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mimi-cee-genshin · 1 year

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Friend-zoned? - Alhaitham x f!reader

Summary: How many Akademiya guys does it take to figure out whether or not you've friend-zoned Alhaitham? After discussing how strong he is, Kaveh, Cyno and Tighnari analyze his relationship with you. Things get interesting when you join their table.

Other info: fluff and humor :D, female reader, my extension of the conversation in Alhaitham's character demo because I loved the guys' interactions there so much

Words: 2.7k

*****

"Essentially, more time on contemplation, less time on execution," Alhaitham tells them. "Simple, isn't it?"

"... Not really," Tighnari and Cyno reply.

"Ugh, I knew I shouldn't have brought this up with you," Kaveh complains.

"I thought my answer was quite engrossing," Alhaitham says. He raises his hand. "Boss, this is good wine. I'll have the same please."

Kaveh swirls his cup. "Well, he has at least one weakness," he comments.

"Do tell," Cyno says.

"He's had the same crush for years," Kaveh tells them. "The guy's completely smitten."

"You can't be serious," says Cyno.

"Why is that so surprising?" Alhaitham says. "It makes less sense that I wouldn't be attracted to her."

"See what I mean?" says Kaveh. "You should see how he is around her. He practically treats her like a queen."

"I have a hard time believing that," Cyno says, crossing his arms.

"Stop exaggerating," Alhaitham tells Kaveh. "I just treat her the way she should be treated."

Kaveh only laughs at his answer.

"I thought you didn't like social interaction," says Cyno. "Or had any friends for that matter."

"It's not tiring to be around her," he says. "She's different."

"Of course she is," says Kaveh.

"Well this is interesting," says Tighnari. "What is she like?"

"We've known each other since we were kids. She was mature for her age. She did things like helping me resolve issues I had with others to keep the peace, making sure other kids didn't bother me while I was reading… Also, comforting me whenever I got discouraged…"

"You? Discouraged?" Kaveh scoffs.

"Yes? I'm only human you know," Alhaitham simply replies. "Anyway, you get the picture."

"That seems reasonable," says Tighnari.

"So it's one-sided?" Cyno asks. "As far as I can tell, you're still single."

"No," says Alhaitham, crossing his arms. "It's not one-sided."

"You're kidding me, right?" Kaveh says. "Are we even talking about the same person?"

Tighnari raises a brow.

"Every time she introduces him to another woman, she's a little too obvious with sharing why they'd be good for Alhaitham," Kaveh explains, "as if she's trying to sell them off to him."

"Don't be so dramatic," Alhaitham says. "She's not selling anyone."

"If that's the case, then why are you sure she likes you?" asks Cyno.

"Well for one, she comes by often to check how I'm doing."

"Perhaps she simply thinks you're incompetent at your job," Kaveh chides.

"Two," he continues, ignoring him. "She's always willing to hear about the latest book I'm reading, no matter how boring others think of it."

"Hmm…" Tighnari mumbles. "I can understand that."

"And three…" Alhaitham puts down his cup. "Whenever she reaches out for my hand, like when she wants to comfort me, she stops short of actually holding it."

"She does?" asks Kaveh.

"Interesting. So it seems that while she does display some sort of affection for you," says Tighnari, "perhaps she just didn't want you to get the wrong idea."

"So you're doubting my conclusion?"

"I'm simply saying it's difficult to judge based on the evidence you've provided. We may need to observe the two of you for ourselves."

Alhaitham sighs. This isn't going anywhere.

"Does she have any reason to not want to date you?" Cyno asks. "I wouldn't be surprised if you were overly critical of her, commenting on her every action."

"I give her nothing but compliments. She knows I think very highly of her."

"Huh," Tighnari says. "That's quite unexpected."

"I've been telling you guys," Kaveh says, "but he's really something else around her."

"Is she… actually older than you by any chance?" asks Tighnari.

"She is."

"Hmm… Well this changes things. Perhaps, she still sees you as a kid and is simply just doting on you."

Kaveh turns to Alhaitham, eagerly waiting for his reply.

Alhaitham clears his throat. "She's less than a couple of years older than me. It's not a big deal."

"Just admit that you're friend-zoned," says Kaveh. "Who'd treat their love interest like a kid?"

"I'm not so sure…" Cyno says.

Both Kaveh and Tighnari raise a brow.

"I think that Alhaitham has a clearer picture and can judge more accurately than any of us. They've known each other for long enough."

"It's just his wishful thinking on his part," says Kaveh. "Who wouldn't want to read into their crush's actions?"

"I agree to an extent," says Tighnari, "but perhaps we're missing some crucial information here. We don't know how well Alhaitham can judge a person's actions when romantic feelings are involved."

"I'm thinking quite clearly, thanks," Alhaitham says.

"This is why you aren't getting anywhere," Kaveh scolds him. "You're assuming she has feelings for you when she doesn't. You still need to win her over."

"Then what do you suggest I do?" Alhaitham crosses his arms.

"Ha. As if I'd help you. She could do way better than you anyway."

Alhaitham groans. Why is he even part of this conversation?

"Well, have you ever told her how you felt?" asks Cyno.

"Of course," replies Alhaitham. "I'm pretty obvious about it."

"For someone as reserved as you, I highly doubt that," Cyno adds.

"I wrote her a letter, eloquently expressing my love for her."

"Pfft. What?" Kaveh snorts.

Tighnari stares in disbelief. "Oh. I get it. You did that when you were children."

"I'm referring to the one I gave her yesterday."

"Pfft."

"That's… pretty obvious," Tighnari adds.

"I bet it was more of an essay than a love letter," Kaveh says with a smirk.

"Well, in that case, she either doesn't like you," says Tighnari, "or there's something that prevents her from admitting her feelings."

"Perhaps she's intimidated by your position," suggests Cyno.

"It's unlike her to care about those things," Alhaitham says. "She even treats me like a kid at times."

"So you do admit she just thinks of you as a kid," Kaveh says.

Alhaitham doesn't answer.

"Honestly, this case is closed," Kaveh continues. "There's nothing more to it."

"Hmm... Have you tried to make her jealous?" asks Cyno.

"You're still not convinced?" Kaveh is surprised at him.

"Knowing the result of that would likely draw us closer to a conclusion," Tighnari adds.

"Why would I purposely try to hurt her?" asks Alhaitham.

They exchange glances. Alhaitham still had the ability to make them go speechless with his matter-of-fact tone.

"Well, he's definitely serious about her," says Cyno.

"I told you," Kaveh says. "Seems like she's the only person he'd open up to as well."

"Of course she is," Alhaitham replies.

"I wonder…" says Tighnari. "Has she ever shared her own struggles with you?"

"Why would that be a factor?"

"Well, that would display how comfortable she is around you."

"Hmm… Not bad…" Alhaitham seems to agree with his line of reasoning.

He goes quiet and uncomfortably so because the other three exchange awkward glances at each other in the meantime.

"Well?" Cyno breaks the silence.

"You may be right," Alhaitham tells Tighnari with a sigh. "But that certainly raises more questions."

"Can we just start playing Genius Invokation TCG?" asks Kaveh. "We just keep going in circles with this topic."

"So you guys did just drag me out to play cards," says Alhaitham.

"It would be interesting to meet her," says Tighnari. "It's gotten me curious."

"Same here," says Cyno.

Kaveh looks up at the tavern entrance. "Huh? She's actually here."

Alhaitham's eyes flicker open for a brief moment. "Nice try. I'm not falling for that."

"I didn't expect to see you here, Alhaitham," you say, ruffling his hair.

He freezes and the three of them take a closer look at his face.

"I never expected him to have that kind of expression," whispers Tighnari.

"Me neither," Cyno agrees.

Alhaitham clears his throat. "They simply invited me here for some cards," he tells you. "Nothing more."

"Can I join?" you ask.

Without question, Alhaitham gets up from his chair. He holds the back of his seat and slides it out, gesturing for you to take it.

Cyno and Tighnari widen their eyes.

"Is it just me or did that feel kind of odd?" says Tighnari.

"Coming from him? You're not wrong there," adds Cyno.

You hesitate for a moment before you accept his kindness and take his seat. He stands next to you, waiting for the other guys to start preparing the game.

The two onlookers feel slightly uncomfortable for some reason while Kaveh tells them another round of 'I-told-you-so's. There isn't anything out of the ordinary as you all take your turns playing each other. Cyno is intense as usual, not just with his tactics but also with how he approaches the battle like an interrogation. Tighnari was calm and collected even under pressure, and Kaveh spoke his mind with every move, regardless of whether it's his or his opponent's. But having you there with Alhaitham is… strange.

Nothing really happens of significance. The two of you treat each other well and with respect. Just having Alhaitham being a complete gentleman around you is unnerving for the rest of them. Curt responses and sarcastic remarks are absent. He's completely agreeable with you and his usual temper isn't there either. Everyone plays the game in peace.

"You should save that card for later," Alhaitham tells you. "He can't do anything for the rest of the round anyway."

"Hmm… I'm not quite sure if that's what I want to do yet," you respond.

"Alright," he says. "You should do what you think is best."

"This guy…" Kaveh turns to you. "How do you get him to be like that? If it were any of us, he would've scolded us with a lengthy explanation about how we'd lose if we didn't follow his exact instructions."

"What? She can think for herself."

"And none of us can't?"

"I'm already familiar with how the three of you play and where you go wrong. I want to see if she does anything differently."

"It seems that he really does only compliment you, huh?" Tighnari tells you.

"Why would I do otherwise?" Alhaitham states.

His straightforward remark stuns them once again.

"Okay, we get it," says Kaveh. "We all know about your huge crush on her."

"Seems like you can't say anything bad about her even if you try," Cyno comments.

"Of course I can."

"You can?" you ask.

The whole table looks at you funny. You fiddle with the cards in your hand, pretending you weren't shocked for a split second.

"Interesting," says Cyno.

Alhaitham crosses his arms. "What is it?"

"I'm keeping my observations to myself for now."

Alhaitham raises a brow, but lets it go for the meantime.

A few rounds go by and you help set up for the next. When Alhaitham picks up a die for you from the floor, your hand brushes against his and the die falls off the table once more.

"What's wrong?" Alhaitham asks as he picks up the die again. "You're not usually this clumsy."

"I don't think there's anything wrong with me," you say.

He takes a closer look at you and you avoid his eyes. "Alright," he says. "You still ready to play?"

"I'll need to head out soon," Tighnari says. "It's my turn to be on patrol for tonight."

"Hold on," Cyno says, placing his cards on the table. "One last round. I'll be your opponent this time," he tells you.

You finish setting up the game and test your skills against Cyno. He certainly doesn't make it easy for you. You fall behind pretty quickly, but at least he's not as intimidating as when he played with some of the others.

"So," Cyno says, "what do you think of Alhaitham?"

Your eyes widen at his sudden question.

"You're straight up asking her?" says Kaveh.

"Why not?"

"I guess he has a point," says Tighnari.

They turn their attention to you to see what you'd say.

"Well…" you say, "he's very intelligent and talented."

"No, not what everyone else says," says Cyno. "What you think."

"What do you think you're doing?" asks Alhaitham. "Are you interrogating her right now?"

"Just let her answer the question."

"Well…" you say, "he's nice? And sweet?"

Cyno raises a brow.

"He's cute?"

"Pfft." Kaveh holds in his laughter.

Cyno ignores him and presses the question.

"I don't know how to respond," you tell him. "We've known each other for so long I can't just sum it up in a sentence."

"Alright. I'll get straight to the point," says Cyno. "What do you think of Alhaitham's feelings for you?"

"I think he should get to know other people… and try dating someone else?"

"See?" says Kaveh.

"I've already told you I'm not interested in anyone else," Alhaitham says.

"No, you should listen to her answer," Cyno tells him. "She's not lying."

"What?" Alhaitham widens his eyes.

"I'm not done yet," says Cyno. "There's more." He turns to you. "How serious do you think Alhaitham is about you?"

"He's definitely sincere."

"I'm pretty sure that was obvious," says Tighnari.

"But you don't take his feelings seriously," Cyno tells you.

"It's not that. It's just…"

"You don't?" asks Alhaitham.

"Alright. It's your turn from here," Cyno tells him.

"But I thought I was clear," Alhaitham tells you.

"You were."

"Apparently not clear enough."

"Look. You used to follow me around like a duckling whenever you weren't reading a book," you tell him. "How was I supposed to take your crush on me seriously?"

"It's been more than a decade since then."

"I... Okay, fair enough," you concede. "But it would disappear once you learned I didn't live up to your expectations."

"What expectations?" Alhaitham raises his brow.

"I don't know. That I'm this perfect woman that you've been pining for more than half your life. You'd know I'm not so great if you'd actually try liking someone else."

"Is that what you've been telling yourself?"

"You never say anything bad about me."

"Why would I want to talk about your flaws? Especially when I've been trying to win you over," he says. "Besides, aren't they obvious to you?"

"What?" You're genuinely surprised. "Like what?"

"Like how stupid you're being right now."

You freeze.

"Besides, I've been around you long enough," Alhaitham continues. "There's plenty I don't like. Like the way you cut me off at times–"

"What?"

"–or your atrocious style–"

"Okay, that one hurt a bit–"

"–or how stupid do you have to be to keep asking Kaveh for money –"

"Alright. I get it."

"–or that time you–"

"Okay! I get it! You like me!"

Kaveh looks at you as if you've grown another head. "How did you come to that conclusion? Are we even listening to the same conversation?"

"I think she's finally realized that his feelings were deeper than she initially thought," says Tighnari. "Especially since she knows that Alhaitham is still objective with her and not blinded with infatuation."

"That's right," Cyno says. "She's been the exception to his behavior for a long time. It makes sense she would think his judgment would be clouded with the information she had."

You hide your face from them. It's embarrassing how they read you like a book once your guard was down.

"I didn't expect the solution to be so simple," Alhaitham says.

He slips his hand into yours and you let out a little squeak. "You've also been wanting to hold my hand for some time haven't you?"

"Ugh. You're all smug now because you know that I return your feelings."

"I also don't like how you rearranged my bookcase."

"You can stop now."

"I think it's time for us to go," says Cyno.

"But we haven't finished our match yet," you tell him.

"I'll just forfeit this one."

"I'm with you on that," says Kaveh. "Anything before they start being gross with each other."

"I guess this is a good time for me to head out as well," says Tighnari.

The two of you are suddenly left alone at the table with a bunch of dice in front of you.

"Well, that's one way to win a match," Alhaitham tells you. "I'd say it's pretty ingenious actually."

You simply groan. You know what's coming.

"Do you want me to help you win every time?"

"Please don't."

*****

I hope you liked it. :)

This is one of those fics I wish had inline commenting like on Wattpad. I would've loved to see how everyone reacted at certain parts in real time but unfortunately Tumblr doesn't have that.

Anyway, you can find links to my masterlist and taglist on my pinned post if you want to check out more of my writing.

#alhaitham x reader #alhaitham scenarios #alhaitham fluff #alhaitham fanfic #genshin impact x reader #genshin impact scenarios #genshin scenarios #genshin x reader #genshin impact fluff #genshin impact fanfics #genshin fluff #cyno #tighnari #kaveh

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quintinh43 · 2 months

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Feels Like Home | Jack Hughes

Summary: Jack brings his girlfriend to meet his older brother Quinn and his parents. [Requested By Anon]

Pairings: Jack Hughes x Fem!Reader

Warnings: None, I think, just fluff. Maybe some anxiety?

Wc: 2.9k

---

With the off-season officially kicked into gear, you, Jack and Luke were headed to Michigan to meet up with the rest of their family. As the three of you collected your luggage you bounced on the balls of your feet nervously. Today was the first time you'd be meeting Jack's older brother Quinn and his parents.

Your meeting with Quinn being in a matter of minutes, as he was picking the three of you up from the airport. "Relax, sweet thing," Jack hummed, squeezing your hand, "he'll love you."

"What if he doesn't?" You mumble, squeezing his hand back.

"He will." The three of you grab your luggage and head to the baggage area, Luke walking ahead, headphones on, music full blast, ever the emo youngest brother. Jack traces comforting patterns across your knuckles as you get more and more nervous.

