explore that idea another day, but for now--"
He pulls your undergarments down your legs and smiles satisfied at how wet you already are.
"You look cute on your back just like this~" 
He starts to shed his own clothes next. As more skin is revealed your eyes take in every inch. You'd never actually seen him fully naked before so you couldn't help the growing anticipation. 
"Am I getting you excited hon?" Asmo observes you closely too.
You press your foot against his leg. "Y-Your pants..." His cock strains against them.
Asmo smiles and unbuttons his (unconventional) slacks and pulls them down with his briefs to reveal himself to you.
His flushed cock stands erect, and any nerves you might have felt are wiped away. Seeing him exposed with nothing to hide his excitement had your pussy craving to be filled. But Asmo wasn't in a rush.
"Staring at me like that might drive me crazy." He rubs your thighs before spreading them. 
Asmo’s lithe fingers trace against your slit while he strokes himself. "It looks like your body’s yearning for me." Your legs twitch as one of his fingers catches on your entrance. "Specifically here."
The demon's hands trace up your sides to rest on your chest. 
“But I’ll start here,” he purrs.
You groan partially in frustration.
After kissing and licking his way down your collar, he takes your right nipple between his lips while rolling the other with his fingers. 
Your face heats and your brows furrow watching him shamelessly play with your chest. He looks up smiling as he continues his actions.
He teases you a little more before finally making his way down your torso, lower and lower. His thumbs massage your hips, and then he drags his hands to your knees as he moves down between your legs.
You feel his breath against you and you tremble. You close your eyes and put your hand to your head. Your body felt too hot.
A moment passes.
Why was he not doing anything?
You look down at Asmo and he looks a bit dazed staring at your pussy.
"MC…"
Before you can respond, his tongue is on your folds.
Caught off guard, your legs try to clamp shut but Asmo keeps them firmly in place. His eyes stay on yours as he licks you from entrance to clit. You grab the bed sheets as he tongues your entrance.
He pulls your labia back and you're fighting a losing battle to keep still as he flicks his tongue against your clit. The warmth pooling in your lower stomach was quickly becoming too much.
His other hand squeezes your inner thigh to spread you wider. 
You can no longer keep your noises down and you're sure Asmo is saying something but you're barely listening. You feel his fingers press through your twitching entrance and you cry out knowing what's coming next.
You tense and your toes curl as you buck against Asmo's mouth. 
"F-Fuck…too…quick…"
You go limp on the bed. 
Asmo being pleased with your current state hums. "Perfect ❤️"
He sits up and you watch as he holds his cock. He lines the head against your slit and you're truly ready for him. 
But nothing is happening again. Other than him watching you squirm.
"Asmo please for the love of God--"
"Tsk tsk saying the lord's name in vain. Not very ‘God-honoring’ of you MC."
"That's not even how that works and you know it!"
“Shhh there's no rush darling. We have all night and didn’t you just cum? Last time I checked, humans have a refractory period.”
He leans over your body to place a kiss on your lips, and you bring your arms around his neck.
“I just want to feel you right away is all…”
Asmo’s gaze softens, “Oh darling, you're so sweet I almost wanna eat you up."
"I hope you don't mean that literally."
"I hope so too…"
You raise a brow.
Asmo rests his weight fully against you and gives you a much more fervent kiss. After he pulls away, he brushes his nose against your cheek.
“...I’ve wanted you for so long I almost don’t know how to act right now. Do you feel the same?”
He slowly pushes his hips forward, sliding into you inch by inch. 
You nod not trusting your voice.
Once he bottoms out you sigh in relief. 
You wouldn't outright admit it, but you'd been craving this intimacy for a long while. Way before your stay at the cathedral. And not only physically but emotionally too. You wanted Asmo fully, flaws and all.
"I'm so glad MC."
You begin to fully relax underneath your demon as he begins to move. His attention fully on you. 
Asmo was prone to staring very intently at you and you had gotten used to it over the years. But in this moment you almost want to look away. He takes in every aspect of your face, every line, every movement through half lidded eyes.
Your brows furrow feeling like he was looking through your very being. 
But it felt scarily…intoxicating?
“What’s wrong MC? Falling too deeply for me?”
He gives you a particularly hard thrust, smiling away.
“I--I…” You struggle to form a coherent thought. Everything felt too good right now. Too quickly. Was this normal?
You feel that warmth in your gut ready to overflow again and you pull Asmo tighter against you.
"Oh, gonna cum already hon? Better be careful, someone might hear."
Right after saying that he begins to rub at your sensitive clit with the intent to push you over the edge.
"Hnn, you're....s-so--" You babble. Your body tenses before you can finish your statement and you come while Asmo continues to thrust into you. You do your best to keep your voice down and cover your mouth but you're not sure if it helps.
It takes you a moment to come down but you do just in time to witness him finishing inside you. He presses his hips snug against you and he moans out your name. You feel him twitching in you and then there's warmth as he cries out in pleasure right next to your ear.
He presses a kiss to your lips and pulls out. And you immediately feel his seed dripping from your hole.
I’m gonna have to wash these sheets…
Asmo stays on top of  you with a cute satisfied expression, his wings languidly flapping, and you immediately forget about the sheets.
You turn away to look at the ceiling and bring your hand to cover your eyes. It honestly wasn't fair. Even in his disheveled state he still looks good. Of course he did. It made you wonder why he was so particular about how his hair sat if he looked like this with it messy.
As if Asmo can read your mind, he laughs. You look at him through your fingers and he sticks his tongue out at you.
You sigh, breaking the comfortable silence when you become extremely aware of the situation.
"I never imagined we'd have sex for the first time in a cathedral. Totally not going to heaven haha..." you say.
"Don't worry, I'll be waiting in hell for you dear ❤"
Your eyes widen. You didn't know whether to be endeared or worried.
"Asmo it was a joke..."
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An unintelligible form was wrapped tightly around your form as you slept.
