#now i just gotta figure out what happens next lmao

[bizaar]

Cruel Summer - Part 8

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pairings: Eddie Munson x fem!reader

summary: After breaking up, you and Eddie do your best to soldier on with your lives, but you slowly begin to discover that there is a stronger line of connection keeping you together than just history…

word count: 12k

warnings: swearing, mentions of Chrissy's death, fluff, just really saccharine fluff, sappy love, if you know you know

A.N.: Babysitter!reader part eight, newly formatted to make jumping between chapters easier! Mean!Girl Steve is in full force, and I kind of love it, Dustin finally learns the truth.

When you finally get back to Benny’s, the parking lot is full, indicating that with the passing of mid-morning into afternoon, the masses have finally descended.

The diner is swamped with regulars and newcomers, a whole host of the same onlookers you’d seen standing around gawping back at the trailer park. They’d been staring at you then, trying to get a good look while you were being forcibly removed from the Munson trailer and unceremoniously interrogated, and they’re staring at you now, whispering amongst themselves as you push through the doors and stalk across the diner floor.

Your coworker is running back and forth like a freshly decapitated chicken, berating you for leaving her to fend for herself, but you don’t stand around long enough to listen to her dig into you for abandoning your post.

You’ve wasted enough time as it is. 

You’d been detained by the Hawkins’ boys in blue for the better part of an hour, and the walk back had been unceremoniously long. With the weight of Wayne’s money sitting heavy in your pocket and his words even heavier on your shoulders, you’d walked, repeating them to yourself like they were the lyrics to a song you were trying to memorize, a desperate attempt to ward off the paralyzing fear they stirred in you.

You said them over and over again until that fear subsided and gave way to something more grounded, over and over until it was all you could think: Find Eddie, get out of town, don’t come back.

You’re muttering the words to yourself as you slip into the hallway between the kitchen and the dining room, where a short row of beat-up lockers stand beside the punch clock.

There you find Earl, looming in the doorway behind you with his thick arms crossed over his barrel-chested form, staring tiny holes into your back as you snatch your things from the locker you’d stashed them in that morning – jean jacket, bag, car keys, find Eddie, get out of town, don’t come back.

“– Are you even listening to me?” Earl snaps.

You twist at the waist to blink at him, stupidly you imagine because you had not heard a word he’d just said, so caught in the mire of your thoughts as you were. 

“No,” You answer honestly, followed directly by, “I’m leaving.”

The tone of Earl’s flesh deepens until he’s turned nearly purple and is all but frothing at the mouth as you skip back through the diner. He follows, as any self-respecting employer would, you imagine, hurling threats at your back.

You’ve already made it to the door by the time he manages to get out from behind the counter, making one last-ditch effort to stop you.    

“You step out that door and you’re done here, Missy!” He shouts.

The proposed loss of your income does nothing to deter you. 

You don’t miss a step as you shove the door open with a familiar chiming bell that you imagine you will be hearing for the last time.

Fine — Good riddance. 

Your triumphant exit is, however, not punctuated by the cheers and swelling music you’d always imagined it would be. It is, in fact, wholly uninspired as you leap down off the curb with Earl still shouting at you how you best not come crawling back, blah blah blah, and make your way across the lot to your little Toyota, left all but abandoned.

It is only after you slide into the driver's seat and jam the keys into the ignition that you discover, much to your chagrin, at some point over the last couple of hours your car’s battery has died.

Just fucking typical.

You don’t have time to run around trying to find someone to jump it for you, so you shoulder your bag and bid a silent farewell to your trusty little car before starting up the road towards town at a swift jog.

Somewhere in the back of your mind, you know it is going to be a problem when eventually you find Eddie and have to figure out how you’re going to get him out of Hawkins without the use of a car, but you’ll just have to cross that bridge when you come to it. 

You’ll get this done if it kills you, one Sisyphean hurdle at a time.

Of course, you have no earthly idea where you are even meant to start looking for Eddie, and it is only by sheer dumb luck that you somehow miraculously find yourself headed past Adam’s house.

Miraculous, considering you’d only cut into the neighborhood in a panicked attempt to avoid the cop car you’d seen nestled in its speed trap on the shoulder of the road, but all the more so because, like a stroke of divine intervention, you’ve somehow found yourself stumbling across an honest to God, Corroded Coffin jam session.

What are the odds? 

Like nothing has changed and somehow the encroaching cloud of doom has not yet reached this part of town, Jeff, Adam, and Gareth are all there, standing huddled together in the open garage like they were waiting for you.

The coincidence of it all drives you a little crazy, especially considering Eddie is not with them. You can’t help the pang of bitter disappointment you feel as you have to remind yourself it was never going to be that easy – nothing with Eddie ever is.

The band, sans its frontman, stands staring at you wide-eyed and gawping like they’re seeing a ghost as you bolt up the driveway, shouting their names and waving your arms for their attention as you come screeching to a halt.

Your body is surging with enough adrenaline to almost make you forget how your lungs are burning. You’ve done more running today than you have all year, and your body is not happy about it – funny how quickly you get out of shape once things like regularly mandated physical education become thing of the past.

“Whoa, holy shit, Dude!” Jeff squeaks out, stumbling over your name and the chord of his electric guitar as he moves towards you, “H-hey! It’s been a minute,”

You don’t let him finish, you don’t have time for a game of catch-up. 

“Where’s Eddie?” you demand, well aware of how you are starting to sound like a broken record even if only to yourself. “Have you seen him?”

The question seems to shock them. Adam and Gareth exchange nervous glances, meanwhile Jeff makes a harsh sound in the back of his throat that is a little closer to disgust than you like and recoils like you’d threatened to slap him.

The reaction might have confused you if not for the fact that you are well aware of the way he’s always had a big crush on you and the tension it has created between him and Eddie as a result.

You are not in the least bit surprised to see that it has not changed, but you have neither the time nor the patience to be nice to him about it.

You don’t care about Jeff’s feelings, you only care about finding Eddie. 

Gareth has to elbow him in the ribs to stop him from saying something snide as he answers you.  

“Not since Hellfire last night–” He begins, lamely fumbling for the excuse he doesn’t get the chance to trot out before Jeff cuts him off with a scoff.

“I saw him.” He says matter of factly, garnering horrified reactions from his friends.

Gareth’s eyes widen as his head whips around so fast you half expect to see it spin all the way around.

He and Adam are staring daggers, silently willing him to shut up, and suddenly you get a strange, sinking sense of betrayal like they are grappling with something big and unwieldy that is not for your eyes.

You swallow it, you can process it later if your feelings are still hurt.  

“You did?” You gasp. 

Jeff nods.

“Dude— don’t.” Adam hisses.

He narrows his eyes and shoots Adam an unimpressed look.

“What? It’s not like she isn’t gonna find out.” He says, sounding almost like a mocking reference to a conversation they’ve had before. Adam glares at him but says nothing, and Jeff looks almost smug as he turns back to regard you, “I saw Eddie,”

Your heart is in your throat and you can’t quite decide if it’s for excitement or nerves. You’re practically vibrating for it and you have to ball your hands into fists to stop yourself from grabbing Jeff by the front of his shirt and shaking him.

“Where?” 

He shrugs.

“In the school parking lot after the game. He was headed out with…”

Jeff trails off under the chorus of Adam and Gareth swatting at him and telling him to shut him up. It sets the band to bickering aggressively and your skin to crawl.

You can’t stop yourself from bouncing up and down in a near panic as you try to reign their attention back in.

“You guys, come on, please focus! I have to find Eddie, it’s an emergency!” 

It is enough to silence them.

“Jeff — you saw Eddie in the parking lot after the game…” You prompt him.  

After a moment's hesitation, Jeff averts his gaze and clears his throat. It causes your stomach to churn with dread. Despite how fairly certain you are you already know what he’s going to say, you suddenly aren’t sure you want to hear him say it.

He nods in a way that is almost halfway sheepish, like he’s only just realized what it is he’s about to say and who he is about to say it to.

“... I saw him getting into the van with Chrissy Cunningham… you know, that cheerleader?” 

Bingo.

Stupidly, it hits you like a fist to the gut, winding you ever so slightly.

You suppose you already knew that Eddie and Chrissy had been together last night in some capacity — how else would she have ended up dead on his living room floor — but in the midst of the morning’s panic, you hadn’t allowed yourself to consider the reasons why they were together, and now your insides are burning as your mind races with the suggestion of hideous possibility. 

You swallow hard and clench your teeth – it’s stupid to be jealous of a dead girl, you know this, and yet…?

Gareth pipes up then, grabbing your attention before you can go down the tantalizing road of bitter self-destruction by imagining Eddie and Chrissy together in any kind of intimate capacity.  

“What’s going on?” He asks tentatively, “Why do you need to find Eddie so bad?”

You open your mouth to speak before you’ve decided what you should or should not tell them about what you know. Do you tell them the truth or do you make up a sanitized version of things to try and save face, to protect Eddie?

You’re suddenly so conflicted that you feel as if your throat has filled with cotton, rendering you speechless. 

It takes you half a minute to finally force something out, settling on, “He’s in trouble.” 

Which, in the grand scheme of things is a relatively banal statement. Eddie is always in some kind of trouble, but you hope your presence is enough to clue the band in on the gravity of the situation as you swallow hard against the tightness of your throat and the black pit of jealousy forming in your stomach. 

Gareth’s brows come together over his eyes. 

“What kind of trouble?”

The worst kind.

You shake your head, partially because you don’t know where to begin but mostly to try and banish the image of Chrissy’s gaunt, screaming face from where it has shouldered its way to the front of your mind.

You set your jaw and breathe out a slow, shaky breath, but you don’t get the chance to gather your thoughts before they’re scattered to the wind again. 

“Oh, shit…” Adam mumbles, “Is it that bad?”

You don’t answer, though only because you don’t expressly know how to answer. It is that bad, and it’s worse.

After a long moment of silence, he blows out a harsh breath and shrugs.

“You know, you’re not the only person looking for Eddie,” Adam says, sending a pang of white-hot fear lancing through your midsection for what that could possibly suggest, until, “Dustin Henderson called about twenty minutes back asking basically the same thing.”

Your heart leaps into your throat as a cool wave of relief washes over you. In spite of yourself, you feel a bright and dangerous hope welling in your chest, banishing the black pit swirling there.

Dustin! Of course, wonderful, sweet, amazing Dustin would know where to look!  

The bright feeling lasts only the briefest of moments before it is dashed to oblivion because Gareth is giving you a very tense look, like he’s busy putting the pieces of a puzzle to paint a terrible picture of the truth.

“This doesn’t have anything to do with that girl who got killed… does it?” He asks.

It’s shocking, like the clanging of a bell ringing in your ears and deafening you.

You feel your heart seize in your chest and are aware of how your jaw falls open ever so slightly, betraying any discretion you might have hoped to keep regarding the situation at hand. 

Trust Gareth to always see straight through to the greater underlying truth. 

Adam and Jeff exchange nervous glances as you fail to answer. You feel suddenly very small under their collective gaze as words fail you, and all you can do is stare back at them. 

Unfortunately, your silence speaks for itself, and you watch Gareth’s jaw flex as the gravity of the situation finally starts to sink in.

You suspect they must have imagined it was just the typical Eddie trouble and no real emergency. What are you if not their friend’s ex-girlfriend, banging down the door and demanding to know where he is after he goes off with some cheerleader for God knows what – you think you can probably make a pretty good guess for what — don’t go there, don’t do that to yourself…

It makes sense that they would close rank around their friend, “bro-code” being what it is – it’s bullshit, but in the fucked up logic of the masculine brain, you suppose it’s bullshit that makes sense.

It doesn’t mean you have to like it. 

“…It’s Chrissy…isn’t it?” Gareth asks then, his voice trembling and so soft you would not have heard him had he not been standing so close, “The dead girl?” 

The silence that falls over the garage is deafening.

Your stomach bottoms out and you are struck with a wave of cold nausea. You wire your jaw shut, suddenly reluctant to answer on the off chance that despite being Eddie’s friends, somehow their collective consciences lead them to the same terrible conclusion you are certain everyone else in this backwater town is going to jump to. 

You would protect him from that if you could, in spite of everything, be his shield, but your body betrays you, and you’re nodding before you can stop yourself.

They react with varying degrees of horror, faces blanche, swears are uttered, Adam covers his face in his hands and you can hear him muttering “Jesus Christ” to himself over and over. It leaves you wondering if he’s swearing or praying.

Gareth takes you by the arm, then, and leads you away from the cloud of hysteria you have created among them, back towards the drum set crouching in the shadows of the garage. 

He doesn’t immediately speak to you, he can hardly even look at you, which is not expressly fair considering you’re only the messenger. The color has drained from his face, and for half a second you think maybe he’s about to keel over or throw up, or something.

After a very long moment, he finally makes himself breathe out a harsh, shaky sigh. His hands are shaking as he cards them through his hair – he glances back at his friends, at his feet, and then at you, like he’s trying to decide what to say. 

You can’t blame him. What does someone say to something like that?

You imagine if you hadn’t been so single-minded in finding him you would be reeling too – you’d seen Chrissy’s body, afterall.

“He-he didn’t…? Fuck– did Eddie—”

“Stop.” the word wrenches itself from somewhere deep within you in a breathless gasp. You can’t bear to hear him say it, “Don’t you dare ask me that…”

Gareth sets his jaw and levels you with a strange, hard look before finally giving a short nod. You’re not sure what it means, but you don’t like the jagged edge of the way he’s looking at you. 

You do your best to steady yourself, but your voice is trembling as you speak.

“Look, I know this seems really bad, I get it, but… but Christ, G, this is Eddie we’re talking about, okay? It’s Eddie. We know he’s not like that, he would never do something like this… I mean, come on … he won’t even kill a spider.”

Gareth is shaking his head, but somehow you don’t think he disagrees with you.

It is, after all, a point of favored teasing among the group – Gareth in particular. Big tough Eddie Munson is scared shitless of spiders … and all flying bugs, you might add, but now is neither the time nor the place to offer that little tidbit of information.

Still, your brain offers you the rather unhelpful mental image of Eddie last January, leaping up out of bed and literally sprinting to the safety of the trailer’s front porch, where he’d stood shivering in his boxers as you quickly relocated a particularly large wolf spider from the nest it had made in a dark corner of his bedroom.

You wish you were back there now, arguing with Eddie as he refused to be coaxed back into the trailer, despite the subzero temperatures, instead of standing here in this terrible moment, wondering where in the hell he could possibly be.

“What happened?” Gareth sniffs, squeezing his eyes shut like he hates to ask but he has to know.

You cross your arms over your chest and cast your gaze down to your grease-stained keds.  

“I don’t know,” You mumble, “But it’s only gonna get a lot worse if I don’t find Eddie right now.”

A sticky silence blooms between you, but it barely has a moment to settle before it is whisked away.

“Uh oh,” Adam calls from the front of the garage. “Jerk alert,”

“Jesus, what are they doing here?”

A cursory glance toward the front of the garage reveals Jeff and Adam staring at something out on the street.

You follow their gaze to see the butched-out Jeep Cherokee that has pulled up to the curb and your heart seizes in your chest as you come to recognize it and the great many basketball players that begin to spill out of it – the Hawkins Tigers, with Jason Carver at the lead. This is bad, this is very bad.

Since graduating, you don’t keep up with the interconnected gossip of the Hawkins social elite, like who is dating who, but it occurs to you all too late that you are, in fact, very well aware that Chrissy Cunningham had been Jason Carver’s girlfriend.

At least until last night.

Adrenaline spikes through your limbs and you’re struck with the same nagging urge to run that you’d woken up with that morning. 

If Jason is here, then it can only mean that news of her death has reached him, though more importantly, it means Jason knows who Chrissy was with when she died. 

You have to find Eddie, now.

Before you can even think to move, Gareth grabs you by the sleeve of your jacket and drags you deeper into the garage, leading you to the wall where a dozen boxes are stacked up against a disused side door.

He begins pulling at them, doing his best to dislodge the cardboard barrier standing between you and your escape. He speaks with a hushed urgency as he works, looking back over his shoulder at the scene unfolding at the mouth of the garage.

“Go.” He says, wrenching the door open as far as it will budge, “Find Dustin, if anyone’s gonna have a line on Eddie, it’ll be him. We’ll try to buy you some time.”

It’s a tight squeeze, but you hold your breath and manage to push through with the meager sacrifice of two buttons from the front of your dress and only the slightest amount of scraping.

Before you can slip out the other side, Gareth catches you by the wrist and says your name.

His brows are pulled tight over his eyes as you glance back at him. 

“He didn’t mean it.” He says thickly – you don’t have to ask to know who he means, “Whatever he did with… with Chrissy?”

Gareth trails off then, shaking his head like he isn’t sure he ought to even say her name, let alone try and make excuses for whatever did or did not happen. 

You dismiss the notion with a quick shake of your head. The jocks are getting closer, and you’re running out of time to escape. 

“It doesn’t matter–”

He cuts you off.

“No, it does. Just… just let me say it, in case he’s too chicken shit to do it himself.” He huffs, “Eddie’s been fucked up over you all year, okay? Trust me, whatever he did, whatever happened between you? He’s killing himself over it… he still loves you, Man, he’s just too stupid to do anything about it.”   

You swallow hard to try and stop any kind of reaction from spilling out of you.

You don’t have time to fall apart, but the coincidence that he would use those exact words? He still loves you? What could possibly have possessed Gareth to tell you that, why now?

How much had Eddie told them about what he’d said to you that night last August?

Before you have time to consider the notion, to muster any kind of proper feeling about it, Gareth pushes you through the door and shuts it behind you.

You stagger gracelessly into the grass on the other side of the wall, only just managing to stay on your feet as you hear the telltale scrape and thump of Gareth putting the boxes back in place.

You’re off and running again as the first of the jock’s voices reach you, body surging with adrenaline despite the way your legs are trembling as you go. 

Find Dustin, you tell yourself, You’ve got to find Dustin.

+++

This is the fourth time Dustin has tried you at home over the last hour, and yet again the phone rings and rings and endlessly rings with no sign of picking up.

Behind him, Max and Robin pace back and forth, dialing every number they can get their hands on, attempting to oh so casually inquire after Eddie to any of the citizens of Hawkins who might happen to have some inkling of where he could be.

