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wolfjackle-creates · 9 months

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Bring Me Home Arc 2 Part 8

Time for another WIP Wednesday! Hope you enjoy.

Story Summary: Tim and Danny are both neglected by parents who care more about their work than their families. They deal with this by spending too much time online and find each other playing MMORPGs. They keep up their friendship as Tim becomes Robin and Danny becomes Phantom and don't bother keeping secrets from each other.

First, Previous

Word Count: 1.3k

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Bart grinned. “Well, we’ll just have to take those odds! So, now that we’ve got the basics down, we’re going out there to help, right?”

Sam snorted. “Not like we could keep Danny out of it if we tried. But you guys don’t have to. You can just go to bed.”

Danny sighed. “School tomorrow is gonna suck.”

Tim shook his head. “Aren’t you gonna call out?”

“No?” replied Danny. “How could I? Mom and Dad would never let me call out just because of some ghosts and they won’t know I’ll have been out all night.”

“Would they even notice if you call yourself out? Or ask Jazz to do it?”

Danny snorted. “School is about the only thing they notice. Look, I’ll be fine. I’ll fall asleep in English. Probably get another detention. I’ve A plusses in algebra and chemistry, so those teachers don’t care when I fall asleep. I’m a known slacker in gym. History is after lunch, so I’ll be able to stay awake for that. I’ve got this. It’ll be fine.”

“Danny…” And here Tim had thought his schooling was a disaster.

“Don’t, Tim. Now,” Danny forced his voice to be more cheerful as he changed the subject, “if you’re all joining me, we’ve got three thermoses. I get one. The rest of you can fight over the other two.”

Tim waved his hand. “I want one!”

Tucker sat down on the floor. “I’m out. Unlike someone, I need to sleep before class in—” he checked his PDA “—seven hours.”

Sam let out a yawn. “Yeah, I’m with Tuck on this one. We’re taking your bed, Danny. When was the last time you changed your sheets?”

Danny shrugged. “Dunno. I think Jazz got to them last week. Or was that the week before?”

“Right. We know where the spares are. Come on, Tuck.”

“Wait, if you’re staying here," said Danny, "any chance you can fix up Cassie, Bart, and Conner’s phone before you go to bed?”

Tucker shrugged. “Sure. Should be able to do at least two of them. You haven’t moved any of the tools, have you?”

“Left some of them out on the desk, but they’re there.”

“All right. Everyone! Pass me your phones. I’ll get at least two of them working tonight.”

Conner passed his over, but said, “Focus on Cassie’s and Bart’s. They’ve more people who will be worried about them and I’ve no doubt Bruce told Clark where I am and he has Tim’s number.”

“Will do!”

Bart handed his over. “Thanks, dude. You really don’t have to if it’s too much trouble.”

“Nah. After how much Danny and I messed with ecto-contaminating electronics, I could do this in my sleep.”

Sam snorted. “Well, if you don’t get started, you’ll be putting that claim to the test. Come on, tech boy. Let’s get going.”

“Sleep well!” Cassie called out after them.

“Don’t let the ghosts bite,” added Danny.

Sam huffed a laugh in a way that told Tim she’d heard the joke more than a few times before. Tucker didn’t even react and just kept walking.

“So…” started Conner once they were alone, “should we suit up?”

Danny hesitated. “If you do, Sam and Tuck will know your identities.”

Everyone looked to Tim. He chewed his lip. On the one hand, Sam and Tucker had known and kept Danny’s secret for months. But they did tend to get in arguments and make problems worse based on storied Danny had shared. But his friends had bonded rather quickly with the Amity trio and Conner, at least, definitely needed more friends their age.

“Our goals for tonight are evacuation and limiting property damage. Ambulances still can’t get into the downtown area and victims can’t escape. They’ll trust us more if we’re in costume. And at the end of the day, people’s safety is the most important. Danny, can you promise me Sam and Tucker can keep our secrets.”

“I promise, Tim. They’ll keep it as well, no better, than mine.”

Tim really hoped he was making the right choice even as he nodded. “Then let’s suit up. Where can we do that unseen?”

“Oh, that part’s easy!” said Danny. “You can change in the spare bedroom and I’ll just fly you all out invisibly and drop you off downtown.”

“Can you carry all of us?” asked Tim. “Have you ever tested your super strength?”

“Kon and I can fly ourselves,” added Cassie. “What do you need to transfer your invisibility?”

“Indirect contact should be fine. So I can carry Tim and Bart and if you each hold hands with one of them, it should work.”

“I don’t like ‘shoulds,’” said Tim. “Let’s test it.”

“Fair enough.” Danny moved until he was standing between Tim and Bart and wrapped an arm around each of them before lifting them into the air.

“Holy shit,” whispered Bart.

Tim couldn’t help but agree. He’d flown many times with Conner or Cassie or even Clark. But it never felt like this. The pull of gravity was always present and something he could feel. Yet with Danny? There was no gravity. Being in the air felt as normal as being on the ground. And Danny’s arm around his chest was warm and solid.

“What?” asked Danny. “Haven’t you flown with one of your teammates before?”

Tim couldn’t hold back a laugh. This was amazing. “Their flight doesn’t entirely cancel out gravity like yours does. Can we go out for fun before we leave? This is beyond anything I’ve ever experienced.”

“Sure thing, Secrets. Whatever you want.”

“Thanks, Polaris.” The news report still playing on the computer brought him back to the present. “But that’s a discussion for later. Sorry for getting distracted. Kon? Cassie? Grab our hands. Let’s see if this works.”

Turned out that not only could Danny make them all invisible and intangible, but his anti-gravity style flight would apply to everyone as well. Apparently flight wasn’t something that required super strength and Tim was definitely updating Danny’s power profile because this was unbelievable. He wanted to run so many tests.

It took five minutes to strip out of their protective gear and turn off the computer, then another ten to change into costume. Most of their bags had been stored in the guest room already.

During that time, Bart claimed the last thermos and they split into teams of two. Robin and Superboy would help ambulances and emergency vehicles get in and out of downtown safely and Impulse and Wonder Girl would help evacuation downtown. Phantom would stay downtown and try to figure out if the portals could be closed preventing more ghosts from crossing over.

Danny went back to his room to grab earpieces that could be used as communicators and ask Sam to turn the ghost shield back on in five minutes, then they were flying back to the scene of the attack.

It felt so much better to be back in costume and ready to do something. Though he was definitely going to have to ask Danny for the specs to the ghost weapons. Next time he came to visit, they’d be in Robin’s colors.

The chaos in the downtown area had gotten much worse in the time they’d been gone sorting out weaponry and plans. Most businesses sported broken windows and cars were overturned on the street. Half the people appeared to be overshadowed and the other half were cowering and hiding.

Danny set them down carefully and Bart immediately disappeared to find those who were trapped.

“I’ll go check out the portal and let you know what I find.”

“Very good, Phantom. We’ll do what we can on the ground. If you see something that needs our attention, let us know.”

Danny gave him a salute. “Will do, Robin.”

“All right, you two ready?”

“Always,” said Conner.

“We’ve faced worse odds,” added Cassie.

“Then let’s get going.” This was going to be a very long night.

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Hope you enjoyed! The plot is moving forward slowly but surely. We're still only in the first, like, 3 minutes of the DP episode, so yeah. I may have to speed some things up. I'm just bad at that.

This will be the last week I tag people for updates to this story. There's three reasons for that. Tumblr is making it more difficult to tag users and splitting the list over two posts is kinda a pain. Many people I tag don't seem to interact with the post and I don't know if everyone is still interested in following this story. And I'm nervous about being shadow banned since that's happened to at least one writer in this fandom as I'm sure we all know by now.

So! I've set up a subscription post. Follow the link and set up notifications and I'll make a comment every time I update. That way only those who still want notifications will get them and you can change your mind whenever you want.

Tag List Part 1

@gremlin-bot @bonebrokebuddy @britcision @lady-time-lord- @welcometosasakiworld @akikkobara @phoenixdemonqueen @dolfay @skulld3mort-1fan @we-ezer @markus209 @sjrose1216 @onyxlightdragon @dragonsrequiem @jesus-camp-the-sequel @spidey29phangirl @kyrianclawraith @evilminji @introvert-even-on-the-internet @emergentpanda-blog @lexdamo @v-inari @idontgetpaidenoughforthisshit @longlivethefallen @undead-essence @xye-chan @liandrin @seraphinedemort @kisatamao @schalensitzbucket @caelestisdreamer @runfromthemedic @nutcase8691 @channajen @tonicmii @ambiguouslyominous @vythika96 @addie-lover-of-stories @ironicvixen @violetfox2 @pickleking8 @mysticalcomputerdetective @ark12 @mygood-bitch99 @squirrel-wolf @satisfactionbroughtmeback @sometimesthingsfallapart @automaticsoulharmony @d4ydr34min9 @revnantdpxdclover @midigeria @raginblastocyst @feral-bunny31 @lunaria618 @ghostreblogging @ace-aro-as-shit

#dpxdc #dead tired #tim learns more about danny's powers!#and is realizing he has to make his questions much more specific #because danny will not represent things accurately #sam and tucker go the sane 'we're not super heroes' route and go to bed #tim will never understand

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hannahtagsip · 1 year

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1 Week Blog Entries

Wednesday 4/12/23

Me and my classmates are preparing in doing some reading things or reviewing those lessons that we tucked already..I was so nervous about the exam but I am confidently to faced my nervous. after the exam I am so happy because ui know that those results of my exam will be positive and good

Thursday 4/13/23

I had one of the worst insomnia attacks today. I wasn’t able to go to school because I slept at almost 9 in the morning from last night and I believe it was the cause of my headache today. I know I can’t function properly at school if I didn’t have enough sleep so I thought I might feel better if I catch up on some zzzs.

Friday 4/14/23

Today is Parents-Teacher Association Meeting. Although it was intended for parents only, I attended the meeting since I’m really interested about the topics our teacher was going to talk about. I wrote down some notes so I won’t forget the details. It was about the Graduation Ball and the Graduation event itself. I am exhilarated by the thought of me finally graduating.

Saturday 4/15/23

Me and our group mates had some dance practice at Santa Teresa de Avila Church in Poblacion, Talisay City. Afterwards, we went to a dressmaker to take their measurements for the skirt to be used as their costume. I was worried about the cost of the skirts since we would be needing over three thousand pesos for it.

Sunday 4/16/23

This day is the day of our family. We were going to the church and then go to our grandmothers House tho Bond together. After that, we cooked some delicious foodd and our favorite foods together with my aunties and auncles . After that, we back to our house and get some rest l.

Monday 4/17/23

This day is the school day. Before I go to school I cleaned my house and do washed clothes. In school we are checking our test paper and have some activities like practiced or dance and memorizing the new steps. after that we got some rest and do some other activities for our subject.

Tuesday 4/18/23

It’s school day today and I felt like everyone was still not in the mood to attend class,we didn’t do anything besides talking to the teacher today about what we learned from our Immersion experience. Each group passed one recipe/procedure from what we learned in the company we worked. We went home early today and I had extra time to buy what I needed from the wet market.

#Sagittarius

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unholyplumpprincess · 3 years

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Eternal Honeymoon Phase

For @itsthesinbin bc we were yelling about Morticia and Gomez and it’s spooky season so the Addams Family works perfectly. I HOPE U LIKE IT!!!!

Summary: You’re the newest addition to the Addams Family couple and you’re a little shier when it comes to their sexual appetites. You’re, well, a virgin, and when you finally ask to do more, Morticia has a better idea on how and when to take your virginity. Under the moon of Halloween, you shall be their sacrifice.

PLEASE REBLOG IF YOU LIKE! Minors and ageless blogs DNI or you will be blocked.

Fandom: Addams Family

Relationship: Morticia/Gomez/Reader

Warnings: NSFT/R18+, Reader is gn and has a vulva, also reader wears a dress but it’s a costume for an angel costume!, implications of virginity kinks for Gomez and Morticia, uhhhh ya get eaten out and ur face fucked, overstimulation.

Words: 3.3k

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Morticia and Gomez had never been against adding a third to their little ‘eternal honey moon’ romance.

It’s just that no one had ever quite...fit into their world of them as a couple. They could come off a little strong, a little, ah, overbearing and well. Downright indulging in intimacy like rabbits tended to not be something people enjoyed, much to Gomez’s and Morticia’s surprise. Whatever did people mean that they lost a ‘spark’? They just didn’t see it.

They had met you at a family gathering. You’re a friend to one of the many, many, many family members there, exuding such a sweet and kind energy amongst all the dread and vulgarity. You’d seemed a little overwhelmed among everyone else yet still was just as polite with everyone. Your state of dress had been borrowed, Morticia had noticed, from cousin Lilith. The dress you had on spilled off your shoulders and you kept adjusting it with a little shy bow of your head and flashing a small smile.

Poor thing.

~Rest under the cut~

You’d caught Morticia’s eye first, who had hummed her interest as Gomez dipped her upon the dancefloor. Her head had been tipped back, showing the long, pale expanse of her neck that he ached to kiss as her hair spilled behind her. But, he’d seen her eyes lingering on you, trailing up and over to you from where she was looking and a grin spreading across his face. “Cara mia?” He questions in a teasing tone, kissing over her shoulder and up to her neck before pulling her to a standing position. “The one Lilith brought has your attention?”

“Yes...Don’t you think they look rather sweet standing there?” Morticia hums in reply once she returns to his embrace, swaying their bodies together and making sure to twist so they both could glance over at you. You’re talking to another cousin, tucking hair behind your ear and smiling kindly at something someone else says. A laugh graces your features, and even Gomez is humming now.

“Out of place,” He agrees, taking her hand and letting her spin from his grasp only to bring her back in time with the waltz, resting his head upon her breast with a sigh from his lips. “You have always been fond of the smaller ones, haven’t you, Tish?” A playful tease that earns him that charming little laugh from his wife’s lips.

That night they had both approached you, each offering a dance. Morticia quite liked the way your cheeks warmed a healthy shade of pink and you’d been honest about how your dress kept falling. To which Gomez, ever the gentleman had offered his assistance there. Brandishing a pin from seemingly nowhere and getting behind you to help pin the dress closed better. You’d smiled so bright then, thanking him with a hearty laugh. “I thought I was going to pop out of it any second now! Thank you- Would you both like to dance? I’m sure we can come up with something together!”

And how odd you had been. Breaking traditions of just two in an intimate dance. Showing them how Gomez could hold your waist from behind and you could hold Morticia’s from the front and all sway together. Over your shoulders you hadn’t seen the way the two looked at you. A bright spray of sunshine in their gloomy, dark worlds.

They quite liked their rainy days full of thunder and harsh winds, and at first, they thought that wouldn’t be your speed.

You’re invited privately to come into their home for dinner. You’re such a vibrant ray of sunshine in the otherwise dark room, lighting it up with the glow of your presence. There are quiet tests here and there as they get to know you. Such as inviting you on terribly stormy days only for you to excuse yourself with the children to go out and play. Only to come back in soaking wet and smiling just as bright as Gomez wraps you in a towel with a laugh as you exclaim how beautiful their home always is.

And how much you loved that it was always storming or cloudy.

Another time, Mama offers you something and exclaims it to be a sort of poison. Morticia had watched as you smiled, only questioning if it at least tasted good before you’d put it into your mouth. It had been laced, of course, Mama was always good at such things. Thankfully it only made you terribly drowsy. Such a sweet thing you had been with your head in Morticia’s lap that day. Gomez having helped you out of your shoes and let you lay your legs across his lap, stroking over your calf. You’d smiled so lazily up at them, your voice happy as could be. “It did taste good. She wasn’t lying on both accounts, huh?”

Nothing frightened you. Nothing turned you away. Somehow you took doom and gloom and made it into something bright and beautiful without modifying what it looked like. Even the children took kindly to your presence. The house just came to life with you inside it, everyone seemed more active. Even Gomez had taken to leaning over the railing with wistful sighs as he watched you, and Morticia knew it was up to her to do something about it.

You’d been asked to accompany them both to dinner privately. Neither Gomez or Morticia had been into the dating scene- as is they married practically a month after they had met and proposed the day of meeting. Yet, you seemed a little old fashioned to just be proposed to in such short notice. Much to Gomez’s dismay who already had a ring picked out for you and had pouted when Morticia gently closed the box to tell him as such.

You’d agreed joyously to dinner, and not long after had your relationship begun. Gomez had been the one to ask if you would be moving in with them, both of them delighting in the flush on your face and stuttering out about how you weren’t particularly attached to your apartment. He’d insisted with a big smile, and you’d agreed. The children were just as excited, even if Wednesday had showed her own happiness in her own little way of offering to hide weapons in your room ‘just in case’.

Prompting you to ask, of course, “Just in case? What, an attacker?”

“No,” Wednesday had spoken as if it was the most obvious answer on Earth. “Just in case I want to test your reflexes.”

Morticia and Gomez had the delight of watching you spare a grin to her, pretending to pout and telling her. “Aw, man, that’s too bad because maybe I waaaant tooo test,” Only to quickly scoop her up, resulting in their daughter letting out a shriek of terror and joy. “YOUR reflexes!”

The look they had shared was full of love, Gomez’s smile lighting up the room and Morticia having to resist the urge to steal your moment and whisk you away to the bedroom.

To present day, you three have been a couple for nearly half a year. Your first kisses with both of them had been shared, as well as some more intense heavy petting. Normally resulting in you in between them with scarlet red lipstick marks curling up your neck and bite marks on the other side. No one went further than just making you a blushing mess, always one of them murmuring to you that you just need say the word and they would ravish you.

A week before Halloween you shyly tell them that you’re ready to go further.

Morticia has to rest a hand on Gomez’s leg to keep him still when he sits up eagerly in their bed like a dog hearing the word ’treat’, but Morticia only cups your cheek fondly. Smoothing her thumb over the apple of your cheek and drawing you into an oh-so-soft kiss. “In a week, my dear, we shall have a ritual on Halloween night. You are a virgin, correct?”

Her bluntness had made your face burn, a huff going from your nose but you’d nodded. Gomez had hummed next to her, reaching over to replace her hand with his own rougher one and letting you lean into his palm with a pout. “Now, now, none of that, sweetheart! We’ll have plenty of time to plan for you and get questions out of the way. Like condoms! Shall we need condoms? Tish- we don’t have condoms, do we?”

“No, my love, we have never desired them before.” Morticia had responded with a sly smile on her lips, sharing a look with you. It seemed you would burn up before they even got to play, but you’d shaken your head, your voice seemingly caught in your throat.

“Good,” Morticia near about purred. “We shall inquire further- would you like to join us in bed tonight to make preparations?”

You had joined them that night. Talking of consent and what you thought you might want to try or be comfortable with. Ending up curled up in Gomez’s arms with your face buried in his warm, hairy chest and Morticia’s freezing cold arms around you from behind. Embraced and safe within their bodies.

When Halloween approaches, the children are so excited to drag you and Fester outside to come up with games. Pugsley had dressed as a pirate fit with an eyepatch and a sword in hand, whilst Wednesday had merely taken dressing brightly for once. When questioned, she’d merely said in a stoic tone of voice, “A majority of the animal kingdom has brightly colored flesh in order to identify who is poisonous.” You’d thought it was rather clever.

Yourself, you had dressed as a cliché angel. With a white dress that reached the floor with a slit up each leg for more freedom. The top was a plunge neck with criss crossing strings over your chest, and flaring sleeves down to your fingertips. You’d even gotten a little halo headband and little wings to match. Though your halo was quickly given to Fester who had quite the fascination with it, smiling as you told him you two matched.

Perhaps you had dressed as an angel as a tease. Morticia had admitted that she was quite attracted to the fact that you hadn’t had penetrative sex yet, spoken exactly like that. And Gomez had agreed, not as bluntly but definitely implying that it was very much a ‘thing’ for them both. And maybe you were trying to get a little payback for in the middle of the week. When you had been so comfortable resting with them only to find yourself teased with hot and heavy kisses from Gomez and little nips on your neck from Morticia as they both told you how good of a sacrifice you were going to make on Halloween night.

When you’d arrived, you’d certainly felt their hungry stares. You’d call this righteous payback, thank you very much.

The entire day goes rather well, you’d thought. The children had a day full of fun and were being put to bed by Lurch, slung over both his shoulders as they both wave to you before vanishing around the corner of upstairs. Immediately you feel arms wrap around your waist from behind, a warm kiss pressed to your shoulder and Gomez’s voice sighing out. “As much as I appreciate the time you spend with the children, I am glad it is our turn now.”

“And what if I’m too tired, hm?” You tease out, only to fall into giggles from your lips when his arms squeeze tighter around your waist and a low growl comes from his throat. You hear the click of heels approaching before Morticia is in front of you, her long fingers tipping your chin up with two fingers. You can practically hear both yours and Gomez’s breaths leave your body at her beauty. She always looked so regal, especially tonight in a more spider web designed dress that had a slit up the leg.

“If you are too tired, we shall simply put off until next Halloween. I am patient.” She speaks coolly, a quirk to a corner of her mouth when you whine aloud and lean back into Gomez’s arms who makes the same sound as you. Clearly the most patient one in the room was Morticia, but even then, her eyes are flicking down the front of your low plunge dress and you have a feeling that wouldn’t last long.

After a few teasing ‘double checks’ from the both of them, you are brought to a room that you don’t recognize. It’s wide open with windows covering one side, and in the center of the room is soft looking cushions and blankets. In a star formation on either side of the center where the comfortable spot looked were lit up candles, all black with roaring red flames. You should have realized Morticia wasn’t joking when she said sacrifice, but in your heart, you knew nothing bad was going to happen. Nothing you didn’t want would happen.

Gomez is the one who strips you from behind, warm kisses placed on everywhere he exposes behind you. Trailing kisses down your back until he can’t reach whilst standing anymore and letting your dress pool to the floor. Morticia watches, patient as ever with her hands folded at her waist, though her head does tilt, this hungry gaze in her eyes as they fall to your hips. You weren’t wearing underwear, you thought it would give your dress undesirable lines. You flush when you hear the appreciative sound behind you, a firm hand tracing down your side and squeezing your ass.

“You were just as eager to get here as we were all day.” Gomez growls in your ear, both his hands grabbing your hips now and yanking you back against him. You whimper faintly, tipping your head to the side when guided to feel the searing hot kisses up your neck. You’re already dizzy with arousal, faintly hearing Morticia say something only to be released and guided to the cushions instead by her hands.

You’re lain on your back, watching Gomez strip from his suit jacket and loosening his tie to work on the buttons. Morticia slips out of her dress, revealing a black lacy get up with matching bra and panties, a garter belt holding spider web thigh highs on her long legs. You swallow thickly when she crawls up to you, nudging your legs apart that tremble as they fall open. Cold kisses leave scarlet prints up your inner thigh beginning at your knee, her lips coming up and over your hip to your lower abdomen and kissing her way back down, down, down.

Her fingers part your lower lips and you throw your head back in embarrassment when she smiles up at you under her lashes. “Already so wet, little one? How sweet.” You can’t even help the way your hips jump when her cold mouth presses an open-mouthed kiss over the hood of your clit, her tongue pressing downwards against you before sealing her lips lightly over you.

A low whine leaves your throat, your fingers quickly twisting into the sheets beneath you as your hips start to hump against her mouth without thinking. You feel a pressure by your head before your eyes flutter open halfway, looking up at Gomez who pushes your hair out of your face adoringly. “Open your mouth, sweetheart, stick out your tongue for me.” Murmured gently from his lips, and you do as told, a shudder racing through your body when Morticia’s tongue dips lower.

His cock is in his hand, thick enough to the point not even his fingers touch when holding it. It looked shorter, maybe at about five inches with the foreskin pulled back with a tug of his hand across his cock. Your mouth waters at the sight of the flushed head, fluttering your eyes closed when he glides the head of it across your tongue. “Ah, there you go, darling, just get used to the taste for now.” Spoken lowly in his throat, as if he’s holding back from just grabbing you and slipping into your throat.

You get to experiment with little laps of your tongue after a moment, keeping your lips parted to allow him to slide the shaft over your lips so you could get used to the weight. A moan spills from you when you feel Morticia’s tongue back on your clit, applying pleasant pressure and moaning against you in turn. You whimper sharply, your hand reaching down to try and find her. She takes the hint, her fingers lacing with yours at your hip to hold your hand there.

It isn’t long before Gomez is pressing the head at your lips, talking you through it ever so softly. “Breathe through your nose, relax your jaw- there you go, that’s my sweet pet.” Crooning as he presses carefully into your mouth. It stretches your jaw, your head tipped backwards and your breath stuttered. He only dips halfway, his hand coming down to rest on your jaw, helping you keep tilted and supported.

By the time he finally slips all the way into your mouth, his balls against your nose and your eyes nearly rolling into the back of your head, you’re cumming. You squeeze tight to Morticia’s hand, automatically swallowing around the weight in your mouth with moans blossoming from your chest. Your body trembles, hips stuttering up against her mouth where she licks you through each wave and even afterwards. Until your tremors are too much and you’re making soft whimpers around Gomez’s cock and trying to shake your head, but his hand holds you still.

“Mmh. That was one. Just four more.” Morticia practically croons, pressing a kiss to your engorged clit that’s surely circled by a ring of lipstick right now. Your hips jerk upwards, moving your free hand up to Gomez’s thigh and clinging to him when his hips start to move lightly.

Four?! Four more?! You try to sob out, but only the tail end of it gets out when Gomez pulls his hips back until the head rests heavy on your lips. You try to speak, but Morticia’s nails tracing up your thighs as she sits up catches your attention more. “My love, the toys?”

“Behind you in the bag, dearest.” He hums out fondly, the hand gripping your jaw smoothing his thumb over your wet lips until your lips part again, taking his cock once more with a low growl in his voice. “I think you were made to be a toy for us, little one. How well you take me.”

You can’t help your own whimper when he slides all the way back into your mouth. Your eyes fluttering just as you feel Morticia return with the light pressure between your legs. She lifts one of your thighs, angling you better for the rounded head of a smaller toy that you assume is a dildo, already wet with lubrication. “I would ask Gomez to prepare you as my nails are too long,” Morticia explains, her hand lying flat on the mound of your sex, her thumb circling your clit to not overstimulate you just yet. “But, it seems he is preoccupied at the moment. I cannot say I am not jealous.”

“In d-due time, my dear,” He huffs out, his hips speeding up slightly when you prove you can take the smaller thrusts. Your toes curl, feeling the toy slowly slide into you with a delicious, slight stretch to it. It isn’t long before Morticia’s moving it in sync with Gomez’s hips, your eyes rolling into the back of your head and feeling just like the toy Gomez claimed you were.

You know by the end of the night you’ll end up well taken care of and tired out. But for now, you’re happy to be caught in between them, drooling around Gomez’s cock and feeling Morticia’s cold tongue lapping at your slick.

You think Heaven is a lot darker and gloomier than thought to be.

#Addams Family #Morticia x Gomez x Reader #Morticia Addams #Gomez Addams #nsft #lemon #princess writing

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katsublast · 3 years

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Hey guys! I know this isn’t a fanfic but I was working on a timeline of the current manga/anime/movies/school briefs/ova because I need a very detailed timeline with years and dates for a fic that I’m working on. A lot of these exact dates have not been specified but they are roughly accurate to the general timeline.

Bnha manga spoilers up to Chapter 321

June, 2189:

10th: All Might is born

August, 2199

8th: Endeavor is born

August, 2202

Rei Himura is born

February, 2205

Nana Shimura gives All Might One For All.

April, 2205

All Might enters UA.

July, 2207

Nana Shimura is killed by All For One.

March, 2208:

All Might graduates from UA and goes to the United States.

July, 2214:

7th: Present Mic is born

22nd: Tensei Iida is born

November, 2214

8th: Eraserhead is born

April, 2215

Endeavor enters UA

March, 2218

Endeavor graduates from UA

All Might returns to Japan

January, 2222

18th: Touya Todoroki is born six weeks early.

December, 2222

6th: Fuyumi Todoroki is born

28th: Keigo Takami is born

January, 2225

Touya’s quirk emerges. He begins training.

April, 2225

4th: Tenko Shimura is born

November, 2225

Endeavor abruptly stops training Touya. Touya doesn’t understand why and continues training on his own, harming his own body in the process. Endeavor convinces Rei to have more children.

July, 2226

1st: Natsuo Todoroki is born.

July, 2227

15th: Mirio Togata is born

October, 2227

6th: Nejire Hado is born

March, 2228

4th: Tamaki Amajiki is born

April, 2229

20th: Katsuki Bakugou is born

May, 2229

28th: Mashiaro Ojiro is born

30th: Yuga Aoyama is born

June, 2229

10th: All Might’s 40th birthday

16th: Toru Hagakure is born

19th: Rikido Sato is born

29th: Denki Kaminari is born

July, 2229

1st: Hitoshi Shinso is born. Natsuo’s 3rd birthday.