Its bright cloying eyes bored into me unblinking from the dark. Knowing and watching my presence. 
Whatever it was hadn't harmed you yet but who knew when that would change. But this evil would definitely not leave your side without a fight.
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Somehow Asmo had become endlessly touch starved. Always hanging off of you when you least expect it.
There were times you had to move him off so you could finish your work. During one of these times a cathedral patron saw you mid shimmy while trying to get Asmo's arms off your shoulder. You played it off the best you could but you're sure they were still weirded out.
And now was going to be another one of these moments apparently.
"If you're bored, leave," you say under your breath.
Asmo sighs. "But it's so boring without you in the room..."
You don't bother giving him a response. You didn't mean go back to your (shared?) room, but for him to go back home to his brothers. At least until you were done with this.
You'd promise to sit in for the sermon for the priest to be nice really. It wasn't going to be that long but apparently for Asmo it felt like a century.
Luckily you sat in the back away from the few people who showed up on this rainy, dreary day so you could deal with him.
He sighs and leans against you. But then you then feel a hand resting on your knee.
"Really?"
"Yes~"
You side eye him but at the same time you're interested in where this will go so you let him continue. You move your eyes back forward to the priest.
His hand trails up before he squeezes your inner thigh. His fingers then press intently between your legs to massage you through your clothing. And without thinking your legs spread to allow him better access.
Asmo's fangs peak past his smile.
You wring your hands in your lap trying to keep your breathing even. This shouldn't be enough to get you like this, but the situation already has your eyes fluttering.
"You're so naughty enjoying this as much as you are."
Asmo’s sickeningly sweet tone is in your ear and it was so so distracting. You draw in a shuddering breath in an attempt to keep your composure and whisper his name.
Suddenly the priest manages to lock eyes with you and just as quickly you look away.
Finally, you grab Asmo's hand. If you let him keep going you might really bring unwanted attention to yourself.
"Aww. I just started though."
You don't respond knowing the priest might still be looking your way. You feel your face heating from shame instead of arousal. What were you doing?
Asmo studies you for a moment before straightening up next to you. You look over due to the movement and see him staring directly at the priest. 
And you swear that he was staring right back.
But before you can be sure the priest is continuing his sermon as usual.
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“Asmodeus what's wrong?”
"Ah, I can tell you're serious cause you're using my full name..." There's a crease between his perfectly manicured brows as he plays with the end of his fringe.
Somehow things had gotten a bit more complicated between you two. You feared this after moving your relationship from purely platonic, but right now you feel there’s more to it than just generic relationship problems.
You stare silently waiting. 
"It's nothing MC! You're worrying too much."
"But--"
You hear something at the end of the hall and turn to see someone walking this way. You let your sentence die and quickly walk to your destination in silence, nervous that you might have been seen talking to "yourself".
By the time you calm down you realize Asmo wasn't following you like you expected.
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"Ah~!"
Asmo lays on his front pressing his ass out for you. 
"You're too loud…"
He tightens around your fingers. His face was completely flushed from being played with so long.
You sigh and rest your head against his lower back. Your fingers lazily move in and out of him.
"I w-wish I bought my toys. Then I could really make some noise in here." You feel him shudder as you place a kiss to the divot on his lower back.
"Absolutely not. God forbid someone finds them here." You knew sometimes the priest would come through here (according to Asmo). And with your luck it would definitely happen so your hands would have to do until you found a different place to stay.
You curl your fingers while using your other hand to stroke his cock.
Asmo whines and thrusts against your hand. "MC it's not enough, suck me please."
"Why should I? You've been a menace the last several days."
"Menace? That's a really mean way to describe me! And you haven't properly touched me this whole week! So it's deserved."
You internally roll your eyes and suddenly press your fingers into his prostate before removing them. He jolts and you move him onto his back.
With little time for him to catch his bearings, you take his cock in your mouth.
Asmo quickly collects himself, and you feel his fingers at the nape of your neck. His nails lightly dig into your skin.
He stares down at you, laid against your pillows. "That's more like it. I love it when you're like this."
'Like this' as in rough or as in between his legs? Maybe it was both or something else entirely. You weren't sure but it made you desperate to give him what he wanted regardless.
You gaze into half lidded honey eyes as you continue to bob up and down Asmo's length. As you increase your pace, drool trails down your chin from your efforts.
Luckily for you, Asmo's grasp tightens on your neck. A sign that he was close.
"I know you've barely worked for this hon but I'm so pent up I'll give you your reward--" His hips stutter as he holds your head in place and presses his cock to the back of your mouth. His high pitched moans fill the room as his sweet, warm cum coats your tongue.
Once he's quieted, you pull away and swallow. You rest the side of your face against his pelvis to catch your breath.
Several moments pass while Asmo traces patterns on your cheek. But you pat his thigh and move off him once you feel him getting hard again.
"Okay I gotta go."
You get out of the bed and straighten out your clothes. "The priest is probably waiting for me."
"What? Boo don't go! You can't finger me like that and go read the bible after."
You chuckle checking yourself in the mirror for any marks. "I'm not even reading the bible though? We just talk about random topics. Though he does sometimes bring it up."
Asmo deadpans at you through the mirror, definitely annoyed. But you honestly couldn't take him too seriously laid upon the bed naked like that.
"I know you don't have a great past with priests, but you should just ignore him Asmo. Like usual."
"He literally wants to fuck you."
"Huh?"
You turn your attention back to Asmo.
He sits up and pouts. "I can tell."
You shake your head a bit, still processing this sudden information. You weren’t exactly sure how Asmo could pinpoint these urges, but if he said it was true then you had no reason not to believe him. 
However.
Sex and priests weren't exactly two ideas you could easily put together. It felt very taboo. And sure the priest was handsome, but you never really thought about him that way.
Asmo waits for your response and it clicks for you.
“Are you jealous?"
The demon flinches but then grumbles, crossing his arms. "....Please just stay here with me. I don't want you to go."