So far no dice.

Not even getting Adam on the phone had drummed up any kind of result, except for Dustin having to make a very rushed, very lame excuse about why he couldn’t stay on the phone and reminisce about the previous night’s awesome session.

It had been awesome, and under normal circumstances, he would have loved the opportunity to relive the glory of Vecna’s defeat, but Dustin has to find Eddie as soon as humanly possible, and before he can do that, he has to get a hold of you.

Both of those things are seeming more and more improbable an outcome as the minutes tick past.

The phone continues to ring, and Dustin watches Steve with a misplaced vehemence as he skirts around the floor, assisting and suggesting and being an overall excellent Family Video employee like he was going for goddamn employee of the month or something.

He is very obviously doing everything he possibly can to avoid assisting in the search for Eddie, and it is very un-Steve of him.

In Dustin’s opinion, he is being very uncool about this whole thing, about looking for Eddie but also about getting you on the phone.

“You’re wasting your time,” he’d said the second time Dustin had tried your number, in that same cryptic way he always referred to you when the subject of Eddie came up.

Dustin had no patience for it today. 

“Steve, quit being such a douche,” He’d said, hurrying to finish his thought before Steve could get pissed about it, “I’m telling you — she’s good at this stuff, finding lost things? You don’t have to be her friend, just try to be nice to her for once, okay? She’s our ace in the hole.”

To his credit, Steve just huffed out an annoyed breath and rolled his eyes, which was a win considering he was within his rights to bite Dustin’s head off over the insult.

“Not if the lost thing is something she doesn’t want to find.” He'd muttered.  

“What does that even mean?”

But by then a slender brunette had walked in through the door and Steve had completely lost interest in the conversation.

The phone is still ringing, and Dustin has to remind himself for the hundredth time that it does not automatically indicate that you’ve been arrested, as Max suggested.

You’re probably at work, even though your mean coworker had already informed him that you’d gone running out the front door without a word, like a bat out of hell — headed for the trailer park, if I had to guess, she’d said.

It makes Dustin’s stomach curl to imagine it – you, mixed up in whatever weirdness was going on down there, with Eddie – his two missing friends.  

It makes no goddamn sense.

On the ride to Family Video, Dustin and Max had unanimously agreed that said weirdness very likely had something to do with the Upsidedown, which stresses Dustin out to no end, considering the fact that half of their party is presently all the way in California and unable to help if another gate has cropped up; not to mention how tirelessly he has worked to keep you safely removed from all that, and yet there they were, and here you were not. 

The phone is still ringing.

With a dejected sigh, Dustin resigns himself to the fact that you’re still not home. Just as his fingers have come down to rest on the switch hook, ready to end the connection, there is suddenly the telltale click of the receiver picking up.

Dustin’s heart leaps to his throat as he snatches his hand away from the phone and finally — finally, your voice comes through the line. You answer, loud and breathless, like you’ve just finished running for your life as you all but shout into the mouthpiece. 

“Eddie!?” You gasp at the same moment that Dustin bleats your name with a similar fervor. 

It confuses him, though not nearly as much as the rush of relief that floods your voice as you course correct and immediately begin speaking a mile a minute.

“Dustin!” You shout, “Oh, thank God – Did you find him? Have you heard from Eddie?” 

It leaves him more than just a little bit stunned.

“No, not since last night…” he hears you heave an overloud sigh of frustration and is quick to continue in a juvenile hope of pleasing you, “B-but we’re calling around and asking everybody we can think of…” and then a thought worms its way to the front of Dustin’s mind, “Hold on a second, how do you know Eddie—”

You don’t let him finish. Over the phone, Dustin can hear a cacophony of crashing and banging, the rustle of clothing and you swearing harshly under your breath, like you’re busy ransacking your apartment.

“Where are you right now? Are you home?”

“No, I’m at Family Video, Max and I—”

“Don’t move. I’ll be there in five minutes.” 

And then there is the hard clang of the receiver being slammed into place followed by the monotonous droning of the dial tone, and just like that you’re gone.  

Dustin drops the phone from his ear and stares at the receiver as he tries to understand what the hell just happened.

You’re very clearly not sitting in a jail cell, that much is clear, but somehow you’re already out there looking for Eddie?

He can’t decide if it’s fortuitous or just plain bizarre.

It’s fortuitous because it means he doesn’t have to waste any time trying to convince you to help, but it’s wholly bizarre because up until this point Dustin had been under the impression that you don’t even know Eddie.

How did you know he was in trouble? And why do you sound so stressed about it?

Dustin supposes it doesn’t really matter if the means add up to his intended end, but it’s just one more thing in a long list of things stacking up to make today unbearably weird.

His confusion does not go unnoticed.

“Hey, what happened?” Robin asks softly, craning her neck towards Dustin and holding the phone just far enough away from her ear so as not to mix conversations. 

He blinks at her as he tries and fails to untangle it himself, then shrugs and puts his phone back on the hook.

He explains as much as he knows: you’re on your way over, you’ll be here in five minutes.

It’s closer to ten by the time he finally spies you through the front windows, darting across the street and only just avoiding the passing traffic as you cross.

You’re flushed and jumpy as you push through the door with a loud clanging of the bell.

The sound of your arrival brings Steve whipping around a shelf from the romance section, eyes bright with possibility and diving into his bullshit spiel before he sees who has come in through the door.

“Hey there, welcome to Family — oh, it’s just you.” His face visibly falls as he turns on his heel and heads back towards the counter with a sigh, “Dustin, your babysitter’s here.”

He says it’s like a dirty word, gesturing to you with a flippant jerk of his thumb that makes Dustin’s skin feel hot and prickly with indignation – he’d told him to be nice.

Dustin knows very well that you and Steve don’t like each other, and he doesn’t precisely know why, except that it has something to do with something that happened back in High School, before Steve came around and joined the team.

He has tried and failed on many occasions to plead his case, to convince you that Steve is not all that bad, but you would not relent in your opinion of him.

You’re speaking before Dustin can make any sort of effort to defend you. 

“Eat shit, Steve,” you huff, taking the words right out of his mouth and looking very agitated as you follow him across the carpet to the desk.  

You greet Robin with an absent wave when she gives you a big, friendly smile. 

She either can’t or won’t speak for the tension between you and Steve, but she likes you just fine and as far as Dustin can tell, you have no issue with her.

Of course, this isn’t about your mysterious feud with Steve, this is about finding Eddie, so he does his best to ignore the way you’re staring daggers at each other.

“Where’ve you been?” Dustin demands once you reach the counter.

He can’t help but notice the way you’re gripping the edge of the linoleum so tightly your knuckles have turned white.

“I’ve been calling you all morning! Max said—”

You shake your head.

“It doesn’t matter,” You say, which Dustin finds to be particularly outrageous because of course it matters when Max is out here spreading rumors that she’d seen you getting arrested.

You’re talking again before he can voice any of those concerns.

“Where’s Eddie? What do we know?” 

Not much, unfortunately, and he hates to admit it.

Dustin’s cheeks puff out with a heavy breath as he turns his attention back to the long list of crossed-out names and phone numbers they have been meticulously calling for what feels like hours now.

All this time and all those people and still they are no closer to Eddie. 

“Only what Max saw.” He says simply.

Your eyes widen and your head snaps around to the redhead, pacing back and forth behind the counter as she talks on the phone. She casts a sidelong glance your way and scrunches her nose as if to say ‘quit staring at me’. 

It takes a very long moment before you finally turn back to Dustin. 

“What did she see?” You demand.

He doesn’t know why, but having your undivided attention like this makes his stomach tighten with anxiety – you’re just a little more intense than he is comfortable with right now, and strangely he’s nervous about telling you the truth.  

“Eddie and Chrissy together at his place.” He explains slowly, bracing himself for your reaction.

You clench your jaw and something indiscernible flashes across your eyes, but you prompt him to continue with a short nod.

Dustin takes a breath.

“Then a little while later the lights go wonky and she hears him screaming like he’s being killed, next thing she sees is Eddie hauling ass to get out of there.” 

He feels oddly proud, in the grand scheme of things, saying it all out loud helped to make it seem like they knew a lot more than he'd previously thought, but disappointingly you heave a dejected sigh and your shoulders fall. 

“So, she didn’t see anything,”

It leaves Dustin feeling strangely indignant. 

“She saw Chrissy.” He posits, deflating a little when the information fails to impress you. 

“Yeah,” you say bluntly, “So did I.”

Dustin doesn’t know what that means, but he can’t shake the feeling that there is some terrible reality behind that.

You’ve got this far-away look in your eyes, and you bodily shudder. He can’t imagine what must have happened to Chrissy to send Eddie running for the hills, big tough Eddie who everyone was so afraid of, who wasn’t really all that big or tough at all once you got to know him. 

A sharp pang of protectiveness lances through his midsection and Dustin finds himself eyeing you warily as he sees how your brows have come together, an angry scowl etched into your features.

He suddenly can’t stop thinking about the conversation you’d had with Eddie on the campus phone, how quickly it had turned before you’d inexplicably hung up on him – it leaves Dustin wondering just how you know Eddie, why you’d never mentioned him before, and suddenly he is very worried about your opinion regarding his guilt.

You want to find him, that’s for sure, for whatever reason that may be, but wanting to find him doesn’t expressly mean you want to help him, particularly if your opinion of Eddie is any shade of similar to your opinion of Steve.

Dustin hates to be suspicious of you, normally he would swear you don't have a mean bone in your body, but it's been a long time since you've been normal...    

“You know he didn’t do it.” Dustin says firmly, “...right?”

He watches you carefully as your head snaps up and you regard him with a strange look.

“Eddie.” He clarifies, “He’s innocent.”

Then your brows come together over your narrowing eyes, pulling a face that is somewhere within the realm of the same familiar look you always get when he says something you think is stupid or outrageous.

It’s oddly comforting, despite the way it makes his stomach clench with instant regret.  

“Of course, he didn’t do it,” you snap. “Dustin–”

He puts his hands up in surrender before you can admonish him for whatever it is that has offended you.

“Okay! I just wanted to make sure we’re all on the same page here–”

“Well, hold on,” Steve interjects, rocking up to lean beside you on the counter. You shift away from him, “We can’t just say Munson’s innocent and call it a day just because Princess Daphne here has got a major hard-on for him.” 

He jerks his head towards you and you recoil like he’d reached out and slapped you. 

“Excuse me?” You snap.

And Dustin can’t say he feels any different, he can’t believe what he is hearing.

“Steve, what the hell?” He yelps, trying his damnedest to be outraged and not to think of you dressed as Princess Daphne, which is easier said than done now that the image is in Dustin's head.

Even Robin is unimpressed, glaring at him from behind the counter. 

“What happened to innocent until proven guilty?” she huffs.

Steve, in turn, immediately goes on the defensive, throwing his arms wide and raising his voice like he can’t believe no one is agreeing with him. 

“Oh, come on, people, he fled the scene! That’s pretty much an admission of guilt right there”

You level him with a hateful look. 

“He didn’t do it.”

Steve stares at you a moment before shrugging and giving you a halfway apologetic look, almost like he hates to say it, but in a very condescending way. 

“Well, of course, you’d say that,” he says matter-of-factly. “You’re biased,”

Dustin watches warily as you bristle.  

“Biased.” You mimic, curling your hands into fists.

“Completely,” 

For half a moment, he thinks you might swing at Steve, and you wouldn’t be wrong for doing so, he’s being a complete and total douche.

To your credit, you take a deep, steadying breath before you come back with your rebuttal.  

“You don’t think maybe I’d say that because I have just a little bit more insight on the matter than you do?”

Steve scoffs, and just like that, all sense of diplomacy has gone out the window. 

“Oh, okay, insight? Is that what we’re calling it?” He prods, crossing his arms and staring down at you, “Insight?”

Once a mean girl, always a mean girl. 

“Fuck you.” you snap, and Dustin takes it as his sign to intervene.

He does his best to separate you, but unfortunately, he’s on the wrong side of the counter to do much more than reach out and grab the both of you by your sleeve. 

“Okay guys, take a breath.” he urges, rather helplessly considering how you and Steve have gotten into each other’s faces now.

He’s halfway to panicking because he doesn’t know what he’s going to do if you start to fight, like, really physically fight.

Dustin doesn’t think Steve would sink so low to hit a girl, he’s got principles even when he’s being an unhinged half-reformed mean girl, but he can also hear you berating him for being a sexist at the notion – “Girls can get in fights too, Dustin, don’t be such a –” 

“I think I’ve got a lead.” Max says suddenly, slamming her phone down into the cradle and mercifully cutting the tension enough to draw everyone’s attention. “Some guy called Reefer Rick? Apparently, he’s Eddie’s dealer and I guess he crashes at his place sometimes,”

For half a moment no one reacts, and then Robin snorts with laughter. 

It is almost loud enough to cover the harsh sound of indignation you make. 

“Reefer Rick? Is that his legal name? Like, do you think it says that on his driver’s license?”

Max just rolls her eyes. 

“Did you get a last name?” Steve asks then, leaning over the desk on his elbow.

“What, suddenly you care?” Dustin scoffs, “Two seconds ago you were ready to call the cops.” 

“Listen, I’m just trying to be realistic, you little creep — any way you’re biased too, you’re obsessed with the guy,”

The comment goes largely ignored, as Robin slides into the computer chair and immediately begins typing. 

“Maybe if we can find this Rick guy, he can point us in the right … direction…?”

Robin trails off when she notices how you’ve spun on your heel and started across the lobby.

“Where the hell is she going?” Steve asks, reaching across the counter to shove Dustin for his attention when he doesn’t answer right away. 

“How should I know?”

Steve narrows his eyes in a way that would have left Dustin half inclined to slug him were he the type of person with those types of inclinations.

He’s really in rare form today, and Dustin is almost certain at this rate someone is going to punch Steve by the end of the day. 

“She’s your babysitter.” He drawls.

Again, he says it like a dirty word, and Dustin bristles.

“What, so like I can read her mind or something?” He snaps, scrambling out from under the desk and nearly tripping over his feet in an attempt to go after you. 

You’re out the door in an instant, the chiming of that stupid bell signifying your escape.

Dustin staggers out after you, blinking against the sun and shouting your name. He has to say it three times before you slow enough for him to catch you.

“Where are you going?” Dustin gasps, winded from having to dash after you so quick.

You’re practically vibrating, eyes bright as you stare back at him.

“I know where he is!” You say.

“Who?" He demands, then feels his brain melt a little, "Reefer Rick?”

Your brows come together and you roll your eyes. 

“Oh please,” You scoff, turning to leave again.  

Dustin grabs you by the sleeve of your jacket and holds you there, stopping you from dashing off to the odd corner of the world. 

He doesn’t notice the strip of paper that falls from your pocket, too busy fixating on you. 

“Stop!” He pleads.

You pull against his grip and glare at him, the slightest twinge of annoyance coloring your face as you jerk your arm out of his grasp. 

“Dustin!” You start, swinging hard into your serious babysitter voice, “I have to go!” 

He knows this, despite how annoying it is, but he’s desperate to make you stay, anyway he can. 

“Just – wait a second, will you? You don't understand how goddam stressful this whole day has been, first with Eddie, then you–"

Your eyes go wide as you gesture to yourself incredulously.

"Me?"

It sets Dustin's teeth on edge.

"Yes, you! I've been trying to reach you all day. Max said you were in jail and when I couldn't get a hold of you..." He trails off as he realizes just how whiney he sounds and feels his cheeks burn for it.

All that talk about how he was too old for a babysitter and here he is wailing and moaning like a little kid.

You stand a moment, searching his face before your features grow soft in the strangest way. Dustin’s heart leaps up into his throat as you surge forward and embrace him.

"It's gonna be okay, Dusty, I know where he is now." You say against his ear.

Only at that moment, Dustin could not have guessed who you were talking about or what they'd all been doing only moments before if his life depended on it. Eddie? Eddie who? All he can think about is you and how good you smell.

It’s a quick hug, much to his chagrin, and it leaves him standing struck dumb enough that he doesn’t notice you skipping away until it’s too late. 

You’re halfway up the street by the time he comes back around. 

“Where are you going!” Dustin shouts, 

You twist around and offer him a big bright smile, one he hasn’t seen in what feels like years. 

“To find Eddie!” You call, like it’s the most obvious thing in the world,

The sound is lost to the afternoon traffic, and as quickly as you’d arrived, you’re gone again. 

Off to whatever corner of Hawkins Eddie is hiding in, he supposes. Dustin doesn’t know how he feels about it.

For some reason, his insides feel cold and squirmy, like they’re about to jump up into his throat. It feels like jealousy, but he can’t rationalize why he would be jealous.

You don’t know Eddie, except apparently you do, well enough to come running at the first sign of trouble. He can’t wrap his head around it.

He’s not worried you won’t find him, he’s only worried that after you do, he won’t be able to find you, like somehow you’re on the cusp of slipping through his fingers and he’s never going to see you again.

With a dejected sigh, he turns on his heel and starts back toward the video store, then he spies the long strip of paper lying on the pavement where you’d just been standing. 

Dustin stoops to retrieve it, guessing you must have dropped it in your rush to leave. He turns it over in his hands and his heart seizes. 

It’s a photo strip, one from the many kiosks they’d had at the Starcourt Mall before the Mindflayer took care of it.

The pictures are all more or less the same: it’s you and Eddie. 

Eddie giving you bunny ears and you sticking your tongue out, followed by Eddie pretending to bite your face while you laughed, followed by Eddie kissing you, and you kissing Eddie, and… and and and …oh God.

Dustin feels like he’s going to be sick.

So that’s how you know each other… that’s why you’d been down at the trailer park this morning, why you are so desperate to find Eddie. 

Finally, here is the missing piece of the puzzle, landing perfectly in place with an earth-shattering crash, threatening to knock Dustin off his feet. 

Your stupid boyfriend, the one who had plagued Dustin’s life for years, skulking around the periphery of his brain, slowly pulling you away from him, the one who had so callously broken your heart and left you sobbing pathetically on his couch last summer, who Dustin had sworn to avenge you against… is Eddie.

Of course it is, it makes perfect sense now that he really thinks about it, and Dustin hates every second of just how much it makes sense.