7th: Present Mic’s 15th birthday

15th: Izuku Midoriya is born. Mirio Togata’s 2nd birthday

22nd: Tensei Iida’s 15th birthday

28th: Hanta Sero is born

30th: Mina Ashido is born

August, 2229

1st: Kyoka Jirou is born

8th: Endeavor’s 30th birthday

22nd: Tenya Iida is born

September, 2229

23rd: Momo Yaoyorozu is born

October, 2229

8th: Minoru Mineta is born

16th: Eijirou Kirishima is born. Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu is born

30th: Fumikage Tokoyami is born

November, 2229

Eraserhead’s 15th birthday

December, 2229

27th: Ochako Uraraka is born

January, 2230

11th: Shoto Todoroki is born

18th: Touya’s 8th birthday

February, 2230

1st: Koji Koda is born

12th: Tsuyu Asui is born

15th: Mezo Shoji is born

April, 2230

Present Mic, Eraserhead, Shirakumo, and Tensei Iida start their first year at UA.

20th: Katsuki’s first birthday.

April-December 2231 to January-March 2232

Shirakumo dies.

March 2232

Eraserhead, Present Mic, and Tensei Iida graduate from UA.

4th: Tamaki’s 4th birthday

December, 2235

Touya “dies” at Sekoto Hill

January, 2236

Rei has a psychotic breakdown. Shoto gets his scar. Rei is committed to the hospital.

11th: Shoto’s 6th birthday

March, 2239

All Might vs. All For One. All For One is temporarily defeated. All Might gets his scar and falls out with Sir Nighteye.

4th: Tamaki’s 11th birthday

April, 2245:

April 7th, Izuku meets All Might and saves Katsuki from the Slime Villain

April 9th: Izuku starts training with All Might

April 20th, Katsuki’s 15th Birthday

July, 2245:

1st: Hitoshi’s 15th birthday. Natsuo’s 18th birthday

7th: Present Mic’s 30th birthday

5th: Izuku’s 15th birthday. Mirio’s 17th birthday.

22nd: Tensei’s 30th birthday

28th: Hanta’s 15th birthday

30th: Mina’s 15th birthday

August, 2245:

22nd, Tenya’s 15th Birthday

Eijirou and Mina encounter Gigantomachia.

November, 2245:

Izuku collapses during his training with All Might

February , 2246:

26th: Izuku inherits One For All, and takes the entrance exam. Breaks both his legs and one arm in the attempt. Is awarded 60 rescue points for saving Ochako . Ochako earns 45 rescue points for helping him.

March, 2246:

5th: Izuku gets his entrance exam results

6th: After 7pm, All Might meets him on the beach to discuss his teaching job at UA.

21st: Izuku and Katsuki graduate middle school

April, 2246:

First Day: Friday, April 3rd: Quirk Assessment Test (Friday)

Second Day: Saturday, April 4th, Battle Training (Izuku/Ochako vs Tenya/Katsuki) (Saturday)

Third Day: Monday, April 6th, Press at front gates - Villains break in - Prez/Rep voting

Fifth Day: Wednesday April 8th, USJ Incident

Sixth Day: Thursday April 9th: Temporary close due to USJ incident

Seventh Day: Friday, April 10th, Learn about Tournament (Friday)

Eighth Day: Saturday, April 11th: Declaration of War from Hitoshi Shinsou (Saturday)

April 20th: Katsuki’s 16th Birthday

April 22nd: Rescue Training OVA

Saturday, April 25th: Sports Festival. As well as the day that Tenya’s brother is injured by Stain

Two days off (April 26th, 27th)

April 28th: Hero name selection

Golden Week (No school) April 29th, 30th, May 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th.

May, 2246:

Monday, May 11th: First Day of Internships. Broken Microwave and night solo training

Tuesday, May 12th: Second Day of Internships. 5% Full Cowl is born!

Wednesday, May 13th: Third Day of Internships. Continued training Night: Hosu Incident - Stain and Nomus

Thursday, May 14th: In the hospital / aftermath of Stain

Friday, May 15th: Izuku has to head home because Gran Torino’s license was revoked . Tsuyu takes down drug smugglers with Selkie.

Saturday, May 16th: Everyone else heads home from their internships

Sunday, May 17th: Day off before school

Monday, May 18th: Rescue Training Race

Wednesday, May 20th: Training of the Dead OVA

Saturday, May 23rd: Parent’s Day (School Briefs Manga)

June, 2246:

Final Study Week - June 22nd- 27th

Monday, June 29th: Written Exam Day 1

Tuesday, June 30th: Written Exam 2

July, 2246:

Wednesday: July 1st: Written Exam, Day 3

Thursday, July 2nd: 2v1 First Semester Practical Exam

Friday, July 3rd: Day Off: Trip to the Mall / Run in with Tomura

July 15th, Izuku turns 16. Mirio turns 18.

Thursday, July 24th: Summer Break (Save the World with Love) Training Exercise. All Might invites Izuku to I-Island

Friday, July 25th: All Might, Izuku, and the others arrive on I-Island. Wolfram is defeated by All Might and Izuku.

Monday, July 27th: Everyone returns from I-Island

August, 2246:

Saturday, August 1st: Pool Episode

August 3rd, 4th, and 5th : Summer Camp

August 6th: Villains kidnap Katsuki

August 7th & 8th: In the hospital

August 9th: Planning the Katsuki rescue

August 10th: Momo, Izuku, Eijrou, Tenya and Shouto all go to the Nomu storage. Pros go to the bar hideout. Izuku and his friends rescue Katsuki. All Might’s true form revealed to the world AFO is imprisoned.

August 11th and 12th: Recoup, press, decision to board students.

August 13th-14th: Aizawa and All Might go to each student's house to get approval for boarding. All Might meets Izuku on the beach.

Saturday, August 22nd: Tenya’s 16th Birthday.

August 25th: Students move into dorms

August 26th: Begin training super moves

Sunday, August 30th: Izuku gets his new costume. He saves All Might from falling debris with his new Shoot Style.

Monday, August 31st: Do or Die Survival Training.

September, 2246

Saturday, September 5th: Provisional License Exam. Katsuki and Izuku fight at Ground Beta.

Monday, September 7th: Opening ceremony for semester 2 of year 1

Wednesday, September 9th: Izuku is back from house arrest. Big Three come to talk. Mirio fights Class 1A and talks about internships. League of Villains meets with Overhaul. Magne dies.

Thursday, September 10th: Katsuki returns from house arrest. Reporter interviews Class 1A about dorm life.

Friday, September 11th: Izuku asks to be introduced to Sir Nighteye.

Sunday, September 13th (No classes): Provisional license backup classes for Shoto and Katsuki. Izuku goes to Sir Nighteye’s office.

Monday, September 14th: Izuku’s first day of interning at Sir Nighteye’s agency. Izuku and Mirio meet Eri and Overhaul on patrol. Nighteye mentions a cross-agency mission. Afternoon/evening, Eijrou encounters Trigger. Ejirou and Tamaki encounter short-term Quirk erasing bullets. Izuku fails at rescue training. Tsuyu, Ochako, and Eijirou are at their internships.

Tuesday, September 15th: Toga and Twice infiltrate Overhaul’s organization. All interns meet at Sir Nighteye’s agency to be briefed on the mission.

Wednesday, September 16th: Izuku does climbing exercises at school. He cries in front of Tenya and Shoto at lunch.

Late at night on Friday, September 18th: Mirio, Tamaki, Nejire, Eijirou, Tsuyu, ochako, and Izuku get a text telling them the raid is the next day.

Tuesday, September 22nd: Raid at Overhaul base

7 am: Meeting before raid. Interns change into costumes

8 am: Meet in front of police station

8:30 am: Raid begins

Mirio loses his quirk

9:15 am: Raid ends

Shigaraki decays Overhaul’s arms. Dabi kills Snatch.

Nighteye dies in the hospital.

In the woods, Gran Torina captures Kurogiri

8:00 pm: Eijirou, Izuku, Tsuyu and Ochako return to the dorms.

Sunday, September 20th: Shoto and Katsuki go to the Remedial Provisional License Class with the elementary kids with All Might and Present Mic.

Sunday, September 27th: Nighteye’s funeral. Internships are postponed. Eri wakes up with her quirk not functioning.

October, 2246:

Thursday, October 1st: Izuku answers a question wrong in Ectoplasm’s math class. Aoyama sneaks onto Izuku’s balcony to give him cheese at night.

Friday, October 2nd: Aoyama talks to Izuku about his quirk and they become friends after training in Gyma Gamma.

Monday, October 5th: Class meeting about Culture Festival ideas. After school, the meeting continues in the dorms while Izuku, Ochako, Tsuyu, and Eijirou do extra classes to make up for the work they missed during their work studies. Izuku and Mirio visit Eri after Izuku’s makeup classes.

Tuesday, October 6th: More planning for the Culture Festival after their concert idea gets approved. Katsuki overhears general studies students complaining about the hero course. Work studies students go to their extra classes.

Wednesday, October 7th: Just after 1am, a plan is finalized for the concert. Izuku meets with All Might after school in the teachers lounge and talks about his work study. All Might has him meet him in the forest and has him practice a long distance attack at 20%.

Saturday, October 10th: Students do more work for the Culture Festival. Mirio and Eri visit UA.

Saturday, October 17th: Izuku is fired from the dance team and is put on special effects instead.

Sunday, October 18th: In the early morning, Izuku trains with All Might in the woods, focusing on his Air Force technique.

Friday, October 30th: Tokoyami’s birthday. Students practice until 9pm in Gyma Gamma. Just after 11pm, Izuku notices the rope is frayed and plans to buy a new one the next morning before the festival.

Saturday, October 31st: Culture Festival Day

6:30 am: Mei gives Izuku his Air Force gloves. He practices with it in the woods until 7:49 am.

7:50 am: Izuku leaves UA to buy the rope.

8:30 am: Izuku runs into Gentle Criminal after leaving the hardware store.

8:33 am: Izuku decides to fight Gentle Criminal

9:25 am: Izuku defeats Gentle Criminal and La Brava

9:35 am: Izuku goes back to the hardware store and picks up his groceries

9:50 am: Izuku makes it back to UA and changes into his clothes for the concert

10:00 am: Concert starts

In the evening after the festival, Izuku gives Eri a candy apple

November, 2246: MANGA SPOILERS FOR MY VILLAIN ACADEMIA STOP READING NOW ANIME ONLIES

Monday, November 16th: The League fights the weird church cult. Gigantomachia finds them. Shigaraki and the others get warped to Dr, Ujiko’s lair. The fight against Gigantomachia begins.

ANIME ONLIES MAY READ AGAIN

Thursday, November 26th: Wild Wild Pussycats visit Class 1A.

Saturday, November 28th: Pro Hero Billboard Charts

Sunday, November 29th: Hawks and Endeavor fight the High End Nomu. Hawks meets with Dabi.

Tuesday, November 29th: Endeavor is discharged from the hospital. UA has Class 1A fight the Big 3 for an emergency drill. Endeavor has dinner with his family. Izuku has his dream about One For All.

Wednesday, November 30th: Izuku discusses his dream with All Might. Class 1A vs 1B joint training with Shinso takes place. After school, All Might meets with Katsuki and Izuku to discuss Black Whip. At 7:00 pm, they go to Gym Gamma and train to see if Black Whip will come out.

Sunday, November 29th: Hawks “kills” Jeanist.

December, 2246:

Tuesday, December 1st: Endeavor is discharged from the hospital. UA has Class 1A fight the Big 3 for an emergency drill. Endeavor has dinner with his family. Izuku has his dream about One For All.

Wednesday, December 2nd: Izuku discusses his dream with All Might. Class 1A vs 1B joint training with Shinso takes place. After school, All Might meets with Katsuki and Izuku to discuss Black Whip. At 7:00 pm, they go to Gym Gamma and train to see if Black Whip will come out.

Thursday, December 3rd: Monoma copies Eri’s quirk.

Sunday, December 6th: First snow of the year. Katsuki and Shoto get their provisional licenses and take down the purse stealing villain and his gang.

Monday, December 7th: Hawks “kills” Jeanist. Shoto and Katsuki are interviewed.

MANGA SPOILERS FOR MY VILLAIN ACADEMIA STOP READING IF YOU ARE ANIME ONLY

Saturday, December 12th: League of Villains versus Meta Liberation Army. Shigaraku emerges victorious with his quirk awakened. Deika City is destroyed.

ANIME ONLIES MAY READ AGAIN

Sunday, December 13th: Hero Public Safety Commission approaches UA staff about sending students to Nabu island.

Monday, December 14th: Aizawa tells Class 1A they’re going to Nabu island.

Tuesday, December 15th: Class 1A leaves for Nabu island.

Thursday, December 17th: Katsuma and Mahoro fake a villain attack at night.

Friday, December 18th: Nine and his gang attack the island around 5pm. Izuku and Katsuki are badly injured. Nine retreats due to complications with his quirk. Remaining student heroes round up the civilians into a temporary shelter. Katsuma heals Katsuki and Izuku with his quirk. Class 1A formulates a plan.

Saturday, December 19th: Final showdown against Nine starts in the early morning. Izuku temporarily gives Katsuki One For All to defeat Nine. Heroes arrive to assist the students. Shigaraki kills Nine.

Sunday, December 20th: Mahoro and Katsuma’s dad returns to the island.

Tuesday, December 22nd: Class 1A leaves the island after helping cleanup.

Wednesday, December 23rd: Class 1A gets media training. UA staff discuss work studies for the first year students.

Thursday, December 24th: Students informed of their winter break homework. Students are now on winter break.

Friday, December 25th: Christmas in the dorms. Shoto asks Katsuki and Izuku if they want to do a work study with Endeavor at his agency.

Thursday, December 31st: Students go home for New Year’s Eve.

January, 2247:

Friday, January 1st: Shoto, Katsuki, and Izuku go to Endeavor’s agency for their work study. Hawks visits the Paranormal Liberation Front. Hawks intervenes when fighting Starservant and hands out the Meta Liberation book to Endeavor and his work study students. Endeavor learns about the Paranormal Liberation front from Hawks’ coded message in the book. Shigaraki begins his four month powerup.

Friday, January 8th: Awkward dinner with the Todoroki family. Endeavor, Shoto, Katsuki, and Izuku fight Ending and save Natsuo.

BNHA MANGA SPOILERS AHEAD.

Monday, January 11th: Classes Start again after winter break. Aizawa and Present Mic go to Tartarus to interrogate Kurogiri. They learn Kurogiri is a Nomu of their old friend, Shirakumo. Hawks tutors Twice. All Might gives Katsuki and Izuku information on One For All’s past users.

Tuesday, January 12th: Aizawa begins to train Eri

Movie 3 takes place.

March, 2247

Monday, March 29th: Battle of Jakku City

#bnha #mha timeline #mha #boku no hero academia #my hero academia #bnha manga spoilers #mha manga spoilers #Bnha timeline #timeline

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olivia-anderson-fanfic · 3 years

Text

Satisfied, Part 54

First

~~~

The lady’s watch beeped.

Marinette grinned as she pushed herself off of the couch. She dug into her bag and handed over a wad of cash. “Thanks, Linda.”

“Of course.” She watched the woman count it and then put it in her pocket. “I’ll see you next week.”

“Nah, I’m going to see my better therapist.”

Linda rolled her eyes. “Harley lets you give in to unhealthy coping mechanisms, that doesn’t make her better.”

“Lalalalala! Not listening!” Said Marinette, ducking out the door.

“Right! Don’t forget your homework! Five more good things about yourself!”

“Oh nooooooo you’re too far away I can’t hear you!”

Linda groaned. “Ladybug, please.”

She sighed and stopped. She turned around, flashing a small smile. “Fiiiiiine, I’ll do it.”

“And they can’t have anything to do with how you help others.”

Marinette cursed. “I should have kept walking.”

“Too late! Have a good week!”

She spun on her heel and threw a wave over her shoulder. “You too!”

“And tell Red Robin to stop by!”

“Will do!”

She hummed lightly and ducked into an ally. “Spots off,” she said. She opened her jacket pocket and let Tikki fly in. She’d stopped using her purse to hold the kwami a few years back when a guy had attempted to steal it and she’d nearly given away her identity trying to get it back. Besides, she never had to open her pocket, so there was no stress when she was paying for something.

She pulled a normal yoyo from her pocket and started playing with it as she walked out the other side.

Marinette glanced up and grinned as she spotted the familiar yellow and black outfits. Signal, Orphan, and Queen Bee had recently started doing daytime patrols. Crime had dramatically decreased since, and Bruce was more than a little bitter that he hadn’t thought about it.

She gave a tiny wave and grinned when they sent some of their own. Marinette had given up on trying to keep the fact that she was friends with pretty much every vigilante in Gotham a secret. It turns out you don’t have to worry about people coming after you to hurt your powerful friends when they are, in fact, afraid of said powerful friends.

She heard her phone go off in her pocket and grinned. Also, the publicity was amazing for her business. That was also good.

She grinned and opened a portal under herself, dropping into the Siren’s living room.

“Hey, darlin’,” said Harley, who was far too used to this by now to even blink.

“Kid’s here?” Asked a Catwoman from the kitchen.

“No. I was talking to the plants,” said Harley sarcastically.

Poison Ivy glanced up from watering her plants. “Hilarious. But please do, they grow better when you talk to them every day.”

Catwoman sighed. “Whatever. What do you want to eat, kid?”

Marinette plopped down on the couch. “I’m not a kid. I wasn’t even a kid when you met me.”

“Oh?”

“Yes!”

“Then why don’t you tell us your identity to prove it?”

She rolled her eyes and stuck her tongue out at Catwoman. “Do I look like I’m under eighteen?”

“Do I look like I’m older than thirty?” Catwoman retorted. When she saw the small smirk forming on Marinette’s face she quickly cut her off: “Don’t answer that.”

She huffed. “Think about it. It’s been ten years, do you really think I was eight when we met?”

“Who knows. Human kids all look the same to me.”

Marinette groaned. “I’m not -- you know what? I don’t care anymore.”

“You do, though,” cooed Harley.

A scowl made its way onto her face. “Whatever. Can I use the misty-thingy?”

Poison Ivy handed it over and Marinette spritzed Catwoman. The woman hissed and batted it away.

“I’m choosing dinner,” she said dangerously as she disappeared to the kitchen.

Marinette fought between the instincts to laugh and curse, handing the spritzer back to Poison Ivy. She rested her head on Harley’s lap and smiled to herself as the woman started to braid her hair.

“We still on for that raid on Sunday?” Asked Poison Ivy.

“Sure. I’ll see if I can get Red Hood to go.”

Harley laughed. “I’m sure Batman wouldn’t be too happy about that.”

“Has that ever stopped him before?”

“True, true.”

Catwoman emerged with what looked like a burnt brick. She dropped a plate of it onto Marinette’s lap.

“Eat up, kid.”

She went a little pale as she stared at the food in front of her.

“Well, you see, about that...” She opened a portal under herself and disappeared.

She heard a click from her earpiece and flicked it on.

“Right, found one. Looks like a normal mugging,” said Jason.

“Location?” Asked Damian.

Jason gave his general area and sighed. “Right. I’m heading in.”

She listened in on the fight as she hopped from rooftop to rooftop.

Ever since Dick had taken up the Batman mantle (Bruce had, for the most part, retired), he’d made a few changes to patrols.

The first thing he’d done was make it mandatory that they communicate when and where they were getting in fights and transmit the audio. There had been the usual amount of backlash that arises when the bats are asked to do something for their own good, but they’d stopped complaining that it wasn’t necessary when Tim had walked into the manor for coffee with a knife sticking out of his side.

(She was pretty sure that he’d done that on purpose, but whatever.)

Next, he’d set up rotations so people actually got sleep some nights. They switched between two teams. The first (and best) was made up of Jason, Marinette, and Damian. The rest of the time it would be Dick, Tim, and -- occasionally -- Bruce. Most criminals opted for nights with the second team. She never could figure out why --.

They heard the click of Jason’s gun and Dick’s voice cut in: “Don’t kill them!”

Jason scoffed. “What’re you gonna do if I do?”

“I… Mari, tell him not to kill them.”

“Jason --,” she began.

“I’ll buy you a coffee.”

“-- is a grown adult who can make his own decisions.”

She could practically feel Jason’s smirk as Dick cursed.

“Damn, why are you so easy to buy? I’ll... um…”

Bruce cut in: “I’ll build a starbucks in the room next to yours.”

Her eyes widened. “Jason, if you pull that trigger I will never talk to you again.”

“You wouldn’t be able to stay away.”

“Try me.”

There was a short silence and then the click of a safety turning back on. Jason mumbled about how it wasn’t fair, along with a lot of other colorful things.

Marinette, however, was grinning.

She slipped into the house and yawned.

Damian looked up from where he was petting Chaton on the couch.

She raised her eyebrows. “Not even gonna detransform?”

He sunk into his hooded jacket. “It’s comfy.”

Marinette rolled her eyes. “Whatever, give me my cat back.”

“He’s our cat.”

She huffed. “He’s my cat. Give him back.”

“Why don’t we let him choose?”

She scoffed lightly and crossed her arms over her chest. “Not while you’re still Kitten.”

“I told you to call me BatCat!”

“And I told you that I’d rather you beat me to death with a spoon.”

He stuck his tongue out at her and detransformed. They set the cat between the two of them and made cooing noises.

Chaton went to Damian without even sparing her a glance.

“Traitor,” she murmured.

Both of their phones went off and they checked them.

Ah. The Thesmartones chat. It included Riddler and every bat except for Dick

The partners both groaned and opened the chat.

Riddleboye: Can one of you test my new escape room?

Her phone blew up and she glanced at the different chat. Whohastodoriddlersriddlethistime.

Queenbee: Not it

Therealdamianwayne: Not it.

Bruecbrucewayne: not it

Redhoodiewastaken: not it :)

Brucesfavorite: not it

Coffeeismygirlfriendmarinetteismywife: Not it!

Imsurroundedbyidiots: Not it

She groaned when she realized she was the only one who hadn’t done it yet.

Notsleepingwasaconsciousdecision: i hate you all

Damian had the audacity to laugh. She sent him a tiny glare and kicked him in the side. He cursed and she was only saved from his wrath by the cat currently resting on his stomach.

She went back to the original chat.

Notsleepingwasaconsciousdecision: im free monday night

Riddleboye: Thanks!

Notsleepingwasaconsciousdecision: its fine see you then

She raised her eyebrows as she stepped into the room and saw Tim awake, clicking away at his laptop. This wasn’t exactly new (far from it, really) but it was still sometimes, somehow, surprising.

She changed into her now well-worn hoodie and crawled into bed. She picked up her newest project, a new costume for Red Hood, and started stitching.

He wrapped an arm around her and drew her close so he could type.

She rested her head against his chest. She stitched in time with his heartbeat.

Her eyes glanced over his screen and she sighed lightly. “No information yet?”

He shook his head. “Nope, still don’t know how to help lower his cortisol levels back to normal. There’s nothing on it.”

“Yeah, it’s almost as if no one else on Earth has Scarecrow’s problem.”

This earned an eye roll. He closed the many tabs on cortisol inhibitors and pulled up a spreadsheet for work. “It’s always ‘reduce stress!’ and ‘take fish oil!’ and other things that we’ve already tried.”

“Yeah, but there’s nothing else we can do. We just have to hope that his therapist can help him work through it.” She blinked. “That reminds me: Linda said that you need to see her.”

“But I don’t have to see her again until Wednesday!”

She rolled her eyes. “It’s Thurs -- actually…” She checked her phone. “Friday. It’s Friday.”

Tim cursed. “So, that’s what I forgot.”

“What, the week day or the therapy session?”

“Both.”

She rolled her eyes.

He pulled away slightly for a second to grab his drink and then handed her a coffee. “Behold. Just the way you like it.”

A blush rose to her cheeks as she took it from him. “Oh, sweetie, you shouldn’t have!”

“Don’t worry about it. I was already making some for myself and yours isn’t hard to make.”

She grinned. “It’s going to be easier to get from now on. I told you I could get Bruce to buy us a coffee shop.”

He huffed and rested his chin atop her head. “Shut up.”

“Eloquent.” She teased. “Anyways, I think I’ve achieved favorite kid status.”

Tim laughed. “Please, bean. You’re not even his favorite daughter. Remember that time he bought Cass an entire police station’s equipment?”

She rolled her eyes and set down her project so she could cross her arms over her chest. “Shut up.”

“Eloquent,” he said, a cheeky grin on his face.

She laughed and tipped her head back to press a kiss to his lips. “I’ve decided I’m getting a divorce.”

He finally set his computer down, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her onto his lap. “You wouldn’t. You love me.”

She smiled and reached up, cupping his cheeks in her hands. “I do.”

Marinette pulled him down for another kiss.

~~~

Holy shit. It’s over.

Right, I’m going to get sappy for a minute so if you don’t want that then I would like to just thank you for reading! You can stick around if you’d like and if not then I hope you have a good life! <3

Okay, now for the emotions stuff.

For context, I’ve been writing a book for the better part of three years. Writing a book is... hard. Shocking, I know. But, in all seriousness, I’m not even halfway through.

I was getting really burned out on writing, and one of my creator friends suggested I do a ‘break project’. I didn’t want to jump into another book but I wanted to keep writing, so I said ‘fuck it I’ll go back to my roots fanfiction it is’.

I’d been reading a lot of Daminette lately, so I decided to put my own spin on the ship and write a cute fluffy fanfiction of around 30k words. Ha.

But, seriously, this project has been really therapeutic for me. It’s showed me that I can actually write a decent story, that people enjoy my writing, that I don’t need to go back and change things constantly...

This was kind of supposed to be a one-time thing and then I was going to disappear, but I found myself actually enjoying writing fanfiction.

I don’t know.

The plan is now to continue. I have another fic that I’m currently plotting out. It won’t be daily uploads, because each ‘chapter’ is going to be an arc in itself and I don’t want to rush that. I’m not going to give too much of it away, but it’s another mlb x dcu crossover so stick around if you want some of that.

Since I’m still in the planning phase and all the chapters are going to take ages, I’m opening up requests. Feel free to submit a prompt. Or ask me questions if you’d like. I’ll answer in 2-3 business months.

With love,

‘Olivia’

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#timinette #timari #marinette dupain cheng #ladybug #tim drake #satisfied #maribat #red robin

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tnystrk-exe · 4 years

Text

Teacher’s Pet

Din Djarin x Reader

Modern Au. Teacher Reader. For fic purposes baby Yoda is Damien. When you haven’t written in months but your friend wants something specific so you had to do it to em.

“This isn’t a bit much?” Abby asked, surveying the scene in front of herself. “You spent your whole day with the kids during school. Aren’t you tired?”

“A little, but why not let the kids have some fun over here. It’s nice, safe.” You went to straighten out the goodie bags and small toy boxes, making sure Damien got a green yo-yo and Alexis got her favorite unicorn stickers. “Besides, Halloween fell on Wednesday this year. I just wanted to help out the parents some by having one place they could come and leave without all the walking around.”

“Those kids are lucky to have you,” Abby decided, grabbing a handful of popcorn that was set on a table and sitting down on a chair. “Can I flirt with the local hot single dads?”

“Nope. You can’t. There’s only one and he hardly ever comes to the little events. He works out of town a lot.”

Abby sighed, wistfully, “What me and that mystery man could have had would have been special.”

“It’s a pity we’ll never get to see it.”

“...Any single moms?”

“You can’t date my kid’s parents. Next year, when they’re in first grade you can do what you want.” You heard a knock at the front door, “Well it’s time to start up this show.”

“Miss LN!” You heard a cheerful student call out, “My mommy and I are here!”

You opened the door, smiling down at the child , “Amado! Let me guess! You’re a...robot!”

He giggled happily, “No silly! I’m a Power Ranger! And you’re Ms. Frizzle!”

“I am? I didn’t even get dressed up today. This is just what I wear at home. Look! Jesse just got here.”

A couple more kids started arriving with their parents. Some parents came in full costume and others looked like they came straight from a stressful day at work. The parents rested, talking amongst themselves, while the children played games in the backyard, coming back in occasionally for food and drinks. Abby was already sat on the arm of a couch talking to Nathan’s mom. Occasionally a parent would chat you up and you’d tell them about how well their children were doing in class.

Doing a head count you noticed two kids hadn’t made it. So you made sure to put away Damien and Avery’s goodie bags in your purse to make sure you’d give them to the kids tomorrow. After an hour or so, the families started to leave. Some kids being held by their parents half asleep and others still hyped up on sugar. It was down to five kids before you heard a knock at the door again.

“Look at you! A little Yoda and Boba Fett.”

Damien surged forward to hug your leg, “Hello.”

“Hey, little man,” you answered fondly, “Who’s our Boba Fett today?”

“It’s my dad!” He pouted when his father started to take off the helmet, “You lost rock, paper, scissors. You have to keep the helmet on all night.”

You heard an amused breathy chuckle, but his father’s hands went down all the same. “I’m sorry for being late Ms. LN,” he offered a hand, “I’m Din Djarin, Damien’s father.”