"I see…Asmo I don't like him that way you know. But I'll stay." The priest wouldn't mind you not meeting today.
You place a hand on your hip. "Anyways I have you, why would I be looking at anyone else?"
Relief fills his face and he's back to his usual self. "Of course you don't need anyone else with me here!"
He wraps his arms around your waist to drag you back into bed. "Now let me take care of you darling~"
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thesunshineriptide · 2 years
Note
Hello fellow nerd, Og stories anon here,
Poor Riddle taking the story to heart. Rook being the only one not upset over the story. But i was thinking what better way for Idia to find out about our version of mythology than through the game Hades. Finds it a work plays it and starts asking Yuu questions about mythology
Book anon! Good to see you! Yeah so I bought the game and played a bit of it because I’ve heard good reviews and also because I honestly had no idea what was in this game/how it related to irl mythology so sorry for the delay but that’s why! Also Idia would love/hate this game
The Black Parade
Characters: Idia Shroud, Yuu, Ortho (mentioned)
CW// talk about death, kidnapping(?), Mythology, spoilers for the game Hades and potentially for twisted wonderland and Hercules by extent?
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Idia has been playing this game intently for two hours. His face hasn’t moved a muscle in several minutes as he beats at a brimstone, only to get stabbed in the back again and respawn back in the lobby.
He groans and leans back, throwing his hands up, “I don’t get it. There’s no winning this game! It’s rigged.”
Yuu held in a laugh, being his personal life audience.
Ortho chirps from his phone, “Big Brother, search results for Hades ending indicate-“
“No!” He yelps, turning off his phone, “No, thank you, Ortho. I want to get there myself.”
Yuu stopped trying to hide their amusement, giggling wholeheartedly at Idia.
He turned and pouted comically, “Why are you laughing? A-am I doing it wrong?” Fear managed to worm its way into his expression, eyes going wide, “Wh-what is it?”
Yuu shrugged, shaking their head, “It’s just kinda funny, that’s all! And-“ they stifled down a giggle, “You’re so worried about min-maxing that you’re missing the conversations with the side characters. How else will you activate god mode?”
He stared at them, “You’re joking, right?”
“No, God mode really is a mechanic of this game.” They hummed, leaning forward, “You gotta talk to Skelly to get it, though. You’re just running around fighting the monsters.”
Idia huffed and nudged them away from his laptop, “Yeah, yeah, okay smarty pants. Well what else do you know?”
They leaned on his shoulder, earning a bright pink blush as he stiffened under their touch. He leaned away, hands shaking.
“Well, Zagreus is pretty interesting. There’s some early mentions of him as the ‘highest god’, on equal footing as Gaia herself. Then some say he’s the Orphic Dionysus, or like, the OG version of him. Then later, some suggested that he might be the son of Hades and Persephone, or possibly just another version of Hades? It’s not super clear.” They watched as Idia finally went toward Hypnos, clicking on him for text.
“Okay,” he said, eyes flicking to Yuu for a second, “And what about this guy?”
“Hypnos? He’s not mentioned a lot,” they replied, “But he is mentioned a few times. Once, his son Morpheus saved him from the clutches of Zeus after he defied him. I think it had to do with the Trojan war. That’s where the story of Achilles comes from, by the way.”
Idia stopped what he was doing, staring at them with wide eyes, “Kay, I was joking before, but you actually know all this stuff? You might as well be a walkthrough for this stuff.”
Yuu smiled at him with pride, still watching his game, “This Hades must be pretty different from your world’s Hades, huh?”
Idia shrugged, “I dunno, ‘s not like he’s around to ask. But our Hades definitely wasn’t this…” He trailed off, mumbling something to himself before finishing with, “this much of a drag.”
Yuu smiled and nodded, “He’s honestly kinda different from the myths too. And I still haven’t seen Persephone, which makes me wonder.”
“Hmm? What about Perseph-who’s it?”
Yuu went wide eyed, “Wait, you don’t know about Persephone?”
Idia shook his head, and after a moment of silence turned from the screen to look at Yuu. They were staring at him in shock, and not really the good kind either.
“What’s so important about her?”
Yuu gulped and huffed out a sigh, “Well…” they racked their brain to think about how to explain it. “Okay, just pause the game, there’s some videos we need to watch.”
After watching all of these videos, Yuu was finally satisfied.
“So your guys’ Hades is just like, a chill dude with a dog? Sounds kinda lame.”
Outside, a moment after Idia’s statement s finished, rumbled thunder. Low and dark and long, as a sudden thunderstorm overtook the building. What’s worse? It caused a power bump that ended up crashing Idia’s game.
Yuu started to giggle again, “Sorry, Hades.” They said to the open air as Idia stared.
“He isn’t dead?!” He asked incredulously, “This world’s Hades is still alive?!”
“Why wouldn’t he be?” Yuu asked innocently.
“Hercules drowned him in the Styx! Everyone knows that!” Idia cried, pacing around the room before beginning to pray to Hades in apology because oh god oh fuck.
Yuu didn’t have the heart to tell him that they couldn’t be sure if the gods were alive or not, but they simply found the immediate thunderstorm funny and we’re cracking a joke. But who knows?
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wasyago · 8 months
Note
I would like to know what your boundaries are when it comes to interacting with you.
are you ok with requests or questions that don’t have to do with your works
are you ok with receiving headcanons that are not relevant to or may contradict with what you already have 
how many asks are you comfortable with receiving at one time.
