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#i learned some C++ in school but could not keep up with the class
mothkingeloth · 4 months
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i want to actually start making games, which means programming, so im teaching myself C#. im not sure if i want to use unity because of the news of their downloads and screwing devs over, so im looking at Godot and luckily it has C# support. but i probably should learn Godot's own language too... and maybe .NET...
either way, there's no downside in learning something new and maybe just maybe if i get comfy and confident in what im doing i can actually be hireable and put my degree to use oTL
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nazumichi · 2 years
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michiru wins prize for “weirdest and longest list of adults that pick her up after school” (I did not win a prize for catchy names btw)
#raii talks a lot#i got upset at myself for a bit because I was like “oh yeah shirou and marie. that’s it” no it’s not !!! she’s got a lot here#well like obvi I think people are. very intimidated by shirou I mean. daily occurrence ishim kicking ass and taking name in public it’s very#“oh fuck I took a paper clip today without asking he’s gonna get me” - grown teacher. he doesn’t get anyone although I do think he was prett#close at one point probably did some convincing to get a dress code exception bc michiru wasn’t comfortable with skirts and flats#like “did the guy who saved the city last month just pick up my student” and also “….that’s marie itami…”#I imagine marie didn’t want to be caught dead at a school bc cool points or whateverbut. maybe michiru mutters something later abt idk kids#being mean as kids are and marie was like “do these kids have names. just asking btw. can you show them to me.”#for financial reasons or something. michiru stands there behind marie who’s gonna yell at an old guy for being a pushover like “this is the#best day of my life.”#THE IMAGE THAT IS MICHIRU LOOKING UP AT THE SKY AFTER SCHOOL AND TEACHERS LIKE “where’s her ride” AND THIS FUCKING ALBATROSS#pingua just picks her up. like no literally he picks her up and puts her on his back andflies off with a “good evening to you nice people!!”#she could fly herself but she’s got bags and also this is funnier to her#shirou and marie on an important mission pingua out of town and the mayor of animacity pulls up like “that one’s mine” and everyone loses#their goddamn MIND. like that’s the whole mayor. that’s the kid with the weird arms. that’s the student who keeps getting c’s. she’s taking#the junior idol with her what’s happening#rare normal days when Jem or melissa pick her up#sorry for thinking abt michiru picking up school again in anima city and having some little normalcy and getting to learn again#and play on school team and hang out with nazuna and nina after classes and getting detentions and being a kid. as if it’s my fault
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copperbadge · 1 year
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Before I left for vacation I did my usual “tidy for the petsitter” routine, and there was some paperwork that I thought should probably get put away, so I stashed it in a storage bin I had out. Because I know me, I put a note in my to-do list for when I got back that said “There’s important stuff in the bin, remember to go get it.”
So I did, but I thought I should deal with the other stuff in the bin too, and I’ve just been popping the lid and dealing with one or two things every time I go past it. Most of it is paperwork, and I’ve just hit some records from high school that my mother recently gave to me without either of us going through them.
There’s a bunch of report cards, which are heartbreaking and hilarious. I graduated a semester early and my last semester was cleanup -- two classes to complete graduation requirements and one to maintain status as a “full time” student. Two were math-based which I was notoriously bad at, and sure enough at the midterm I was getting a D+ in one and a C- in the other. We’d just begun digital grade recording, so the teachers would keep their grades in a paper book and then log into an extremely basic database and enter the grades, which would spit out on our printed report cards. They could put in a grade plus three “codes” which would print next to our grades as status updates, stuff like “disruptive in class” or similar. 
My English course, in which I was getting an A, said “Exceeding expectations” which was kind of Mr. G because I remember him and his expectations were exceptionally high for me. 
The other two have the same catechism: Missing Assignments, Does Not Pay Attention In Class, and of course...Achievement Not Up To Ability. Guess now we know why. 
Reading through these old cards with the cushion of time, it’s fascinating to see my young brain at work. My math and (math-based) science grades tank so hard, at the same time I was getting As or Bs everywhere else -- history, civics, econ, english, spanish. There are documented questions about whether I’m going to pass enough math to graduate high school, dated the same semester as my perfect Verbal SAT score and my fives in AP Comp and Lit. The first semester after I was put into the Gifted program, I failed Remedial Algebra.  
I did say at the time, to my mother and my teachers, there’s something wrong here. My mother, in her defense, had her hands full with my brother; my teachers just didn’t know what to do with me. The school district was broke and didn’t have disability testing available. By the time I got to college I’d simply internalized the idea that I was a neurotypical kid who got stubborn when asked to do something I found pointless and boring, and that was a personality flaw to be corrected, not a symptom of something bigger. My therapist for my last few years of high school agreed, and thought I should probably learn more anger management techniques. Although it turns out you can’t breathing-exercise your way out of undiagnosed ADHD. 
In any case, here in 2023, there’s no solution or tidy resolution or anything to be done about it, it just is what it is: a sheaf of paper from the late 90s about a smart fuckup who could have used a hand. I’m here now, alive and employed and medicated and a homeowner, so it’s a bunch of numbers that don’t mean anything. I’ll scan them into my digital archive, then toss the paper and never look at the archive again, probably. 
Achievement not up to ability. Boy, no kidding. 
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bro-atz · 8 months
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principia
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in which: you're struggling with a specific class that's required for your major; but, luckily, your professor, professor jeong, has no problem helping you out outside of class
pair: professor!yunho/afab!reader
word count: 6k
content: smut, teacher x student relationship (college level, so it's completely legal mind you), late night study sessions, vaginal sex, soft and sensual, completely consensual!
author's note: i was definitely thinking about jung kyungho in crash course in romance while i was writing this... but it's definitely not like crash course in romance that i can say for certain
apply for the permanent taglist here! professor!series: yunho pt. 1, yunho pt. 2, san pt. 1, san pt. 2, yeosang, seonghwa
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You seriously wondered why you decided to pursue a career in STEM. You remembered liking physics back in high school, but now learning at a higher institution, you feared that you made a huge mistake. Then, you took one look at your teacher, and all of that concern immediately disappeared.
The thing with this class was that every student in your major was required to take it, and truth be told, you took the class because it fit well with your schedule. You had no idea who the professor was before joining the class, and you only found out from your friends after you registered that you actually got incredibly lucky securing a seat in his class because his classes were always the first to fill up.
His name was Jeong Yunho— Professor Jeong. He was probably one of the smartest men you were ever going to meet. He was super successful in the world of physics and was always in the news for some reason or the other. He had a huge fanbase inside and outside of your college for a multitude of reasons, one of them being because of his rakishly good looks. His classes were always filled to the brim with female students, and you just so happened to be one of them. You were constantly surrounded by other female students in that class who would always actively participate in the lectures because they wanted so desperately for Professor Jeong to notice them. You, on the other hand, always kept quiet in that class and did your best to pay attention to the material because the class material was just too fucking hard for you.
You spent a lot of your free time studying in the library to the point where your roommate worried about whether or not you were even going to come home to eat and sleep properly. You wouldn’t have cared so much about this class if it wasn’t required for you to get your degree, so you were ultra stressed about doing well in the class. You did reason with yourself that if you failed the class, then you could retake it with Professor Jeong again and get to appreciate his beauty all over again, but you were on a tight schedule, and if you fucked up this class, then you would fuck up the rest of your schedule to graduate.
“Y/N, you can study at home…” you roommate called you, worried about your late night whereabouts.
“I know, but I definitely won’t focus. This class is just insanely hard, I need to focus as much as I can.”
“It’s literally Friday night. Come home, please!”
“Let me finish the homework at least. I’ll be back soon, I promise,” you said, knowing that your promise was definitely a lie.
You heard your roommate sigh before hanging up on you. Immediately, you set your phone across the table to keep you from going on your phone every two seconds. You had your textbook open in front of you, and after about three lines, all the words and numbers started to blur together. You let out a deep sigh and buried your face in your textbook. It was hopeless. Either you had to pray for a miracle or retake the class the next semester.
Then, the miracle happened. Professor Jeong was in the library with a huge stack of papers that needed to be graded. He was looking for a place to sit and get this work done, but every single table was occupied. He walked past your table, only to backtrack. He barely saw any of the content in the textbook, but he immediately knew that you were studying for his class because he instantly recognized one of the problems on the page.
“May I sit here?” you heard your professor ask quietly.
You looked up and felt your face get warm quickly. You had never seen Professor Jeong from so close before. You nodded and immediately brought your eyes back to your textbook, suddenly feeling self conscious that you were doing his work right in front of him. Professor Jeong took a seat across from you and spread out his papers, only to keep glancing at you— he not only recognized the textbook, but he also recognized you.
“Are you in my class?” Professor Jeong whispered to you.
You nodded.
“Oh, so you’re working on the assignment from class then… It’s a Friday night! You should be enjoying your weekend.”
“Ha, yeah right,” you instinctively responded sarcastically, only to realize who you were talking to. “Sorry, professor… I meant, like, I can’t do that when I barely understand anything.”
He laughed. “You can call me Yunho. Professor is so stifling.”
“Al-alright, Yunho…” you said, his name feeling foreign on your tongue.
“What’s so hard to understand?”
“Um, everything. I thought I had a good grasp on the subject until the first week of classes. Now, I feel like I know nothing…”
“What’s your name, again?”
“Y/N.”
“Y/N… Oh! I remember your last test. I was wondering what happened there…” Yunho recollected.
“Yeah, I did not do well at all…”
“No, you were doing well, but then didn’t finish the problems correctly. If anything, I think you just got way into your own head. You have a good understanding of the fundamentals, which is always a great starting point.”
The flattery was nice, but that still didn’t change how miserable you felt about your knowledge on the subject. You graciously accepted Yunho’s praise, but your kept your head down knowing that despite the praise, you were still struggling to grasp the current unit. Yunho noticed your reaction, to which he wanted to do something to change that because he did not like the fact that you looked absolutely miserable because of him. He placed a light hand on your textbook and said, “Hey, if you would like, I could tutor you every now and then.”
“Really? I mean, are you sure?”
“Of course. It’s my job as an educator, isn’t it? I want to see you do well in my class.”
You stared at the God-sent figure before you. Sure, it was his class you were studying for, but you were grateful for the help regardless. You nodded your head slightly, a small smile settling on Yunho’s face. He set aside his own materials and gestured to ask if he could sit in the seat next to you. You nodded, and Yunho moved from his seat to the one next to you. He pulled the textbook towards himself and glanced at the page briefly before immediately pointing at the problem you were stuck on.
“This one is tough,” he started. “Essentially, what you want to do is…”
Yunho explained the problem to you in depth, and you took every single note. You didn’t understand why you couldn’t get the information in class— Yunho was an excellent teacher, and you always paid attention in class, but learning from him one on one was so much more beneficial for you.
The two of you left the library at the same time that night. Yunho got absolutely no work done, but you ended up finishing all of the homework that was due for his class. You both stood outside of the library and talked, giving you the chance to thank him.
“Thank you so much, Professor— I mean… Yunho…” saying his name out loud was still incredibly foreign to you.
“You’re welcome, Y/N. Now, enjoy your weekend. I’ll see you in class next week.”
Yunho waved and took off. You departed as well, heading in the opposite direction of him. You felt a lot better about the class now, and you were starting to feel hopeful that you would, in fact, be able to graduate on time.
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The class was still incredibly hard. You found yourself cooped up in the library every single Friday trying to learn, and every single Friday, Yunho would sit with you and help you with the lessons and homework. It was a ritual that would begin with you stressing in the library and end with you and Yunho going your separate directions at the end of the night.
One day, while you were sitting in class waiting for the professor to show up, you were sitting next to a bunch of girls talking about him.
“I want to take a bite out of his ass,” one girl said, immediately sending you into whiplash to see who on Earth was talking about the educator in that way.
“Tell me about it. Whenever he wears those tight pants of his, I feel like combusting,” another girl said.
“Did you guys see what that one girl wrote on the fan club forum?” the girl who wanted to take a bite out of Yunho’s ass pulled out her phone and showed the girls.
You craned your neck to see— what the fuck did they mean by fan club forum? Apparently, there was a forum on the school network dedicated to Professor Jeong Yunho, and on the forum was a post that one of the girls read out loud.
“I would do anything for Professor Jeong to step on me with his long legs and pants that make his booty look so nice… When he stands and puts more weight on one of his legs while crossing his arms over his chest? I lose my goddamn mind. I’d do anything for him to annihilate me.”
“Yikes, this girl is down bad,” Yunho’s ass girl commented.
“I wouldn’t be talking if I were you, ass kink,” the other girl responded while rolling her eyes.
“Hey, better than a foot kink. Someone posted that they would buy Professor Jeong’s feet pictures.”
“That forum is weird…”
You, meanwhile, tuned out from their conversation. Yes, Yunho was definitely attractive, but not once have you thought about him in a sexual sense. You were so out of it that you didn’t even know that Yunho entered the classroom and started teaching. The lesson completely went over your head because you were too busy staring at Yunho’s legs.
The girl on the forum was right. He looked so nice from behind when he stood and had more of his weight on one of his legs while he wrote on the board. And, when he turned around to ask the class a question, you felt your face flush. How could you think about your professor in this sense? More importantly, how on Earth were you going to succeed in the class now that you could only salivate every time you saw the man?
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You were praying that Yunho wouldn’t show up at the library that Friday night. Your luck had been turning around, but your luck wasn’t that nice to you because Yunho was there right on schedule and there to help you. When he sat right next to you, as usual, you held your legs together. Tension rose within you the more Yunho leaned towards you to point out problems and information on the textbook.
“Everything alright, Y/N? You’re kind of spacing out now, and I noticed that you were out of it in class the other day,” Yunho whispered.
You nodded frantically— you hated that he paid attention to you in class and that you couldn’t control your expressions that well. Hopefully, he believed you.
“Are you sure?”
“I’m just, uh, a little under the weather. I think I’m going to head home and rest,” you told him while slowly sliding the textbook away.
“You should definitely get some rest. I’ll see you in class next week,” Yunho patted your shoulder lightly.
You nearly flinched when you felt Yunho’s warm touch. Being so close to this hot human being was already extremely overwhelming, but now he was touching you? You desperately needed to leave before you absolutely lost your mind.
Your roommate was incredibly surprised to see you home so early that Friday night.
“Did you actually finish your homework quickly for once?” she asked in shock.
“No… I couldn’t take it anymore…”
“Damn, I was going to congratulate you. What happened?”
You told her about everything that happened that week from learning about the fan-club forum to how you couldn’t look at Yunho with a pure mind anymore. She nodded in understanding before answering, “Professor Jeong is fine… All I can really tell you is to remain professional with him. You need to pass this class to graduate.”
“I know… Is there a way for me to get over this… Fucked up crush or whatever the hell it is?”
“Get laid? Go have a one night stand or something.”
“No!”
“Well, then suck it up. I literally have no advice because this is such a weird situation to begin with.”
With a heavy sigh, you nodded and retired to your bedroom for the night. You prayed to God that your mind wouldn’t give you any wet dreams about the man, but let’s face it, you knew you were going to. When you woke up the next morning, you seriously wondered about your sanity. Maybe the only way to get over him would be to sleep with someone else like your roommate suggested, but you didn’t have the physical or mental capacity for that kind of relationship right now. You just had to suck it up and try your best to act normal in front of your professor.
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Soon, it was Friday night once again. That week, whenever you had class, you would enter right before class would start and immediately run out as soon as class ended to avoid Yunho. You even considered not going to the library to get the work done, but you knew that if you went home, nothing would get done. With bated breath, you attempted to study while waiting for Yunho to show up as he usually did to help you.
Yunho showed up later than usual, and he was actually surprised to see you studying in the library. He approached your table and sat across from you.
“Y/N, I’m surprised to see you here,” he said to you.
“What do you mean?”
“Your results from the last quiz were good, and you were in and out of class promptly this week. I assumed it was because you got a good grasp of everything now,” Yunho didn’t sound hurt— he sounded proud, but the look on his face said otherwise.
“I-I mean,” you stammered and cleared your throat. “I’m starting to get it, but I still can’t focus at home…”
“Ah, I get it.”
You nodded and returned to your textbook, your legs pressing together as you tried desperately not to think about Yunho in the naughty way you had been for the past week or so.
“Do you mind if I see what you’ve finished so far?” Yunho asked, snapping you out of your blank mind.
You passed Yunho your notebook and textbook. He quickly reviewed the three problems you had managed to solve in two hours, his lips quickly pulling into a frown. Your heart sank— the look on his face pretty much told you that you didn’t get a single thing right.
“Okay, so here’s where you went wrong with the first problem— Uh, is it okay if I take the seat next to you?” Yunho was about to explain the problem, only to ask for permission to move closer.
You nodded for what felt like the twentieth time in ten minutes. Yunho took the seat next to you, and he explained the problem. Thankfully, all of the dirty thoughts you had disappeared the second you started properly studying. You knew that you and Yunho were leaning into each other as you shared the textbook, but your body wasn’t physically reacting to his touch in the slightest, which made you all sorts of relieved. All you needed was for Yunho to actually teach you for your mind to get out of the gutter.
He had assigned ten problems for the homework that week, and you were able to get through six of them before the library staff came to your table and kicked you out. You and Yunho stood outside the library doors as you tried to figure out how you were going to finish the last four problems before class the next week.
“Y/N? You okay? You have a grim look on your face,” Yunho said softly.
“Yeah, well, no. I don’t know how I’m going to finish the rest of the homework… I think I’m going to lose my mind this weekend just trying to work on the other four problems…” you sighed.
“Well, I want you to be able to enjoy your weekend…” Yunho trailed off as he thought out loud. “I have an idea, but you’re more than welcome to decline.”
You shot him a questioning look. You noticed Yunho’s ears get slightly red as he looked away and cleared his throat. He seemed to be mustering up the courage to tell you his proposal.
“Would you like to come back to my place? We can hash everything out tonight so you can relax the rest of the weekend.”
You couldn’t help but gawk. You knew for a fact that all the girls in that fan-club forum would kill for the situation you were in right now, but you, on the other hand, actually debated the idea. The thought of finishing your homework with the professor and knowing that you did the homework correctly made you want to eagerly say yes, but you also wondered about whether or not you’d be able to remain sane if you did go back to his place.
“What do you say?”
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Yunho’s apartment was nice. No, nice was an understatement. His place was fucking gorgeous. He had a duplex in the middle of the city that was minimalist and elegant and expensive as hell. You knew that he was pretty famous in the field, but it didn’t occur to you that he would be rolling in dough (especially because he was a college professor and you didn’t think that professors made that much money).
He led you to the dining table and gestured for you to take a seat, which you did timidly. You felt way out of place in such a posh place that you couldn’t help but shrink down in the chair. You felt even more out of place when you saw Yunho unbutton the cuffs of his shirt sleeves and rolled them up, revealing his muscular forearms. You had to swallow the pool of saliva collecting in your mouth quietly to keep it together.
“You can just take out your notebook. I’ll grab my textbook. It’s filled with my annotations,” Yunho told you as he walked towards a room.
So, you pulled out your notebook and pencil case and waited for Yunho to return from what you assumed was his bedroom. He sat down next to you and opened the textbook to the assigned pages. He immediately got down to business, leaving you to wonder about his apartment later and focus on the homework first.
It took you about an hour to get through the remaining problems— the annotations in his textbook really made the process go faster. You were astounded by the details of his notes. You knew that his work was very eloquent based off the way he solved the problems in class, but seeing them in his personal textbook was a whole new game. You were even more amazed by your professor at that point.
“How do you feel about the problems now?” Yunho asked while closing his textbook.
“Amazing. Thank you so much, Yunho,” his name was starting to become easier for you to say.
“You’re welcome, Y/N. I’m glad I was able to help,” Yunho smiled sweetly at you as he placed a light hand on yours.
You felt your entire body flush when he touched you. You immediately locked eyes with him, your body tingling as he kept his hand on yours. Yunho looked as though he wanted to say something, but he didn’t utter a word. His hand, however, went from resting on yours to going under your hand, his fingers lacing with yours. He held your hand and brought it to his chest. Your heart raced faster and faster the closer he got to you.
“You know, Y/N,” Yunho started his voice hushed. “I worry about you.”
“W-why?”
“You’re one of the most hardworking people I’ve ever met, and I admire your tenacity. All I want is for you to succeed.”
“But why do you worry about me?”
“The past couple of weeks, you’ve been acting rather odd. Did something happen for you to be acting this way?”
“I… Uh…”
“You can trust me, Y/N. You can tell me anything.”
He looked into your eyes earnestly. You didn’t know how to vocalize your thoughts to him because, truth be told, you didn’t want to tell him the truth, but you didn’t want to lie to him either. You cast your eyes downward, unsure of what to do.
“Y/N, I just want you to know… You’re an incredible person, and you’re so smart and capable. Please remember that when you’re having a rough time…”
Yunho cupped your face and left a soft kiss on your cheek, your heart nearly bursting through your chest. You looked up immediately and locked eyes with him once again. Yunho rubbed your cheek with his thumb lightly, his gaze getting softer. Your heart was pounding so hard that it was all you could hear. You were barely able to hear Yunho’s voice over the sound.
“Can I kiss you, Y/N?”
You nodded slightly. You closed your eyes then felt his lips press against yours lightly seconds later. Your eyes fluttered open when the kiss ended, and you saw a look of longing on Yunho’s face. He finally let go of your hand, only to place his hand on your waist as he brought his face to yours once more. Your hand held onto his shoulder as he kissed you again, his lips trapping your upper lip. He kissed you slowly and delicately as if you were a glass doll.
You don’t know how he managed, but Yunho somehow brought you to his bedroom, his lips still passionately connected with yours. He laid you down gently on his bed and pinned you down, his fingers slipping under your shirt and moving upwards slowly, his fingernails tickling your ribs. He left you with a mind-numbingly sensual kiss before sitting up. He knelt before you as he slowly unbuttoned his shirt before discarding it behind him, the fabric rustling as it flew through the air and fell onto the ground.