Honestly, meeting Quinn is more nerve-wracking than the prospect of meeting Jacks parents. Older brothers are on a whole other level. You feel bad for Luke, for whenever he has a girlfriend to introduce to not one but two older brothers.

Quinn is leaning against the back of his car, arms crossed over his chest, smirking as he lays eyes on his younger brothers. And by extension you. He radiates, cool, calm, and collected. Somehow, that makes it even more scary.

Luke is the first to reach him, wrapping him in a hug. Luke has a good four inches him, but you can tell by the way his body relaxes as soon as Quinn locks his arms around him that their bond is as thick as thieves. He puts his luggage into the car and takes the front seat.

Before he closes the door, he mouths a teasing "good luck" at you. You glare at him, while Jack lets go of your hand, he a Quinn to pack the remainder of the bags in the trunk before he throws his arms around his brother.

"Hi Quinny," you hear him murmur, "Hi Jackie," he grins back, patting him on the back.

"This must be the girlfriend," he says, eyes twinkling with mischief as he squeezes an arm around Jacks shoulders.

"That I am" you smile, holding out a hand for him to shake, "I'm Y/n, its good to finally meet you."

"You too," Quinn says, shaking your hand, "Come on, let's get going, i'm not in the mood to run into people, especially not with all three of us out and about."

Jack nods, opening the back door for you to get in. You slide in behind Luke, and Jack takes the seat behind Quinn. He links his hand with yours and rests them in his lap, tracing patterns on the backs if your knuckles. For all his trying to keep you calm, he was nervous too. It was very important to him that his family loved you.

"So, Y/n, what are your intentions with my brother?" Quinn asks, fingers tapping on the steering wheel while he glances in the rear view mirror.

The tips of Jacks ears turn a vengeful pink. "Quinn!" He huffs in disbelief.

"Straight to the interrogation." Luke snorts. He looks like the only thing he's missing is a bucket of popcorn.

"You don't have to answer him, Sweets" Jack says, glaring at Quinn through the mirror.

"It's ok, Jack," you laugh, squeezing his hand, albeit a bit nervous, you turn to Quinn, feeling more confident now that you get to talk about Jack. "My intentions with Jack are to love him for as long as he'll have me, which is hopefully the rest of our lives." Jack gives you a soft smile, full of promise, and you pocket the memory for later.

"I wanna be his number one supporter, through the good and the bad, I wanna be there for him no matter what. I wanna take care of him when he's sick and celebrate with him when there's something to celebrate. I want to be apart of his family, to love and care for the people he cares for" you shrug sheepishly, like it was the easiest thing in the world to say. Frankly it was.

Jack looks like he might cry. Quinn has a subtle but surprised smile on his face.

"Y'all are fucking disgusting" Luke grins "I can't wait for you to get married, so I can have a sibling I actually like."

"Get fucked!" Jack says, leaning towards Luke to yank on a strand of his hair.

"Bitch!" Luke hisses, twisting to swat at Jack. Quinn rolls his eyes at the two of them, turning up the music in favour of listening to them bicker. He's eyes keep flicking toward you in the rear view mirror, glinting with a pleased look.

A warm feeling floods your chest. If you had to guess you would say won Quinn over. Now for the parents.

The remainder of the fourty minute drive to the lake house consists of Quinn asking you questions, Luke being a little shit, and Jack holding your hand and being a sweetheart or bickering with Luke.

You and Quinn aren't sure how the got the point about arguing over who would be Jacks best man, but here they were.

"You're delusional if you think I was gonna ask you to be my best man" Jack laughs.

"Shut your bitch ass Jack, I wasn't talking about you. I'm gonna be Y/n's best man. Or man of honour I guess. Right

Y/n?" He asks, full blown puppy dog eyes.

"Of course, Lukey," you grin, ruffling his hair. Quinn picked this moment to chime in.

"That means I have to be Jack's best man?" He screechs with mock offense. "No thanks, I'm wanna be Y/n's man of honour"

Jacks jaw drops, and he stares at you with mock betrayal. "You've stolen my family!" He gasps.

You giggle behind your hand, "well maybe if she wasn't one hundred times better than you, we wouldn't like her so much" Luke says matter-of-factly, sticking his tongue out at Jack.

"Do they always argue this much?" Quinn asks you, "if so, how are you sane?"

"Not usually, clearly you bring out the best in them," you grin, patting Quinn on the shoulder. He rolls his eyes, the slip of a smirk on his lips.

"As much as I love that were planning our wedding right now, I think we'd better save it till I have a ring on my finger" you say, throwing a wink at jack.

"Baby, if it were up to me, you'd already have a ring," Jack grins, winking back at you.

"It is up to you dumbass." Quinn says, brows raised. Luke cackles, and Jack blushes, grumbling about how they don't understand. You lean over and kiss him on the cheek sweetly.

"Don't worry Jackie, I know" you smile, leaning your head on his shoulder. You wrap an arm around his Bicep, drawing gentle circles with your thumb. Meeting and getting along with Quinn had vastly eased your worries about meeting his parents.

As if on cue, Quinn pulls into the driveway. And the four of you stumble out of the car, grabbing luggage from the trunk and heading into the house.

Mr. And Mrs. Hughes are hanging out in the kitchen, prepping salad ingredients side by side. As soon as they heard the car pull up, they were waiting by the front door for their boys. Quinn slipped by them, squeezing his dad's shoulder and giving his mom a side hug before the absolute commotion that was his brother's entered the house.

"Welcome home, my boys!" Ellen grinned, Luke had to lean down a comical distance for Ellen to hug him around the neck. She patted him on the back, and he hugged his dad and smartly disappeared up the stairs behind Quinn for you and Jack to have a bit of privacy with their parents.

You hover awkwardly at the door frame while Jack hugged his parents.

After he's hugged them both, he drags you forward by the hand. "Mom, dad, this is Y/n, my girlfriend." he voice has an edge of nerves, and you squeeze his hand.

"Hi, Mr. And Mrs. Hughes, " you smile politely, extending your hand for then to shake. Ellen all but slaps it out of the way as she pulls you into a hug.

"So good to meet you dear. Jack loves you so very much amd we are so happy he found you" she murmers gently. The urge to cry is strong. Jacks family already feels like home.

His dad wraps you in a side hug, "Welcome to the family." He smiles softly, "and please, none of this, Mr. And Mrs. Stuff, it's Ellen and Jim." You nod, even though you know there is no way you'll be calling them Ellen and Jim anytime soon.

"Lunch will be ready in ten. Why don't you guys go get settled and freshen up, and then we'll eat? " Ellen suggests.

"Yeah, we will. Thanks, Ma," Jack grabs your hand and leads you up the stairs to his bedroom that you'll be sharing for the summer. It's spacious and decorated in a way that's most definitely Jack's.

"Do you think they like me?" You ask nervously, putting your toiletries bag in his bathroom.

Jack can hear the worry in your tone. He pulls you into him, rubbing his hands up and down your arms soothingly, "I think they love you sweet thing" he pecks your forehead sweetly, "almsot as much as I do" with that the two of you get settled in comfortable scilence.

Quinn is knocking on the door, "lunch is ready," he calls, going to knock on Luke's door. Jack is dragging you down the stairs, excited to eat. The three of you had snacked on the flight a little bit, but beyond that, you hadn't had a real meal for the day.

Luke is already piling his plate with food. By the time the two of you are down the stairs. "Better get going before Luke eats everything," Ellen smirks, handing you and Jack plates, respectively.

"Mom!" Luke whines, around a piece of garlic toast. Ellen just laughs at her son and waiting for you and Jack to grab food. Everyone piles onto the couch, and Quinn plays a movie. It's more like background noise, as you all chat happily.

Luke leans over you and tries to snatch a piece of garlic bread off of Jack's plate. Jack pokes (stabs) him with his fork, pinning him with a glare. Luke hisses, shaking his hand out dramatically.

"So rude to me," he pouts.

"Maybe don't steal his food then?" Quinn says matter-of-factly. Luke makes a face at him.

You grin at their antics, used to this particular argument by now. Honestly, you're surprised Luke doesn't have permanent fork scars on his hand. You hold out your plate to Luke, and he grins, taking a slice of your garlic bread. Luke sticks his tongue out at Jack.

After a few months of dealing with Jack stabbing Luke every time he tried to steal food off of Jacks plate, you had started putting a little extra food on your plate just for him. Honestly, you could blame Luke. Food just tasted better when you were stealing it off someone else's plate. You did it to Jack all the time, but as his girlfriend and the love of his life, you get a free pass.

Ellens smile is so soft as she watches. She is so happy for Jack that he has someone as amazing as you, she can tell Luke loves you too.

"Whats after lunch?" Jack asks, setting his empty plate on the coffee table. He throws an arm around your shoulder, and you kean into his side, running your fingers along his bare knee absent-mindedly.

"Boat, if you guys are down for it?" Quinn suggests, stacking his plate on top of Jacks.

Both Luke and Jack light up at the idea. You can't help but smile at the look on Jacks face. What you would give for that look never to leave.

"Yeah, let's do that, Y/n has never been on a boat."

Your cheeks flush, a little embarrassed. "What?!" Quinn practically screeches, "alright that settles it, were going on the boat."

You grab the stack of plates from the coffee table, "oh hon, leave it, well take care of it"

"Nonsense, Mrs. H, I want to help."

"Don't worry Mom, I got her" Jack grins, taking half the plates from you. The two of you load the dishwasher together, while the others get ready to go on the boat. You quickly sprint upstairs when you're done, changing into your swimsuit. You throw shorts and a hoodie over it, and slap some sunscreen on your face.

"Jack, did you put on sunscreen?"

He shakes his head, and you dab sunscreen on his nose. He grins, pecking you on the cheek before rubbing the sunscreen into his skin. "Lets go" he hums, throwing a towel over his shoulder for the both of you.

Quinn is already in the driver's seat, scrolling through his music options as he decides what to play. Jack hops over the edge of the boat and offers you a hand to pull you in. You take his hand gratefully as he hoists you over the ledge. You stumble into him, giggling a little.

He smirks, wrapping his arms around you to stabilize you. "Hey, didn't know you were falling for me." He says cheesily.

You hear Quinn snort, a smile playing on his lips. He's happy to see his brother happy.

"Baby, I fell for you a long time ago," you grin, standing on your tiptoes to kiss him.

"Ewwww, no kissing on the boat!" Luke yells as he hops over the ledge and throws a towel at the two of you for good measure. Jack catches it and rolls it up to whip luke with it. You and Quinn laugh at the two of them as Jack chases Luke around the minimal space of the boat hitting him with the towel.

As soon as Ellen and Jim approach Jack drops the towel all innocently, pulling you against his side. Ellen rolls her eyes at their antics and sits beside Jim, who wraps an arm around her shoulders. You can't help but smile. They are so cute.

Jack does almsot the same, tucking you into his side securely. Luke looks at Quinn miserably. "we are so single it hurts," he pouts.

Quinn snorts, "Speak for yourself, Moose, I quite enjoy my singularity"

Luke rolls his eyes "singularity my ass, thats not even how that word is used."

"Sorry, but I don't take advice from collage dropouts." Quinn smirks, flicking his head so his sunglasses fall onto his face as he takes off.

"I am not a collage dropout!" Luke scoffs

"Yet," Jack adds with a smirk.

The wind whips you hair into Jacks face, and he laughs as you tuck it into your hoodie. You stay curled into his side happily, enjoying the view as Quinn cruises along the coastline. Then he's slowing the boat to a stop, throwing the keys to his dad, tugging off his shirt, and back-flipping into the water.

Luke follows immediately, whooping as his head breaks the surface. "Your turn Y/n/n."

"Oh no, absolutely not, no thanks." You shake your head with a smile, pulling off the hoodie to lay in the sun.

Before you can fully process what's happening, Jack has his arms around you, and is standing on the seat. You lock your arms around his neck tightly.

"Jack Rowden Hughes, put me down this instant!" you say panic rising in your voice. His parents laugh, hearing you scold him with his full name.

"Catch" Jack grins, prying your arms away from his neck and tossing you in the water.

You scream as you fly through the air, the cold water is a shock as you kick to the surface. "I got you," Quinn smiles, reassuringly, as you emerge. He's got a hand wrapped gently on your arm, providing some stability while you get your bearings. And then, Jack is jumping into the water, splashing you and Quinn in the faces. "Thanks Quinn" you smile softly.

As Jack resurfaces, you swim over to him and attach yourself to his back like a koala. "How dare you!" You hold his head underwater for a few seconds, and he still comes up laughing.

"It was fun, though, wasn't it?" He asks, eyes glinting.

"Yeah," you grumble reluctantly.

"And now you'll jump on your own?" His brows are raised knowingly. Sometimes all you need is a push, or throw in this case.

"Yeah," you grin, pressing a kiss to his hair.

The four of you spend hours jumping off the boat over and over and horsing around in the water while their parents laugh, and throw snacks in your mouths from the boat and take plenty of pictures. Until the sun starts to fall lower in the sky, and Ellen deems it time to head back.

You climb into the boat and throw jacks hoodie on before you tuck yourself into his side as Quinn drives home. The rest of the evening is spent in the pleasant company of Jacks family. Eating dinner, playing board games, roasting marshmallows over the fire pit, and sharing embarrassing stories about Jack.

All in all, his family feels like your own, and being with him feels like home.

---

Notes: First Jack fic!! I'm not too sure how I feel about it, but eh, here we are. Thank you, Anon, for requesting, Love Soph ♡

#qh43 #quinn hughes #nhl imagine #jack hughes x y/n #jack hughes x reader #jh86 #luke hughes #nhl x reader #hughes brothers #jack hughes #nj devils #vancover canucks #lh43 #love soph

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glorysbox · 7 months

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I would love to see a continuation of those bihan fics you have but after he's gotten his son. Like how would he act afterwards?

(pregnancy talk, bihan lowkey/highkey has mommy and daddy issues)

bihan loves you, in his own way.

i can see him having a "marriage" (for lack of a better term), essentially letting everyone know publicly and officially who you belong to. if you bother him enough, he'd probably give you a wedding—though small, most likely only having the people he trusted (like cyrax and sektor) and maybe some of the people you'd request like family or close close friends. you'd really have to convince him, though…

he'd definitely start kissing you more. he loves the feeling of your lips on his; finds himself seeking the warmth of your lips and body on his more than he'd like to admit. bihan would definitely be opening up to you (physically), allowing you to cling to him in private or acquiescing to your pleads to be in the room with him while he's doing paperwork or foreseeing future battles with his second in commands.

bi-han would be wanting to see you often, going as far as making you sleep in his quarters instead of your own. you're barely halfway through your pregnancy by the time he's ordered you to stay with him in bed. at first, i don't think he'd been to receptive to any cuddling. but if you complain enough, he'll give in.

he's protective; the grandmaster of the lin kuei does have many enemies after all. (really, they'd never be able to breach the temple of the lin kuei. he uses it as an excuse to be with you constantly and oversee you during pregnancy. he doesn't want to lose you like he'd lost his mother or his brother.)

when it comes to the labor + aftermath… he doesn't really leave your side, ever. he's there when you give birth. he insists on being the one to cut the umbilical cord (with a blade made of ice). in the meantime, all of his responsibilities are passed down to sektor and cyrax, leaving him with more than enough time to nag you about the way you handle his son. he's often telling you how to do what since he "cared for kuai liang while he was a child", which means he knows more than you. (he doesn't)

surprisingly enough… he's "sweet" with his son, especially as he gets older. i think bihan's father wasn't the best to him (which i believe is why he let him die and acted the way he did in mk1). knowing how it feels to be treated less than favorably by his father, he would never repeat the cycle onto his own child. this doesn't mean he'll allow his son to be soft, though. expect your son to go through a LOT of training in the future to be a formidable grandmaster himself.

your relationship with him definitely undergoes many changes, too. you used to consider him much higher than you, but as the years go on, you start to see him as more of an equal. he does the same, considering you his equal way earlier than you him. you're not allowed to call him grandmaster anymore, only "husband" or "bihan" (he will still pull the obey your grandmaster card on you to get what he wants, though)

and yes, bihan wants another son too. he wants his first son to have a brother as soon as possible (which strangely parallels his own life… he'd never admit it to anyone but you, but he finds himself missing his little brother at times.)

you're expected to be a good mother as well. he expects you to be like his mother—who he thinks did a great job at raising him. you'll have to be tough and no nonsense, and willing to discipline your children to teach them lessons at a young age. he'll definitely get on your ass if he finds you coddling his son far too much and making him "weak". if you have a daughter though… imagine his protectiveness times one trillion. seriously. she'll probably be just as spoiled as you are. and yes, you are spoiled. the members of the lin kuei basically treat you as an extension of bihan. and he always makes sure you get what you want.

he was comfortable having just you to defend and protect, knowing that his sons also could protect you… but with a daughter thrown in the mix, expect the both of you to never be let out of his sight. he would be soooo annoying about it!! god forbid he has to go somewhere without you—you're stuck listening to sektor ramble on and on about whatever silly scientific experiments while he babysits you and her.

you'd probably catch him more than a few times being uncharacteristically sweet to your daughter—especially if she resembles you or resembles his mother. he'd definitely soften up with her (not in front of anyone but your family, however.)

still, bihan is a cold man. literally and figuratively. don't expect him to talk much about his family life or his feelings. he does demand to know everything about yours, though...