You smiled shaking his hand, “It’s not any trouble Mr. Djarin. I’m glad the two of you got to make it. There’s still some food and soda if the two of you are hungry.”

“I’m sorry, I promised the little guy I’d spend Halloween with the mask on if I made it back in time.”

“I’m sure we can sneak you a couple of slices of pizza in the kitchen,” you said with a wink.

Damien had already walked off to play with some other kids. His father long forgotten in the front room.

“I am glad to finally meet you,” Din said suddenly, “Dame, speaks very highly of you and now I can see exactly why he’s so obsessed with the Magic School Bus.”

You weren’t sure if he had intended it to sound so nice, but that didn’t stop your blush. “Yeah. If it was his choice that’s all we’d watch during calm down time.”

“It drives Cara crazy,” he laughed.

“Damien is a good kid in class. Sometimes a bit rebellious.”

“Yeah, that’s my fault. I’m away so much I’m a bit of a pushover when it comes to things. Now, things are going to change a bit. Decided a desk job may be the way to go for a while. Raising the little one is top priority and two years hasn’t been enough to wrap my head around parenting.”

“Two years?” You asked curiously.

He nodded, “I adopted him. He was in a really bad spot, then I had to watch him for a week. Which went as good as you could have thought. I had never really interacted with kids beforehand and then this little guy with big brown eyes depended on me. It’s hard not to get attached.”

“Takes a big man to step up. If it’s anything to you, Damien is a pretty great kid. You’ve definitely got a knack for the parenting thing. And if you don’t tell, he’s my favorite.”

“Miss LN,” a student called out, “Come play with us!”

“Yeah!”

“Please!”

“I’m sorry Mr. Djarin, got to get going or they’ll start a riot.” Damien already ran in and started pulling you out of the house. You offered Din a small smile before leaning over to pick up Damien. “Having a nice time?”

He gave you a toothy smile before cuddling into your neck. “Yes, ma’am. Thank you.”

You pressed a kiss to the side of his head before placing the child back on to the ground. “So kids!” You clapped your hands, “What are we going to play.”

Din had watched the small scene unfold. It wouldn’t be a lie to say his heart stirred a bit at the sight of you and his son. Maybe he was just easy when it came to Damien. Honestly, he hasn’t seen many people interact with the child outside of himself and Cara, sometimes their old neighbor if he was really desperate for a baby sitter.

Maybe now that things would be calming down some, he’d see what he could find. It would be nice to try for something.

He eyed you up while you played with the kids. God you were his type, party city wig and all. Something about you just called out to him or maybe he had just seen enough of Ms. Frizzle to confuse the hell out of himself. Either way, he did find you interesting.

It didn’t take long for the last of the kids to start trickling home. Abby had already snuck up to her bedroom. That left you, Din, and Damien on the couch. Damien was eagerly eating his slice of pizza, looking between the two adults. “Papa needs a girlfriend.”

You choked on your drink, more amused than anything. “He does?”

“Mhm, tia Cara said so! She said that’s why he’s so...so...uptight?”

“That’s enough, mijo,” Din said, tugging softly on a strand of Damien’s hair.

Damien laughed, moving to sit on his dad’s lap. The child tried unsuccessfully to whisper, “Ask Ms. LN to be your girlfriend. She’s so so so nice.”

Suddenly Din was glad he had a mask hiding his blush from you. “That’s enough, Dame.”

You laughed at the interaction between the two. “You sure you don’t want anything to eat Boba?”

“What if Ms. LN asks you to be her boyfriend?”

“Damien.” Din shook his head, “I’m fine. Thank you.” Anything to get him and his matchmaker son out of the home quickly. “We have to get going soon. Cara said she wanted to give him a Halloween surprise.”

“Suit yourself, Boba. I’ll have you know this is the best pizza in the galaxy,” you said as a way to distract Damien from his current topic, “Isn’t that right?”

“Yeah!” He said over a mouthful.

Din grabbed a napkin and cleaned off the pizza sauce on the child’s mouth. “I think it’s time the two of us get going. It’s getting late and I don’t want to take up too much of your time.”

“It wasn’t any trouble. I’m glad I finally got to meet you Mr. Djarin.”

“It was a pleasure, Ms. Frizzle.” He stood, his little Yoda snuggled in his arms. “I can’t wait until we meet again. Say good bye Dame.”

The child waved at you sleepily, “Bye bye.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow okay? Don’t give your dad too much trouble,” you said, ruffling his hair softly.

“Promise.”

You lead the pair to the front door. Din walked down the path to his car as you shut the door. You took off the cheap wig, tossing it who knows where. A look at your purse made you notice Damien’s goodie bag at the top of it. Grabbing it, you rushed out the door.

Din was still putting Damien in his car seat. “There you go papas. You want your blanket?”

“Mr. Djarin,” you called out.

He startled, closing the car door quickly. “Sorry. Can I help you?” He asked, turning to look at you.

Your breath caught in your throat, finally catching a glimpse of the man in question. He had messy dark tufts of hair and a scruffy looking mustache. “I...um,” you blushed when he caught you staring, “I forgot to give Damien his candy.”

Din gave you a smile that you could’ve died for. “You’re very kind. He’s lucky to have you.”

“I try my best,” you responded, still a bit captivated by the man.

“I’ll see you soon. Oh and I’m sorry about Damien. Cara has been drilling me to get out there lately and I guess he’s been paying more attention than I gave him credit for.”

“Hey,” you raised your hands, “it’s fine. I’m used to it anyhow, my roommate, Abby, has been pushing me to date anyone she thinks is even remotely single.”

“Abby,” he pointed back to the house, “Wouldn’t happen to be the woman celebrating over there.”

You didn’t bother to look over before laughing, “Most likely yeah. Well, Mr. Djarin I-“

“Din is fine.”

“YN.”

“YN,” he tested the name out, “I like it. I mean not that my opinion mattered. It just sounds pretty...I’m going to shut up now if that’s alright with you.”

You smiled, catching the man’s blush. “I’ll see you around Din.”

Din watched you walk up the path and close the door. “I like it,” he mocked himself, “Get caught in one pretty girl’s eye and you turn into a fool.” He looked to the side, noticing the girl at the curtain still laughing at him, “Hi Abby.”

Abby waved back, turning when she heard her bedroom door open. “Are we fraternizing with the student’s parents?”

“What do you mean?”

“I saw those smiles. He even did that frustrated thing when you say something stupid.”

“Did he?” You asked, a small smile on your face.

She pointed at you, “You’re gonna fuck a student’s dad.”

“I’m not. I’m not. That’s...wrong. I’m his son’s teacher.”

“He’s hot, you’re the hot young teacher. Hell, there’s probably even that spice of an age gap. Give him a spin.”

“You just want me to jump on anyone that looks in my direction.”

“Well, most of the time yeah. But he’s actually worth it.”

You rolled your eyes and scoffed. “I’m taking a shower and going to bed.”

“That’s right, you go get ready to see that daddy,” she called out after you, “Let him know you’re the best piece he’ll see all day.”

“Goodnight, Ab.”

“Cara, I can’t get his teacher out of my head,” Din complained, sipping on his whiskey.

“Go for it, Mando,” she told her old partner, “You’re the worst at opening up to people. She seems to catch your eye for whatever reason. What’s the harm in it?”

“With our lives and everything... I don’t know if I could risk it. Then trying to figure out if I let her in that far. It’s hard enough juggling a kid with all this.”

Cara took a swig of her beer, “Well, you’re on call for the worst case scenario at the moment. Aren’t you? Just tell her you’re some pencil pusher.”

“She’s not even interested in me. All she is is Damien’s beautiful teacher who’s supposed to be nice. That’s all. I’ll get her out of my head soon enough.”

“If you need an edge, you could always pull out the Mando. A better personality than the current love struck puppy one you’re pulling right now.”

The pair heard the familiar shuffle of little feet roaming through the house. “Papi,” Damien said, rubbing his eyes, “can you read me a story?”

“I should get going anyway.” Cara patted his shoulder, “Tell me how it goes with the your beautiful teacher. Though it is tragic really.”

Din picked up Damien, giving her a confused look, “What is?”

“Doing what you do for a living and you can’t help but fumble when you get someone’s attention.”

You got dressed the next morning. Admittedly, maybe you had spruced it up a bit in hopes of seeing Din. You hoped the feeling would pass soon. Having crushes on students parents wasn’t ideal. Hell, you could lose your job over even the idea of it with how strict your boss was. Still you couldn’t help remembering his smile every so often. You knew that man longer as Boba Fett than you had as himself and he still made you feel like a hormonal teenager.

At school you got the kid’s breakfasts ready, already knowing them well enough to know who’d pick cold or hot.

“Papa, I’m hungry,” you heard Damien complain from the hall, “Look my tummy’s going grrr grrr.”

You smiled, amused as Damien rubbed his belly. “Morning,” you greeted the pair.

Damien rushed over to put his things away in his cubbyhole. “Morning Ms. LN!” He bounded over your give you a hug before dashing to his table.

“Always is an eager little guy for breakfast.”

“He really is, I honestly don’t get understand where he get it, but I’m pretty sure he’s going to run my pockets dry when he’s a teenager.” Din shook his head watching Damien open the school’s breakfast box. “Oh, here,” Din offered you the cup in his hand, “I didn’t know what you’d prefer so I took a chance with hot chocolate.”

You smiled, grabbing the cup. “That’s very kind of you, Din.” You took a sip, eyes wandering over him curiously as he looked around the room. He was wearing a nice button up and black jeans, his hair considerably neater than last night. That man hit exactly all the boxes of what you liked the more that you’d sneak glances at him.

“Okay you little gremlin,” Din said walking over to Damien, “It’s time for me to go. I really liked that pumpkin you drew.”

Damien hugged his father, pressing a syrupy kiss to his cheek. “Are you going to pick me up today?”

“We’ll see okay? I still have to straighten some things out at work.”

“Okay,” Damien responded, somewhat put out.

Din stood back up, turning to look at you. “Same time tomorrow?”

You grabbed a wet wipe and went over to clean off the syrup from his cheek. The small imperfection annoying you. You gave him a sheepish look, “I’m sorry, I’m used to the kids.”

Din put his hand over yours, eyes trained on you. “It’s okay,” that increasingly familiar blush tinted his cheeks as he took the wipe, “I should really go now.”

You nodded, “I look forward to seeing you around more often, Din.”

“I look forward to seeing you too.”

He made his exit as more of your students made it into the classroom. A strange look from Alexis’s mom didn’t seem so bad in the long run. That man was going to drive you absolutely crazy if he kept this up.

“My dad told my tia that Ms. LN was beautiful.”

You couldn’t help a small laugh when you heard his table mates let out little gasps.

#the mandalorian fanfiction #mando x you #din djarin x reader #reader insert

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baekberrie · 4 years

Text

☀️rooftop pt.4 ➣bbh☀️

☀️Genre: Romance, angst, fluff, bakery & island! au

☀️Pairing: Baekhyun x Reader/ oc

☀️Previous - Next

☀️Updates every: Wednesday night🌙

You only spread before me

I'm colored with you

You fill my heart

Baby, I will love you till kingdom come...

Not even a second into the kitchen and Mrs.Byun was already in front of the girl, throwing the apron around her neck and waist and tying it with a knot before hurriedly ushering her to her usual spot. On the counter was a recipe already prepared and ready to be followed. Sleep had until she entered the kitchen, still been in her senses, though, the frantic Mrs. Byun had been enough to shake her from the dazed state. She was, to say the least, a bit startled but rolled up her sleeves and started working nonetheless. Both Mrs. and Mr. Byun were speeding all over the bakery, serving and yelling out orders. The stress was visible not only in them but also in the other employees barely keeping up at the owners' tempo. The girl was only halfway into her dough when Baekhyun suddenly appeared next to her with a ready dough that he was about to shape into buns.

Shyly, the two of them stole a small glance at each other from beneath their lashes, having their eyes meet unexpectedly. That made a very soft smile form on Baekhyun's pink lips as he wished her a good morning, and really, just the mere whisper of his beautiful voice in the morning was enough to make her feel like this day was going to be the best one of her life.

The swelling of her heart was too strong for her to ignore, a beam painted itself on her face and she fully directed it to the black-haired boy by her side, her eyes reflected with his beautiful figure as she let them dance all over him. Taking in his fair and milky skin, his slender hands and pink fingertips, his sparkling blue orbs. Once more, her heart stuttered when Baekhyun allowed her to view the way that his smile widened. Baekhyun had recently started smiling more often- and although she loved that fact, she could really not seem to get used to it. The way it triggered her heart every time, she had no idea what to do about it. Deep down, she was aware of what it was about, but she wasn't going to let her heart acknowledge the truth just yet. Ever since that night at the beach, she had been at her happiest, she liked to say that Baekhyun had finally let her in, perhaps not completely, but just enough.

Nowadays he greeted her with a sweet smile every morning, sometimes he'd come to the rooftop with freshly baked buns for her to have at breakfast and they would eat it together in the most comfortable of silences. He would always come with her to do groceries, insisting that she would get lost although that had by now become an old story. She knew how to move around the island. Although the cold and reserved persona could still show up at times, he had warmed up and it was remarkable. It had really startled her when Baekhyun had once acted so cheerfully so, she had never expected him to be able to let out so much noise. They had simply been playing cards at the tables outside of the bakery when Jongdae had thrown a playful insult at his brother that had been answered with a sour expression, sending Baekhyun's beautiful laughter bubbling out of his throat, leaving her completely in awe as well as surprised. Had her heart just jump because she had absolutely loved that?

How could she ever explain herself? The more days passed, the more this urge within her to get closer to Baekhyun increased beyond her powers to stop it. Not only did she wish to know him better, but it was also a physical feeling that she had to fight against. She couldn't help it when they would be baking together and the little mole on the corner of his thumb would constantly catch her attention. It made her want to just grab his hand in hers and thread their fingers, to intertwine them. Baekhyun's hands that always looked so artistically beautiful, so soft and flawless. Or when the boy would occasionally meet her on the rooftop, showing up in his oversized clothes that made it barely impossible for her not to cuddle him on the spot.

Byun Baekhyun who had let her in his life. Byun Baekhyun who was slowly taking her heart without knowing it. And she hadn't admitted it yet, but she had never been more ready to give her heart away to someone if it meant Baekhyun.

She had just placed three trays of her usual buns into the oven when Mrs. Byun had come rushing to her once again, way too stressed to even explain a thing as she quickly pushed a piece of paper into her chest. She remained glued onto her spot, wondering if she had imagined Mrs. Byun flashing and disappearing in front of her in the span of three seconds. Eventually, she looked down onto the piece paper and saw an infinite list of groceries that made her frown, this wasn't the usual list of ingredients she'd buy once a week, moreover, they were so many that-

"That's a long list," Came Baekhyun's voice from behind her, making her jump slightly, though she regained her composure quickly, only to be betrayed by her heart that stuttered at the scent of fresh vanilla and flowers that emanated from the blue-eyed boy behind her. She raised her head to meet his gaze, only to regret it, because their faces had ended up being so extremely close. Baekhyun seemed very surprised himself as he barely kept his body from flinching, though just shortly after, a little smile displayed on his lips as he cocked his head to the side.

"Should I accompany you?" He suggested kindly and before she knew it, she had forgotten about the close proximity and beamed at him in pure joy.

"That would be very kind of you, Baekhyun." She smiled, imitating the formal tone that he used with her. Perhaps it was her imagination, but a soft touch of fingers on the curve of her waist lingered, a gentle touch as light as feathers. It quickly disappeared as Baekhyun made his way around her, murmuring a gentle; "Meet me outside", his lip brushed on the shell of her ear. Shortly after, he was gone again, leaving her burning to ashes with the fire spreading on the surface of her cheeks. Teeth drilled into her lip as she tried to regain her composure. Just why was this happening? Why was he having this damn effect on her? Suddenly making her jumpy and fidgety, self-conscious but at the same time physically attracted to him. On the other side was Jongdae staring at her with an infuriating smirk and wiggling eyebrows, he inhaled:

"Guess who just got herself a date-" The boy announced in the whole kitchen, making her want to disappear but not before strangling him. But since Mrs. Byun had been in such a hurry, she dismissed the idea, keeping it for later. She showed Jongdae her index finger and slid it across her throat in a threatening manner before leaving. In the distance could be heard Jongdae's laughter echoing in the kitchen.

Having taken off the apron and left the kitchen, she could see Baekhyun standing outside the bakery through the glass doors. His black hair was flowing gently with the soft summer breeze. His legs hugged by a pair of ripped jean trunks, the white and oversized tee shirt flickered with the wind, giving her a view of his slightly toned physique as it tightened and loosened up against his body.

As the two walked their way to the center of the island, they could see people rushing in every direction. The corner shops were overflowing with costumers and for a moment she wondered how the two of them were ever going to make it into one of these stores without getting lost in the crowds. People were building up stages and bringing out tents and various decorations, some were setting up new food stalls along the paths. Seeing the unusual view of preparation, she frowned her brows and confusedly asked Baekhyun;

"What is happening? Why is it so crowded today?"

"In a few days is the summer festival, it's a celebration for this Island, that's also why need that many ingredients," He explained while intently following with his eyes the people who were sweating under the island sun just to prepare for this special event.

"Of course, that makes sense, are you guys going?" She asked again, even more curious, Baekhyun let out something that sounded like a chortle.

"Of course, we'll have our own stall too, but closer to the beach where most of the festival's activities will be taking place." Excitedly, she turned to face him, glistening eyes and an expectant expression on her face.

"That sounds so fun-"

"Do you want to come with me?"

"Huh?" She stammered when Baekhyun's voice collided at the same time as hers. His cheeks were slightly pink as he cleared his throat, looking a bit embarrassed but still kept his beautiful orbs on hers as he repeated himself.

"Do you want to come with me to the festival?"

And there it went again, her heart fluttering, but in the happiest way possible.

She beamed so brightly.

☀️☀️☀️

The reflection met her gaze in the dusty mirror of her bathroom. Insecurity was written all over her features as she eyed herself hesitantly, inspecting how the see-through sleeves of her summer dress seemed to cover most of her scars. The way that she had left her home hadn't been an easy one, and in all honesty, she couldn't recall stuffing one of her prettiest clothing into her luggage. But there she was, wearing it, and for that, she gave herself a pat on the shoulder. On the sink rested various makeups products, they didn't belong to her though. Although Mrs. Byun never seemed to wear such things, the girl had tested her luck and asked nonetheless her expectations. She had indeed, been lucky when the lady had shown up with a whole bag of things that she didn't use anymore. That was how she found herself debating about what lipstick would suit the best with her mild yellow-flowy dress that hugged her features ever so beautifully.

To her surprise, she wasn't feeling too uncomfortable in the dress. Well, because it was pretty and because...She blushed at the thought that crossed her mind, but maybe, just maybe, Baekhyun wouldn't mind it if she made herself a little prettier for him. She shook her head.

What was she thinking? Suddenly she felt silly, Baekhyun didn't even seem like the kind of guy who would notice such things. Her eyes shut tightly to force the blush away from her cheeks, trying to regain common sense over her thoughts that had these few days been wandering a bit too far for her heart to handle. It made her feel funny in her chest.

When she was finally done, there was a sparkly and glazed lipgloss gracing her plump lips. The gloss had a soft orange shade to it and a delicious scent of cloudberries. Outside, the sun had already set, leaving the sky in its darker color. The stars sprinkled all over its immensity and the full moon was as bright as ever, just the sight was enough to make butterflies erupt in her belly, fluttering their wings inside of her with excitement. A giddy feeling made its way in her body. She could just sense it, that this night was going to be one that she'd remember her whole life.

As the girl reached the doors, she could already see Baekhyun's back facing her. His silhouette stood tall and the colorful enlightened decorations leading the path to the festival reflected wonderfully on his figure. Red, orange, yellow- pink! An explosion of colors, he was, and it looked as if he had jumped out of a painting. His legs were wrapped in a pair of jeans trunks while his lean torso was hugged by a rather tight tee. She couldn't wrap her mind around the fact that even in such simplicity, Baekhyun looked so unfairly pretty, and it was not fair how it was making her heart skip continuous beats. The girl made her way outside.

When their gazes met outside for the first time, it was the shyest glance they've ever shared, looking from underneath their lashes. A small, almost inaudible gasp left Baekhyun's lips as he unconsciously let his eyes slide from her head down low until up again. A bright red hue immediately spread onto his cheeks but he didn't really say anything. He sent a nod in the direction behind him and she understood right away, and so they moved on to the festival.

The two of them walked quietly next to each other, though the silence was filled with the faint sound of music playing in the distance, chatters of hundreds of people playing games resounded in the whole island. Food stalls were frying and cooking street food, emanating every kind of scents. It wasn't the biggest island, and yet when everyone gathered like this in a few areas only, it gave the impression of it being immense. Though, she loved the colors of summer and night melting together, the noise of people having fun, and the quiet footsteps of Baekhyun next to her.

Although their silence was not uncomfortable, she could still feel that a hint of tension had built up between them. As if they both knew that sooner or later, they'd have to speak with each other, but neither of them had enough courage to. Never had she felt like this before, never had she ever had problems with breaking the ice, and yet- next to him, outside the walls of the bakery or the supermarket, wearing a cute dress- it was definitely out of the ordinary. It was only natural that she felt like that, right? This was very close to a date, and she had never been on a date before. This was a date, right?

In an attempt to break the ice, despite her increasing heartbeat, she gently grabbed the sleeve of Baekhyun's shirt and pulled him towards a game section, one of those classical ones where'd you throw the hoop upon the desired prize. The boy let the girl pull him, though without getting involved as he had no will to play the game. She pulled out a few coins from her pocket and eyed Baekhyun from the corner of her eye, seeing him watching her intently from the side, she gulped.

Baekhyun's patience seemed to be infinite as the girl kept failing every try but was too stubborn to give up and move on to another game. She really wanted that huge teddy bear on the shelf, and she was going to get it. A line had started to form behind her, everyone waiting for her to realize that she was much probably not going to succeed. The owner of the stall kept her sweet smile upon her aging features, though it was obvious how it was starting to strain, she wanted the other costumers to participate as well. A group of guys that had been standing behind her in line suddenly walked up to her, interrupting her from her hundredth try. Only by looking at the young men, she could tell that they were in hers and Baekhyun's age. The tallest one had his hair styled into soft waves that were parted by a headband, his locks dyed into a cotton candy pink. She couldn't help the hint of a smile on her lips at his large yet cute ears. His constant smirk made him look handsome, she noted.

"Hey girlie, can I get you that teddy bear?" Cotton candy boy offered with an amused grin spreading on his lips, his large chocolate eyes that held her gaze were mischievous, knowing it was what she had been going for the past fifteen minutes. The girl sent him a bright smile.

"That would be a-"

"Absolutely not necessary, thank you and goodbye." Baekhyun suddenly interrupted as he took the hoops from her hands and flashed a fake smile to the group of boys and shooed them away before they could even protest. The girl was, to say the least, completely flabbergasted as she could barely keep in the chortle from bubbling in her throat. Baekhyun kept a sour expression on his face as he directed the hoops towards the teddy bear, muttering angry words underneath his breath, and she wished she could know what was going through his mind at that moment.

To their dismay, Baekhyun turned out to be just as bad of a player as she herself. He stubbornly gave many tries but didn't succeed even one of them. As the two eventually moved on to try various other games, Baekhyun's competitive side had completely unraveled before her, showing a passion for games that she would have never expected to exist. Although the boy was so bad at it, he couldn't stop challenging himself. Though, the challenge didn't go far as they ended up finishing all of their pocket money without a single prize in their hands. Their shoulders dropped in utter defeat, though, the lady at the stall seemed to have grown fond of them as she had watched them play.

"Aigoo don't look so sad my dears!" She cooed sweetly, waving at them to come closer, to which they complied curiously. "You were very sweet trying to win something for each other," A laugh followed the end of her sentence as she eyed the two with twinkling eyes, taking out two pairs of what seemed to be couple bracelets and tied them to their wrists before they could explain that they were not together.

"Now, now, take good care of each other, love birds!" She cheered them goodbye. Baekhyun's face was unnaturally red and the was heat spreading all the way from his neck to his ears as he avoided her eyes for a moment. The girl could feel the blush pulsing on her cheeks as she looked down at her wrist, watching the bracelet spark under the festival lights. She was embarrassed but happy, for some strange reason. Baekhyun seemed shy, but he hadn't denied a thing to the lady, like most people would have done. Why was it making her so ecstatic?

In the midst of her thoughts, the girl hadn't noticed how much more flooded the place had suddenly gotten. She looked to her right to find Baekhyun, only to see that he was completely gone and a cold shiver ran down her spine. They had been standing next to each other just a moment ago, how was it possible to get separated so quickly? Panicked, the girl moved through the crowd, squeezing in between people, though she had really no idea where she was going. She found herself standing in front of a concert stage once free from the sea of people and decided that it would be better for her to stay in one spot in case Baekhyun was looking for her. So she did. On the stage was a lady in her thirties singing a traditional song ever so beautifully, waving her hands and curling her fingers gracefully as she danced. For a moment, she was so taken by the view that she forgot why she was standing there alone in the first place. Her eyes danced all over the lady's features while she performed until her breath suddenly hitched at the sudden touch of two arms sneaking around her shoulders. A defined yet soft chest pressed against her back. The familiar scent of berries and musk reached her senses as a head came snuggling into her shoulder, black hair tickling her neck and the heavy pants landing hotly onto her skin were incredibly familiar.

Her eyes were frantic as she tried to catch a glimpse of the Baekhyun's appearance, though, completely froze when her gaze met with two very familiar doe-like eyes in the distant crowd. She narrowed her gaze, trying to figure out what she had just felt when looking at those eyes, but quickly forgot about it all when Baekhyun pressed her further against his chest, leaning his lips dangerously close to her ear.

"Why is it that you're always making me look for you?" He breathily whispered directly into her ear and his candy scented breath sent goosebumps all over her body. She inhaled and was about to answer when a voice from the speakers of the festival interrupted everyone's actions, leaving her to gasp.

"The firework display will start in ten minutes," The speakers echoed the words and Baekhyun was by then already in front of her, his eyes glinting with something that looked like excitement and mischief, the little grin that played at the corner of his lips sent her heart swelling as if it was about to explode. Seeing him smile felt so indescribably special, something not to take for granted and something to treasure dearly. So she could only let her eyes form into the most bright crescents as she smiled back at him, only to be surprised when he suddenly wrapped his hand around her wrist.

"We got to hurry!" He exclaimed, going in for a run and dragging her along, she was slightly shocked and her heart was beating so loudly in her chest out of nervosity and emotion that she could barely hear her ragged breathing. Even in the midst of a run with the wind pushing against her face could she feel the heat seeping from Baekhyun's touch and into her skin, the sensation sent a bolt of energy buzzing through her veins while her hand acted on its own. She had no idea what was going on in her mind or body when she unhooked her wrist from Baekhyun's touch, only to grab his hand in hers. At the action, Baekhyun visibly flinched as he cast a quick, shocked glance behind his shoulder, giving her a glimpse of his wide eyes before he directed them back on where he was running. From her angle, she could see his cheeks and ears turning into all shades of pink.

Gosh, what was that blooming feeling in her chest? So ticklish and playful, as if there were flowers blooming in her belly, butterflies fluttering their wings in every part of her body. She loved the view of him before her, their touches melting together, she almost laughed out loud in pure bliss and happiness.

She really treasured this boy, didn't she?

"Why are we going away from the festival?" She asked breathlessly as she recognized the path that they were taking as the way back home. Baekhyun only answered with a stressed "You'll see." And she let him lead her.

The closer to the bakery they got, the more she was weirded out, what about the firework display?

They entered the building of the bakery and ran up the stairs, passing by her own apartment, going straight to the rooftop. Baekhyun's hold was still tight on hers as he eagerly led her to the familiar place. His grip left her only when they were by the railing that he leaned over as if he would get a better view of the already immense sky. It was like a dark blue sheet draped all over the world with glistening diamonds sprinkled upon it. Just a few moments after their arrival, the first firework erupted in a million colors in the very center of the sky, bursting a special and eager feeling in the chests of both. Taking a quick glance at the boy, she could see the awe and amazement emanate from every inch of his body, the colorful explosions reflected in his shining orbs, taking her breath away, not being able to detach her eyes from him.

"You know," He breathed out before allowing himself to return her gaze for a brief moment, though directed it to the sky almost right away as a loud boom resounded, taking in the next set of beautiful glistens. "I used to come here every year, after the summer festival, with my mother and father, and we'd watch the fireworks together, like this." The more he spoke, the softer his voice got, flowing into a solemn tone as he looked above with melancholy. An extremely strong pull burst inside her chest, an urge that overwhelmed her, something that she didn't know how to tame as she stared at the broken beauty in front of her, her chest heaving heavily. "We're here together but..." He let out a sad chuckle, "I can't help but miss them, you know?" He almost choked upon his words as he spoke, eyes starting to glass with water. Upon seeing that, her own heart broke, no, she hated to see him like that, she wanted to make him happy. She, solely.