Who drove around in a shitty panel van blaring over loud rock music? Your stupid boyfriend — Eddie. Whose silver ring with the dark stone had you been wearing up until last summer? Your stupid boyfriend’s — also Eddie, as Dustin had noticed during his first session at Hellfire and done an incredible feat of mental gymnastics to convince himself that it wasn’t the same ring.

Who had he seen picking you up outside his house that night he’d torn down his curtains in a jealous rage? Who had he seen lean over the center console to kiss you? Your stupid boyfriend — Eddie Eddie Eddie. All signs point to Eddie, and Dustin’s mind is reeling for it. 

Now he knows why you’d never once mentioned Eddie or Hellfire in all your hours of doomsday prepping, and why Eddie had been so periodically weird and sulky and withdrawn. Dustin had long suspected it was a breakup that was ailing Eddie, especially considering Mike had acted the exact same way in the weeks following Will and Eleven’s departure for California. 

Behind him, the door to the video store chimes as it whips open, and Steve calls out to him. 

“Hey! Come in man, we’ve got a lead here!” 

Dustin crumples the photo strip without thinking and stuffs it into his pocket, hoping somehow he might forget he ever saw it, forget he knows what he now knows.

He whirls around and does his best to stuff down all the big unwieldy feelings threatening to burst out of him, making his way back toward Family Video. 

“Yeah, yeah, I’m coming. Keep your wig on.” Dustin mumbles, swallowing hard to keep his voice from trembling as he goes.

+++

Eddie doesn’t know what happened to Chrissy, but he knows somehow it is his fault.

At least that’s what everyone is going to say.

He was there, he had his hands on her, trying to snap her out of whatever terrifying fugue state had suddenly gripped her, sure, but fingerprints are fingerprints, and his are all over her.

She was there, and then suddenly she wasn’t; now she is dead.

It all happened so fast, and yet it won’t stop playing in his head in a constant loop, like a slow-motion instant replay scorched into the backs of his eyelids that he’s destined to relive every time he closes his eyes until the end of his days.

He’s never seen anything like that, never heard anything like it – he didn’t know a person’s body could bend like that, that bones could make that sound.

When he was thirteen, his father purposely slammed his arm shut in a car door in the weeks leading up to his final arrest. Why he did it didn’t matter – that was just the old man for you – what mattered was how Eddie had heard the bones in his forearm break and sat staring in the blissful ignorance of shock at the bend in his arm that didn’t belong before he ever felt any pain.

That was nothing like the noises that had rung out when Chrissy’s arms and legs snapped up out of place or the unnatural way she’d hung there, limbs bent out of shape.

He hopes Chrissy wasn’t present enough in those final moments to feel any pain. 

He can still see it when he closes his eyes like the image is forever burnt into the back of his eyelids. He doesn’t know if he’s ever going to stop hearing that sound.  

And now he’s hiding out in Rick Lipton’s boat house, which is probably the most incriminating place he could have chosen to hole up considering the circumstances, but it’s not like Eddie had a lot of options. 

It’s dark, dingy, and full of all kinds of nasty dust and debris that hurts his lungs to breathe, and all of that would be positively fine if it weren’t for the spiders. So many goddamn spiders in this shitty crumbling boat house.

Normally he would have bolted straight for the safety of the house at the first sight of them, but things are anything but normal right now, and Rick is supposed to be in jail.

In spite of being currently half out of his mind, Eddie knows well enough that it would do him no good to draw someone’s attention with signs of life in the house, so there he sits, miserable and terrified and itching with the sensation of phantom legs crawling up and down his body.

He would say that things could not possibly get any worse, but he’s worried he’ll jinx it. 

And then, like it was just waiting for its cue, a sudden commotion startles Eddie into leaping up to his feet.

A crashing bang of metal and glass out in the yard causes him to damn near leap out of his skin. Trash cans, he rationalizes, but what knocked them over?

Eddie balls his hands into fists and tries to convince himself it’s just raccoons, he's heard them skulking around outside the trailer for years, causing a ruckus, but he could have sworn he heard someone swearing under their breath.

Last time he checked raccoons don’t go around muttering “Goddamn— son of a bitch,” 

He crosses his arms tightly over his chest and hugs his biceps protectively. He holds his breath, listening hard for any kind of sound. 

It’s faint, but it’s there. 

The telltale crunch of gravel, moving from one end of the building to the other, footsteps, drawing closer with each passing second. 

Fuck. 

There’s someone outside. 

Oh fuck.

They’ve found him.

Fuck fuck fuck shit oh fuck.

Eddie’s head is on a swivel, looking for somewhere, anywhere to hide – there are dozens of places, plenty of dark corners and tarps he could tuck himself into, but the threat of spiders keeps him frozen to the spot.

Move or die, Man! his inner voice screams, now is not the time for irrational phobias, but his legs have turned to jelly frozen in concrete. If he moves they’ll shatter and he’ll fall. 

The footsteps are getting closer. 

Eddie’s mind races with every terrible possibility, his subconscious whispers hideous things to him and urges him to run, but he still can’t move.

He knows he needs to get as far away from here as he can as fast as humanly possible, but the tiniest, nagging thought has him paralyzed — where is he going to go? 

Who’s going to help him?

Wayne’s bound to be tied up in police tape by now, Rick’s in jail and so is his father, not that he would ever dream of going to the old man for help, his mother is dead, and his friends all think he’s an asshole, so who is there in the world left to help him?

Chrissy was the only one left around who was even halfway nice to him and he saw what happened to her. She’s the reason he’s in this mess.

Who would even believe him if he tried to explain it? 

He’s tired — so goddamn tired he can’t think straight, and he doesn’t want to run anymore.

He’s been running all night, hasn’t closed his eyes to so much as blink for fear of seeing Chrissy’s face again, and he’s dead on his feet… so incredibly fucking tired that he tries to tell himself he doesn’t care what happens to him now despite how untrue that is.

He ought to just give himself up. 

The footsteps are closer now, nearly to the door. 

So what if someone is out there? So what if he’s found? He knows he didn’t do anything, but how far is his word going to take him in this town?

How much is he willing to bet the court system will take one look at his name and decide his guilt without so much as a thought for things like motive and evidence? 

What’s the worst that can happen? Prison. Just like his father.

His heart sinks at the thought, despite how he tries not to care.

Of course, like always, the problem is that Eddie cares too much— how unfair it is that he’s spent his whole life doing everything he can to get off that train, be good (as good as he can, considering it all) stay out of trouble, and keep his head down, only to end up in this mess.

Worse than getting picked up for carjacking or possession or just because the cops in this town just plain don’t like him, if Eddie goes to prison for Chrissy’s murder, he knows he’ll never get out again. 

Not alive, in any case. 

If he runs he’s going to spend his whole life running, if he stays he’s going to die. What kind of options are those? He suddenly feels like an animal in a trap, presented with the prospect of chewing off his own leg to survive. 

Does he have the fortitude to do something like that? He doesn’t know. 

The footsteps have stopped, and Eddie realizes with a burst of hot stinging adrenaline that whoever is out there skulking around is right outside the doors and he doesn’t know what to do. 

You would have known what to do… wouldn’t you? Probably not, but it would have made him feel a whole lot better not to be doing this on his own. Not to have to do any of it on his own.

Instinctively, Eddie jumps forward and grips the door handle, the cool metal bites into the flesh of his palm and sends a shiver up his spine. He tells himself it’s to stop anyone from entering if they try the door, but apathy is clawing at him, urging him to twist the handle, open the door himself.

Better to get it over with, he thinks, and in a moment of despair he makes his decision. 

He doesn’t want to run anymore…  

He takes a deep breath in through the nose and out through the mouth, and another, and then one more for good measure as he tries to gather his courage.

He grits his teeth, and whips the door open. 

In an instant, all the air has left his lungs in the form of the loud, terrified shout that he is powerless to stop as it tears itself from somewhere in his chest cavity.  

You scream too, leaping damn near out of your skin and covering your ears like you always do when you get scared like that.

It’s you — holy shit, it’s you — clutching your chest like you’re attempting to recover from the mini heart attack he’d just given you.

The feeling is mutual. 

Eddie suddenly thinks he might pass out as he feels his heart seize erratically in his chest before dropping into his stomach. His vision goes spotty for the briefest of moments and his legs tremble under his weight. 

“Jesus—”

“—Christ!” You gasp, like you’re finishing his curse for him. “God, Eddie!”

You stomp your foot when you say it, like he’d jumped out and scared you on purpose, and the way you say his name makes Eddie’s heart thump painfully in his chest. 

“You scared the hell out of me.” You breathe, shaking your head and fisting your hands in the front of your shirt — his shirt, he realizes with a start.

It’s inside out, funny enough, but he doesn’t miss the faded Metallica logo, backwards and staring up at him from between your fingers.

It’s painfully endearing, and his heart is beating so fast it makes his chest hurt looking at it, at you, two of his favorite things, long since written off as lost, mourned and now miraculously found again. 

All this time and you still had it.  

He tries to breathe but it catches in his throat. 

Holy shit holy shit. 

Out of everything and anything he could have imagined he would find on the other side of that door – police, national guard, an army of angry hicks, the re-animated corpse of Chrissy come to feast on his flesh – Eddie never once never imagined someone would be coming to help him.  

He never imagined it would be you standing there. 

Somehow his mind is simultaneously going ninety miles an hour and moving at a snail’s pace. He can’t think, and yet he can’t stop the tide of thoughts and feelings and everything he suddenly needs to say to you fighting for real estate at the front of his brain. 

For half a moment, it’s all either of you can do but just stand there staring at each other. 

Finally, you gesture awkwardly into the room.

“Can I…?” 

It takes him a moment too long to realize you’re asking to come in, and Eddie all but leaps out of your way, staggering to the side to make room as you jump up over the threshold and shut the door behind you.

You make a wide circle around him, surveying the room, and he watches you carefully as you do, still not entirely convinced he hasn’t just been breathing toxic chemicals all day and is now hallucinating you. 

You cast a sidelong glance in his direction and he thinks he sees the corners of your mouth quirk humorously.

"Take a picture, Eds, it'll last longer." you hum.

"...Sorry." he mumbles.

He knows he’s staring at you, but he can’t stop.

He can’t believe what he’s seeing. After all those months he’d spent dreaming about you, imagining he was hearing your voice or seeing you turn a corner, always there but just out of sight?  He doesn’t trust it — he can’t.

You try again to make idle conversation.

“Rick’s boat house, huh?” You say, glancing at him over your shoulder in a way that is enough to make his knees tremble. 

His throat closes before he can even think to answer you, and it forces Eddie to settle on a meager response, nodding stupidly.

He doesn’t know what else to say about it and it’s driving him crazy. 

Eight months of memorizing all the things Eddie thought he would say to you if he ever saw you again and suddenly here you are and he can’t remember a goddamn word of it. 

He tries to speak, but words fail him. Still, he tries, opening and closing his mouth in an attempt to force the words out, gawping stupidly at you like a fish out of water.

He wants to ask what you’re doing here, how you found him, but he realizes in an instant that he doesn’t care how you found him, he only cares that you’re here.

Your eyebrows come together in stark concern and you finally take a step toward him.

He’s this close to panicking about it. 

This was not how he’d imagined reuniting with you would go. His palms have become sweaty and he resists the boyish urge to wipe them down the front of his jeans.

Eddie makes himself swallow hard to try and wet his throat where it has suddenly bloomed with cobwebs. 

He can’t keep staring at you like this. He’s got to say something — anything. He blurts the first thing that comes to mind. 

“That’s my shirt,” he chokes, for lack of anything better to say. 

His voice cracks and his mouth slams shut. He doesn’t know why he’s so nervous. 

You blink at him, like you have absolutely no idea how to respond.

“You left it in my room.” You say petulantly.

It’s almost enough to break the tension hanging heave between you … almost. 

He left a lot of things in your room, most of which you’d given back to him, but he won’t say that, for fear of sounding like he isn’t happy to see you, it’s just with the way you’re staring at him, he can’t make any kind of coherent thought come through the fog of his mind. 

“What are— h-how did you—?” 

You shake your head and heave and airy sigh, giving him this strangely pained look, smiling with your nose scrunched and your eyebrows turned up.

“...Heard you were in trouble.” You say, your words punctuated by a wet sniffle, and then you shrug and roll your eyes, like you always do when you’re halfway embarrassed by what you’re about to say, “Came running.”  

Jesus–

You might as well have stabbed him for how his lungs flatten in his chest. 

Eddie rocks back a step, without really meaning to, shaking his head in awe of the specter of you, miraculously standing there in the dingy light of a place you by all rights have no business being, staring at him in too close a shadow of the way you’d looked standing at the bottom of his front steps last summer.

Eddie finally makes himself breathe, sucking greedily on a sharp intake of breath before he realizes the distance he’s put between you, that he’s still putting between you, and something in him snaps. 

He needed you and you came running. 

“—Oh, my God.” 

Eddie surges forward and seizes you, crushing you against his body.

He curls his arms around you and hugs you so tight you’re bent nearly backward. You make a faint sound as his embrace forces the air out of your lungs, almost like a whimper and Eddie buries his face in your hair as he presses his cheek to the crown of your head.

The movement kicks up the familiar hint of your shampoo and conditioner, cutting through the murky, mildewy tang of the boathouse like a breath of fresh air.

He breathes deep — your perfume is different, something soft and faintly floral, but it is not enough to mask the subtle sweetness of your flesh.

Christ, he’d nearly forgotten your smell, and now he’s forgotten everything but you.

His mind is caught in a flurry of spinning thoughts and feelings that are quickly overwhelmed by a strange calm, seeming to radiate outward from your point of contact and bleeding down into his limbs to react with the adrenaline still surging there. It brings with it a sensation Eddie has only felt very few times in his life;

Walking home from the diner hand in hand with his mother while the setting sun guides them home, climbing the steps of Wayne’s trailer the last time it was ever just that and the first time it was home, laying in your bed at three o’clock in the morning with your head on his chest, watching your lashes flutter and listening to the slow pace of your breathing, a deep breath in followed by a slow breath out.

Little moments that live like glittering jewels tucked safely away in the spot behind his lungs lead him to one, gentle, all-encompassing feeling: he’s safe. 

Somewhere, very far back in his mind, Eddie knows he isn’t, that there are people looking for him who think he’s done something terrible.

There is still the faintest alarm trilling danger, danger, Will Robinson! in his deep psyche, but how can he make himself think about anything else with you in his arms? How is he supposed to care about anything besides the fact that, somehow, in spite of everything he’d said, everything he’d done to hurt you, you’ve come back to him?

Eddie breathes out a shaky sigh he hadn’t realized he’d been holding as he feels your arms snake up around his body — for a brief, terrible moment he’d worried you wouldn’t reciprocate, that he was really well and truly kidding himself that you were here for him, but those fears dissipate the moment he feels the press of your skin beneath his jacket and vest.

The warmth of you burns him even through the thin fabric of his shirt, and it is such a relief to be under your touch again. You hold him so tight that he thinks at any moment you could slip beneath his skin and live there, and he’d let you do it because now that he’s got you again, he’s never going to let you go.

Then suddenly you’re carding your fingers through his hair, stroking his face, looking up at him with your big pretty eyes, and speaking softly to him.

“Hey—” you’re saying, “It’s okay, Eddie... hey, look at me — you’re okay, I’ve got you.”

He sniffles and dips his head to wipe his cheek on the soft denim covering his shoulder because there’s no way in hell he’s letting you go for something as trivial as wiping his face.

He almost whimpers when you take your hand away from where it’s been resting on his side, and when you reach up to brush the pad of your thumb across his cheekbone, he realizes with a start that his face is wet, he’s trembling under your touch, body heaving – he’s crying.

He doesn’t even have the presence of mind to be embarrassed about it, he’s too busy looking you over, trying to commit your face to memory in case this is just a terrible hallucination and he’s never going to see you again.

He takes your face in his hands and reverently compares what he sees now to what had lived in his mind before, trying to decide what, if anything, is different.

Your hair maybe? Your clothes? He doesn’t know, he suddenly can’t remember anything before this moment.

"You’re here, you’re really here…" He hadn't meant to say it out loud, but running on nothing but adrenaline has his brain all but malfunctioning.

Your face scrunches up in the most heartbreaking look, much too similar to the way you’d been looking at him when you pounded on his door last summer as your hands come up to shadow his on either side of your face.

“Oh, Eds…”

It makes him feel sick — his skin is suddenly hot and prickly with it. 

He never wants to see that look on your face again. 

“What are you doing here?” He finally manages to choke out, “You — you shouldn’t be here,” 

Eddie regrets saying it as soon as it tumbles past his lips. Particularly with the way your face ever so briefly contorts with the shadow of the same look you’d given him when he’d told you he didn’t love you, when he'd lied to hurt you — even with you here he feels his heart break all over again just at the thought of it.

He’d meant you shouldn’t be here in the sense that it wasn’t safe for you as much as it didn’t make any sense, because hadn’t you moved away? Left Hawkins behind? Left him behind? 

You shift backward, like you mean to step away from him and Eddie feels himself grow panicky about it. 

“Do you want me to–” You start, but he doesn’t let you finish that terrible thought. 

“No!” He cries, surging forward to catch you, “No, please don’t go, just… just…” 

Eddie grips you tightly by your shoulders like he needs to hold you there so you won’t disappear, but it’s not enough.

His hands move, scrabbling higher and higher even still until they come up to grace the curves of your throat. He’s desperate for more of you, desperate to kiss you, but he doesn’t dare.

He can’t shake the sense that your being here is balancing on the edge of a knife, and any wrong move will send you running for the hills. 

In spite of that thinking, you lean into his touch and his heart thumps painfully in his chest. 

“How’d you know I’d be here?” Eddie asks. 

Your face softens as you take his hands in yours.

“I always know where to find you, Dummy.”

He doesn’t know why that’s the thing to set him off, but it does. 

Eddie chokes on the steadying breath he’d been trying to take as the dam breaks, wrenching it out of him in a hiccuping sob.

He tries to cover his face with his hands but you don’t let him hide, you take his wrists and pull them away to wrap around you instead, and you hold him. 

He doesn’t deserve this, doesn’t deserve this chance with you, doesn’t know how he got so lucky to even have it, but he’ll take every moment he can get while it lasts. 