Are there other things that you want us to know about fan interaction that I didn’t think to ask about
hmm oh man no one has really asked this before... i think as a disclaimer i need to say that im pretty bad at replying to asks, and half of them get ignored and deleted because i either forget about them and get too anxious to reply, or just don't know how to reply and never do.
i dont really do art requests, so if anyone sends one it will most likely be ignored, and if its not related to what im posting it'll be ignored 100%. there are some exceptions of it, but i still don't appreciate people asking me to draw anything for free. i suppose i don't mind questions about stuff outside of my work! no one really asks anything so i don't have a good example of it, plus it all really depends on the context, but if its good I'll reply and if its something i dont like I'll just ignore it. so, same as with everything i guess, so those are okay 👍
about headcanons hmmm... not sure? i dont know how to properly reply to them if its not something im into apart from "oh thats interesting" and "nice". like, i don't really wanna say stuff like "that cool but i personally think that you're wrong and here are the reasons--" and take someone's headcanon apart? it just feels rude? even if i do process the headcanon in my brain and there's a thought process of how it fits or doesn't fit into my beliefs, i don't really want to say it out lound to not upset anyone? but saying all this, it is still nice to see headcanons from different people and different perspectives, to have some variety of views and opinions and more diversity. because you never know what you might like. so, i think all headcanons are good, if i know how to reply to them i will, and if i don't then i won't!
how many asks am i comfortable receiving umm, well, i don't have an exact number picked hsghd. i guess as many as you want if you really have a lot to ask? i do appreciate it when people keep asks topical tho. so, if you're asking about one particular thing, it'd be nice if it was all in one ask that is easy to reply to. and if you're asking about multiple different things it's better to send multiple short asks instead of a big one. because its hard to reply to billion unrelated questions in one post. so for example your ask is good because all the questions are on the same subject, but if you asked me about the weather halfway through and then swithed to an ask about jrwi, that i wouldn't reply to, yknow?
for other things... i already said about the art requests, which are like the main thing i really don't like. i guess some things are better asked in dm's than asks, if that's anything? especially if it's something more personal to you or requires an actual dialog, but i can see why it might be easier to send an ask first and move to dm's later, so its not a problem. hmmmm and i suppose just the general stuff, like don't send suggestive asks if i don't know you or you weren't clearly prompted to, don't be mean to me or others, even as a joke it doesn't feel good, remember that im just a random guy on the internet, im not a robot i have feelings, so talk to me like a person, don't spam the same question if i didn't answer it, etc.
i think that's it? thank you for asking!!
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the-s1lly-corner · 4 months
Note
Thank you sm 😭 you actually did so good! It felt so nice to see my favorite creepy boy with those head canons 🥹🥹 but yes your writing is absolutely amazing!! I can’t wait to keep seeing everything you write!! And I apologize in advance if I ever get too excited and request too much 🥹
Perhaps creepy boy relationship head canons with a fem!reader who attempts to steal their clothes because they miss them?
- 🩶 Anon
Laughing Jack, Eyeless Jack, and Hoodie x fem!reader who steals their clothes because she misses them!
went ahead and threw in some other characters that i think would be silly with this request since you didnt specify :3! was gonna add slenderman but im on the fence about whether or not his clothes are a part of his body.. shrugs!! feels weird not doing masky since im doing hoodie too but shrugs again laughing jack included as you state hes your favorite :3 and WAAAAH im glad you enjoyed the previous request!! and no need to apologize; i get it !! sometimes i get excited too with requesting stuff !! ill let you know if youre being too intense (though i gotta admit i love writing creepypasta stuff, had a longish break between august and now where i hardly wrote for it and i missed writing for the fandom loads TToTT)
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EYELESS JACK:
honestly for a moment i was going to say his mask but i genuinely think that would be a deal breaker for him since it kind of acts as a comfort and security thing for him. even if hes not wearing the mask around you, dont take it. now his hoodie or one of his shirts... thats a different story.. would rather you ask him, though, but he does find it a little sweet that its because you missed him.. mind you he thinks so lowly of himself that he might even be a little shocked that you *miss him.. might let you keep on his shirts! might have to wash it though and patch up a hole or two but its nothing major.. though i dont think he would let you keep one of his hoodies, he has way less of those than he does shirts and he kind of needs them to keep warm.. also the hood comes in handy.. for things.. will expect you to return his belongings when asked, will not take any excuses since they are his belongings and he cant really waltz into a store and go shopping
LAUGHING JACK:
okay so this one is a little funny since i do personally hc that his clothes are just a part of his body for the sake of the post lets turn a blind eye.. theres so many options for you.. his shirt (sleeves! long and floppy!) or a spare sweater than hes claimed... hmm.. i think regardless of what piece of clothing you've taken from him he would be thrilled that you miss him THAT much! he rarely goes out, in fact i dont think its often that he goes far from where his music box is.. gotta stay in decent range, you know? but the point still stands... you miss him? i think that actually does wonders for his abandonment issues, since it reassures him that you care about him and think of him when hes away. probably scoops you up in his arms and hugs you, likely wrapping his arms around you like a snake. offers to never let you go, and kind of sticks true to that until you need to tend to your bodily needs
HOODIE:
another victim of jacket thief... a moment of silence for this man losing the thing that literally sparked his name.. okay jokes aside i dont think he would care that much, hes probably hoarded other clothing while staying with you; from hoodies to sweaters. so hes not going to sweat it if you briefly snatch something from him so long as you eventually give it back.. might sign some teasing words at you for missing him, might also prompt a session of you two cuddling.. good luck getting up because hes probably not going to let go.. why would he, you missed him! also might make him try to spend more time with you since every now and then he does have decently long periods of just. being gone doing whatever it is that he does.. probably leaves you his main hoodie and wears a different one when he knows hes about to dip for a while..
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christmas lighting (p.p. x reader)
just a lil drabble to get back into writing. this was inspired by @blooming-violets' fic/mini series that I've been obsessed with. check it out!
summary: not everyone can afford a rooftop date and first class seats to the Rockefeller Center tree lighting.
pairing: TASM!Peter Parker x gn!reader
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"you good?" Peter - in the spider man suit - asked you as you wrapped your arms and legs around him while holding a picnic basket he handed to you before leaving. you nodded your affirmation. "okay, let's go!"
he started swinging and your arms tightened around his neck as you tried to get into the rhythm of his movements. no matter how many times he brought you along for his swinging, it doesn't get any easier.
you blinked open one eye, taking in New York City in its winter glory. the cold evening made up for a perfect flurry of white and colors, of cheerful music and desperate crowds.
finally, Peter landed near your destination; the Rockefeller Center. he gingerly put you down as you unfurled the scarf and mask from around your face - not intent on catching any cold, thank you very much.