#TWO POSTS IN ONE DAY?!#mk bihan #bihan #mortal kombat x reader #mortal kombat 1 #mortal kombat #concepts #sfw #sydfw #mk #mk1 #bihan x reader #headcanons #mortal kombat headcanons

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aheathen-conceivably · 3 months

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🎶'Cause he held in his arms, and he taught me to be strong 🎶

Although Zelda and Giorgio’s efforts on the farm were growing less dire, there were still days when some of them had to go without meals. Rather than leave Violette there with empty cupboards and exhausted adults on days when she wasn’t at the schoolhouse, Antoine would bring her to Abraham’s ranch with him.

It comforted him having her so near, seeing her run unencumbered on the sand without any of the worries that plagued his or Zelda’s mind. She seemed happy and comfortable there, but sometimes it terrified him that she was growing older and there was nothing he could do to stop it. It seemed like only months ago that she’d been born, not over seven years before. Soon enough she’d be a young woman, and the thought alone was enough to make him panic. He wanted nothing more than to freeze time at exactly this moment, before anything could hurt her or take her away.

He was happy that she had William, who was such a kind and soft spoken boy that was always happy to play whatever games Violette suggested. But even his presence reminded Antoine that one day there would be a boy he couldn’t protect his baby girl from, one who would break her heart and make her cry, just the way he had done when he was young.

He only hoped that he would be there when it happened, to help her pick up the pieces and stay as strong as he knew she was now. Every day he could see his mother and sister not only in the color of her eyes, but in her temperament too. She was strong willed and stubborn, but she allowed herself moments of such fancy and wonder, that he couldn’t help but see Zelda in her too. Each and every one of them triggered a fire in his soul, a pure rush to safeguard them against the rest of the world, that all of them combined in his only child was enough to make his heart burst.

He told himself at least he had her there with him now, that if he could focus on exactly the girl she was now and give her everything she could possibly want, he would show her the type of man and life she deserved; because above anything, he knew that she deserved the world.

He wanted to give her the best sides of himself, the moments in his day that made him feel happiest and uplifted him from the drudgery of the world. So of course, he took her to meet Silver. He had been worried that the horse would respond to Violette the way she did with everyone else, but she seemed to immediately sense that the child was Antoine’s, and thus an extension of the trust she already had for him. With amazing softness, she lowered her head toward Violette, and the child’s usual harsh bravado softened in turn, transforming into a gentle, hushed amazement as she looked into the horse’s eyes. “Poppa, I love her!”

He could feel the pride welling in his chest, threatening to burst into tears, when she looked back at him with excited eyes, “Can we take her home, Poppa? Please? Please!”

“I’m afraid she lives here, Princess. But I’ll get you your very own pony one day. I promise.” Her face transformed even more, brightening with excitement as she continued to pet Silver. The horse seemed so content, that Violette brought her face against her nose. Antoine panicked, bringing his hand forward to stop her, but the horse stayed calm, looking back at Antoine as though to tell him to calm down for once.

With her face still close to Silver’s Violette turned her eyes up at her father, “Can we at least ride her then? Pretty please?”

Antoine had asked himself that very question every day since Abraham had offered. But he didn’t want to tell his baby girl he was afraid, or that the stories of the men she had kicked into the sand were more gruesome than any Western he had ever read. So instead he simply said, “Maybe one day….”

Even a child could hear the wistfulness in his voice, but then Abraham’s curses from outside punctuated the moment. Antoine knew that meant one of the horses was refusing his commands, so he gently moved Violette’s hand away from the horse and opened the stall gate. “You go and play with Will now, alright? We’ll visit her again tomorrow.”

She looked up at him with her big olive eyes, trying to stop him as his boots headed for the door of the barn. She needn’t say a word to besiege him to stay; but he mustered even more strength than needed against the most stubborn of horses to drop down on one knee and kiss her goodbye, promising that he would come and find her at the end of the day just as he always did.

#1932 #sims 4 historical #ts4 decades challenge #ts4 historical #sims 4 decades challenge #the darlingtons #sims 4 legacy #ts4 legacy #sims 4 story #ts4 story #1930s #Antoine Duplanchier #Violette darlington #William Hines #Abraham Hines

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intynidad · 11 months

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I lost the askkkkk but somebody asked me for how a relationship with the love interest of the otome au would be soooooo:

RELATIONSHIP WITH THE LOVE INTEREST/OTOME AU

How a relationship would be with the yandere otome characters SFW

Yandere otome au part1 part2

The childhood friend

Very wholesome, you two have known each other since forever, and things haven't changed much. Your relationship would be like an extension of your deep friendship, but with the added sweetness of kisses, hugs, and, well... other things.

It's amazing how your connection has evolved over the years. You've shared countless memories, inside jokes, and moments of vulnerability. There's an unspoken understanding between you, a comfort that comes from knowing each other's quirks and flaws.

The transition from friendship to romance is smooth like it was mean to be.

Be prepared for Cute dates and lots of cuddling

The older family friend

Prepare to be immersed in a life of luxury and glamour beyond your wildest dreams! A relationship with him is like stepping into a world of opulence and extravagance.

Don’t take me wrong, you had money, after all you are the heir of the L/N corporation, but he has more…so much more

Picture yourself indulging in lavish dinners at the most exclusive restaurants, savoring exquisite cuisine prepared by renowned chefs. Every meal is a culinary masterpiece, accompanied by the finest wines and champagne (or expensive sodas and fine juices if you don’t drink). Your taste buds dance with delight as you explore a world of gastronomic delights, each bite a symphony of flavors.

But it doesn't stop there. He has a penchant for showering you with lavishing gifts, each one more extravagant than the last. Expensive jewelry, designer clothes, and luxurious accessories become a regular part of your life. The world becomes your runway as you effortlessly exude elegance and style, draped in the finest fabrics and adorned with dazzling gems.

The heroine

Exactly what you would expect with dating a diva, but hey your nails never look better!

One thing is certain: she knows how to command attention. She's the type of person who effortlessly captivates a room with her magnetic presence. Being with her means being in the spotlight, as she enjoys being the center of attention and adores having you by her side. Prepare to witness her diva moments and embrace the grandeur that comes with dating a true star.

but don't worry, it's not all about her. She genuinely enjoys spending quality time with you and cherishes the moments you share together. She understands the importance of self-care, and skin care dates become a regular part of your routine. Get ready to be pampered and treated like royalty as she devotes herself to ensuring you feel loved and cherished.

She knows all the gossip from everyone in town so she is the go-to person for all the juicy details of every rumor

So grab a cup of your favorite beverage and sit back, as she entertains you with the latest drama and spills the tea on everyone in town.

She is a mega fan of carnival dates, she just thinks the ferri wheel and the cotton candy makes for a romantic outing, she just enjoys going out in general , there is an activity for everyone after all!

The loner

Why?

It took them a solid two weeks, after you two began dating, to fully process and comprehend the reality that the two of you were indeed in a romantic relationship. It was as if their mind needed some extra time to catch up with their heart.

He is such a puppy with you,honestly he would gladly strip themself of their personality to make sure you are happy

You wanna do A? Sound fun

You wanna eat B? Please do!

You wanna use him as a stress reliever

You wanna play C? On board !

His only response to anything you ask would be “yes dear” and is not like he minds to be honest, he is happy as long as you are happy

The playboy

It was only a matter of time before you found yourself succumbing to the irresistible allure of their charms. They had an air of confidence about them that was both captivating and, dare I say, a tad cocky. But hey, that was part of their charm, right?

Being a true party animal, they knew how to bring the fun wherever they went. Get ready for a whirlwind of lively nights filled with drinks, laughter, and the pulse-pounding beats of music. With them by your side, it felt like the party never stopped. They had a knack for turning any gathering into an unforgettable event, leaving a lasting impression on the town's history, whether for the better or worse. The stories that emerged from your parties together became legendary, etching your names in the memories of those who attended.

One of their many talents included the art of mixology. They could effortlessly whip up tantalizing cocktails that tantalize your taste buds and set the mood for a delightful evening. Whether it was a classic concoction or a unique creation, their skills behind the bar were unmatched. Imagine sipping on expertly crafted drinks, each sip a flavorful journey that they meticulously curated just for you.

As your place became the epicenter of these vibrant gatherings, it transformed into a haven of excitement and celebration. The walls echoed with laughter, the music reverberated through the rooms, and your home became a sanctuary for joy and revelry. Sure, the occasional mishap may have occurred, but it only added to the colorful tapestry of memories that you shared with them.

So, brace yourself for a whirlwind of endless festivities and unforgettable moments. With them leading the charge, your nights would be filled with the clinking of glasses, the rhythm of the music, and an undeniable energy that brought people together. Get ready to raise your glass and toast to the extraordinary experiences that awaited you in the company of this charming party aficionado.

The delinquent

Why x2

To be honest, you were the one who took the first step in this relationship. It's not that they were shy or anything, but they couldn't quite comprehend the fact that you would actually want to date them

Congrats! You are an official member of the gang now, and everyone better respect you if they don’t want their teeth on the floor, on the outside he is still the leader of the criminal gang, and you would easily become his right hand in all of his plans.

Hope you aren’t afraid of a little blood!.

He would teach you how to fight and defend yourself if you didn't know already,your ego would get a boost with all the gang treating you with respect (and fear)

On close doors,baking dates are a must, you would be the designated taste taster of all his cooking!

He can make almost everything sweet!

Low carb, sugar free, gluten free, allergies, just tell them and they will accommodate all of their cooking to your taste.

#male yandere #yandere oc #yandere story #yandere oc x reader #yandere scenarios #yanderecore #soft yandere #yandere x reader #yandere boy #yandere darling #female yandere #yandere imagines #yandere #yandere x you #yandere oc x you #yandere x y/n

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incorrectbatfam · 1 year

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Hello! While scrolling between random hurt/comfort fica I stumbled into a batfamily one and decided to give it a shot and now I am curious about this fandom! Never read any dc/marvel comic and watched maybe a couple of superhero movies so I have basically 0 knowledge about batman except that Robin is his apprentice but also apparently there's multiple Robins??

Can I have a general fandom/family introduction? I'm very confused but also really curious since I'm an avid found family enjoyer :)

What the heck is this fandom?

If you're reading this, you probably either a) want to get into comics but aren’t sure where to start or b) found yourself plopped in the middle and don't know what's going on.

DC Comics encompasses a wide range of characters and storylines with varying levels of popularity, and is home to some of the most iconic figures like Superman and Wonder Woman. What often happens in the DC and Marvel fandoms is that rather than trying to engage with everything, many fans will have a certain subset of content that they focus on. Sometimes it's a single character, sometimes it's a team like the Justice League, or sometimes it's a superhero family unit such as the Flash Family.

This blog primarily focuses on the batfamily, which is the group of characters that operate as Gotham City vigilantes centered around Batman. Some are legally/biologically related, some aren't. Generally speaking, the batfamily fandom is one of the larger subgroups within the DC fandom because so many of the comics revolve around these characters.

Who is Batman?

Are you living under a rock

Batman, AKA Bruce Wayne, begins with the infamous tragic origin where his parents were shot dead in an alleyway when he was 8, leaving him an orphan to be raised by his butler/surrogate father figure, Alfred Pennyworth. Once Bruce got a little older, he donned the costume to deal with criminals directly and bring justice to the city.

His civilian identity is Bruce Wayne, the (and I say this begrudgingly) billionaire CEO of his family's company, Wayne Enterprises. The company makes a little of everything and keeps Gotham afloat with job creation and philanthropy. Nothing unethical about one rich guy running an entire city.

His alter ego is Batman, and he uses his wit and extensive training to fight an array of both petty criminals as well as big-name villains like the Joker, the Riddler, Two-Face and more (collectively known as the Gotham Rogues gallery).

NOTE: some former villains, like Harley Quinn, have been rebranded as anti-heroes.

Batman operates out of a hidden cave (yes, a literal cave) under Wayne Manor known as the Batcave. This is where he keeps all sorts of high-tech paraphanalia, including his Batmobile, bat-plane, batarangs (bat boomerangs), and a powerful computer known as—you guessed it—the Batcomputer.

Batman's primary love interest is a former villain known as Catwoman, AKA Selina Kyle, who is a master thief. (Her backstory includes growing up with an abusive father and turning to stealing for survival.) She's since reformed and has been indicted into the Justice League. They're really cute if you don't think about how they're technically two furries who roleplay as cops and robbers.

NOTE: in an alternate timeline, Bruce dies as a child in that alley as Thomas Wayne becomes Batman while Martha Wayne becomes the Joker.

Okay, what about... Robin? Robins?

There's a lot to unpack here.

The OG Robin is Dick Grayson. Yes, we still call him Dick in the year 2022. He was a child acrobat who was part of a trio, The Flying Graysons, with his parents, John and Mary, in a traveling circus called Haly's Circus. Haly's stopped in Gotham, where a crime boss named Tony Zucco tried to get them to pay protection money. When Haly refused, Zucco sabotaged the trapezes and Dick's parents fell to their deaths. Bruce was at that show and because Orphans Unite or whatnot, he takes little Dick under his wing as a ward (not legally adopted at this point, Bruce is in his early to mid 20s). Dick joins Batman's crusade as the colorful pantsless sidekick known as Robin. As Robin, he also became the leader of what would eventually be a multigenerational superhero team known as the Teen Titans.

The second Robin is Jason Todd. He grew up in Gotham's notorious Crime Alley, where his mother, Catherine, was a substance user and his father, Willis, was an overall piece of garbage. After his father goes to jail and his mother dies of an overdose, Jason is essentially an orphan left to fend for himself on the streets. His run-in with Batman happens when he tries to steal to Batmobile tires to sell, and instead of getting punished, he gets adopted. Legally, this time. So while Dick is the oldest, Jason is Bruce's first kid. Jason takes on the Robin mantle and fights crime, yada yada. What he's well-known for is his death, where he set out to Ethiopia to find his biological mother, Sheila Haywood, and is killed by the Joker. Then Superman breaks reality and Jason comes back to life, spends some time with the League of Assassins, and gets rebranded as a crime lord/anti-hero with a hell of a grudge against Bruce for not avenging him.

While Jason was dead, we get our third Robin and the first one with pants: Tim Drake. Tim is actually Bruce's neighbor (the way rich people can be neighbors with spaced-out properties). He grew up with wealthy but neglectful parents, Janet and Jack Drake, who often left Tim home alone as a small child while they went on their archeology expeditions. Tim takes an interest in the Gotham vigilantes and sets out to follow them around and gather evidence to figure out who they are. Eventually, he deduces Bruce, Dick, and Jason's identities by some moves unique to the Flying Graysons. Then, Tim basically blackmails Bruce into letting him be Robin and has his own teenage superhero team called Young Justice. After the Robin title is taken away from him, he becomes Red Robin (yes, like the restaurant chain) and while everyone thinks Batman is dead during this time, Tim is the only one who believes otherwise. Also, his mom drinks poison, dad is killed by a boomerang, best friend is killed by an evil clone, other best friend is also killed by an evil clone, girlfriend dies (see below), assassins steal his spleen, and now he's bisexual and dating a boy who creates conspiracy theories.