If only the girls of the forum could see him now. The bedroom lights were off, so the only things illuminating the room were the lights from the buildings outside and the minimal moonlight that shone through the city faintly shining on the pale skin of Yunho’s body. He had a beautiful figure. His defined muscles swelled up as he pinned you down again. He pressed light kisses against your jawline and neck, making your toes curl.
“Y/N,” Yunho breathed out, his breath tickling your collarbone. “Let me know if at any point you would like to stop, and I’ll stop.”
There was no way in hell you were going to ask him to stop. You felt his lips suck lightly on the skin on your neck, earning a slight moan from you. You held onto his shoulders and continued to stifle moans the more he left light hickeys all over your neck and whatever was exposed of your chest in your top.
Usually, you were one for animalistic instincts, and every time you dreamt about Yunho, you dreamt about him completely ravaging you. You didn’t expect him to be so soft, and you didn’t expect to like it so much. All of your senses were heightened. When his fingers made any sort of contact with your bare skin, your nerves tingled. Your arms instinctively wrapped around him and your fingers were buried in his hair when he returned to your neck, his teeth occasionally nibbling at your sore skin.
You nearly whimpered when he moved away from you. He held the hem of your shirt and removed it, your shirt dropping to the ground. His arms wrapped around you and unhooked your bra before pushing your bra up. Your bra was still on you, and at first you thought it was a little uncomfortable, but then Yunho began sucking on your nipples and all the discomfort immediately disappeared. Between the painfully good suction and his teeth tugging on your overly sensitive nipple every so often, you felt like you were losing your mind. Your hold on him only got tighter as he decided to alternate between breasts.
His fingers fumbled with unbuttoning your jeans briefly as his lips were still on your breast. With a soft sigh, he released your breast to move up and help you out of your jeans. He tossed the jeans to the side then ran his hot fingers along your leg, trailing upwards slowly until his fingers got to your panties. He trailed kisses along your torso as his fingers hooked onto the hem of your panties and pulled them down, his kisses trailing closer and closer to your cunt. He nudged your legs so that your feet were pressing into the bed while your knees were bent and up.
You knew that you were completely soaking wet at that point, and that fact was emphasized when Yunho ran two of his fingers up your pussy, his fingers teasingly pressing through your folds. They continued to barely penetrate you as Yunho brought his face up to lock lips with you again. While one hand was busy with your pussy, the other pulled off your bra, allowing you to move a little more comfortably. You ran your fingers through his hair and rested your other hand on his neck, pulling him into you because you desperately needed more of him and his lovely lips.
Yunho pushed two of his long, slender fingers inside you, which surprised you so much that you nearly making you bite his lower lip. You moaned into his mouth as you felt his fingers go further and further into you. He fingered you slowly as he continued to kiss you, making you feel all sorts of ways.
You were panting heavily when Yunho released your lips. He also pulled his fingers out, your arousal fluid completely coating his two fingers. When he licked his fingers, you covered your face in embarrassment— how could he just do something like that so casually?
The tinkling of Yunho’s belt buckle echoed in the room as he removed his belt. He leaned towards his nightstand and produced a condom before returning to you. He held the packet in between his teeth as he removed his pants and underwear, revealing his penis— his massive, smooth, straight, hard penis. As you stared at his penis, your eyes trying to calculate his length, Yunho ripped open the condom packet and swiftly rolled the condom on.
With one hand right above your shoulder and pressing into the mattress, Yunho positioned himself, the tip of his dick rubbing against you slowly. You couldn’t help but stare at him, your body flushing as you observed his facial features in the moonlight. He looked stunning as he hovered above you, his hair nearly shielding his eyes, his muscular arms tensing up as his penis slowly started making its way into you. You let out a gasp as you felt him stretch you out, his length fitting inside you completely to the point where you felt him hit your cervix.
“Y/N,” his husky voice rang out. “Are you okay?”
“Mmhmm,” you responded while nodding.
“Okay. I’m going to start moving, then.”
That being said, Yunho pulled out just as slowly as he entered, only to thrust into you slightly faster. You let out tiny little yelps as you felt him move more and more, his waist hitting yours gently every time he thrusted into you.
“Ah! Yunho!” you cried out as you felt him repeatedly hit your cervix. “M-more!”
You didn’t even know what you meant by that, but Yunho apparently did. Moving from his hands to his elbows, he lowered his upper body. He brushed his lips past yours briefly at first before encompassing them. You wrapped your arms around his shoulders and clutched him tightly.
Yunho’s pace sped up, the entire bed moving as he got faster and harder. Yunho let you freely moan and cry as he dropped his head to the crook of your neck to leave wet kisses. The sensation was too much for you— you felt yourself nearing your climax. You let out a breathy moan and dug your nails into Yunho’s skin.
“Fuck, I’m gonna to cum.”
Hearing your professor swear did it for you. You pushed your head back into the pillow and cried with pleasure as you came. Shortly thereafter, Yunho’s thrust slowed down, and with a final thrust, he came, his cock spasming inside you. Yunho groaned in your ear, the sound of his groan turning you on all over again.
After a brief moment, Yunho pulled out and removed the condom. He got off the bed to throw it away, leaving you in a puddle of yourself on his bed. You didn’t even realize that Yunho left his bedroom until you pushed yourself up, your back leaning against the headboard. He returned with a glass of water and handed it to you as he sat on the edge of his bed. You drank the water slowly as you watched the man let out a pleasant sigh.
“How do you feel?” Yunho asked, his body turning to face you.
“I feel really good,” you admitted honestly.
“Me too.”
He moved into the bed and sat next to you. He pulled the duvet over the two of you, allowing you to cover your naked body. Seeing that you were done with the water, Yunho took the glass from you and set it aside on his nightstand. His hand found yours, and he laced his fingers with yours while brushing hair out of your face with his other hand.
“You’re so lovely, Y/N. You’re so lovely and so beautiful,” Yunho whispered before leaving a small kiss on your temple.
Hearing the gorgeous man next to you compliment you made you all sorts of shy. You felt your face heat up as you avoided eye contact with him. You felt his fingers go under your chin and turn your head so that it was facing him again leaving the sweetest kiss on your lips. You got even more shy with that, but there was no way in hell Yunho was going to let you turn your head away from him again.
“Do you feel better now?” Yunho asked in reference to what got you, as he put it, all out of sorts.
“Actually… I do. I feel a lot better… I think…”
“You’re uncertain?”
You took a deep breath that ended with a sigh as you mustered the courage to tell Yunho the truth. You looked him right in the eye and said, “On one of the college forums, there’s a fan-club for you… Have you heard of it?”
“I have, actually. The other professors make fun of me for it all the time.”
Your eyes went wide— does that mean he saw the thirst post from that one girl that your classmates were talking about?
“Did you post anything on the forum?” he asked.
“What? No!” you were completely flustered.
“Damn, I was kind of hoping you did…”
Yunho saying “damn,” made you want to fuck him again right then and there, but you refrained because you were curious. “Why?”
“Because I want to know if you like me like that, too.”
“Well, I might not have posted on it, but that doesn’t mean I don’t agree with some of the stuff posted,” you mumbled.
“What do you mean?”
“There was a post on the forum about the way you stand during class, and when I paid attention to what the post was pointing out, I immediately had… Dirty thoughts… About you…”
“Is that why you’ve been so squirrelly?” Yunho asked with a slight chuckle.
He cupped your cheek and rubbed it with his thumb, his fingers tracing along your sensitive ears. You pressed your face into his warm hand just a little more, enjoying the sensation of his lovely touch. You nodded and let out a light sigh, the weight of your dirty secret lifting off your shoulders. He kissed your forehead and smiled softly at you, your heart skipping a beat looking at the caring expression on his face.
“I have a question for you, then,” he whispered.
“Yeah?”
“Does that mean you had dirty dreams about me?”
Embarrassed you dropped your face and covered it with your hands. You could tell that Yunho was trying to keep from laughing based off the way his chest was swelling up. He put his arm around you and hugged you, your hot cheek pressing against his even hotter chest.
“Then tell me something.”
“What’s that?”
“Was I better in your dreams or in real life?”
His question sent you into shock. “I-I really can’t say…” was your lame attempt at responding.
“Then tell me what I did in your dreams, and maybe we can make them a reality.”
You leaned away from Yunho and stared at him, your jaw dropped. You felt his hands trail along the curve of your waist then get to your thigh. He pulled your thigh up and closer to him, the look of lust on his face intensifying.
“Let’s start from the beginning, shall we?”
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You thought seeing Yunho in class after the two of you had slept together was going to be very awkward and very weird, making you dread attending class. Why did Yunho have to make attendance mandatory?
But, when he walked in for the lesson, it was anything but awkward. You did have to press your legs together as you watched him teach, but you were completely captivated by him instead of avoiding his gaze at any given moment. And, when enough of the students in class were distracted, he shot you a sly wink, making your entire body flush with heat.
“How is it that Professor Jeong gets hotter every time we see him?” one girl near you whispered to another.
“Tell me about it… God, I’d do anything to have him pin me down and annihilate me.”
Your mind immediately flashed back to you and Yunho having sex and him becoming more animalistic after you described your dreams to him. You buried your face in your textbook so that no one would see your beet red face.
Before you could leave class, Yunho called your name, making you freeze in your tracks. You could feel the rest of your classmates who were still in the room stare at you (mostly the girls, their eyes full of envy). Yunho was standing with his arms crossed over his chest, his shirt sleeves rolled up, and his legs shoulder width apart with most of his weight on one of his legs— also known as the stance that drove all the female students crazy. You walked towards the professor and stood before him, trying your best to remain calm, but your heart raced faster the closer you got to him.
“Are you understanding the material?” Yunho asked, despite already knowing your answer.
“Barely…”
“Then,” Yunho leaned towards you and lowered his voice. “Instead of studying in the library, let’s keep studying at my place from now on, okay?”
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wol-fica · 8 months
Text
-𝕊𝕙𝕖 ℙ𝔸ℝ𝕋 𝟚-
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parings - jennaortega x fem!reader
summary - before jenna ortega became a huge actress and held the world in her hand, she only had you
warnings - angst, high schoolers lol, all characters are 18 and up :)
an - hi :) [DISCLAIMER: This story is not affiliated with @/tonyspanks ‘SHE’ series. Two different stories, same title]
—————————
The school day flew by for you, all because you couldn't stop thinking about the sweet girl who invited you over for studying. Every class you were scolded for zoning out, but you couldn't help thinking of what events could occur at the certain latina’s house.
You had never been invited over before; yes you have been by the house to drop off Jenna’s younger twins because she was to sick to pick them up from school, but you had never been inside. 
But unfortunately, all your excitement was diminished when you spotted Jenna standing at her locker, with Houston Moores, the star football player of the highschool team. He was leaning up against the wall, standing over her with a playful smile on his face, and as you drew closer, you could hear Jenna giggling.
Not wanting an interaction with the two, you went straight for your locker and started gathering your things to head home. Jenna turned around from the noise and instantly smiled she saw you, her eyes lighting up like a christmas tree.
"Y/N!" She cheesed, giving the you a swift hug.
Butterflies erupted in your stomach, startling you so much that you jolted backwards at the abrupt gesture. Jenna looked at you with concern, her eyes softening at your startled state.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." She said, fixing the wrinkles in your shirt.
You shook your head, the few strands of hair that hung at the front of your face came undone, so you subtly tucked them back behind your ear. Jenna found that action one of the most adorable things you do, along with the way your nose crinkles when you laugh, and how your eyebrows knit together when you are focused.
"It's fine Jenna, I'm good." You replied with a small smile..
Jenna returned the smile before someone behind them coughed harshly. Your y/e/c eyes met Houston’s coffee brown ones, which happened to be filled with confusion and jealousy. Jenna seemed to have someone flick a switch inside her, and she straightened her self up immediately.
"Hey, I'm sorry but I don't think you can come over today." Jenna said to you, giving you an apologetic frown.
You raised an eyebrow, but refrained from speaking. Something that you learned from being constantly picked on, is to keep silent, you found out that if you don't give a reaction, the latter will leave you alone.
"I'm sorry." Jenna repeated, watching your every
move.
"It's fine, I think I had some stuff to do anyways." You lied, giving a fake smile that only Jenna could recognize.
"Are you sure?" She asked, taking a small step towards you.
You scoffed, shoving the last of your belongings into your book bag. You slung it over your shoulder, turning to face the girl you were so obsessed with.
"I'm sure, most don't get angry with their friends canceling on them repeatedly." You sneered, sarcasm laced in your voice.
You stared down Jenna’s beautiful brown eyes before turning on your heel and hurrying off to your car outside. Yes, you felt somewhat bad for yelling at her, but at the same time you didn't regret what you said. Jenna had canceled on you constantly in the past, creating a repetitive nature of the two of you making plans but not ever meeting up. It ended causing you to never want to even try to make plans, because Jenna would inevitably drop out at the last minute.
'It's whatever, she doesn't even care half the time' You thought bitterly.
Little did you know, she was watching you run off, a sinking feeling in her chest telling her that she definitely did care.
———————————
After your mini tantrum in front of Jenna, you proceeded to head to a drunk Halloween themed party the next day. You wanted to get your mind off of the rose smelling sweetheart by drinking off your sorrows with tons and tons of vodka.
Sounds great!
Currently you were getting ready, putting the final touches on your costume. You decided to go as 'Lara Croft' from 'Tomb Raider', but as things were expensive and you weren’t gonna try to make a red carpet worthy outfit, you settled for a more watered down version. In your opinion, all you had to do was wear a tank top, shorts, and combat boots, roll in dirt, then have a bow and arrow on your back.
"I can't believe my sister is going to a cheesy Halloween party!" Theo said dramatically, taking photos of you while you finished up your makeup.
"I'm not six Theo, I'm allowed to go to parties." You replied, putting your mascara away.
"You are missing my point! Y/N Y/L/N, a lesbian, is gonna hang with a bunch of low ledge straights!"
You snorted, shaking out your hair that hung loosely around your shoulders. You decided to let it loose, seeing that now was a perfect time to 'fuck up the normal'. After you finished cleaning your vanity, you turned to see your brother shaking his head at you.
"Cmon Theo, if you are so concerned just come with me." You suggested, grabbing your bag.
"I don't have a costume dingus, I can't just show up."
Theo responded while using your red lipstick.
You rolled your eyes as you packed your bag with the necessary things you relies on, including your epipen, your inhaler, and an extra sweater because fashion changes are vital. Most of the time you wouldn't have to use your medical devices, but you still needed them in the case an emergency happened. It would be bad to go into shock at a drunk party anyways. 
"Theo, you look like a drag queen half the time, if you show up like how you do know no one will care." You said, throwing your bag over your shoulder.
Theo gave you a glare, paused in thought, then slumped his shoulders and walked past you.
"Fine, but if you get laid don't come running to me for a ride home." He snipped, grabbing his keys.
"Who the hell would want to have sex with me Theo?"
"Oh I dunno, Jenna Ortega?"
You froze in your tracks, slowly turning to face your brother. He had a triumphant smirk on his face, and his eyes showed gleams of curiosity.
"Y/N/N, I'm not stupid. I see the way you gawk at her." Theo said, getting into the drivers side.
You slowly followed suit, sliding slowly into the passenger seat next to him. He stared at you , cocking his head to the side.
"Y/N..." He started.
"What." You snapped, your arms crossed over your chest.
Theo sighed and squinted at the road ahead of him, aware of the cars passing by.
"Listen, I wasn't trying to be mean."
You were silent, watching the trees whizzing by in the background, your mind feeling melted.
"Y/N/N, I understand how you-."
"No, you don't!" You hissed, glaring at your half-brother.
See, you and Theo used to not get along; your relationship as half-siblings was exceedingly complicated and torn, as your father decided to ditch both of your moms and left you all to fend for yourselves for years until he came back on his hands and knees begging to be let back in. All he wanted was the money, but your mom never saw that and still hasn’t to this day.
Theo took on the role as a father figure to you, even though you both are the same age, but along with that he gained the trait of strictness and the indescribable obsession to make sure he always knew where you were. Those traits were lost when your family moved last summer, but that doesn't mean you forgot.
"You don't understand at all! You don't know what it's like to fall in love with someone who won't ever
consider you, who is happily living her dream and doesn't even like girls!" You yelled, slamming your hands down on top of the glove box. 
You gripped the cheap plastic, feeling it crack under you fingertips before you spoke, “She doesn’t even like me.”
You slumped backwards again, leaning to look back out the window. Everything you said was true, and unfortunately your feelings had grown subsequently for Jenna, but it seemed to you that you would never be able to have what you dreamt of.
"I'm sorry." Theo whispered.
"It's okay." You whispered back, keeping your gaze on the word outside.
Theo sighed but pressed the gas pedal down, driving down the wet road to the raging Halloween party.
——————————
taglist: @cartierdreamx@tundra1029@red1culous@vorsdany@andsoigotabutterfly@theafterofnevermore@yomomisgay@house-of-lovin@slvt4lanadelrey@thenextdawn@nepobaby08@dunohilly@somekindofpoet@alexkolax@cinffy23@pedrosprincess@amberfreemansburntface@myfturn
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blubberquark · 11 months
Text
Why Not Write Cryptography
I learned Python in high school in 2003. This was unusual at the time. We were part of a pilot project, testing new teaching materials. The official syllabus still expected us to use PASCAL. In order to satisfy the requirements, we had to learn PASCAL too, after Python. I don't know if PASCAL is still standard.
Some of the early Python programming lessons focused on cryptography. We didn't really learn anything about cryptography itself then, it was all just toy problems to demonstrate basic programming concepts like loops and recursion. Beginners can easily implement some old, outdated ciphers like Caesar, Vigenère, arbitrary 26-letter substitutions, transpositions, and so on.
The Vigenère cipher will be important. It goes like this: First, in order to work with letters, we assign numbers from 0 to 25 to the 26 letters of the alphabet, so A is 0, B is 1, C is 2 and so on. In the programs we wrote, we had to strip out all punctuation and spaces, write everything in uppercase and use the standard transliteration rules for Ä, Ö, Ü, and ß. That's just the encoding part. Now comes the encryption part. For every letter in the plain text, we add the next letter from the key, modulo 26, round robin style. The key is repeated after we get tot he end. Encrypting "HELLOWORLD" with the key "ABC" yields ["H"+"A", "E"+"B", "L"+"C", "L"+"A", "O"+"B", "W"+"C", "O"+"A", "R"+"B", "L"+"C", "D"+"A"], or "HFNLPYOLND". If this short example didn't click for you, you can look it up on Wikipedia and blame me for explaining it badly.
Then our teacher left in the middle of the school year, and a different one took over. He was unfamiliar with encryption algorithms. He took us through some of the exercises about breaking the Caesar cipher with statistics. Then he proclaimed, based on some back-of-the-envelope calculations, that a Vigenère cipher with a long enough key, with the length unknown to the attacker, is "basically uncrackable". You can't brute-force a 20-letter key, and there are no significant statistical patterns.
I told him this wasn't true. If you re-use a Vigenère key, it's like re-using a one time pad key. At the time I just had read the first chapters of Bruce Schneier's "Applied Cryptography", and some pop history books about cold war spy stuff. I knew about the problem with re-using a one-time pad. A one time pad is the same as if your Vigenère key is as long as the message, so there is no way to make any inferences from one letter of the encrypted message to another letter of the plain text. This is mathematically proven to be completely uncrackable, as long as you use the key only one time, hence the name. Re-use of one-time pads actually happened during the cold war. Spy agencies communicated through number stations and one-time pads, but at some point, the Soviets either killed some of their cryptographers in a purge, or they messed up their book-keeping, and they re-used some of their keys. The Americans could decrypt the messages.
Here is how: If you have message $A$ and message $B$, and you re-use the key $K$, then an attacker can take the encrypted messages $A+K$ and $B+K$, and subtract them. That creates $(A+K) - (B+K) = A - B + K - K = A - B$. If you re-use a one-time pad, the attacker can just filter the key out and calculate the difference between two plaintexts.
My teacher didn't know that. He had done a quick back-of-the-envelope calculation about the time it would take to brute-force a 20 letter key, and the likelihood of accidentally arriving at something that would resemble the distribution of letters in the German language. In his mind, a 20 letter key or longer was impossible to crack. At the time, I wouldn't have known how to calculate that probability.
When I challenged his assertion that it would be "uncrackable", he created two messages that were written in German, and pasted them into the program we had been using in class, with a randomly generated key of undisclosed length. He gave me the encrypted output.
Instead of brute-forcing keys, I decided to apply what I knew about re-using one time pads. I wrote a program that takes some of the most common German words, and added them to sections of $(A-B)$. If a word was equal to a section of $B$, then this would generate a section of $A$. Then I used a large spellchecking dictionary to see if the section of $A$ generated by guessing a section of $B$ contained any valid German words. If yes, it would print the guessed word in $B$, the section of $A$, and the corresponding section of the key. There was only a little bit of key material that was common to multiple results, but that was enough to establish how long they key was. From there, I modified my program so that I could interactively try to guess words and it would decrypt the rest of the text based on my guess. The messages were two articles from the local newspaper.
When I showed the decrypted messages to my teacher the next week, got annoyed, and accused me of cheating. Had I installed a keylogger on his machine? Had I rigged his encryption program to leak key material? Had I exploited the old Python random number generator that isn't really random enough for cryptography (but good enough for games and simulations)?
Then I explained my approach. My teacher insisted that this solution didn't count, because it relied on guessing words. It would never have worked on random numeric data. I was just lucky that the messages were written in a language I speak. I could have cheated by using a search engine to find the newspaper articles on the web.