The girl shocked him when she suddenly, rather harshly by the unusual flow of strength within her, grabbed his collar and dragged him down to her level, pressing her soft lips against his for a short yet lingering kiss. Baekhyun remained unresponsive and overwhelmed with eyes wide and confusion pooling within them.

"I will be your family, Baekhyun," she breathed out, her heartbeat erratic and echoing in her ears. "If you'll let me, I'll be, and we'll watch these fireworks every year, together- just know that I'm here now and that you don't have to consider yourself alone anymore and- oh my gosh I am so sorry I shouldn't have kissed you without your permission, and what the hell is wrong with me? I haven't even admitted that I like you yet- wait did I just? Oh my gosh-" Before she knew it, Baekhyun had grabbed her cheeks, surprising her with her same acts. His tightly shut eyes came into her view as he clumsily pressed his lips to hers, the warmth on his cheeks hit her own skin.

"Don't make promises that you can't keep... please." He susurrated brokenly, eyes dancing over her features.

"I swear, Baekhyun, I'll stand by you," she murmured meaningfully back. Baekhyun couldn't help himself when he leaned dangerously close again, his eyes still on hers although sleepy and hoody, the curiosity of feeling her lips again surged within him.

"I have such strong feelings for you...You can't back away" He said before connecting their mouths, molding them perfectly as he nibbled sweetly on her lips, his thumbs automatically drawing lazy circles on the apples of her cheeks. Shivers traveled down his body when she fisted his shirt and kissed him back, tilting her head and capturing his lips way more skillfully than he could ever have managed. He found himself loving the soft texture of her lips, how they'd stick to his own as if they were brushed with a layer of sugarcoated glue. They parted for a breath of air, but he felt way too disappointed about it to even explain it to himself, it had been such a special thing- a kiss- he hadn't expected it to make him feel so many things at once. His mind was clouded, but he wanted to know more about this feeling.

"More," He murmured before crashing his lips on hers all over again, surprising himself by how widely he had parted her lips with his, brushing his careful tongue over the surface of her cushions before gently sucking on her sweet lips. Their lips parted with a moist noise, his hands were still on her cheeks, their foreheads pressed together as they panted. His eyes were closed, eyelashes tickling each other's cheekbones, this urging feeling never leaving his body. He tilted his head and murmured;

"Again, please,"

☀️☀️☀️

As the light of the morning made its way inside of her room she laid still in her bed, gaze attached to the ceiling. Ever since she had gotten back yesterday night, her heart hadn't stopped fluttering, not even for a second, while the feeling of Baekhyun's lips on hers- the feeling of his hands in hers, they were still fresh and pulsating on her skin. Her chest expanded with such strong emotions- it wasn't mere affection and happiness, truly, it felt as if there were two hearts swelling behind her ribcage. She hadn't gotten a single wink of sleep and yet she felt as wide awake as she could ever be. Curling up into a ball, she fisted her shirt right on the spot above her chest, whining a bit to herself.

"Aren't you tired yet? Stop fluttering already-" Her little conversation with herself had ended right away when she had gotten a glimpse of the time on the alarm clock on her nightstand and she bolted up from her bed. Mrs. Byun had said that it was okay to sleep in a bit but she had definitely crossed the line by being two hours late. Quickly, she threw on one of the old dresses that Mrs. Byun had given her, tied her hair up and freshened up before sprinting down the stairs in the span of five minutes.

The bakery was empty but nonetheless, everyone was busy doing something. Junmyeon was cleaning the tables while Jongdae polished the windows, Mr. Byun was nowhere to be seen but the girl guessed he was taking care of the kitchen with Mrs. Byun.

"So you finally graced us with your presence," Jongdae teasingly called after her when he noticed her standing still and lost in her thoughts, the action had snapped her immediately out of her trance. It was only when the boy handed her a broom that she noticed how a certain someone was missing and without hesitating, she stopped Jongdae from going back to his work.

"Where is Baekhyun?" She questioned and the brows furrowed on Jongdae's forehead in deep thought, he then wiggled them suggestively with the infamous smirk of his sneaking upon his lips. "Why?" He sang cockily, "You had him the whole night yesterday, miss him already?" At that, she couldn't do anything to stop the heat from spreading on her cheeks. Not much at what he had said - but rather because of the images of last night replaying in her head as if frames of a film, perhaps the most beautiful one she had ever seen- lived- but that endless tease of a Jongdae didn't have to know that. Puffing her cheeks, she gave him a light punch on the arm and the boy played along, faking hurt as he dramatically grabbed his arms and whining out loudly, a noise by now familiar to every employee.

"Oh stop it!" She groaned, "I am serious Jongdae, do you know where he is?" It was visible in the mischievous glint in his eyes that he had no intention to answer her question seriously, her urge was amusing him and the long cleaning session had bored him to no end. The plan to have some fun was though backfired when his older brother, Junmyeon, hit him unexpectedly on the head from behind, earning a painful hiss from Jongdae.

"What was that for-"

"Cut it, Dae," The few words were enough to shut the younger male up and the girl watched Junmeyon as if he had just performed the world's most outstanding magic trick. When Jongdae was in the mood, he would never stop teasing.

"Geez, fine! None of you people are fun to be with," He complained, scratching his neck rather embarrassed from the scolding he had just received from his brother. "I don't know where he is by the way." Jongdae eventually revealed, not masking the slight hint of concern glistening in his eyes.

During her whole working shift, there was no sight of Baekhyun anywhere and the fact was making her heart expand with anxiety, but she was not the only one. The girl had approached Mrs. Byun for further explanations but it had turned out that she was just as clueless and worried as her, clutching onto the little vague note that the boy had left on the fridge that morning.

As the sun was lowering behind the horizon, she headed to the rooftop, by now completely hopeless. There was this habit that they had grown, where they would meet every evening at the rooftop just to watch the sunset along with a lighthearted conversation that would lull them into sleepiness. It was something that belonged only to the two of them, and at the moment her last hint to possibly find Baekhyun. But her heart only fell into the deepest pit of her stomach when his usual spot at the railing was empty.

Defeated was not enough to describe the fear and disbelief that took over her body as she leaned over the railing and took in the orange and lilac sky reflecting limpidly onto the sea, her eyes rimmed red with small tears filled with worry. A small distant walking silhouette crossed her view, making her squint her eyes furiously- trying to get a proper look at the person crossing the beach- her heartbeat suddenly echoing like powerful drums in her ears. She knew it could have been whoever taking a stroll on the beach, but the squeeze in her heart pulled her to detach from the railing and sprint down the stairs and out of the bakery, confusing the Byuns and Kims that had also been searching. She didn't stop for a single second as she ran as if for her life, past the shops, the bazaar until the sand overflowed her sneakers. Her lungs were burning in flames, screaming for air as her heart struggled to keep up with the fast tempo of her legs.

Lips were dry and gasping for oxygen, she had to find Baekhyun.

The exhaustion in her body was at the speed of light pushed to the back of her head and replaced with a pump of adrenaline upon seeing a very familiar male figure entering the waters with furious manners. Million of questions were erupting in her brain as she had no idea what was going on, why Baekhyun was sobbing loudly into the night as he pushed past the hasty ocean waves, but no explanation mattered more than the safety of the one she held so dearly. With no hesitation, without even removing her shoes, the girl ran into the shivering cold water, struggling against the weight of her drenched dress but nonetheless reached him faster than she had expected. With all her might she screamed his name but all she could hear after the echo of her voice was Baekhyun's loud, heartbreaking cries. The boy ignored her and kept pushing past the waves.

After what seemed an eternity she finally was close enough to wrap her cold and wet fingers around his arm and stopped him from moving further. His head snapped in her direction and the girl flinched at the view of his swollen, bloodshot eyes and red cheeks drenched in salty tears,

"Let me go!" He opposed, trying to yank his arms out of her grasp.

"What are you doing?!" She screamed back as she caught both of his arms, eyes crazed as she took in his figure, noticing how pale, how frail, but most of all how heartbroken he looked. Baekhyun's broken heart reflected in the glassy orbs of his. Lips red and swollen just like his eyes. Baekhyun was still frantic as he tried to break free from her grip.

"I have to go-" He cried, "I have to go to them, don't you understand?! Leave me be!" His broken and rough voice resounded all over the sea as he pleaded her to let go, but for no reason in this world was she going to let him go.

"Baekhyun!" She yelled angrily, the loudness of her screams scratched the inside of her throat. "What are you talking about? Get yourself back together!" The boy seemed to have snapped out of his delirious state as her screams made him flinch back to reality, the shock was permanent on his features as he dried his wet face with his palm, brushing the black bangs to the back his head.

"I-" Baekhyun's lips were violently quivering as he tried to form a proper sentence, but it was as if every word he'd speak would break his heart further.

"I have no idea how it was possible but-" He started, nonetheless the dry lump cutting the insides of his throat. "I found a bottled letter at the shore today, and-" All over again, the tears had made their way to blur his view, crystallizing into his long and delicate lashes. "It was for me- from my parents, they wrote it knowing that he had no way to come back alive." His words were defeated murmurs underneath his breath, until he suddenly snapped his head up and found her gaze, his eyes searching for any kind of comfort but could only get lost in his own emotions.

"They said to be happy- that they will always love me even if they're not physically here- that they will look after me," He cried out loudly with tears streaming down his pale cheeks, his hands clutching painfully at his chest. "But I don't want to be without them anymore- I just can't, I want to go to them, I just want to be with them, don't you understand?! I want to reach them, I need to go-" Baekhyun was about to break free out of her grasp again but before he could push her away, she had already circled her arms around his shoulders and guided him to her soft chest. The girl shook her head in disagreement.

"No, Baekhyun." She said softly, letting her hand travel to the back of his head, brushing through his wet locks soothingly. "You are here for a reason. This place is where you belong. With us...With me, on this island." It was a lie if she said she wasn't the slightest affected, in fact, her eyes were glossy with tears and the sigh that tumbled out of her lips trembled. But she had to be strong, for Baekhyun. She had to be his rock.

"Your parents might not be here anymore but they aren't gone either, they're still watching over you and I can bet you my whole life that they wouldn't want you to do this. They want you to be happy," Gently, she detached ever so slightly from the boy so that she could face him again. "But if you do it like this," She soothed while placing a hand on his cheek, letting the pad of her thumb catch the trail of tears on his skin. "If you reach them like this, with those tears, it would break their heart, Baekhyun. This is not the right way to reach them. They might not physically be here anymore, but," She placed a hand on his chest where his heart was beating, spreading an incredible warmth in his insides that could've melted him on the spot if it wasn't for the cold water they were standing in.

"They're still here," The girl sent him a soft, sincere smile, "Reach them by keeping them close in your heart, reach them through happiness, never anything else."

Baekhyun stared back at her, completely defeated and empty as his eyes filled up with more tears that he did not hesitate to let fall. Loud sobs were tumbling out of his lips as he crushed himself against the girl's chest, hiding in her embrace as if she would be an escape from reality.

And the comfort of her chest was the warmest, even in the icy night sea.

☀️☀️☀️

Baekhyun had looked so upset on their back that she could only imagine how painful it would be for him to go through thousands of questions from his worried aunt and uncle, so she had made a quick call on the payphone, telling Mrs. Byun that Baekhyun didn't want to speak with anyone and that they could go to sleep. The lady had, of course, disagreed, wanting to see a safe Baekhyun with her own eyes. Somehow though, she had managed to convince her to wait until tomorrow.

The boy and the girl had been looking at each other by the stairs that separated the ways to their rooms. She had been on her way to go before Baekhyun had suddenly grabbed hold of her sleeve, pulling her back to him as he pleadingly searched for her eyes.

"Can I please stay with you?" His gentle voice a mere murmur, but enough to set her whole heart on fire, and without hesitation had she let him into her room. And that was how she found herself with Baekhyun sitting on a chair with its back facing her as she dried his damp hair with a towel. In her room took place an eternal silence, decorated by the soft murmurs of their breaths.

"Done," She said contentedly, smiling a little to herself as she put the towel away. Baekhyun abruptly stood up, his pretty fingers fidgeting nervously underneath the oversized sleeves of his hoodie. By the look on his face, she could tell that he was still upset, that his heart was still aching. To be frank, she knew that the next part would be her sending him back to his room with a good night, but there wasn't a single nerve in her body that wanted him out of her room, that wanted him to be alone.

"Do you want to stay here tonight?"

☀️☀️☀️

my oh my i feel like this is the worst chapter of this story, forgive me.

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mattzerella-sticks · 4 years

Text

#LikeYouBatWay, Day 4 of Batflash Week - Secret Relationship & High School/College

Barbara Gordon is a detective. She never lets herself get distracted from the clues. There's nothing more important than solving a mystery. Except every PI has their girl Friday, and in this case Barry fits the description.

After realizing her feelings for her friend are more than platonic, what will she do? Is there a chance that Barry might return her affections? Or does he not like her that way?

She'll just have to take the risk... but she won't be doing it alone.

During lunch the girls don’t always sit together, busy either with school clubs or other friends. But they set aside every Wednesday in their schedules to eat at the same table. All six of them would gather in their designated spot and catch up on what they missed. Diana introduced the idea after a whole week passed when the max occupancy of their group never went over three. They agreed that they needed one lunch where all that mattered were each other. And nothing save an emergency would distract any of them from enjoying it.

Barbara wouldn’t call her feelings an emergency, but she could barely focus on Kara complaining about their chemistry teacher as she pushed her food around. Especially when the mush took the shape of a lightning bolt. She rested her chin on her elbow and sighed dreamily, a sappy grin blossoming on her face.

“Babs!”

She startled, arms flapping dramatically as she fell back with a yelp. When Barbara recovered it was to five curious stares bearing down on her. “Yes?” she asked, as if she wasn’t sprawled on the floor.

“Are you okay?”

Barbara shot up, cheeks burning. “Am I okay? Who asks that kind of question - of course I’m okay do I look not okay? Because I’m not. I mean, I am - I’m okay…” Strangling her bat ears on her hoodie, Barbara nearly tore them off.

Zatanna laid a hand on her shoulder, smiling. “We were calling your name for a full minute but your mind was a million miles away.”

“Oh, yeah,” she tried playing it off, scoffing, “I was thinking about a project that I have due tomorrow, obviously. It’s… yeah…”

“Really?” Kara smirked, poking at Barbara’s plate, “does it have to do with electricity ?”

Barbara glared, smearing the lightning bolt. “No!”

“Because it’d make sense,” she continued, “why you were doodling lightning all throughout History - although the hearts? And inside them… Barbara Gordon plus Barry Allen -”

“Kara!” Barbara hissed, “Why were you looking at my notes?”

“You know I don’t pay attention in that class. When she mentioned we had a test coming up I’d hoped you’d written it down or something.”

About to launch into a lecture on vigilance, Barbara gets sidetracked by Zatanna squealing at her other side. “Barry Allen? You have a crush on Barry Allen?”

“Not so loud, Zee!” she whispered, glancing around to see if anyone noticed. Thankfully Barry didn’t, the senior joking around with Hal and Oliver a few tables away. He glanced over, though, and caught her staring. Barry smiled and waved, Barbara returning it albeit weaker. The crooked smile fell among the chorused cooing from her table.

“Barry’s one of the nicest guys in school,” Jessica said, “You’d be so cute together!”

“How did this happen?” Karen asked, “You weren’t acting like this the other day?”

Barbara bit her lip, cutting off her own excited squeals. “Okay,” she started, “well I was staying late at Sweet Justice, working on that stolen chemicals case remember?”

The others left, each having their own plans to attend to. Barbara didn’t mind, content to figure out the mystery. Especially since none of the others shared her passion for them. She noticed how their eyes glazed over at times, Kara almost always snapping and telling her to get to the point. Being alone meant she could piece the clues at her own pace.

However an hour in she needed a change in scenery and took her research from their base and up to the public space of Sweet Justice. Commandeering a table she told Barry to keep her floating in milkshakes until she was done. While Barbara pieced together more of the scene, the lynchpin tying the case together was lost to her. “What am I missing… What am I missing? ” she groaned, slumping onto the table.

That’s when Barry stopped by with her fifth milkshake. He leaned over Barbara and studied her notes. “This looks like too much work for extra credit,” he chuckled, “What seems to be the problem?”

Barbara sighed and sat up. “No it’s not extra credit I’m… trying to guess where this thief is going to strike next! I’m stressed and not even milkshakes are helping.” She still snatched it from his hand, because they aided in other ways besides mystery solving.

Barry smiled. “You want to maybe talk about it?”

“No, no,” she waved him off, “I wouldn’t want to bore you.”

“You kidding? I love mysteries!”

Barbara stopped slurping her drink. “You do?”

“Of course,” he nodded, sitting across from her, “To me, mysteries are like a kind of science. There’s testing theories, sifting through data, comparing samples…” Barry launched into a passionate explanation of forensics that Barbara tuned out. Instead she focused on the lightning crackling in Barry’s eyes, his beaming smile, and how he practically vibrated from excitement. These thoughts led her onto a path with one obvious conclusion.

Barry Allen was cute. From there she was doomed.

“We spent the entire night talking over the case,” she gushed, remembering it, “And because I had someone to talk with it helped me see a clue I glossed over by accident! It was one of the best nights I’ve had in a long time.”

Kara rolled her eyes. “Of course you’d fall for a nerd .”

Barbara pouted at her friend, ready to launch into another lecture when she noticed the troubled expression marring Diana’s face. “Diana,” she said, “is something wrong?”

“Are you sure this is wise, Barbara?” she asked, “It’s a wondrous thing, these feelings of ‘the crush’. But you remember how I acted when… Steve … was around. Do you think this could interfere with our mission?”

“It won’t!” she promised, grinning, “because this won’t be a crush for long!”

Zatanna gasped, squeezing her arm. “You’re gonna ask him out?”

“In a way...”

Kara rolled her eyes. “It’s a yes or no question, Babs. Simple. Don’t try and complicate it any further.”

Barbara slammed her fork onto the table, fire burning behind her determined gaze. “I can’t ask him out! That’s too risky! But don’t worry, I have a plan. And it’s going to work.”

----------------------------------------------------

The next day Barbara shuffled into school defeated, dragging her backpack behind her. All the usual pep was replaced with a crushing, frustrated disappointment. She could only focus on the storm clouds hanging overhead, so she didn’t see the hand that shot out and dragged her backwards.

“You don’t know who you’re messing with -”

“Barbara, calm down,” Diana said, squeezing her arms, “it’s only us.”

Her friends gathered around her, each wearing their own best worried features. Zatanna’s pouty lips and Karen’s shining eyes were in fine company alongside Diana’s set jaw, Jessica’s drawn brows and Kara’s clenched fist.

Barbara preempts them all. “I’m fine.”

“That’s a lie if I ever saw one,” Jessica sighed, laying her hand over Diana’s on Barabara’s shoulder. “You can tell us Babs.”

“Or,” Kara said, “we can use Diana’s lasso on you.”

Diana rejected the idea immediately. “I don’t use my lasso on my allies… if I don’t have to.” She glanced at Barbara, “I don’t have to, do I?”

Unable to find a weak link their fencing, Barbara accepted her fate. “You don’t,” she said, slumping into a nearby desk, “I’m… I’m a little upset.”

“A little?” Karen said, “Barbara, we’ve never seen you frown for this long! What happened?”

She wrung her hands. “Remember how I told you all that I had this plan to deal with Barry and my feelings… well… it kinda, completely... fell apart on me.” Barbara squeaked the last part in a rush, hiding behind her fingers when done. After a beat of silence she looked between her fingers at her friends.

No one seemed too shocked.

“Really?”

“Well,” Diana rubbed her neck guiltily, “when you told us what it was we… didn’t think it would work.”

“And you didn’t think to tell me!”

“We didn’t want to burst your good mood,” Zatanna said, “and there was a chance it could have worked… a teeny-tiny, little chance .”

“It would have worked!” Barbara shouted, “If the world would’ve stopped butting in at every possible moment !”

Diana guided her into her seat again. “Why don’t you tell us what happened. From the beginning?”

Steeling her nerves and gathering her courage, Barbara thought back to yesterday and began.

After school Barbara ran home to gather supplies for her plan. Knowing Barry liked mysteries, she decided to create one of her own. Leaving a clue for Barry to find, he would hurry over to the perfect location finding Barbara waiting for him in a surprise date. “It was so totally perfect,” Barbara sighed, “until…”

She set up the small picnic first, knowing there’d be no time after dropping off the note at Sweet Justice. However racing over on her scooter in high spirits, Barbara didn’t count on her location being the scene of some drama.

“I mean a park is Ivy’s stomping ground,” Kara said, “Should’ve thought of that when picking a place.”

“You beat her though, right?” Karen asked.

Barbara nodded. “With help from Barry.” He zipped in, already in costume, surprised to see Ivy there. “I tried to salvage it,” she continued, “while he was dealing with her I scrawled another note and dropped it where he could find it.”

And when he read it Barbara zipped away, picnic basket tucked under her arm.

Arriving at the new location she caught Barry in the middle of a heated battle with Giganta. “Go to the docks, there was a villain. Go to the zoo, another villain! Until finally I thought the park would work with Ivy gone. But then…”

The darkness made it difficult to see; Barbara wouldn’t let that stop her. She lit flashlights and shoved them into the ground around the blanket. Barry wouldn’t miss her. Panting, still in costume, Barbara didn’t realize anyone else could see her, too.

“My, my, my! Who has bright red hair, a face so fair, and a wit unmatched and rare?”

Her friends groaned. “The Riddler?” Zatanna scoffed, “I thought we sent that creep packing last month?”

“He must’ve escaped,” Barbara shrugged, “And given his M.O., when Barry showed up…”

“The true mastermind behind today’s villainy!” Barry cried, holding The Riddler up by his collar, “Of course it had to be you! No one else would have left those riddles just lying around!”

“What?” he asked, “I don’t - I don’t know what you’re talking about -”

“You’re going back to Gotham where you belong !” Barry said, punching once more and knocking him out. Shouldering the unconscious villain, he turned to a gaping Batgirl. “Thanks for the assist all day, Babs - I mean… Batgirl . We make a pretty good team!” She couldn’t answer him, too shocked to speak. “I’ve got this no problem, and you can get return to your… night picnic .”

Stepping over a stray flashlight, he caught sight of a sandwich she laid out in preparation. “Oh! Turkey pesto! I love those - you don’t mind…?” To him, her silence was answer enough. With his other hand he snatched the sandwich, thanked her, and ran off.

“And that’s what happened,” Barbara sighed, “My whole plan… ruined .”

She expected sympathy from her friends. Kara’s obnoxious laughter was anything but understanding. Barbara glared at her friend while she bent over.

“Oh, man,” she breathed, “how can the fastest man alive be so slow on the uptake . Ha!” Humor infectious, the others began giggling as well.

“Not you, too!”

“Sorry Babs,” Zatanna giggled, “it’s so… horrible .”

“Then why are you laughing?”

“That’s why we’re laughing!” Kara snorted, wiping a tear from her eye. Regaining composure, she returned to full height. “Okay, seriously though, what happened was a whole mess of bad luck.”

“That’s putting it lightly,” she said, crossing her arms.

“Oh Babs,” Jessica reached out to her again, “it was only a minor setback. Not a total failure -”

“It was though!” Barbara jumped up, “If it happened maybe once or twice it would have been a setback! Everything that went on yesterday was fate telling me it’s not supposed to be.”

“Don’t be silly, Barbara,” Diana said, “the Fates do not concern themselves too heavily with matters like this. I’m sure it was all really bad luck.”

She hid behind her hands once more, screaming into them. Barbara heard Karen whisper to Diana, “I don’t think she meant the actual Fates…”

Jessica dragged her into the light, squeezing her hands. “Look, you shouldn’t give up hope yet.”

“Hope?” Kara scoffed, “I thought you were the lantern of willpower?”

“Which is why,” she continued, “Babs shouldn’t give up. It was only one night. Maybe the next one won’t be so bad.”

“How can you be so sure?” Barbara asked her, “Who’s to say the same thing won’t happen again?”

“Because someone else will be fighting crime that night…”

----------------------------------------------------

Barbara pulled at her hoodie strings while walking side by side with Barry, tamping down the blush rising to her cheeks. Every so often they bumped into each other and she had to cut off the squeals rising in her throat.

“Y’know,” Barry started, “it was pretty empty in the museum tonight, not that I didn’t mind. Meant we didn’t have to wait to see the new exhibit. Usually, though, there are all sorts of crowds the first few days. Weird, right?”

She chuckled, swallowing around the clump of nerves in her throat. “Well we did go an hour before closing, so it’s not that weird...” He shrugged, agreeing with her cover.

When they entered the museum there were a lot of people still hanging around. An exhibit on a recently discovered pharaoh’s tomb from Egypt always drew interest. Especially since inside they discovered artifacts that looked alien in origin. Parts of a spaceship alongside strange cloaks adorned with metallic feathers meant that there was more about Prince Khufu and his wife Chayara researchers hadn’t realized.

It wasn’t only everyday civilians who were interested, either. As they made their way through the hall of magnets Barbara noticed a shadowy figure creep around a corner. Her heart fell into her stomach.

Luckily Barbara was prepared that time. “I have to go to the bathroom,” she stopped Barry, “wait for me?” He nodded, and Barbara snuck behind a plant to radio for her friends. While Karen slipped by without notice, Kara zipped through like a hurricane. Barry hadn’t seen, though, too preoccupied playing with some of the magnets on display. Everyone else did and quickly cleared the room.

It took careful coordinating and precision to ensure Barry remained unaware of the activity happening in the museum, but they managed to see the exhibit and avoid the villain. There were close calls, especially when examining a few of the hieroglyphics. The shadowy thief was right behind them, claws sharp and ready. Barbara snuck out a bat-a-rang only for Jessica to lock it in an emerald bird cage.

Now, far away from the museum, she hoped that was the end of any villainy for the day.

“Thanks again for inviting me,” Barry said, smiling at her, “it was a lot of fun.”

“Totally! I had fun, too! I mean, of course I’d have fun because you’re a pretty fun guy to hang around… not that I only think you’re that I mean - I mean you’re more than that! You’re…” she squeaked to an end, tugging the strings on her hood too far and causing her hood to pucker over her face. Quickly she tears it off, completely embarrassed.

Barry had moved on, obvious to her faux pas. He stood by a hot dog vendor staring at the contents. “You want a hot dog? My treat.”

“Sure!” Barbara stepped over, bouncing while the vendor made their hot dogs.

From out of the corner of her eye, however, she spotted a familiar silhouette charging towards them. Two lamp posts burst, glass shattering from uncontrolled lightning blasts. She glared, growling. “Livewire.”

“What was that?”

“Nothing,” she shoved him towards the cart, “I need to tie my shoe.” Kneeling she lit up her communicator again. “Anyone free to deal with Leslie? She’s inbound!”

No one answered her, but Barbara heard bushes rustle nearby. Diana jumped out and tackled Leslie out of the street and away from them. Zatanna whooshed after her, purple glitter trailing behind.

“I swear,” Barry huffed, hot dogs in hand, “I thought I heard -”

“Nothing! You heard nothing!” Barbara took her snack from him and dragged Barry away, arms looped together, “It’s so beautiful tonight, not a care in the world. No crime or anything, really! So there’s no reason to think of the quiet as anything suspicious, okay !”

“Okay?” Barry dug his heels in, stopping them, “Any reason we’re zipping by it?”

Barbara snorted, “Didn’t think you had any problem with going fast?”

“No, but usually I’m the one caught speeding,” he chuckled, “what’s got your engine revved?”

She ducked her gaze, shuddering a nervous breath. Barry watched her with an easy grin, not pressuring her any further than his simple question. Barbara drew upon the strength and courage she reserved for fighting crime into this moment, knowing that it’s perfect for revealing her feelings. Ignoring her nerves, Barbara turned to face him again. “Barry, I -”

“Oh, hold that thought.”

He shoved his hot dog into his mouth and pulled his phone out. Checking it over, Barry sighed and his smile melted into something softer. He sent a quick text and pocketed it again.

“So?” Barbara asked, “anyone important?” At the back of her mind a voice whispered something horrible that floated around like a gnat she couldn’t shake.

“Wha - oh, sorry,” Barry blushed, shrugging, “Um… look, I hate to cut and run…”

Barbara’s mood fell, her bubble burst. “What?” she whispered.

“I had fun today, really,” he said, “we should hang out more, outside of Sweet Justice and work , y’know? I’ll see you in school tomorrow!” Then he zipped away into the city, Barbara left behind in the dust. Her hot dog slid out of her bun, slapping the ground and condiments spraying everywhere. A tear forced its way onto her face and trailed down her cheek.

“Oh Barbara,” Jessica started from behind laying a hand on her shoulder, “I’m so-”

“Please,” she cut her off, “Don’t say it.”