NOTE: In an alternate timeline, Carrie Kelley becomes the third Robin.

Robin #4 is Stephanie Brown. She actually didn't become Robin until well into her vigilante career. She actually made a name for herself as Spoiler with the purpose of taking down her father, a D-list Gotham villain known as Cluemaster. Similar to everyone in this franchise, her childhood wasn't ideal as her father was always up to criminal activities and her mother worked a lot as well as (in some versions) used drugs. She later becomes the fifth Batgirl and then Robin before her death in the 2005 War Games comics, where she is killed when she seeks out a villain against Batman's orders. She then returns from the dead and goes back to being Spoiler. She also dated Tim and was a fairly long-running relationship before they broke up. She also had a teen pregnancy at one point (not by Tim) and had a daughter that she put up for adoption.

Robin #5 is Damian Wayne, the biological son of Bruce Wayne and Talia Al Ghul (daughter to Ra's Al Ghul, leader of a villainous organization known as the League of Assassins). Damian was raised in the League of Assassins for the first half of his childhood, where he was trained to be the heir to Ra's Al Ghul's empire. Talia brought him to Bruce when he was ~10 to refine his skills with Batman. However, that kind of goes awry when Bruce fakes his death and Damian is raised by Dick instead. Damian also becomes a Teen Titans leader as well as forms a friendship with Jon Kent, son of Superman (please read Super Sons, it's adorable). Damian is then killed by his oversized evil clone and is brought back to life on the planet Apokolips (no one stays dead istg).

Duke Thomas's relationship with the Robin mantle is a little more complicated. Duke first shows up as a really intelligent kid who solves one of the Riddler's puzzles. Later on, he becomes the leader (aided by Alfred Pennyworth) of a group of teenage vigilantes known as We Are Robin, who helped take care of Gotham crime while Batman was missing. His parents were, for a lack of a better term, disabled after one of the Joker's gas attacks (seriously, someone euthanize this clown). Bruce takes Duke under his wing and Duke rebrands himself as the Signal. He's unique from other Gotham heroes in a couple aspects: 1) he fights crime in the daytime instead of night and 2) he has photokinetic superpowers. (He's also dating one of the We Are Robins members, Izzy Ortiz.)

What about the others, like Batwoman and Batgirl?

Similar to Robin, Batgirl is a title held by multiple people. The first Batgirl was Bette Kane (who is now Flamebird), but the most well-known one was the second one, Barbara Gordon. Barbara (Babs for short) is the daughter of Gotham police commissioner Jim Gordon. Inspired by other Gotham heroes, she became Batgirl behind her parents' back and worked in tandem with Bruce and Dick, forming a relationship with Dick along the way. She became a quadriplegic after getting shot by the Joker but refused to step down from the field, instead using her intelligence and technological capabilities to surveil and provide intel under a new moniker, Oracle. She also has her own team, the Birds of Prey, which includes people like Huntress and Black Canary.

After Barbara, the next Batgirl is Cassandra Cain (who is also Bruce's only legal daughter in the main continuity). She is the daughter of David Cain and an assassin known as Lady Shiva. Cass was raised by David within the League of Assassins and trained to be a fighting machine, similar to Damian. She was raised in isolation without speech or literacy, but can read body language really well. Her first kill was when she was 8, and that traumatized her so much that she ran away, wandering around until eventually reaching Gotham and becoming both Bruce and Barbara's ward. She holds other titles like Black Bat along the way but is most known as Orphan. She also befriends Stephanie, had a short relationship with Superboy (Conner Kent) and, like half the people here, dies and comes back. Depending on who you talk to, some people keep her lack of speech, some have her speaking, and some prefer an in-between.

Stephanie was Batgirl after Cass. See above.

Kate Kane is Batwoman and Bruce Wayne's cousin. She grew up similarly wealthy in a high-level military family, often moving around as a child. Her twin sister and mother were killed in a terrorist attack in Belgium, leaving her father to raise her. She got into West Point military academy but was expelled in her final year after coming out as lesbian under the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy. After that, she spent a year on an island civilization before returning to Gotham. After Batman saved her from a mugging, Kate bought some equipment on the black market and trained herself to become Batwoman. Also, we as a fandom don't talk about her flamethrower gloves enough.

NOTE: in an alternate timeline, Carrie Kelley was also Batgirl and Batwoman.

Harper Row is Bluebird, and similar to Batwoman, she is a mostly independent Gotham hero who was inspired by Batman. Growing up, Harper often had to take care of things like household repairs and look after her younger brother, Cullen, because their father was abusive and didn't do anything for them. Eventually, she sought emancipation and got them out of there, but things still weren't easy. She went to college, but had to drop out and get a job in order to provide for her and her brother. She became Bluebird after Batman saved her and Cullen, engineering her own weapons like a giant taser. Fun fact: she's bi and her brother is gay.

This is still really confusing. Who's who right now?

Canon sucks so here's what the fandom largely know them as:

Bruce is Batman. He might have some suit modifications or occasionally pilot a giant bat robot, but he's Batman

Dick is Nightwing. He took over as Batman for a short period of time, but after Bruce returned, he went back to being Nightwing we don't talk about Ric

Jason is Red Hood. That was actually the Joker's previous title but now Jason holds it

Tim is... usually Robin or Red Robin, it kinda depends on context. Canonically he's back to being Robin now, but a lot of us still refer to him as Red Robin

Damian is Robin. He had the alias Redbird at one point but everyone calls him Robin

Duke is the Signal. Again, there were some alias changes (like Lark) but he's the Signal around here

Stephanie is Spoiler, but again, it depends on context

Cassandra is usually referred to as Orphan, but you'll occasionally see Batgirl or Black Bat depending on who you talk to

Barbara was rehashed as Batgirl in recent canon but we all hate the disability erasure so you'll see a lot of us still call her Oracle

Harper is Bluebird. I don't recall her having any other titles. Her brother isn't a vigilante

Selina (yes, she's part of the batfamily) is Catwoman

Alfred is... Alfred. On the field he goes by Agent A and his previous spy career often comes in handy

This isn't the sum of it. There are a whole bunch of other bat characters (Bette Kane, Luke Fox, Jean-Paul Valley, Helena Bertinelli, Terry McGinnis, etc.) that I didn't get into here partly because I don't focus on them as much and partly because of space. I also didn't get into all the lore for characters I did explain, like Dick's police career or other teams/relationships. There are also some inconsistencies between different timelines and reboots.

I encourage you to explore beyond what I presented with other heroes and villains since I know Batman isn't for everyone. I also encourage you to explore the comics, talk to people, and figure out for yourself what characters or storylines best fit you. Don't be afraid to take your time, either. We've been here nearly a century. We're not going anywhere.

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fanfic-lover-girl · 5 months

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Goku may have failed Gohan in some ways as a father, but Piccolo was never and will never be Gohan's Daddy

So when I was younger, I enjoyed a handful of fics centred on Piccolo and Gohan's relationship. I love how much Piccolo came to care for Gohan and it was nice to see Dad!Piccolo every now and then...but Dad!Piccolo can't ever measure up to fics where Goku is a great dad. I understand why some people may believe Piccolo is Gohan's true dad but I don't agree, especially now as an adult woman with my father now dead.

Disclaimer: I am basing this off my experience watching Dragonball, DBZ, DBGT and most of the DBZ/GT movies. I have not watched DBS nor will I ever. That series can screw itself.

Piccolo's responsibility in destroying Gohan's childhood

Piccolo is the one who thrust Gohan into the world of fighting and world-ending battles. He kidnapped Gohan and left Gohan to fend for himself for months. I will argue that Piccolo started Gohan's warrior path on a traumatic note and that's partly why Gohan does not gravitate towards fighting as he grows older. Yes, Piccolo changed but the damage can not be undone.

Difference in species

This may look superficial at first glance but it is significant as you look into it. Namekians are radically different from humans/saiyans physically, emotionally and sexually. That means that Piccolo can not advise Gohan on various aspects of his life as he grows older, especially during puberty. Piccolo can't teach him to shave. Piccolo can't give him the sex talk and talk to him about girls. Piccolo can't help Gohan with his friendships. Piccolo can't relate to whatever saiyan or human urge Gohan may experience. A father is supposed to model a good man for his kids and teach his son to be one. Piccolo can't offer that to Gohan, unfortunately.

Emotional distance

I see Gohan as a very emotional and affectionate person. You see this when he interacts with Goku, Goten and Videl. Piccolo is more reserved and closed off. Usually when Piccolo and Gohan interact, there's always some kind of distance between them. However, there are a few times when Piccolo will rest his hand on Gohan's head or shoulder when he feels extremely proud like after the Cell games. However, I don't think this would have been enough from a father figure for Gohan. When Gohan is crying after Goku's sacrifice, it's Krillin who steps up and comforts Gohan. When the Z fighters go to the lookout after Gohan's victory, it's Yamcha who carries Gohan. This does not mean Piccolo does not care for Gohan! I am just saying that Gohan likes physical forms of affection too, but that's not Piccolo's love language.

Fighting is all they have in common

We don't see Piccolo and Gohan have any extensive scenes together outside the context of battles and fighting. What exactly do they do together for fun? What do they talk about? In the movies, we see kid Gohan being silly around Piccolo and Piccolo tolerating him, but that hardly counts. I get the vibe from the series that Gohan's visits to Piccolo are brief and they don't have much small talk. With Goku, we see Gohan and him enjoy pastimes together like fishing, bathing and eating. In the lead-up to the Cell games, we see them reminisce about Gohan's childhood and have fun as a family at Gohan's birthday party. Why wasn't Piccolo there?

Piccolo is not involved wholistically in Gohan's life

Piccolo only really exists and functions in the fighting realm of Gohan's life. This is why their relationship does not feel as close as Gohan grows older and starts his career and family. Piccolo hardly expresses any interest in the other facets of Gohan's life. I don't even recall Piccolo interacting at all with Pan or Videl at the end of Z or GT. He is not close with Chi Chi and Goten, Gohan's family. I think Piccolo is closer to the Son family in Super but I don't care. Compare this with Goku who encourages Gohan to study, teases him about Videl and spends time with Pan.

Conclusion: Goku is Gohan's daddy and Piccolo can't fill that gap.

This does not take away the fact that Piccolo protected Gohan and loved him in his own way. Sacrificing himself for Gohan multiple times. Piccolo was the one who understood Gohan's mindset during the Cell games (probably because he was the one who beat baby Gohan into a fighter and saw his timidness up close vs. Goku who came back to life and only saw hero Gohan being badass all the time) and was the first Z fighter to step in during Gohan's fight against Cell. But Piccolo is better labelled as a friend or mentor to Gohan. Maybe uncle or big brother. Goku is Gohan's father, Gohan sees Goku as his daddy, and Piccolo will never fill that role for Gohan.

#piccolo #son goku #son gohan #saiyan saga #cell saga #android saga #dad!piccolo critical #piccolo is not gohan's dad #goku will always be gohan's daddy #son family #dbz #dragon ball z #gohan deserved better #dragonball gt #gohan & piccolo

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acey-wacey · 2 years

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Hello (⁠◍⁠•⁠ᴗ⁠•⁠◍⁠) congratulations on hitting 1000 followers I'm sure you'll continue to grow even bigger in the future (⁠◕⁠ᴗ⁠◕⁠✿⁠)

Here's my request: can I get strawberry+ Lilia

Thank you and have a great week (⁠ ⁠◜⁠‿⁠◝⁠ ⁠)⁠♡

Pairing - Lilia Vanrouge x Reader

Prompt - "Sevens, that was kinda hot."

Notes - it is implied that the reader is also older than they look.

...

That's what Kalim had said the day before to convince you to come to his concert for the pop music club.

"Come on, Y/N! It'll be fun! Pleeeeaaase?"

An average person wouldn't need to be badgered into seeing one of their best friends perform, but you were no average person and you had a very stupid good reason for not wanting to go.

Lilia Vanrouge had been the bane of your existence for a long time.

Long before you had enrolled at Night Raven College, the "young" boy had pestered you, scared you, and teased you to his hearts content. You couldn't help from feeling like he was using you as a plaything to pass the time. You couldn't exactly blame him. Ancient beings need a way to stay entertained but you hated being on the receiving end of immortal antics.

You hadn't always hated Lilia, of course. You actually thought he was really cute when you first met him but you soon realized that he manipulated people with the cutesy kid facade and it rubbed you the wrong way.

It made it hard to be such good friends with Malleus when you despised his vice dorm leader with a burning passion, especially since all of Diasomnia loved you. Even Sebek (begrudgingly) accepted you as his master's companion and granted you permission to stay by his side.

Since you spent so much time in the Diasomnia dorm, you saw much more of Lilia than you would've liked. Out of pure proximity, you saw a whole different side of the mischievous fae. It felt like he had a nicer twin brother, one that only teased out of love and cared for the dorm members like his children.

The moment your perception of the boyish fae changed for good was when you had lost track of time and stayed at the Diasomnia dorm rather late. Silver had fallen asleep on your lap and you couldn't leave now without waking the boy.

"Someone's gotten quite comfortable," Lilia had said, whispering fondly from the doorway, somehow startling you more than his usual scare tactics. He draped a blanket over Silver's sleeping form before kissing his forehead gently. "Goodnight, little prince."

As he left, he noticed your eyes on him and turned around just to smile.

"Sleep tight, Y/N."

It was such a oddly domestic moment, with Silver resting on your lap like a child. You'd never thought much of Lilia except that he was annoying until you saw how he treated Silver so tenderly.

Ever since then, you'd avoided Lilia and the whole dorm by extension like they all had contracted the plague, not trusting yourself to be around him without having some life-changing revelation that you weren't ready for. Night walks with Malleus were the only exception, lest he get pouty and you suffer the rage of his guard dog (Sebek).

But tonight, you had been compelled by Kalim to go to the pop music club concert where you knew you couldn't avoid seeing Lilia. It wasn't your fault that the Scarabia dorm leader had his puppy dog eyes down to a T.

"It'll be fine," you thought, taking a deep breath as you hovered outside the cafeteria door. You could already hear the crowd clamoring inside the makeshift auditorium. "I'll just say hi to Kalim after and then be gone. Lilia won't even know I'm there."

You said one final affirmation and stepped inside.

The cafeteria looked completely unrecognizable. You whistled quietly as you admired the satin streamers on the wall, no doubt courtesy of Kalim's wallet. It looked like it was decorated for a middle school dance, though what else you expected from three of the school's pluckiest upperclassmen was a real mystery.

Since you were still pretty early, you managed to cop a spot right near the stage. You chose to linger more toward the wall so you wouldn't get crushed in the mosh of people but the stage was right in your line of sight.

After a while, the stage lit up with spotlights, revealing the very boys you were just thinking about. The crowd screamed as they caught sight of the band all had been anticipating.

Kalim was spinning his drumstick and beaming in his black beanie and flannel. You rolled your eyes, remembering the long nights you and Jamil had spent trying to teach him how to do that trick.

You watched as Cater posed for the many cameras aimed at him. Somewhere in the crowd, you knew Trey had been roped into recording the whole concert on Cater's phone to get some good shots.

And center stage was the very person you had dreaded seeing. Though you had to admit that the ripped jeans and slicked back hair suited Lilia's aesthetic very well, you couldn't help from scoffing as he winked at the crowd.

The music started up and you tapped your foot to the beat, allowing yourself a smile when Kalim grinned widely at the crowd.

~Can't count the years on one hand that we've been together~

You fought the urge to roll your eyes as you recognized the song. Of course Lilia would be the lead singer for a Paramore song.

~I need the other one to hold you, make you feel, make you feel better~

The crowd sang along and you spotted more than a few phones held high above the crowd to capture the band.

~It's not a walk in the park to love each other~

"Has his voice always been this nice?" You cursed yourself for blushing, grateful for the cramped environment to blame it on. You slapped yourself in the face, refusing to let Lilia ruin your day without even trying.

~But when our fingers interlock can't deny, can't deny you're worth it~

Lilia winked at the crowd, causing a wave of shrieks from fangirls you didn't even know existed until that night. Knowing Lilia, he tended to attract people wherever he went like moths to a flame. Maybe it was a fae thing.