Peter spread the bedsheet and blankets near the edge of the rooftop so the two of you could watch the lighting. he spread the various snacks and drinks and finally, put away his mask, patting the space next to him in a request for you to join him.
you crawled underneath the blanket he had spread for you and snuggled into him.
"how long?" you asked, as you poured him some hot cocoa you had prepared before you left.
"should be a few minutes," he glanced at his watch. "thank you for agreeing to watch this with me. I know how much you hate sitting outside in the cold."
"is that why you packed a bag full of blankets?" his laugh was the only response. "and don't be silly, I didn't say yes to spending time with you, I just wanna see the damn tree lit up."
"of course, I might as well disappear and you'd be okay with it." he pretends to stand up and, even though you know it's a joke, you pull him back in. "oof- why did you stop me? you're sending mixed signals here, baby."
"I just want the body heat." you mumbled, opening a bag of chips between the two of you.
"mm hmm," was his last response before you saw the lights dim. with baited breaths that felt shared with the entire city, you saw as the ornaments and decorations lit up piece by piece, glowing the plaza with its shine. it was breathtaking, the way the space seemed to be filled with its own glow.
"oh my god," you whispered. "this is beautiful."
"yeah? you're welcome." he said, bringing you closer, if that was possible.
you chuckled, kissing his cheek. "thanks, Peter."
can you tell I've never actually seen the lighting and don't know wtf happens in it? anyways, hope you liked it! thank you so much for reading :)
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prestonmonterey · 2 months
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heheh it's that long or short anon message of what i think about you!!!!!!!!!!!
hmmmm okay so i do not know how close we are
i don't usually consider people my friend unless they consider me their friend first, out of like politeness, but i wanna be friends!!! we might already be friends and i don't know i think this is because of autism maybe or maybe anxiety idk idk
but anyways i think you are really interesting i do not want to overstep or be creepy or weird so its not at all like that but you are very interesting to me!!!! the version of you I my head is like there's two of them. theres.. preston.. adamandi and then the other version of you in my head you have black hair thats sort of like beatrix's if it was straight? and you're also tall to me
the way your brain works about certain things (ex: whenever we talk about the universe and whatnot :3) makes me stim, uuhm i think you're really cool and i like asking you questions and i like talking to you
we're literally vincent and preston from adamandi!!!! literally us!!!! therefore we don't like eachother /j /j
in my head it's like.. silly joking i don't actually dislike you not at all you're like the coolest ever and we barely really know eachother
I WANNA HEAR ABOUR YOUR TTS THOUGHTS TOO i love reading your posts about it heheh
if you were an animal i think you'd be some sort of horse or a pony. or maybe a bird or a lizard
if you were a planet in our solar system you'd be mercury, since it's the closest to the sun and the smallest planet (in our solar system, again)
aaand if you were a color you'd be blue.... if you were a star you'd be a red dwarf star... and you're like the random, decomposed animal bones you find in the woods on accident to me
i would love 2 know how your brain works but also im like that with everyone i wanna just crawl inside their minds and pull out the bad and the good i think i am autistic
if you were a pattern you'd be stripes. not zebra stripes or anything just plain block stripes! no specific colors. if you were a year you'd be 1835
i like associating people with things if you can't tell /silly (i ran out of explanations so I'm just telling you what you are to me)
if you were a rock you'd be limestone
if you were a household appliance you'd be that one fork in the kitchen that nobody uses to actually eat with, but the design on the handle is pretty !!!! not in a mean way that sounds rlly mean sorry
if you were a flower you'd be a daffodil; symbolizing forgiveness, unrequited love, rebirth, and eternal life. i think. i'm not headcanoning you to have unrequited love im just saying the meanings i remember off the top of my head. also it's yellow!
uummmmm yeah you reblogged this yesterday i think and i said i would so. here u go its not really that long but im also procrastinating sleep so. tired!
yayayay :D this is so sweet im actually giggling and kicking my feet rn /gen /p
i also wanna be friends!! youre v cool :3
i also totally get the like 2 versions thing i have the same thing for my online friends :D heehee im kinda tall for my age i think? like 5'5'' i really really wish i had curly hair :((( (my dad had kinda curly hair but asian genes prevailed so i have pretty thick, mostly straight hair) and i have an undercut :\ (not sure how i feel about my haircut rn. it looks kinda awful bc i have a scar on the back of my head where hair doesnt grow. bc scar tissue)
hmm for me rn you just look like vincent. but like. maybe a bit shorter idk
i also love hearing about your thoughts theyre so cool!!!
i think if you were an animal youd be maybe a mouse or raccoon?
if you were a planet i think saturn, not sure why
if you were a color i think youd be a warm, dark orange, like pumpkin pie or autumn leaves. idk you kinda remind me of fall i think
if you were an object youd be an old compass that someone found in their attic that was like passed down from their great grandparent or something
if you were a pattern you'd be honeycomb or tartan. colors would be sunflower yellow, brown and moss green
if you were a year youd be 2000 i think. last time all humans were on earth. not sure why but that fact reminds me of you
if you were a rock youd be jasper
if you were silverware youd be a teaspoon with a really long handle, if you were a general household thingy youd be those door handle/lever things with a spiraly end
idk anything about flower meanings TwT but i think youd be a black eyed susan or forget me not
:DDD
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shivunin · 1 year
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10 for the hurt/comfort prompt 💖
10. "It's okay to cry." (I did this for Fenris and Hawke c:) Thank you for the prompt!