Eddie clings to you, weeping pathetically into your hair and babbling incoherently, apologizing for anything— everything— an endless tide of all the things he’s wanted to say to you all year, since the moment he’d stood there and watched you leave that terrible night in August. 

He should have fought harder for you, he should never have let you go. 

Eddie tells himself he’s got to stop crying, to stop talking, to try and pull himself together, but it is just another thing he has no power over. 

His brain had all but switched off after what had happened to Chrissy, and his body has been operating on primal instinct in a desperate attempt just to try and get somewhere safe — he’s held it together up until this point, but he’s never been so scared in his goddamn life.

“God, I’m sorry,” he whimpers, “I’m so sorry, Baby, I don’t know why I said any of that stuff, I’m a fucking idiot, I didn’t mean it— I swear on my life I didn’t mean a goddamn word of it. I love you. I love you so fucking much it hurts, Jesus Christ, I’m just so fucking sorry—”

As much as he’s talking, you’re nodding, pushing his hair back, stroking his face, and all the other lovely little gestures you’d always done before when things were still fine, when you were still his. 

“I know,” you tell him, pressing your cheek against his temple and carding your fingers through the hair at the base of his neck. “I know, Baby. We’re gonna figure this out, okay? Me ‘n you, whatever it takes. We'll fix it.”

He can’t help the startled, watery laugh that bursts out of him to hear you say that.

It fills him with a bright and dangerous hope that maybe this is real, maybe you can pick up the pieces where you left them, maybe you still love him. 

“Yeah?” Eddie sniffs, brushing your hair back out of your face. “You promise?”

You catch his hand on your cheek and bring it down to draw an x over the left side of your chest, smiling sweetly and sincerely at him as you do.

"Hope to die."

Without the use of his higher functions, all Eddie knows how to do is love you, deeply, to his very core, and to hold you is not enough. 

He knows he has no right, but he cannot help himself.

Eddie presses forward and kisses you, a wet, forceful thing that you can barely move against as he frantically crushes his mouth against yours.

He kisses you with a desperation he’s never felt before, and he blesses you for how you lean into it, fisting your hands into the front of his shirt and doing your best to pull him that much closer to you.

It’s all scraping teeth, ragged breath, and reverent groping hands, only breaking apart in the briefest of intervals when the need to breathe and tell you how sorry he is outweighs the need to make up for all the time Eddie has spent not kissing you over the past eight months.

He tells you he loves you, again and again, breathing the words into your mouth, whispering them against your lips. 

He chases it hungrily, starved and greedy for your love, and wonders how he could have ever forgotten how much he needed it? How did he ever survive without it? Without you?

He would remind himself that he hadn’t been doing a very good job at it, but his mind is blown wide and bleached of all thoughts but you. 

Had he been able to really think, Eddie might have been afraid he would hurt you like he’d somehow hurt Chrissy, but the only thing he can muster is relief, because you’re here and that means something. Maybe there is at least the slightest chance you still love him. 

Thank you thank you thank you–

Even when you finally part, he does not release you, only holds you that much tighter. He presses his forehead to yours and he loves, loves, loves, bursting with the feeling like your touch has miraculously restored him after having been so wretched for so long. 

For the longest time, all either of you can do is lean against one another, swaying ever so slightly like you’re drunk on the euphoria of being together again.  

After a while, he lets you coax him into the house, and you collapse against one another on the sofa as exhaustion creeps into Eddie’s bones.

He can barely keep his eyes open, laying back with you spread over him, your face tucked into the crook of his neck where every now and then you’ll leave a gentle little kiss. He hums in response to each press of your lips, and he would thank you for each and everyone one, but his limbs are quickly turning to cement.

He’s so goddamn tired, but he fights against it, afraid that if he falls asleep he’ll wake up and find that he’s dreamt this whole thing. He's worried if he submits himself to Morpheus's embrace, you'll be gone when he wakes up, despite the way you’re tracing lazy patterns across his chest, how he can feel your steady heartbeat thumping in time with his own, the gentle rise and fall of your body with every breath in and out, in and out, in…

 A burst of soft, lilting laughter bubbles up from inside you, and Eddie startled awake, feeling himself light up for his favorite sound in the world, his favorite feeling as you smile against him. 

“What’s so funny?” He asks, thick and groggy.

He pushes up a little higher on the couch in the hopes it might stave off the need for sleep a little longer and pulls you with him.

You shift to accommodate this higher position, sitting on your knees and pressed into his side. 

You shake your head and laugh against the way your eyes are suddenly brimming. 

“I just can’t believe you’re here,” you sniffle, tilting back ever so slightly so you can look at him. “I was so scared I wouldn’t find you,” 

Eddie doesn’t know how to respond to that, so he pulls you into his lap and hugs you tight.

He’s still having trouble wrapping his head around the concept that you’d been out there looking for him in the first place, that you’re here now, after all the time he’d spent wishing for this, how he would have given his right arm just to hold you again.

He doesn’t know how you knew he needed you, what kind of unearthly force intervened to send you to him, but he’s so goddamn thankful you came running.

“But I did it,” you continue, sounding so endearingly proud of yourself, “I found you.” 

Your hands come up to stroke his face and brush at the dried tacky lines of salt left struck down his face. And then you say again, quieter this time like you’re in awe of it. 

“I found you…” Your eyes are bright and sparkling with admiration and tears and relief and a hundred different happy emotions that spill out of you and into Eddie.

He can’t help but laugh, a thick, watery sound dripping with relief and half muffled by your lips as he dips forward to kiss you. Once, twice, three times for the sentiment, precious little thank yous because he can finally breathe again. He’d spent the last eight months drowning and you finally pulled him up to break the surface. 

You saved him, just like you always do. 

“Yeah, Sweetheart, you did,” he sighs, letting his eyes slide shut as he holds you tight and breathes a deep, contented sigh, “You found me.” 

Taglist: @harrys-tittie @r-a-d-i-0-n-0-w-h-e-r-e @itsrainingbisexualfrogs @thicksexxualtensionaltension @ganseysgff @scoopsr0binn @peanutbutter-y-jams @audhd-dragonautagonaut @clilxlxx @alexandriaemily200 @averagestudent03 @but-vanessa @cosmictime45 @timelordfreya @forever-war @munsonzzgf @chervbs

@irisabrams

#cruel summer #cruel summer fic #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson fanfic #eddie munson x you #eddie munson #eddie munson imagine #stranger things fic #crikey this took everything i had #i really hope it was everything you guys hoped for in a reunion because i made myself feel all warm and fuzzy writing it #now i just gotta figure out what happens next lmao #if you find typos no you didn't I'll edit this in the morning

[lavenoon]

Hi! I’m absolutely loving your AU AU! (That’s funny to write XD) I’ve been thinking about it a lot, and now I’m imagining frantic shenanigans where somehow they still manage to miss the obvious. Like maybe Sun and y/n are hanging out somewhere public when each gets notified of an enemy in the area and that there could be a big fight. So they’re both left trying thinking, shoot, gotta get away, but wait my very civilian crush is here and what if they end up in the line of fire? So they’re hyper vigilant, but nervously trying to figure out how to convince the other to leave, but they both need to stay, so they don’t get the hints the other is shooting lol. Bonus points if a fight does break out and they decide to hide and run where most people are going and there they each take advantage of the confusion to slip away and take care of things, somehow never encountering the other. Then they have the biggest freakout when after the fact the other is nowhere to be found. Relief is felt when they meet back home XD Sorry, I just realized I left you a whole synopsis in your ask box jhgjgfjgv Anyways, really looking forward for whatever you have planned next! <3

They'd be stuck between a rock and a hard place - the urge to get away fighting with the urge to lead the other to safety first, so they dance around each other, more and more frantic, before each slips away.

Fortunately, they do have each other's phone number, so meeting again after would happen relatively fast - though they do ask about where the other went, and both scramble for excuses lmao

Now, however, I do want to make a suggestion about the aftermath >:3c

(NOT CANON) (I have plans for the reveal, but this was too tempting) Would be a shame if another coworker also present at the scene lets some details slip - that's one hell of a bomb to drop on our dear Robin (:

#answer let luce #chaotikanvas #accidentally undercover #fnaf sb #fnaf sb au #fnaf sun #fnaf moon #the little rough drabble I woke up to write in the middle of the night tonight was about the reveal #so it's been at the forefront of my mind and I HAD to get something out #want to say a lot more but also not to keep it a secret #I guess this also serves to show just how many coincidences and how much luck keeps them from figuring things out #luck runs out; however (: #OH WAIT #my art #lmao

[kyber-crystal]

rendezvous at midnight || jake “hangman” seresin

summary: you’ve always been good at handling any obstacle thrown your way. but when the clock starts ticking and you find yourself next to hangman, things change. could the new year bring with it a newfound love? maybe...

words: ~1.8k

warnings: mentions of alcohol, minor rivals-to-lovers trope but that’s it. this is mostly pretty fluffy!

a/n: so i had to repost this bc it flopped so hard...idk what’s happening to my fics lmao. i deeply apologize, this was really rushed and poorly written

It was only a matter of seconds before you choked to death.

You weren’t actually dying, but that was what it felt like. After growing accustomed to being in uniform most of the time, the switch to fine silk felt strange. Goosebumps rose up on your skin as you sat down at the bar and adjusted the strap of your form-fitting dress. 

As pretty and pearlescent as it was, it did little to keep you warm amidst the crowded area. 

You had practiced walking in heels in the morning until your ankles turned bright red. If you could ensure that you wouldn’t fall in front of everyone, you’d take all necessary steps to get there.

“How’s my favorite girl doing?” Penny offered you a warm smile and a sparkling glass of liquor. “Are you holding up okay?”

“Tired,” you explained. “I didn’t sleep last night.”

“Too busy thinking about him?”

“Come on, it’s not like that,” you groaned as you finished off your drink. “You know it’s not like that.”

“I know it is like that,” she quipped. 

“We compete. We don’t fall in love,” you said. “That’s what we do. We’re not going any farther than snarky insults.”

“Go find him. There’s half an hour ‘til the clock strikes 12,” It almost sounded like she was hinting at something. “Then you start fresh. Begin again. No rivalry. And if you’re lucky, you can steal a kiss or two.”

“Penny!” 

“What? I’m only giving you suggestions. Now shoo. I’m not letting you get drunk again and force poor Bob and Mav to drag you home.”

“Fine,” you exhaled as you set your glass down and got up. “I’ll catch you later…unless you’re too busy with one certain captain…”

Penny rolled her eyes and waved you off, trying not to smile. 

You found him standing alone in the corner, nursing a glass of tequila and looking quite content. Seeing his slim, toned figure under the dim bar lights tugged at your heartstrings. The man truly was a sight for sore eyes, save the rivalry…and ego…and overcompetitive nature.

“Tired already?” you asked. Hangman looked up, and the corners of his mouth turned up a bit. “It’s a lot, isn’t it.”

“Sure is,” he chuckled. “You look…incredible, darling.”

“Thank you,” you smiled, suddenly feeling nervous in front of him. “You do, too.”

“Hard to believe it’s almost January. It feels like we got here yesterday.”

“I don’t believe in time. This isn’t real,” you shook your head and laughed. “Things go by way too fast for me to process anything. I’m in denial of the fact that none of us knew each other five years ago.”

“Coyote and Payback weren’t best friends. Let that sink in,” Hangman added on. “Neither were Bob and Phoenix.”

“There’s no way…”

“Part of me misses how we used to be, though. Before the academy.”

“Jake, we fought all the time through college,” you reminded him. “Why would you want to go back to it?”

“Well…the year’s almost over. Might as well turn over a new leaf,” he held a hand out to you. “What do you say?”

“Okay.” You smiled, and shook his hand. “I like the sound of that.”

“It’s like they’re sucked into their own bubble. Lost in their own little world,” Payback observed the two of you laughing together. “Y’know, the tiny city in the Lorax? Like that, but make it naval aviators. It’s cute.”

“It would be cuter if they would just kiss already,” Fanboy groaned. “How long has it been? Four years?”

“‘Cause Seresin’s dumb ass thinks that insulting Y/N all the time is the ultimate way to win her over. None of his thousand attempts have come across to her clear enough yet,” Coyote backed up. “But we gotta give ‘em time. That’s all we can do right now.”

“I guess so…”

“Jake. If you keep chugging your tequila like that, you’ll regret it,” you warned. “Starting the new year with a hangover isn’t the way to go.”

“You said my first name.”

“Did you even hear what I said after that?”

“You’ve never said my first name before,” Hangman observed. “But now you did. It’s nice. I like the change.”

You couldn’t bring yourself to get annoyed, not when he was looking at you the way he currently was. Eyes once filled with hardness and frustration now softened at the sight of you.

“Hold still.” Your brows furrowed in concentration as you reached up to fix his tie. “Your tie’s all crooked.”

Your fingers accidentally brushed against his skin, and electricity shot through your body. You stood there, frozen for a moment, before bringing them down—and his eyes stayed on you the whole time.

“There,” you stated, dusting your hands off. It was a miracle that you could utter even a word without your voice trembling. “Good as new.”

“Thanks.”

The awkward silence that fell over you afterward was rather heavy. You didn’t know how long it lasted for, standing there, avoiding intense eye contact while trying not to melt into the floor.

A series of loud voices snapped you out of your awkward moment. Everyone had gathered around the bar, watching the TV and counting out loud. Thirty seconds left…so you let Hangman take your hand and lead you closer to the scene. 

You didn’t say anything, even when he kept his grip on your hand and looked up at the screen. You found that you liked the company and didn’t want him to let go of you.

15, 14, 13, 12

11, 10, 9, 8

Hangman turned towards you once again. “Y/N.”

“Yeah?”

“I’m going to kiss you.”

“Okay.” The word was out of your mouth before you could stop yourself. 

7, 6

5, 4

His hand slid up to your cheek. The air in the room grew impossibly thicker, and you face felt hotter.

3, 2, 1...and like a flash of lightning, his lips are on yours and you melt into his touch. You can feel the heat radiating from his skin and you hold onto his shoulders to keep your balance. Both of you are most likely a bit tipsy but that does little to slow down the butterflies in your stomach. He’s everywhere and you’re on fire and you should stop yourselves at this point but you don’t. You can’t, because you don’t want to. How could you have imagined that his lips would feel so perfect; so delicately warm and soft against yours; that with one small gesture, he could break down the walls you tried so hard to build up around your heart. He was here, but he was everywhere, too. 

When you finally break apart, you’re dazed and confused. You’re too out of it to notice Bob and Coyote exchanging wads of cash, or that it’s already several minutes past twelve. Your head is spinning, and your knees feel weak. 

It’s a miracle that you make it home that night without passing out.

It was only a kiss, you tell yourself. That’s all it was supposed to be. But it still manages to creep its way into your dreams, into your sleep, and sinks into your skin—you can’t escape it. What had only lasted for a few minutes was taking up your entire day and sucking all the energy from your body. You wanted to crawl into a deep hole and stay there forever—at least in the darkness, nobody could visualize your embarrassment. And your reddening face. And the way you clung to him like there was no tomorrow.

“The queen has finally emerged from her beauty sleep.” Maverick looked amused as you lifted your head off your desk and blinked. “Welcome back.”

“Sorry, Mav,” you mumbled as you rubbed your eyes. 

He gave you a look that seemed to say he understood what was going on. “It’s okay. Now back to what I was saying…”

It was like you were dragging your feet through rivers of mud. You could still feel him. His lips ghosting over yours, hands leaving the imprint of his tantalizing touch on your waist. You couldn’t get the feeling out of your head…but how could you? This was Hangman, and Hangman was a difficult person to forget—he was everything and you hated to love it.

After the day’s lesson finished, you were out of there and in the dining hall as fast as possible. 

“You look like you saw your morals fly right out the window,” Fanboy noted as he set his tray down and sat next to you. 

“Because they did,” you muttered. “New year, new me? More like new year, and old habits die hard.”

“I wouldn’t call your feelings for Seresin an old habit. They’ve always been there. It came to you naturally.”

“Shut up before I throw this juicebox at you.”

“You should do something, you know. You kissed.”

“And we had both been drinking before. He only initiated it because of the liquor confidence boost.”

“So? That doesn’t change how he was looking at you before. He was standing over there waiting for you to come to him,” Fanboy argued. “Give the man a chance. You ran away too fast last night.”

“Fine. But you owe me dinner tomorrow.”

“Deal.”

Can we talk?

You typed out a quick Meet by the docks before grabbing your purse and heading out the door. He was already there when you arrived.

“Hey…” you began.

“Hey.”

You stood there in silence as he started to speak. “So, about last night. I wasn’t drunk, at least, not enough to forget what I said or did. I hope you weren’t? I wouldn’t want to take advantage of you.”

“I wasn’t.” 

“Okay, good.”

“Yeah.”

“Great.”

Right then, you became all too aware of the way he was gazing at you—alcohol or not, the look in Hangman’s eyes was the exact same as the one last night…and you felt your pulse start racing. Had he always stared at you that way but you were too oblivious to notice? 

“Why are you looking at me like that?” your voice came out so quiet that he almost missed what you said. 

“Sweetheart, I don’t know how else to look at you.”

You felt your cheeks grow hot. It was only a kiss. Nothing more. 

“You didn’t do it out of pity, right?”

“I couldn’t do that to you or myself. I didn’t do it on accident, Y/N. It wasn’t a mistake.”

“Oh.”

You took three steps toward him, enough to be mere inches away from his face. His arms wrapped around you on instinct and you let him pull you close. Then when he tilted his head down to kiss you again, you let him, and the butterflies remained. 