~Cuz after all this time, I'm still into you~

You were snapped away from your thoughts when you realized the singer was looking into the crowd with a smile that seemed more sincere than his usual smirks. The moment lasted far too short but some part of you knew he was looking right at you.

Before you could react, he ran a hand through his hair and started belting the chorus.

~I should be over all the butterflies, but I'm into you, I'm into you~

You absentmindedly brought a hand to your cheeks, covering the blush you knew was present. You tried to convince yourself that the quickness of your breathing was due to the heat of the room but Lilia kept stealing glances at you from the stage, making your traitor heart flutter.

Eventually, you couldn't take it anymore. You pushed your way towards the back of the cafeteria, apologizing to everyone you passed, and ran into the hallway.

You plopped down on one of the benches and leaned back against the wall. You huffed as you remembered the expression on Lilia's face as he looked at you. Since you were out of the cafeteria, you couldn't pretend it was just the heat of the moment anymore.

"Sevens, that was really hot."

"What was?"

You almost screamed as you spotted the mop of white hair on the floor next to you.

"Oh, Silver, it's just you. What are you doing on the floor?"

He groaned and rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

"S'comfy."

You laughed at his simple logic and patted your lap, gesturing for him to rest his head on something more comfortable than hard polished marble.

He laid down on your lap and yawned while you started combing through his matted hair.

"Are you here for Lilia?" you asked, curious as the why the narcoleptic would be seen anywhere near a rock concert.

He only offered a hum in confirmation.

"I just want to see Kalim perform and then get out of here," you lamented your worries. Silver was a surprisingly good listener when he wanted to be. "This isn't really my scene."

"Why have you been avoiding us?" Silver mumbled, making you perk up. You didn't think him or any of the others had noticed the distance you'd forced. "Did Fa- Lilia say something mean? Because if he offended you, he didn't mean it."

"No, no, it's nothing like that," you chuckled. If Lilia could've offended you, you would've stopped coming to the Diasomnia dorm a long time ago. "I've just... been busy."

"Did you finally realize he's in love with you?"

You straightened. Now that was something you never expected to hear.

"Who do you mean?" You knew the answer but you were praying you were wrong.

"Lilia, obviously," Silver said through a yawn and nuzzled your hand, gesturing for you to keep running your fingers through his hair. You were in a complete daze as you processed the words Silver just told you.

"He... Is in love with me?"

"He's not very subtle about it."

You scoffed and inhaled loudly, ready to prove Silver wrong about everything.

"First of all, if he loves me, why is he such a b-tch to me all the time? He's not a child. If he loved me, he would act like it."

"You overestimate him."

"Hush, I'm spiraling. Second, have you met him? You're right that he isn't subtle. If were in love with me, I would've noticed. Plus Malleus would've told me by now."

"All due respect to my master, but he's just as clueless as you are."

"And third, WHAT?! I don't need this right now! I was supposed to distance myself from Lilia until I went back to hating him and stopped having stupid little domestic fantasies."

"Can you cook?"

You paused your thought process to look at Silver incredulously.

"Yes, I went to culinary school at one point, if I remember correctly. Why?" you answered dubiously. Silver just shrugged and curled into himself more.

"You and Father are perfect for each other. We need at least one parent who can cook without burning the kitchen down."

"Silver!"

#twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland x reader #twst #twst x reader #disneytw #lilia vanrouge #lilia vanrouge x reader #nyxscarnival

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celaenaeiln · 5 months

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it’s a me a 12 am anon . my girlfriend and i had a discussion abt how odd it is that the fandom views and stereotypes the batfam like

dick is romanian and has more fem related traits and somehow it translates into him being a dumb womanizer or just an annoying mother hen?

jason grew up in the streets, i think its popular to hc him as hispanic? idk but jts odd how ppl do that and also think hes an angry heartless brute

cass gets that “badass asian dragon lady” archetype (tbh im not sure what it is but my gf is passionate abt it so like im confident she’s right)

tim?? somehow ive seen wasian hcs for him but the boy is autistic right? somehow a stereotype i see for him is like “weird and socially awkward but super smart” which . i dont think thats right .

steph is adhd right? i think? also falls into the dumb “waffles r my only personality trait” stereotype and uts just a tiny bit odd dyou see it?

damian (and by extension talia) gets done dirty a lot i think i dont .yeah

nyways sorry its been a while <3 would llve to hear ur thoughts n opinions

hey again!!

Batfam fanon is...not great. And it's things like this that remind me why I kinda avoided this fandom until I couldn't.

Dick

Dick is Romani and is canonically more feminized but the dumb womanizer thing is really getting on my nerves. First of all, he's one of the smartest characters, ever. The comforting thing about Dick is that he never loses.

The reason I love reading Dick Grayson runs is because I can read about his thought process, the way he analyzes, how he single-handedly solves crime like it's nothing.

Batman (1940) Issue #703

Secondly he's not a womanizer. He literally has a mental break down at the thought of dating or even kissing someone he isn't in love with. He's never, ever, ever going to sleep with someone he doesn't have atleast some level of romantic attraction to because he feels it's inherently wrong and canonically frowns upon that behavior when others do it.

The mother hen thing - I gotta admit is kinda accurate. He really loves his family and friends and takes care of them really well. He always makes time to sit and listen to all of them with all their problems and helps them solve it so that's fine.

Jason

The hispanic thing - what the actual heck. Literally why? Jason's "hispanic" fanon background along with Tim's "asian" background comes from a wider problem where society has become disillusioned by the same ethnicity for all characters and wants for diversity and representation in the media. I actually do believe in greater representation but not here. When people make Jason hispanic due to his street backstory, they're attempting to diversify canonically white characters but accidentally reinforcing and perpetrating damaging stereotypes about particular ethnicities. Because his background has drugs, poverty, and crime - you want Jason to be Latino? Can you possibly make things worse? And Jason being an angry heartless brute. Not even adding to the stereotype, Jason was not like that. Jason originally started off as troubled but excited kid. He was happy about fighting criminals and having a home and getting food. As he grew older, the more criminals he fought, he came to a realization that people weren't going to change which is when he started getting more violent and angry with them. He didn't do it because he was some sort of psychopath, it's because he cared a lot about the effects these criminals were having on innocent people. Because he can relate. His anger has nothing to do with his supposed "hispanic" background which is still - ?!?!? Why is this even a thing.

Cass

I don't really have anything to say about Cass being that archetype because tbh I kinda think of her like that too. She's exceptionally good at fighting, she's chinese, and she's the strong and silent type. I'd love to hear more about what your gf thinks about it though.

Tim

Again about Tim being Asian. No where near as damaging as Jason being classified Hispanic but also why? He's asian because he's smart? Because he's good at computers? C'mon the stereotype is boring. Isn't it exciting when you watch a movie or show and the Indian guy isn't an IT specialist? Or when the Chinese girl has neon highlights and loves partying? Or when the Japanese girl is rocking combat boots? The best way to appreciate diversity is actually letting ethnic characters have diverse personalities and talents. On a side note, there is not nearly enough celebration of already canonically diverse characters like Roy's navajo heritage or Jessica Cruz's latina one. Isn't it ironic how we're making racialized characters based on stereotypes because we believe there should be more diversity but ignoring canonically ethnic ones. Literally noone talks about Cass connecting to her Chinese side or the fact that she has dyslexia but we're readily jumping on the Asian Tim Drake train.

Autistic Tim Drake I can see where they're coming from because Tim sometimes has a hard time connecting to people. Like he sometimes misses social cues. And to be fair this theory actually has more credibility than some other ones because I don't know if I'd pass that off as awkwardness. But it also may be due to lack of human interaction. Tim's parents left him alone for long periods of time which he gleefully used to track robin and batman at night. I don't have a problem with this one because Tim may actually be inadvertently written as autistic at times so I guess it wouldn't be that far off canon.

Steph

People with ADHD are typically impulsive, don't focus on one thing for too long, and have a lot of energy which is very much like Steph.

Batgirl (2009) Issue #10

But mostly she just has a sense of humor. Which - like the case with Dick - because of course people can't be multifaceted, fandom generally takes for stupidity.

She's not dumb, she's just fun. I guess the waffle thing is because of human beings' pathological need to classify everything into categories and fanon likes to run with dumb blonde for Stephanie which really ticks me off. People can not be a gloomy avenger and still be smart. She solves her crimes and has a laugh while doing it and still pulling off the -

Batgirl (2009) Issue #12

Damian

Where do I start. What is even happening to him? Not in fandom necessarily but canon. What is DC doing???

#rant post #dick grayson #nightwing #jason todd #red hood #tim drake #red robin #cassandra cain #black bat #stephanie brown #batgirl #damian wayne #fanon vs canon #cl 12 am anon asks #thanks for the ask!

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lovrily · 2 years

Text

speed of sound

steve harrington x reader | part 1 of 3 | 6k words

◃ ۪۪۫۫ ༄ؘ ˑ

as will byers' older sister, you vaguely know steve harrington. upon becoming steve harrington's (randomly and abruptly selected) lab partner, you realize you know him even less than you thought.

warnings: fem!reader, byers!reader, shy!reader, bickering, lab partners, classmates, starts in season 2 ends in season 4, frenemies to lovers, slow burn, pining, "unrequited" love emphasis on the air quotes, steve is popular and reader is not, doting mother joyce, running with the headcanon that jonathan dropped out of high school, hurt/comfort, language, blood/injury warnings level to what's on the show

PART ONE → 1984

When you knocked, Steve opened the door.

An unpleasantly dry air curled into your nostrils as you shuffled in, breezing by him and sinking into your seat at the back of the lab. Something citrus was there, too- cleaner or something equally sterile. Your eye caught on the two dozen beakers and one dozen test tubes at the other lab stations; the beakers filled with clear liquid and the tubes filled with something distinctly pink. What is that?

“It’s just food coloring,” Steve mumbled. You nearly jumped as he slipped back into the seat next you, folding his arms. He wore that one light blue jacket that looked like denim but wasn’t, the one he always wore. A strand of chestnut hair hung over his eyes when he readjusted. “Miggins is pissed.”

Normally you might have argued, but it was true. Miggins was your chemistry teacher, and his name was perfectly fitting. He was somewhere between forty and sixty and had a comb-over. That was all you really noticed about him. Your mind was usually elsewhere during his class.

Miggins glanced over his shoulder after a moment of intentional ignorance. “Oh. Hello.”

You flattened your lips into a small smile. “Hello. I’m sorry.”

“Finally gracing us with your presence?”

You opened your mouth to offer another apology, but Miggins was facing the board again before you took your next breath.

“Told you,” Steve whispered. His breath ghosted over your hair, not quite touching your skin. He sat up and you did not look at him. This was sophomore year, so sitting next to Steve still made you stiff. You would still be stiff junior year, and senior year, but maybe not as much. Maybe more. But for different reasons.

“It’s seven in the morning, quit breathing down my neck,” you hissed.

He made a face. “So angry.”

You shot him a tiny glare, and he laughed with his mouth closed, eyes still glued in fake focus on Miggins. This was his game. Steve Harrington was a senior who everybody knew and everybody loved (or despised), but more importantly, he was your lab partner. Miggins drew names out of a jar to make pairs at the beginning of the semester. He drew Steve’s name first, and then, when your name came next, it absolutely humiliated you. Steve had plenty of friends in the class and it was pretty damn obvious that you were not his first pick.

But guys like Steve adapt. Anybody who is quiet and also goes to public school just knows. Guys like Steve get to know you and entertain you just to by extension entertain themselves, because they have to. If he hadn’t struck up this game between the two of you; the useless bickering and the teasing and the whisper screaming, then he would have been impossibly bored. You wouldn’t have fallen impossibly in love with him, either, but unfortunately he had decided to pick on you and thus- this was your curse.

Miggins turned you over to your projects.

“What is this?” you asked, relieved when chatter filled the room once more. Sitting in silence listening to your own breath was torture.

“What do you mean?”

“What are we doing? With the beakers, what’s the assignment?”

Steve snorted. “I don’t know.”

You set down your pencil. “Are you kidding me?”

“This is your job. This is what you do.”

“Do what?”

“You listen, and pay attention. And I help.” He smiled like a politician.

“You don’t even help.”

“I try.”

You stared at him for a moment. Long fingers drummed on the desk, dangerously close to your side of the wood. He got prettier each year. Your freshman year and his junior, his hair wasn’t long enough to push back over his forehead, but now it was. His brows were darker and his eyes looked wider. He was always taller than you, not by a lot- but now, by a decent amount. Really it didn’t matter. You would probably still like him even if he had green skin and no hair.

Steve’s brows crossed. “Are you planning something?”

You leaned back with a shivery feeling crawling up your neck. “No.”

“You looked pensive. You had a pensive look,” he crooned.

“Ooh, vocab word.”

“Mhm. Learned it just for you, sweetheart.”

Your head snapped up at an embarrassingly sharp rate. But his eyes were already back on the packet in front of him, caving and trying to decipher the instructions for the assignment himself. You sat there and watched him like you often did and listened to your heart thumping in your ears.

Steve had a girlfriend until a few days ago. They broke up on Halloween; you heard. Her name was Nancy Wheeler, and you knew her almost well. She was gorgeous. Your little brother, Will, was best friends with her little brother, Mike, and ever since Will went missing last school year, it felt like your lives had become irreparably intertwined. She spent a lot of time with Jonathan after Barbara Holland passed away. They were best friends, as far as you knew. You didn’t have a best friend, really, but you couldn’t even imagine how hard that must have been. You heard she was there when it happened, and that Steve was, too. How bad did it hurt him? Did he care a lot, or just a little?

The two of you were teetering a thin line. Few people in Hawkins knew about the Upside Down. This should have been enough to nudge you into ‘friend’ territory, rather than just ‘bickering lab partners’. But for whatever reason, it hadn’t. Not even close.

“Are you gonna help with this or just keep eyeballing me?”

His voice drew you out of your thoughts. You sat up and pushed your hair out of your face.

“Yeah. Give me the packet.”

. . .

When Will went missing your freshman year, your Mom was the first to realize what happened. The monster, the world underground. All of it. And then she told Jonathan, but she never told you. You found out about it anyway (as you often do) and asked her why she never told you.

“Well, sweetie, I… Jonathan wasn’t supposed to know, either. I don’t know. I was so worried about Will, I didn’t want to worry that something might happen to you, too.” Her words. The sentiment made sense, but it ended up being useless. In the very late fall of 1984, evil returned to Hawkins, and this time you knew about it.

“He’s insane,” Max remarked.

Dustin grinned out the window beside her. “He’s awesome.”

You blinked out the boarded-up window behind them, narrowing your eyes. Steve stood there amongst the junk clutching a baseball bat dotted with nails. He swung it around and sucked in a breath, as if to bolster himself. Wearing that same blue jacket. Dart the demodog had escaped from Dustin’s house and more like him were out there lurking in the shadows, sniffing you out like prey.

Ridiculously enough, you and Steve had only had one conversation about demogorgon matters prior.

“How’s Will?”

You glanced up from the bunsen burner. It was an uncomfortable angle befitting a conversation topic in uncomfortable territory; clunky lab goggles digging into your nose, hair pulled back in a less than flattering knot. It had only been three weeks since school started, and Steve had barely even begun poking fun at you, barely even begun playing your little game. His expression was calm but his wide hands gripped and un-gripped the thermometer, like he was trying to find feeling in his hands again.

“He’s good,” you had nodded. Unsure. Steve knew about as much as you did about the Upside Down. He had seen a demogorgon- you hadn’t. Maybe he knew a little more. Regardless, your reasons for being involved with the entity were nowhere near the same. Steve had Nancy. You had your brother. “Thanks for asking.”

“Yeah. He, uh… yeah. That’s good, that he’s okay.”

And that was all. Now you were here, babysitting. You had a soft spot for Will’s friends (though all of your other spots were just as soft) and if they were going to go traipsing through the woods in search of a monster; it seemed better that there be two adults rather than one. Well, almost adults. Steve could not be called ‘adult’ by a long shot, and unbelievably, you were even younger than him.

Truthfully, if you had been given the option, you would have gone with Will that night. Joyce was still hellbent on keeping you ‘out’ of the Upside Down business. Whether she realized her plan had already failed, you weren’t sure.