(Maria Hawke/Fenris | 1,133 Words | Hurt/Comfort | CW: References to broken bones and blood)
Laugh or Cry
The first time she said it, Fenris had just taken a crushing blow to his leg on the Wounded Coast. The words had, he thought, been intended to take his mind off the pain while she healed him—though as far as he could tell, Hawke had never met a bad joke she didn’t love. 
So, while she watched the bones of his leg knit themselves back together, Hawke looked sidelong at him and said it:
“It’s alright to cry, you know.”
“What?” Fenris asked through clenched teeth. 
“It’s alright,” she said, “I wouldn’t judge you. Goodness knows I cry over the silliest things all the time. I won’t tell the others, either. Healer’s word.”
“Right,” Fenris replied doubtfully, and she winked at him. 
“Your bone density is top notch, you know. I’m sure it all fit together quite nicely before the incident with the warhammer.”
There was a horrible crack from the vicinity of his leg and Fenris gritted his teeth for the wave of pain that was sure to follow—only nothing did. Hawke raised a hand and motes of pale blue spun from it, enveloping the break. 
“You’ll be right as rain soon enough,” she said, which might have been reassuring, except she kept talking, “I used to do this for the horses in town, you know. Creatures’ll panic themselves into a heart attack if you aren’t careful.”
“Am I to believe,” Fenris said, passing a hand over his forehead to swipe away the sweat before it could drip into his eyes, “That your primary means of practice was on farm animals?”
“Hmm? Oh, no,” Hawke said, and squinted at something on his leg. 
When he moved to sit up, she set her hand on his shoulder and gently pushed him back. 
“Nothing you’ll want to see,” she said, “You know I was a smuggler for a year, yes? Far more broken bones there than back home. I only meant that horse bones are much more delicate than yours and I had them up and walking again. I’ve healed other bones, too, of course, and all manner of hurts.”
“Of course,” he muttered, and rubbed the shoulder she’d touched to dispel the sensation of her hand against the narrow strip of his bare skin. 
But of course that wasn’t the only time; if there was something Hawke loved, it was repeating a foolish joke. So several years later, during an ill-advised visit to some lowbrow theater in Lowtown, she leaned over the armrest between them and repeated it. 
“It’s okay to cry, you know,” she whispered directly into his ear. Fenris resisted the urge to lean into the words and shook his head, as if unaffected by it all. 
In truth, the actress wailing over her dead lover’s body onstage was little more than background noise. If asked, Fenris likely couldn’t have explained what the play was even about. He’d been distracted for the duration, because for some reason Hawke had chosen to come to this event in a dress Isabela had chosen for her—which meant it draped low in the front and exposed both of her shoulders to the smoky air of the theater. 
Hawke’s arms, he had realized when he’d arrived late to their group’s seats, were covered in freckles. 
He couldn’t explain why the sight of them had struck him most of all.
“I saved you the aisle seat,” she’d whispered as the lights went down, and Fenris hadn’t even thanked her. He’d just sat there, stiff as a statue, and tried very successfully not to actually turn his head and stare at her. 
His self control was better than that. 
But not when she leaned over like that to whisper in his ear and the scent of her wrapped around him like—like it had a mind of its own. So:
“It’s okay to cry, you know,” she whispered as the play reached its climax, “I won’t tell anyone.”
“Hawke,” he managed, his voice thankfully chiding instead of—of—anything else.
She laughed slightly and angled herself closer so he could hear her over the screech of violins. Against his will, his eyes dropped to her bodice. 
Fenedhis, he could see all the way past her cleavage to the swell of her stomach beneath. 
Fenris squeezed his eyes shut. 
“I know,” she said into his ear, “It’s all very touching. I’m genuinely shocked I haven’t heard you laughing at the thing since that awful bit where they drank out of the boot. Shameless.”
“Shameless,” he repeated, his voice rough even to his own ears, “I couldn’t agree more.”
And then—things changed. Fenris grew closer to her, then too close, botched things horribly, and for a long time kept a very, very careful distance between them.
But Hawke, as they all knew well, could never abandon a lost cause. 
So: here they were, later still, fighting side by side on the Wounded Coast again. Lovers, now, and not reluctant allies; and when she fell at his side in battle it hurt far more than a broken leg. 
“I will not allow it,” he growled, and raised the blade she’d given him for a blow that would have felled a dragon. 
When their foes had fallen and the others began to pick through their pockets, Fenris darted back to her side and tucked his hand beneath her neck.
“Hawke,” he said roughly, smoothing her curls away from her forehead. 
Blood had stuck them to her skin; it would be a task to get it all out later. He knew now exactly how much of a task because lately he was the one to rinse it out, to comb out anything still tangled in the strands, to ensure that she went to bed clean and safe and well. 
Maria was not even unconscious; just dazed, blinking up at the dull sky. He didn’t like the way her eyes looked, the unfocused way they wandered past his face to the clouds. After a moment, she took a breath and parted her lips. 
“Fenris?” she said. 
He frowned and leaned closer. Was there something more wrong than he’d thought? Did she need—
“It’s okay to cry, you know,” she said, her voice piteous, her eyes round and entreating, “I won’t tell anyone if you do.”
“Hawke,” he said roughly, and dipped his head to kiss her forehead over and over, speaking in between each touch, “You are an utter fool.”
“No,” she said. 
Fenris didn’t much care that he was getting her blood on his mouth—only that she was well enough to make horrible jokes.
“I’m your fool,” she finished, and he huffed. 
“As you say,” he murmured, and sat back to offer her another vial, “Drink this and stop your jokes.”
“Never,” she said with a smile, and drank it down. 
And Fenris was glad.
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Hello! I love your blog and I was just wondering if you had any LGBT+ headcanons for Pride Month?
Happy Pride 🌈
Hmm, let me tackle human characters first.
Earl of Norramby is gay. Obviously.
Nancy is bi and demi.
Also... in classic "at first I was joking, but now I really like it" fashion… I HC the first Fat Controller as trans.
No one ever named their child Topham Hatt OK????