He was here, and he was everywhere, too.

tags, including those who may be interested: @queenbbarnes​ @walkonthewiidside​ @sarcastic-sourwolf​ @totomoshi​ @sebastianstangirl01​ @altheadarling​ @hay-9105​ @purelyfiction​ @93joons​ @yeehawnana​ @lunamoonbby​ @hazelgirl355​ @multifandom-fangirl4​ @paintballkid711​ @lyn-lc​ @azari-anna​ @thelifeofthelifeofme​ @spawn0fsatan​ @milestomaverick​ @newlibrary​ @ellabellabus07​ @criminalyetminimal​ @whatlovegattado​ @lets-be-gay-for-the-angel​ @hufflepuffprincesse​ @ice-mans-world​ @burnedbrisket​ @fangirlinc​ @marveljunkie45​ @knowledgefulbutterfly​ @levis-butterfingers​ @organabanks​ @coastingline​ @skylynch03​ @chaoticassidy​ @hbstre​ @mercury-mae​ @light-the-moon​ @winteryoungie​ @aie1840​ @thisismypointofview​ @minivture​ @teacactusworld​ @icemansgirl1999​​ @cherry-waved​ @vane28282​ @worldsoldestpizzaslice

#top gun #top gun: maverick #top gun fic #top gun fanfic #jake seresin #hangman seresin #jake hangman seresin #jake seresin x reader #jake seresin x you #hangman x reader #hangman x you #hangman seresin x reader #glen powell #top gun maverick fic #jake hangman seresin x reader #top gun fanfiction #top gun maverick fanfic

[so-long-soldier-writes]

Author about the body swap thing I wanted to ask for headcannons but I accidentally wrote fic lmaoo. Please do whatever u are comfortable with. Yoh know everyones gonna eat it up everything and anything u write coz u are such a godsend and so good at writing it

Awwhhh, you're so sweet!! Thank you! 🩷🩷 I have taken literally FORVER to type this up, and to be honest, I've been brainstorming it, and then in the last hour, FINALLY found my words! I'm no good at body swap, so I hope this is kinda what you were looking for, but if not, I can take another stab at it 😅

SO i have two thoughts in mind about this - a body swap where you're just friends-ish / mutuals, but also one where you're in an established relationship

also, this post is kinda all over the place, and i'm so sorry for that, lmao, idk what happened

i'll try to organize my thoughts

~ FRIENDS / MUTUALS ~

admittedly, i read some body swap fics on ao3 prior to writing this, just to get the idea, but my brain will always go back to the episode of supernatural where some kid switched bodies with Sam

can you imagine a spell going wrong and one day you wake up ~biologically~ where you're not supposed to be?? like wtf

like imagine kai was doing a spell - maybe a complicated gemini spell he didn't understand, or a love attracting spell (bc he has a crush on you) type spell, or maybe he's just fucking around, or maybe he's not to blame and someone else cursed him, OR, maybe, YOU fucked around

either way, you wake up the next day to a huge problem, bc you know him, but not that well, and now you gotta fix it

[a bit of heretic!kai]

ooh ooh imagine one of the heretics, or even lily, did the spell to get back at you both

or maybe mary louise knows you have a crush on him so she takes matters into her own hands

or lily's just stale that kai won't listen to her and stay in the house, so she did it to fuck with him

~ back to the main thoughts ~

no matter how it happened, it happened

you wake up totally not in your body and it takes you a minute to determine who's you have

and the horror / excitement / confusion you feel when you realize kai is in yours is unmatched

i mean… he's cute… the urge is explore is STRONG, but you can't do that without consent

and kai is facing the same issue

but you do have to look at each other?? yourselves?? to get dressed, so you both allow a little sneak peak as you do that, but that's IT

then, as soon as you're ready and build a bit of confidence to confront the situation, you're both out to find each other

if kai did the spell bc of a love spell gone wrong, he's gonna be a hot mess

trying not to stutter, no eye contact, shuffling feet, biting his lip

if he did it on accident trying another spell, he'll be nervous, but more capable of explaining the mess; "it was a 2 person spell; i thought with luke i could; i'm looking for a solution"

if someone else cursed you both, you'd meet up with ???'s dancing in your heads

aware you're definitely in each other's bodies but having no clue what to do about it

[switched by someone else / swapped as a curse or payback]

can you imagine?? if you're cursed, and it becomes a multi-day thing as you try to figure out whodunnit??

you spend all day together narrowing down your list of vengeful enemies, trying out reversal spells, siphoning magic from yours to his, but never finding a solution

and then by the end of the day, you get this really weird feeling and you don't want to be separated from your own damn body, so kai sleeps on your couch and you take to your bed

but even that distance feels weird, so he ends up in your bed and your hands are touching, and maybe your legs are tangled just a bit

and when you wake up, you're still in each other's bodies, so it's upsetting, but also a relief that you have each other's, and your body didn't do a second jump overnight??

at some point, you tried calling your old friend, kol, who had been body swapped before, but his situation was very different

he kept dying and that's why he jumped twice, but his mother might have some answers if they read her grimoire

so you borrow the big old dusty ass book and kai eventually manages to undo the spell

but after that, kol is very adamant about the dangerous gemini not having any access to his family's magic, to which you can agree is valid, and kai thinks is "fair"

besides, covens are very particular about grimoires being in their own families, so kai can understand his concern

so the book is dutifully returned without kai having anymore access to it

when your curser learns you reversed the spell, they're not happy, but don't try again

kai is already gemini, and now you're working with mikaelsons, and you're already close with kol, and now kai, too, by working so close to him and sharing his literal body and sleeping with him bc it feels weird to not sleep with your own body, so the curser doesn't try again

but they are stale af for the rest of their life

but not stupid enough to try again

[plain, old, experimentative, backfired spell]

if kai's own dumb spell backfired and switched you, he'll come clean about it quickly

he'd probably be so nonchalant about it, but secretly screaming inside

and then you ofc don't know a reversal, so you spend all day with him looking for one

maybe you can't find one, so you're forced to call his dad

his dad berates him over the phone so strongly, and gives you a little insight to what his childhood may have been like

you feel some sympathy for the kid, and get why he felt the need to become the leader so bad // to feel some control over his domineering father

once you get unswitched, you force him into a conversation about how you want to be friends with him; how the situation helped you understand him better; how you've actually really liked spending time with him... but would like to do that in your own body

after some hesitation, bc he doesn't trust easily, he agrees

explaining to your friends that an unexpected body swap led to your friendship raises some eyebrows, but you're confident in your decision to befriend kai

you both could use a friend, and hey, maybe it'll help to have him in the long-run with MF drama

[love spell gone wrong]

poor guy just wanted a perfume-equivalent spell, or a little extra added charm, or something like that, but instead he swapped your fucking bodies

the process of working out this accident occur much like the previous backfired spell, except kai doesn't know how to admit his original intent, and therefore, doesn't

it isn't until you actually ask what he was trying to do, once you're already unswitched, that he blurts it out without meaning to

but all is well, as you admit a little crush of your own on the siphon, but had no clue how to admit it

from there, you kind of start as friends that kiss each other, but as trust grows, so does your relationship

his confidence grows, too, and he gets less shy

one morning that you've covered ~many bases~, he stands proud in your kitchen and finally admits, "yeah, that body swap was bc i had a crush on you; it didn't go as planned, but worked out just the same"

and just maybe it's that moment that you realize you love his dorky ass self

[YOU had the backfired spell]

if you fucked around, that would be even crazier than anything he did, because no one, i feel, would be expecting it

like everyone can see kai doing some weird shit where bodies end up swapped, but if witch!reader is fucking around and manages to get into his body (lmao), questions WILL be asked

but imagine doing the walk of shame to wherever he lives, and having to explain to him the reason he feels all weird inside is because of a spell you did

and then you have to go through the whole ordeal of finding out what exactly happened, what to do about it, and where tf to go from there

because honestly, you can't live a day in someone else's body and then just ... move on ...

like no, he's attached after that, whether for better or for worse (it's for better, you know it)

but in a situation where you fucked around (and certainly found out), kai would find it so fucking funny

the whole town would manage to find out bc that's just your luck, and anyone who's not incredibly worried for you (jo, bonnie, liv, stefan), is laughing their ass off (damon, caroline, enzo) but none of them are helping bc wtf are they supposed to do??

so you debate calling a mikaelson or a far-away parker father, but kai doesn't like either of those options and votes instead to check gemini grimoires or, y'know, play the guessing game

maybe in his guessing game, siphoning the magic out of both of you does work (and then you take a three day nap [together] out of exhaustion)

or maybe he happens to have a spell that works and you're so grateful for the effort that you propose dinner or cocktails or something, but kai decides instead that he'd rather have you as someone he can trust, since now you REALLY KNOW EACH OTHER and he doesn't think you'll betray him after that

maybe you then admit that the reason you think you got swapped is because your crush-clouded mind had been thinking of him all day, and at the time of the spell

so now, with this new information, he's certainly not letting you walk off and pretend this never happened

nope, you're stuck with him for life now

~ ESTABLISHED RELATIONSHIP ~

ever since he became coven leader, you've been helping kai learn new spells & adapt to all his new magic and all that

lots of gemini spells require 2 people, but even tho you're not gem witch, you're trying your best to help him

and that's when, this time, it backfired, and switched your bodies

it's like polyjuice potion on steroids, how you look like him but feel like yourself, and he looks like you but feels like himself immediately, you tried to reverse it, but efforts were futile

after wondering for a moment about wtf to do, eventually you decide you'd have to go to jo or his father to get help

you both picked jo, buuuut she's at the hospital on a shift until late so you gotta get through the day as each other

you had made plans for lunch with your friends, but they hate kai, so not wanting to tell them about the swap (they're hesitant about you dating already), nor being allowed to cancel (per caroline), kai has to manage being you throughout the hour

and when kai usually goes to chill with damon for that hour, you have to pretend to be him, but mostly because explaining the situation to damon seems like a headache you can't handle

ofc, when you get into your right bodies, this might be a fun story to tell someday, but right now, it's not

now, you both have to handle each others' lunch dates, and it is not something you're looking forward to doing

in kai's situation, caroline immediately noticed something was up, but kai's a good liar. elena was none the wiser and rambled on and on for twenty minutes about med school, but in that meantime, bon picked up on kai-ish and certainly not y/n-ish habits, too

granted, the two of you have grown so close you're beginning to share habits, but some things are so recognizable to the individual that bonnie has doubts

through the solid skill of gaslighting, kai makes his way through lunch, but you're struggling through your lunch

unfortunately, you do not share your bf's ability to down three cocktails and not trip over your bar stool when you get up for the bathroom, nor do you have the same habit of rolling up every paper straw wrapper you have and flicking it across the table, and nor are you able to lie as well as he is, when damon and ric ask, "wtf is wrong with you"

and after a moment of staring and prodding, and the realization that ric will find out anyway, then tell damon, you cave and tell them both what happened

damon, ofc, begins to study you like a bug

ric is apprehensive and scoots back in his seat

eventually, you get away from their grasp and meet up back with kai

the girls go one way and you and him go the other

you manage to avoid them for much of the rest of the day by returning home and studying spells

you try a couple that might be able to reverse the one, but you refrain from doing too much; both of you are afraid of making it worse

kai tries to siphon it out of you, but that doesn't work, either

finally, in the evening, jo and ric show up and try to help

jo finds a spell that could work, but… she needs another witch

liv refuses

ric refuses to involve bonnie

so jo calls their father to handle it

over the phone, after chiding kai for fooling around, he helps jo with a spell that will unswap you

the switch itself is rather visceral and a bit painful

but it works

he hangs up after one more chiding, then jo and ric scold you as well, then they finally leave

you and kai don't practice spells for some time after that

or, at least, you stick to anything with latin that you can for sure translate

the next time he goes to portland, he'll take a grimoire that'll help him understand some of the more difficult spells -- and their reversals

because while the whole ordeal wasn't bad, it was just weird

and certainly something you'd like to avoid

~ now, for a smidge of nsfw ~ mostly for established relationship kai, but can be for friends that turn into relationships, too

despite the whole ordeal being a lowkey mess, if you were to find a solution that didn't involve his dad, kai would be hella tempted into talking you in to trying it again just for ~fun~

one, bc he had some fun messing with care and bon

but even more so, bc he wonders what sex is like in that situation

i think we can all agree, kai has a little NPD mixed in with his ASPD, so sex with the self is something that would be at least a bit intriguing

plus he's just so curious about everything

and being able to feel what you're feeling is so motivating for him

he's both curious and wants to make sure he's doing a good job

it'll be half cheat sheet, half check mark that he's giving you what you need / deserve, and half straight up curiosity

so if the opportunity presented itself, he'd totally body swap again

but he needs to know there's a spell to undo it, too, bc he quite likes his own self

#asks #body swap #the much-delayed ask i'm finally answering #i am so sorry #but here are the thots #malachai parker x reader #kai parker headcanons #kai parker x reader #i'm writing / editing this on little sleep #but finally got the inspo and typed and posted it all in one night

[shadowsandshapes]

FFTB | CH 12: Trojan Horse Tactics (Dabi/F!Reader)

Summary: Shigaraki sells you to the Shie Hassaikai. But you're aware this is part of a bigger plan. All you have to do is keep your poker-face on. Contains: Explicit Language, Discussions of Abuse (Eri's Situation), Overhaul Slander (lmao, not serious), Canon-Typical Violence

[2.7k]

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Getting the upper hand in a dispute or a fight often depends on how creative you are. Making do with what you have is an important skill to cultivate. So is finding value in things or people that, at first glance, don’t seem all that impressive. Something that looks like a problem can actually be a blessing in disguise if you figure out how to best utilize it.

 Shigaraki was very familiar with that concept. 

The second you divulged the details of your Quirk to him on that first day, he knew you were something special. Was he using you? Absolutely. But you were a willing participant in his deceit. You knew exactly what you were signing up for by joining him for this meeting.

Shigaraki lied directly to their faces. And you were in on the joke this time.

Well, not really. That was a bit of an oversimplification of the situation. He knew better than to lie outright during the negotiations with the Shie Hassaikai. Kai Chisaki was sharp, clever and dangerous. Lying to a man like that was a quick way to shoot yourself in the foot if you were trying to establish a good rapport. Overhaul had to trust that his alliance with the League was genuine. 

Bending the truth or omitting details was still fair game though. 

Tomura had already agreed to loan Twice and Toga’s services to the Shie Hassaikai. But there was one more piece on the board that had yet to move – you. Shigaraki desperately wanted you here as a part of the negotiations. The reason for that was gradually becoming beginning to reveal itself. You were a little impressed. Often times people poked fun at Shigaraki for his childish nature – but you had to admit, the man was quite clever when he wanted to be.

“Gotta say, I’m surprised you insisted on bringing an escort with you,” Chisaki started. “What can this one do? She don’t look like much but looks can be deceiving. I never know with you people. Telekinesis or a healing Quirk, maybe?” Overhaul’s casual dismissal of your appearance did sting a little but you shrugged it off. Chalk it up to his lack of social tact. This guy was a piece of work, wasn’t he? Not one to mince words for the sake of personal feelings. It didn’t matter – but fuck was it rude. You wondered how anyone stuck around long enough to stay loyal to him with an attitude like that.

“She’s lucky,” Tomura said – taking note of how Overhaul’s eyes widened ever so slightly at the revelation. Bingo. You were being dangled in front of him like a grand prize to be won. And it was working like a charm. The value of such a unique ability was not lost on the Yakuza leader. Having irrefutable luck on your side was a game-changer after all. Now all Tomura had to do was embellish the nature of your skills a little bit. “As long as she’s here with me – you can’t touch me.”

Bad things will happen if you do.

Shigaraki didn’t say that part out loud. The implication was that your mere presence was enough to keep him safe. In a way, he wasn’t wrong. The fact that you caused trouble for everyone else around you was a lie of omission. One that would undoubtedly come back to bite Overhaul should he decide to take Shigaraki’s bait.

You sat beside him, quietly watching the exchange. The role you played was much more akin to that of a piece of home decoration. Rather than Shigaraki’s witness – which was technically what you were here to do. He had instructed you not to interfere. Just to watch. So you did as you were told, observing as he sold you off to the Shie Hassaikai for the sake of the plan. His pitch had been pretty solid. You knew Shigaraki was leaving out the details of your Quirk on purpose. Without its obvious drawbacks – it’s a very powerful ability to have. One Overhaul wouldn’t be able to resist. You watched the man in question fidget and weigh the options in his mind. 

Every glance and gesture Overhaul made in your direction had your hair standing on end. High alert. The idea that you might be spending time near him soon turned your blood to ice. Your entire body and mind rejected his presence. Like he was invading something personal to you by just existing in close proximity. Cold and harsh – his eyes seemed almost clinical in their assessment of you. Chisaki took your measure in pensive silence. You knew what he was seeing. Nothing much. A harmless young woman he could bend to his will. That’s all anyone ever saw before you joined the League.

Go ahead – think what you will.

Overhaul’s dismissal of your personal strength of will would lead to the glorious downfall of the organization he spent years protecting. You bit the inside of your cheek as the urge to smile surfaced. The pain was enough to deter you for the moment, but it took no small amount of energy to keep your poker face on during the rest of the meeting.

“I want her too.” There it was. As predicted.

“No way,” Shigaraki’s objection was immediate. Pure bullshit, of course. You had to hand it to the guy – he wasn’t bad at playing pretend. The poor suckers had no idea they were being set up for failure. “She’s my insurance, why would I risk parting from her side? You’re taking a lot of liberties with your demands for a guy who killed one of ours. You’ve got droves of disposable thugs on your side but every member of the League is precious to me. The girl included.”

“I don’t want power like that where I can’t see it. The girl stays with us for a bit. Take it or leave it.”

A tantalizing ultimatum. Tomura pretended to be annoyed – hummed and hawed about the issue for a bit but ultimately relented. He couldn’t give in too easily. Dramatics made for such wonderful stories. “This is a big ask, Overhaul. I hope you appreciate the sacrifices the League is making for your organization.”

The man leaned back in his seat – satisfied golden eyes honing in on your face. You wanted to hurt him for looking at you like that. “Oh, I do. This is the start of a very fruitful relationship – I assure you.”

It would be. Just not quite for him.

Inaction in the face of injustice is the worst kind of cruelty. 

It was unbearable to watch – the way they treated this little girl. What was her name? That’s right. Eri. 

You couldn’t recall anyone calling her that name with any kind of affection. What was essentially a basic human right was treated like a formality by these people. They used her blood to fuel the production of the anti-Quirk serum, experimented with it, and in return showed her no genuine kindness to speak of. 

It had only been a couple of days since you’d joined the Shie Hassaikai’s ranks but when the depth of their depravity was revealed to you, you were about ready to demolish the place. Including everyone associated with them and their disgusting experiments. The image of Eri strapped to a medical slab engrained itself into your memory, her whimpering cries of agony driving you crazy. She was helpless. Reduced to being nothing more than a lab rat when she should be outside, playing with other kids her age and enjoying life. Far away from whatever nightmare she had been trapped in. You stood at her bedside as the medical personnel concluded their test results and reported their findings to the big man himself. It broke your heart to play pretend in front of her. A child should be nourished and cared for, not poked and prodded for the sake of some grand scheme.