“What a jerk though,” Kara scoffed, “All the hard work we went through to give him a great day - I crashed through Venus !”

“Kara,” Zatanna hissed, “stop making this about you! Can’t you see Babs is hurting!”

“Not as bad as Barry’ll be hurting,” she said, cracking her knuckles, “I say we corner him before school and -”

“No.”

“What?”

“No,” Babara said, hurt fading into steely determination, “because I’m not giving up. There’s nothing to feel sorry for yet.”

Jessica whooped, clapping. “That’s the spirt, Barbara!”

“May Aphrodite bless you on your quest for love,” Diana said.

Barbara waved at her friends, running, “Thanks for all your help girls. But now it’s time for Batgirl to take point!”

----------------------------------------------------

She found him on a rooftop, facing the shadows in his Flash costume. “Barry!” she yelled, “Barry!”

Barry startled, spinning his heel. “Batgirl,” he said, glancing behind him, “What are you doing here?”

“We didn’t finish our conversation,” Barbara huffed, stomping her way over, “You left .”

“I - I know,” he started, hands raised between them, “but we can do this tomorrow at school, can’t we?”

“No!” she said, “We can’t. Because I had a plan in place to tell you that I liked you but it didn’t work out and then I had another one and my friends helped me except you had to go and ruin it by running away just as I was about to confess the deepest secrets of my heart and - and - and…” Barbara puffed up her chest then slowly deflated.

Barry stared wide-eyed during her speech, mouth open.

It irked her. “Well? Are you gonna say something ?”

Jolted into action Barry’s cheeks burned to match the color of his costume. “Oh, well um - that’s real sweet Babs,” he said, scratching his neck, “I like you, too, but…”

He didn’t need to finish. “Oh.”

“I’m really sorry Babs -”

“No, no,” she stepped back, arms crossed, “it’s okay. I… I probably should’ve taken all that happened as a sign it wouldn’t work out.”

“No, no Babs,” Barry continued, hesitatingly reaching over to her, “don’t be so hard on yourself… it’s not what you think. I… I think you’re really cool and smart and - and I like how we both have similar interests and I’m probably as big a fan of Bats as you…”

“How is that supposed to make me feel better!” she asked, “You’re basically saying we’re perfect for each other except for one small thing -”

“I’m already dating someone!”

His outburst stilled her frantic mind. Barry froze, obvious to her that he didn’t mean to share that little piece of information with her. The irritation and annoyance waging war inside her cooled off into a reluctant disappointment. “Oh…”

“Yeah,” Barry said, “Babs, I… I think you’re amazing, and anyone would be lucky to be with you like that but… we’re perfect the way we are. As friends. And I hope this doesn’t come between us?”

Her heart softens at his plea; his words comforting to hear. “Of course,” she said, “But… if we’re friends, I don’t think we should keep secretsbetween us…”

He stiffened again, gulping. “I mean,” he rubbed at his neck, “some secrets are okay -”

“Please!” Barbara cut him off, “You can tell me. You already told me you were dating! Can you not tell me? Is it someone I know? Is it? Is it?”

Barry glanced behind him, “Well… kinda -”

“Who is it? Who is it, who is it, who is it, who is it ?”

“Batgirl.”

Her body shut down from shock. She recognized that voice, having heard it from listening in on frequent calls with her dad. From the shadows her hero emerged. “Batman!”

“Hello,” he said, smirking.

There was so much she wanted to say to him, but given the whirlwind of recent events and her confusion, she chose the first thing that crossed her mind. “I thought you’d be taller?”

His smirk fell into a frown, and instantly she shifted into overdrive to fix it. “Not that it’s bad I think I imagined you so tall because I’ve never actually seen you only heard about you and, well, my imagination went wild so you’re not too short. I’m sorry, I wasn’t expecting to see you here I mean why are you here is there a villain you’re chasing? Do you need me to partner with you to chase them? Is that why you’re here, is it? Is it, is it, is it -”

“Batgirl,” Barry stopped her, looking particularly flustered, “he’s not here for any of that.”

“Then what would he be doing here! On this rooftop, at this time of night, hiding, with you…” The clues flew at her rapidly, from Batman’s expectant stare to Barry’s shaking hands and everything in between. “Oh my God…” she shouted, “you’re dating -”

Barry’s hand blanketed her mouth. “Please, it’s a secret for a reason.”

She pried his hand off of her. “Secret?” she asked, “Why would you…” Barbara gasped, glaring at Batman, “it’s because he’s older than you! Batman, how could you -”

“What?” Barry said, “No, Babs, he’s not - yes, he’s older, but by like two years .”

“Two years?” Barbara repeated, “What! How are so young ? I thought you’d be as old as my dad !”

Batman scoffed, scowl deepening. “I’m not that old.”

“Explain yourself!” she demanded, pointing at him. And when Barbara realized what she had done she softened her expression and added, “please?”

“No one would take Batboy seriously,” he said, “and technically I am a man. A young man.”

“That… makes sense,” Barbara said, “But this…” She gestured between them, asking without any words.

“It kinda came out of nowhere,” Barry admitted, “I was on my way home from a shift at Sweet Justice…”

Barry decided not to speed his way through the route like he normally did, slowing down and enjoying the evening. “Like I thought we were going to do earlier,” Barry chuckled. As he crossed the street, however, he noticed a crawling vine and his attention was captured. Knowing it wasn’t a normal sight Barry changed into his costume and followed it.

“I was in town to capture Ivy,” Batman told her, “you remember, I told you this when you pretended to impersonate your father.”

“You knew that was me!”

“Of course I did. I’m Batman .”

“Anyway,” Barry rolled his eyes, “I stumbled on Ivy near the school and confronted her -”

“Just as I touched down, ready to haul her away.”

Their first meeting wasn’t perfect. Barry ran in front of one of Batman’s bat-a-rangs, getting frozen in the process. Batman didn’t realize Barry could create mini tornadoes and was blown away at one point. And throughout the battle they were fighting with each other.

“We didn’t get Ivy that night,” Batman said, “but… other things sort of fell into place...” He flashed a brief smile Barry’s way, causing the other boy to preen under the attention. Barbara cooed at the display. “But we’ve been keeping it under wraps.”

“Distance, secret identities,” Barry added, “it’s something neither of us had to deal with before, and we’re working through this in our own time…”

“So,” Batman continued, “can we trust you to keep this secret, Batgirl?”

There weren’t any doubts. “Of course you can. I’m honored you even told me about this.”

“Why wouldn’t I,” Batman said, advancing towards the rooftop, “Barry’s mentioned you before. That along with your outstanding track record in the field… you’re a great hero, Batgirl. You wear the bat well.” He held out a grappling hook, winking at Barry. “I’ll text you later.” Batman shot off into the night.

Batgirl watched him leave with stars in her eyes, floating. She was brought back to Earth by a gentle hand on her shoulder.

“Hey,” Barry said, “are you sure you’re okay with this? With me not… well -”

“Are you kidding?” Batgirl shrieked, hugging him, “Batman said he likes what I’m doing. Batman! That’s better than any relationship!”

Jumping around with Barry in her arms would have made her dizzyingly happy. She was, but for reasons she didn’t expect.

Rejection never felt so sweet.

#DC Superhero Girls #DCSHG #Barbara Gordon #Barry Allen #Batflash #Batflash week #Batman x Flash #Batman/Flash #Barry Allen x Bruce Wayne #barry/bruce #Bruce Wayne #Batgirl #Flash #Batman

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monicawoe · 4 years

Note

12, 16, 21, 25

for the fanfic end of the year asks meme (thanks @slytherkins !)

12. favorite character to write about this year: It’s a tie between Eddie Brock/Venom and Sam Winchester. Venom fics have been incredibly fun to write and I’ve really been enjoying writing more humorous fics which is something I used to struggle with. But with Supernatural in its last season I also had a serious resurgence of need to write all the Sam fics!

21. most memorable comment/review: “M A X I M U M T O A S T BABYBOI NO.”…which totally makes sense in context. Venom had some difficulties operating the toaster.

25. a fic you read this year you would recommend everyone read: Definitely The Holy Grail Bird by @denugis Not just because she wrote this as a gift fic to me, but because it’s easily one of my favorite fics of all times. This is such an insightful look into Sam and addresses the Winchester’s Chuck Problem so cleverly, but more than that it brought me to tears in the best kind of way, the kind of tears that happen when somebody just gets it so spot on and so beautifully that your heart leaps and aches all at the same time. If you are a Sam Winchester fan, do yourself a favor and read this immediately if you haven’t yet, and if you’ve already read it, then go read it again

16 fic(s) you completed this year (*saving this one for last since it’s a long response!) I completed 17 fics this year, of which 16 were posted–mainly Supernatural, Venom and MCU. This was such an awesome year for collaborations, big-bangs and fic exchanges. I had the opportunity to work with some truly stellar artists who are all total sweethearts, so thanks again to @sketchydean, @sdeeys, @vebirascanvasand of course @quickreaver for bringing my fics to life so beautifully. Thanks also to everybody whose prompts I filled for various events, and big thanks to my amazing betas for saving me from my own bad writing habits

Links, fic summaries, and gorgeous art banners below the cut!

Supernatural:

Lakeside Fishing - After defeating Famine, after days of suffering through demon blood withdrawal in the panic room, Sam needs time to clear his head. Early in the morning, he heads to a small lake seeking solitude, but instead finds an unexpected ally. (Sam/Patrick(S5ep7), 4k words)

His Soul to Keep - art by @sketchydean - written for the SPN Eldritch Bang horror event - Dean’s deal is coming due soon. When he finds out from Ruby that Hell will turn him into a demon, he refuses to accept it, even though he can already feel pieces of his soul starting to crumble away. Sam is his only anchor to the world, and Dean finds it harder and harder to leave his side. After Broward County, after watching Dean die a thousand deaths, Sam decides he’s not going to let Dean go to Hell. He’ll do whatever it takes, even if that means allying himself with Ruby and using the darkness inside of him. Sam casts a soul-binding spell on Dean; they might not be able to break the deal, but they can change who Dean’s soul belongs to. (13k, Sam/Dean, hard-gen, AU of season 3))

Thirteen Taps of The Ivory Beak - Death is a transient thing. The bird knows this, because she herself is both alive and not. Her creator made her this way, not by choice but because of who he is. (a companion piece to de_nugis’ The Holy Grail Bird, 900 words)

Whosoever Holds - Just when Sam Winchester needs it most, Mjölnir returns to him. But is he really worthy? (2k, gen Sam Winchester, Steve Rogers; MCU/SPN crossover)

The Devil You Knew - Brady, not Azazel, had killed Jessica, all those years ago. And now he was sitting across from Sam, bound. Trapped. (1k; an alternate version of Sam’s confrontation with Brady in 5x20)

Wednesday - It’s Wednesday. It’s always Wednesday, he thinks, as he stands up and leaves the motel room, not sparing a glance at the other bed. (2k, Mystery Spot boyKing!Sam AU)

Last Drop - art by @quickreaver -written for the Twisted Tropes event - Sam/Brady AU set while Sam’s at Stanford: Sam is slowly adjusting to his new life at Stanford University. He’s left his life of hunting behind, and traded it for endless studying and tests, but he’s plagued by dreams of Dean and Dad in danger, dreams of blood and violence. Then he meets Tyson Brady, who’s always there with a smile and a cup of coffee to get Sam through all-nighters. Sam’s dreams start to fade, but just as he’s getting used to a nice normal life, he starts to develop abilities—powers he can’t control. Brady thinks they’re great, but Sam knows power never comes without a cost. (14k, Sam/Brady)

Breathing, Talking, Dead Man Walking - John Doe, male, approximately thirty-seven years old. Subject was found by EMTs in close proximity to the site of a sizable explosion in Lebanon, Kansas. (2k, gen, Sam & Dean)

Venom:

Costume Party - Eddie and Venom are invited to a costume party at the museum. While there, they find a mad scientist in the dinosaur wing who is up to no good. (Symbrock, 5k words)

Reckoning Tartare with a Side of Tater Tots - Eddie Brock is writing a story about Will Graham, a man accused of horrific serial murders. But Eddie’s got a feeling Will is innocent, and somebody else is to blame. When Hannibal Lecter invites Eddie to dinner, Venom is surprised by the menu. (2k words; Venom | Hannibal crossover)

The End Times Are Here (But So Are We) - Eddie Brock crashes his motorcycle near Anathema Device’s Jasmine Cottage. She was expecting him, of course. Agnes Nutter’s prophecy had foretold his coming, just in time for the End of Days. (2k words; Venom | Good Omens crossover)

Asunder - (bigbang featuring art by @sdeeys and @vebirascanvas !) Eddie and Venom have grown accustomed to their new life together. They patrol every night, keeping San Francisco just a little safer, and keeping Venom fed. But one night, they’re captured, and separated. Eddie wakes up to find himself imprisoned in a glass cell and, for the first time in six months, completely alone. (Symbrock, PG-13, 12k words; written for the @symbrockbigbang)

Midnight Snack - Eight hours is way too long to wait until breakfast. Venom makes snacks while Eddie is sleeping. Unfortunately the toaster gives them some issues. (3k words)

They Say It’s Your Birthday - Venom asks Dan to help throw a surprise birthday party for Eddie. (3k words | written for the chocolate box gift exchange)

Marvel/Captain America

Interstitial Light - After Thanos wiped half of life off the planet, the remaining Avengers find a way to reach out to those they lost, using a combination of Stark-Tech, magic and their own memories. Steve makes contact with Bucky, but they spent too many decades apart when Steve was on ice. But there was somebody else who knew Bucky during that time—who trained with him, who knew both the Winter Soldier and James Barnes: Natasha. | 6k, Natasha, Bucky

Stumble and Fall Into You - Three months ago, Steve’s world shattered. SHIELD had been infiltrated by Hydra, people he trusted turned out to be enemies, and Bucky, who he thought he’d lost in 1944, had been alive this whole time. Steve tries to get back to some kind of normalcy, but Bucky is always on his mind, and lately he’s been seeing him everywhere. | 5k, Steve/Bucky

—

The 17th fic I completed this year is my Sam Winchester Big Bang fic, which will be posting early next year. I’ve gotten paired with yet another wonderful artist (I think it’s still supposed to be a secret, but it won’t be for long) and am very excited about this collaboration too!

Might as well make this my end of year stats post as well while I’m at it.

Words so far: 247,305 as of end of November, I’ll probably come in close to 280k by end of year. About a third of these words were posted as fics, the rest were prior drafts and a handful of short stories.

Thematically this was a very cathartic and iddy year for me in fic. Venom fandom gave me the opportunity to tackle things in a totally different way which has been incredibly freeing and fun to write, and returning to Supernatural fic had me writing out ideas I’d had on the backburner for years, like with Wednesday and my aforementioned SWBB. Nearly every Sam Winchester fic I write is about autonomy (loss of or reclaiming of) in one way or another but I’d say the two iddiest ones by far from this year were His Soul to Keep and Last Drop.

I’ve got four WIPs heading into 2020, so here’s to another year of writing!

#spn fics #venom fics #sam winchester #eddie/venom #writing meme #end of the year asks #slytherkins

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elizabethemerald · 5 years

Text

Dreams of Drowning: Chap 2

AO3

Please remember to Reblog and Comment!

Claire. He can't pull her name from his mind. She can't be real. Can she?

***

Jim worked quickly in the kitchen. He was still the lowest chef on the totem pole, though even since his first week one of the cooks who had been there longer had already quit. They would be hiring a new cook in a couple of days. No wonder he had been able to get hired here. The facility went through cooks at an astonishing rate.

His weekend had been largely uneventful. He had no further dreams of the mysterious woman, but his thoughts still swirled around her. Who could she be? What could she want? What was she?

That last question echoed the loudest. She had called herself Claire. Seemed like a regular enough human name for such an ethereal being. If he had been religious he would have sworn he just met god. Though he would be more than a little concerned that god tried to drown when he first met her.

Jim’s line of thought paused as a sound kicked on. It sounded like a massive piece of machinery somewhere close. He placed a hand on the work table and sure enough he could feel the vibrations through that as well. He looked around at the other cooks.

“Does anyone know what that sound is?” Jim asked.

“What sound?” One of the cooks responded. He had been there the longest at five months.

“This one.” Jim grabbed two glasses and set them on the table next to each other. The vibrations made them clink together rhythmically.

“Oh that’s the pump turning on.” He said. “You get used to it. I hardly ever notice it anymore. No wonder it vibrates everything here, the pump room is just down the hall.”

“What on earth does a research facility like this need a pump that size for? Do we have a secret aquarium somewhere?” Jim and the cook laughed. Then Jim thought about his dream. “Or maybe its because of massive chamber filled with purple cloudy water?”

He laughed but the others grew still. The other cook, who had remained silent to this moment whirled, his face red with anger.

“We don’t talk about that! We don’t ever talk about that!” The man shouted. Then he stormed out of the kitchen. Jim looked to the first chef but he had gone back to work and ignored him. Jim set about his own work, including covering for the man who stormed out.

He couldn’t get this new thought out of his head. He wasn’t the only one who had these dreams? The other cook hadn’t mentioned seeing the woman though, had she only appeared in his dreams? Had other people been greeted by drowning as well?

These thoughts continued to rattle around his head as he prepared the chum. He had spent all weekend thinking up how best to change up the recipe with what he had available. This time it was going to actually have a taste that didn’t make a person want to gag and die.

The cook who had stormed out never came back to the kitchen. And he didn’t show up the next day either. Or the rest of the week. The cook who had been there longer didn’t mention his absence. It seemed he was used to folks leaving and never returning.

Jim kept a careful eye on the news for the next couple of days. He wanted to be sure the man didn’t drown in his sleep, but he never heard of the other cook again.

Toby and Darci were having a special date night that Friday so Toby asked if they could move their drink night. Wednesday worked just as well as any other night for Jim and he was always happy to see his friend again.When Jim arrived his friend was bent over at one of the tables a jeweler’s glass in his eye as he looked at a rock sample.

“Tobes! What have I told about bringing work to drinks night!” Jim said cheerfully as he walked up. He laughed even harder when Toby looked up the glass still in his eye, making one eye seem huge and the other squinty.

“You told me not to lick rocks at the table!” Toby laughed and gestured to the open spot. “I was the one who had to tell you to stop cooking every time we hung out! Why do you think we meet at bars now rather than at one of houses!”

“What can I say, I love to cook!” Jim sat and waved to the bartender. Him and Toby were regulars the staff knew their prefered drinks. Toby removed the jeweler’s glass and set it and the rock he had been looking at aside.

“Do you?” At first Jim thought Toby was joking, but his friend’s face was deadly serious. “I’ve heard nothing but you complain for the past couple of years about every cooking job you’ve had.”

“I just needed to find the right one.” Jim said with a laugh. He didn’t want to talk more about his work so he gestured to the rock. “What’s going on with this?”

Toby smiled at the waitress as she set down two drinks in front of them. Then gestured to small sample. “This continues to defy me. I’ve been a practicing field geologist for ten years. A hobbyist rock collecter for more than twenty. I can properly ID hundreds of minerals on sight. And I can’t figure this one out. I’m waiting on chemical analysis to come back but it continues to frustrate me that I can’t nail this one down.”

“It’s not uh, radioactive is it?” Jim said.

“Nah. I’ve gotten in the habit of checking each sample as soon as the boss’s kid sets it down on my desk. A few too many have tested positive for my liking.”

“The boss’s kid? I don’t think I’ve seen him.”

“Massive brute of a man. No respect for the finer needs of a geologist. His name is Bular.” Toby paused for a moment. “Of course I call him a kid but he’s at least as old as I am. Though twice as much of a jerk. Always dresses in black leather like he’s in some kind of biker gang. I’m pretty sure he only has a job because his daddy owns the security company.”

“Huh, well I guess it’s for the best that I haven’t met him. I tend to piss that sort of person off. And then get either beaten up or shouted at.”

“Yeah like you and Steve from highschool! I swear he beat you up so many times!” Jim snorted and rolled his eyes. “Though did you hear he and Eli finally tied the knot? They went over to Vegas and got married by a guy in a martian costume!”

“Really? Good for them!” Jim and Toby laughed for a long time at that thought. Neither were surprised by either bit of news. The two had been pining for each since highschool. And Eli was a die hard conspiracy nut. What would Eli think of a giant woman who drowned people in their dreams? Jim sobered at that thought.

“Uh, Tobes.” Toby picked up on the somber tone and focused closely. “Have you ever had a dream where you were sinking in purple water?”

“And I started drowning in it?” Jim’s jaw dropped as Toby supplied his exact next words. “Yeah. I had a dream like that.”

“What happened in your dream?” Jim asked.

“Well I appeared in this dream, immediately felt like I was drowning. It was awful. I think I had only been at 49B for two days. Then in the dream you and Darci appeared. And Darci started drowning as well. I couldn’t just let her drown! She’s the girl of my dreams, I’ve loved for years and years. I tried to blow the last of the air in my lungs into her mouth. Then I could breath again, and woke up sputtering a few seconds later. Darci said I had sweat so much in my sleep I soaked the sheets!”

“Wow.” Just like in Jim’s first dream, Toby had seen his loved one and been spared because of how he treated her. But there was one detail missing from Toby’s dream. “Did you see anyone else?”

“Other than you and Darci? No. I’m a little surprised I didn’t see my Nana. But it was just my best friend and best girl.”

“Hmm. I had a similar dream my first week. It was you, Darci and my mom who I saw.I think a couple of the other cooks have had the same dreams.” He didn’t mention the mysterious woman in his dreams.

“Yeah, they don’t talk about it much, but everyone who works at 49B has them.”

“Wha-what? Why do you think that is?” Jim leaned forward with an air of conspiracy. Was there something more to these dreams?

“Micro vibrations caused by all the machinery in the building.” Jim’s mystified look must have shown on his face because Toby elaborated. “Humanity’s ancient ancestors were cave dwellers. Micro vibrations are cause by two objects moving against each other, which could be a sign of a possible cave in. The vibrations cause paranoia, irritation and fear. Most likely projecting as fear of our loved ones getting hurt. Once you get used to it your body ignores it. I’m not surprised the cooks get it the worst. There’s a lot of machinery down there. I work next to the head researcher’s office. So everything up here is more insulated.”

“Huh. Micro vibrations.” That...made sense. Toby certainly knew more about science than Jim did. Especially any science that didn’t relate directly to cooking. Then could Claire be a projection of his longing for a relationship? The rest of drinks night passed quickly as Jim retreated into his thoughts.

Jim took a deep breath in the kitchen. The lunch rush was over. The kitchen stocked the cafeteria that all the researchers and security personnel used. Unfortunately the cooks were currently down two staff, so keeping up with the demand had been exhausting. It was time for his own lunch now.

He checked his phone. Oh, a new text message from his mom. ‘I have great news. Call me when you can :)’ Jim stepped out of the kitchen and hit the call button. After a few seconds she answered.

“Hey mom! What’s up?”

“Hi baby. I have the best news! Guess what it is!”

“Uh… I’m going to have a baby brother?”

“Jim.” His mom did not sound amused. “Do I have to explain to you how that’s not possible?”

“Please do not. Sorry, Toby and Darci are trying for a kid and he was telling me all about it. What is the good news?”

Jim could tell his mom was struggling with deciding between continuing her guessing game and just telling him the news. Her excitement won out.

“Zelda got us tickets to go on a trip for our anniversary! We fly out tomorrow morning!”

“Oh my goodness. How fun!”

“Yeah she was so sneaky about it. She even contacted my work to arrange for the time off. She’s so good at surprises, I love her so much. And I get to spend an entire week in France with her!”

“That’s great. Do you need someone to drive you to the airport?”

“No, Zelda’s friend Walter will be driving us.”

“You mean your ex boyfriend Walter?” Jim said with a slight chuckle. His mom huffed.

“No I prefer to think of him as Zelda’s friend.”

“Well have an amazing time mom! Call me when you get there so I know you’re safe.”

“Thanks Baby, I love you so much!”

And she was gone. Jim laughed quietly and walked back to the kitchen. He was glad his mom and Mr. Strickler had broken up. It would have been too awkward to work alongside his father-in-law during his brief tenure teaching his high school’s home ec class.

Though he would miss his mom. He was a little sad that he wouldn’t get the chance to say goodbye in person before she left for her trip.

That night he dreamed of Her again.

As soon as he opened his eyes he knew he was under water again. He could feel it’s weight pressing down on him and all the small swirls and eddies in the flow around him, moving his hair and arms.

Claire was in front of him again. Her purple skin glowed and was almost translucent. He could only look up at her in awe. It was hard for him to think about things like Micro Vibrations when she was here in front of him. She looked at him curiously. Her head tilting this way and that.

She reached a hand as large as his whole body towards him. It was stopped by thick chains on her wrists. Jim had noticed the chains during his first dream of her. If this really was a projection of his anxieties then he was really worried about the state of his psyche. Claire gestured and the current in the water pushed him close enough that she could press a finger tip as large as his whole face against his forehead.

Jim looked around in confusion. He was in what looked to be the Arcadia airport. He had only been there a few times but recognized it vaguely. There in front of him was none other than his mom.

Barbara Lake struggled under the weight of a massive amount of luggage. The suitcase was taller than she was and kept popping open throwing her stuff around the airport. People were staring and laughing at her as she stumbled around trying to gather all her clothes and shove it back into the suitcase.

Jim stepped forward and the laughter stilled. He walked to his mom and helped her pack her things. When everything was packed he took some of the bags and his mom took the rest.

“Nervous about the flight tomorrow?” Jim asked his mom as they walked through the airport together.

“Yes I just…” His mom hesitated. “I haven’t gone on a trip like this in years. Not since before your father left. What if something goes wrong?”

“If something goes wrong, you two will deal with it. Together. Just like you’ve dealt with every other problem together.” He set the bags he was carrying down and watched them vanish into the floor. Then he hugged his mom close. “Ms. Nomura has always taken good care of you. That’s not going to stop now that she’s Mrs. Lake-Nomura.”

Jim gestured forward. His mom’s wife was waiting at the gate. Zelda had a bag and two tickets in her hand and was looking around. Barbara pulled away towards her. She turned back to face him again.

“I’m glad I got to say goodbye to you!” Jim said. “I love you mom.”

Barbara ran forward leaving the rest of her luggage behind. Zelda got his mom in her arms and twirled her around. Jim smiled.

“Let’s give them some privacy shall we?”

Jim turned away from their embrace to face Claire again. The purple water eddied around them stirring up her hair. Her pure white eyes were almost blinding in their brilliance.

“Thank you. For letting me see her off.” Jim said. He couldn’t tell if he said it out loud or in his mind. But She seemed to understand. She smiled at him. The smile made her eyes seem softer. He was lost in her smile. She was everything amazing and wonderful in the world and he knew in that instant that he would do anything he could to keep her smiling. To make her smile again and again. He was in love.

She giggled, an impressive sound considering her size. She tossed her head back in forth causing her hair to wave wildly around. She pressed a hand to her face then blew him a kiss.

Jim woke up gasping. His hair was wet like he had just gotten out of the shower. And there was the taste of the sea on his lips. Claire. He can't pull her name from his mind. She can't be real. Can she?

I’d love your comments or questions about this AU. It’s such a fun one to write.

#jim lake jr #claire nunez #toby domzalski #Barbara Lake #dreams of drowning #Trollhunters #writing emerald #please reblog #also jim falling in love with claire is some of the most romantic shit I've written #I eat that shit up

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agl03 · 4 years

Note

Hi. I was wondering if you know when the Wondercon tickets are going to go on sale, and if you have any advice for flights/hotels/anything else related? Thank you!

Hi Anon!

Ohhh this is so up my alley.

@jewishfitz and I were trying to remember last week and we both agreed it was possibly sometime in December last year. Maybe. I just kept my eye on the Wondercon Page and grabbed a 3 day Pass when they went on sale. It’s a couple weeks later this year so that could push when they put the passes on sale back too. You can go in now and get your account all set up though and save a little time.

The huge disclaimer to go in here is there is NO GUARANTEE that AOS is going to be there. My family decided to take the gamble as we feel like last season its going to be a great point for them to kick off the promo again. We know full went they might not go and that chances are super slim on getting the whole cast. That being said we’re going to have great time no matter what and are okay with whatever surprises await.

Flights:

The Anaheim area has many airports that service it so my personal and professional recommendation is to avoid flying into LAX if at all possible. Its crowded, busy, takes 60-90 minutes to get to the convention center, and transportation is double if not triple from the other area airports. However for sometimes LAX is the cheapest option.

My preferred Disney/Wondercon Airport is SNA Orange County. Its only a 20 minute or so cab ride and you can grab a flat rate cab, you just have to ask for it. As a mom traveling with kids this airport is much more manageable and for us worth the extra money in many cases to fly in and out of.

Another alternative, especially if you are flying Southwest, is Long Beach. Just know this is a small airport, like parts of it are outside small. But sometimes you can score an awesome rate and the flat rate is around $55 each way and its a 20-30 minute ride.