Now the lesson you should take away from this is not that I am smart and teachers are sore losers.
Lesson one: Everybody can build an encryption scheme or security system that he himself can't defeat. That doesn't mean others can't defeat it. You can also create an secret alphabet to protect your teenage diary from your kid sister. It's not practical to use that as an encryption scheme for banking. Something that works for your diary will in all likelihood be inappropriate for online banking, never mind state secrets. You never know if a teenage diary won't be stolen by a determined thief who thinks it holds the secret to a Bitcoin wallet passphrase, or if someone is re-using his banking password in your online game.
Lesson two: When you build a security system, you often accidentally design around an "intended attack". If you build a lock to be especially pick-proof, a burglar can still kick in the door, or break a window. Or maybe a new variation of the old "slide a piece of paper under the door and push the key through" trick works. Non-security experts are especially susceptible to this. Experts in one domain are often blind to attacks/exploits that make use of a different domain. It's like the physicist who saw a magic show and thought it must be powerful magnets at work, when it was actually invisible ropes.
Lesson three: Sometimes a real world problem is a great toy problem, but the easy and didactic toy solution is a really bad real world solution. Encryption was a fun way to teach programming, not a good way to teach encryption. There are many problems like that, like 3D rendering, Chess AI, and neural networks, where the real-world solution is not just more sophisticated than the toy solution, but a completely different architecture with completely different data structures. My own interactive codebreaking program did not work like modern approaches works either.
Lesson four: Don't roll your own cryptography. Don't even implement a known encryption algorithm. Use a cryptography library. Chances are you are not Bruce Schneier or Dan J Bernstein. It's harder than you thought. Unless you are doing a toy programming project to teach programming, it's not a good idea. If you don't take this advice to heart, a teenager with something to prove, somebody much less knowledgeable but with more time on his hands, might cause you trouble.
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vay99 · 1 year
Text
Mikey x reader
You are-?!
Anime/Manga: Tokyo revengers
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"Okay what's up?" Draken asks his friend, hw has had enough of Mikeys behavior. 
"What do you mean?"
"You're attending school. Like a normal kid. For a whole month now? How did that happen?" 
"Just thought that education might be useful." the shorter one shrugs his shoulders. 
"Bullshit." he doesn't believe a word he says, noticing that Mikeys attention has switched to a (h/c) girl passing them in the school hall. "She's the reason ain't she?" 
"We have sports together and she's sooooo badass." 
"Ask her to join Toman if you like her that much." 
"I would love that." he keeps his eyes on you the whole time, smiling. 
"Our Mikey is head over heals~" 
*Loads of teasing later*
Mikeys favorite subject has finally arrived. PE. Oh and you're playing baseball. But you're on different teams which upset Mikey quite a bit. 
Standing at the second base you're waiting for the ball to get hit, which it was a few seconds later... quite unlucky. The ball hit you right on the left eyebrow, causing it to bleed immediately. And Mikey to panic. He wants to send that guy to hell that hit the ball so badly but also want to help you. He's half frozen and half on fire. 
"Someone needs to help (y/n) get to the infirmary." the teacher says, your class gathering around you. 
"No worries, it's just a cut, I need a plaster and that's it." you wave it off but your teacher doesn't allow it, she wants you to get checked up. 
"I'll take her." Mikey yells once he reached you. His anger taken replaced by worrying as he walks you to the infirmary, keeping a close eye on you. 
"Thanks but this isn't necessary." you chuckle once you've reached your destination. 
"Have you seen your wound!?" 
"I've done kickboxing for years, I'm used to such injuries." you wave I off, being greeted by a nurse. 
"That doesn't mean that you don't feel pain or are invincible." his eyebrows furrow whole he stares at the ground. 
"You're right but after some injuries you know what you can handle." 
The nurse tells Mikey to wait outside while she treats your wound. 
"Will she be okay again?" he jumps up after a few minutes, still overreacting. 
"It's just a cut, her head got hit at a fast speed though so she should take it slowly for the rest of the day." 
"I'm relieved to hear that, I'll drive you home." Mikey offers to you. 
"You've got a good boyfriend right there, take good care of each other." the nurse leaves you two alone, equally confused. 
"Boyfriend?" you say in unison, both pointing at Mikey. 
"Thanks for the offer, you're a great boyfriend." stressing the last word you start walking towards his bike while Mikey hides his blush behind his hair. 
"Here we are." you announce after a short ride, taking off the helmet. 
"Are you sure you're alright?" the concern in his voice and his furrowed brows are the softest expression you've ever witnessed on his face. 
"Yes, and thanks Mikey, I appreciate your help." you smile at him "If you want to you can come in and eat something." 
"How could I say no to you or food?" he smiles, following you. "Why does this house look so familiar?" 
Mikey assists you while cooking ramen, he never cooked before but he tries his best. He was very confused when he saw the uncooked noodles "What are those?" and was highly embarrassed when you started laughing. It turned out really delicious. 
"I should learn how to cook." 
"I can help you with that." 
"Really?" his eyes sparkle with joy as you nod and take another bite. 
"I'm home!" a voice interrupts, coming from the front door. 
"Hey Keisuke!" you great the boy walking in. 
"Oh, Mikey what are you doing here?" Baji asks his friend who's currently busy connecting the dots. 
"Wait?" 
"Yep." you two say in union. "We're siblings." 
After staying silent for two minutes he finally speaks up again. "Should've guessed you're both hella pretty." 
"Yeah I hear that a lot." you roll your eyes. 
"People swooning over your brother?" 
"I can't tell how often girls tell me 'Your brother is so hot, he's such a daddyyyyy'. Like, girl. He can't even look straight into a girl's eyes without panicking. Also stop thirsting over my brother what the hell is wrong with you."
While Mikey dies laughing. "Sounds like Baji." Baji is mad and confused at the same time. 
"They see him beat someone up and fall immediately, how weird are they?" 
/I fell for you because you did the same, so I won't say that, noted./ Mikey thinks to himself while he calms down a bit. 
"If girls really say that how come I'm still single?" 
"You can't talk to a girl without becoming a freaking mess. Get your shit together." you clap your hands at the last sentence while Baji grumbles to himself. 
"Why are you here anyways." he refers to Mikey, ignoring your comment. 
"(y/n) got hit by a baseball and I drove her home." 
"Oh, I see." Baji nods, you both get into fight in a regular basis so a wound is no shocker for him. Then there's Mikey. 
"Are you dizzy? You're still alright?" 
"Yes Mikey." you reassure him once more. 
"Our Mikey is worried?" Baji immediately catches on. "Have fun I'll just grab some snacks and leave you two alone." 
"So you think Kei is hot?" you ask after your brother left the house. 
"Huh???" 
"Just asking if you want me to set you two up~" 
/Wrong sibling/ Mikey thinks to himself as he follows you into the kitchen with the dishes. "I'm not into Baji." 
"Which one?" 
Took him a minute to get what you're hinting at. 
"Keisuke." 
"Ah, so you're into me." 
"How did this conversation lead us to this point!?" 
"Well the nurse called you my boyfriend, I like the sound of that." you answer honestly, placing the bowl in the dishwasher. 
"You do?" 
"Yeah. Do you?" 
"I nearly died out of worry for you after you got hit by that ball. And I fully died after being called your boyfriend SO YES!" red ears and puffed cheeks turn Mikey into the most adorable person you know. 
"Please don't." you wrap your arms around his neck, resting sour forehead against his. "It'd break my heart if you'd die. What can I call you instead of boyfriend, so you don't die?" 
"I don't know." he mumbles quietly, one hand slowly holding onto your shirt. 
"Babe? Future husband? Cutie? Love?" 
"You're killing me with all of these." Mikey whines, hiding his face in your neck. 
"Mikey?" 
"Mhm?" 
"Can I call you mine?" 
"(y/nnnn)." 
"Okay okay Mikey it is then." you giggle, kissing his temple. 
"You're unfair, I should take care of you." 
"I'm not stopping you." 
Still slightly flustered he carries you bridal style into your bedroom so you can rest, doctors orders, and Mikeys heart can recover from the roller-coaster it has been threw. Cuddling up in your bed you're the first one to drift off to sleep, happier then ever. 
Bonus:
*A few days later*
Mikey wanted to see how strong you are by himself. And damn you're enjoying how that went, his joy... well... 
"The invincible Mikey, laying underneath me, I could get used to that~"
"What's that supposed to mean!?"
"Do you need some type of reward to get serious?" you tease him, while he struggles to escape your grip. 
"I AM SERIOUSLY FIGHTING YOU! YOU'RE JUST TOO DAMN STRONG!"
"Adorable~" you continue, still fixing him to the ground.
"I'm not adorable." 
"Yes you are~" you peck his lips which cause his face to erupt in a bright red. "See? Adorable~" 
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obese4haechan · 1 year
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The After Party.
pairings: fratboy!haechan x shy!reader
genre: smut a bit of fluff <3
warnings: reader smokes weed and drinks alcohol with haechan, protected sex! haechan and the reader are basically both switches.
wc: 2800-2700 ish
note: THE NEW AYO TEASER PHOTOS literally sparked an idea in my brain. FRAT LMFAO. some songs i'd recommend while reading are Her way by PartyNextDoor, Wine Pon You Doja Cat, and Slow Down Bobby V. i hope u enjoy it! 🫶🏽
~
You were so damn sick of studying, college genuinely was not what you were expecting growing up but you learned to adjust to the environment. Constant all nighters, having no money, horrible teachers, and the drug deals around campus. Not to mention the cliques, you thought cliques would be left alone in high school but god it's almost as if it had gotten worse. One of the worst being the frats, you couldn't put into words how much you hated all 9 of those boys. They were just so icky and annoying though you've never gotten to know them, you figured distance was best. Half of the girls around campus had already been knocked up or at least in some sort of relationship with one of them, you'd often hear gossip about the boys in the bathroom from girls who couldn't notice your presence. And of course even your roommate's (which were your best friends) were so damn obsessed with them, "Cmon y/n, you gotta find at least one of em cute?" your best friend Imani groaned. Imani was on the cheer team not necessarily apart of any clique's just very known, so obviously she'd spoken to the boys before. "Shit if she doesn't I do." the other girl laughed, "Well I mean.. HOW I COULD I NOT.. it's just they're so corny.." you stuttered as the girls smirked at you. "What?" you said confused. "You definitely are feeling one of them." Imani snickered, "So who?" You couldn't think of his name off the top of your head, "You know... the one with the moles and babyface." you asked. "OH MY GOD Y/N." Imani snorted, "What?" you yelled smiling. both girls fell over on the loveseat stomachs hurting from laughter, Imani gained her strength and sat up "You like Donghyuck."
Donghyuck. his name was Donghyuck, during class you honestly couldn't get your mind off of him. "I mean i've never heard any girls talking about how good his sex was" you thought to yourself. He really was cute, every time you saw him he was either smiling, cracking jokes, or keeping to himself. "Y/n? answer for number seven?" you had snapped out of your daydream, "W-w Huh?" your professor glared at you, you could've sworn this man hated you or could just tell when you were most vulnerable. You had a high C in his class but he honestly sucked at teaching and you'd never blame yourself over a shitty teacher. "I said could you give me the answer to number seven." you immediately sat up staring at the projector screen "Uhm.." you knitted your eyebrows and squinted your eyes "x/4 sir." you heard a voice behind you speak "Thank you young man looks like y/n's mind is a bit scrambled." your professor joked, you didn't laugh at all in fact it was humiliating.
The bell rung and you nearly sprinted out of class "Hey!" someone screamed, the school was so damn loud you didn't even think about anyone calling for you. There were definitely FAST footsteps behind you so you instinctively turned around and you were met with the Donghyuck that was in your head all period. "How didn't I know he was in my class? I mean there are at least over one hundred students but." you thought, "Oh uhm.. I just wanna say thank you for that back there." He was thanking you? "Why?" you asked. "I mean number seven was the only one I had even tried to do and he's been on my case this entire unit, you saved my ass more than you know to be honest." he smiled keeping the strongest eye contact, you were trying so hard to keep calm, not get flustered, don't smile. "Oh it's okay really thank yo-" a group of eight boys came marching up behind the boy, he turned around was and then back to you "You can call me Hyuck." he smiled. "Haechan's finally getting game it looks like?" one of the tall boys said, "Haechan? who's Haechan?" you asked. "Well Haechan is the one you were just talking to pretty, and i'm Yuta." you flinched at the nickname, "Well yeah that's so awesome i'll get going!" you said ironically, trying to get away any moment you could before Imani caught you talking to the men you despised. "W-wait." Haechan stuttered following you, you turned around "Do you think you could come to our house party tonight?" he asked. You honestly thought about it, drinks, fun music and maybe weed. You honestly needed a distraction and a house party sounded good. "Before you give me an excuse there's no homework until next week even if there is lemme do it for you, cmon love." Haechan stuck his hands into his pockets tilting his head to the side. God he was doing things to you, "Well I guess so i'd have to ask my friend.. if you don't mind her coming." you held eye contact with him as long as you could, "Deal." he smirked, "Don't worry about the address I promise you'll know where it is." Haechan said walking backwards with his hands still in those stupid pockets, he still was just so corny.
"So you're telling me he invited you to a party?" Imani shouted outside of the dorm, "God yes shout a little louder.." you groaned "Sorry... but ARE YOU GOING?" she screamed once inside the dorm. "Yes... I am, I asked if i could bring you as well and he said yeah." you said slipping out of your Ugg boots "Girl we literally have to get ready right now." Imani ran to her side of the room, "Whyyyyy.. I'm so tired." you said as you jumped onto the bed. "Get your tired ass up y/n I literally need to be intoxicated." Imani grabbed something skimpy out of her closet. "So you're gonna go looking like that and all you wanna do is drink or smoke?" you laughed as you got up. Imani always knew how to dress and do her makeup well for the occasion, she was kinda god sent. "I meannnnn that one named Johnny really is cute, i've spoken to him a couple times i'd say we're associates he's a sweetheart." Imani blushed, "Oh please don't break a sweat we have to get dressed." you rolled your eyes. "Y/n bitch DONT."
You and imani had took an Uber to the house it wasn't very packed just yet, a few cars and music already jumping. You two walked inside arm to arm, there they were. All of the boys were on the couch "Imaniii!" Johny yelled at as he got up to hug her. "Associates my ass." you thought, and then you saw him sat on the couch legs spread hand placed on his thigh which was covered by his white jeans he was deep into his phone until more guests came and he looked up to catch you staring at him. "Heyyy!! it's the pretty girl from my chem class, c'mere." Haechan said patting against the spot beside him, you walked over and sat down you were both so close as you sat next to the arm of the couch. "Hi." you spoke a bit quietly intimidated with how close you two were, "You comfortable?" Haechan asked putting his phone down and giving you undivided attention. "Mhm.. my name's Y/n by the way." you smiled to him, "Oh I know." Haechan smirked. "How? I never even told you." you questioned, "I have my ways." he cockily said. "Mhm sure." you laughed, "Do you want something to drink?" Haechan asked as he sat up "Yeah yeah anything with alcohol please." you smiled looking up into his eyes "You're so cute." he said before walking away. You will admit that you had butterflies definitely he looked so damn good nevertheless he smells amazing as well. You looked around for Imani when you saw she was already touching all over Johnny, "Shes about to have sex within the first hour.. shes not even drunk yet." you thought to yourself giggling out loud. Haechan came back with your drinks before he sipped his you asked to take his instead, naturally he didn't hesitate. "Already wanting to drink my things we aren't even together yet." he teased "Yours just looks better." you teased back. Maybe this was flirting I mean anything he did had an effect on you, when he looked deep into your eyes it made you feel so good you wanted to always feel like that.
The alcohol had begun to kick in you asked Haechan if any of the boys had weed and if he smoked, he answered yes to both. Imani had completely disappeared with Johnny you assumed she was probably fucking him by now or took off somewhere, but you knew to text her. After Haechan got some you asked if you two could smoke upstairs away from the noise, he agreed. You both walked into a bedroom as Haechan closed the door behind you two, He began to roll up. "You ready y/n?" he sat beside you taking out a lighter, you nodded your head as Haechan took the first drag. He coughed and cursed after inhaling the drug he was so adorable, he gave you the joint as you began to smoke it as well. "Hm, no coughing you must be a pro?" Haechan teased "No no no.. not at all, just really needed this thank you." you giggled as you hiccuped "You know when you couldn't answer that question in class.. I was so relieved." he said taking a long slow hit. "Hmm why?" you asked in confusion, he scooted so close the both of your legs were touching "I'd been wanting you for the longest time." he calmly said handing you the blunt "What?" you coughed, the first time you coughed ever since you two had been in this room Haechan laughed at that. "What do you mean what? I said what I said." You were so close you could see the pores in his skin, "I- i just wasn't expecting that out of you, you seem like the innocent one out of all your friends.." you teased "Innocent? I haven't even done anything to you yet." he inched a bit closer to you. "Yet, you think im that easy Donghyuck?" you whispered taking another hit, "Easy? no. Attracted to me? yes." he whispered back. Haechan took the blunt out of your hand staring at you, the tension was enough to make you go absolutely insane.
"If you're not so easy let me shotgun you." He said with knitted brows, you honestly started to blush you've never been shotgunned before whenever you smoked it was with your best friends. "Are you too scared?" he asked, "Of course not.." you quickly said. "Alright love." he said as he took a long hit, then flicking the blunt out of his hand he grabbed your face and put his lips onto yours. He was holding his breath for so long he began to moan into your mouth. Smoke going down your throat and out of your nose, Your hands began to travel lower down his body. You didn't even stop kissing him until he pulled his shirt off, his skin was so warm and soft. He moaned and whined into your mouth as you moved against his crotch. "Something told me you'd be a tease." he whined, you put your mouth against his neck kissing and sucking onto the skin the way he jerked up you assumed it was a sensitive spot of his. You sucked on his neck leaving marks as you dry humped his crotch, once you sucked his neck leaving wet spot's you'd blow cold air onto it. "Fuck Y/n.. I really can't take this" Haechan said, "What do you mea-" he cut you off as you were about to tease him more. Haechan took you in his mouth, tongues meeting each other the distinct taste of alcohol and weed made you go ballistic. He made sure to keep your tongue in one spot with his teeth leaving you confused as he began to suck your tongue hard and sloppy, that earned a whimper out of you. Haechan let go of your tongue with a loud pop noise, lifting your skirt as you sat straddling him. "I really want you to sit on my face right now Y/n." he said staring into your eyes, you couldn't hold eye contact when he was speaking like that "O-oh okay.." you stuttered. Face sitting something else you've never done you thought it's pretty self explanatory, "Can I take your panties off?" Haechan asked. "Yes.. of course." you sat on his bare chest as he reassured you about all of your worries. "You ready now, love?" he said rubbing circles into your thighs, "Mhm." you began to pull yourself up to his face. "Baby I said sit on it not sit over it." Haechan said causing you to look down, "I'm sorry!.. but are you sure I won't like suffocate you?" you asked. "Yes! now sit down." he laughed, you sat down like he asked and immediately began to moan.
Haechan was licking over your clit before just sucking it, then dragging his tongue across your cunt. You grabbed his black hair starting to guide yourself, Haechan smirked at this hoping you felt more comfortable. "Mm- god! Donghyuck it feels too good." you weren't getting that much of a response so you began to lift yourself a bit more, until Haechan slammed you back down "So pretty and warm." he moaned muffled against your pussy. The amount things you were feeling at once was pure ecstasy, the butterflies, the alcohol, marijuana and the boy between your legs. You slowly rode his face constantly whining and shaking, strangely still holding eye contact with Haechan. God he was so hard he felt like he would just bust out of his pants any moment, you were getter closer you could feel it so could Haechan. "Come on, baby" he moaned as your pace quickened, "F-fuck donghyuck I'm really close." you whined it felt too good. "Then let go for me pretty." you couldn't hold anything in after that cumming on his face with a slight scream then moving to lay on the side of him, "I love how you sound when you cum." he said rubbing circles into your back. "It's your turn Donghyuck." you said jumping on top of him "Do you have a condom?" you asked him, "In my back pocket yeah." Haechan pulls it out and pulls his pants down. The tip was a quite red and there was precum dripping out of it his dick had somewhat of a curve in it, you had gotten ten times hornier. You grabbed his cock and began to sink on to it making his nails dig into your sides, "Fuck baby, so tight." he whined. Your head was thrown into the crook on his neck, the curve of his cock hit every angle just right. You began to slowly move "Mm.. so full Donghyuck." you said kissing at his neck, you were going at a torturing pace for him. "Babygirl I can't do this slow." Haechan said grabbing your hips as he started to ram into you. "F-..Fuck!" you yelped, completely unable to speak it felt way too good Haechan was so big the stretch was burning. "Oh just take it I know you can take this dick." he moaned shoving a finger into your mouth. You kept clenching, he knew you were close. "Just look at you, fuck." he groaned slapping your ass making you squeal. "Y/n, show me your face." he demanded, "W-Why?" you questioned he was talking to you while he was still fucking into you. "I wanna see that pretty face when you make me cum." That honestly did it, you squeezed so tight around Haechan whimpering his name as he came inside the condom moaning your name. You both sat there panting the silence was comfortable Haechan's heart was beating extremely fast, his little breaths were as cute as ever. "Y'know you're the only one that calls me Donghyuck and it doesn't piss me off." he says looking into your eyes and giving you a gentle kiss, "Are you thirsty? hungry? bathroom? cuddle? or.. we can forget this never happened whatever makes you most comfortable Y/n your benefit matters most to me because we....." you had honesty zoned out, Haechan was adorable. You pulled him in with a kiss "Oh shut up I'd love to keep our relationship going After The Party."