“Don’t touch her,” Chisaki chastised when you placed a hand on the girl’s shoulder in an attempt to soothe her pain. She flinched at your touch, recoiling – terrified eyes darting between you and her wardens. “Unless you’re looking to get killed, of course. People die around Eri, you know?”

The little girl sniffled. You clenched your jaw and bit the inside of your cheek.

People died around you too. Placing blame on a little girl and her Quirk was low. Disgusting behavior perpetuated by men too manipulative to care about anything but their own needs. Eri wasn’t responsible for the way her abilities worked – but Overhaul used this fear to his advantage to keep her obedient. The people in your past had done the same. You couldn’t call him out on it without blowing your cover though. That hurt the most right now. Despite the pain in your chest, you nodded, stepping away from the girl.

Kai Chisaki was by far the worst offender but the fact that no one told him to stop was just as sickening. 

Part of it was fear. 

No one wanted to be disintegrated over a dispute after all. Several of its members had already met a cruel fate in the short time you’d spent in their care. The Shie Hassaikai was nothing like the League in that regard. The League protected their own to a ferocious degree. They disagreed sometimes – but it was never a matter of life and death. Overhaul, on the other hand, destroyed opposition within his ranks without hesitation or remorse. You couldn’t stand it. The fake smile you were forced to wear whenever he was around tasted increasingly bitter. Toga and Twice were delegated to doing other tasks while you were left to decorate Chisaki’s arm, so you didn’t even have them to rely on.

He was still under the impression that your Quirk worked by proximity after all. The closer you were to him – the more he would benefit from your Luck. What he was doing to that girl was unforgivable. It took a lot of restraint on your part to let him touch you at all. Those were the hands of a monster in human disguise. A man so quick to sacrifice the life of a child for personal gain. Kai Chisaki made you feel sick, violent and angry. Each time he dragged you along to do his bidding, all you could think about was slapping the back of his head with something heavy or sharp. Preferably to a lethal degree. 

You wouldn’t shed a tear if the bastard never got back up again.

Patience was key though. Shigaraki had made that very clear. When the time was right, you would pull the rug out from under the bastard. For now, you waited and played the part of the obedient piece of arm candy. Sticking to his side, you followed Overhaul like a shadow. As long as he was under the impression you would make him Lucky, you would be kept safe from his volatile tendencies to deconstruct his underlings for every minor mishap. 

Still, when he finally dismissed you to do private business, you were grateful. Finally able to breathe freely again without him looming over your shoulder constantly.

You were even more elated when you spotted your fellow League members lounging around in one of the underground rooms of the compound. Toga and Twice had been kept busy doing menial things, though neither of them had the displeasure of being carted around by the big boss like you had. Their presence was enough to make you sigh in relief. You found comfort in them – your strange little family. Seeing them turn their heads to greet you, smiling, never failed to make you feel grateful for the gift you’d been given.

“Hey look who it is!” Toga waved you over with a smile. “We were worried about you, you know? Having to spend all that time with Overhaul must suck…”

“Tell me about it,” you said, flopping down onto one of the couches. “The guy’s nuts.”

“He’s not too bad – Can’t stand him!” The duality of man, or rather the duality of Twice, still caught you off guard sometimes. Like right now for instance: you couldn’t imagine anyone calling Overhaul not too bad. Still – his comment coaxed a laugh from you regardless. That was something you sorely needed after spending time in Eri’s prison cell – sorry, medical room.

“How’re things on your end?” you asked, keeping your question vague enough so any listening ears would not suspect foul play. “Everything going smoothly?”

“It’s okay. I’m real bored though. Nothing exciting ever happens around here. Someone should shake up the place, y’know? Have a little fun.”

You laughed at Toga’s interesting choice of words, nodding along in agreement. Now – wouldn’t that be something? “I know what you mean. I almost miss setting shit on fire with Dabi.”

Giggling as she cupped her own cheeks to soothe her blushing skin with cool hands, the blonde leaned on the side of the sofa to observe your face. “You just miss that flaming asshole, period. Admit it.”

“I do miss him. Once this is all over I can’t wait to see him again.” Your eyes drifted from your companions for a moment as you thought of reuniting with him, a small dusting of pink rising to your cheeks. His promise still rang in the back of your head.

“That is so cute!” Toga was positively beside herself with glee. The girl’s face was flushed bright red as she kicked her feet and giggled. It was kind of flattering to see her be so excited about your relationship with Dabi. “Let’s hope we can wrap up this job soon s–”

Your conversation was cut short when the twin doors swung open, clattering against the wall with great force. Its hinges groaned and creaked, buckling under the sudden impact. 

A small group of individuals made their way into the rec room, your eyes widening when you recognized one of them. And subsequently the rest of the trio as well. Toya Setsuno glared at you over the edge of his plague mask – a glimmer of recognition festering into anger. You knew what that look meant. He remembered you from that night and brought back-up. Two other members from the Eight Bullets covered his flank. None of them looked happy to see you.

Toga glanced at you and grinned, the reflection of light against the knife hidden in her cardigan gleaming against her pale skin. You shook your head quietly – discouraging her from engaging with them. Waiting for you to say the word, her fingers brushed over the handle of the weapon. Resting there until someone made a move. Magne’s shadow loomed over your shoulder in that moment. You knew very little of the woman whose shoes you had filled – but you did know one thing: Overhaul was the reason she was no longer with the League. He had killed her without hesitation and Toga held that grudge tight to her chest. She would maim them to protect you. Merciless in her quest to prevent another sister from vanishing. You had to remind her that Overhaul would not let them hurt you. Trusting in the idea that Shigaraki was right about his interest in your Quirk. 

Despite the faith you had in your leader’s plan, the tension in the room was palpable and, for a moment, you feared the gig was up. Then…

“Boss wants to see you in the lab,” Setsuno said, almost barking the sentence in your direction. “Don’t make him wait.”

You glanced at your companions and nodded. Twice and Toga say nothing but begrudgingly accept your departure. They kept their eyes on the trio by the door as you passed them by. Whatever this was – you will handle it. Despite your outward confidence, leaving your friends behind with the Eight Bullets did make you feel uneasy. 

As capable as you knew they were, you couldn’t help but want to stick together.

A buzzing in your pocket distracted you from your oncoming confrontation with Overhaul. He could wait two more minutes, couldn’t he? You fished for your phone as you made your way toward the lab. Smiling, you stared at the text displayed on your home screen. A message, reading loud and clear:

Unknown Number heroes gathering outside, omw D

9:38 ✓✓

This charade wouldn’t last much longer now.

A/N: Very plot-heavy chapter~ my apologies! Don't worry, Dabi will be back soon, my beloveds (:

Taglist: @kelin-is-writing @dynamars @dabislittlemouse @simpysheep @ohnoitsthatonekid @tonysttank @dabislittlesluttyprincess @when-you-are-just-done @dabislittlebeaniebaby @themythicaldisaster

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#dabi x reader #dabi x y/n #dabi x you #dabi x female reader #touya x you #touya todoroki x reader #touya x reader #touya x y/n #touya todoroki #mha dabi #bnha dabi #shade's fftb

[quodekash]

ITS ABAAB EP 7 TIME and i am sorry 

warning: lots of happiness, too much happiness. take a shot of water every time i say any variation of ‘HAPPY’. stay hydrated, folks. 

wait what happened to cher? did i miss something? 

i dont remember how the last episode ended so its very possible that i missed something 

awh 🥺

thE BED IS STILL ON AN ANGLE WHY IS THE BED ON AN ANGLE SOMEONE FIX THIS IM BEGGING YOU, ITS GOTTA BE A SAFETY HAZARD 

pls they look so comfy 

it looks like theyve been married for a thousand lifetimes 

so comfyyyyy

rIGHT, THEIR GROUP HAD A FIGHT, THAT’S WHAT HAPPENED TO CHER, I REMEMBER NOW 

YEYEYEYEYEYEYEYEYEYEAH BEACH EPISODE = PURE HAPPINESS AND DOPAMINE 

THREEZO AT THE BEACH 

WE’RE GONNA GET THREEZO AT THE BEACH 

IM LITERALLY ABOUT TO CRY IN ANTICIPATION OF BEACH

i know i already said it like four times BUT THIS LOOKS SO FREAKING COMFY WHAT THE HELL 

THREEZO THREEZO THREEZO

HELLO MY LOVELIES HOW ARE YOU TODAY 

theyre literally in the middle of the frame omg 

little babby 

i love him 

he’s tall but he’s smol 

his HAIR 

LOOK AT IT 

THE HAIR IS SO FLUFFY 

i think my favourite things about this series are jack’s hair and threezo

and theyre both tied for first place 

three’s apology to jack is so freaking sweet omg 

i love him too much 

he struggles with words and communicating but he wants everyone to be happy and he doesnt want conflict and he feels responsible for everything and he is perfection and also he’s either adhd or asd or both, i dont make the rules 

HAPPY

omg his awkward laugh is so cute why was that so cute 

his sweet little ‘hah hah’ 

HIS FACE MAKES ME HAPPY 

HAPPYYYYY 

(damn i did gun/force dirty on that screenshot) 

his freaking face

its making me happy 

this is a happiness overload 

im not used to this much joy in my system 

what do i do with it 

HAPPYYYYYYYYY

dads. 

everyone can see you btw. just letting you know. you’re just standing there, holding hands 

i mean that’s great, good job, not being scared is funky (but its also funky to be scared), it’s just that. you know. if your friends ask questions later and you dont want them to suspect anything then like. it’s your fault. 

altho maybe they dont care if their friends find out, idk at this point 

ignore me

HAPPY

everyone ganging up to push gun in the water. that’s what friendship truly is 

HAPPY

they teleported 

three was next to zo, jack was between cher and zo. they switched. 

hOW?

HAPPYYYYY

THE HAIR

LOOK AT THE HAIR 

they always figure out a way to squeeze it in 

OMG

SOBBING

IM SOBBING

THATS SO CUTE 

HELP

DAMN RIGHT 

his hair is a mess lmao

bRO

HE SAID IT

HE SAID THE THING 

ZOGUN FRIENDSHIP BONDING SCENE OMG HAPPINESS 

he’s known from the very freaking beginning 

before cher even knew 

the gaydar is strong bro 

HIS FREAKING FACE 

HAPPY

HE HAPPY 

PFFFFFFT

i love their friendship so much omg 

(that screenshot looks like hes about to punch him lmao) 

“zo, what is love?” i can feel it, im about to punch a wall or smth bc something threezo is coming 

“what is love for you?” “three.” yUP I KNEW IT OMG IM GONNA FREAKING CRY 

HAIR

FLUFFY FLUFFY FLUFFY ITS SO FLUFFY 

i think i love this man (and his hair) a little too much but its fine 

GJK3BERKJGBVRKEBGR

GUN WHAT THE HELL 

AGAIN, THEY LOOK SO FREAKING COMFY 

well shoot. thoop is mad at cher for being involved with gun. 

good news is: i dont think its homophobia 

it’s just that he doesnt want cher to move on from tian (thoop himself cant move on from tian) and he doesnt want cher to find a relationship because that means, in thoop’s eyes, he’s letting tian go, and thoop cant really deal with that because he’s ✨mentally ill✨

get some sleep my man 

I LOVE HOW MUCH HE LOVES HIS FRIENDS 

HES SO FREAKING CARING 

HE WOULD DO ANYTHING FOR HIS FRIENDS 

HED PROBABLY NEVER ADMIT IT BUT HE’S A REAL FREAKING SOFTY ON THE INSIDE 

1. ive never seen more serious finger guns 

2. you’re not bi, sir, why are you doing finger guns 

3. finger GUNs 

that is all 

FINAL THOUGHTS: 

if they dont give us a threezo kiss by the end of this show i will scream. 

#abaab #a boss and a babe #a boss and a babe series #a boss and a babe the series #threezo #zothree #ohmfluke #flukeohm #ohm thiphakorn #fluke pusit #mike chinnarat #jack abaab #abaab jack #gun gungawin #cher saran #guncher #chergun #forcebook #bookforce #force jiratchapong #book kasidet

[ro-written]

Don't Wanna Fall In Love pt. 2 - C.Y

A/N: Listen..I know. It’s been a hot minute lmao. I gotta say, when I first wrote this part, I hated it and literally left it to sit for a while. I finally came back to it and now I don’t mind it! Go figure that lmaoooo, but anywhosies! I’m not gonna promise when the next part will be out, but thank yall for sticking with me thus far. 

Tags/Warnings: gn!reader (I used they/them pronouns at one point), Yeonjun Has Feelings (™), reader slips on wet bricks and busts their ass, nothing crazy happens honestly

Word Count: 3.2k

Playlist:

“Clouds” by BØRNS “Tek It” by Cafuné

Next Part (Coming Soon!)

Winter break gave you a month to forget about Choi Yeonjun.

Somewhat.

You attempted to stay busy by visiting some friends and some family. You picked up some extra hours at your job to make a little extra cash for Christmas gifts. You started a new book AND a new series on TV. 

Yet there were moments when your brain would flit back to his face when you closed the door on him. Like now, how you had scanned over this sentence in the book at least 7 times now and all you could think about were his eyes. How they watched you as you shut it. How his lips seemed to frown when you looked away from him, looking like he wanted to say something more. All you could think about was the small exchange between you two.

“I’ll see you later?”

“Yeah, Yeonjun…I’ll definitely see you around.”

You would smack your head lightly when you thought of that moment to try and refocus.

What bothered you the most was the fact that you couldn’t remember the night with him. All you could remember was that you invited him in. Nothing else. You wanted to ask him what he remembered, to see what exactly happened last night. But ultimately, you’d rather steer clear of him. The least amount of contact to keep from drawing any attention.

—

It annoyed him. All of it.

He couldn’t stop thinking of you. How you looked that night, the sound of your voice, how you smelled. He kept replaying all of it in his head.

Especially the moment you rushed him out of your apartment.

He remembered how panicked your face looked, and it bothered him. He tried looking for you around campus before he went home for the break, but any time he caught a glimpse of you, it seemed as if you were in a hurry to get somewhere else. 

He even found you on social media, something he really only used when he remembered it existed. When he found your account, he immediately followed you so he could message you. But you never followed back, and he didn’t want to seem weird reaching out to you. Bad enough he stalked your handle out without asking you for it.

He wasn’t winning himself any brownie points.

And for the life of him, he couldn’t figure out why he was acting this way. Why he wanted so badly to talk to you about that night. He typically would immediately forget about his temporary companions within a few days. But he supposes you aren’t his typical companion.

Hell, you didn’t even sleep with him, to begin with.

He remembered quite a bit of the night. He walked you back home, you brought him inside to help sober up a bit, and you both sat on the couch talking about various things. Unlike what he was expecting, where most people immediately dragged him to the bedroom, you sat and talked. Both his and your words were messy and jumbled up, a bit slurred from the drinks you had, but you talked with him. 

You listened to him talk about his interest in music, his favorite artists, and his passion for dancing. He spoke about his interest in fashion, and how he loved expressing his identity and personality through his clothes. He talked about his love for his best friends, and how they were the brothers that he never had. You cared about what he had to say, even while tipsy.

Just thinking about it made his face burn a bit, the corners of his lips twitching a bit. He could remember how your tired eyes kept their attention on him, nodding along with what he said. Even as they drooped, you would respond to everything.

“Yeonjun,” Taehyun kicked his foot, bringing him out of his thoughts. Yeonjun’s face looked up from where he was staring at the floor, seeing all four of his best friends’ eyes looking at him. 

“You’ve been spaced out for the past ten minutes,” Hyuka filled in. 

Yeonjun nodded, giving them all an apologetic smile, and scratched the back of his head. “Sorry guys, just been out of it recently.”

“You’ve been out of it since after the end-of-semester party.” Soobin pointed out. Yeonjun raised an eyebrow, not realizing that his restlessness had been so noticeable all this time. “Something happen?” Soobin’s smirk suggested something else underlying his “innocent” question. Yeonjun just rolled his eyes and tried to refocus on the book he had been reading.

They went to Beomgyu’s uncle’s cabin for a few days before school started back up, wanting to get away from the ever-alive city. They had all agreed that they needed some bonding time together (even though they considered themselves brothers) and needed to be disconnected from the rest of the world before school pulled them back into the depths of studying. It was nice to just be near his friends and be himself, not having to be “The Fabulous Five” for a minute. Stupid name.

“Didn’t you leave out with someone?” Beomgyu piped up, tilting his head and causing the black hair he was growing out the fall in his face. “I thought I saw you head out, but I couldn’t see who you left with. Must have done a real number on you.” He snickered, turning to laugh with the others. 

Yeonjun clenched his jaw at his friends’ remarks. Typically he would laugh along with them, even if they were picking on him and his bedroom tendencies. But this time around, with him feeling so conflicted about his emotions towards you, it caused him to just grow agitated.

“I didn’t sleep with anyone that night,” he bluntly remarked back without looking up.

Actually, he hasn’t slept with anyone after that night either. But until they pieced that together, he was not freely offering that information up.

“But you left with someone, didn’t you?” Soobin’s voice piped back up, and Yeonjun rolled his eyes before finally looking at his friends spread around the room. He saw the looks they were all giving him. Ones that told him they were not planning on leaving him alone until he told them the details. He let out an exasperated sigh before setting his book down and marking the page he was on.

“Yes, I left out with someone that night. No, we did not have sex. We simply…talked. And we ended up falling asleep. I left out in the morning. That’s all there is to it.”

Except he knew that he was lying. There was undoubtedly more to it that he wasn’t letting on, given his recent habit of spacing out so much that his friends picked up on.

“Hyung,” Hyuka finally spoke up from his seated position on the floor across the coffee table. “You know you can tell us if something happened. It’s obviously bothering you.” He offered Jjun a sweet smile, one the older knew he would have trouble saying no to. He took yet another sigh, sitting up from his spread position on the couch.

“It’s just…” he slightly trailed off, not knowing what exactly he wanted to say. He hadn’t had feelings like these, whatever these were, in a few years.