Max turned to you. “Should we do something? He’s going to get himself killed.”

You could only cock your head in response, heart thumping in your ears. “I’m sorry. I don’t think he’ll listen.”

“He might listen to you,” Max bit. A glimmer of confusion rippled over your face, and then, a screeching sound tore across the metal wall of the bus and sent all of you reeling backwards.

Talons dug into the steel. As they tore down the wall, jagged and molten, Dustin shouted- “FUCK! OH MY GOD!” and then repeated the tail end of the phrase over and over again while Max and Lucas barreled towards the gnarled steering wheel. She tried to wrench the door open and Lucas yanked her back, too shaken to say anything other than, “No!”

Your stomach leapt into your throat as you lunged for the door. Lucas peeled Max off just in time, and you threw it open, slamming it shut behind you. He’s dead, you thought, Steve’s already dead.

But he wasn’t. You rounded the hood of the old school bus to find Steve driving his nailed bat into the neck of a demodog. It yelped and fell to the ground, writhing and diseased. Something sprayed your cheek. Steve teetered backwards and exhaled, running a hand over his face. Hair stood up on the back of your neck as you watched.

The demodogs were dead. All of them. There was a pile of them on the ground, but their limbs blended together in bloody harmony, making it impossible to tell just how many of them Steve had actually killed.

Your tongue darted out over your lips. A cloying taste filled your mouth, and you sniffled. Surprised.

Steve’s head shot up, and he reared the bat in your direction.

“No!” The word tore from you.

He made a noise that was something in between a curse and a wheeze and dropped the bat. Completely dropped it, and the nails made a thwacking noise as they drove into the dirt.

“What the hell are you doing?” he panted furiously.

“I thought it was going to get inside the bus.”

“You-”

“I thought it was going to hurt the kids,” you ignored him. “And you-”

“Stop.”

“-might’ve already-”

“Stop,” Steve murmured, walking forward and rambling off words. “Stop, stop. C’mere.”

Fear filled your belly like acid. “What? What is it?”

“Stay still. You- seriously, stop it.”

You dug your heels into the ground and crossed your hands behind your back. “Okay. Sorry. Okay.”

Steve occupied the space in front of you, blocking the forest and the carnage decorating it. His eyes raked over your face and his brows flicked downward, eyes flicking up. “What is that? Is that your blood?”

“There’s blood?”

“On your…nose…” he replied choppily, leaning in closer. Distracted by whatever had painted your face. Then he reached up and swiped the pad of his thumb over the tip of your nose, there and gone in less than a breath. Your shoulders stiffened and your heart beat on the surface of your skin, everywhere. “You don’t feel that?” he murmured.

You swallowed. “Feel you?”

“No, the blood. Your nose doesn’t hurt? Nothing got you?”

Idiot. “No, nothing got me. It probably landed on me when you killed the demodog.”

He examined your nose for a moment more, like he didn’t believe you. All you could do was stand there. This is hell.

“Hey!” The door to the school bus blew open and Dustin tumbled out, hat sliding off his head. “Are you guys alive?”

“Yeah, we’re fine,” Steve replied, turning away from you. An icy breeze blew over you and the forest opened up once more, corpses and their slashed necks all on display before you. A moment torn in half. He was back on the bus before you even took one step.

. . .

All semester long, you had pretended to not recognize the string tied between the two of you. The Upside Down, the demogorgon. Now the demodogs. The string was getting longer and coiling up in front of you like a ball of yarn, a supernatural eyesore. But after that night in the woods, with winter close on fall’s heels, it became impossible to ignore.

“Steve,” you whispered. The classroom was silent. Miggins sat at his desk with a book up to his nose, reading intently.

“Hm?”

“We need to talk.”

He looked up at you like you were crazy, but his voice wavered. “About what?”

“Everything.”

His eyes went a little wide. “What does that mean?”

“The demodogs. The Upside Down, Will. All of it.”

He sunk back in his seat but tilted his weight until he was leaning against your desk, head dropped. “What about it?”

Oh. You sat up a bit, moving away. Was he taking you seriously?

“I just… I don’t know, I thought we should talk about it. We never do.”

“You want to talk about it?” he whispered, breath tangible against your shoulder. Miggins glanced up, and you separated, sitting stick straight in your seats. After a moment, he looked away. You glued your eyes to the wrinkled poster hanging over the door. Snow Ball, December 8th, 8:00 PM. A disco ball gleamed behind the chunky letters and each sparkle looked like snow. Your heart swelled at the sight of it. What it would feel like to have Steve’s hands on your back, soft and barely there, swaying like awkward teenagers do. But you would laugh about it. And his breath would tickle your nose, because he was that close.

“Anybody home?” Steve murmured.

Your head snapped back to him.

“Yes, I want to talk about it,” you whispered. Even with Will safe and the kids settled again, it was weighing heavy on your brain. “You could have died last week.”

“I didn’t, though.”

“I know, b-”

“Pretty badass of me, actually.”

“Steve.” You looked right at him for what felt like the first time. He adjusted his head like you sent waves down his spine. “I’m being serious. Why did you go out there by yourself?”

He shrugged like it was obvious. “I wasn’t gonna let the kids go out there.”

“I could have gone with you. I should have. You wouldn’t let me.”

“No,” he scoffed.

“Why not?”

Instantly his reply came- “No.” And then again, a moment later. “No fucking way.”

One of those rare moments passed where the two of you were actually looking at each other, rather than glancing at random posters on the wall or blinking at the desk. Still, it felt like he was staring straight through you, like you were clenching your fists hoping to become solid and yet all you were was mist in the air.

“Alright,” Miggins huffed. “You’ve had enough time to go over the instructions. Turn your bunsen burners on.”

Steve sat up like someone had kicked him. “Alright. What are we doing?”

You breathed a sigh of relief as voices filled the silent room once more, talking and laughing. One hand reached out toward the bunsen burner. “Flame painting.”

He made a face. “Oh?” And before you could touch the burner, he flicked your hand away. “No, I’ll get it. Put your goggles on.”

You looked at him. “I don’t mind doing it.”

“No, it gets hot.”

You took a few breaths.

“It’s a bunsen burner, Steve.”

He ignored you, lighting the flame as you slipped on your goggles. The instructions were quite simple. A list of colors and reactants laid before you on the worksheet, a guide to painting fire. Potassium chloride made purple, lighter fluid made blue. Road salt made orange, but that seemed redundant. Only a few of the options were available to actually try.

“What’s your favorite color, Byers?” asked Steve.

Byers. The tips of your ears flushed. “What’s yours?”

“Not what I asked.”

A grin tugged at your lips. “Green.”

He snatched the packet up and read over it, squinting like it was written in Latin. “Okay, yeah. Alright.”

“Okay?” you laughed.

“Yeah. We can do that.”

His eyes roamed over the tiny jars of reactants in front of you. You followed his gaze and then gave up, just watching his eyes move. His irises were perfectly wide, round like marbles, warm like chocolate. He looked softer, somehow, then he had in the past. Though his attitude was certainly rougher.

Steve took a small jar of white powder and cranked it open, setting the lid down on the desk. He ogled at it for a moment in his hand, veins flexing beneath the soft skin of his inner wrist. You swallowed, the back of your neck hot, too distracted to stop him before he brought the jar over the open flame and flipped it over.

The fire roared and screeched like a braking car.

“Steve!” you hissed. Then, horrifically, he smacked his hand down on top of the flame to put it out. “Steve!”

He cursed and recoiled, knocking into the burner plate and burning himself some more. Heads whipped around, everyone staring at him. When their eyes flicked to you in passing, you stiffened.

“What?” Steve panted. “Something happen?”

His friends laughed up front. At the sound of it, Steve made a face, something that read like fuck off. A few of them glanced at you like an afterthought. That funny feeling came over you again, sinking in your stomach.

Steve Harrington was not your friend. He deliberately chose not to be, in fact. He never said hi to you in the hallway, or sat by you at lunch, or even followed you out of class. You were a meager source of entertainment for one hour every weekday.

Stuck together.

“Is your hand okay?” you asked quietly, suddenly sobered. He shrugged.

“No. Fuck.”

“Let me see.”

He raised his hand as if to let you look and then stuck his middle finger out. A glare shot out from your eyes like lasers.

“Really?”

“Your fault. I need to run this under cold water, hold on.”

“Steve-”

He walked off and said over his shoulder- “Your fault.”

“Steve!”

“Oh, my god, it’s not really your fault. I’m kidding. At least it was green- fuck, this hurts.”

. . .

Snow smothered Hawkins like icing one week later. The treetops and road signs were rusted with frost, and so were the mirrors on your car, steam gathering in the rearview as you drove. Blue lights flashed in the school windows and silver streamers trampled by heels hung over the door. When you pulled into the parking lot, there was a car next to your usual spot, already parked. Your eyes dropped to your lap instantly, afraid no matter who might be in there.

Jonathan’s eyes caught yours in the rearview mirror, his tall frame cramped into the backseat of the Volkswagen. He flattened his lips and smiled a little, like he knew you were nervous but didn’t know what to do about it. Will sat beside him and doodled into a notebook, but looked up at you once the car stopped.

“Honey, you are so beautiful,” Joyce cooed.

You glanced over. “Thanks, mom.”

She smiled a corny smile until one grew on your own face, taking over your mouth and eyes until your cheeks were sore. Joyce wasn’t a beautician by any means, but she had done her best to make you look fancy- and she was beautiful herself. The most beautiful woman you had ever seen, really. Thinking about it made you think of Nancy Wheeler, and how beautiful she was, and then you were just sick to your stomach all over again when you had spent the entire drive to the school swallowing your nausea. You promised yourself you wouldn’t spend all night thinking about Steve. He probably thought school dances were stupid. He probably wouldn’t be there.

You hadn’t even planned on attending the Snow Ball, but Joyce convinced you. Memories are important, she said, and just because you enjoy doing things by yourself doesn’t mean you can’t make important memories by yourself. You are your own best company, baby.

It was a really nice sentiment. You enjoyed doing things on your own and often did. What Joyce didn’t realize was that you hadn’t chosen this life for yourself and it was actually the fault of your crippling inability to communicate with your peers that landed you alone on the night of the Snow Ball, but she absolutely did not need to know that.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t get your hair all big,” Joyce murmured with her eyes still on you. She took to your face, grabbing you by the chin and shaking. “I just can’t figure it out!”

“Me neither.”

“Like, how do all the girls do it?”

“I don’t know, mom,” you laughed, wiggling your head back and forth until she finally let you go. “I can’t do it either.”

“It’s only your first dance, we’ll get better. We’ll have to buy more of those rollers next time. Bigger ones. Maybe a bunch of little clips, too, to get ‘em to stick better.”

“Okay.”

“For your next Snow Ball,” she kept talking, rambling on and staring at you in adoration. “Or Prom.”

Whatever happens tonight might convince me never to go to Prom, you thought. When she finally snapped out of her doting trance, your heart catapulted into your throat. Her hand landed on the gearshift and you thought you might throw up.

“This is where we leave you,” Jonathan teased.

Your lip curled. “Don’t go.”

Joyce frowned. “Oh, honey. Do you really not want to go? Or are you just scared?”

Tears pricked at your eyes. Heat stung your cheeks like bees, buzzing over your neck and cinching your throat tight. It was so embarrassing to be crying over a thing like this.

“I’m just scared,” you shrugged, whispering to mask the tears. It worked, seemingly, and Joyce shook her head in response.

“Everybody in there is going to be doing their own thing. What’s there to be scared of?”

“I know.”

“Our Snow Ball was last week,” Will mumbled. “It was fine. Nothing bad happened. And nobody came up to me or bothered me.”

“What about the one little girl who introduced herself to you? The one you told us about?” Joyce prodded.

Will’s face was blank as printer paper. Jonathan snorted.

“Alright,” Joyce huffed. “What-ever. We’ll be back at ten. Go on, kiddo.”

As you pried open the frozen door, Jonathan called, “You’ll be fine, Y/N.” You glanced back at him and wrinkled your nose, like you would not be fine, but his words were comforting if nothing more. A cracking noise like ice sounded from behind you as Joyce rolled down all the windows on the Volkswagen, singing, I love you, Jonathan and Will a meager choir behind her.

She drove off like she knew you would get back in if she stayed.

With her gone, a tear broke free and rolled down your cheek. Penny loafers covered your feet, snow dusting over the small strip of exposed skin around your ankles. All of your dresses were from church years ago, not anything like what girls wore to school dances, so you had settled for a mid-length skirt the color of sage and a copper sweater- knit chunkily enough that you could roll it up to your elbows and have it fall almost flatteringly, a pair of two tiny green crystals piercing your ears.

It wasn’t what you imagined, maybe, but it was what you got. From Joyce. And that alone made you proud. You swallowed (most) of your tears and went inside.

“No first of spring, no song to sing. In fact, here’s just another ordinary day.”

Stevie Wonder’s voice echoed off the gymnasium ceiling, the dance floor a thick crowd of bodies sucking up sound. Blue lasers beamed around like flashlights. You stepped over fallen streamers and white paper circles, some of them cut to look like snowflakes. There was nothing grand about your entrance. No one turned when you walked in, but they didn’t when the next gaggle of girls came in behind you, either.

You exhaled. It would be easy to blend in here.

“Byers?”

You whirled around. Oh, come on.

At a punch table dressed in blue plastic was a lean figure in a half-removed suit, blazer draped over his forearm, charcoal gray button-up remaining. His hair was styled as it usually was- immaculate- but there were no strays, no signs of wild highschool partying. You were pretty sure that kind of stuff only happened in the movies, anyway, but you also weren’t the person to ask.

You stretched on a suspicious look. “Do I know you?”

Steve laughed shortly, a smile breaking loose on his face before it settled into a crooked one, settling on your eyes and staying there like there was something to really watch. You almost turned around, maybe something behind you had caught his attention, but he started talking.

“I, uh- I didn’t think you’d be here,” he said softly. His stuttering wasn’t nervous, only humble, an honest process of what was unfolding. Or maybe he was just a good actor. You folded your arms in front of you and stretched out your neck, shrugging. Quit looking at his arms, you creep.

“Me neither. Are you- where are your friends?”

Your stuttering was nervous.

“They’re, eh- somewhere.”

“Exciting.”

“Very,” he nodded instantly. Still smiling. His mouth hung open a bit, like he had just eaten something hot. You both went quiet. That familiar feeling dropped in your stomach like a ship anchor.

You look ridiculous.

“I won’t keep you,” you started.

“No, I was just thirsty,” he said, waving a cup at you. “Do you want one?”

“No, I’m okay.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah, this gown is worth millions, I can’t risk spilling anything on it.”

He laughed until he didn’t, brows flicking up and down like he was having this conversation without really thinking about what to say next and just saying it.

“It’s great, Byers.”

“What is?”

“Your clothes.”

Shut up, shut up, shut up.

“Oh,” you nodded, glancing down. A tiny scoff left your lips. “Thank you. That’s nice of you.”

“I’m serious.”

“I know.” Liar.

“Quit making that face.”

“What face?”

“Like you think I’m lying.”

“I don’t!”

And there you were, back at it within minutes. He stared at you for a second while shaking his head, features drawn in an argumentative pose, waiting for the perfect comeback to strike. Then his nodding slowed and his face softened in a way you had never seen before, but wasn’t entirely unfamiliar.

“Do you want to dance?”

You poked your head out and gawked. “Are you serious?”

“Yes,” he retorted. “Stop it.”

“Okay. I mean- yeah, okay.”

“It’s not a punishment, Byers,” he said, stepping away from the table. Heat snaked up your spine and clung to the back of your neck as he approached, excited and horrified. That dominant, always-slightly mortified part of your brain screamed at you to back away and go wait in the parking lot for Joyce.

You dug your penny loafers into the floor and took a deep breath. Steve breezed by you and his hand was on your wrist suddenly, holding softly but gripping tightly enough to lead you into the swathes of students taking up the gym floor. About halfway into the mass of people your heart started beating on your face, so hard you thought you might pass out. Right on time, Steve stopped, sliding his other arm onto your other wrist and draping your hands over his shoulders.

It took every ounce of restraint in you to not gulp like a coward.

“I don’t actually know how to dance,” you murmured. “It might be bad. I’m sorry.”