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grandwretch · 1 year
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only i must wander
[chapter one] [on AO3]
In the months before Steve's graduation, he and Dustin had something of a routine going on. Every Friday afternoon, Steve would pick Dustin up from Hawkins Middle School and they would drive out to the McDonald's one exit over. They even ordered the same thing every week: A Big Mac for Steve, nuggets for Dustin, two Cokes, and a supersized fry. After driving slowly back to Hawkins they would eat in the arcade parking lot, and when they were done they would either spend the rest of the afternoon trying to kill each other over air hockey or renting shitty science fiction movies. Whichever Dustin wanted, really. 
It wasn't anything like Steve's life had been just six months ago, but he loved every second of it. Even when Dustin was getting mud all over his upholstery and asking too many questions. 
On that particular Friday night, Steve had been late picking Dustin up because Mrs. O'Donnell had stopped him in the hallway on the way out, for the third time this month. Some bullshit about him not "applying" himself, or whatever, and how she didn't "feel it was right" that Steve had passed her class when he'd obviously learned so little. Which was bullshit, Steve thought, because she taught fucking English, which he already spoke, and he'd been pulling solid C's in her class all semester. 
So most of the conversation had been about that, really, with Steve complaining about how every teacher he'd ever had hated him, and Dustin scolding him just as fiercely as any teacher ever had. A typical Friday night. 
Tonight, however, Dustin paused, mid-sentence.
"Are you ever going to tell me why your eyes do that when you're mad?" 
Steve paused, a french fry halfway to his mouth. He looked over at Dustin, who was staring at him from the passenger seat. He was almost used to it, a kid spending every day in the seat next to him instead of Nancy or Tommy, but big, curious eyes still threw him off from time to time. Especially when they came paired with off the wall questions like this. 
"Why do my eyes do what, Dustin?" 
"You know," Dustin said, gesturing to Steve's face with his burger. "When you get mad they go all black and stuff. Kinda like El's do when she uses her powers, but you don't--" Steve had never seen Eleven actually fight, but he had seen her do small tricks now and again for the boys. Her eyes were more like pits, her entire face wrinkling around the deep depths. Steve felt his stomach churn just thinking about the same in his own face. 
The reflection in the rearview mirror was the same as it had always been. Hazel eyes, smooth skin marred only by a few moles. Steve made himself breathe. 
"I think I would know," Steve said, keeping his voice carefully steady. He was trying to be less bitchy around the kids, but sometimes they made it so goddamn hard. "--if my face looked like that. It probably-- It probably hurts, right?" 
"Not really," Dustin said, with enough conviction that it tore Steve's gaze away from his own reflection. "Anyway, it's not your face. It's just your eyes. Look, I don't know what kind of Wesen you are, man, but you can talk to me about it, whatever it is. You know I'm one, too, right?"
"A-- a what?" If this was another one of those weird fantasy novel things, he was going to finally strangle the little shit, he really was. 
"A Wesen," Dustin repeated, looking as confused as Steve felt. "Like-- like me and El."
'Like me and El,' Steve thought, turning the sentence around in his head. He was not equipped for this, Jesus. It had to be hard, growing up fighting monsters and stuff, and having one of your best friends be a weird ass superhero, but Steve hadn't expected Dustin to deal with it by playing pretend. He'd always been the most grounded in reality of the kids. It was why Steve could put up with him for more than a couple hours. 
"Buddy, maybe you should talk to your mom about this stuff," Steve said, slowly. "Or like Mrs. Byers or somebody." 
Dustin rolled his eyes, which Steve thought was pretty rich coming from someone sitting in his car and talking about made up words. "Oh my god, Steve. Look."
And then-- And then. 
Steve didn't know how to explain it. One moment, he was looking at Dustin, the kid he'd become absurdly attached to over the past semester, and then something shifted. In the next breath, Dustin was... different. Light brown hair had sprouted all over his face, smooth and straight and so unlike the curly mop still on top of his head. His nose had changed, the bridge gone flatter and wider, the end still hairless but now a deep dark brown, like a dog's. Underneath his nose, his lip was cleft, opened wide so Steve could see even more clearly the gap where Dustin's teeth should be. On either side of the cleft, whiskers sprouted, white and long. 
His eyes were the same, though. Dustin's eyes, staring out of a beaver's face. 
Two years ago, Steve would have screamed. He would have thrown things. He would have been out of the car in two seconds flat. His flight reflex had been recently shattered, though, and now all he could do was stare and try not to choose the other option-- fight. 
This was Dustin, Steve told every dark instinct swelling up in the back of his mind. This was his best friend. Not something that crawled out of the Upside Down, not something stalking through the night. His kid. 
Dustin blinked at him, with a silly smile on his inhuman face. "See?" 
Steve's hands gripped the steering wheel, fingernails digging into the leather. "Dustin, what the fuck is happening right now?" 
The smile faded on Dustin's face slowly. "Do you not-- Steve, come on. You've seen El do this like a thousand times." 
"She's El!" Steve said, his voice going higher with stress. He could feel his muscles start to shake with the effort of keeping himself in place. "She's got, like, powers and shit! She was born in a lab and experimented on! You're-- You're just Dustin!" 
"Okay, ouch," Dustin said. A pout began to form on his face. "Okay, yeah, El is special, but there are people who like her who are, like, normal Wesen you know?" 
"You keep saying that word." 
"You know, like--" Dustin gestured between them with-- Jesus fucking Christ, with a fucking paw. "You and me." 
Steve had to get out of the car. His heart was going so fast he could feel it in his ear drums, in the roof of his mouth. It took too long for his shaking hands to open the door, and by the time his feet hit the dirt, he could feel adrenaline churning his stomach. Behind him, he could hear Dustin calling his name, the passenger door opening, but it only spurred on Steve's desire to get away. 
He stumbled a few feet, his legs too weak to carry him far, until hands grabbed at his jacket. Steve whirled around, ready to fight-- Your kid! A smaller part of his brain screamed at him. --but Dustin was... Human again. 
"What the fuck, Dustin," Steve couldn't stop repeating. "What the fuck." 
"Steve," Dustin said, deadly serious. "Are you seriously telling me you've never met another Wesen before?" 
"Stop saying that." 
"What?" 
"Stop saying that I'm one of you! I'm not. I don't-- I'm normal. Stop saying that." 
Dustin's eyes were too understanding. Steve fucking hated it when he did shit like this, when he could just look at Steve and got him, because Steve barely understood why he did what he did, sometimes. How did this fucking kid always seem to know him? And if he could, why didn't anyone else ever manage? 
"Steve," Dustin said again, pitched low and calm like he was trying to soothe a rabid dog. Like Steve was a monster, crawling the junkyard, looking for blood. "Look at your eyes right now."
There was a compulsion in Steve's blood that would not let him look away any longer. He had to look, had to face his own reflection already knowing it would ruin him. Steve raised his eyes to the car window, and its distorted mirror image of his face. 
For a moment, Steve almost had hope. His face was not marked or pitted like El's, nor was it covered in fur like Dustin's. It was his nose, his skin, his moles, his mouth. The scars that littered his face in the last two years were faint, but still visible. Steve could still feel one of them in the corner of his upper lip. It was almost easy to miss, almost easy to chalk it all up to a bad joke. But then Steve met his own gaze, and all illusion was shattered. 
It was like a trick of the light; They were the same size and shape as Steve's own, lined with the same delicate eyelashes, but there was no mistaking the change. His eyes were black. Not the deep void that stared out of El's other face, no. At first they seemed dead and glassy, like a shark's, but the longer he stared, the more Steve became aware of something moving inside them, like smoke behind glass. 
Steve didn't feel his knees grow weak or his legs buckle underneath him. He barely felt it when he landed on the ground. One moment he was standing, and the next he was on the asphalt, staring up at Dustin. Dustin, who looked down at him with such a mixture of confusion and sorrow that Steve felt, bizarrely, like his change was more inhuman than all the fur and torn flesh in the world. 
"What the fuck," Steve said, his voice croaking in his throat. "What's happening to me? Dustin, what the fuck is happening to me?" 
"I don't know," Dustin said, and-- Embarassingly, Steve let out a thin noise of panic, because he was absolutely fucked if Dustin was admitting he didn't know something. "I mean, I have a theory, but..." Dustin cut himself off and looked around the parking lot. They were alone here, had chosen it specifically so they could laugh and play Dustin's tapes as loud as they wanted to, but he still scanned the area with more suspicion than Steve had seen out of him in months. It made Steve's instincts kick in, had him scrambling to his feet to put himself in between whatever danger Dustin suspected of the world around them. "We really shouldn't do this here." 
"Is this..." Steve swallowed, his hands shaking. "Is this Upside Down shit? Is it because of the tunnels? Did I-- Did I breathe too many spores in or something?" 
Dustin considered the idea for only half a moment before dismissing it with a shake of his head. "No, if this was a symptom, Will would have displayed the same ones while he was in the hospital last year. No, this has to be... Come on, Steve, let's go home. I promise, I'll tell you everything I know. Just not where people can hear us." 
"This is fucking insane," Steve muttered to himself, but he climbed back in the car, hands shaking. 
The ride to Steve's house was tense, neither of them speaking, although Steve could sense Dustin throwing him concerned looks the entire way. He usually hated when the kid did that, mostly because he didn't need a thirteen year old's concern, thank you so much, Dustin, but today it rankled Steve's nerves worse than ever. Everything in his body wanted to fight something, but the only enemy he could identify was inside his own head. Dustin's gaze on him only made it worse, made Steve so jumpy he imagined, several times, jumping from the moving car. 
Whatever was wrong with him, it didn't stop at his eyes. 
Steve stormed down his driveway and threw open his front door. Dustin scurried in after him as if afraid to be left behind, and Steve had a brief pang of guilt, but then he caught sight of himself in the long mirror that hung along the foyer and-- He turned away, swallowing bile. "Alright, kitchen," he said. "I need a fucking beer." 
They sat on either side of his mother's breakfast nook, the only place Steve ever ate alone. Steve had a beer, one of the last few he'd been nursing since his party days ran out. Dustin had a root beer in front of him, untouched. They stared at each other, unsure. 
It was time to be a fucking adult, Steve decided, and unstuck his tongue from the roof of his dry mouth. 
"What was that word you kept using?" he asked. 
"Wesen," Dustin answered, his mouth a grim line. "That's what I am. That's what El is. Or was? It's not really clear." 
"But it's what she was supposed to be," Steve said, and when Dustin nodded, he sucked in a breath. "And what I am." 
Dustin squirmed on his stool. "I think so." 
"So... So what the fuck is it?" Steve shook his head, confused by the very words coming out of his mouth. "Am I going to start growing fur? Or-- Or get all wrinkly or whatever, like El when she uses her powers?" 
"No, it's not--" Dustin paused, his face creased with the uncomfortable feeling of having no idea how to explain something. "I only know what my mom has told me, which isn't, like, a lot. But we're not like humans." 
"Yeah," Steve scoffed. "I got that." 
"What I mean is, we're part of the same community but we're not all the same. We probably have some stuff in common, but I don't know how much. I can't exactly go to the library to figure this stuff out." Dustin's voice held the long-suffering frustration of a child who'd been asking the same questions for a very long time, with no adult willing to answer. Steve was usually all for it, being the first to encourage the kids to say fuck adults and do it themselves, but he was still lost in a sea of information that made no fucking sense to him. 
"Can we just-- Explain it to me like I'm really stupid." 
"I want you to know that I'm not making a joke right now because I can tell you're in a really vulnerable place." 
"Thank you so much, Dustin." 
"You remember Star Wars, right?" Dustin asked. 
Steve's head tilted. "The movie you made me watch over Christmas break? With the laser swords? Yeah, I remember them." 
"Alright, so, everyone in that movie is an alien, right? Some of them look like humans, but they're not from Earth. And some of them don't look like humans at all. They're all from separate planets, some of them entirely separate species, but they're all aliens." 
Steve blinked at Dustin for a long moment before his face collapsed into disbelief. "We are not fucking aliens." 
Dustin's glare was legendary. "No, you idiot. But we're not human, either." 
"Then what am I?" Steve raised a hand to stop the answer he could already see coming. "And don't say Wes… That word. I can't just be not human. People aren't… whatever they're not. I have to be something." 
"I don't know," Dustin said. "I don't know a lot of the names. My mom is kinda…" 
Steve nodded. Mrs. Henderson's brand of flighty overprotectiveness was well known to the entire group, and probably most of Hawkins by now. Dustin was allowed to spend whatever time he wanted with Steve, even staying over at his house when Steve's parents were out of town, but Steve had also been horrified to find that Mrs. Henderson had woefully unprepared the kid for things like puberty or high school. Dustin said his mom didn't like to talk about things that upset her, and Steve guessed that other Wesen was one of those subjects, much like Dustin growing up or rock music. 
Steve felt himself begin to calm. Whatever happened, it was bound to be easier than the time he had to explain to Dustin what a pube was. 
"Do you think she might know?" 
"Probably, but we can't ask her." Dustin was beginning to look actually distressed. "There's no way she would let us hang out again." 
Steve's stomach sank. "Really?"
"When she found out the founder of the D&D club at Hawkins High was a Blutbad, she made me promise I would never join," Dustin said. Brightening, he continued, "Oh, wait, duh! Your parents have to know; They must be Wesen, too! Just ask them." 
Bradley Harrington's eyes had never gone black, Steve was pretty sure, though they had definitely been angry enough a time or two. He couldn't imagine his mother, Sophia, as anything less than human, either. They were both so… normal, although sometimes so damn keen on being completely on-trend that Steve suffocated with it. Half of the trouble Steve had gotten himself into over the years was more about calling too much attention to himself than legitimately bad behavior. Steve was sure they would be just as annoyed by having a genius like Dustin as a son as they were having an idiot like him. 
He tried to imagine what his father would say if Steve called just to tell them his eyes had changed color, and winced. 
"If they wanted me to know, they would have told me," Steve said, grimly. 
"Well, fuck," Dustin said, which Steve thought pretty much summed it up, yeah. 
After a moment of stewing in his own misery, Steve remembered to ask, "So what are you, then?" 
Dustin's chest puffed up with pride, and a ripple of fur sped across his face. "I'm an Eisbiber!"
"That means absolutely nothing to me, you gotta know that." 
"We're like beaver people, basically. Mom says it's impolite to compare people to animals but–" Dustin shrugged. "I call it like I see it. I'm a beaver. Lots of Wesen have animal attributes." 
"What, like a werewolf or something?" Steve asked, incredulous. 
"Those are Blutbads," Dustin confirmed. His voice dropped to a whisper. "But Mom says if you call a Blutbad a werewolf to their face, they'll eat you." 
Suddenly, Steve could only think of demodogs, their faces peeled open and saliva shining in the moonlight. All those fucking teeth. 
He nodded slowly. "I'll… keep that in mind." Shifting in his chair, Steve thought about the tight, inner group of the Party, and the way he hadn't really been a part of it before last fall. Even within their small group, there had always been an air of mystery about El and her origins. Even Nancy hadn't had many ideas, when Steve had gotten the courage to approach her about everything post-breakup, but if Dustin had known the whole time... "So how many people know about this stuff, then? Are Lucas and Mike like you? Is that why everything happened with Will that first time?" 
"I don't think Wesen are that common," Dustin said, "though that might just be a Hawkins thing? Like I said, it's hard to do research. Lucas and Mike don't know. I'm not sure how much Will knows, honestly." 
"But they know about El," Steve said, frowning. 
Dustin paused, looking guilty. "I know. That's the problem. Mike treats El like a superhero, and I'm not... Eisbibers aren't like Hexenbiests, especially superpowered ones made in labs. We mostly make things. I don't want him to think I'm... I mean. You know. It's bad enough, already, with the human shit." 
"Look, Mike and I have never gotten along, but I don't think he would do that. Whatever Wheeler is, a bully isn't one of them." Steve knew what a bully looked like. Scrawny, angry twelve years olds didn't make the list.
"Alright, so you tell them you're a--" Dustin paused. "A whatever, then." 
"I will," Steve said, "the second we can figure out what the fuck it is I'm supposed to be. What about Hop? I mean, how much would El have told him?" 
"Nothing about you." Dustin shrugged. "El was raised in a lab by humans, presumably. She didn't even know what she was. My mom had to tell Hop everything, and then made him promise me and El would never be allowed to hang out alone." 
Steve thought of angry little El, eyes painted to match her second face, who wanted to be with her friends so badly that she ran away to find her past. "I bet that Kali girl could have helped us." 
"Good luck finding her. I'm pretty sure she was half Musai," Dustin said. Steve wished he'd just stop saying shit like Steve was supposed to understand it. Being stupid about human stuff may be embarrassing, but he refused to be bullied for not knowing the names of every single race of a species he'd just realized he was a part of. 
"This is insane," Steve said. He slumped in his chair, and looked around his kitchen. It looked just like he'd left it this morning, the kind of half-cluttered that houses inevitably got when they were lived in by people who desperately didn't want to be there. Filled up with the necessities of life but abandoned just as quickly. Clean dishes haphazardly placed around the room and junk mail months old still piled on the counter. His bread box was empty, half a loaf of bread still sitting in its wrapper on top. 
It should be different, he decided. Not just his kitchen, but his entire world. That's how things had been when he'd seen the demogorgon in the Byers' house-- He'd realized things about the world in that moment that had changed everything. It was fast and violent, and the next morning he had looked at himself in the mirror and not recognized the kid looking back at him. It was the same for everything he'd ever loved, even the people, and while Steve had spent a lot of time looking back, he'd always known there was no resetting time before that moment. 
He was starting to think he'd preferred the violent realization to this slow roll of information. Now Steve was left with the knowledge that the world had already been just as it was, and Steve had just been unable to see it. Right under his nose. His parents, his best friend, his fucking kitchen... the same as it had always been. He'd just been looking at it the wrong way. 
That was a much harder pill to swallow. The demogorgon hadn't left Steve with much choice-- swallow or choke. Get it over with. Fight until you win. But how the fuck was Steve supposed to fight this? He felt helpless in a way he didn't often let himself be, disconnected from his body and vulnerable in the haze of his own thoughts. Like his soul was hanging raw and open in the space around him, and this part of him that was a living, breathing thing was left with no one home. 
"We're gonna figure it out," Dustin said. Steve blinked slowly and pulled his gaze back to the kid who'd just blown his worldview to smithereens. Dustin's face was pulled tight with determination, leftover baby fat bunching adorably in his cheeks. He looked like an angry chipmunk, Steve thought hysterically, and then corrected himself: An angry beaver. 
God, what the fuck had happened to his life? 
"I'm serious, Steve," Dustin said, when it became clear that Steve wasn't going to react outside of a foggy gaze. "We're gonna figure this out, okay? Me and you." 
"Yeah?" Steve said, the edge of a laugh in his voice. "We're gonna, what, hunt down what I am, what my parents are, completely on our own? You literally just said this shit was impossible to research." 
"We don't need that shit," Dustin said, scoffing. "When have we ever needed evidence? Or, like, adults?" 
Steve really wanted to protest that; As the older party and a practical adult himself, it was probably his job to insist on both evidence and adults for pretty much everything Dustin wanted to do, whether or not it involved fictional creatures that Steve may or may not be. The problem was, though, Dustin wasn't exactly... wrong. Hop and Joyce were the only adults that had ever been any help to either of them, and that was on a good day. Half the time they kinda just got in the way. Steve was pretty sure that if cops and doctors just listened to Nancy as much as they listened to the adults, they could have figured out most of this shit back in junior year. 
"Fuck, okay," Steve said, pushing his hands through his hair. "Sure. Goddamn it." 
"You are literally never allowed to tell me off for cussing again," Dustin said. He sounded unimpressed. 
"Sorry, is my breakdown upsetting you?" Steve shot back, but he felt his muscles unclench enough that it no longer felt painful to breathe. Dustin's snark was honestly calming, though Steve would rather die than ever admit it. Still, it was a good reminder that no matter how scared Steve was, things hadn't gotten so bad that Dustin had lost his particular brand of sarcastic zen. As much as the little shit loved to dig into the most dangerous curiosities he could find, he wasn't exactly the sort to smile calmly into the face of death, so... So whatever Steve was, he could deal with it. 
Probably. 
"I'm going to go home," Dustin said, jumping out of his seat. Ignoring Steve's small sound of protest, he continued, "and you're going to take a shower and then a nap. Tomorrow, once you've calmed down, we can do some tests." 
"Tests?" Steve repeated, his nose wrinkling. El had never really divulged what had gone on in the lab with him, but he knew just enough for his imagination to take over. He knew Dustin wasn't exactly the government experiment type, but he still hated the concept being applied to him. "See, this is exactly the kind of shit I didn't want to happen." 
"Tough shit," Dustin said, stomping his way out of the kitchen. Rolling his eyes, Steve followed. 
"Do you want a ride?" he asked, because he always did and, well... Whatever Dustin thought, Steve didn't exactly want to be alone right now. Also, he just found out there was a whole new kind of monster in this town, and every protective instinct in his body wasn't exactly jazzed about Dustin riding all the way home on his bike. "What about the B-- the Bad werewolves or whatever, you were talking about? You said one lived in Hawkins--" 
"Blutbad," Dustin corrected as he wedged his feet back into the shoes he'd previously abandoned next to Steve's front door. "And I think I'll be okay. I've existed in the same town as them for thirteen years and I haven't gotten eaten even once." 
"Not for lack of trying," Steve muttered under his breath, and then helped Dustin put his backpack on. Dustin let him, not complaining about being able to do it himself for once, and not for the first time Steve felt a small rush of affection for the kid. He knew not a lot of people understood why he and Dustin spent so much time together. Sure, sometimes the other kids were involved, Max and Lucas especially, but usually it was just Steve and Dustin. The other kids didn't really get it, and no matter what Dustin said, Steve wasn't sure they saw him as more than Dustin's big brother. As for Steve's old friends, well, Nancy had long stopped being impressed by Steve's ability to keep a kid alive for more than forty five minutes; She probably just thought it was pathetic now. Tommy sure gave him enough shit for it when Steve bothered to give him the time of day. God knew what Jonathan thought, outside of the stern nods they traded when Steve picked Will up for an arcade trip. 