But a sufficiently ballsy dude might choose it if they were forming a new legal identity. And we know Hatt I was ballsy indeed. He stole everything that his neighbors didn't have nailed down and some things they did. He bricked up a gauntletted line even though it shut down his railway. He told the LMS to pound sand. He drained Tidmouth despite the fishermen wanting his head on a platter. You'd have to be a VERY strong personality to be such a successful, powerful transman in the early 1900s but you'd have to be a strong personality to be him anyway???? I'm serious. An ADHD transman with zero chill who literally made his own world. I'm tempted to write a fic of the Young Topham days, who knows. Those old British schoolgirls could be tough birds and I love reading their bits whenever they break through conventional history. I like to think the first Lady Hatt used to be a roommate of him at the girls' school they attended. Jane probably helped him the night he ran away to get a job at the GWR shops. And then maybe she didn't see him again until after he transitioned and became successful and he wooed her for a little while before the reveal that it was her old friend, Euphemia or whoever.
And Jane was soooo pissed off. (Luckily she was also in love.)
I also absolutely adore the idea of an FC5 (not sure Richard will ever get a chance to be FC4, at this rate) who is a woman. But butch. Everyone calls her "sir" but she is also she.
Okay, vehicles! This is where I've hesitated, unsure if I can make myself clear.
I don't particularly vibe with putting human gender and sexual labels on them.
This is not because I want to erase or minimize the diversity of human gender and sexuality.
It's because they are not human.
I mean, okay, I do have my old 'conversion AU,' so I do mentally play around with them as human every so often—to catch most readers up, my notion was that sometime within the 2020s-2040s a large portion of our cast is turned into humans as a fancy alternative to maintaining or retiring them as engines. But even in this AU the whole point is that they adjust to being human but are still rather 'alien', so, like many fans, I kinda take it that they are pansexual by default. There are some more specific things, though (incomplete because, again, I don't think of my human AU very often, so I still have a lot of question marks):
Thomas, I think, would be aromantic
Bertie -> also aro
Edward -> intersex (specifically XX male)
Henry -> gay gay homosexual gay
Gordon -> some sort of greyscale but also he has no clue about this and pursues (straight) dating because it's the 'normal' thing to do (good luck, dude)
James -> will figure out his human gender identity only if given another hundred years to experiment
Percy -> fine with identifying as male but also quite gnc
Toby -> straight and demisexual
Duck -> agender
Stepney -> nonbinary
Donald -> asexual spectrum (unlike Gordon he does know this about himself)
Emily -> lesbian lesbian homosexual lesbian
Philip -> multigender
Harold -> pan. i know i said pan is kind of the default for ex-vehicles but Harold merits a special mention for being, uhh. how shall we say. very sex-positive. a big gallant flirt.
But, again, I'm not too interested in forcing myself to figure out everyone's full identity profile in my human AU because I find the concept of 'gender' and 'sexuality' in them as trains to be far more interesting.
From a creative standpoint, it's actually a lot of fun to play them 'straight' but to use their experiences to explore the whole concept of gender, to push the idea of sexuality to its limits, and also to play around with metaphors for human identities...
Again I know it looks like LGBT erasure but, well. It feels very queer to me.
Here's some of how I see engine gender history. The allegory to real-life stuff is not intentional; it just sort of naturally sprung up when I played around:
At the period (RWS) canon begins, the normal, "natural" order of things is for an engine to be romantically bonded with their coaches.
This very much has a similar status to human heterosexual marriage. It appears to have the seal of tradition. It's acceptable. It's expected. In general (subject to the approval of your manager) it's allowed. (Yes, there is the obvious difference that the union is between one engine and several coaches but it was rare that the convention was for you to exclusively commit to one among the rest. Basically... harem culture I guess.)
If you were built to privilege—if you actually had some coaches you regularly handled, and you did feel this sort of special bond with them—then you might fail to have any occasion to start asking some otherwise very... obvious questions.
Such as:
What if you and your coaches despise each other?
What if you develop particular feelings about just one or two of 'your' coaches, which are increasingly impossible to hide? Like... do you have to?
What if you feel absolutely neutral about your coaches, but your firebox starts to burn with the heat of a thousand suns when you catch sight of that smart tank engine runabout at the end of the line?
What if your line is so big and busy that you don't have coaches that you pull 'regularly'?
What if your railway grows so big that you hardly see any coaches consistently?
What if you are strictly a goods engine and you've only ever exchanged five words in your life with any coach? Okay, so you're just... condemned through no choice of your own to solitude and abstinence, with no hope of happiness? Sounds like horseshit, doesn't it?...
... Say, what's this whisper you hear from the old wheels that fifty years ago the managers didn't approve of these kinds of relationships? That Back In the Day this sort of romantic attachment that is now considered 'the norm' was actually considered scandalous and beyond the pale? What?
'Fifty years' is just an average; different regions and railways progressed at different rates. But, in general, the earliest period of rail history saw an insistence that Useful Engines don't have any such attachments at all. For all its pomp and status, the model of 'passenger engine and coaches' was itself considered quite unnatural before it won acceptance.
But for a good period circa 1900 it was The Thing That Was Done. It became the norm by which rail romances are still rather judged. And it's telling: although humans tended to assign engines human gender (at first usually female; as the idea of a romantic bond between engine and carriages became normalized, humans started to see their engines as male, in a reflection of human marriage), probably the best analogue for vehicular gender remains type. Powered vehicles are one gender; unpowered stock is another. There are also gradiations within those two poles, of course.
And, when freed from human surveillance and control, vehicle sexuality tends to express its preferences in that way. So, to take engines: They very rarely give a rat's ass as to whether a potential mate is male, female, nonbinary, whatever. They recognize the distinctions among themselves but they are seldom relevant in matters of attraction ever, really. Instead, an engine might have an attraction to rolling stock or other engines (or of course both! but 'both' is definitely not a given). Then, within those categories, they are very likely to instinctively be attracted to a subcategory pool based on vehicle type.