The Con starts on Friday but I do suggest coming in on Thursday so you are all ready to go. If you need to pick up your badges or need to get your kids passes you can do so at this point. If you want to visit Disney like us we are coming in on Wednesday. Though the con does often sell “twilight” Disney passes for evenings if that is your jam. Just know we are toying with Easter Weekend and the crowds that come with it.

The con wraps up pretty early on Sunday so many people fly out that night. But its up to you and how far you have to go. We have kids to get back to school on Monday.

Pricing out airfare can be maddening at it’s best. google.com/flights kayak.com and southwest are all my go too. I personally will track air for a little bit to get an idea of the prices and points. I will also price out one way to one way vs round trip because sometimes you can save flying a different airline home. The absolute best advice I can give on airfare is when you find a fare you are happy with....book it and never look again. When booking fares watch what kind of fare you are booking and any restrictions it might have. IE can you have a carry on and how much are bag fees.

Hotels

The Con is in the Disneyland area and as such will share many hotels. Meaning booking early is always a good idea. Easter is an incredibly busy time for Disney and the hotels will fill up. You can book a refundable rate now (make sure its refundable before booking it) to secure your choice hotel. Then when the con drops their hotel rates a few weeks out you can see if its worth making the move.

What you need to be careful of is distance. I like to keep within .3 miles and still check the map to make sure you aren’t crossing a streets, it can add like 10-15 minutes to your walk. Other factors I personally take into account is does it have a free breakfast, that is a huge thing for our budget. I know other people don’t care and just bring a box of power bars.

Here are my favorite Con area hotels. I own I am a hotel snob, I like a nice hotel for me and the family. I also like to be close, so like airfare I’m personally willing to pay more to do so.

Hyatt Place

Cortona

Residence Inn Anaheim Convention Center...especially if you need multiple bedrooms.

Courtyard Anaheim Convention Center

Springhill Suites Convention Center

Hilton *official con hotel

Marriott *official con hotel

Clarion: This is the closest of the budget friendly options, but know its older and in desperate need of a refurbishment.

If you drive do know most of the hotels will charge at least $15 a night to park.

Note a lot of these hotels have multiple locations in the same two block area. those with Maingate in the name will usually be closer to Disney. So once again check the map.

Other

One of the big items is the signings put on for the various casts and panels. The last two years they’ve used a ‘lovely’ lottery system where you get so many tickets to enter each day. I have yet to get into a signing via the lottery and I’m curious to see if they change it. I know it hasn’t been too popular but its also a lot easier to do. Once you purchase your badge keep your eye on the page for when this lottery opens up and you can enter. They don’t email you or anything its you going in and its there.

The schedule starts getting announced usually in January and AOS is notorious for being a last minute add so be ready to wait. Start tracking the panels you want to see.

Familiarize yourself with the rules of the con. Wondercon typically doesn’t clear rooms after panels so that is something I plan for when working out our day. IE I live in the AOS room and am prepared to suffer through some crazy weird panels before. I still have no idea what happened in that Batman Ninja one.

Know that many on here are happy to offer their own help and advice. I’m also okay if you want to come up and say hi to me if you see me there. I’m hard to miss with the herd of mini cos players. I’m very nice in person I promise.

In that same vein I know we are talking about doing a bigger more formal AOS fandom meet up. Once I can get an idea of how many people are going I can coordinate with local fans on a spot.

If you are Cosplaying do a test drive of your costumes before. There are lots of amazing cos players in the fandom who are always ready to share their knowledge.

Its always best to arrive to line up for a panel or other event too early rather than risk missing out.

If you are there alone make friends with who you are by so you can help each other out saving spots for food and potty breaks.

The Expo/Shopping area has lots of awesome goodies and can easily take most of the day to get through. I do suggest shopping at some point on Friday for the best selection.

Keep an eye on some of the Expo booths for Special Signings, this was how we got Gabrielle Luna’s autograph our first Wondercon, he was at Golden Apple comics with the illustrator. We had to pay for it separately but it was a great little meet n greet.

The food trucks outside offer a wide variety of offerings if you don’t want what they have inside. I also like to Uber Eat Dinner to the hotel if I’m not going down to Downtown Disney or the Garden Walk.

Most importantly have fun. You have a lot of control over your experience just with the attitude you go in with and how you react to the situations. IE not all fans are nice and will gladly run down your child to get into a line before them. So be ready to roll with the punches and make the most of the situations you find yourself in.

Every Con we’ve gotten a bit of Magic one way or another but I don’t expect it. Every Con we’ve met other fans that are just amazing in person and only make the experience better. Also being polite goes a long ways. Polite to other fans and polite to the con staff.

Well that turned into a small novel but I hope that helped!

#wondercon here we come #sorry went full on mom there

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kumkaniudaku · 6 years

Text

Meet the Parents: Three

A/N: FINALLY finished with this. My midterm paper was taking over my life. I have a few more prompts to do before I start working on spooky stuff for Wednesday! I hope you all enjoy. Also, the face claim for CoCo’s dad has changed.

Word Count: 4488

The journey through post-secondary education has its ups and downs. As much as an institution can be a site for cultivating and molding the minds of tomorrow’s leaders, it also serves as an arena for young people to navigate life’s challenges and triumphs. From making friends, leaving with enemies, passing classes with flying colors and falling flat for the second time, college provides an opportunity for growth.

For you and Chadwick, not only had both of you grown as individuals but also as two souls forever bonded by the Howard University experience and the quiet beginnings of a long friendship.

Sadly, all great experiences must end. The freshmen that hit it off in 1996 by accident were now semi-adults preparing for their last hoorah before real life started.

Chadwick sat at the foot of your bed, engrossed in the basketball game on the television, while you flipped through your photo album and reminisced.

“Oh my goodness, look at Tanisha,” you laughed. “I don’t know who told her that dressing as a cigar was a good Halloween costume, but I’m glad they did. This shit is hilarious.”

“It was probably the girl standing beside her dressed as the most low budget Lola Bunny that I’ve ever seen.”

“Shut the hell up Mr. Too Cool to Dress Up for a Halloween Party. I was cute that night.”

“I didn’t say you weren’t cute. I said your hand drawn jersey and dingy bunny ears looked low budget.”

Using the fact that his attention was elsewhere as an advantage, you flung a throw pillow at the back of his head. “I really can’t stand you. Go home.”

“I want you to act just like that during graduation this weekend. Don’t let me see one tear or I’m clownin’ you at the celebration dinner,” he answered as he leaned back to lay on the bed. “Speaking of the celebration, your folks eating with mine or are we doing two separate things?”

You thought for a moment, using the fringe on your pillowcase to distract you from the brown eyes peering up at you. You’d passed the Mr. and Mrs. Boseman test with flying colors, and your family was all but ready to marry you off tomorrow after only a few meetings with Chadwick. Separately, you both got along with each other’s families. But, you weren’t sure how situations would play out once the Greene and Boseman clans united.

“You think they’ll like each other? Our families?”

“Why wouldn’t they? My parents like you and your parents love me. We’re extensions of those that raise us right? It should work itself out.”

“And if it doesn’t?”

“Then we’ll go get carry out together and eat it back at my place. It’s no big deal.”

“Everything is no big deal to you, Aaron.” Chadwick smirked and shrugged his shoulders. His nonchalant attitude about things not involving his work either infuriated or calmed your nerves. Today, it soothed your worries and helped you to make a concrete decision.

“Okay, let’s do it.”

Chadwick’s eyes shot from the television to your face to get confirmation of what exactly you were planning to do. “What’d you just say?”

“I said let’s do it!”

“Right here? Right now? I mean it’s kind of soon, and I was hoping it’d happen way different than this, but if you want, sure. Let’s do it!”

“Great! I’ll call my mom and dad and tell them we’re combining our parties! Should we match outfits? No, that’s too much. Red velvet or pound cake?” Your rambling became a background murmur in Chadwick’s ear once he realized how close he’d come to make an ass of himself.

After thanking God for saving him from an awkward mishap, he watched and listened to you plan the final get together before the inevitable separation occurred. You were taking a job offer to intern with the Hornets in Charlotte and Chadwick had long made the decision to pursue directing and writing in New York. For much of the Spring semester, the conversation about continuing the friendship long distance had been avoided. Neither of you were ready to think about life without the other.

Still, time can not slow down or be replaced. The days of the week began to blend together between parties, senior week activities, and graduation practice. Separate familial activities kept you and Chadwick away from each other Friday afternoon, leaving little room for serious conversation during a wild off-campus graduation party.

While you and Chadwick prepared for the grand entrance with fellow members of the Howard University Class of 2000, your separate groups of parents prepared for a meeting orchestrated by God himself.

“Where is Chadwick,” Carolyn asked, craning her neck around to look over the upper quandrangle housing the commencement ceremony. “First he wasn’t home this morning, and now I don’t see him here. The ceremony starts in ten minutes.”

“Then it makes sense why you wouldn’t see him out here then, right? The graduates aren’t just hanging around.”

Shifting her attention to her husband, Carolyn’s mouth opened to speak but closed as a family of three shuffled past her to take the last open seats in the area.

“Gerald, where is Tasha? The ceremony starts in eight minutes and she is nowhere to be found. She wasn’t at her apartment and she has yet to page me back. I will return that car to the lot the moment we get back home if she isn’t here.”

“Baby, the graduates don’t wait in the open before the ceremony,” Gerald answered. “C’mon, now. You’ve been through this before.”

Elaine’s mouth opened and closed, realizing that what her husband was saying was true.

“Don’t you hate when they’re right?”

Elaine whipped her head around to acknowledge the stranger, breaking into a small smile at the comment. “They never let you live it down. I guess that’s what happens when you’re wrong nine times out of ten.”

The women shared a laugh for a brief moment, helping each other to let go of some of the tension pent up from nervous energy.

“What’s your baby’s name?”

“Tasha Greene. She’s graduating from the School of Business.”

“So you’re the woman my son says I need to meet,” Carolyn laughed. “Now that I’m looking at you, I definitely see the resemblance.”

“I’m sorry, am I missing something,” Elaine asked with confusion taking prominence on her soft features.

“My son, Chadwick, talks about your daughter all the time. The beautiful ‘Miss CoCo’ is the topic of every conversation. Even when she doesn’t fit.”

The light bulb connecting names with stories illuminated Elaine’s mind, “Oh...my God! Chadwick is your son? Sweet little Aaron that ate my burnt meatloaf to be nice when everyone else criticized it? Girl, I owe you a thank you for checking in on my baby the way you do!”

“Owe me? I owe you! Lord knows my boy will eat you out of house and home if you let him. That week in Atlanta must’ve cost you a fortune.”

“Oh, girl, I’ve been raising two athlete daughters while married to a Marine. Trust me, he fit right in.

“So you know the struggle of keeping food in the house. I raised three boys and almost lived at the grocery store.” When the short bout of laughter subsided, Carolyn gave Elaine a small smile. “May I ask you a question? Mother to mother?”

“Absolutely. Unless it’s about Tasha’s manners. She takes after her father.”

Carolyn laughed and shook her head, “She’s been nothing but mannerable around me. My question is about our kids. Be honest with me, is Tasha...interested in my son at all? He thinks the world of her and I don’t want him to be hurt if she doesn’t feel the same way.”

“She is interested, but she’s afraid. If you ask her, he’s not looking to be in a relationship. I think she’s ignoring the signs to protect her heart. Again, she takes after her Daddy.”

“You know I can hear you right, Kitty,” Gerald interjected. “I’m sitting right here.”

The beginning of ‘Pomp and Circumstance’ sounded around the outdoor area, alerting the guests to the arrival of the honorees. Sharing a knowing look, the two women put their conversation on hold to prepare for the arrival of their graduates.

------------

“Tasha Nicole Green, Magna Cum Laude. Chadwick Aaron Bose-,” last names and accomplishments were drowned out by the combined applause of both families despite the request to wait until all names were called.

“Look at our babies,” Elaine smiled through misty eyes. “They’re growing so fast.”

“Mhmmm. Growin’ and drinkin’ before they have to walk across the stage. I bet all the money in my husband’s wallet that Chadwick doesn’t think I can tell.”

“They never think we know anything. Tasha is wobbling in those shoes like a baby deer and it ain’t because I didn’t teach her how to wear a pair of heels. I’ll let her slide for now, though. It’s a big day and she’s grown.”

In the center of the action, you caught wind of the overwhelming hooping and hollering from the stands, tapping Chadwick on the bicep to pull him away from the moment and direct is attention to the section you were looking at.

“Looks like our mamas found each other without our help,” you laughed, pointing to their spot in the audience and earning a wave from the pair.

“I guess so. Saves us a lot of trouble. What you think they talkin’ about?”

“Probably how cute I look in these shoes. You can’t even tell I’m still a lit-tle bit drunk.”

“CoCo, everyone can tell you’re a little bit drunk. You haven’t walked in a straight line since we’ve been here,” Chadwick scoffed, stepping to the side to let you into the row to take your seat.

“Ah, shut up, hater.” A wobbly step before reaching your chair caught you by surprise and sent Chadwick into a fit of hushed giggles. He was right. You were still noticeably intoxicated despite your best attempts to eat and hydrate your body into sobriety. Turning to your best friend, you pulled your sunglasses down to reveal a horrified expression. “Oh my God, my mama is gonna kill me!”

“Relax. I’ve been drunk in front of my mama too many times to count, and she’s never noticed. Just follow my lead.”

“Last time I followed your lead I drunk four cups of hunch punch to chase the two beers you gave to me.”

“But, did you have a good time?”

You thought for a moment, the memories of the night prior making you smile. “Yeah.”

“Okay, then. Follow my lead. We’re all good.”

-----------

Sitting in your apartment free from the stuffy graduation robe that held you hostage in the late spring sun, you were beginning to realize that things were not “all good.” For the one-hundredth time since your mother and Mrs. Boseman had teamed up to lecture you and Chadwick on the dangers of excessive drinking, you cut your eyes at the man sitting beside you.

“And I know you think we don’t know, but you two aren’t good at hiding anything. We know a lot more than you think we do,” Carolyn ranted with Elaine adding a “mhmm” behind her.

“Right now, you don’t understand, but you will when you’re parenting your own kids and have to deal with them acting a fool in public.”

“Their dad can handle that. I’m gonna be a cool mom,” you mumbled.

“Chadwick, are you ready to handle that since this one will be a cool mom,” Elaine questioned.

“Me!? What do her bad kids have to do with mine?”

“Woah, Woah! My kids will not be bad! Let’s not forget that I’m the one that keeps us out of trouble.”

Carolyn and Elaine watched their offspring argue about potential parenting styles with broad smiles and a twinkle in their eye. Mothers have a way of seeing beyond the current moment, and though neither of you were privy to the knowledge they possessed, their shared intuition confirmed what they already knew.

In the kitchen, Leroy and Gerald were dealing with headaches of their own as they listened to Kevin and Tiana argue over nothing in particular. Tired of the bickering, and the rumbling in their stomach from the thought of eating after the draining ceremony, both men were prepared to put an end to the commotion around them.

“Alright, alright.”

“Hey!”

Talking ceased at their separate outbursts as both men looked at each other with surprised expressions.

“You go first, brother. I wasn’t tryin’ to interrupt you,” Gerald insisted.

“No, no. You go on ahead. This is technically your house.”

Gerald nodded before turning to the group across the apartment. “Now look, we done sat here and listened to y’all lecture these two grown ass people about drinking, and I’m tired of it. I’m ready to eat and I’m ready to eat right now, Kitty.”

“So they’re supposed to be able to do what they wanna do? Is that what you’re saying,” Carolyn asked with Elaine offering her nonverbal support with a glare at her husband.”

“Let the kids have fun. That’s what college is about. We ain’t ate since breakfast. Let it go!”

You and Chadwick shared quiet snickers at the notion that the chastisers were now being chastised. In a way, Mr. Boseman reminded you a lot of your best friend. His stance, laid-back yet oozing authority, made you think of the times he had “put his foot down” in situations where you unnecessarily argumentative. Chadwick’s mind simultaneously took in your mother’s demeanor and smiled at the near-identical posture. Elaine’s knuckles pressed into her sides with all of her weight on one leg took him back to moments when you *thought* you were scolding him for not listening while you spoke to him of leaving his shoes in the middle of the floor.

An intense battle of glares made the air thick between the parenting duos on each side of the argument until the mother’s relented with exasperated scoffs.

“Fine, Leroy! Just let the boy do whatever, I don’t care. We got a reservation to makes anyway.”

Turning on her heels, Elaine took a look at her husband and shook her head, “You spoil her, you know that? I expect you to pay the bill since she can be a drunk in public.”

“Now, Kitty-”

“I don’t wanna hear it. I have your checkbook anyway. It’ll get paid.”

Leaving Gerald stunned and Leroy in a silent fit of laughter, Elaine followed Carolyn out of the door and to the car. Gerald found the presence of mind to figuratively pick his jaw up from the ground before turning to address you and Chadwick.

“Y’all owe me.”

“You owe both of us. It doesn’t stop here. We’ll have to hear it long after y’all are out and getting drunk. Again! C’mon and get in this car before your mama blows the roof off of it.”

---------

“To the graduates,” Kevin exclaimed as he thrust his red plastic cup into the air to begin his toast. “May your careers be fruitful so you can take me to Cancun on your dime.”

“Kevin!”

“Sorry, mama,” Kevin apologized before shooting a wink your way. “We’ll talk, T.”

A careful tug to his jeans by Carolyn brought Kevin down from his standing position on the picnic table bench and back to his seat.

When your parents told you they had something special planned after your graduation dinner, you weren’t sure what to expect. Your mother hated everything about the outdoors other than her beloved sunflowers in the backyard, so desert at a nearby park was the last thing you thought you would be doing. What you assumed to be a quiet after party with close friends and family turned into a carefully planned scavenger hunt to reveal one of your graduation gifts: a used, all black Jeep Grand Cherokee with heated seats and 10 disk CD changer. Your excitement could barely be contained, though you wondered how the car would factor into the news that you still needed to share.

“Alright, Mr. Cool, it’s your turn to make a toast,” Gerald laughed, directing his comment to Chadwick who was lazily leaning against your shoulder and using his spoon to pick the pecans out of your ice cream like he always did. He knew you hated them and would take the time to make sure they “didn’t go to waste.”

Smoothing out his t-shirt, Chadwick took a moment to stand and raise his cup into the air.

“Uh, I guess I’ll start with a toast to my parents, both biological and adopted. Thanks, mama and daddy for helping me get through this with all the prayers and encouragement.”

“And money. Don’t forget all the money you cost us,” Leroy added.

“Yeah, and money.” The table shared a healthy laugh at Mr. Boseman’s interjection before Chadwick could continue. “Mrs. Elaine and Mr. Gerald, thanks for looking out for me when you could. I really appreciate it and promise to at least send a Christmas card every year, Maybe even stop by if I’m ever in the area.”

“You can’t just DeeBo my parents, Aaron.”

“Oh, hush, Tasha,” your mother answered as she waved off your comment. “Stop by anytime, Chadwick. There’ll always be some biscuits for you if Gerald doesn’t get to ‘em first.”

Your mother had been smitten with Chadwick from the night she met him, so it didn’t surprise you that she had no issue with inviting him over despite being notoriously reluctant to have guest outside of family and a select few friends inside the home.

Chadwick mirrored the way you stuck your tongue out like a child before turning his full attention to you. “Last, but not least, I wanna say thank you to my best friend in the world, even when she’s trying to tell me what to do. Without you staying up all times to help me finish projects or just making sure I had food to eat when I couldn’t always afford it, you’ve been a big part of my journey, and I wouldn’t trade you for anything. Except for some Braves tickets.”

After lightly shoving his side, you let Chadwick pull you into a hug once he took his seat. The heat of the late Spring sun paled in comparison to heat rushing to your cheeks. Your bronze skin prevented the scarlet hues below the surface from peeking through, but not enough to your feelings from the adults around the table. Parents and siblings shared knowing looks across the table, aware of the bubbling feelings between friends.

“Alright, alright, enough hugs, you two,” Gerald announce. “Pumpkin, it’s your turn.”

The group watched you stand and nervously run your sweaty palms down the sides of your summer dress. Chadwick paid special attention to the way your legs seemed to run for miles and thicken in the right places. He needed to remember all of his favorite parts of you to hold him when both of you split up to chase individual dreams. Charlotte, North Carolina was miles away from Harlem, and he wasn’t sure when he’d have the chance to see you again. Kevin clearing his throat and shooting him a playful glare brought Chadwick back to reality.

“I promise not to be long winded like Reverend C. Boseman over here,” you joked, earning an eye roll from Chadwick. “Thank you, Mommy and Daddy, for everything you’ve done to help me to this point. I love you guys so much. Thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Boseman, for being my parents away from home and liking me more than Chadwick.”

“Ma, tell her that’s not true!”

“Hush, boy. Don’t be rude. Continue, CoCo.”

Again, Chadwick rolled his eyes, earning a light giggle from you. “Aaron, even though you get on my last nerve, thank you for always being there when I needed you. I can’t wait to tear up the city with you in a few weeks.”

Chadwick’s eyes widened at your revelation, matching the bewildered expression on your parent’s faces.

“Is Chadwick moving to Charlotte?”

“He sure as hell better not be,” Leroy mumbled as he took a sip from his cup. “His ass is going to Harlem.”

“Leroy!”

“Leroy, hell!”

“Tasha, what are you talking about? Explain yourself.”

Taking a deep breath, you turned your attention to your mother, “I am...no longer taking the internship in Charlotte. I decided to take a paid entry-level position in New Jersey with the Nets. I’ll be 20 minutes away from Manhattan and closer to you.” Your explanation ended with a smile at Chadwick that he gladly returned.

You were two weeks away from packing your car in preparation for a new life in Charlotte. The lease was set to be signed in three days, and your parents had already reached out to family and friends in the area to provided you with a safety net for when they couldn’t be around. The plan was in motion, and up until a week before graduation, you were excited about the new journey. But, when the opportunity came knocking for an immediate opening with an organization in desperate need of new ideas and an entry-level assistant complete with an above average salary and a relocation package, you answered the call. The idea of being closer to the man you were secretly in love with was an added bonus.

Chadwick could no longer contain his excitement as he bolted up from his seat to wrap his arms around you and lift you from the ground.

“Oh my, God, Co! Are you being a jackass or really telling the truth?”

“I’m telling the truth,” you answered while giggling at the way he playfully tickled your sides. “I was gonna tell you this morning, but I figured I’d let everyone know at the same time. I hope you’re not mad mama and daddy.”

Elaine and Gerald stared at each other, occasionally looking across the table at Carolyn and Leroy who were just as confused.

“Well, I ain’t mad,” Tiana exclaimed to break the tension. “Can I come stay with you for Spring Break, T?”

“No!”

“Yes.”

Tiana looked between you and Chadwick for a concrete answer to her question. “Are y’all gonna do me like Mom and Dad? I’ll just stay home if it’s gonna turn into all that.”

“You can’t tell her she can stay at my place, Aaron. Let her stay at yours if you want her to come so bad!”

“Stay at home. Tiana. That nigga is broke already and he ain’t even moved yet,” Kevin answered.

Chadwick opened his mouth to respond before being cut off by your mother.

“Tasha, while I’m excited for you, I’m a little worried. Where will you live? You don’t have any family that far north. How will you adjust on such short notice? Do you even know exactly where you’ll work?”

“We just want you to be safe, Pumpkin.”

“I understand, Daddy, but I have it all figured out! The team has found me housing that I think you guys will approve of, and they’ve committed to five months of relocation. I’ve spoken to my direct supervisor and they’re excited to have me on board. As far as family, I have Chadwick and Kevin. They’re like family, right?”

Silence hung in the air as your parents attempted to process the new information. Reaching over the table, Carolyn gave Elaine’s hand a squeeze.

“We’ll make sure she’s alright. You don’t have to worry.”

“If it’s one thing I taught my boys, it’s how to stick together. They’ll take care of her.”

With reassurance from newfound friends, Elaine and Gerald turned to you with a smile.

“Well, alright! My Pumpkin is moving to the city. I don’t know how we’ll get a damn car that far North, but we’ll figure it out!”

The brief moment of commotion at the table allowed Chadwick to pull you away from the table inconspicuously to walk toward the nearby fountain.

Chadwick stole glances at you along the way, sporting a goofy smile that you didn’t notice until you turned to speak to him.

“What are you smiling about, Ashy?”

“You specifically told me the North was way too cold for you. Six months later, you’re moving to New Jersey. You were gonna miss me too much, huh?”

“What,” you exclaimed, feigning confusion. “I moved to work with my favorite team!”

“You hate the Nets. You called Scott Burrell a fucking bum the other day.”

“I did not!” Chadwick quirked his eyebrow at your blatant lie, waiting for you to come clean. Dropping the act, you let out a short laugh and looked away. “Okay, so, yeah, I would miss you a little bit. A lot, actually. But, this was also a better opportunity! Who knows the places I’ll end up with this type of experience?”

“You’ll go wherever you want, Champ. I’m happy for you.” Chadwick used his fist to nudge your shoulder before taking a seat beside you on the edge of the fountain. Extending his arm, he pointed toward the picnic table to direct your attention to the conversation between both sets of parents. “What you think they’re over there talking about?”

“Knowing my mama, she’s talking your mama’s head off about me and you being together again and all the trouble we might get into.”

“She’d be correct, then.” A sly smile slid across Chadwick’s face, worrying you with what was going on in his overactive mind.

“Oh, no. No. Whatever you’re thinking, the answer is no.”

“C’mon! Give me a second to explain!”

While Chadwick attempted to pull you into one of his plans for a fun outing in New York, conversations of the future transpired between the Boseman and Greene families. In a way, Chadwick was right. They were discussing your futures together, but in a wildly different context.

“So, who do you think will be the one to own up to their feelings first,” Carolyn asked. “My money is on my son.”

“Really? I’m betting on Tasha. I’m surprised she’s gone this long with her feelings hidden. She usually wears her heart on her sleeve.”

“Whoever says it first, just know it’s tradition for the bride’s father to pay for the wedding.”

“Don’t remind me,” Gerald groaned. “Just make sure y’all tell us about every movie Chadwick writes or stars in so we can add to this wedding fund. If they’re both wealthy, we won’t have much to worry about.”

The table erupted in laughter before all four heads turned to look over at the spirited banter between old friends and budding lovers.

Raising his glass, Leroy proposed the last toast of the evening.

“To family. We’re happy to have y’all on board.”

Elaine and Gerald followed suit with raised cups and proud smiles. “To family.”

__________

TAGS: @njadont @k-michaelis @wakandanmoonchild @idilly @texasbama @afraiddreamingandloving @inxan-ity @daytimeheroicsonly @onyour-right@brianabreeze @sisterwifeudaku @ironsquad @killmongerdispussy @90sinspiredgirl @willowtree77785901 @maynardqueen101 @heyauntieeee @halfrican-heat @purple-apricots @lalapalooza718 @blue-ishx @profilia @ljstraightnochaser @girl-wtf-lmao @dramaqueenamby @royallyprincesslilly @melaninmarvel @thiccdaddy-mbaku @lavitabella87 @purplehairgawdess @unholyxcumbucket @airis-paris14 @uhlxis @oshasimone @maliadestiny @drsunshine97 @cozyshack2 @zxddy-panther @queentearra @skysynclair19 @retro-melanin @mermaidchansons @misspooh @melanisticroyalty @babygirlofwakanda @wakanda-4evr @sarahboseman @karensraisns @blackmissmarvel @wakandankings @kaykay4454fan @ororowrites @awkwardlyabstract @mixedmelanin @brownsugarcocoabutterwildflowers @sunflowerpsalms @panthergoddessbast @justanotherloveaffair @jaeee-http @iliketowrite1996 @blackpantherismyish @thompettiedatheaux @msincognito67 @reignsxjackson @yaachtynoboat711@syreanne @ilcb7@minim236 @yoyolovesbucky

#Chadwick Boseman #chadwick boseman imagine #chadwick boseman x reader #chad x coco #coco x chad

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fucking-zawa-sensei · 6 years

Text

Don’t Kid Yourself: Chapter 4 - I Take It All Back

Pairing: Erasermic – Shouta Aizawa|Eraserhead/Hizashi Yamada|Present Mic

Categories: pining, unrequited love, slow burn, angst, very very slow burn

Word Count: 5,000+

Summary: The repercussions from their conversation in the car follows Aizawa and Yamada throughout the rest of their week. Something makes Yamada distant and Aizawa tries to ask questions without breaking boundaries.

Notes: Chapter 5, the one after this, will be the last angst heavy chapter of this fic (there will be some sprinkled in here and there, but nothing like the past few). It will focus on Yamada’s POV for the days and events covered in the below chapter. This is why he is intentionally vague here. Everything will be answered in chapter 5. I am trying to get the ball rolling so I can stop torturing you in a couple chapters. I wanted this fic to feel genuine and true to life, so there is quite the slow build, but it will have erasermic eventually. Thanks for reading!