They just didn't understand the warmth in Steve's chest when Dustin let him help with something stupid and small. It didn't matter if Dustin could do it on his own. That had never been the point. Helping the kid put on backpacks and jackets, fixing his hair, making sure his grilled cheeses were evenly toasted on both sides so the texture didn't turn his stomach-- No matter how much Steve bitched, he loved doing every little thing no one had ever done for him. 
"Listen, Steve," Dustin said, standing nervously in his doorway. "I want you to know that it doesn't matter." 
Steve dragged himself out of his sentimental reverie. "What?"
Dustin squirmed, face pinched with thought. "What kind of Wesen you are, it doesn't matter. I'm gonna help you because you want to know, and that's-- That's cool. You've got a right to know, just like El. But knowing didn't change El, and it's not going to change you. You'll still be Steve, and Steve's pretty great." 
Blinking, Steve couldn't respond for a moment. Finally, he managed to say, "Are you trying to pep talk me right now, Henderson?" 
Embarrassment flooded Dustin's face, creasing his brown and throwing blush across his cheeks. "Okay, fuck you, see you in the morning, douchebag." 
Laughing, Steve followed Dustin out the door and onto his front steps. "Hey, Dustin?" he called as he watched Dustin clamber onto his bicycle. Dustin looked up, eyes squinted in suspicion. "Thanks, man," Steve said, a blush rising in his own face. 
Dustin grinned. "Welcome to the club, asshole," he said, and then sped out of the Harringtons' driveway as fast as his little Gumby legs could carry him. God, Steve loved that kid.
Dustin kept his promise. He was there the next morning, before Steve's neighbors had even left for church, with a list of potential 'tests' to try out. None of them were the weird science experiments that Steve had been dreading. Most of them, in fact, were just Steve trying to flex muscles he shouldn't have. 
"Acid spit?" Steve read, incredulous. 
"That one's a far reach," Dustin admitted. Shifting through his backpack, Dustin pulled out item after item, and Steve lowered the list to look doubtfully at the large slingshot that now sat on his kitchen table. "But I didn't want to leave anything out." It wasn't a long list, Steve noted, and most of it was ridiculous. No matter what Dustin said, he was pretty sure he'd have noticed something like kisses that drugged people or the ability to lead rats around. 
Probably. 
"Fine," Steve said, giving up. "But we're not doing this shit outside where the neighbors can see. The last thing I need is another rumor going around about King Steve." 
"It's your house," Dustin said, shrugging, and threw the water balloon launcher over his shoulder.
To Steve's complete and utter lack of surprise, he did not have acid spit or any other set of superpowers. At Dustin's insistence, Steve ran across his backyard a few times, picked up some heavy things, caught a few launched tennis balls-- 
"I'm not playing anymore fetch," Steve decided, dropping the last of the tennis balls at Dustin's feet. 
Dustin glared up at him with all the tiny rage of a scientist disrespected in his field. At least, Steve imagined. He hadn't known too many non-evil scientists in his life. "I'm trying to determine if you have super strength or improved reflexes." 
"Oh, good," Steve said, and then flopped into his usual lawn chair. "I don't." 
"You picked up a grill," Dustin protested, but even he didn't sound convinced. 
"I was on three different sports teams for all four years of high school," Steve said, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. Dustin was only trying to help, and Steve knew he should be grateful. But once the panic had faded, all Steve was left with was this... irritation. Wasn't it enough that everything he'd ever known about his life had turned out to be a lie? One more lie on top of everything else turned out to be just one more pea under the princess' mattresses, and Steve was sick to death of vegetables in his bedding. "And I've been prepping to murder interdimensional monsters for the last two of 'em. Of fucking course I run fast and pick up heavy shit. It's, like, literally all I'm good at." 
"I give up," Dustin said, throwing his arms up. Paper floated down around them, escaping from Dustin's clipboard. "You're the most useless Wesen in the world! If I hadn't seen you woge myself, I'd think you were an Eisbiber!" 
"Jesus Christ, kid," Steve said, "Cool it on the beaver hate. Your mom's pretty cool." 
Dustin's glare was intense enough that even Steve knew it was time to shut up. They sat in silence for a moment, Steve placidly watching as Dustin squinted into the reflective light of the pool. Steve had no idea what Dustin was thinking, and didn't have enough context to guess. At this point, Steve was ready to chalk the whole thing up to a trick of the light and move on with his life. Eventually, though, Dustin shook himself out of it and sat on the other end of the lounger, close enough their knees bumped together. 
"Woge for me," Dustin demanded. Steve had learned enough that wogeing meant the change, the other 'face' that El and Dustin possessed. Dustin had talked about it at length that morning, talking about the difference reasons for it and how it might point to the truth of Steve's identity. None of the tests had worked, though, and Steve's eyes had stayed human. 
"I don't think it's the same thing for me, man," Steve said. When he saw Dustin about to protest, he rushed to continue. The last thing he needed was another Henderson rant about the scientific method or some other bullshit Steve wouldn't bother to remember. "I tried for hours to make it happen last night, just so I could make sure that it had actually happened. Besides, it's only my eyes-- And your thing is literally everything but your eyes. Those stay human."
"But El's don't." 
"El also looks like a literal diseased corpse when she changes," Steve said, tired. "Like we've said a million times, it's stupid to compare either of us to the girl literally created and then raised in a lab." 
Even Dustin couldn't argue with that logic, but it didn't phase him for long. "Fine, then we just need to replicate the last time you woged, so I can take notes of all the characteristics I may have missed the last time," he said, slipping back into the overly professional voice that Steve was almost certain he'd stolen from one of his doctors. 
Resisting the urge to groan, Steve frowned. "So, what, we have to go get in the car?" 
"Maybe, if it doesn't work here, but I don't think the place is really the important variable here," Dustin said, and Steve supposed it was a sign of how seriously Dustin was taking this if he didn't even pause to ruthlessly bully Steve for getting it wrong. "How did you feel the last time your eyes changed? What caused the feelings?" 
"Dustin, you were literally there," Steve sighed, but Dustin was already speaking over him before he could finish the sentence. 
"Yeah, but I'm not you! I don't know what instincts were happening in that big head of yours!" 
"I don't know, I was... upset?" Steve asked, and when Dustin rolled his eyes, he kicked at the kid's legs. "Hey! You're the one sounding like a fucking Hollywood therapist! What am I supposed to say? I just watched my best friend turn into a fucking beaver!" 
Dustin's eyes narrowed. "You think my woge triggered yours?" 
"I don't... know?" Steve leaned back in the chair, brow creasing as he tried to remember what had been going through his head before the panic of not recognizing his own reflection. The primal fear hung over every second of the memory now, but he knew that wasn't true. There had been adrenaline, yes, but Steve hadn't been scared of Dustin. His instincts had been more violent, almost angry. That had been what scared him, in the beginning. It hadn't been Dustin that sent him scrambling out of the car, but his own impulses. "When you changed, it made me... I thought I had to fight you." 
Dustin hummed under his breath. "Once, when we were in the city, Mom and I ran into this lizard guy in the hospital. He turned out to be really nice, but when Mom first saw him, she woged out of fear and he woged back-- I think it was probably some kind of predator-prey instinct. Maybe it's like that?" 
Steve felt a pit grow in his stomach. He didn't like the sound of that. "So, I'm like... A hunter?" 
"Unless you think you're the only natural prey of the North American beaver, yeah," Dustin said. 
Great, Steve thought, what a way to have every fucking bad thing anyone had ever thought about him confirmed in one fell swoop. Crossing his arms across his chest, he tried not to settle into a sulk. Pouting in front of the kid you were supposed to be a good influence for was embarrassing as hell, and probably even worse than being an instinct-driven murder machine. "Does that at least narrow it down?" 
Dustin made an unsure noise in the back of his throat, kicking his feet back and forth as he thought. "I mean, kinda. It means you're definitely not anything my mother will let me within five feet of, but we pretty much already knew that. The problem is that, as far as I know, most of the Wesen world is pretty dangerous. Even some of the prey animals are killers." 
"According to your mom," Steve said. He loved Claudia Henderson, he really did, but she thought her neighbor's Yorkie was two seconds from killing them all on a good day.
"According to my mom," Dustin agreed. "Look, let's just woge right now, and it'll confirm it." 
"You don't think that triggering my 'predator instincts' on purpose will be a bad idea?" Steve asked, shrinking in on himself. If he hurt Dustin over some stupid science experiment, he'd have to go ahead and drown himself in the pool. And he genuinely didn't think Dustin could take the extra trauma on top of everything else. 
"You'll be ready for it this time," Dustin said, and twisted around so they were face to face. 
'Ready' turned out to be mostly erroneous. There was no countdown, no time to prepare-- Their eyes met and then Dustin was changing. The fur, the nose, the cleft lip. It was all as Steve remembered it, all exactly as he'd played over and over again in his mind. Steve braced himself, waiting for the same rush of adrenaline, for the same muscle-clenching urge to fight. 
It never came. 
One moment passed, then another. Steve forced himself to breathe. "I'm not feeling any rodent murdering tendencies," he admitted, although he couldn't quite convince his shoulders to relax.
"Well," Dustin said, his tiny beaver face peering into Steve's. "Your eyes definitely changed. They're... Huh." 
"What?" Steve wanted to squirm under Dustin's gaze, uncomfortable with the very intense eye contact going on right now. Even though Dustin was looking at him, in his eyes, Steve didn't feel like he was being included in the interaction. If anything, it felt more like Dustin was watching something through him, and after all the multidimensional shit they'd been through, the last thing Steve wanted to think about was his eyes being a portal. "Come on, man, you're freaking me out." 
"They're reflective," Dustin said, his voice faraway with thought. 
"Yeah?" Steve said, confused. "So are everybody's."
"No, they're like mirrors. I can see myself completely. Every detail." Dustin's voice still sounded lost, and Steve swallowed down the sudden lump in his throat. 
"That's weird," he said, eventually, when Dustin had proven that he had forgotten to even blink. "Um, can this part be over now? I'm not great at eye contact on a good day." 
After a moment, Dustin shook himself, looking just as confused as Steve felt. "Yeah, sorry, man," he said, frowning down at his notepad. "I don't know what happened. Maybe your species is good at hypnosis? Some kind of snake, maybe?" 
"Do I look like a fucking snake to you, Dustin?" Steve said, gesturing to his smooth skin and fluffy hair. 
"No," Dustin admitted, "but we don't really have any proof your species has an animal counterpart, either. El doesn't. And before you say it--" Steve closed his mouth. "-- I'm not comparing you to El. I'm saying that whatever a Hexenbiest is supposed to be, I don't think it was originally like me. Maybe they're not the only ones." 
Honestly, Steve hated the idea of his powers being anything like El's. To put it mildly, El's powers were fucking terrifying. Not the girl herself; It had been impossible to be afraid of El after Steve had gotten to know the sweet little girl that hid behind all that trauma. He adored her, really. But her powers? Steve genuinely didn't know how El slept at night, because if it were him with all that responsibility, he'd probably just have a heart attack. The more power someone had, the more opportunities they had to fuck up. Steve was proof of that. Having as much power as El was his worst nightmare. And if Dustin was right, that Steve might be something like her... 
"We should tell Hop about this," Steve decided. Immediately, Dustin groaned. 
"Come on, Steve! Hopper isn't going to let us dig into this and you know it!" 
"Yeah, and maybe we shouldn't," Steve said. "I don't know anything about this shit, and my parents aren't talking. But if you're right, and I have the ability to hurt someone, then Hop needs to know about it." 
Dustin's face softened. "You-- It's not like that, Steve. You wouldn't--" 
"You don't know that." Steve was on his feet again, pacing the concrete that surrounded his pool. "We don't know anything, and you've seen what happens when El gets angry. And what happened to Will last year?" 
"That wasn't Wesen related," Dustin tried to reason, but Steve was already shaking his head. 
"That we know of," Steve said, "and I think we've proven that neither of us actually know a goddamn thing about this."
"... Fine. But I want it on the record that I think this is stupid, and you would never hurt anybody, Wesen or not." 
Steve rolled his eyes. "Your complaint has been recorded, and will be going directly into the trash. Do you have your walkie on you?" 
They went inside to collect Dustin's abandoned bag, his walkie still packed safely inside. They had given Hopper a Party-approved walkie the year before, when he decided that in case of emergency, relying on phones wasn't enough. Steve was pretty sure he'd given up on the Upside Down being a one-time thing, and making sure the kids weren't being eaten by monsters in the woods made everyone sleep better at night. They had a separate channel, though, for adult-included emergencies, because Hopper had threatened to arrest Mike for calling in a Code Orange over being out of toilet paper. 
Steve hesitated over the dial, for a moment, and wondered if discovering you weren't human was a Code Yellow or Orange. 
"It's not going to call itself," Dustin said, and Steve-- 
His eyes shut, all usual irritation at Dustin's annoyances drowned out by fear. Because he was so fucking afraid. Afraid of himself, yeah, but also a million other things. Like, how was he supposed to look Hopper in the eyes and admit what he was? Sure, Hop was okay with El, but El was a kid. His kid. Steve wasn't sure if he'd have taken the beaver thing half as well from anyone but Dustin. Wasn't sure he would now, even, and he was fucking one of them. Would Hop think he was a monster? 
Even worse, would Hop believe him when Steve said he was something to be feared? Steve wasn't sure if he hoped Hop would, or if he dreaded it. 
"Can you wait outside?" Steve asked, his voice shaking. He could already see Dustin gearing up for an epic bitch fit, so he quickly continued, "Just for a second. I swear, you can come with me. I can't do this shit without you, man." 
The admission made Dustin quiet. With shock or with mollification, Steve didn't know, but whatever it inspired in Dustin was enough to have him nodding and walking out the door. 
Steve turned the walkie to Hop's channel, and held the button down. "Chief, are you there?" 
There was a moment of quiet, and Steve thought- hoped? -that Hopper didn't hear him, that he might be busy or at work or maybe he'd thrown the stupid thing in a drawer somewhere, but eventually the speaker crackled to life. The chief's voice poured out, "That you, Harrington?" 
"Yeah," Steve said, the vowels coming out reedy in the tightness of his throat. "Yeah, it's me. Um... I got a... A Code Orange? Or maybe a Yellow." 
"I can never remember that stupid fucking system," Hopper said, and on any other day, Steve would have laughed. "You okay, kid?" 
Kid, Steve thought, his brain buzzing, when was the last time he'd been a kid? 
"No," Steve said, answering the question truthfully for the first time in years. "No, I'm not." 
There was a moment of static, and then, "You need me there?" 
Steve wanted to say yes. Steve wanted to sit on the floor and wait for an adult to come by and take care of it. Steve wanted a dad who would come home and make everything go away. But that wasn't the truth, and it would scare Dustin, so Steve took a deep breath and acted like a fucking grown up for once. "I was thinking that Dustin and I could come by the cabin tonight, actually. There's something there I think we might need." 
Hopper made a small, considering noise. "This about all that nastiness this fall?" 
"Dustin doesn't think so," Steve said, glad to be able to report some good news for once. "It's more… personal. But, you know, you have a lot in the cabin that might have answers, so…" 
There was a moment of dead air, and Steve wondered if Hop was weighing his affection for El against his need to protect Steve. Hopper was obviously more of a protective dad than Steve's dad had ever been, putting even Claudia Henderson to shame with his hovering abilities, and Steve… didn't begrudge El that. Really, he didn't. But there was a lump in his throat when he thought about Hopper leaving him to deal with this on his own. And he would, if it meant keeping his daughter out of trouble. Steve knew that without a moment's thought. 
He wondered what it said about him that the knowledge made his chest ache. Nothing good, probably. 
"Come on down," he said eventually, and something in Steve's chest unclenched. "You'll both stay for dinner." 
"Sounds good," Steve said, although they both knew it hadn't been a question. "We should be there in about ten minutes." 
"Yeah, I know where you live, boy," Hopper said with a snort, and then the line went quiet. 
Despite himself, Steve smiled down at the walkie as he threw it haphazardly back into Dustin's bag. No matter what changed, at least Hop would always be the same. He was the same as a father figure as he was when he had been a stranger breaking up all Steve's best parties. It was a small comfort, to see someone strong enough to not let all the craziness of their lives change him– A comfort that Steve let wash over him in the silence of his kitchen, breathing deep. 
Okay, game face on, he told himself. Keeping how badly this affected him from Dustin was hard enough, and he knew it would be near impossible in the face of El's observant gaze. He wasn't entirely sure how this would affect her, but keeping as calm as possible would stop her from freaking out, and that was always good for Steve's health. 
He loved the kid but, Jesus, she was scary sometimes. 
"So what's the game plan?" Dustin asked as they both climbed into the Beemer. "I mean, what are we going to tell him?"
"Stop trying to game the Chief," Steve said, with the air of an older troublemaker who had long since learned better. "It literally never works." 
"So, what, we just go in there and tell the truth?" Dustin said. He sounded uncomfortable at the idea, which Steve kind of understood. He'd been the same at Dustin's age, always lying and keeping problems to himself for genuinely no good reason. He was still working hard to break the habit, obviously. He didn't know why he did it, though, and Dustin probably wasn't even aware of it yet– It was just a knee-jerk reaction, something Steve had learned after years of proof that telling the truth rarely got you anything but grounded. 
"If we want Hop to help, he's gotta know what's going on," Steve said, with more confidence than he felt. Dustin argued for the entire drive, less because he disagreed, Steve was pretty sure, and more because it was easier than dwelling on the mystery. Sometimes your brain needed a break from the panic spiral of the unknown, and bugging the shit out of your best friend was the perfect solution, apparently. 
Steve sighed in relief when he rounded the last corner and the cabin slid into view. 
Hidden away in the depths of the same woods that abutted Steve's yard, Hopper's cabin was small and plain, unnoticeable from the main roads that cut through the town mere feet away. Steve wasn't sure how many people knew about the place, but those in the know rarely came by except by appointment. Even Joyce knew better than to roll up to Hopper's unannounced. If anything, such a bold move would be a sign that something had gone truly, terribly wrong. 
There was always a bit of nerves just before Steve knocked on the cabin door. Every time, something in him was convinced he would be turned away. The confirmation beforehand didn't help the anxiety, and Steve was never sure why– Maybe it was the feeling of constantly intruding on El and Hopper's new family, or maybe it was just the fact that they both could kick Steve's ass, but the initial frisson of nerves never faded even after Steve had grown comfortable in their presence. 
Hopper opened the door before he could knock, leaving Steve's hand hanging awkwardly in the air. 
"This doesn't look like an emergency," Hopper said, voice gruff– But his gaze swept carefully over the both of them. 
Steve opened his mouth to explain, or at least offer some kind of vague reassurance that would get them in the door, but Dustin beat him to the punch, as usual. "It's not really a human-type emergency." 
Hopper's eyes snapped to Steve, surprise and suspicion mixing together in equal measure. "You said this wasn't about the lab." 
Steve swallowed, his mouth suddenly dry under Hopper's gaze. 
"Most Wesen aren't man-made," Dustin said, suddenly huffy with offense. Steve would probably be offended, too, if he'd had a lifetime to adjust to not being human. Seemed kind of rude to start assuming people were created in a lab. "Look, can we come in? If I have to re-explain my entire society to you, I at least want to do it sitting down." 
To Steve's surprise, Hopper smiled down at Dustin and took a step back, shrugging. It wasn't exactly a grin, but it was there plain as day, small and fond. "Sure, come on in. El," Hopper said, raising his voice to shout across the cabin to his daughter. "Company's here!" 
El's door swung open on cue, all the proof Steve needed that she'd known they were coming the whole time. The girl all but sprinted into the main room, nearly tackling Dustin in a hug. They looked almost like siblings, all brown curls and wide smiles, and El's delight at seeing Dustin was effusive. Despite the stress of the last two days, Steve found himself sharing Hopper's smile. 
The kids chattered to each other, voices soft with delight, and Hopper made eye contact over their heads. "You hanging in there, Harrington?" It was the kindest way to say that he'd heard the panic in Steve's voice earlier, and embarrassment flooded through his veins. Steve appreciated the concern. Really, he did. But suddenly the shame of his own need to be cared for was overwhelming, and Steve had to fight the urge to back out of the house with a mumbled excuse. 
He couldn't figure this out on his own. This wasn't going away. 
Luckily, Hopper's voice had reminded El of their second guest, and she saved Steve from having to reply by pulling away from Dustin. "Steve!" she cooed, her voice still pure childhood. 
She went in for a hug, her face tilting up to beam at him, and– As their eyes met, El's face shifted. The rapidly familiar ripple of a woge, leaving behind the twisted, pitted skin of her second face. 
The black of her eyes burned like coals, and the intensity of them sung in Steve's veins as adrenaline shot through his blood. His hand, which had raised to pull El into a hug, shot towards Dustin, instead– 
Every cell in his body thrummed with instinct. He needed to get the kid out of here, away from the danger. He needed to put himself in between, needed to fight.
Before his hand could even land on Dustin's back, his feet were off the floor. 
Steve hit the cabin wall, the entire room rattling with the weight of El's power. He could hear Hopper and Dustin's voices, surprised and panicked, but their voices were lost in the ringing in his ears. He struggled in vain against El's invisible hold, rage mounting with every futile second. 
The part of him that still held on to rationality, the part that made him Steve, struggled to calm his pounding heart. He knew El wouldn't hurt Dustin, knew El wasn't the threat his body said she was, but it took everything he had just to bite down on the feral scream building in his throat. 