I feel like I should give examples but I actually feel more comfortable using my OCs to illustrate:
Joscelyn — a female engine who is attracted to coaches exclusively (she is also absolutely terrible at forming any such connections so she is effectively maidenless)
Skimmer — a male engine who is attracted to both coaches and other engines. This does saddle him with the stereotype of being kind of slutty. (I mean he is kind of slutty but he is judged as such based on his 'sexuality' rather than his actual history.)
Poppet — at the risk of spoilers... she is attracted exclusively to trucks and lorries (which, in her era and culture, is definitely one of the more transgressive "sexualities" for an engine!)
Lizbet (she was formerly Lillibet but I didn't realise at the time how that nickname is not quite so rare and quirky for Brits as it is for us) — attracted to other engines exclusively (which—of course!—means m, f, and nb engines; no meaningful difference from an engine PoV). She is old enough that this 'inversion' caused her significant trouble with her humans back in her day. (She never exactly repented, albeit she did act circumspectly to preserve her friendships with the engines she lived with.)
Araby — male engine who has a hopeless thing for ships. When he worked a landlocked railway this didn't matter. When he was sent to Sodor for a while... oof! did our boy have an awakening...
Columbine (this is a real-life engine, of course) — the equivalent of human 'pansexuality'; she is potentially attracted to anything with wheels
Coppernob (same; sue me) — the loco equivalent of 'asexual'. He does know how to play the role of gallant beau to lovely coaches (which he had to learn late—it wasn't tolerated on the F.R. during his first couple of decades) but I reckon he just thought everyone played it as a role and will be endlessly baffled as engines over the years assert their rights to form bonds with each other because why do you all care about this so much? it was just a bit we had to do for a while for respectability... innit?
Because a vehicle's build is essentially their "gender," that means that I have long kind of viewed rebuilds as having strong metaphorical ties to gender reassignment!
Absolutely horrifying when imposed upon you against your will, of course.
But I imagine there are lots of cases where it wasn't. You can usually tell by whether or not the engine (or whatever) thrived after the rebuild. While I consider 'human AU' Henry to be cis, I read 'engine' Henry's history as very much a trans allegory: he was originally made wrong. I mean his builder canonically had no idea what he was doing! The form he got later at Crewe at last made him into himself. There are plenty of real-life cases that I like to see as similar in an RWS universe. The SECR 'Rivers' had endless problems and angst in their original form; being converted into tender engines felt right for them. Some of them had been consciously eating their heart out wanting such an impossible change for years. The 'Queen Mary' type brakevans I consider to be similar, or at least some of them: unhappy as locomotives, never really feeling right as an engine, perhaps even pestering the engineers for ages to make them into brakevans...
Of course, I don't consider all such transitions to be successful. Some engines, like poor No. 62768 of the LNER., found themselves much unhappier after their rebuild (he was just chosen at random when he was in the shop for repairs, it's not like he wanted it!) Then there are situations like the GWR autotanks who were given panelling to disguise their locomotive nature so they could pass as coaches. Do I read this as cross-dressing, or a sort of cosmetic transition? You bet I do! 😇
Can an engine be assigned a human gender but later determine that it was given to them in error? I mean, it's possible and it happens that engines choose a new human gender but it's quite rare, rarer by far than in humans. They are much more preoccupied with the engine dimensions of their identity. What is much more common is actually what I suppose we'd consider genderfluid or multigender: Various owners (or, if they are unnamed, drivers) over the course of their career might assign them different genders and in virtually all cases the engine (to forgive the pun) rolls with it, untroubled by being a 'he' one decade, a 'she' the next, and perhaps later again being a 'he' even while he answers to the name Lady Eleanor or whatever. To them human gender is very arbitrary and they tend to be perfectly content to just go with it. Often they wish to choose their own name, but even very early in their lives their builders or owners have already gendered them and they seldom care to change that because, again. That bit is all very arbitrary and meaningless to them. The humans seldom treat their engines differently no matter what gender is assigned and therefore the engine sees little distinction.
Soooo, yeah. As for some of our characters, well... this is also very unformed and embryonic still, but...
I do think a lot of our classic lads would have thought they had No Romantic Feelings Whatsoever. Some genuinely were! Neville and Donald spring to mind (Donald is also Duck’s queerplatonic partner, natch.) But for most of them, this was just because they didn't care for coaches, nor indeed other engines of their own type.
However, I reckon as the decades went on their complacency was shattered. (I call it complacency not because acephobia isn't a thing but because for engines in this universe 'asexual' would be considered a positive trait. Useful Engines Don't and all that. So there is some privilege there.) For instance, Thomas may find that he is attracted to non-rail vehicles? And Percy definitely has a thing for flying vehicles, poor chap... (Percy also has long been comfortably attracted to engines, coaches, and ships too. But whirlybirds, man. Kinda ruined/enhanced his life.) James and Gordon found that they weren't "above" such ridiculous things as "playing at" love; they were just diesel-sexual. Henry liked other engines for a long time, so he is open to steam and diesel; he did however get knocked through a loop of his own within this century when he encountered his first electric car and was absolutely useless for the two hours afterwards...
Anyway. God it's late and I hope this makes sense. In any case I don't see the engines as 'gay' or 'straight' or whatever but I do think they have as much gender and sexuality diversity as we humans do; in fact they probably have a good deal more! I also think that they have had a long struggle for most of these identities to be accepted. So they get it. And, most of all, engines would absolutely not understand homophobia at all. Human gender is such an arbitrary thing! Why anyone would get so hung up on policing something like that is baffling to them. They are keen to be of service to all humans, they really love seeing all humans happy, and apart from that they don't have any opinions on humans' peculiar romantic or sexual lives (they barely understand what human sex is!)
Now, how humans board trains or polish an engine or mend their fences or behave in any way even remotely connected to the running of their railway or yard... well, that they have opinions on. Strong opinions. That they will argue with you about. That matters. ;)
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