“We just talked, you know? It was the first time someone outside of you all actually had an interest in what I had to say rather than just my body. Someone was interested in getting to know me beyond the surface level and…and then I was just pushed out in the morning. I was told it was all a ‘mistake.’ But what’s even worse is that I don’t even know how I feel about this person.”

Yeonjun stared down at where he was picking at his nails, slightly nervous at looking at his friends’ faces. He knows that they all remember the last relationship, and he doesn’t quite want to hear them remind him of it.

“That’s…” Taehyun reached out and put a hand on Yeonjun’s knee, offering some comfort. “It makes sense. Do you know why this other person rushed you out? Have you tried to reach out at all?”

“I have but it just seems like they don’t want anything to do with me. And, I don’t know, I just felt like we had kind of connected that night.” Taehyun looked at Soobin while Yeonjun’s head was still down, giving a look that was hard to decipher.

“If you’re really into them,” Beomgyu piped up. “I say it doesn’t hurt to maybe go to them in person when we get back to campus. See what their deal is. Maybe they don’t know how to approach you.” He shrugged his shoulders and looked at his friend with sympathetic eyes.

“Yeah, 'cause you’re the least approachable out of us,” Hyuka smirked and Beomgyu lightly shoved him, causing Yeonjun to smile, finally relaxing a bit.

Jjun nodded and looked around at his brothers. “I’m definitely going to try.”

—

First day of the Spring semester…and you completely embarrassed yourself in front of your classroom building. Of course, the rain was pouring heavily as you walked down the sidewalk, making you slide across the bricks. You didn’t have your rain boots anymore after someone (read: Jung Wooyoung) put them in the washer and dryer. So now you were stuck with your sneakers trying to watch where you trekked. It took carefully placed steps and really thinking about your walking for you to almost make it to your class without busting your ass. 

Almost.

Because, just as you were only a few steps from the door, you made the worst mistake of your life, and stepped on the wrong brick. Your foot slipped from under you, and your umbrella went up into the air as you put your hands down to catch yourself from completely bruising your behind. 

“Mother fucker,” you hissed out, placing a hand on your lower back as a shot of pain went through your body.

“Are you okay?” A voice asked from behind you called out over the heavy rain. Awesome.

A firm hand grabs at your bicep, gently helping you up as you slightly limped over to where your umbrella fell, pulling it over your head so you could keep yourself from getting any more drenched.

“Sorry, yeah I’m good, just didn’t–” You turned around to face the person who helped you up, only for the rest of your words to get caught in your throat.

Choi. Yeonjun. Of fucking course.

“Oh, hey.” It was all you could muster in your surprised state, and you were sure your voice gave away your shock. You hadn’t expected to run into him on your first day back, but here you were anyways. In fact, thinking over it, you were surprised to see him on this side of campus. He was a fashion and music double major…so what was he doing at the math building?

“How ha–”

“Sorry, I gotta…gotta get to class.” You interrupted him and gripping your umbrella tightly in your one hand, rushed to the front door to pull it open. You don’t typically consider yourself to be a rude person, not normally interrupting someone in the middle of their sentences and rushing off like that. But every time you had spotted Yeonjun since that night in your apartment, you would hurry off or hide. Simply put, you just didn’t want to deal with those feelings, nor draw any attention that came with interacting with him. And if dodging and ducking him was what you had to do for the rest of your time at the school, then so be it.

You hurriedly found your class, opening the door and finding a seat towards the farthest side of the room away from the door, somewhere in the middle. You took a deep breath, trying to slow your beating heart from everything that had happened in the past 10 minutes. You shifted a bit, thankful that these seats were cloth rather than the colder plastic the other buildings tended to have. It helped considering the backside of your jeans was still very wet and cold. 

Sitting for a second, you took a moment to recollect yourself. All you had to do was make it through this semester, and then it would be summertime. He would forget all about you over the summer with his summer flings, and the rest of your time here would be fine. No dodging or diving. Your only job now was to focus on classes and made sure you finished off the year strong. Not only did you have schoolwork, but you had your friends, family, and job to worry about. As well as the future, of course. That would take your mind off Yeonjun.

Pulling out your laptop and a notebook, you heard the door to the room open up, letting out a loud groan from its age. A small gasp came from behind you, and some murmurs filled the room. Quirking an eyebrow, you looked up from your laptop. 

Your eyes widened, meeting the last person you wanted to see.

Choi. Yeon. Jun.

—

Every class, you could feel his eyes boring into the back of your head, and it would cause you to lose focus. The first few times you tried to shrug it off. You figured that, eventually, he would have to give up. He would have to get tired of chasing you around. To your dismay, you’d come to find out that Choi Yeonjun was a very persistent man, and as the staring didn’t stop, you ultimately got irritated by it.

A few times you would turn your head around, attempting to not bring too much attention, and try to give him a glare, telling him to knock it off. However, this time, as soon as you turned your head around, he would be the one to look away, a small smirk playing on his lips. It would make you clench your jaw in frustration, but you would have to learn how to block it out.

Another routine that persisted in your shared class was that, after each session, he would quickly pack up and start making his way over to you. And you in turn, seeing him approach you out of the corner of your eye, would pack your things faster and borderline sprint to the door, knowing the last thing you needed now was him talking to you in front of the class.

He couldn’t understand it. He knew now that you were trying to avoid him, seeing you walk quicker every time you noticed him. But he didn’t understand why. You seemed so interested in him that night. You both talked about everything, talked about who you were as people. Who you both hoped to become in the future.

So why were you being so cold now?

—

“Why are you avoiding me?

“Huh?”

You had been leaving your last class to catch the bus to get to your apartment. However, when a hand grabbed at your arm and dragged you into an empty classroom, you couldn’t help but let out a small yelp of surprise, your other hand coming up ready to stat hitting at whoever it was.

Only, when you saw who it was, you lowered your arm, despite still having half a mind to hit him for scaring you. His question didn’t quite fully register in your brain due to the sizzy nature of everything happening so fast.

His eyes narrowed at you, jaw tensed. “You’re avoiding me. Why?”

You moved so his hand would let go of your bicep, shifting around your bag in order to keep your hands busy. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Yes, you do, (Y/N). You know exactly what I’m talking about. You always run the opposite way when you see me, you respond to everything I say in less than three words, and you’re looking at me right now like I’ve grown two heads. So why are you avoiding me?”

Your eyes rolled and you planted your feet down, standing your ground as you looked him in the eye. “God, Yeonjun, I told you that night was a mis–” 

“I know. You said that, and I know that’s what you think.” His teeth gritted.

“Look all we did was sleep together and that’s it, I don’t understand why I am so different from all your other conquests.”

His brain felt like it just did tripped over itself, and it took him a second to thoroughly process the words you said to him.

“Wh–...So…Wait you’ve been avoiding me because you think we fucked?” His eyebrows shot up in shock and you slowly nodded your head, confused at what he was trying to say. He let out a scoff before a chuckle, turning his head to the door that he had pushed you through.

“God, if I had realized…” he trailed off, and your eyebrows pulled taut at where he was going. He finally leveled with your eyes and let out a deep sigh. “(Y/N), we didn’t have sex that night.”

He may as well have splashed ice-cold water on you with the way you froze. Your eyes went wide at his admission and you felt - and probably looked - like a deer in headlights. Your eyes went unfocused and fuzzy. Your cheeks burned in embarrassment at the fact that you had been dodging him the entire time for something that never actually happened.

“That night,” he continued, looking down at where his hands started to fidget. “We went back to your apartment, and you asked me to come inside so I could sober up. I did think at first that you were about to lead me into your bedroom. I mean, that’s what I’m used to. But you told me to sit on the couch and you went to get us both some water.”

A flash of a blurry memory played in your head, remembering how your head was slightly spinning filling the cups and walking back to the living room.

“And then we just started to talk. That was really all it was. Us talking about…well, everything. We talked about school and then that led to us talking about what we wanted to do in the future and our hobbies–”

“You really like J.Cole.” You interrupted him and watched as his eyes shot up to meet yours. “And…and you want to wear skirts more because you enjoy the feminine look it adds to your style.” 

A smile graced his face, his eyes lighting up at the small details you happened to remember. You wouldn’t admit it aloud, but it made your heart flutter in the tiniest bit. “Exactly.” 

His hand twitched, and he looked as if he was considering something, before he shook his head and continued to play with the skin around his nails.

“It’s just,” he continued as he stared at his hands once more. “I really enjoyed our talk. It felt as if…it felt like someone saw me. And…I don’t know, I was just wondering that, since you know all that now…” He clenched his fists, trying to find his words. Jesus christ, it shouldn’t be this hard. 

Finally, he sputtered out his question. “I was wondering if it would be okay if we hung out a little?”

Once again, your body froze up.

“No.”

And you left the classroom.

This was written by @/ro-written and is not to be plagiarized, translated, or distributed anywhere else. Copyright Ro-Written 2023.

All comments, reblogs, and likes are always welcome!

#txt #tubatu #tomorrow by together fic #tomorrow by together #tomorrow x together #choi yeonjun fanfic #choi yeonjun #choi yeonjun x reader #choi yeonjun fluff #choi yeonjun angst #yeonjun txt #txt fic

[baylardo]

my jj carey cinematic universe kinda chronological idea posting its still super rough GO

elephant wrote in the Carey chapter of lesson plans that peppa and jj were pen pals :3 i think they have an age gap of like 9 years lmao -looks away- (((((chakotay and janeway have the same gap leave me alone lmao)))))) but theyd be like 5 and 14 i think? i figured thatd be how they communicate through their earlier life,,,

maybe peppa would accompany her mother during the Widow’s Walk lil short story about kathryn meeting Joe’s wife and their two sons to bestow the medal of honor or whatever and gives JJ his father’s model of voyager :)

i figure theyd remain distant for a while after that for a variety of reasons like hes grieving his father, probably enters the academy as a promising cadet, idk when hed drop out/leave tbh but it comes as a shock to everyone. anyway also peppa’s mom dies and they go space for several years. i figure theyre both busy being in school/living life to interact much. i thought like maaaaaybeeeee he and patrick (or just jj) would reach out to the triplets when their mother died but i dont think philippa especially would receive it well. shes bad with her feelings and her papa left or was in the process of leaving also lol WHOOPS

might be some time inbetween when they connect but its always brief and very platonic just friends catching up in vibe. put a pin in that one lolllll,,,,,, otherwise:

i was thiiiiinking theyd reconvene at a voyager 20 year reunion? (the 10 year i think lands when theyre out in space!) so shed be around 25 and hed be 34? 🤔 when theyre both adults by that point i think, reconnect out by a fountain. theyd get to talk about what all has happened in their lives, its a little bit of an escape for philippa from the party, shes surprised hes even here considering. very likely his mother and brother didnt come. maybe hed ask about her scar, OR NOT, maybe she brings it up hehe,,,,,, is vulnerable about how insecure she feels about her appearance and hed say something sweet back. :) maybe be a little cheeky about how he loves seeing her patterns more visibly in that revealing of a dress shes wearing!!! 🙈 in a polite way. shed maybe finally have the time to ask why he dropped out of starfleet, shed talk about her own career (idk if 25 is still academy age…) stuff like that!!! but i figure they pick up pen paling each other again after this!!!! bc shes on starships now and hes either home or visiting planets for work.

figure they hang out sometimes while she has time inbetween missions. hes a bit of a geek/nerd combo, she complains about her family a lot with him, she asks him about his projects, stuff she doesnt understand but he lights up about it in a way she maybe envies she wishes she had his passion about something. she visits his house in ireland a lot and has a foundation of fondness toward the country ingrained in her from her mother. ummmm maybe she has an apartment in san Francisco, but she stays over there sometimes to get away from her work. potentially hes the one she confides in about what shes seen and done. 🤷

next thing that happens thats kinda Altering the norm for them is that philippa’s captain betrays starfleet and shes ordered into extended medical leave after being forcefully augmented by her captain. i gotta mention like, philippa and captain sh'eraz have been working together for a bit, their last mission as a captain and XO was to retrieve this lost/dead warship aka the Vesuvius that was stolen by augments early on into starfleet's history and subsequently altered/enhanced. it's kinda a lost relic of a ship, but its augmentations have been a quiet looming threat that starfleet has wanted to obtain and CONTAIN.

but captain sh'eraz augments philippa before escaping capture. (shes either like, with some augments or romulans or something idk yet lol) ANYWAY philippa cant go to Jace during this time bc her augmented and in general thoughts are exceptionally difficult to be around as a telepath, her family isnt an option for her (stubborn?? theyre overwhelmjng to her and shes like, augmented and lashes out and keeps crying all the time, she doesnt want anyone to see her in this state tbh) i think shed end up going to JJ’s for a bit and he offers to take her off world to the planet he’s doing engineering work on. its swampy kinda similar to the planet she was born on. it takes her some time to come to terms with her circumstances, she may never get better, she may be stuck like this and never be allowed back into starfleet, and i think jj would help her with maybe seeing a bigger picture of helping people or something idk. her augmented brain for a while kinda has a knack for equations and blue printing and problem solving so they work on engineering jobs together that shed never have been able to have helped on prior to the augmentation. i figure she gradually learns to relax and let her body heal, eventuslly she starts regressing both mentally and physically back into her old state. like to think she picks up swimming as a hobby, something she never indulged all too frequently before, but shes getting more in touch with her amphibious tendencies while here. eventually they finish their work on the planet and go back, and philippa continues her recovery on earth.

for a time she’s still not 100% back to recovery but shes calmed down and she sees her family and can manage seeing jace now without being mentally A LOT for her betazoid friend. i figure around this time, kathryn is sticking her nose in the revival project for the Vesuvius (or maybe overseeing it?) which is the ancient starship philippa retrieved. thought that she might discreetly recruit JJ to work on the project, not disclosing anything to philippa though. reasoning behind why he gets involved being his experience working with older dated systems and starships, theyre trying to figure out how to deal with the augmentations built into the old ship.

EVENTUALLY, revival project finishes, peppa's probably tried to squeeze information out of her mother and friend for a while but it hasnt worked. Philippa returns to starfleet after her extended medical leave and gets promoted to captain and given the Vesuvius as a new experimental ship, the Legacy.

JJ is given a field commission for a bit, im thinking lieutenant? 🤔 aboard the Legacy to make sure the transition is seamless and nothing breaks, so him and philippa get some time to actually work together in starfleet. :) their overarching goal is to find and aprehend captain sh’eraz but as is the case with most starfleet things, they get caught up in side quests along the way lol. one thing of note for me during this time is like, the Legacy is full of surprises, things missed in its inspection and revival process. philippa had a weeeird intuitive knack for dealing with the augmented stuff on the ship, likely a phantom limb type vibe from her augmentation. she tries to play it down how instinctively she knows how things should work, likely confides in JJ that its something shes dealing with and playing down. as the chief engineer(?) he can kinda go with it, but theyre very “need to know” with each other about the augment stuff. i can imagine a lot of their adventures involve the Legacy doing something augmented and weird and unpredictable and them trying to figure out what its trying to do or tell them.

i dont know if hed still be around by the time philippa is confronting/pursuing her ex-captain, maybe they get the hang of the Legacy eventually and he goes home, new chief engineer comes on in his stead. i kinda want ummmm philippa alone and a little wet cat a and a little obsessed with her mission without much support surrounding her. :3c i also just think theyd pick up writing to each other again and shed miss having him around, so it gives room for THAT. but moidrah sh’eraz gets either captured or killed (idk whats more poignant yet lol) and i think its be traumatic and shes return home to earth and MAYBE see jj and be defeated and cry about it lalala its vague in my head rn.

lifes goes on, hes still doing civil engineer things, shes still captaining the Legacy,,,,, ummmmmm they maybe sleep together one time and MAYBE she gets pregnant…… im still so iffy on that one lmao go read this post for this mess of an idea involving how philipp maybe gets TWO kids 🙈

figurrreeeee not long after THAT ^^^^^ she passes on the Legacy to a new captain and is given command of a galaxy class ship (maybe the Elysium??????) which she never thought shed see herself captaining lmao. idk if those classes are still around for families,,,,,, but i figure shed do something way less dangerous and slower while shes ummmmm maybe pregnant and raising a weird moth alien baby. with jj maybe hahaha. theyre figuring it out THIS AREAS STILL ROUGH FOR ME GET BACK TO ME ON IT LOLOLOL. whether or not hes field commissioned again idk!!! maybe hes training engineers 🤷

but thats all i got so far hahaha :)

#i change my ideas or scrap them completely all the time disclaimer #enjoy the word vomit lmao #threshold au

[00belle00lovely00]

I want to see your Bubba x Picky headcanons right now bestie. Right NOW please.? 🫶

OKAY! ALRIGHTY-

So sorry for not responding to your asks beforehand! You must've noticed I'm PACKED with 'em. BUT YOU KNOW WHAT

NO WORRIES!

I GOTCHU!

💙📘🍎🩷💙📘🍎🩷💙📘🍎🩷💙📘🍎🩷💙📘🍎🩷💙📘

THEIR SHIP NAME GOTTA BE A COOKING RECIPE!!!!

Book lover x food lover FRFRFRFFRFRFRFR

Bubba and Picky would honestly bond quickly by noticing the many things they had in common. I mean, sure, Picky is no genius. Barely does she know how to count to ten. While Bubba ain't a chef or gets easily indulged in gluttony like Picky. But they DO care a lot about the group's well-being! They often find themselves scolding their friends when doing something dumb and they most certainly know a lot about their personal subjects. So much so that they managed to get along by simply acting like parental figures to the rest.

One singular brain cell x the rest of the brain cells

LIVE LAUGH LOVE COUNTRY SIDE PICKY!!! I swear, sometimes I wish she had an accent similar to Applejack's from MLP.

Couple goals? Nah, they don't even realize they like each other till people treat them like a MARRIED COUPLE!

Their PDA is talking about food/books.

Even though they are both voices of reason within the group, they tend to lean on their bad habits a lot. Bubba can become increasingly anxious when not remembering a certain subject while Picky would do the complete opposite of what she teaches her friends (which is maintaining a healthy diet). Due to their problems, they both find each other's comfort by sharing their problems, and best of all ✨COMMUNICATION✨

PICNIC OR LIBRARY DATE. SPEND THEIR ENTIRE TIME INSIDE OF IT. THAT OR COOKING IN A KITCHEN A BIG ASS PIE!!!