The strings of El's power were cut just as quickly as they were woven, and Steve slumped to the floor. There were hands on him, but he recognized them as Dustin's, and he let them hold him down. 
"I'm… I'm sorry," El said, her voice small. Steve wanted to cry at the fear there, even as the furious parts of him settled in smugness. 
He didn't look at her. He couldn't. Instead, Steve looked up at Hopper, pleading. 
"Something's wrong with me," Steve said, voice shaking. "You have to help." 
Hopper's face was grim, his mouth a flat line as he looked down at them. "You feel the Mindflayer on him?" he asked El, his eyes never leaving Steve. 
El was quick to shake her head. "No, it's not like Will. It was… I think it was me." 
"I already told you, it's not an Upside-Down thing! He's just a Wesen," Dustin said. His hands were shaking where he had them fisted in Steve's t-shirt. Steve leaned into them, feeling them steady against his ribs. 
"Like us?" Some of the unease faded from El, excitement in her eyes. 
"Not exactly," Steve said, still looking up at Hopper with guilty eyes. 
Dustin turned to El, his eyes sparkling with the excitement of having someone who would entertain his nonsense for once. "You noticed his eyes, right? That's the only aspect of his woge. I've never seen anything like it, have you?" 
El shook her head. "I've had woges forced before, but I–" 
"Forced?" Hopper repeated, and Steve slumped further into himself. 
"Steve didn't, though," El said, and her eyes drifted back to Steve. He didn't like the way her eyes went unfocused when he looked back, the same way Dustin had drifted into a haze earlier that day. "I was… afraid." 
"A prey response," Steve said, glumly repeating what Dustin had theorized before. 
"Not of you," El said gently, to Steve's surprise. "When your eyes went black, I could see myself in them. Not my body, but my…" Her face twisted in thought. "My self." 
"I did, too," Dustin said, frowning. "And Steve said he had the same initial adrenaline response, but I didn't–" 
"I didn't like what I saw," El said, her words clipped in the harsh, stilted way it had been when she was younger. 
All four of them sat in the silence that followed for a moment. Steve wondered if they were also trying to ignore what Steve was: The things El had done that Dustin hadn't, the things she'd had no choice but to become. He wasn't sure what El had seen staring back at her, but Steve couldn't imagine having to actually face the worst of himself. And how did his pathetic little life even compare to the things El had survived? 
Eventually, Hopper broke the silence. "I didn't see anything." The skepticism in his voice was palpable, but there was relief there, too. 
"Humans wouldn't," Steve said, a terrible realization creeping up his spine. "We were wrong, Dustin. It's not a predator thing. I think it's…" He huffed, trying to think of some kind of comparison. "It's like those butterflies that make themselves look like owls. They're trying to fend other Wesen off. Whatever I am, it's afraid of being hunted." 
"Alright, alright. This is–" Hopper rubbed a hand over his face, looking five years older than he had when Steve and Dustin had knocked on his door. "Start from the beginning. What exactly are we dealing with here?" 
Dustin and Steve shared a look. 
'You're the smart one,' Steve said with a shrug. 
'You're the one with the freaky eyes,' Dustin said with an arched brow. 
"Alright, so… It started after I picked Dustin up from school yesterday," Steve began. He ran them both through everything, even the parts that made him cringe. The first intense need to fight or escape in the face of Dustin's woge, the changes in his own reflection he couldn't replicate. 
El listened politely, sending Steve small smiles when she noticed him looking her way. Her obvious happiness when he or Dustin included her in their discussion of Wesen almost made Steve feel guilty for hating this. He knew isolation, both real and metaphorical, was the hardest part of El's slow integration into society, and having more Wesen around was probably a dream come true, but– Steve wasn't that guy. He didn't know a damn thing about being Wesen. He was just… human with a condition. 
Besides, whatever levity El brought to the situation, Hopper was apparently determined to stomp out. His face was that of a man facing down a firing squad, one who was fucking pissed about it, besides. When Dustin mentioned Steve's parents, he practically went apoplectic, turning away as his face went redder and redder. 
Whatever the fuck that was about. 
"So we decided we should come to you," Steve said, gesturing, "because you would know what to do about… me." 
Hopper's face didn't get any less angry. El, who had apparently just noticed her father's countenance, looked between them with wide eyes. 
"What to do about you," Hopper repeated, voice flat. 
"Yeah," Steve said, nodding. "Like you did with Will." 
El and Dustin both flinched, but Hopper was made of stone. Nothing but long, uncomfortable eye contact from him. "I don't think there's anything to be done here, kid," Hopper said. 
Steve couldn't suppress the full-body reaction to that, scrambling to his feet. Adrenaline was hitting him again, sending his already exhausted heart into paroxysms, but now it was true fear. Not of some imagined enemy, but of himself. "I can't just be around people like this, Hop," he said through gritted teeth. 
"You're around people now." 
"That's my fucking point! I have like four fucking friends in the entire world, and two of them turned out to be the exact kind of people that I'm a danger to. The only reason El isn't hurt is because she can kick my ass," Steve pushed a hand through his hair, feeling it stick up at the ends from leftover hairspray. He didn't care. He wanted to pull it out by the fucking roots. "What if I go to the grocery store and meet a Wesen in the fucking dairy aisle, Hop? What about the next time I see Mrs. Henderson?" 
"You didn't want to hurt El," Hopper said, his voice calm but his face still marred by anger. "You were reaching for Dustin. You wanted to protect him." 
"You can't know that for sure. I can't– I can't control myself when I'm like that," Steve said. "It took literally everything I had not to hurt my own fucking kid." 
"Me?" Dustin squeaked.
"You can. I know what someone out of control looks like, Harrington. You aren't it." 
"Why can't you just fucking help me?" Steve said, his voice going reedy with desperation. 
Hopper sneered. "I'm not going to help you punish yourself for something you haven't even done yet." 
"I think maybe we should go outside," El said, and Dustin nodded eagerly. They both scurried outside like they were being chased. 
"Stay where I can see you!" Hopper bellowed after them. Steve blinked back tears, shaking in the silence the kids left behind. Hopper took a deep breath. "Look, kid…" 
"I don't get why you won't help," Steve said, his eyes falling to the floor. "It's not punishment when it's El. Why can't you–" 
"El could control herself," Hopper said. "She just didn't know that she needed to. She's still learning how to be a person, Steve. She's just a kid." 
"Right, right. Sorry," Steve rubbed at his nose, willing his tears away. "I'm sorry I bothered you, I–" 
"That's not…" Hopper sighed, grabbing one of Steve's shoulders in one big hand. "What I'm saying is that you're already a good kid. I don't have to worry about you getting yourself or somebody else hurt." 
"I get myself and other people hurt literally all the time."
Hopper rolled his eyes. "You know what I mean. You're not going to hurt the kids, and I don't believe you're going to start attacking randoms in the street. You're still you." 
"But…" Steve swallowed around a dry throat. He didn't know how to make Hopper understand, didn't know how to make him care. He'd never been very good at that. Half of his life, Steve had been begging people to care. None of it had ever worked. "Alright. I get it." 
Hopper nodded, looking relieved. "Just go home, Harrington. Lay low for a little while. Get used to the new instincts." Steve still wanted to protest, but he agreed. "Good. Let's get outside, before those kids start some trouble." 
Steve followed Hopper out the cabin door, head held low. Dustin and El were waiting for them on the porch, sitting on the edge with their knees pulled up to his chest. They weren't talking, just watching the door with their bright, expectant faces. 
"It'll be fine," Hopper told them, voice calmer than it had been inside. The kids deserved that, Steve told himself. "Steve's got this." 
"Yup," Steve said, his tongue sticking to the roof of his mouth. "It's all under control." 
El darted forward, throwing her arms around Steve's chest and clinging. Steve tried not to meet anyone's eyes over her head and hugged her back just as hard. 
"I'm sorry I scared you," he whispered, heart twinging in his chest. Not much scared El, and now he was on the list. What did that say about him? 
Squeezing even harder, El shook her head, rubbing her face against his chest. "Don't be sorry. It's not your fault," she said. It sounded like she was mimicking someone, and Steve wondered if Hopper had done that for her. If she'd been held close and told everything would be okay. 
Swallowing around his jealousy, Steve held on until El stepped back and smiled up at him. "You'll have to give me some tips on how to do this Wesen thing," Steve said. "Dustin's terrible at it." 
She smiled up at him. "We'll learn together." 
Dinner was a simple affair. Hopper hadn't let Steve help at all, so he had sat on the couch and watched Dustin and El play card games until spaghetti was on the table. The kids were loud and chaotic, thrilled to be around each other again, and it didn't matter that Steve only talked when someone asked him a question. Somehow, he made it through the meal, even when every bite churned in his stomach. 
Even when Dustin kept sending him little looks of concern, always too perceptive for his own good. 
They said their goodbyes quickly, even when El begged them to stay. Hopper, laughing, had told her they couldn't stay forever, and waved them out of the cabin and into the car. 
When Steve pulled into the Henderson's driveway, Dustin hesitated before opening the door. 
"So, I've been thinking," Dustin said, "and I don't think I should go to Camp Know-Where this year." 
Immediately, Steve knew he had fucked up. Dustin had talked about little else since the spring semester had started. No matter what problem he'd had, whether it was bullies or how boring his classes were, Dustin had changed the subject to how good this summer was going to be. And Steve got it. Really, he did. If he'd grown up in a town where no one cared about sports and bullied him for liking basketball, he'd be fucking stoked to spend some time with people who understood him, too.
But now Steve had ruined that for him, too. 
"Absolutely not." 
"I can't just…" Dustin looked distressed, and Steve was all the more determined to send the little shit to camp himself. "What if something happens while you're away?" 
"What's gonna happen?" Steve said, even as his brain played a horror film of all the things he could do without Dustin as a buffer for the rest of the world. He tried to borrow a little of Hopper's confidence. "I just have to get a handle on my instincts, that's all." 
"I don't think sitting in your house alone all summer–" Dustin started, but Steve cut him off, slicing his hand through the air. 
"You're going to your shitty little nerd camp, Dustin, and that is final." Before Dustin could protest again, Steve continued, "I have to get a job this summer anyway, remember? Official Bradley Harrington decree. Even if you stayed home, we wouldn't be able to hang out all day. You can't, like, come to work with me." 
Dustin didn't look convinced. "What if something happens?" 
Honestly, Steve didn't know, either. "You know, I'll call…" Who? The last thing Steve wanted was to disappoint Hopper, so he and El were out. The kids were too young to help with this shit, anyway, and Steve didn't really know many other people. That only left… "I'll call Jonathan or Nancy, okay?" 
"You're really gonna call your ex-girlfriend and tell her you went insane and beat the shit out of somebody?" 
Steve sighed. "If I say yes, will you go to camp?" 
Dustin nodded. "Honestly, I kind of hope you fuck up, now." 
Closing his eyes, Steve responded: "Get the fuck out of my car, Henderson." 
The rest of the spring went smoothly. Steve kept to himself at school; He had already descended into minor loserdom after everything with Billy, so it was a piece of cake to stop making eye contact with anyone he wasn't completely sure was human. Graduation came and went with little fanfare. He skipped the ceremony, and made up some shitty excuse about a vacation with his parents. 
He and the kids ate pizza and watched movies all night. Steve pretended not to see the pity in Nancy's eyes when she picked up Mike and Will the next morning. He waved politely at Jonathan and closed the door.
A few weeks later, Dustin left for camp. 
He started work that same week, and Steve was grateful for the distraction. Orientation was a quick affair, the manager running him through health and safety protocol and quizzing him on customer service. Steve wore his best mask the whole time, smiling at all the right times, frowning thoughtfully when he was supposed to. 
"Let me introduce you to your coworker," the manager said, and led Steve into the back room. A girl sat at the table there. She was wearing the same awful uniform that Steve currently held in his hands, but Steve could still see the nerdom radiating off her. Something about the hair and the tacky thrift-store jewelry. This wasn't one of 'his' crowd, and Steve breathed a little easier for it. "Steve, this is Robin Buckley. Rob–" 
"I know who he is," Robin said, and raised her head. 
The woge rippled across her face, revealing fur and piercing golden eyes.
[Next Chapter]
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munsonsduchess · 2 years
Text
The God (and goddess) of Hellfire
summary: at a high school dance dustin learns some shocking news about you and eddie w/c: 2,049 warnings: language, eddie's dirty mind, mentions of the readers body (breasts) a/n: yeah so i was hoping to get something else entirely out this week but then my co author came home and also i read class ring by @eddie-van-munson which now lives rent free in my head and i had to try my hand at wife!reader. Not beta'd once again this is nothing but my own meandering thoughts and if you notice a typo or a mistake no you didn't.
(moodboard by me)
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It was the first big high school dance the freshman were able to attend and both Eddie and Steve had insisted on singing up as chaperones. Well Steve had done so first of all and Eddie refused to let Steve go alone and "hog all the glory" though what glory he was talking about was anyone's guess. Still true to his word Eddie had marched down to the front office and demanded that his name be put on the chaperone sheet for the dance after Steve's, which is when you'd gotten the call to ask if you would come and chaperone Eddie chaperoning the kids. Something about a spiked punch incident in your junior year neither you nor Eddie claimed to have any knowledge of but you'd agreed anyway since if Eddie was dead set on chaperoning it wasn't like you had any plans.
You'd dug out Eddie's one good suit from the back of your shared closet and your best dress along with it before making a special trip to the dry cleaners in the newly rebuilt Starcourt Mall. It would be pricey to have your things dry cleaned but for an occasion like this you didn't mind dipping into your savings, Eddie always looked so handsome in his suit and the usual mix of weed, aftershave and cigarette smoke wasn't exactly the perfect combination for a high school dance. At least not the first one for Eddie's little Hellfire proteges. 
The school gym had been decked out in whatever theme the dance committee had chosen, as near as you could guess it was 'under the sea' but you couldn't be too sure. You'd been given punch bowl duties apparently to keep it safe from anyone with 'nefarious intent' according to Principal Higgens with a pointed look at you and Eddie. Eddie just grinned and slipped his silver flask back into your purse as discreetly as he could manage. It wasn't altogether boring being at the punch table, you had a good vantage point of the dancefloor and it was funny watching Eddie and Steve following each other around the dancefloor and bickering like an old married couple. 
"It's nice to see you back in Hawkins High" a voice said next to you making you jump a little, you'd been so lost in your own little world you hadn't noticed your former english teacher Mr Shields making his way over to you,
"It's an important night," you replied with a smile, "Punch? I promise nothing happened to it" 
"It's not that I'm doubting you but I seem to recall an incident with a punch bowl in your junior year involving you and Mr Munson" 
"Everyone keeps mentioning that. I have no idea what they're talking about" 
You knew exactly what they were talking about. You'd distracted the poor wallflower behind the punch bowl and Eddie had emptied his flask full of Rum he'd siphoned from his uncle into the bowl. You'd both denied it but of course you'd both ended up in detention because the teachers weren't stupid. 
"Well I must say married life certainly seems to suit you" Mr Shields continued, "I admit that when I heard about you and Mr Munson tying the knot so quickly I was doubtful but you seem to be flourishing" 
"YOU AND EDDIE ARE MARRIED?" the sound of Dustin Henderson yelling shook you, you hadn't noticed the smaller boy who was currently standing in front of you his mouth hanging open, 
"Dustin close your mouth you'll catch flies" you sighed pushing your hair out of your face, "and what are you yelling about? Of course Eddie and I are married" 
"Since when?" 
You looked at Dustin for a moment trying to figure out what sort of joke or prank this was. Had Eddie put him up to this? Or was it Steve? 
"Are you serious right now? Since two years ago when I graduated, you know that" 
"No I didn't!" 
"Dustin I wear a wedding ring!" you showed the boy your left hand and the ring that adorned your fourth finger, "you've seen it before" 
"I thought it was a class ring! Or one of Eddie's!" 
As if summoned by mention of his name alone Eddie appeared beside Dustin looking confused, he looked between the boy and you furrowing his brow, 
"What's with all the yelling over here?" 
"YOU DIDN'T TELL ME YOU WERE MARRIED!" Dustin thrust an accusing finger in Eddie's face and scowled at him. Eddie's confusion seemed to mirror your own and you sighed, this was going to be a long night. 
➽───────────────❥
The dance had ended and now there you all were sitting in a diner across town. You, Eddie, the Hellfire kids and Steve Harrington who was giving some of the kids a ride home so had tagged along to the diner, 
"So let me get this straight, not one of you little idiots noticed that my girl wears a wedding ring?" Eddie asked, "you see her every week for hellfire!"
"Yeah but we thought it was one of your rings" Mike said as he looked around at his friends for support, "you've got a lot" 
"It's a small gold ring, Eddie's are huge and silver" you countered, "not the same thing boys" 
"We thought you were just dating!" Lucas interjected, "we didn't know we swear!" 
"Eddie your children are fucking stupid" you sighed, you'd had such faith in these kids. Well in Dustin, the jury was still out on Wheeler and Sinclair. 
A chorus of objections went up around the table and was instantly silenced by Eddie who then looked at Steve perhaps for help or to share his disbelief, 
"Don't look at me man, I remember you two getting hitched after graduation. Everyone was talking about it" 
"How did it happen?" Dustin asked, "how did you two get married?" 
"I mean we went down to the County Hall, stood in front of a judge, he said some shit, we signed some shit, we exchanged rings, we sealed the deal" Eddie said, "boy did we seal the deal" 
"Enough you perv" you swatted him on the arm and rolled your eyes, Eddie could be incorrigible when he got worked up.
"That's not what I meant" Dustin argued, seeming to miss Eddie's innuendo, "like how did you get together? How did you decide you wanted to get married?" 
"Well if you ask Eds it was the summer we turned twelve and my tits came in" you said simply taking a sip of the soda the waitress placed in front of you, "you still have dreams about that little white two piece dontcha Eddie?" you teased, 
"God do I" he agreed, "honestly you've never seen anything like it, that summer was hot as shit and we spent all day in that goddamn pool till they kicked us out. Your mom had gotten that little two piece in JC Fuckin' Pennys and I swear to god I had a boner all summer" 
"Ew, gross" 
"Come on man I'm trying to eat here" 
"That's not even possible" 
"I'm not being literal you idiots" Eddie scowled, "anyway, yeah you're right your tits had just come in and I swear to god it was like seeing heaven for the first time. I had to do a double take the first time I saw ya cause there was no way in hell you could be the same chick I grew up with" 
"That was the summer eddie realised his best friend was actually a girl" you laughed, "not just some dorky thing that followed him everywhere" 
"You weren't dorky" 
"Baby I was the definition of dorky" 
"Anyway!" it was Eddie's turn to roll his eyes, and to steal a french fry off your plate, "the sight of you in that little swimsuit is burned into my brain and has kept me company through some very lonely nights" 
"Not to mention extended bathroom breaks and extra long showers" you added, "walls in trailers are thin babe, I hear everything" 
Steve pushed his plate away from him and frowned at you both. This is why you guys didn't hang out more, you were as bad as each other, 
"We didn't get together till freshman year of highschool though" 
"Yeah till my brand new bookbag suddenly came apart at the seams and all my books spilled everywhere. Weird how that happened right when you wanted to ask me out" you smirked at Eddie who at least had the good sense to blush, 
"I'm taking that to my grave" 
"Uh huh sure" 
The Hellfire boys apparently couldn't get enough and were begging Eddie to continue despite his embarrassment at how he'd asked you out,
"It was the same dance you little shits went to tonight. I was shitting myself every time Mrs Shelly came around yelling at us to make room for jesus" 
You and Steve shuddered collectively at the memory of the old Geometry teacher, more like a battle axe than anything else. She terrified everyone she ever crossed paths with. 
"That woman still gives me nightmares" you said trying to recover from the trauma that class had inflicted on you, 
"It's ok baby, she can't hurt you anymore. The old witch is dead and buried" 
"But what about when you guys got married? You said it happened after you graduated two years ago, that leaves a lot of time in between" Dustin interrupted, clearly impatient to get to the end of this story,
"Yeah, yeah, keep your panties on" Eddie said dismissively, "we were hanging out in my place and I floated the idea" 
"You say that like it happened so casually. If I remember right you were high as balls and telling me how much you loved me and wanted to be with me forever" 
"Semantics" Eddie waved a hand, "anyway, like I said earlier we went down to the Courthouse and the Judge squared it all away"
"We got my dress and your suit at the thrift store at the same time" you laughed, "the guy behind the counter didn't believe us when we said we wanted to get married in these clothes" 
"Wait, that's your wedding dress?" Mike asked looking at your yellow dress, it was something that might have been in style a decade ago with it's flared sleeves and shorter length just about reaching the middle of your thighs,
"Yeah and Eddie's suit. He's only got one good one" you nodded, "so yeah, that's the whole story. Do you feel better now?" 
Dustin nodded enthusiastically with Mike and Lucas following his lead. Steve meanwhile stared forlornly at his hamburger. Before you could make a  comment about his actions the bell above the door in the diner chimed and a rowdy bunch entered, 
"We found you, Freak!" Jason Carver and his group of acolytes stormed towards your table and all at once the cheerful mood disappeared, "what it's not enough that you corrupted your own freak friends into selling their souls for your weird fucking cult, you have to do with these innocent kids as well? I expected better of you Sinclair" 
"Dude just go, you're not gonna like where this ends" Steve stood up from the booth and faced off against Jason, 
"What are you gonna do huh Harrington? You're not King anymore" Jason squared off against the older boy, 
"You heard him, you won't like how it ends" you backed Steve up with a dangerous lilt to your voice, you were having a good time and you didn't need this overblown Ken Doll to harsh your vibe,
"Ohh the Freak's girlfriend I'm so scared" Jason and his lackeys laughed, "why don't you ditch him honey? I bet I could make you scream better than he could" 
Something inside you snapped. You'd had enough of Jason Carver and guys like him, you'd dealt with them your whole life and tonight you were taking a stand, 
"See I have a hard time believing that. Cause you got one crucial fact wrong" you slid out of the booth and put yourself between Jason and Steve with a smile on your face,
"I'm not his girlfriend" and with that you punched Jason as hard in the face as you could watching as he crumbled from the unexpected contact,
"That's my wife!"