The previous chapter took place on Wednesday. I noticed my timeline might be a little confusing, so here’s the rundown: Monday - Ice cream date Tuesday - Yamada doesn’t talk to Aizawa Wednesday - Yamada doesn’t talk to Aizawa until after class in the car (I’m counting the “day time” portion of Wednesday as one of the two days Yamada gives him the silent treatment). This chapter starts Wednesday night. Aizawa POV.

Read it on AO3 here

Other Chapters: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]

Chapter 4: I Take It All Back

Wednesday Night.

Bzzt. Bzzt.

Aizawa’s phone shuffles a bit across the wooden top of his bedside table. He’s laid out on his stomach atop his bed covers, pillow comfortably stuffed under his upper chest, reading a book.

Bzzt. Bzzt.

He reaches over to pick up the phone and check who’s messaging him, but the display just shows an unknown number. He unlocks the screen and looks at the anonymous messages.

“Hey did something happen to Hizashi? He seems down.”

“This is Haru, btw. Sorry, he gave me your number a while back just in case!”

“In case of what?” Aizawa mumbles, closing his eyes and rubbing the bridge of his nose.

With a groan, he types back, “We just had a talk, it’s fine.”

Imai’s response time is either impeccable, or he already had a pretty good idea of what was going on, because his reply comes only seconds later.

“About me?”

“No.”

“You, then? You and him?”

Aizawa shuts his book and places it on the nightstand. How much does Imai know about what happened between Hizashi and me? Aizawa thinks, trying to figure out how best to respond.

“Yeah,” is the simple message he shoots back, rolling over to face the ceiling and wait for what he knows will be just another incredibly awkward conversation. At this point, Aizawa’s beginning to feel like that’s all the talking he’s capable of doing anymore. That and exasperatedly begging teenagers to not get themselves killed for just one week.

His phone vibrates again where he has it resting between his hand and his chest. He lifts it up to see what Imai has to say.

“Why is he so sad?” Aizawa’s eyebrows raise a bit in surprise. I thought for sure he’d go straight to digging about our relationship.

“Beats me,” Aizawa replies.

“Come on, that can’t be true. I’m worried about him.”

Aizawa hesitates to respond, thumbs hovering over the keyboard. He didn’t particularly want to rehash their whole conversation to Imai.

“Why don’t you just ask him?” he asks. Surely, the dream team was capable of communicating.

“I tried, he doesn’t want to talk.”

Aizawa frowns. Interesting.

“Then wait until he does, it’s not my place to say if he doesn’t want to talk about it.”

Aizawa waits for a response, but it seems Imai has accepted his reasoning, falling silent. Aizawa closes down his messaging app and taps his gallery open, then his downloads folder, before opening up the orange kitten in the lion’s mane costume Yamada had sent him a few days ago to cheer him up. Aizawa smiles at the picture, honestly, it was cute.

He rolls back over to his stomach, grabbing his book again, but stops before flipping back to the page he’d been on. Picking up his phone, he copies the little kitten picture into a new message to Yamada and sends it off.

Aizawa doesn’t get another message until he’s 3 and a quarter more chapters into the book and his eyes are getting a little drier than normal. He’s considering just calling it a night, but he kind of wants to finish this chapter. He’s rubbing at his right eye when his phone vibrates and lights up on the pillow next to him.

He looks at the screen and sees this time it says “Hizashi” on the preview with a little unread envelope and 2 new messages next to it.

“Thanks! :D”

I thought you were supposed to be sad.

The other message is another picture. This time of a fluffy yellow duckling cuddled up with a sleeping black cat. Aizawa saves the attachment.

“Cute.” is all he texts back, a small smile starting on his face. He shakes it off. This feels too weird. He’s just pretending it’s okay again.

Yamada sends another picture of someone poking the tiny toe beans of a tabby cat.

“I want a cat! :(“ comes Yamada’s follow up text. Aizawa starts typing out a message about how he can just come play with his cat, Mai, but thinks better of it and deletes the whole thing. If Yamada’s really feeling better, he should be talking to Imai, not him.

“Get one then, you’re an adult.”

“Come with me to a shelter sometime?”

Aizawa would love to go to a shelter and help Yamada find a cat. He can’t think of something better than being surrounded by adorable adoptable cats and watching Yamada grin and melt as he plays with all of them, but adopting a cat seems an awful lot like something people should do with their partners. Especially when they live with them.

“Shouldn’t you pick one out with Imai?”

Aizawa has to wait several minutes before Yamada finally answers.

“Yeah, you’re right.”

“He texted me, you know.” Aizawa isn’t really sure he should be calling Imai out, but it’s not like they talked about anything secret.

“What?! Really?!” comes Yamada’s first message, quickly followed by another.

“Shouta, I’m so sorry, and after I said I’d tone it down…”

“I told you that you don’t need to do that,” Aizawa rolls his eyes. He did not want to rehash their fight on a platform he’d actively have to delete it from. It was hard enough trying to get it out of his mind. Aizawa looks back down to his book, still not finished with the chapter. I should have just said he could come play with Mai and left it alone.

“I know. Sorry.”

“Stop apologizing,” Aizawa sends.

“What did he want?”

“He wanted to know what was wrong with you.”

“Oh.”

Oh? That’s it? Aizawa thinks. Guess that answers my question. He didn’t talk to him. Then why is he acting better?

Aizawa glances at the clock, which reads 11:17 PM. He doesn’t usually go to bed this early, but he also doesn’t usually have this much free time to go to bed this early. He might as well take it. He’d been the one to help Yamada for most of his life, but now he had someone else, so Aizawa decides gently pushing him into talking to his partner is probably for the best.

“I’m going to bed, see you tomorrow.” He types out and sends to Yamada. It’s met with a picture of a cat wearing a nightcap and tucked into a tiny bed.

“Sleep well, Shouta.” A little red heart and a microphone emoji is sent with the final message. Love, Mic. Yamada had been ending any conversations that led into either of them going to bed like that for many years. It had been a few months since Aizawa had bowed out of a conversation for rest, though. He almost considers opening up his own emojis to see if there’s an eraser, but decides to let it go. He sets his phone on the nightstand, along with his sadly unfinished book, and turns off the light.

---

Thursday.

Aizawa doesn’t see Yamada at work the next day. He knows the voice hero is in the school, though, because the kids are all still going to English class and leaving without any gossip or questions floating around the halls. There’s even a stack of graded pop quizzes on his desk in the staff room when he stops there to eat lunch. They’re English quizzes, which honestly could be the work of a substitute, but the grades all have accompanying smiling, frowning, or halfway between faces doodled beside them. There’s even one that looks like it’s puking. They might as well be signed, “Graded by Mic.”

Aizawa glances around the staff room. Midnight and Cementoss are the only other two in the room. Kayama glances up from her lunch.

“What’s bugging you?” she asks.

“Where’s Mic?”

She shrugs, looking back down at her food. “He was here earlier.”

“Where is he now?”

She looks up at him, raising one eyebrow. “Why are you so worried about where he is?”

Aizawa gives her the best bored expression he can manage. “It’s unusual that he’s not here.”

“Maybe he’s at lunch with Haru,” she says, but it’s not malicious. She’s frowning, eyes downcast. Kayama had been half the reason Aizawa had enough guts to finally confess to Yamada. Aizawa knew she’d felt a great deal of guilt when he’d gone to her apartment that night he’d confessed, shaking with anger and hurt. He’s not resentful and had expressed that a number of times. In the end, it had been his decision, but Kayama had always been rather outspoken about her feelings. The whole event had put a strain on her as well.

“Yeah. Maybe.”

Aizawa pulls out his chair and moves the stack of quizzes over to the side. They all eat in silence.

Aizawa doesn’t run into Yamada at all the rest of the day.

---

The next day is Friday, and it starts much the same as the previous. No signs of Yamada.

Again, he knows he’s here somewhere. He’d casually asked the students if they were prepared for all of their upcoming assignments or if they needed a study period, fishing for information, and was readily obliged by Iida. The boy gave an emphatic run down of their upcoming tests and projects, including a presentation in Yamada’s class today, which some of the students were more than a little panicked about if the way they nervously played with their pencils and looked down at their desks was any indication.

He’d decided to have mercy on them and allow them to use the homeroom period to practice their presentations on each other. He was a little surprised to find most of the class wasn’t actually too bad at English. Yaoyorozu was perhaps a little over prepared, but Jirou’s English could rival Yamada’s, sounding conversational and flowing well. Aizawa wondered if it had to do with the music they both listened to. He’d seen her in the dorms wearing t-shirts of American bands that he knew Yamada also owned merch for.

After the free period, he walked out to give the classroom over to Midnight, but rather than stroll in with her confident walk as usual, she grabbed his elbow and pulled him to the side.

“He’s in the computer lab right now,” she whispered in his ear, then pushed him gently in the direction of that room. Before he could say anything, she was giving the class a cheery “Good morning!” and closing the door.

Now, Aizawa finds himself walking to the computer lab. He wasn’t sure why he really needed to see Yamada. They had nothing to talk about. Space was probably a good thing after the discussion they had in the car, but he kept thinking back to how Imai had seemed so worried, and the way Yamada had cried not once, but twice during their conversation. Aizawa knew why he was suffering, and knew the whole situation wasn’t easy on Yamada either, but he didn’t think Yamada would be this affected by it.

He slides the door to the lab open and finds it empty. He’s not really surprised. There are computers in the staff room, and the students are all in class now, so unless there is an in-class project calling for computers, they’re usually empty before the kids start filing in after class is over to type up papers and work on assignments. Aizawa turns around to leave, but spots a little tuft of blonde hair poking around the side of a desktop monitor a few rows back.

He approaches quietly, slowly. A few more steps down the aisle and he can see Yamada’s got his head resting on his arms atop the table, keyboard shoved to the side.

Is he sleeping? Here? Aizawa thinks. He’s usually the only one doing that.

He reaches out to tap Yamada’s shoulder pad and the blonde immediately raises his head. Not sleeping, then.

Yamada turns around to see who tapped him and his eyebrows shoot up a little when he sees Aizawa.

“Ah! Hey!” he says, straightening up in his chair. The leather on his arms makes a peeling noise as he moves. He’s been lying here a while, Aizawa thinks.

“What are you doing here?” Aizawa asks, looking at the blank computer screen. The little power light isn’t even blinking, which means it’s not asleep, rather, it was never turned on.

Yamada also looks at the screen, then back at Aizawa, scratching his chin a little.

“Uh? Contemplating the universe and life as we know it?”

“Ambitious.”

“You know me! A real go-getter! That’s what my mom always said!” Yamada jokes, pointing at himself with his thumbs.

Aizawa smiles a bit, then pulls out the chair next to Yamada to sit down. Yamada’s hands drop.

“What’s wrong?” Aizawa asks. Yamada sighs.

“That obvious?”

“You’ve been purposely avoiding me for almost two days and now you’re ‘contemplating life’ in the computer lab.”

Yamada smooths out his mustache and then readjusts his headphones a bit.

“Haru and I had a fight that night I was texting you.”

After? It seemed too late for them to fight after he’d said goodnight. Before, then...but he seemed happier than when we were talking in the car, not worse.

“And?” Aizawa asks.

“And I didn’t think it would be appropriate for me to talk to you about it,” Yamada shrugs, “so I ran, I guess.”

“You didn’t get very far…” Aizawa says, “Hizashi, I told you-”

“Not to pretend he doesn’t exist. Not to hide my feelings, yeah, yeah, yeah. I know.” Yamada waves him off.

Aizawa frowns. Short fuse today.

“You’re giving me a lot of mixed rules here, Shouta. You don’t want to hear about cute stuff we do together, but you want to hear about the bad stuff?”

It doesn’t feel like a particularly fair way to word it, but he’s not wrong. Aizawa feels kind of guilty.

“I don’t know…” he answers, trailing off.

Yamada bites his bottom lip.

“I don’t want to talk about it either way,” Yamada says.

“Okay.”

“I know you said no about the shelter, but do you want to go to the cat cafe today instead?” Yamada asks. His voice is quiet, hesitant. Aizawa’s not sure why he’s asking that on a Friday, though. Yamada has his radio show and Aizawa is going on patrol. This happens every Friday, without exception.

“Hizashi, do you know what day it is?”

“Of course! It’s-” Yamada’s face very quickly goes from indignant to embarrassed, “it’s Friday…:

Aizawa nods.

“Saturday, then?” Yamada asks, hopeful.

Aizawa kind of feels like they could use some space after everything that’s happened this week, but Yamada seems determined to make plans together.

“Sure, Saturday. Not too early, though.”

“No, of course not. Like, 3?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“Great, I’m looking forward to it,” Yamada says, pushing away from the table to stand up.

Aizawa grabs the sleeve of his jacket.

“Hizashi...I know what I said in the car...but things got pretty heated. I don’t want you to think you have to hold everything in just to spare my feelings. You’re right, I didn’t really want to hear about dates you went on with Imai or things he did that you thought were cute, but if not hearing those things means I don’t hear from you...I’d much rather put up with it.” Aizawa looks up at Yamada, whose mouth is open just a tiny bit, eyebrows pulled together. “If you’re upset, you can talk to me about it. I’ll try to be unbiased.”

Yamada nods slowly, smiles.

“Thanks, Sho,” he says, patting the back of Aizawa’s hand with the hand that’s not being restrained by his grip. Aizawa lets go.

“I…” Yamada hesitates, “I’m not really sure I want to talk about it right now.”

Aizawa nods, getting out of his chair to follow Yamada out. Just as the blonde is about to step into the hall, Aizawa pulls on the back of his leather jacket’s high collar. Yamada jerks to a stop.

“Hey! What was that for?” he asks, turning around. Aizawa points up to Yamada’s tower of hair.

“You’ve got a piece falling down,” he says.

Yamada looks up as if he’s going to be able to see the mountain of hair atop his head.

“Where? Can you fix it?” he asks, turning like a dog looking for its tail.

“Yeah, hold still!” Aizawa says, grabbing his shoulder pads on one of the rotations. He reaches his hand up to smooth out the loose strands. They stick easily to the rest of their gelled up brethren. Yamada runs his hand over the spot Aizawa just touched, making sure it’s indeed intact.

“Thanks,” he says. “What would I do without you?”

“Mhm.” Aizawa hums, moving past him to leave the lab.

---

Saturday.

Aizawa’s alarm goes off at 12 PM and despite a full 8 hours, he still feels like he could sleep for 20 more. He hadn’t gotten back from patrol until 4:17 AM last night after some trouble with a gang of small villians who made friends with a troublesome girl who could control the wind. He still kind of felt like his ear drums were being buffeted with hurricane gusts. Aizawa slaps his hand down on the alarm to silence it and rolls over onto his back, rubbing at his eyes, then his temples, then just dragging his hands up and down his entire face.

Maybe I should just cancel plans with Hizashi.

As if summoned, his phone vibrates on the nightstand. Aizawa blearily reaches for it. The light blinds him for a couple seconds as his eyes adjust.

“Excited for the kitties? I am!”

Aizawa knows this is Yamada’s subtle reminder that he should get up. He rolls over to look for Mai, who he knows will be on the bed somewhere. He finds her curled up near his feet. He snaps a picture of her and sends it as his response.

“Perfect princess.” Yamada responds. A moment later, Aizawa gets another text.

“I’ll drive!”

Aizawa makes a face. He doesn’t have a car, which both Yamada and him know, but Yamada shares his with Imai, who typically uses it during the weekends to drive one town over for his production job. They’d been doing onsite shoots for some TV show for the past few months. While he worked in their town during the week, taking the train, Yamada always gave over his car for the long commute on the weekends.

“Is Imai done with that location shoot?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Yamada replies, a thumbs up emoji accompanying it.

Deciding it’s not worth his effort, Aizawa gets out of bed to go shower and get dressed. He chooses some simple dark wash jeans and a black sweater for the day and lays them out on his bed.

---

Aizawa is lounging on his couch, feet propped up on the coffee table, waiting for Yamada. He glances at his phone again. The display reads 3:16 PM. He considers asking Yamada why he’s late, but figures if he’s in traffic, he doesn’t want to distract him.

He gets up to go get the book he’d been reading from his bedroom, making it halfway down the hall when his phone rings. He slips it out of his pocket.

“Hizashi?” he questions, staring at a picture of Yamada with his hair in a half-bun and a surprised smile spread across his lips as he claps his hands together in happiness. Aizawa had taken the candid photo a few years ago when they’d gone to a new specialty coffee shop for the blonde’s birthday. Aizawa had requested the barista draw a microphone surrounded by hearts and the words “Happy Birthday” into his latte.

He slides the answer button across the screen and holds it up to his ear.

“Hello?”

“Hey, I’m so sorry!” Yamada’s words come out fast and loud.

“It’s fine, traffic is usually bad on Saturdays.”

“No, uh...I haven’t left yet.”

“Oh,” Aizawa responds, leaning against the wall. He hears Yamada sigh and some rustling on the other end. “Do you want me to just meet you there? I can take the train.”

“No. Shouta, I’m sorry,” Yamada says. Aizawa wants to tell him he’s getting really sick of apologies.

“You can’t come?”

“No…”

“Why?”

“Something came up-”

“No, Hizashi. Why?” Aizawa cuts him off.

There’s a long pause. Aizawa can hear Yamada breathing, then a thud that sounds distinctly like something hitting a wall.

“Haru.”

“What’s wrong with Imai?”

“Shit, Shouta.” Yamada hisses. Aizawa frowns. Yamada’s voice sounds desperate. “I...no. Let’s go to the cafe. I’m sorry, let’s go.”

“Hizashi.”

“Please,” Yamada begs. Aizawa’s chest feels tight. How could he say no to that?

“Fine, but let’s just meet there.” Aizawa suggests, not really interested in the forced privacy that comes with being in a car.

“Okay, I’m headed out now. I should be able to make the train at 3:30.”

“See you there,” Aizawa says, hanging up.

He stares down at his phone for a while. Aizawa drops his head back against the wall. It makes an alarmingly similar sound to the one he’d heard coming from Yamada’s side of the conversation. Aizawa feels like he’s back fighting the wind villain again. Yamada’s emotional state seemed to be changing by the second for the entire week. Aizawa couldn’t keep up.

Still, he’d try.

----

Yamada took a different train line than he did, so they didn’t bump into each other at the station. As Aizawa turns around the corner, he seems him leaning against the side of the cafe’s building, one leg propped up. He’s got his hair completely down, not even in a bun or braid. He’s wearing his clear glasses, some boots and tight, ripped black pants, and a simple maroon pullover with some band logo on it. His hands are stuffed in the front pocket and he’s staring at the ground. All and all, for Yamada, he’s unusually dressed down.

Aizawa crosses the street. He thinks about making his approach purposely loud to break Yamada’s attention away from the sidewalk and give the man enough time to put his fake smile on. It proves unnecessary. Yamada pulls his gaze away from the ground and does a quick look around his surroundings on his own.

“Hey!” Yamada calls, pulling one of his hands out of his pocket to wave at Aizawa. Aizawa nods at him.

“Hi.”

“Let’s go,” Yamada says, pushing the door to the cafe open before Aizawa gets within even four feet of Yamada. The blonde has to awkwardly hold the door until Aizawa reaches it, unwilling to pick up his pace.

Aizawa hands his punch card over to the hostess and waits for Yamada to fish his out of his overstuffed wallet. Aizawa notices the way his hands shake a bit as he hands it over to the woman.

A little calico cat rubs up against his leg and he bends down to pet its head. The cafe is mostly empty, just a few groups of people here and there, waving wand toys, or reading a book with a cat in their lap. The cafe is busier during the lunch hours than this weird half-afternoon, half-evening time they’ve chosen to come.

Yamada comes up beside him and coos at the calico, giving it a long stroke down its back and over its tail. They both straighten up and Yamada points toward a little alcove with colorful pastel pillows piled for sitting. It’s pretty far away from the few other people. Aizawa nods and follows Yamada’s lead, the little calico trailing behind them.

When they reach the alcove, Yamada flops onto the plush pile. Aizawa sits down more slowly beside him. He sits with his legs crossed and the calico steps in, circling twice, then curling up in his lap. He runs his hand down its back and scratches behind its ears. Aizawa looks over to see Yamada is stretched back on the pillows, arms lazily lying across his stomach, head tilted back. His long hair is everywhere and his eyes are closed.

They sit like that for a long while, the only sound the small purring coming from Aizawa’s lap. Aizawa thinks Yamada might just fall asleep here, but abruptly, he breaks the silence.

“We broke up,” Yamada says.

Aizawa’s hand pauses. The cat lets out a small unhappy meow. Question after question start immediately pouring into Aizawa’s head. There are too many to pick just one. He can’t figure out how to make his mouth move. How do words work, again?

“Uh,” is somehow all he manages to get out.

“Uh?” Yamada questions.

“What?” Aizawa asks, looking at Yamada. His eyes are still closed and his face is still pointed up towards the ceiling.

“I don’t know,” the blonde runs his hand roughly through his hair, making more of a mess of it.

Yamada laughs. Aizawa lifts his hand off the cat, afraid he’s just going to end up crushing it with the way his body is starting to lock up.

“I kind of thought you’d be happy...or something,” Yamada whispers.

Anger is starting to feel like a constant in Aizawa’s life.

“Happy?” he says, his voice rough and accusatory. “I’m not a dick, Hizashi. You just ended a two year long relationship. That’s a lot to deal with.”

“Yeah…” Yamada responds, finally opening his eyes. His head tilts slightly in Aizawa’s direction. He looks like he’s squinting, with how little effort he’s put into actually lifting his eyelids. His mouth is just a straight line. Aizawa stares at his unmoving lips.

“I’m not that desperate,” close though, Aizawa thinks, then continues, “I’m not going to just start trying to woo you.” Who says that would even ever work…

“Yeah, no, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have thought that. I didn’t really...I...yeah…” Yamada rambles quietly, pulling a strand of hair through his hand over and over again.

Aizawa hesitates to ask it, but he really wants to know.

“Can I ask...why?”

“Why?”

“Why did you break up?” Aizawa rubs the back of his neck, feeling a bit uneasy, and like he’s pushing too far. Best friend or not, people had their boundaries. “You seemed perfectly happy before we got ice cream.”

“Oh...yeah. I don’t really know that I’m ready to talk about all the details...I just have a lot of things I have to sort through right now.” Yamada releases a big sigh. He slinks down further into the surrounding pillows. His green eyes shift away from Aizawa to look at the cat in his lap instead. “Haru...Haru was wonderful. I loved him, really, I did, but...something has been bugging me for a while now, even before we got ice cream. I think our fight in the car just...I don’t know...triggered something. Sometimes things felt perfect and sometimes...they just weren’t. Haru and I had a talk that night, and the next one, and the next one, and today…we’ve been talking for a while now. Before this week. Before this month...we’ve been talking and fixing and trying and...” Yamada trails off. Aizawa lets him take a moment to gather his thoughts.

“I’m just done talking, Shouta. I’ve got a big mouth, you know?” Yamada chuckles at his self-deprecating joke. Nothing Yamada just said settles well in Aizawa’s stomach.

“When you’re ready to talk, I’m here. I won’t tell you to shut up or anything. You can talk my ear off,” Aizawa offers.

“Of course I can…” Yamada says. Aizawa can’t ignore the way his lips almost look like they’re on the brink of a scowl.

“What?”

Yamada moves suddenly, rolling over, giving Aizawa his back to stare at. Aizawa watches one of his hands come up and over his side, tightly gripping his sweatshirt. Aizawa realizes he’s hugging himself.

“Nothing, don’t worry about it.”

“Hizashi…” Aizawa starts, “Did you break up because of our conversation in the car?”

“Not...really. It was more than that. Like I said, this has been going on for a while.”

“But you seemed happy. Everything you said implied you meant to spend more time together...you said you wanted me to like him, you wanted to talk about him, you-”

“Shouta.” Yamada stops him, tone grave. “I never said I was the one who did the breaking up.”

Oh...

Oh.

Aizawa looks down at the cat, now sleeping happily in his lap.

He hears Yamada shift next to him.

“So...Sho,” he says. When Aizawa looks back, Yamada has turned around and is propped up on his elbows. The voice hero has an uncharacteristic pink hue spreading across his cheeks and nose. “I...uh. I lived with Haru.”

“Yeah…” Aizawa responds, not quite getting the point of bringing it up.

Yamada pulls at a loose string sticking out of one of the pillows.

“I gave up my apartment last year.”

“Yeah?”

Yamada pouts.

“So I don’t have anywhere to go.” he grits out, turning fully to face Aizawa now. He crosses his arms.

Oh.

“You want to stay with me?” It’s not an offer and he sees in the way Yamada glances away that he knows too. Living together would be weird. It’s too soon. There’s too much happening right now. Sure, they’d spent nights and weeks and even months at each other’s places before, just to hang out, to work on a case together, because one or the other was closer to a villain they were tracking, or their apartment needed repairs.

That was all before Imai.

“I don’t think that would be a good idea,” Aizawa says.

Yamada nods slowly, a small, sad smile on his face as his eyes fall shut. Yamada flops back down onto the pillow pile, turning a little bit to lean into them. He spends a long time breathing into the pillows. Aizawa pets the cat again, giving him time.

“Where will you go?” Aizawa asks.

Yamada shakes his head.

Too soon.

Aizawa pets the cat some more and waits.

“Do you think Nemuri would let me stay with her?” Yamada asks after some time, voice quiet.

“Why not?”

“You know why not.”

“Hey,” Aizawa says, giving Yamada a hard stare, but the blonde is still focused only on the pillows. “Look at me. Hizashi. Look at me.”

Reluctantly, Yamada raises his head and looks at him.

“It is not your fault you loved someone else.” Aizawa says, then, “No, listen to me. No,” as Yamada’s mouth pops open, prepared for a rebuttal. “I can’t help that I love you and you can’t help that you love Imai. We don’t get to decide that. Nemuri is not holding that against you. You’re being irrational right now because you’re feeling vulnerable and upset…” Aizawa thinks about the way he was convinced Yamada was never going to speak to him again after he’d been rejected. Pain makes people crazy.

“You know she’s still your friend, you know that,” Aizawa insists. “She came up to you this week to tell you about some book she thought you’d like. You think enemies recommend best sellers to each other?”

Yamada shakes his head, laughing a bit. “No, I guess not.”

The blonde scoots over, closer to Aizawa, and reaches into his lap to scratch the calico behind its ears. It starts purring again. Yamada pulls himself in further, resting his cheek against Aizawa’s knee.

Aizawa tries to ignore the way his heart just went from calm to crazy in .02 seconds. Shit.

Shit. Fuck. Shit.

He might have acted all high and mighty, saying he wasn’t going to woo Yamada now that his relationship was over, but he was kidding himself if he thought his feelings for him weren’t going to get worse now that Yamada was technically available.

He’s upset, you idiot. He needs time. Besides, he never said he was interested.

Aizawa shakes his head a bit. Yamada looks up at him briefly, then back to the cat. Aizawa promises himself he’s not going to think about Yamada like that. He promises himself he will be a supportive friend, helping Yamada through this. He will wait. He will be understanding. He will listen to Yamada if he’s upset. He will let him take as much time has he needs to feel stable again.

He will.

Then, when that’s over...maybe…

Maybe…

Aizawa’s knee feels cold and a little damp. He looks down and sees Yamada’s eyes are closed, but he’s crying. Silent, constant tears sliding down over his cheeks and down his neck, marking his hoodie with little wet spots. The other side of his face is still pressed into Aizawa’s knee, all the tears soaking into the fabric before they really get much of anywhere.

Aizawa clenches his jaw. He hates himself for thinking about a future with Yamada right now, no matter how many months or years off his fantasy might have been from this moment.

He’s crying and heartbroken and I’m selfish.

Give him time, Shouta, give him time.

#erasermic #maizawa #don't kid yourself #erasermic fanfiction #maizawa fanfiction #aizawa shouta/yamada hizashi #aizawa shouta #yamada hizashi #erasermic fanfic #maizawa fanfic #erasermic fic #maizawa fic #bnha fanfiction #boku no hero academia fanfiction #my hero academia fanfiction #mha fanfiction #bnha fanfic #mha fanfic

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darveyfics · 6 years

Text

The Art of Trick-or-Treating

Prompt:

Anon: Darvey take their son/daughter trick or treating for the first time

mrgaretcarter: TRICK OR TREATING WITH THEIR OWN KID(S) ps: one of them has to be a girl

He had come home on Wednesday evening later than usual in an attempt to finish up work so they could spend the Halloween weekend at his father's place in Boston and not be interrupted by clients with questions. It was approaching midnight when he walked in and noticed the overhead lights at the kitchen island were still on, and he turned the corner to find his wife, sitting on a barstool, with what he assumed to be dinner she had shared with their daughter at a normal hour earlier this evening.

He sets his briefcase on the floor near the island and lets out a long sigh and moves to Donna's side, pressing his lips to her temple and whispering his hey.

"Hey," Donna greets through a mouthful of macaroni and cheese. "There’s more in the oven if you’re hungry.”