Steve made a face. “Nobody here knows how to dance. This is a high school. Look at these people, Byers. They’re swaying like cornstalks in a brisk wind.”

You laughed, and another smile broke open on his face like a cracked coconut. It seemed like he tried to dissolve it, but it remained there at the corners of his mouth and eyes. Ever present.

Suddenly two hands were on your waist, spawning out of thin air. Oh, my god.

“Are you always this stiff, Byers?”

“Shut up.”

“Is it scoliosis or something?”

“Steve.”

He laughed, and it vibrated against your skin, the sound of it buzzing in your ribs. His fingers had crept to your back without you even realizing. His thumb pressed down there between a wide-knit thread of yarn, playing with your sweater.

“This really is nice,” he murmured. “I meant it.”

“I believed you.”

“No, you didn’t,” he mumbled. You almost laughed before clocking the look on his face; pensive and drawn, his eyes focused on the space between your shoulder and jaw as he lifted his right hand to draw a lock of hair from where it had become tangled in your sleeve.

You shivered when his knuckles grazed your neck. And then the thought bubbled up in you at once, enough. This wasn’t what you wanted. What if his friends put him up to it? What if he was just trying to get you to come home with him? You wanted Steve, not one lone dance at a stupid Snow Ball he would forget about by tomorrow. In hindsight, maybe you were thinking rashly here, but your fear was real. This moment meant the world to you, and the idea of it meaning little or nothing to him made you sick to your stomach.

“Steve,” you murmured.

His eyes flashed to you. “What?”

You both looked up then. Something flipped inside of you, like a switch. He was waiting for something, not expectant, but hopeful.

“Yeaaaah, Harrington!”

You snapped out of his embrace. Behind you, Steve’s friends pumped their fists in the air, the others snickering to each other and hiding it behind lazily placed gestures. Laughing at you. The realization was painful but not surprising.

You backed away from Steve and started making your way out of the crowd. Tears welled in your eyes, and you tried to force the acceptance to come on faster than the grief.

“Aw, come on, Byers!” they hollered. You sniffled, back to Steve and his friends, back to everyone. Warmth came up behind you, a hand grazing over your elbow.

“Y/N,” Steve bit off.

“It’s fine.”

“Y/N.”

You turned. He came right up in front of you, even closer than you had been before. When you sucked in a breath, he did, too, his head tilting down to look over you. His breath fanned out over your nose. The two of you stood there, silent. Stevie Wonder echoed around you. “I just called to say I love you, And I mean it from the bottom of my heart.”

A tear broke free and rolled down your cheek. Steve cursed; an instant, instinctive sound, the same way you hiss at a paper cut. He flinched backwards a tiny step. One hand came up to run through his hair, brows knit together.

“Goddamnit,” he breathed.

And then he disappeared into the crowd.

You sat alone in the parking lot a few minutes later, leaning against the lamppost next to your usual parking spot. Joyce wouldn’t be back to pick you up for at least an hour, but your sweater was warm enough to cloak you if you rolled the sleeves down, and anything was better than staying inside. A chunk of snow fell off the car that was parked next to yours when you arrived- a burgundy BMW, polished underneath a few specks of regular winter-water-damage. There were plenty of spaces open up front near the door. Still, it was alone in the back lot, neighboring your own spot.

You lied to everyone about the evening being “quiet but pleasant,” when you got in the car. Joyce clapped and squealed like a little girl. Back at home, you settled into bed with the sweater still on, a pair of fuzzy pajama pants kicking up static underneath your comforter.

There was a knock at your bedroom door.

“Come in.”

It creaked open and Jonathan poked his head in, glancing around like he was wary to enter. “Hey.”

“Hey,” you murmured, face buried in your pillow, blankets up to your neck. “How was your night?”

“Good,” he shrugged. “I just… School is stupid.”

Your act must not have worked on him. “I know.”

“I mean, I didn’t even finish it.”

“I know,” you snorted.

“Well, I just wanted to tell you it’s stupid and if you had a bad night tonight that it won’t matter in the long run. At all. Seriously. But I’m sorry if it wasn’t what you hoped it would be.”

You poked your head out from underneath the covers, a little lighter. “Thanks, Jonathan. That’s really sweet.”

“Sure. Love you.”

“I love you.”

He shut the door and you clicked off the lamp. As darkness enveloped you, the knit bindings of your sweater clung to you, your skin hot as an iron. You threw the covers up and ripped it off, hurling it across the room where it landed with a pathetic little pitter on the carpet. You fell asleep sure of two things:

You would rather die than go to Prom.

Steve Harrington did not deserve the benefit of the doubt that you gave him. And you would never, ever let him make you feel that stupid again.

◃ ۪۪۫۫ ༄ؘ ˑ thank you for reading!!! thoughts or comments or reblogs or literally anything are appreciated! thank you 4 being here and i hope this fic makes you happy and i will post part 2 at the end of this week <3

#steve harrington x reader fluff #steve harrington drabble #stranger things fic #stranger things x reader #stranger things #steve harrington x y/n #steve harrington imagine #steve harrington x reader #steve harrington #steve harrington x you

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mylevisdontfitanymore · 5 months

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FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION: VOODOO WEIGHT GAIN. Anything that happens to the voodoo doll, happens to the person it's moulded after. You stuff the doll with more fluff, and the person's belly grows. You dunk the doll in beer or a glass of wine, it soaks into the fabric and the person gets wasted. You rub at the doll's privates, and you hear startled moaning from the other room. I don't know, I just saw the idea on DeviantArt and I think that it has a lot of potential..

*Note: I, the author of this silly, kinky, little Tumblr fic, am white. And because of the past association between white people saying “voodoo” and cruelty towards people of color, I will not be using the term “voodoo doll.” I know nothing good or bad was necessarily meant by your ask, grey-faced anon user 😊, but I just don’t want to use that! So I’m going to say magic doll 🤷🏻‍♂️*

I FUCKING LOVE THIS IDEA.

JESUS CHRIST.

I AM SO FUCKING HERE FOR THIS.

Immediately, immediately, when you sent this to me I had a whole fucking AU in my head. This idea gives rich-man-Rogers and house-husband-boy-toy-Bucky…

Warning for unbeta'd stucky belly kink. Mostly rapid and magical weight gain, some vague dubious concent vibes but not really, etc.

I am picturing the full fantasy.

Steve is rich as fuck and is the CEO of his successful company. Whatever that is, it’s not important. What is important is that Steve is older than Bucky and is taller and bigger than him, too. Bucky is younger and twinkier. He’s sweet and needy *cough* slutty *cough*. Steve has needs too, though. Needs that are a special kind and can’t be met by just anyone, so rather than sorting through the whole fucking mess that is dating and sparking a new romance… he turns to hire someone who he can take his needs out on. A sex worker.

Steve hires a sex worker.

Specifically, Steve hires Bucky, striking up an exclusive contract with him. He wants Bucky to live with him, he wants Bucky to be ready for use at any time he needs him, and he wants Bucky to - within his limits - give into all of Steve’s dirtiest fantasies.

One of these fantasies is having a boy at home who is at his every beck and call, and who is totally, completely spoiled. Not bratty, but spoiled.

And Steve wants the evidence of Bucky’s spoiling to be on full display. He wants his houseboy - his toy - to be soft. Pale skin completely bare. Waxed, not shaved. Skin lotioned extensively. Soft. Clothed in the finest silk and lace and the like. Manners perfect. Not all skin and bones, not all bulky muscle, but fat and padded as if he’s never had to work a day in his life and is instead doughy and excessive. Always sitting on his comfortable, cushy backside.

Yeah… 🫦

Steve has specific tastes.

But Steve also has more than enough money to acquire said specific tastes. He has so much money, in fact, that he can afford to commission a small, hand-sewn, delicate doll from one of Natasha’s highest-recommended contacts. Said contact is secretive, illusive, and extensively expensive, but she agrees to Steve’s wants immediately, claiming she has just the thing and he doesn’t need to keep explaining, so… Steve has no complaints.

Steve has no complaints whatsoever, reclining in his desk chair with his belt and slacks undone, dick out, at his heavy wooden desk in his private office at work, the top floor, his solid wood door locked, with his personal secretary blocking all of his calls. On his otherwise spotless desk, there are two things: one is his laptop, and the other is a pile of fiber fill stuffing. In one hand he’s holding that little magic doll. Meanwhile, Steve’s other hand is poised to pack some of that stuffing into the doll’s body. But Steve isn’t looking at the doll, nor at the pile of awaiting stuffing, he’s looking at his laptop. The thing that is so interesting on his laptop is Bucky.

In perfect, crystal-clear quality the security camera feed from his penthouse is sprawled across the big screen. The penthouse he’s sharing with his contracted boy toy.

Bucky.

He’s been watching Bucky wander around, cleaning (Steve would prefer if he didn’t, he really does want Bucky helpless and spoiled, but he knows the younger man would go stir crazy if he didn’t have something to do, so he allows it), just waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

And…

Now is good, right?

Yeah.

Now is good.

So, Steve pushes a big, thick wad of stuffing into the doll and watches, dick jerking, as Bucky’s silence is interrupted by a cacophony of noise - all at once, his boy toy’s sweatpants rip to shreds and his toy lets out a sound that’s half-whimper, half-moan. He’s totally startled by the sudden woomph of his ass tripling, maybe even quadrupling, in size. Bucky is so blatantly confused that he ends up stumbling forward, nearly falling over but catching himself barely. With the flurry of movement, his ass jiggles.

Oh, Lord, Steve groans.

Big and fat.

Perfectly fat.

Bucky’s ass is unreal. It was before, firm and round, but now it is impossibly unreal. There’s no texture of dimpling cellulite and no striped stretch marks over the delicious surface of Bucky’s suddenly exposed ass. It’s perfect. Untouched. Unmarred. Only fat.

Bucky looks, well, Steve has started gnawing on his lower lip without realizing it, drawing blood already, so, it’s easy to say that he looks edible. Such a big ass on the most perfect, good-est boy. And Bucky is such a good boy that when he recovers, whimpering, after a brief, pornographic moment of groping himself, squeezing handfuls of fat where it’s mounding up behind him and twisting sharply around to try and investigate what has happened to his body, he just… goes on.

He keeps cleaning.

Steve is floored.

Oh, this is going to be so, so much more fun than he thought.

Bucky keeps cleaning as if nothing happened.

The only difference is now, Bucky is trying to stifle his precious little whines and he keeps sucking in sharp breaths like he’s embarrassed to let it show that he likes his shiny, new thick ass despite, to his knowledge, being completely alone. Unobserved.

Steve makes a whine of his own, a bitten-off, growling whine, but a whine nevertheless, when Bucky pauses cleaning to arch his back like he’s testing out how it might feel to get fucked with such a fat ass - like having such a big, heavy ass makes him feel sexy and he can’t help it. Immediately, Steve wants to make it better. He wants to make it worse. 😈 He wants to stuff as much stuffing as he can fit into the little doll’s chest to pack Bucky’s tits full of soft, malleable fat. If his boy likes how it feels to have fat, thick curves in the “right” places, then he’s going to give it to him. And then he’s going to ruin it by adding fat to the “wrong” places, too. He’s going to fatten him up. He’s going to make him huge with no effort at all.

Maybe he shouldn’t just give Bucky a taste of what it’s like to be curvy and sexy in a traditionally feminine way, all ass and tits, maybe he should pack him full of stuffing right this second, and see what he does, see how he preens and arches his back and touches himself, see how he spends his day alone, unknowing that Steve is peeping in on him, watching him get off to excess. Despite the dangerous pull... Steve doesn’t. Steve has self-control. Sometimes.

So. He lets it drag on…

He lets Bucky enjoy his fat ass for close to an hour. He simply watches, drooling and passively jerking off, as Bucky waddles around the penthouse, his ass wobbling and jiggling as he walks. His footsteps are much heavier than normal under the weight of his monstrous ass.

Bucky has removed his ruined sweatpants, but he hasn’t taken off his shirt. It should look silly. It doesn’t. It’s sexy as hell. Steve’s going to make him tear his way out of that shirt, too. He’s going to watch it be ripped to shreds. 😮‍💨

With another wave of lust, Steve decides he’s done waiting and he launches into action. He stuffs the doll again, focusing on a new, irresistible part of Bucky’s body that he wants to make even more irresistible by swelling him.

And instantly, with the doll stuffed, Bucky balloons.

His thighs, this time, widen with another sudden whoomph of magic.

His now colossal thighs match his ass delightfully. Thick and perfect. Doughy blubber that has to weigh too much for Steve to lift, despite his extensive gym routine.

Bucky moans outright this time. He’s less confused, too. He just accepts it. This is him now. The perfect, moldable toy. Adaptive and dumb.

Perfect.

He takes to the new fat packed onto his frame like a fish takes to water. Although… he’s nowhere near as physically graceful as that metaphor, Steve is talking purely about how Bucky reacts emotionally to seeing himself swell like a mound of dough left in the oven to proof overnight. Expanding. Bucky can hardly seem to walk now. His lower half is so puffy, so swollen that he’s waddling. Swaggering. Wobbling. All that fat moves captivatingly, jiggling in slow, swollen waves like the ocean after an intense storm. And because Bucky can’t walk anymore, Bucky plops down onto the nearby sofa. So heavy and overgrown that Steve’s expensive, expensive couch lets out a loud creak. Bucky swears, sounding panicked, but not too panicked to get up again and not too panicked to not start touching himself again.

His hands first make contact with his fat ass, squeezing inches of padding between his thumb and fingers at the sides of his body where his ass spills out away his hip flexors.

Steve feels a little faint. He feels more faint when Bucky scoots his thighs apart, setting them wider with a heavy, bothered sigh - they’re not only so fat that he can’t walk, they’re so fat that it’s hard to move.

Christ.

Bucky and this little doll are the best things that Steve has ever paid for. He swears. Then, Bucky moans, drawing his attention back to him and away from his money, the needy, little big minx.

Steve wants to give Bucky everything.

Steve takes the biggest ball of stuffing this far and packs it into the doll’s belly until its seams creak.

The force of the sudden fat being added to Bucky’s poor frame is so intense, whoomph, that Bucky is thrown back against the sofa. His head is thrown back too, eyes rolling to the back of his head, neck arched attractively, mouth hanging open, sweat appearing on his skin all at once. His skin. Oh, God, Steve growls to himself, he’s so fucking delighted that he’s recording all of this footage because he’s going to spend the rest of his life sneaking away into whatever nearby bathroom or closest or bedroom or wherever he can to replay the way Bucky’s shirt bursts off him, getting off to it.

The sound of the seams ripping, popping, and fabric shredding mixing orgasmically with Bucky’s cry of pleasure. Filled more than he could’ve ever dreamed of. Made so impossibly round that he’s stuck to the creaking, overburdened couch.

His gut fills all of the space in front of him.

The surface is taut like a drum and as round as a globe. Totally unmarred. No stretch marks, no bruises, not even the flush of skin struggling to contain so much blubber. He looks incredible. Mouth-watering. Pale. Fat. He’s rising like dough. And there’s only one thing left to do…

Steve stuffs his tits too, watching the way Bucky squirms, the way he writhes on the expensive, luxury couch as if he’s orgasming on the spot. So filled that he can’t take it anymore. He can’t hold anything in. He can’t keep himself from screaming. He can’t stop himself from coming. A blimp. A fat, excessive blimp sitting on top of a monstrous, thick ass and immense thighs with a belly that stretches out past his fat knees, so big and round that it shoves equally over-fattened tits up to his face, leaving him choking on them. He is overripe. Moaning with abandon, lost in the throws of pleasure from being so thoroughly gorged.

Swollen.

Filled.

(Here's part two)

#ask #mylevisdontfitanymore #belly kink #text #weight gain #rapid weight gain #magic weight gain #bucky barnes #steve rogers #stucky #chubby bucky #fat bucky

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vilegelics · 4 months

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I’m dying for a fix about Chris being absolutely obsessed with an older chick. Like just wants to make sure she has everything she needs and wants. Always wanting to prove he’s mature enough for her.