Tagging some folks who might be interested: @hellfireeddiemunson @pillow-titties @jobean12-blog @eddiesmutson @maladaptivexxdaydreaming @summerofsnowflakes @thisishellfire
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rosewaterandivy · 9 months
Text
i. keep the embers blowing
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summary: family lore and a new resident to your small seaside town.
pairing: s.h. x witch!reader
w.c.: 2.4k
warnings: my blog is 18+ MDNI; vague allusions to magic and the like, carpenter & flannel-wearing Steve, and a meet-cute
a/n: she finishes one series only to begin another! Oy vey. Hope you like, and if you do - let me know!
Nota bene: Reblogging, commenting, and liking my work is always appreciated! Reposting, however, is not. Enjoy! 💜
Series Masterlist | Playlist | Currently spinning:
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For nearly three hundred years, the Callahan women were blamed for everything that went wrong in town. A summer drought and a ruined harvest, a mare and colt lost while she was in foal, a long winter, an outbreak of chicken pox— it didn’t matter if such phenomena could be explained by science or logic, it all ended up with the Callahans as personae non gratae.
Inside the white, two-storey house at the end of the Willow Lane lived an orphaned girl grown into a woman under her aunt’s guiding hands; Kelly and Moira never had children of their own, and when you turned up on their doorstep that fateful day, they welcomed you with open arms and never even batted an eye. In time, they would tell you of the curse that took your father from you and left your mother to die of a broken heart.
Childhood, for you, was filled with a series of small slights and mortifications. No one would touch a pencil or crayon if it was held by you. No one sat with you in the lunchroom. Teachers and parents regarded you with a silent derision and did nothing to temper the taunts of the other children. Boys looked at you like something to be conquered and girls feared you, not that it stymied any of their mean girl behavior.
“Fuck ‘em all,” Kelly would say, throwing more cayenne into the vegetarian chili on the stove. “You’re better off without them, sweets.”
A mantra that sustained you from that day forward.
Sailing through high school to graduate at the top of your class, you fully intended to attend a prestigious university on a full-ride scholarship. The aunts encouraged you to fly the nest and chase your dreams— but then Moira fell sick. You deferred your enrollment for a year, which turned into two and eventually the scholarship was awarded to someone else. Moira’s care fell to you and Kelly, tag-teaming on chauffeur duty and going to doctor’s appointments.
You worked odd jobs around town, entirely dependent on the few townsfolk that would hire you— an abjectly miserable situation. Save for the twist of fate that brought Tracy your way. One day, Moira and Kelly sat you down in front of a large, dusty tome. Sputtering a cough, you batted at the dust motes floating in front of you.
“This,” Kelly said, sliding the book toward you, “Is the family grimoire.”
“It’s well past time you were told, dear heart,” Moira added, with a kind smile.
Tentatively, you brushed a finger against the worn cover of the grimoire tracing the looping ‘C’ of your last name, the gold embossing as bright as if it was newly pressed. They regaled you with the tales of your ancestors, Mary who built this house and worked the curse out of heartbreak and desperation, Sybil who worked the people of the town into an uneasy truce— supplying women with love spells and fertility potions, all the way up to your mother, who fell in love despite knowing the dangers and brought you into the world.
It wasn’t as if they had kept magic from you, far from it, in fact. Kelly and Moira kept up Sybil’s business, as the generations of Callahans before them had. Some years, business was better than others— but the aunts were crafty and seemingly always had something saved for a rainy day. Aside from one small spell in your childhood, you’d simply never expressed an interest in learning the craft. Not wanting to push you, they’d never pressed the issue and assumed you would come to them when, and if, you pleased.
“You were spellbound when you came to us,” Moira says sadly, “Your mother’s handiwork.”
“A bitch and a half to undo,” Kelly adds, taking a long sip from her wine. “You’re free as a bird now though.”
“You showed great promise when you were younger,” Moira smiles, “And I hope we’re not too remiss in beginning your education now.”
She pushes a creased piece of paper your way. You unfold it carefully, the overwhelming scent of cotton blossom and denim invading your nostrils. Reading over your tween-age loopy script in gel pen, a smile blooms on your face.
He will hear my call miles away. He’ll whistle my favorite tune. He always checks his blind spot. He can flip pancakes in the air. He’ll be marvellously kind. He’ll let me map constellations on his skin. His eyes will be as warm as honey and glinting like emeralds.
“What is this?”
Kelly smiles knowingly, “Your half-assed attempt at Amas Veritas.” She plucks the paper from your lax grasp, “If I remember correctly, you were under the impression that if you dreamed up a guy who couldn’t possibly exist, then you wouldn’t be hurt.”
“That the curse would end with me.” Your voice is hushed, recalling how naively you hoped all those years ago. “So, why now?”
It was Moira who answered you with a mischievous grin, “Well, my dear, why not?”
That was a decade ago. In that time, Moira had recovered from her illness, and together with Kelly, they had molded you into quite the talented witch. And after putting yourself through college, you’d opened a shop downtown— Bell, Book, & Candle. Your clientele ranged from tourists to townies and even your childhood tormentors. In time, the Callahan curse had faded from a vindictive tool used by school-yard bullies or "good families" with something to prove, to merely a piece of local lore— In a bind? See the Callahan girl at her shop or take the bluestone path to the back of the old white house on Willow Lane and knock twice on the whitewashed backdoor.
“I don’t know what to tell you,” Tracy called from the tea shelves where she perched on a rolling ladder on the wall. “But we’re completely out of the Assam tea for Mrs. Collins’ Irish Breakfast blend and she’s already called twice about it.” She unceremoniously shoves the empty container back on the shelf and propels herself down to the register.
Worrying your bottom lip between your teeth, you sigh and search for a pencil in your haphazard topknot. “I’ve called our supplier and he swears it was sent in the current replen.” Finding a pencil, you make a note in the fliofax as your hair cascades down past your shoulders. With another sigh, you finished jotting down necessities. “I trust Frank when he says it was shipped, but we normally don’t have these delays before the first snow of the year.” You glance up to see Tracy shrug. “I’ll make a trip down there sometime this week,” you conclude as the front door chimes.
Several customers poured in as Tracy greeted them, “Welcome in! What can we help you with today?” You went back to the paperwork as the customers dispersed across the store. You could hear Tracy in her conversation with someone about the latest town gossip. (“Are you sure it was the Blakely house? Holy hell!”) You shook your head and smiled, that will spread across town like wildfire in no time, you muse. Busying yourself with tidying the cash wrap, you notice a customer ready to check out.
“I don’t know how you do it!” The newly married Mrs. Smith gushed, “I always walk in here thinking I won’t need anything and I come out with a treasure every time.” You smile politely and ring up her purchases. Pushing the memory of her shouting at you, as you cowered behind Kelly, She started it!
“Well, you’re walking away with some of my favorites,” you say. “I found these scarves when I was in Milan, aren’t they lovely?” Carefully wrapping the scarves, candles, and salve, you continue with the small talk. “With the salve,” you say seriously, “Use it on your lower abdominal area, no more than twice a day.”
Mrs. Smith nodded, mentally making a note. “I can always call you if I have questions, right?”
You nod, “Of course, that’s what I’m here for! Your total comes to 45 dollars today.”
Mrs. Smith paid for her purchases and thanked you and Tracy as she left the store. Tracy eyes you warily, “Was that the salve I think it was?”
Rolling your eyes and stepping out from behind the counter, you laugh, “I think you know the answer to that.”
Tracy scoffs, “God! The last thing this town needs is more kids, damn it Callahan.”
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A wind blew softly through the trees, resplendent in their golden yellow hues. A black lab padded among the pine needles while a steady crack sounded down the street. Further up the lane, a young man was bent over to split firewood. His maul slung over his shoulder as he stood to wipe his brow. The weather hadn’t yet turned its frosty shoulder as it was still early in the season, but, nevertheless, preparations must be made.
Turning back to his task, he set a block of wood down on a stump and took a step back. As he was about to begin again, he noticed a car turning toward the Callahan house. Brows furrowed, he placed his maul down and let out a clear whistle, “Lucy!” Ears perked, the dog bounded up from the glen to his side. With a smile, he gave her a nice head scritch and watched as a Subaru ambled up the drive to the white house at the end of the lane.
Later, after a motor-mouth blonde and lean brunet had arrived, the town’s newest resident stepped out for a stroll. Throwing on a flannel to combat the early evening’s chill, he poked his head into the kitchen.
“Lucy’s been fed and walked Rob,” he says to the woman at the stovetop. “Don’t let her fool you.”
She turns with a bemused smile, “I know Steve, s’not like I was born yesterday.”
“Same goes for Eds,” he concludes with a nod before slipping out the door.
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Just as you and Tracy were making closing preparations, the bell on the door chimed and a pink-cheeked brunet man walked in. Tracy, eyeing the stranger up and down, let out a low wolf whistle as you jabbed her in the side.
“Hi, welcome in!” You greeted, giving Tracy the eye while she petulantly rubbed at her side. “Is there anything, in particular, I can help you with today?”
The stranger made eye contact with you, his eyes a lovely shade of hazel, and smiled. “Actually, I think I’m looking for you.” He took a step toward her, “Callahan, right?” Tracy snorted and turned to busy herself with something.
You hesitated, never having seen this man in your life, “Um, yes?” You held out your hand to shake, “And you are?” His hand met yours, igniting a tingle at the base of your spine— a firm shake of the hand, his skin surprisingly warm.
“Steve, Steve Harrington. I just bought the property down the way from yours.” His hands were rough, he probably worked with them a lot. He smelled of freshly split wood, towing in a cloud of a pleasant, sappy aroma— warm and inviting.
You dropped hands and tucked a piece of hair behind your ear, “Oh, I think I heard something about that. Well, congratulations! It’s a lovely property.”
He nodded in agreement and surveyed the store and its proprietor. You were casual in blue jeans and brown leather boots, paired with a light sweater. Hair slightly wavy and a lovely shade. Soft and feminine features, but your energy radiated strength.
“Yeah, well,” Steve cleared his throat, “I’m really excited to have a place by the water now.”
You smiled, “No place I’d rather be.” Steve, huh? You tried to place him, he seemed so familiar, and yet…
He definitely wasn’t a beach bum, he lacked the sloping posture. Maybe he was one of those rich summer vacationers? “Well, if you need anything please, don’t hesitate to ask!” Glancing around, you hoped to find Tracy, but she had made herself scarce. Damn.
Steve mused a minute before speaking, “Thanks, think I’ll just browse around for now.”
Robin had sent him out with strict instructions and a list— myrtle, myrrh, a tea of some kind, and then, of course, Eddie had chocked in his items as well: devil’s nettle, a very specific type of coffee bean, along with a few other odds and ends.
Luckily, he could find most of the items with practiced ease and sauntered back to the counter. Making idle chit-chat, you rang up the purchase and recommended a few local cafes and stores for his consideration.
“So, what brings you to our neck of the woods?”
“Oh, me?” He smiles as you bag up the purchases, “I’m just some guy with a carpentry business.” Passing the bag to him along with a receipt he thanks you and turns to leave, but not before sliding a card on the counter that reads: ‘H & M Design and Construction: REMODELS, DRYWALL, CARPENTRY, PAINTING, INSTALLATION, ELECTRICAL, REPAIR - WE FIX THINGS.’
Before the bell can chime to signal his leave, he glances to the built-in bookshelves gracing one wall of the store, ladder docked near the register where Tracy left it.
“Your teak could do with a good oiling,” he nods to the built-ins in questions, “Think about it.” And stepped out of the store with a wave, into the indigo night.
Tracy, seemingly coming from nowhere, wore the contented grin of a cat who caught the canary. “Babe,” she said sweetly, “Do you have any idea who that was?”
Distracted by reorganizing the front of the store, you shrugged, “Said his name was Steve, just bought the old Blakely property.”
Tracy hummed and busied herself with tallying up the till eyes falling to the cream-colored business card. She pocketed it, making a mental note to call for an estimate for the store later that week.
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In the early morning, a cool breeze swept through the open second-floor window of the Callahan house. Quilts half on the floor, you shiver slightly and roll on to your side throwing an arm over your eyes. All was silent. The moonlight illuminated the photo of your late mother. The woman appeared to smile graciously at the photographer, her husband and your father. A slight breeze too swept through the photograph; the older woman laughed warmly.
This breeze continued down the to the old Blakely house. A picture window was opened slightly for the wind to slip through. Steve, dozing on the couch with a blanket half covering his torso, sighed in his sleep. The sea air was doing him some good. The breeze tousled his hair before it gracefully dissipated.
Unbeknownst to the two residents in the realm of dreams, a change was carried on that breeze. Slow and gradual, but still a change. It was coming swiftly and with intent. Just as a mother once promised her daughter it would.
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SFW Alphabet : Ponyboy Curtis
Should I have aged Pony up for this? Maybe. Was I over halfway done writing this before I realized that with no desire to rewrite any of it? Absolutely. Did I give a few cheap "idk, man, he's like 14" answers on some of these? Uh, yeah, sorry 'bout that--
Mention of substance abuse/dependency in "ugly."
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A = Affection (How affectionate are they? How do they show affection?)
Insanely, whenever he can be. Always wants a hug, always wants to hold hands. Incredibly lovey. He's 14, it's probably his first relationship, he is a reader and writer that watches sunsets so you know he romanticizes the hell out of every little thing.
The gang teases Pony a LOT for how affectionate he is with you and then he usually gets all embarrassed about it and gets all weird about pda for a while. Thinks that everyone is just jealous and nobody has ever been this in love and they just don't understand, really he's just easy to make fun of because he's a kid in his first relationship and he's really cringe and awkward about it.
B = Best friend (What would they be like as a best friend? How would the friendship start?)
Y'all most likely met at school, did a group project together or something and obviously he's such a sweetie that you weren't not going to be his friend.
You guys become quick friends, you're probably his best school friend instantly (because you actually have classes with him unlike anyone in the gang that's still in school), he'll always sit next to you. Constantly defending each other if anyone talks shit, he takes you to the movies and you two watch sunsets together because no one else cares to do that kind of stuff with him, you go to every track meet to support him and if you're in a club/sport you can bet your ass he's always there to support you. SUPER wholesome besties.
You also have to be his street smarts and basic common sense, though, because this boy has none. He'll go to do anything or open his mouth to say something naieve and you'll have to, like, grab his sleeve and say "now, let's actually think about that, buddy" because otherwise he's saying some r/im14andthisisdeep bullshit that will get him beaten to a pulp just for being annoying, or he'll start on some crazy ungrateful rant about how Darry should be a better guardian and you need to knock some fucking sense into him because absolutely not.
C = Cuddles (Do they like to cuddle? How would they cuddle?)
Loves to cuddle, but doesn't get to often. Darry is pretty strict about Ponyboy keeping his bedroom door wide open when you're there or (preferably) sticking to the living room or kitchen, so cuddling at home is a no-go. Obviously, cuddling is difficult at school too because, uh, teachers.
Sometimes you two will go out to the lot or skip a class and head out to the bleachers to lay in the grass and cuddle. Usually, it's very simple. Sitting next to each other with someone's head on the other's shoulder and arms around each other. One of you on your back and the other with their head nuzzled into their chest or neck. Kind of minimal touching, as far as cuddling goes.
He's afraid he'll be hormonal if the cuddling is too intense, lol.
Sometimes, when you two are in the lot, Darry *will* catch you guys but let it slide because, again, it's very minimal touching and could almost be platonic.
D = Domestic (Do they want to settle down? How are they at cooking and cleaning?)
Good at cleaning. Doesn't really like cleaning, but would rather get it over with than live in a dirty space, so it would get done even if Darry wasn't there to constantly harp on him to do his damn chores. Does need the reminders because he'll honest to god forget about the dishes in the sink or whatever, but does them right when he does remember them.
Fine at cooking. Capable of reading a recipe, doesn't have the skill or experience to add on or better it. Does the basics, wouldn't be against learning more, but just hasn't really had the chance/need to yet.
Wants to settle down eventually. Sees himself having a pretty traditional/basic life. College, married, house, kids, that kind of stuff.
E = Ending (If they had to break up with their partner, how would they do it?)
Would do anything to avoid a break-up. Ends up distancing himself and hoping you break up with him over it. Doesn't want to hurt you, ends up hurting you more than if he just sat down and talked to you about splitting up. If you don't take the hint and dump him he'll probably hand you a note in the hallway and leave SO fast so he doesn't have to do it face-to-face.
F = Fiance(e) (How do they feel about commitment? How quick would they want to get married?)
Again, overly romanticizes. Thinks that when he loves somebody it's the truest love to ever be felt by anyone. Is instantly daydreaming about the future. Ponyboy is big on commitment, but he's young so it's all an "eventually" type of thing. Y'all probably have legit promise rings a year in.
Just smart enough (that's a lie, it's because Darry said so) to decide to wait for actual marriage until he actually graduates and has a stable job instead of the second y'all are both 18 like he originally planned.
G = Gentle (How gentle are they, both physically and emotionally?)
SO gentle. Especially physically, treats you so good. Emotionally, he's really gentle but can get really socially unaware and ends up saying something stupid way too often because he just genuinely doesn't see/consider the issue with whatever he said. But the kid TRIES.
H = Hugs (Do they like hugs? How often do they do it? What are their hugs like?)
Loves hugs. Will hug you goodbye every single time you go to leave. Will give you a congratulatory hug if you achieve anything. He's physically pretty sensory seeking, he likes holding onto things.
Hugs are usually fairly short and sweet, though. Very warm and nice, but if it goes on for too long then he feels a bit awkward. Like, he doesn't know what to do with his hands after a while and starts to worry that you're uncomfortable, he spends way too much mental energy thinking about the most appropriate hug length.
I = I love you (How fast do they say the L-word?)
On the second date. The first date is so casual and very mutual-crush-besties, but after he just thinks about you and how much he's fallen for you. On the second date, he's basically instantly confessing his love and asking if you want to be in an official relationship.
J = Jealousy (How jealous do they get? What do they do when they’re jealous?)
Average amount of jealousy. No issue with you having friends or anything. Only gets really jealous when someone is getting flirty with you or you start paying an extreme amount of attention to someone.
Gets really moody when jealous, may not even realize he is jealous. A lot of "no, it's fine" and shit. Irritable, usually isolates or vents to someone else.
He apologizes when someone informs him that he's being a jealous jerk, though. Again, he usually doesn't clock the feeling so he has no idea he's doing it.
K = Kisses (What are their kisses like? Where do they like to kiss you? Where do they like to be kissed?)
Quick, sweet, a bit shy. A peck on the cheek or a quick brush of the lips. He'd probably get in trouble for it at school with teachers and at home with Darry, or most of the rest of the gang will tease you two RELENTLESSY anytime they catch you two, so kisses are super sneaky and the types that you can pull away from real quick.
L = Little ones (How are they around children?)
Neither loves nor dislikes children, doesn't really know what to do with kids. He's the youngest person he's around most of the time, he would be so confused if you just plopped a kid down in front of him. Would probably be really good with a quiet, "good" kid, he'd love to read to them or babysit one of those kids that just, like, sit in the corner and draw or quietly play with toys for hours. The second a kid starts being super hyper or rambunctious, though, he'd be so overwhelmed and need an adult *RIGHT* now.
M = Morning (How are mornings spent with them?)
Y'all meet up at school and spend as much time together as possible before the bell rings. Studying for first period, chatting about upcoming plans or the day before, etc.
N = Night (How are nights spent with them?)
A hug and a kiss goodbye at your door, lol. You think you're spending the night? You think he's allowed to spend the night at your place? C'mon, now.
O = Open (When would they start revealing things about themselves? Do they say everything all at once or wait a while to reveal things slowly?)
Pretty open when it's relevant. Like, if asked a direct question he isn't going to lie and he doesn't really have an issue talking about himself. As soon as he sees you as a safe person that won't make fun of him for it, he's deep-diving into how he feels about almost everything to get your perspective. A lot of the gang either doesn't care to listen or will make fun of him for being a little bitch, so Ponyboy will absolutely latch on to someone willing to listen to his random emotional and philosophical bullshit.
P = Patience (How easily angered are they?)
Gets moody or frustrated easily, stresses easily and may need a break from whatever is getting to him. But actually angry? Slightly below average. There are things that will absolutely push those buttons quick enough, but he isn't actually angry so much as overwhelmed a fair amount of the time.
Q = Quizzes (How much would they remember about you? Do they remember every little detail you mention in passing, or do they kind of forget everything?)
Remembers a surprising amount of little things. Your favorite and least favorite colors? Foods? Books? Movies? Etc? Absolutely remembers all of them. Might forget bigger things, like your birthday or something. And it isn't like he even forgets!! He just has that weird "is time real?" anxiety that some people have. Like "I know their birthday is on [date], and it's [date] today, but is it *REALLY* [date]??? What if I say happy birthday and they're confused and tell me it isn't their birthday? Maybe I should wait for someone else to tell them happy birthday first, just to be safe..."
R = Remember (What is their favorite moment in your relationship?)
Your second date. Eating at the diner where he told you he loved you and asked you to be his officially, watching the sunset, catching a late movie, and then walking you home and giving you a hug and kiss goodbye at the door.
S = Security (How protective are they? How would they protect you? How would they like to be protected?)