"Oven?" He asks but moves away to the other side of the island to take it out anyway.

"Your daughter wakes at the sound of your alarm going off for your 5:00 am runs. Do you think I was going to test that on the microwave at midnight when I'm starving?" Donna says with a slight laugh. "I wanted to eat my food while it was still hot."

He chuckles and uses the hot pads, and notices there’s an extra plate still on the counter, so he sets the hot dish on the top of the stove as he closes the oven door and turns the stove off.

He piles the macaroni and cheese onto his plate and sits on the barstool next to her.

"How's the world of corporate law this evening?" Donna jokes as she runs her fork of cheesy noodles through her puddle of ranch dressing on her plate.

"Pretty quiet for the start of the fourth quarter of the year," Harvey says with a shrug.

They eat in silence as Donna scrolls through the various apps on her phone and looks at all the tagged pictures she's in on Instagram with interest.

"You finish her costume?" Harvey asks between bites of his dinner.

"Yep," she nods as she likes a comment that made her chuckle a little inside. "And, of course, she wanted to watch The Little Mermaid as I finished it. So we viewed it three times today."

Harvey shook his head.

"It’s your fault you know," Harvey pointed out. "You’re the one who showed her all the princesses with the same hair colour as the two of you."

She sets her phone down and stabs noodles on his plate and eats them and gives him a look.

"You can do my dishes," Donna says as she stands and sets her fork across her empty plate. "I have to pee."

Harvey shakes his head and watches as she leaves the room and goes back to their bedroom. He finishes dinner and their dishes, and he's yawning as peeks in the room across from theirs to find his little princess has decided to sleep at the foot of her bed.

When he steps into his own room, Donna is laying on her side of the bed and has stolen one of his pillows. She’s far from sleep and watches as he moves through his nightly routine. After stripping down to his boxer briefs, he climbs into bed, and she shifts to find a comfortable position as she moves closer to him.

"How long did you nap today?" He asks quietly as his fingers weave through her locks.

"Umm, five-ish hours between the two naps?" She sighs. "I’m exhausted but can’t sleep. Big surprise."

His fingers move from her hair to steal under the sheets and run down her side to her waist, drawing a pattern on the side of her growing belly.

"I can tell you a riveting tale about the meeting Jessica and I just had with Paul Porter and his bowtie trying to convince us we should switch the firm's compensation structure," he tells her while still tracing patterns on her belly.

"You paid attention?" She asks with more than a hint of scepticism in her tone.

"Well, Jessica told me the highlights. His bow tie was a bunch of little pumpkins and aliens. I was fascinated and worried at the same time," Harvey recalled.

"Elizabeth definitely gets her attention span from you," Donna quietly laughs. "But, sure, bore me to sleep."

Harvey pouts a little, but soon enough he launches into his day that had been jam-packed with meetings. -- Thursday, the day before Halloween, is a slow start to their long weekend. Harvey decided to let Donna sleep in a little and gets their three-year-old daughter ready for a half a day of driving, but she's a little hostile in the way only three-year-olds can get away with, and she wakes Donna with her jagged crying.

He's looking apologetic as Elizabeth runs and hugs her mother's legs and Donna decides today a bribe will get them closer to a successful morning and future nap, so she suggests going out to get hot chocolate and pancakes and Elizabeth stops crying and looks up at her mother with wide brown eyes. She has to let her father put her in warm clothes since its autumn, and they compromise with one of her rejected costumes. And as Harvey helps her dress as Donna gets dressed from her pajamas into something loose and comfortable for a walk down a few blocks, he thinks about the past Halloweens they've had as a family.

Her first Halloween, Elizabeth was two months old, and Donna was in Los Angeles doing talk show rounds with the various networks promoting her film that was coming out and a new television show she was taking part in. Naturally, where mom went, the new baby went. She had taken pictures of their baby dressed in a little monkey onesie costume they had picked out when they had gone outfit shopping and sent them to him via text. It was a welcome respite from the frustrating day of court he had when he got back to his office to find pictures and a video waiting. When they had FaceTimed later that night, he watched as his little monkey fell asleep as Donna unwrapped candy she had received in the guest dressing rooms as they talked about their respective long days.

Her second Halloween, they had moved into a new building and didn’t know any of the neighbours. So, Donna had the day off from the set, and she took the little Nemo in with her to Pearson Specter and the partners and associates were kind enough to take a minute out of their day to let the two-year-old get candy. Harvey had been meeting with a client so they were a surprise in the office when he came back. Elizabeth had wiggled out of Jessica’s arms and ran to the elevators to reach for her father. It had been an Instagram-worthy photo with little hands squishing Harvey’s cheeks in an attempt to make fish lips as he grinned. That picture was a top ten of the year as it passed over 100,000 likes. A new record for her that year.

Now, her third Halloween would be the first time she'd experience trick or treating for real as Donna was wrapping her series and had gotten Thursday and Friday off and Harvey was the one with the idea to give her a real trick or treating experience like they had when they were kids. Donna reminded him that she had spent most of her younger trick-or-treating years in Cortland where the houses tend to be half a mile away or longer. He gave her a look because he was just trying to make a gesture and she laughed and told him it was sweet.

As bribed, they eat breakfast at the café down the street. As they walk, Elizabeth is between them, dressed as a little zookeeper with a little giraffe wrapped around her neck. Elizabeth's hands are in either one of Donna's and Harvey's and every few minutes Elizabeth counts one, two, 'free, and she's lifted between them, and a giggle makes its way past her lips.

Their daughter can’t contain her excitement at the little foam pumpkin the barista draws in the milky froth of her hot chocolate. While waiting for their food, Donna sets all their drinks together to show off the art of a maple leaf, a pumpkin, and a cat face in their respective beverages. Of course, little fingers that are more interested in continuing to sneak the extra chocolate powder feature in the picture she edits for her Instagram.

"You know your most loyal fans will be here within ten minutes," Harvey points out as he sees she tags the location.

"Why do you think I always post it as we're finishing?" Donna says as she shows him it's all set to be posted, but she hasn't pressed the done button. "I'd like to eat these pancakes in peace."

Harvey looks at her with slight concern as she wraps her scrambled eggs in a pancake with a bit of syrup. But he learned to stop asking, and it's not like anyone in the café is paying attention to them.

Elizabeth eats her one along with her eggs, separately, and since they're sitting on the same side, she leans into his side, and her fork touches his french toast in an effort to steal it. He takes the hint and cuts it up, and Donna laughs and shares a conspiratory grin with their daughter as father and daughter share the remainder of Harvey’s breakfast.

When they get back to the condo, it's much easier to finish packing the last minute items and loading the SUV for the nearly five-hour drive--in good traffic--to Boston when mother and daughter are sated with food.

And, it's a more leisurely drive when, a few hours in, both of his passengers are asleep, and he can listen to his music in peace. -- When they get to Gordon Specter’s hour in the late afternoon, Marcus and his family were already there. It looked like they had come straight from school as two bright pink backpacks sit near the coat rack in the entryway. His father was watching a rerun of some show, his brother and his wife were on the couch, and it looked like the five and seven-year-olds were outside burning off energy.

He opens the door with Elizabeth still half asleep in his arms and an overnight bag hanging on his shoulder while Donna held the garment bag all their costumes were in for tomorrow night.

They say passing hellos as they head upstairs for his old bedroom to set their stuff down before heading back downstairs.

When he finally sat down on the loveseat with Donna, Katie made an effort to clear her throat loudly and dramatically.

He heard Donna sigh, and he hid his grin by pretending to check to see if Elizabeth had fallen back asleep or if she was just quietly observing the scene around her. It was the latter.

In Katie Specter's hands was the most recent issue of Vanity Fair with Donna’s face on the cover. It was fitting that she be on the October issue and get to dress up in Halloween costumes considering this is her favourite holiday.

"I see you’ve found a fascinating read," Donna says as she leans forward on the cushion she sits on. She turns to Gordon. "How many did you buy?"

"I’m kinda digging that you’re Ariel, Merida, Elastigirl, and Elsa, all in one article. But the best part is probably your little Anna," Katie laughs as Gordon pretends like he doesn’t hear Donna.

"They were going to have me be Anna, but when they saw her, well, they decided she'd make her modelling debut," Donna says with a laugh.

She gets up from the couch and moves to the kitchen to get herself water and thinks if she's hungry, Elizabeth is bound to be as well and sneaks some Chex Mix from Gordon's pantry.

"I'm wondering about the new feature coming in April 2015," Gordon says with his brows raised as he ignores the television for a moment. "Your IMDB doesn't list any projects with that release date."

It had been one of the last questions they asked what she had been looking forward to in 2015 and she had laughed before answering 'Probably my feature in April 2015' and not giving any more details.

Before she sits on the loveseat again, she turns to her audience and her hand that holds the bag of Chex Mix moves to her tunic, and smooths the material over her growing but still a moderately small bump for 18 weeks.

"Our new feature," Donna laughs. "Due like nineteen days before I have to go back to work on the new season in April."

"Shit," Marcus finally pipes up and hands over a fifty dollar bill to his father.

Gordon winks at Harvey as Donna sits on the loveseat again and she and Elizabeth dig into his Chex Mix. -- In an effort to have Elizabeth's first real Halloween be memorable, they all decided it would be a family-themed event.

"I'm starting to regret this costume," Donna says as she catches Harvey's eyes in the mirror as she teases her hair a little more with her pick comb.

Harvey gives her an appreciative once over as she stands up straight.

She was wearing a black bateau neckline, high waisted dress that had violet, lavender, purple, white, and black tulle draping down the waist to make her look like an octopus without the gaudy appendages.

She had teased her hair with enough product to wonder if it would set itself on fire near an open flame. Her off-white hair sits in a messy beehive. She has shockingly bright red lipstick on and the most vivid blue eyeshadow colour he'd ever seen.

"Because it's supposed to rain later?" He asks.

"More like my boobs hurt, my back hurts, and I swear my feet are also starting to swell the longer I stand here," she sighs and tosses the comb in her hands onto the counter.

Harvey steps into her personal space and his hands move over her hips through the tulle. He spaces out his thumbs on either side of her lower back to find the familiar knot on either side. His thumbs work in a tiny, circular motion with ease as he presses close.

She leans her hands against the counter as she breathes in and out slowly.

"Better?" He asks after a few minutes of kneading and watching her mirrored reflection.

"It's a start," she concedes.

"Mmh," he says with a laugh as he backs away and lets her turn to face him. "You smell like baby powder."

"Can't exactly use the temporary hair dye," she says with a sigh as she presses a hand to her growing belly that's somewhat hidden in the folds of tulle.

"You could have worn a wig," he points out and regrets it as soon as she narrows her eyes.

"I just wore a wig on and off for the last month. These locks need to breathe," Donna reminds him. "And all this new hair growth is making my scalp itchy, so it's a good thing we're wrapping soon."

"Let's go get our little Ariel so we can trick-or-treat and then I can feed you. And I even went to get that god awful spumoni ice cream and some potato chips for you from the store."

Donna frowns because that's exactly what she wants. She hates that her cravings are predictably the same.

"The tabloids think my cravings are ice cream and pickles," she notes as she follows him out of the washroom.

"I bought pickles once for sandwiches," Harvey says as he shakes his head.

"Apparently if you buy ice cream and pickles at the same time, they report I am pregnant, and they assume it's for me," Donna shrugs her shoulders.

"Well, I mean, they're not wrong with one report. We just haven't officially confirmed it? Nevermind we also bought like thirty other items at the grocery store that day," Harvey sighs but drops the subject as they find themselves now on the outskirts of his father's living room with a grumpy little Sebastian, a crying Flounder, and a mischevious looking Ariel in the arms of King Triton.

"That's all you," Donna pats Harvey's arm before moving to the coat rack to get her black hoodie--just in case it does start to rain.

Harvey moves and takes Elizabeth from his father's arms.

"She hasn't done anything," Gordon says. "But I know that look, so I kept her out of the fray."

Her little brown eyes are twinkling with mischief, and her little dimples are showing as she laughs as her two cousins get reprimanded by Marcus who’s the crazy Chef Louis and Katie, dressed as Carlotta, the palace maid. Harvey tampers his own smile and figures the best course of action is just to leave the situation before he starts to laugh and set a bad example.

"Let's have you go potty before we head out," Harvey says as he walks back to the washroom on this floor to let his brother and sister-in-law handle their fighting children.

Donna had gone with a long sleeve peach-coloured leotard for Elizabeth's costume to keep her warm. Ariel's familiar purple seashell top was carefully stuck on the leotard thanks to neat strips of iron-on adhesive that's usually used to hem pants magically. She was determined to keep their three-year-old warm while trick or treating without compromising the costume, and since she couldn't sew worth a damn, improvisation is essential.

She had the foresight to get one that had buttons, so there was no catastrophes or wardrobe malfunctions as Harvey helped Elizabeth out of her green sequence skirt and lime green leggings to keep her warm. He thinks Donna will teach her to hold skirts and dresses up after she masters the main point--to go when she needs to and without prompting or them noticing the familiar "potty dance."

For his own Prince Eric costume, he'd stuck with his own clothes--a bright white button down and dark blue jeans. He had to find a pair of black snow boots, and he had folded his jeans up to where the boots and pants meet. Donna had snuck a red sash from the costume department to tie around his waist, and he sported a combover and had enough pomade to make it darker than his sandy-brown natural hair colour.

All in all, it was quite the family affair, and Donna made sure to capture the whole thing with video and pictures. -- Gordon Specter lived on a cul de sac in one of Boston's suburban, middle-class neighbourhoods where everyone knew everybody, and there were monthly neighbourhood cookouts.

To begin, they practice at Gordon's door, and Marcus's kids participate thanks to a bribe of ten dollars from Harvey for their time.

The seven-year-old rings the bell and Gordon answers the door with such enthusiasm Elizabeth wiggles excitedly and giggles out a version of trick-or-treat and attempts to go back inside.

"Hey, wait, you don't go into the houses," Harvey says as he scoops her up. "You say trick-or-treat and then wait for candy."

Harvey nods, and they try it again. That time she doesn't go in, but as they call it a success and Gordon deposits a box of Milk Duds in her bag, she digs through her bag and hands said tote to Harvey and runs to Donna whose conversing with Katie at the end of the driveway.

There's a brief meltdown as Donna explains treats are for after its all done but her tears vanish when Donna says they can share this one box until tonight after dinner. Elizabeth doesn't know the box only holds four and Donna takes two for herself as she hands the open box back to Elizabeth as they begin at the neighbour's house for the official start.

With Gordon living on the block for the past 15 years, it’s not surprising when neighbours see Donna, Harvey, and Elizabeth with Gordon, Marcus, and Marcus' family as they trick-or-treat, they want to chat with the New Yorkers who only make the occasional holiday visit. Thankfully, they refrain and just mention they need to catch up one night when they’re still here or plan something at a later date.

Harvey's tenth grade English teacher lives a block down from his dad, so it's no surprise he spends a little more time here and makes Donna come up the driveway with him and Elizabeth. The woman reminds him that he almost failed her class by failing to participate in the theatre portion of class and wonders how he appreciates the stage and acting because he's been married to a famous actress for the past eight years.

"I'm a Donna fan, Mrs Burkowicz," Harvey shrugs. "Maybe if I had gone to tenth grade in Hartford, I would have passed English with more than a B-."

Donna bites the inside of her cheek and Harvey tilts his head and grins. Elizabeth’s trick-or-treat sounds more like 'tick-er-teat' and Harvey stifles a laugh each time she mutters it.

Elizabeth gets an extra handful of candy despite her father's sass.

"For you and your mom," Mrs Burkowicz says as she looks to the little Ariel whose eyes are huge as she looks between her canvas tote and the lady who just gave her treats.

"No, dad," Elizabeth conspires.

Donna decides now is the perfect time to laugh aloud, and she takes Elizabeth's hand and starts to walk away.

Harvey looks back at his old English teacher, and the woman winks before shutting the door.

Donna and Harvey take turns walking up the driveways with the rest of his family as they continue moving throughout the neighbourhood.

They make it almost four more blocks before Elizabeth gets tired of walking and asks to be held by Harvey. It’s another seven blocks before she falls asleep and they go another ten before the sky begins to darken and Donna’s steps slow because her back aches, her feet are sore, and she’s hungry for something that isn't candy that she's been sneaking every few blocks from Elizabeth's bag she carries.

Donna thinks she's going to really enjoy this weekend eating through their kid's candy and wondering how many slices of Pinocchio's she can eat without getting tired of the cheesy goodness. -- Elizabeth was still passed out, leaning against her mother as Donna lounged against the arm of the couch with her feet in Harvey’s lap as he sat on the far cushion and absentmindedly worked his fingers against the muscles and tendons in Donna's feet and calves. They were waiting for Katie and Marcus to get back with the pizza, pasta, and salad before waking Elizabeth. With Elizabeth draped alongside her and stuck between her mother and the couch, Donna's skirt and dress material were pulled enough that everyone in the room could really see the swell of her belly.

"You know what it is yet?" Gordon asks as he watched his daughter-in-law run her fingers through her daughter's hair as the less boisterous Specter family shared the room. The other little kids are in the kitchen trading candy and drinking a can of soda they're not really supposed to have in an effort to get a sugar rush while mom and dad are away and grandpa's in charge.

"Uh, a few days ago, the ultrasound tech accidentally said it’s a girl," Donna says as she looks over at her father-in-law with a small smile. "95% certain."

"Both my sons, surrounded by females," Gordon chuckles. "Did Marcus let you know they’re trying for a boy?"

Harvey shook his head, but Donna nodded.

"Katie was wondering if we’re going to have another. I told her we needed to get through birthing this one before thinking about a number three," Donna says honestly.

Gordon chuckles, and Harvey already feels slightly overwhelmed by the thought.

As Harvey and his father play catch up, Donna finds a fantastic photo of the three of them where her bump is visible and decides to let her fans in on their secret. After all, its been almost a month of speculation since Vanity Fair was published with her cryptic interview answer and thankfully her coworkers and the set crew kept mum even as fans began to stalk the set more and tweet at her fellow cast members.

In the photo outside on the lawn of Gordon's house, Elizabeth is having a little meltdown, pulling on the tulle skirt of her mother's and therefore showing off her baby bump as Donna, as Ursula, kisses Harvey, as Prince Eric. When Katie sees it on her own feed the next day, she jokingly demands a photo cred, and when Donna does indeed photo cred her username, Katie ends up with hundreds of new follower requests.

She posts another two during the weekend in Boston. One of the backs of the entire crew walking down the sidewalk--she doesn't like to feature the faces of little ones, including her own, just to keep something private. The last is a shot of Harvey and Elizabeth as they sit on the rug and sort out the Halloween candy. In the photo, Elizabeth is sharing an M&M with her father.

That weekend, Donna tells Harvey they should really do the whole neighbourhood-type trick-or-treating every year, and she hopes the family-themed trick-or-treats last at least until Elizabeth is a teenager and therefore becomes too cool to dress the same as her soon-to-be sister.

Harvey wonders if it’d be appropriate to also buy a house in New York to escape to for the weekends. And, for future trick-or-treating adventures. And, maybe to even start hosting holidays and inviting people and having enough room to spare.

#darvey #darvey fic #donna x harvey #author: harrietspecter #prompt #halloween prompt #one shot #rated t #not connected with my AU. I just like the name Elizabeth for a baby girl

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imoutofpracticeyall · 7 years

Text

Halloween Plans

Dadsona is excited about Halloween as always, until there’s a hitch in his plans. Dadsona/Joseph. Dadsona POV. SFW

Halloween was always an excitable holiday for you, especially this year, what with the new neighbours to compete with, you had so long since outdone everyone at your old neighbourhood and was known as the ‘it’ house to be trick or treating at for years. In fact, in the weeks building up to the holiday you’d been testing the waters by bringing out your decorations bit by bit, day by day. You thought you were winning for a good while, until Damien decorated his house and well there was no competing that, you guessed you’d have to settle for joint second with Brian.

However, most of your Halloween gusto had been punched out of you when you received the phone call that Amanda wouldn’t be able to come home for it. You tried not to sound disappointed or outright cry upon realising this would be your first Halloween without her because, well, you were expecting it. She was swamped with coursework and (even though she didn’t say it) she’d want to go a student party with her friends. Still, you couldn’t stop it from hurting.

At least you wouldn’t be alone, you thought to yourself. You did have the Christiansen’s (A very recent extension to your family) one of which you could see making his way over to you at present. Pretending not to notice Joseph’s approach, you continued to pop little plastic pumpkins and skulls over fairy lights hanging from your window.

His hands caught your shirt at the waist, swiftly drawing you against himself, your back pressing against his chest, he actually booed at you. You feigned a yelp of surprise and swatted at his arms that were secured around your middle, the heat in your cheeks, however, was honest. In the commotion of all this, you’d dropped your bag of pumpkins and skulls. “Joseph! This is literally the third time!”

He only laughed and pressed a kiss to your shoulder, “If you hated it, you’d stop pretending not to see me.”

Damn. He’d caught on to you. “Well, I am not picking those up.” You said, defiantly, hoping it’d be enough to change the subject.

Releasing you from his grip he took the bag you’d been holding and gathered up the light covers whilst you watched. “So, plans for tonight?”

“Hm, not really, giving out candy and calling it a night, I guess.”

“No Amanda then?”

“No Amanda.” You hadn’t meant the words to come out as dejected as they did, she was grown up now, she wanted to do grown-up things without her father and that was normal. It was fine. You were fine with it.

Joseph must have picked up on your distress because as he gave you back the bag he made sure to kiss you, it was simple, sweet and lasted long enough for you to sigh into it as he brushed his hand against your cheek. You were in your forties, this sort of thing shouldn’t make you as weak in the knees as it did. His arms came back around you, Joseph liked holding you and if there weren’t too many people around you couldn’t keep him off you. “Once we’re back from trick ‘n’ treating we’re having a scary movie marathon, you’re welcome to join.”

“I thought you didn’t let the kids watch those anymore?” Your voices were quiet, you were so close they didn’t need to be more than a whisper, if the neighbours saw, they might think you weren’t talking at all.

“Well, it’ll be more Corpse Bride than Carrie. That is unless Mary has her way.” You pushed away in shock, not completely out of his hold but enough that it lost the intimacy, “Mary will be there?”

He sheepishly avoided your gaze as his hands started fidgeting with the folds of your shirt, “Yes, we’d been talking Christmas and about how we don’t the kids to have to split it between us. So we’re thinking of spending it together.”

“And Halloween is your practice run?”

He nodded rolling his bottom lip between his teeth. A night with Mary. She’d long since gotten over the two of you being together, even given her blessing that you could be involved in the kids’ lives, but still, the three of you hadn’t actually spent any time altogether. Mostly, you saw her with Damien at the shelter; you were even pleasant with each other. Sighing, you pulled completely out of his arms and went back to your decorating. Joseph and the kids weren’t involved at the shelter so you didn’t breach the subject with her, it was as if you and Mary had made a silent pact not address it. Could you actually keep up the pleasantries in front of them?

“I don’t think it’s a great idea that I’m there, Joe. Maybe I should sit this one out.” You could visibly see Joseph’s heart sink when he looked back at you. “Babe, I just think it’ll be easier for the kids this way.”

He could see the sense in your words, you could tell that much, you just wished he didn’t look so hurt by them. Amanda couldn’t come to see you and you couldn’t be with Joseph. Tonight was turning out to be very disappointing. The silence between you became increasingly uncomfortable, neither of you was happy with how this conversation had played out. Finally, he broke it, “You know where to find us if you change your mind.”

You nodded and watched as he left before reluctantly going back to your decorating. In the distance, the sun was idling its way to the horizon and soon child sized monsters would be at your doorstep.

The costumes excelled this side of maple bay, most of the dressed up tykes you didn’t recognise and the ones you did it was only because their father was stood with them. His own son being too old and aloof to dress up anymore Damien helped make everyone’s costumes each year. There was nothing that man did half-heartedly. You had to personally apologise to Daisy, though, as she had hoped to dress up with Amanda and assured her Amanda would be happy to dress up with her any other day, conventions be damned.

It took awhile for the Christiansen’s to get to your door, it seemed the dads had a schedule worked out so the kids could visit each other houses. When they did finally get to you, your mood immediately lifted seeing a theme in their costumes. For once the twins were not a pair, Christie had dressed up as Wednesday Addams, Christian was little Pugsley and Chris made a very handsome and very tiny Gomez.

“Well aren’t you all very frightening!” You gasped, holding out your bowl of expertly chosen candy and letting them take for more than everyone had been allowed.

“We wanted to be devils!” Christie said as she shovelled the candy into the bag. “Dad told them no.” Chris finished, also shovelling in candy. (You thought you might run out at this rate.)

An indulgent laugh escaped you as you let your eyes drift to where Joseph stood, who was not dressed up unlike some of the other dads. No Mary insight. “You couldn’t sacrifice the pink for one evening?”

“Honey, pastel is a lifestyle, you might not recognise me out of it.”

“Shame, you would have made a handsome Lurch.” You stood, finally pulling the bowl away from the children and realised Crish wasn’t with them. “Where’s the little one?”

“With mommy, it’s too cold for him, silly.” Christie chimed in. So she was here, it should have made you happier that they were learning to be a family again after the divorce, still, you couldn’t help selfishly feeling downtrodden. Joseph had started to say something but it was too late, the twins were tugging on his hands excited to claim more candy and before you knew it they were walking away.

Closing the door behind you, you opted for a beer and sat down to watch TV. It was getting late, there shouldn’t be too many more trick or treaters and you’d already given out candy to all the kids in the cul-de-sac so you could justify a couple of drinks now. It wasn’t like you had any plans.

TV, it turned out, did not help your mood. It was mostly horrors that were either too gory for your simple tastes or had romance plots that you just couldn’t get mushy over right now. What’s worse is that one of the kid's channels was actually playing corpse bride. It wasn’t like the movie made you feel anything only that Joseph had simply mentioned that movie earlier. And then you were thinking about them, about Joseph and the kids and Mary all sat together pretty as a picture. A picture daddy’s boyfriend just didn’t fit in.

You drowned the thought with the rest of your second beer and was about to get a third when someone knocked at your door. It was too dark for any more kids to be out now, you thought about leaving it, your curtains were closed so they wouldn’t know you were awake. The knocking came again, a little louder this time, sighing you moved to open it.

“Hey, sailor.”

“Mary!” Shamefully, you couldn’t hide the shock in your voice.

“I don’t appreciate you dodging me like I’m the plague.” She clicked her tongue as she looked you over and crossed her arms. “Thought we were past all that.”

“I just thought,” You shuffled your feet on the spot, averting your gaze. “You’d want tonight with the kids,”

“How sweet, but I cannot deal with three sugar-hyped kids and Joseph playing the lovesick puppy every time Christie mentions your name,” Mary rolled her eyes when she caught the wave of heat hit your cheeks. “Just get your coat.”

She barely gave you time to grab your keys and coat before she was dragging you out the house and into the street. She didn’t stop until the pair of you were at Joseph’s door, she paused letting her hand linger on the handle for a moment. “I’m okay with it, you know.” Her voice was uncharacteristically quiet. “Not just you being with Joe, but you being around the kids. You being... A part of the family.”

You felt your heart swell in your chest and wondered whether Mary knew how much this meant to you. If you didn’t know for a fact she’d hit you for it, you would have hugged her, instead you settled for quiet, “Thank you.”

As soon as the door was open the twins came rushing at the pair of you, Christian tackling his mother’s legs and Christie tackling yours. “You took too long!” They whined in unison and they hung off the pair of you.

“His fault.” Mary said, pointing her thumb in your direction, before wrestling the small boy off her and walking with him to the sofa, Chris quickly cuddling up to her, “So what movie are we on?”

“Chris chose Caroline, but it sounds a bit-”

“Oh my Lord, Joe, it’s a kids movie! It’ll be fine.”

At the sound of his voice, you quickly closed the door and lifted Christie in your arms, looking around for him. You eyes found Joseph crouched in front of the TV, muttering in defeat as he put on the DVD. The smile that spread across his face when he noticed you had your heart leaping; it wasn’t fair how easily he did this to you. In the next moment, he had strode over and planted a kiss on your lips.

Christie protested, wriggling in your arms and swatting at your faces. “Grooooss!”

“Yeah boys, gross, it’s Halloween, not Valentines!” Mary teased and encouraged Chris and Christian to join in with the chorus of ‘yucks’.

To their mercy, you stopped and the pair of you sat to watch the movie, Christie squishing herself between the pair of you. You had a feeling she was on smooch patrol, it didn’t stop Joseph stretching his arm across the back of the sofa, so he could idly play with your hair, sending the occasional shiver through you. A feeling of content washed over you as your fears of not belonging dissipated. You were at home.

#joseph christiansen #Joseph/dadsona #Dream daddy #ddadds #a dad dating simulator #halloween #long post #my writing #it kinda cuts short at the end but it was getting so long #whoops

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