The people that are against this the kid clearly has an older lady / mommy kink. No one can tell me otherwise

— think i need someone older…

→ pairing: chris sturniolo x older reader hc’s

→ warnings: none! just some teeth rotting fluff

→ notes: ohmygod ur so right?? i love this request and hope you enjoy it 🫶 (send more requests! my inbox is open and i don’t sleep :))

sfw…₊˚﹕✧﹒

- okay so… the age gap wouldn’t be anything too crazy (chris: 20 & you: 25)

- he’d be absolutely enamored by you the first time he saw you; his friends dragged him and matt out to a launch party for your brand.

- he didn’t want anything to do with it at first, mostly because he didn’t know you and didn’t exactly feel like going out that particular night but everything changed the moment he noticed you

- one of his friends introduced him and matt to you

- it was lowkey awkward because kid got nervous and talked only about his brand within the first minute of meeting you 😭

- it’s okay though because once he got more comfortable later in the night, he came back up to you and apologized for it. asking to start over, to which you said yes (how could you not?) and gave him your number

- which began endless hours of texting between the two of you, dude is answering quicker than he ever has and matt makes sure to remind of that fact every time he hears your specific text notification (because of course chris set yours to a specific tone)

- fast forward a couple months (after lots of talking and cute dates)…

- you ask chris what you guys are and he responds without even thinking…

- “i mean, you’re pretty much my girlfriend at this point-“

- he freaks out after saying that because he wasn’t sure if you wanted it, which resulted in him absolutely stuttering all over his words as he tried to make a comeback from what he said

- but you cut him off quickly trying to shut down his anxiety

- “chris- i would love to be your girlfriend”

- in the beginning of your guys’ relationship, he does anything and everything to impress you.

- flowers once a week, date night every saturday, leaves cute lil notes for you around your apartment, gifts you books he hears you talk about

- (he’s so boyfriend i’m melting)

- you have an extensive library in your place and even a specific shelf for all of your favorite books.

- chris takes notice of this and takes a picture of the books on that shelf, ordering all of them on amazon the moment he gets home so he can read all of them and talk to you about them :,)

- PRINCESS!! TREATMENT!!

- he will not let you get your own door, won’t hesitate to give you a message after a long day at work, carries any and all bags for you & etc.

- he’s just overall head over heels for you & is constantly trying to challenge himself to be the best boyfriend you could ever have (and he really doesn’t have to try hard to do that <3)

#chris sturniolo #chris sturniolo imagine #chris sturniolo x reader #matt sturniolo #nick sturniolo #chris sturniolo headcanon #sturniolo triplets #sfw #kenny speaks!#fluff

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xjulixred45x · 5 months

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>3> If it's not too late maybe a fluff scenario of 7DS Arthur and Female Reader (Guinevere no not like the loli one) reunion. They were childhood friends long before Arthur became king and were particularly close but before they had to go their separate ways (Guinevere returning to Cameliard) they made a pinky promise to meet again when they're older. qwq

Awwww that's so cute🥺🥺🥺i miss the sunshine Arthur so Bad 😭😭also DEATH TO THE LOLI!!!

7Ds! Arthur Pedragon x Guinevere! Reader

Genre: Headcanons

Reader: female

Warnings: very slight Angst, Comfort and Much FLUFF. Childhood Friends to Lovers trope, Reader has the characteristics of Guinevere from the myths(screw the Loli).

You come from the kingdom of Carmelide, a generations-long ally of the Pendragon. and by extension, from Camelot.

So it was not unusual for your family to go to said kingdom for political reasons or to try to help in the search for the new king/queen, who should be the one worthy to lift the legendary sword.

but you were a little girl, you didn't really understand those things very well at that age, so they let you wander around the kingdom (with an escort) while the adults did what they had to do.

So, on one of those outings, you ran into Arthur (who was trying not to leave behind the one you assumed was his brother).

When Arthur first saw you, he immediately recognized that you were royalty, so he bowed cheekily and apologized for almost bumping into you. and he asked you directly if you were a princess, because of how pretty you were.

He left you a little off guard, but luckily you were able to come back to your senses when your escorts almost attacked him for thinking he was too close, you told them to leave him alone, that he was a friend.

When your escorts took some distance, you and Arthur ended up spending a good part of the day together, learning more about each other and so on, you discovered that his father was a holy knight, that his brother (Kai) was an idiot (he didn't say it, but because of how he described him you didn't like him) and that he dreamed of becoming a knight himself.

It was nice to be able to be with someone your age without having to constantly worry about etiquette and manners.

So from then on, you and Arthur began to see each other almost every day, at whatever gathering your family had, you would go out and go see him, you would catch up and play normal kid things (Arthur especially liked to play to be "the knight who rescues the beautiful princess")

you two would also go on mini picnics! After playing for a while in the forests of the kingdom, you and Arthur would find some firm and more or less clean place (Arthur always insisted that you not dirty your "expensive" clothes) and eat apples :3

You felt good with Arthur because you could finally be a girl and not just a princess of Carmelide. and Arthur felt good about you because you were sweet and kind despite your seemingly privileged position.

They both complemented each other very well.

Although the more time you spent with Arthur and both of them grew up, the romantic tension increased considerably, but neither of them did anything about it, maybe they were just a little afraid of losing the friendship they had been having.

but then Arthur managed to raise the sword on the stone, being proclaimed the new King.

and it was...a shock, to say the least.

Everything was a set of good and bad news in a short time, which did not help the shock much.

On the one hand you felt that Arthur was getting what he really deserved, to be the leader of the kingdom he loved.

but now that the new King of Camelot was present, Carmelide's advisory services would not be necessary (unless there was a great threat of course), which meant that you would no longer be allowed to go to Camelot alone.

They even told you that it would not be appropriate for you to continue seeing Arthur unless they proposed an alliance through marriage.

which was the straw that broke the camel's back. You felt very bad for days.

but at least thanks to that your family decided and arranged for you and Arthur to have one LAST outing before you had to return permanently to Carmelide.

and if it was, you and Arthur kept it calmer than normal, wanting to enjoy each other's company knowing that it would be a while before you saw each other again.

I don't know they said anything romantic as such, but they did make several things clear, they were going to miss each other, Arthur was going to miss sneaking you out, you were going to miss playing with him and having adventures.

At the end of the outing, you asked him for one last favor.

You made him intertwine his pinky with yours and you promised him that you would see him again when he was King and that he would do the same.

It didn't take long for Arthur to do the same, he promised you that even if he were king, he would do everything possible to see you again.

and with that promise in mind, you returned to Carmelide.

Time passed, and you tried to handle the loneliness as best as possible, training yourself to be the best princess possible for the kingdom. your family was satisfied.

although they were definitely taken by surprise when Henrykson and the demons happened.

Your family was alarmed, the kingdom could be in crisis, they would have to train their sacred knights more harshly and, above all, re-establish relations with Camelot and its current King.

Arthur Pendragon.

were you a little nervous? Yes, but was it completely overshadowed by the excitement of seeing Arthur again? YEAH! You wondered how he scammed now after so much time.

and Arthur was no better.

He knew that the first ally he would have to report everything to would be Carmelide, and by extension you, so he was quite impatient to go in person or for you to go to Camelot.

And to kill time he thought about how you would be or how you would be now, how everything will be in your kingdom, how YOU will be.

And when the day of the reunion arrived, both were filled with feelings.

You were the one who had to go to Camelot, which in itself brought back many pleasant childhood memories that helped you be less nervous.

Not only was he the king you were going to see, he was also a friend (and maybe something else).

and when you arrived before Arthur and they were both in the same place... it was like everything stopped for a moment.

Arthur's mind was like: no thoughts, nothing, just you.

and you were absorbing everything new about this "new Arthur" before you, he looked taller, he was in his king's armor, but he definitely gave off a certain kind aura.

You felt like you could relax with him again.

and it was.

Fortunately, Arthur only became even friendlier over time, more mature, he was still someone sincere with a heart of gold. You were grateful that he still had room to see you as a special friend and not just an alliance partner.

and Arthur was not far behind, he saw that you had become more elegant, finer and straighter, but you still had a friendly character destined for people, someone charming.

The comings and goings to Camelot became a constant in your life again and it was honestly beautiful, you could see the changes that Arthur was making in Camelot and he was very happy to have you back.

He talked a lot about his training for the King, sometimes you even helped him as he was better versed in various things related to regulations and etiquette.

He may even talk to you about the Deadly Sins! I mean, few people don't know who they are, but hearing Arthur talk about them so excitedly is definitely something else.

(if you get to know them, they definitely make the typical lovebird jokes 🤣)

I can see Arthur being more open with his romantic feelings at this point.

Of course, in the time that you weren't together maybe one could say that it was just a childish crush, but now that you are together again, and that he can continue to love and appreciate this mature version of you, he can say that he is in love.

now the nickname "princess" or "lady" can be used both ironically and non-ironically xd simply for Arthur You are a princess :3)

And for your part, you cannot say that it is unilateral either.

Arthur loves you and appreciates you regardless of the title and the label, even now that he is THE KING and he SHOULD care, he doesn't, he only cares about you. You can't help but feel very appreciated by him.

even making your own advances (against what your family would consider "appropriate")

you two spent a good time making up for lost time, catching up with each other and so on, and that tension they used to have when they were younger seemed to resurface.

only this time it seemed like they were more prepared for the possibility of being SOMETHING ELSE.

Who knows, maybe a marriage alliance isn't such a bad idea after all.

At least, not if is with YOU/HIM.

Done! I hope You like it❤️❤️

Shares, reglogs and comments are very welcome

#headcanons #fem reader #seven deadly sins #sds #sds x reader #sds arthur #nnt x reader #arthur nnt #arthur pendragon #nnt #king arthur #nnt arthur #nanatsu no taizai #nanatsu no taizai arthur

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iliveforyouilongforyouvesuvia · 6 months

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Heya! We recently got back into the arcana after having distanced for a few years, and I have been playing Muriel's route.

Well I fell in love again, along with a lot of our system, and we were wondering, if you could use the prompt of "M6 finds out MC is a system" or something like that? If you in have trouble finding information that can help, looking up DID can help get a good grip on systemhood!

If you don't feel comfortable with that I have a back up since we do want to suggest a prompt "M6 reacts to MC age regressing" if you haven't done that? I'd imagine Lucio's would be absolutely amazing and hilarious.

The Arcana HCs: When MC Age Regresses

~ @selfcarecollective I went with the age regression prompt, if only because that's something I'm a bit more familiar with! I hope you enjoy these ^.^ - brainrot ~

-- for writing purposes, MC is age regressing in their shared space with the M6 because they feel safe and supported enough to do so, but haven't gotten around to telling M6 about it yet. this can be read with the M6 being either a romantic or platonic partner, however, ALL INTERACTIONS ARE PURELY PLATONIC WHILE MC IS IN THIS HEADSPACE. thank you ^.^ --

Julian

Genuinely terrified

Here is what he knows: something has happened.

He does not know what that something is, or why it's resulted in you acting and speaking like a child, but he can tell it's not fake and he doesn't like the way you start to get upset when he asks about it

Which is right about when his protective older brother instincts kick in. He doesn't know why you seem to be working with a child's brain, but he knows how to take care of kids

And he's definitely committed to taking care of you

Finds that the best way to calm you down (and to calm himself down) is to wrap you up in a nice, safe, long hug

Starts asking gentler, simpler questions about what you need and works with that

He quickly finds that you're very receptive to being entertained, so he launches into the first story he can think of

You both quickly get caught up in said story, and that's how you end up bundled in blankets on the couch while he paces the room and soaks up all your reactions to his tall tale

Spends three days buried in all the age regression information he can find and emerges with a five page list of questions

Asra

Low-key thinks it's a fun game at first and just goes with it

Until you stub your toe playing hide-and-go-seek in the closed shop and start honest-to-goodness crying in a ball on the floor

Okay now they're a little worried, that's not your usual behavior

Step 1: double check that touch is ok

Step 2: ask to hold your foot and then do a flashy magic spell to make the pain go away

Step 3: scold the shop counter for getting in the way of your poor toes and watch you start to giggle

Step 4: cuddle you close and use the safety to try to get a read on what's happening in your head through your bond

Step 5: quietly realize that your mind is reverted to a young state and resolve to give you the happiest glimpse of childhood he can

What follows is them taking the rest of the day/night off to spoil you and snuggle you and listen to you and do all sorts of silly things to make you smile

Yes, this includes covering yourselves (and the shop by extension) in glow-in-the-dark paint

Yes, this includes Faust playing peek-a-boo with you until you laugh yourself sick

Nadia:

She's not proud of it, but the first place her mind flickers to is the off chance that you're mocking her in some way

After spending her entire life trying not to be associated with childish things, seeing you acting in such a way touches on relational insecurities that she's trying to leave in the dust

This concern only lasts for maybe two seconds, though, because a quick look into your eyes tells her you're not faking anything

Well, she does love to care for you

She's still learning how to play the support role when it comes to emotional connection, but she thrives on the opportunity to physically provide for you

You seem like you could use some comfort. She can do that

She calls for your favorite food, she cradles you on her lap, she gently smooths your hair out of your face and wraps you in her softest blankets

And she talks with you. Just talks, not a discussion around improvement plans or a philosophical heart-to-heart. She finds out what your favorite color is and which part of her face you like most

Her first question when you're back to your usual self is how best to care for you like that in the future

Muriel:

Immediately notices you slipping but doesn't breathe a word because he wants to know what's happening before he does anything about it

Okay, this seems fine, you're clearly in a very child-like state of mind (he's had enough flashbacks to have a rough idea of what that's like) but you seem content and happy

Why are you smiling at him like that

Why are you climbing into his lap

Wait no no no don't curl up and go to sleep on his chest, he still isn't sure what's going on with you, what if he somehow hurts you while you're vulnerable like this??

Okay, you're just resting. And you seem extra happy when he holds you close and safe. ... and you're looking at the carving he's working on like you want to play with it

Well ... if it makes you smile ...

A few hours later, Muriel has unlocked several new skills: giving the carvings names. Giving the carvings individual voices. Helping you build an elaborate plot about the carvings' adventures

He eventually convinces you to get off his lap by having Inanna lie on top of you instead. She now considers you her pup

Does begin a new collection of carvings, specifically for you to enjoy next time you're in that headspace

Portia:

Baffled

But somehow instinctively knows what to do

She can tell right away from the way you're holding yourself to the change in your speaking patterns that your head isn't in the space it usually is. She just wants to make sure that that's a good thing

Also, you're oddly adorable like this

She'll ask you a few basic questions, but her nurturing instincts are strong, so as soon as she has a rough idea of what's going on she's jumping straight into gentle older sister mode

Will find a quiet, grounding activity to do with you so you can stay focused on something soothing while she keeps interacting with you and keeping tabs on your physical and mental state

She makes cookies (has it been mentioned that she stress bakes? she stress bakes) and has the time of her life rolling them out with you, making different shapes and counting chocolate chips

Pepi goes out of her way to lean on you and purr whenever she gets the chance so you stay extra grounded and safe

When you're back in your normal headspace, she's going to ask you about it first before trying to do any research. She wants to focus her efforts on your specific experience more than anything

Lucio

It's a good thing this is happening during down time or he would be beside himself with panic

He's still panicking a little, of course, but since you seem happy and uninjured and since Mercedes and Melchior aren't acting up he figures that this is just normal magician weirdness

He comes to the conclusion that you had an accident with a spell and now you have your child brain instead of your normal brain

Oh CRAP he's not good with kids, he knows he's not good with kids, he wants you to be happy, what does he do???

He tries asking you a few panicked questions, but it only seems to be distressing you and he hates seeing you upset

Sweets. Kids like sweets. He also likes sweets. And you don't seem like you're about to scold him for blowing his budget ...

He takes your hand in his non-metal one, throws a hooded cape over you that he knows you like, and marches you through the town until he finds the closest bakery

The rush of joy he feels from watching you light up at getting to pick as many sweets as you want is unrivaled

And watching you play tag and giggle with the dogs is even sweeter while you work off the resulting sugar high

#ask arcana brainrot #the arcana #the arcana headcanons #the arcana hc #the arcana game #asra the arcana #julian the arcana #nadia the arcana #muriel the arcana #portia the arcana #lucio the arcana #asra alnazar #julian devorak #nadia satrinava #muriel of the kokhuri #portia devorak #lucio morgasson

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