Around average on the protective scale? Wants to know you're safe, obviously. If anyone is bothering you, he's by your side. If anyone is actively bullying you, Ponyboy will try to get the whole gang to defend you (and if anything serious is going on, they probably will). Will listen to you vent and rant, and (maybe reluctantly) accepts that you can take care of yourself. Will follow your lead mostly, stays close and will happily defend you if you look to him.
T = Try (How much effort would they put into dates, anniversaries, gifts, everyday tasks?)
Tries so hard. Writes love letters, makes sure there's plenty to do on dates (it's never *just* a movie, it's dinner and a movie and talking for hours after), buys you a little gift or treat whenever he has spending money, helps you with school work whenever you need it, walks you home even if it's way out of the way for him.
U = Ugly (What would be some bad habits of theirs?)
Extremely addictive personality. He is canonly the heaviest smoker of the group despite also being the youngest, also considers himself addicted to pepsi and--while that could absolutely just be an exaggeration in saying it's his favorite drink--I wouldn't be surprised if he was fairly addicted to the caffeine. He also misuses prescriptions. Having problems with addiction early in life can lead to more issues with addiction later down the line, whether through stronger substance dependency/abuse or just addictive behaviors such as gambling or similar.
V = Vanity (How concerned are they with their looks?)
About as much as a young teen is expected to be. Has a good plenty look-based insecurities, definitely wants to look tuff or whatever. Doesn't make it his whole thing. Also probably grows out of it fairly completely unlike some people.
W = Whole (Would they feel incomplete without you?)
110% yes. This is true love to him. Yall are soul mates.
X = Xtra (A random headcanon for them.)
Don't know if this is obvious in how I write him, but I headcanon him as autistic (because I'm autistic and I say so, idk). Not diagnosed, because it's the 60s.
Y = Yuck (What are some things they wouldn’t like, either in general or in a partner?)
Not seeing (or at least trying to see) his point of view. He can be rather emotionally driven sometimes, and it does help when he has someone to give an objective or logical perspective when he's like that, but if you don't start with "yeah, I understand where your coming from, but also consider..." then he'll feel like you're just telling him he's wrong and his feelings don't matter. A lack of sympathy/empathy (idk which, I lack both, oops) is a good way to make him uncomfortable with you as a whole.
Z = Zzz (What is a sleep habits of theirs?)
Sleeps holding onto something for dear life. A pillow, balling up the blankets next to him, partner, whatever.
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leahnardo-da-veggie · 18 days
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A Perfectly Normal Schoolgirl, part 2
Well, I managed to churn out part 2 of this! Take that, flu >:) Anyways, read part 1 here
I listened to the rest of the class with a single ear, so busy with plotting our next move was I. Mrs Cheng was going to want to take revenge for my little ploy, and that meant I had to keep on my toes. Things were going to get significantly more dangerous.
Dane, fool boy that he was, had taken it upon himself to become the teacher's pet, a deadly thing to do when the teacher in question was Mrs C. All through the day, I cursed him as I watched him present neatly written equations to Mrs Cheng with glee. It was a small mercy that she had no knowledge of our relationship, for my sanity and for his safety, and suspected naught of him.
As the bell rang and we were released, I shot her a mocking bow and strolled out the door. Soon as I was out of sight, I grabbed Dane's elbow and sunk my nails into his soft flesh. “You idiot,” I hissed in his ear.
His wide prey-eyes met my narrowed ones. “What did I do? Training today wasn't that bad, was it?” When my glare did not let up, he batted at my hand. “Kat, let go, please. I don't know why you're so pissed with me, but you're going to draw blood! So unless you want my mom to have some very awkward questions, you have to stop.”
I glanced down at my hand, with its too-long fingers and too-sharp nails. “Tch,” I said. “You nearly got yourself killed with your antics just now. And all the not-terrible training in the world isn't going to be enough when you end up going toe to toe with C.”
“C? You mean Mrs Cheng? Wait…” Realisation dawned on his broad features. “Oh shit. You gotta be kidding me, right? It's her?”
I barked a laugh at that. “Yes, Dane. It's her. Her and about a quarter of the school faculty. So think twice before you draw any more attention to yourself, understand? You're not nearly ready enough to fight one of them.” 
Biting his lip, Dane nodded. “I'm sorry, Kat. I should've thought things through more. Can I get you an ice cream to make it up to you?”
His inanity brought a smile to my face. “Don't apologise to me, silly. I'm not the one who's in danger. But yes, I would love to have an ice cream. Shall we try the gelato place that just opened up?”
He pulled out his wallet and made a show of noting how little there was in it. “You're going to drive me broke, Kat. These cafes are overpriced, you know. The convenience stores work just fine,” he whined.
I tapped him on the nose, and replied, “When you've lived a life like mine, you learn to appreciate the finer things in life, little Dane.” Besides, I thought grimly, I had upset the things running the convenience stores a tad too much to be comfortable eating something from there.
We walked, hand in hand, down the noon-burning street, and I could not help but revel in the heat. Truly, global warming was doing me a favour. Dane did not share my views, sadly. He leaked rivulets of sweat, fanning himself with a piece of paper and he strolled next to me.
It appeared we were not the only ones to crave icy relief, for the cafe was brimming with people munching on artisanal gelatos and sipping iced tea. There was only one person at the counter, a gorgeous woman with hair that fell in auburn waves and overalls that proclaimed her to be an employee. I slipped through the doors and pulled Dane behind me. Without them ever quite noticing, the customers parted around me, and I snuck my way into the front of the queue.
Without turning around, the woman manning the counter chirped, “Hello and welcome to Jelly's Gelatos! How can I help you today?”
I put on my best smile. “Oh, I'd like two scoops of chocolate gelato, please! In a cone. And two scoops of… Matcha, wasn't it? Also in a cone,” I said, winking at Dane as I did so. Matcha was his favourite flavour, and it had always delighted him when I remembered that, so I made the effort to. Indeed, he brightened up when I made his order correctly, and squeezed my hand appreciatively.
Smoothly, the woman scooped out our order. “You two make a cute couple,” she said as she did so. “I didn't know you liked little boys, Katherine.” My uniform had no name tag on it, and neither did anything I carried.
Ah, shit.
I tensed up, sliding into a fighting stance. “How the hell do you know my name?” A protective hand on Dane's shoulder, I leaned in to peer closer at her.
She looked up and tilted her head to the side. Eyes like burnished copper met mine, her pupils just a tad too elongated to be normal. Her hair was down, but I had a suspicion that it hid pointy ears. “Don't you recognise me, Katherine? I'm disappointed,” she purred. 
That voice was familiar, and not in a good way. I'd met her kinden before, men and women too beautiful to be purely mortal, the children of unholy unions. They were never up to any good. “You should be,” I replied, baring my teeth at her. “Don't expect me to remember the name of every random person I come across.”
The insult stung, as it was meant to, and she thrust my order under my nose. I took my chocolate and handed the matcha to Dane, who accepted it cautiously. “You think you're so high and mighty, Katherine? You've made too many enemies, and it's only a matter of time before one of us gets you,” she snarled, her pearly white teeth stark against blood-red gums.
I rolled my eyes in my best approximation of a rebellious teenager. “Sure, like, whatever. I'm so frightened by random minimum wage workers,” I jeered. “C'mon, don't expect me to quiver in my boots at you. You're only scary to the children of helicopter parents who point at you as an example of what happens when you fail your exams.”
“You bitch,” she hissed.
“So close, but no cigar, sweetie,” I replied. “And I don't think that's the proper way to treat your customers, is it? No tips for you.” Picking up a handful of change from my pocket, I dumped it onto the counter. “Toodles!”
On that cheerful note, I pushed my way back out into the sunny sidewalk. Dane followed like a lost puppy, looking increasingly concerned. “What was that about? That woman looked like she was gonna kill you!”
I shrugged. “Get used to it, kiddo. Everyone wants me dead. And when they find out about you? Well, you can bet they won't want sunshine and warm hugs.”
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yelpu · 2 years
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can you write a sugawara x male reader who is a tall, tatted up, long haired, scary looking, metalhead who no one likes, but is actual really calm and protective and loving towards suga.
aaaa first request!! so excited to write it <33
i didn’t know how tall you wanted him so i just made him around 6’3-6’6
The Two Times Everyone Realized He Was a Sweetheart and The One Time He Proved It
The class was filled with laughter, giggling, and loud chatter. Only for it to be silenced by a very tall male entering. The boy was fairly built, and was totally all leg. He was taller than most boys, but he was quieter than all. The boy had tats on his neck, hands, legs, anywhere possible. He even had a sleeve full of them! The male had long (h/c) soft hair, though it was messy and looked to be as if he had just woken up(which he had)—there was no need to suspect that he had ANYTHING to do with Sugawara Koushi in the volleyball club.
The males gaze was harsh and cruel while sugawara’s was soft and loving. The two were polar opposites. Both were seen differently by all, including teachers. The boy rolled his eyes, and turned up the volume on his headphones. He was listening to Fuel by Metallica, and anyone who sat next to him could hear it. As he sat down, he was met with nasty and scared looks.
As he grew up, he realized that most kids didn’t like him. (M/n) had learned to be independent and do a lot alone. His parents did help quite a bit, but he got to the age where they stopped parenting. He started to learn how to fend for himself. He learned how to clean, cook, do laundry(which was surprisingly the hardest for him to learn). He brought out his bento box and started to snack on a meat bun, while he ignored all the whispers and looks geared towards him.
A big part of his life was learning to let things go and to ignore them. He hoped no other kid had this experience in school as he gazed out the window. He saved the seat next to him for his beloved boyfriend, Koushi. The two sat together in every class they had with each other, but even then no one suspected they were dating.
Koushi was too kind to be with the “freaky devil boy” as they called him. The boy wasn’t a freaky devil, it was just his style, something he enjoyed that was shunned by all his classmates. He heard his name being called, and he raised an eyebrow.
Seeing Koushi, he lightly grinned, and got up to hug him—something new. He’d never initiate any PDA in school. Today he was craving it though. Some people scurried to their seats, not wanting to be toe to toe with the freaky devil boy.
Koushi’s eyes widened as (m/n) wrapped his arms around his waist. Koushi hesitated as he hugged him back, kissing (m/n)’s cheek causing his ears to heat up. koushi chuckled and (m/n) smiled. He lead koushi to his seat, and pulled out his chair for him.
“Oh why, thank you (M/n)” Koushi giggled, while placing his bag down.
“Of course prince” (M/n) said, pushing koushis chair in and sitting down in his own.
That was the first time everyone realized (m/n) was a sweetheart.
Koushi had been in the gym for volleyball practice while (M/n) said he would pick him up afterwards. the male was setting the ball to Asahi, as he heard the door screech open. Turning around, he saw (M/n), though what he didn’t see was a volleyball hurling straight towards his face. As the ball hit his face he fell backwards, and heard loud footsteps. Seeing (M/n) next to him, he calmed down a little. He saw (M/n)’s hand reaching up to his face, and as he tasted blood, (M/n)’s hand had rubbed it off.
“Someone get a tissue! in the meantime, Kou you need to put ur head back, so it doesn’t keep bleeding love.”
Koushi had been put into a small shock, and it was all happening so fast. (m/n) had given him the tissue, and laid koushi’s head on his lap to stop the bleeding quickly.
“Who hit him.” (m/n) cold gaze narrowed out at the two people who were also in a state of shock. The two being Kageyama and Hinata, they started to fuss. Kageyama started yelling and pointing at Hinata, while Hinata was sputtering and stuttering up a storm.
“Whatever, it’s fine. just be careful next time.” (m/n) flicked his dangerously dim eyes between both the boys causing them to bow and sputter apologies.
“Baby are you okay?” The male asked the male leaning in his lap.
“I’m fine, it happens all the time (m/n)”
The male frowned at the thought of koushi being hurt all the time. He didn’t like that one bit. He shook himself out of his own thoughts, and grabbed Koushi’s head, bringing them both up to their feet.
“Hey! Aren’t you that freaky kid from Class 4?” Tanaka and Noya had got all up in the boys face, asking him “what he had done to their setter” and what “his business” was with him. the male just shook his head and grabbed Koushi, and kissed the tip of his head and the bridge of his nose. He ignored the gasps and grumbles from the team(besides Asahi and Daichi).
“(M/n)! (M/n)! I’m fine, stop” he laughed, as the males kisses were becoming ticklish. Koushi hugged the boy and kissed his lips. “You missed that spot.” The other male looked away with a fine line of blush on his skin causing him to laugh.
“Sorry—This is my boyfriend (M/n), and (M/n) this is my volleyball club.” The male pointed between (M/n) and the team. M/N hummed, and nodded towards them with a small wave.
That was the second time everyone realized that (M/n) was a sweetheart.
Koushi had been having a bad week, he had multiple exams and multiple tests. Thee volleyball teams vibe was off due to Hinata and Kageyama odd bickers. The team was nervous, they had championships and Koushi was one more problem away from breaking down. (M/n) had been planning a surprise for Koushi, that he knew would make him feel better.
During volleyball practice, Koushi took a break and was going to step outside for some air. Before he could reach to open the door, it opened itself, and the sight he saw brought tears to his eyes.
(M/n) had actually styled his hair. He had a black and red tuxedo on. He was wearing black polished dress shoes, and had a big bouquet of flowers in his hand. Koushi took notice that it was his favorite flowers in the bouquet.
Koushi’s brought his hand up to his face, as (M/n) smiled and laughed while opening his arms. The team was in utter shock, but they thought that this was so cute. and it was. Koushi and (M/N) swayed as they hugged each other, soaking in each other’s love and warmth.
“I love you soso much Kou.” (M/n) whispered while kissing him on the lips.
“I love you more you big idiot” Koushi laughed.
And that was the one time (M/n) proved he was a sweetheart.
aaaa, hope u enjoyed this, i tried to follow your description best as i could. i enjoyed writing this a lot. it gave me something to do, plus helped my writers block <3
thank you so much.
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offorestsongs · 2 months
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OC INTRODUCTION ❣️KALLE BRUNNE
BASIC INFORMATION
name 🐚 Kalle Brunne
age 🐚 17
birthday 🐚 02.06
height 🐚 173cm
homeland 🐚 Coral Sea
dorm 🐚 Octavinelle
class 🐚 2-C (Sophomore)
best subject 🐚 Defense Magic
club 🐚 Science Club
dominant hand 🐚 left
Quiet, mysterious and always looking like he would rather be somewhere else, Kalle is Azul's loyal yes-man. He spends most of the time on the sidelines, carefully observing people around him and gathering information. He acts as Azul's eyes and follows his every order, gossip says.
Like the rest of the Octavinelle trio, Kalle is a merperson and actually went to the same middle school as them, though they never interacted much. To be fair, Kalle had never interacted much with anyone. As the middle child out of a gaggle of loud kids, he grew up either being forgotten and left behind, getting compared to their more accomplished younger siblings or being mocked by their older siblings' friends. They quick learned that the best way to survive is to fade into the background and let people more powerful than them cover their back.
At Night Raven College, when the word about Azul's wish-granting abilities spread out, Kalle came to him, offering his services in exchange for a safe and secure place in the school metaphorical food chain.
Just as smart and cunning as Azul and the twins, he follows Azul's orders blindly. Determined, methodical and good at planning. While he usually doesn't speak much, when he does, it's usually something sarcastic. He tends to say he has a low stupidity tolerance.
While they're good at keeping his cool and seeming indifferent to most things, inside they're a deeply emotional person who learned how to hide almost everything about themselves, including their opinions and interests.
Their signature spell is called Seaglass. It allows them to see through another person's eyes for up to 30 seconds at a time without the person knowing.
TRIVIA/OTHER FACTS
🐚 twisted from Ursula's cauldron
🐚 Rook calls him Monsieur Lunette (Monsieur Spyglass)
🐚 his merfolk form is based on coral groupers, which are the fishes known for hunting with moray eels
🐚 their last name comes from the word "brun", which is danish for "brown" (since Hans Christian Andersen was Danish hihi)
🐚 they're actually a BIG science and biology nerd
🐚 they're also, surprisingly, very interested in makeup, seeing it as a kind of science as well, but it's the interest they're the most secretive about
🐚 at first they joined the Board Games Club because of Azul but quickly dipped because they found it boring and they though Idia was annoying (lmao)
🐚 if he could, he would live entirely on black coffee or some inhuman mix of energy drinks
🐚 loves researching the most random topics; you can often see them in the library, wandering between the shelves, searching for something that will catch their eye
RELATIONSHIPS
Azul Ashengrotto — here's the thing, you see. Yes, Kalle admires his inteligence and magic powers and will do basically anything he says without hesitation. Does he actually like Azul as a person, though? Well. Sometimes, during the times when Kalle tries to not feel jealous of his magic or his place in the school's society. He tries to not think about Azul as a friend, though, trying to keep their relationship strictly business-like. (They're so friends.)
Floyd Leech — oh, boy. Their first meeting, still back in middle school, ended in a bit of a disaster, with Kalle losing his patience for once and yelling at Floyd. That made Flody think that maybe Kalle is somebody like Riddle — somebody easy to anger. Somebody fun. Unfortunately for Kalle, the fact that he actually has a great control of his emotion and rarely loses his cool only made Floyd more persistent. He wanted to push Kalle's buttons, see what exactly it is that sets him off, tests the limits of his patience. And well. It would be easier for Kalle if they could simply dislike Floyd. See him as simply lazy and chaotic and stupid, instead of noticing his intelligence and the ability to see through people and feeling drawn to his antics. They often argue, though it had long lost any fire and now sounds more like friendly bickering and if they sometimes make out in the hallways— that's Kalle's bussines, alright.
Jade Leech — probably the only person from the Octavinelle trio that Kalle has a simple, straightforward relationship with. They're friends, in their own weird way. Neither of them has the need to pry into the other's affairs but they feel comfortable in eachother's presence and Kalle shares Jade's interest in different land flora.
Kalim Al-Asim — easily one of Kalle's most disliked people at school. He doesn't know what it is about Kalim that wears his patience so thin so quickly and he doesn't want to find out, preferring to stay as away from the boy as possible.
Jamil Viper — in another universe, those two maybe could be friends. Sadly, for now Kalle spends most of the time observing Jamil with suspicion, not trusting anything he does. They're also — most importantly, very embarrassingly — just a bit jealous of the way Azul tried to befriend Jamil. But that's a secret.
Rook Hunt — if Kalle could ask a genie for one wish, it would be for Rook Hunt to finally shut up. Sadly, there's no genies nearby and so Kalle has to suffer through every Science Club meeting. Even more tragic, Rook seems to know a lot about about a lot of different things Kalle finds interesting and so they make the same mistake everytime, agreeing to help Rook with a club project only to regret it after, when he has to listen to the boy talk about sunsets or Vil’s eyes for two hours.
Trey Clover — he's not sure if he and Trey are friends, but Kalle likes him. He's usually the most sane person around, which feels like a breath of fresh air after being in the same dorm as the Leeches. While they dont necessarily hang out, they sometimes spend time in the library together and being the upperclassman, Trey helps Kalle with homework from time to time.
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ben-learns-smth · 7 months
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first months as a (substitute/supportive) teacher - some thoughts (an incomplete list)
autumn holidays start on friday, so I thought I'd write down some thoughts on my experience of the last 2-ish months. I definitely have some growing and learning to do, it shows that I'm only half-trained for this
surprisingly I enjoy working with the smallest (grade 1/2) the most. it's partially that (unless they need me for substitute lessons) I spend the most time in that class and have gotten to know the pupils quite well. I know the routines of the class and I got into a great rhythm with the main teacher
the pupils are opening up a lot more about their interests and their lives, striking up conversations with me when they see me in the yard during break. I'm glad that I don't seem like a stranger to them anymore!
substitute lessons without tasks prepared by the teacher are more draining than I expected them to be. I also lack skills for coming up with substitute lessons for my subjects (let alone other subjects) bc I have very little experience of what they're already supposed to know/be able to do. especially in english lessons it's hard to find an appropriate level
being the only visibly and out trans nonbinary teacher is exhausting. I'm looking forward to the day when I've given substitute lessons in every class so I can stop explaining myself. I don't mind explaining queer topics to children and it's important to have those conversations but I'm the only one having them bc I have to, bc my genderqueer appearance raises questions and if it doesn't introducing myself as mr./mx. does.
related to that I'm excited to work with another colleague on a diversity concept for the school that focuses on queerness. our main objective will be to raise awareness in teachers and students
I still struggle to find an appropriate mix between being strict and being fun. with some classes it works well, with others I need to be stricter than I'd like to be, with others I need to ease off a bit.
schools are incredibly gendered spaces and while I obviously knew that it still caught me off guard (and tbh I think it's having an influence on my habits which I Don't Like At All). everything is very clearly divided into boys and girls. I'm generally good with gender neutral language, but compared to my first weeks I jump to use gendered terms much quicker now (example: saying "the girl in the red jumper" instead of a neutral version when I don't know their names yet), including when I talk about myself which feels weird
good quality sleep is so important. being a teacher is super demanding, especially in some more chaotic classes and showing up with only a few hours of sleep is Not It
being able to remember names really well really fast is a super power and I'm grateful I can do that every time I meet a new class for a substitute lesson. the kids are impressed (teachers too), but most importantly it creates a different atmosphere in the classroom. (it's also easier to remind them of class rules when they need it)
so far, the past months have confirmed what I've been thinking for a while: teaching is something I could do, but I'm less sure if it's what I want to do in the long run. so even though I wasn't able to start deaf studies this winter I'm sticking to my plan: try out deaf studies for a year (starting next autumn) and work on the side, then decide if a) I keep going like that to do the full deaf studies b.a. b) I pause deaf studies to do my teacher training and then evaluate again or c) I do my teacher training and pick up uni classes for fun after
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