Casually a city boy and a ranch gal

I'd like to think that, even though Bubba would be the first to have a crush on Picky, Picky would casually find out and use very casually teasing comments. Which... literally both embarrasses and downright confuses Bubba beyond thought. My man would be sitting at a desk trying to figure out what just happened for the next few days.

Bubba would usually be very awkward about expressing love to others, as he inclines into wanting to know the science behind love, so when he started feeling things for Picky he began to speak it out to Bobby. Who practically helped him A LOT throughout it. Literally. Everything he needed to do was give her chocolates and she was his on the instant.

OML imagine if they both commonly like gardening and usually hang out in a greenhouse while taking care of small vegetables and fruits. THAT'D BE SO PERFECT!

We all gotta say, we love strong women, so what if Picky literally gave Bubba piggyback rides?

MY FAVORITE HEADCANON OF ALL: PICKY SNORTS WHEN SHE LAUGHS.

Kickin at this point is downright in an existential crisis as to why Bubba getting so many ship commissions compared to him lmao

ALR THERE- IM SO SORRY I DIDN'T ANSWER YOURS YET 😭

#poppy playtime #poppy playtime chapter 3 #poppy playtime 3 #smiling critters #bubba bubbaphant x bobby bearhug #picky piggy #bubba bubbaphant x picky piggy #picky piggy x bubba bubbaphant #my headcanons #headcanon #NO MORE UNDERRATED SHIPS!!!!!!!

[amiharana]

Hey; different anon here. I saw your post about Revali singing to Link, and that got me thinking: Revali singing in some cavernous place(maybe an unearthed Sheikah building, but those probably would be occupied by researchers 24/7 so idk) and Link finding him there, maybe catching him mid-practice. First, Revali trying to come up with a feasible reason why he hangs out in said place would be hilarious, and second, imagine him singing some old Rito song to Link once he promises he won't tell anyone 👀

Also: imagine all chamipons, Link and Zelda hanging out on one of the Divine Beasts and singing a song together (i am very weak to champions being a found family)

oh anon this is a fantastic idea and i got a little carried away with it. i am so sorry i basically half-wrote fanfic here omg i'm gonna put a read-more under the next paragraph 😭 i also really love the idea of the champions as a found family aaaa but i will not be able to cover that here because this post is already long enough HAHAHA i'll try to talk a bit on that in a separate post LOL i recall there being a modern revalink au where the champions are in a musical? and i believe it was by bibliomaniac! i'm gonna have to go reread it that fic was gassss omg

i would like to suggest the cave where the great hebra skeleton is as revali's super-secret-singing cave! maybe he stumbled upon it as a fledgling and promptly left screeching and running when he saw huge beastly skeleton, but later returned over the years and started using it as his secret singing practice cave. the acoustics in that place gotta be fire, fr.

i'm imagining this happening pre-calamity, but maybe link is checking out the huge hole in hebra peak with zelda (for science reasons >:] zelda is a Woman in STEM!). when they're done, zelda gets flown back down to rito village by another rito who accompanied them, but link decides to stay for a little while longer because hebra is one of the prettiest regions hands down idc! he ends up accidentally figuring out how to shield-surf down the peak completely unintentionally and i know his dumb ass face-planted into the snow LMAO. somehow, he ends up near the stone entrance where one of the doors have already been propped open... so keeping a hand ready to grab for his sword, link enters the cave 😳

but once he does actually enter, he hears a beautiful voice singing a melancholy song, their voice resonating and bouncing off of the cavern's walls and link is entranced. his guard drops immediately and he follows the song deeper into the cave, eyes wide and moving like he's possessed where he's greeted by not only a gigantic fucking leviathan skeleton and one of those shrines zelda's obsessed with, but revali, the champion of the rito and known asshole freak, being the owner of that incredible angelic voice? hylia above, revali of all people?!

but the longer that link listens, the further he falls under revali's musical spell, the rito standing on the platform lip of the shrine, a hand on his chest and his eyes shut as he sings. revali does have a very nice voice and it's making link want to sing with him, like he's meant to or something. but the longing in revali's voice keeps catching link off guard — why does he sound so sad? why does he sing like his heart aches to be with someone he can't have...?

by the time revali has finished his sorrowful song and opens his eyes, link stands before him at the steps of the shrine, his eyes still wide. for a moment, revali holds link's gaze catching his breath and doesn't actually register it's link at first, but then—

"how did you get in here?!" revali squawks, jumping back. his screech echoes across the cavern, but link doesn't flinch at all still staring at revali in awe.

"i could ask the same of you," link says breathlessly. "do you normally just hang out in caves? you know what, that's not important right now. your voice is... incredible."

revali shifts and preens under the praise, but it's still link, who of course has disrupted all his plans once more. "y-yes, well," revali stammers, "it's not as though as an extraordinary warrior such as myself couldn't be talented in music and art! the rito are natural singers, our vocal chords are practically perfectly formed for singing when we're born! why wouldn't i posses a voice fit for the heavens?" revali tosses his braids over his shoulder and points his beak upwards, but he keeps an eye trained on link, who still stares in awe and admiration. it's... quite nice to have link's attention like this. "and for your information, i do not just hang out in caves. i'm a creature of wind and sky! i simply required an isolated location that would provide the proper resonance i needed to... rehearse. and this was the perfect spot, until you came and ruined it!"

"what was that song you were singing?" link says softly, ignoring revali's harsh words. he takes a step closer and revali can't find it in him to move away. "it sounded so... sad."

revali stares at him incredulously, before sighing in resignation. link was a very stubborn person who was focused on achieving his goals, no matter what. it was... an admirable trait, in more appropriate situations than this. "it's an ancient song of the rito," revali responds, in a much softer tone than when he previously spoke. "it might be difficult for you to believe, but the rito are a people of intimacy and devotion. we aren't just warriors." revali looks back to meet link's piercing blue gaze. it could blend in with the ice that surrounds the cavern walls around the leviathan skeleton. "this song... is one of yearning, of being apart for far too long, whether it be time or space, and of wishing desperately to be by each other's side once more.

"it was originally in the ancient tongue of my ancestors, but of course time and its partner conquest have done their duties, attempting to usher in reinterpretations and translations digestible for general hyrulean dialects and muddling our sacred words in the process." link winces and stares apologetically. "don't bother with apologies now, what's done is done. the ancient rito language still lives, even if broken and battered. my ancestors never yielded to such conquests." revali looks away again and up at the great skeleton above their heads. "and it's still a proud and beautiful song, even if somber."

"it is beautiful," link agrees. then he fidgets, averting his eyes to play with his fingers. "a very beautiful song..." link still feels that aching need to sing with revali, and that song....

revali studies link's actions. "spit it out," he says. "you very clearly want to say something. did you change your mind and decided that my performance was pathetic and subpar?" revali's words are frigid, sharpened into icicles dipped in bitterness.

"no!" link's head shoots up, eyes wide in panic. "no, no, never. your voice is amazing, i really meant that! i just..." link fidgets again. "the song... is it... do you... do you do lessons?" revali blinks and link takes it as a no. "sorry, never mind, that was dumb, i—"

"with all due respect, champion link," revali cuts him off, "perhaps you should allow me a chance to respond." link shuts his mouth and nods. "what do you mean, 'lessons'?"

"would... would you teach me the song?" link says. he stares at revali with wide blue eyes, nervous but curious more than anything. it catches revali completely off-guard.

"you... want to learn it?" revali says. his tone is no longer icy and spitting, instead soft and genuinely surprised.

"yes," link whispers, eyes impossibly wider. "you said it's sad, but it sounds beautiful. i'm not the greatest singer in the world or anything, but i can appreciate a well-composed song when i hear it. so... i want to learn it, if you'll teach me."

when revali looks into link's eyes again, they're still nervous but now they're hopeful and determined and genuine and it leaves revali astonished. link, of all people, wanted to learn a song of his people? "perhaps," revali murmurs, "you aren't as incompetent and selfish as i thought you were. i could spare some time to teach you such a significant song of our culture..." link perks up, eyes sparkling— "but! under certain conditions!"

"i'll do anything," link agrees immediately. that surprises revali too, but he masks it as he stares at link.

"i will not have you sullying my name and image as a champion," revali says, "and so you will not speak of this to anyone. you won't tell anyone about this encounter, this place, that i'm teaching you this song, that i sing at all — this will remain strictly between you and me, understand?" and link nods right away, maintaining his intense blue-eyed gaze. "...good." revali shakes his crest feathers out reflexively. "i'm finished for this session, but if your desire to learn this song manages to survive the night, you will find me here again at dawn."

"then i'll see you tomorrow morning," link says breathlessly, beginning to grin. "thank you, revali... i'm genuinely grateful."

"rightfully so," revali preens. "you'll be learning only from the best. now let us return to the village, before the princess thinks you've abandoned your duties and disappeared into the wilderness."

when they step outside of the cavern, the sun is beginning to reach for its bed under the horizon, the sky above them glowing in soft shades of pink and orange and light sheets of snow fall gently around them. link gasps softly at the scenery — hebra truly is one of the most beautiful regions in hyrule. revali snorts at the little hylian's wonder but his chest swells with pride for his home.

as he raises his wings to gather updraft, revali realizes that link doesn't really have any other methods of returning to the village. he doesn't even know how link got here in the first place, but if he were to walk all the way back to the village from here, he might as well just leave himself for dead. the hebra mountains were beautiful, yes, but they were incredibly dangerous for anyone who wasn't prepared or familiar with the terrain. and so revali takes a breath to gather his pride and ask...

"do... do you want me to take you back to the village?" revali mumbles, averting his eyes. link turns to look back at him, his eyes wide. "simply out of necessity, of course. a flightless, featherless thing like yourself couldn't possibly make it back to the village on your own and return by dawn. it would be a death sentence!" revali's feathers begin to ruffle as he continues to talk— "the princess would have my head if i didn't ensure your safety, as i'm practically responsible for it if we're out here together."

"i'd like that," link murmurs, his gaze softening. revali looks back at him and his feathers rise. "thank you, revali."

"yes, well, i'm sure you would," revali stutters, "i'd provide the smoothest and most comfortable ride out of all the rito!" revali turns away, trying to subtly pat down his feathers, and crosses his arms. "now, get on my back, we're losing light! i don't want to fly when it gets dark. i won't be able to see a thing..."

link smiles at him and revali's chest expands and swirls, a strange feeling he can't quite recognize yet. the little hylian does as revali says and clambers onto his back, holding onto revali's shoulders. "hold on tight, my gale is quite powerful now, you know. i won't spare you any time to catch you if you fall." (a lie, not that link needs to know.) and with that, revali crouches and gather wind under his wings, before bursting upwards into the sky.

link's arms tighten around his shoulders and chest, whooping and gasping from the cold air as they rise. as they fly back to rito village, revali wonders how link will be able to make it to the cave in the morning. should he offer to take link there? would link even say yes? he doesn't know. all revali can focus on is the feeling of link's arms tight around his chest and his warm breath in his ear as they fly back to the village.

what an interesting turn of events, revali thinks, who would've thought that this is what we would become, that you would want to learn a song in the tongue of my people. that's too likeable of you, link. how shall i maintain our rivalry now?

(spoiler alert, revali; the r in rivalry stands for romance and you're about to get held against the wall during a sparring session 🥰)

#revalink #loz #botw #loz botw #legend of zelda #amihan's revalinkverse #ask #i am. so sorry for how long this is. i really didn't plan on writing a full on fic it just. happened #the sad ancient rito song revali was singing can be any song you want to think of! #but i personally listened to the following songs as i wrote this: #location unknown (brooklyn session) by honne and beka #oceans & engines by niki #the truth untold by bts #great songs btw they're also on my revalink playlist #and i recommend them all very much! please listen when you want to be sad #anyways anon i hope this was up to your standards #i have to go finish my laundry now....

[altschmerzes]

for those of you playing along at home, i made it through the funeral/memorial/whatever. honestly could’ve been worse.

this is long and probably tmi but im processing out loud ig. probably should just keep a journal instead but here we are.

yesterday sucked ass mostly because like. at some point in the last two years since i started law school/moved to canada my father sent me some package at my grandmother’s house. yes this is after i made it very clear i did not want to see or hear from him. years after i made that clear. he did this fairly regularly - tried to give me things or pass messages through my sister or my mother or grandmother. anyway she asked if i wanted it, i was like. uh. No. and i guess she kept it for Some Reason because when i was very briefly at her house before heading to where the memorial happened today she pointed me at a pile of my things she wanted me to look at and there was a package. and on autopilot or something because ive been completely f r i e d out of my gourd this weekend i made the mistake i havent made in YEARS and opened it.

and i gotta say if i were going to ignore my daughter’s very clearly communicated boundaries and attempt to get in touch with her after she made it extremely clear she did not want me to do that SIX YEARS AGO at the time my go-to method of somehow persuading her to drop her decision to go no-contact wouldn’t involve [checks notes] a pearl necklace and a three-plus page letter about how nothing was ever my fault.

threeeeeee and then some pages of self-pitying guilt trip about how everyone turned their backs on him and other people kept us apart (as if that was the problem, the years of his absence rather than the years of his abuse) and how he knows the alcohol was bad but he’s off it now! he’s had such a hard life! i should stop punishing myself and other people! he won’t be around forever! (ISNT THAT IRONIC. LMAO.) after finishing this letter he TWICE decided he needed to add extra bits about how things don���t have to be like this, they can be better, and how im making “uninformed decisions” about him without knowing “the whole story.”

yikes.

anyways. that sucked and fucked me up real bad but my fiancé and i burned it last night on the beach and i threw the pearls (pearls? really? PEARLS?????) into the pacific.

then today. it was honestly fine. none of his friends seemed to even know i refused to speak to him, as they talked to me like they were assuming i was around all the time and super involved in his life. not sure what to make of that but it made it very easy to smile and nod and thank them for coming and not worry about anything further than that. he knew some cool people honestly. they were pretty neat, and his partner of 11 years, effectively my stepmom, is kind of awesome tbh. no idea what she was doing with him. and also my sister only yelled at me in front of some 50+ people once. for my sister this was a win.

and my brother came.

that was….. shocking. i had been in contact with his mom on and off about this but it was NOT clear at all if he was gonna show up. i figured not, honestly, because he’s so hard to get ahold of and none of us have seen him since 2016. but he came. and he brought his kids. my nephew is going into fifth grade and my niece is starting second and oh my gd they’re great. they’re adorable and funny and such sweet kids and i hand to gd thought id never see them again. now it looks like they’re going to come to my wedding reception when we have one out here so my family can attend something. it’s…. i didnt think id ever see or speak to him again and definitely not the kids. but there they were. i stood next to my brother with his arm around my shoulders and mine around his waist while my mom gave a little speech to everyone who was there thanking them for coming and felt him breathing and couldn’t believe it was real. i dug around in the sand with my niece and my nephew must have hugged me about a half-dozen times. they’re good, sweet kids and my brother is a kind, patient father.

tomorrow’s gonna suck, taking a redeye home, gonna land at like 5 am tuesday and then have to cross my fingers and hope border control is chill with me, this whole situation has been a complete nightmare (except for my wife being there, thank gd) but today was as good as it possibly could’ve been. it’s probably gonna take me a while to really like….. even out from this, i think, but it’s almost over and then i get to live the rest of my life without worrying about ever seeing that man again.

what he did to me is going to follow me the rest of my life but HE won’t because he’s fucking dead and im alive and that means i won.

#gav gab #death cw #abuse cw #goes into some addiction stuff too

[the-cult-of-russo]

Endorphins (Part 3)

Pairing: Reader/Billy Russo

Warnings: cursing, angst, pain, the usual dark shit. I don't wanna tag it too like specifically to keep the suspense alive lmao the usual Punisher type of bullshit. It’s nothing you haven’t read before if you’ve read my other angsty shit.

A/N: Soooo this was a request but it turned into multiple parts because I got carried away. And I don't wanna put the request on here like I usually do because of spoilers lmaooo

But to answer the rest of your ask anon, I know, I was away awhile. Life hasn’t been kind to me and then I ended up knee-deep in another fandom lmao But I’m back babeeeyyyy!! ;)

Also, the name of this series is from a Don Broco song with the same name. If you don’t know who they are, check them out. They’re my fav band and I love them. 

I got endorphins running through my veins

I got endorphins keeping me awake

No, I can't help making big mistakes

I gotta give it up up, give it up

I got endorphins running through my veins

I got endorphins keeping me awake

But I can't help make 'em anyway

I gotta give it up up, give it up

—-----

It was a few days after Billy had been shot and you’d been secretly contacting landlords. You knew Billy wouldn't be happy about it but he seemed in no rush to get you to leave and it was getting hard to be around him so much after what happened. So far though, there hadn’t been anything good you felt comfortable with taking. You might have been in a rush, but you weren’t about to just take any place. You wanted it to be right. You slipped into Billy’s office after knocking and getting no answer. You knew he wouldn't mind you being in his office on your own, you’d done it plenty of times by now. All you needed was a file for the meeting the next day. You wanted to go over it to make sure you had all your ducks in a row. You were planning on taking it back with you to study over night. You tried the filing cabinet but it was locked so you moved over to Billy’s desk. You knew the key was around there somewhere. You cursed yourself for losing yours. With no sign of it on his desk, you opened one of his drawers. But your hunt for the key was long forgotten as you saw a case file with your name on it. 

You blinked at it for a moment before glancing to the door and then back to the file. You weren't sure why you had a file or why it was in here. Maybe it was a personnel file. You shrugged, grabbing it, figuring you'd put it back in the filing cabinet. Curiosity bit at you though. You wondered what was in there. It felt pretty thick. You wouldn't look though, it wasn't in your job to look and it would break Billy’s trust. So once you found the key to the filing cabinet, you made your way back over. As the drawer jostled open, the file slipped from your hands and pictures scattered on the floor. Your blood ran cold when you saw them. They were pictures of you. You crouched quickly, flipping through the mountain of pictures as your heart picked up uncomfortably. They looked like surveillance pictures or something. You getting groceries, you walking home, you doing everyday things. And worst of all, they weren't all recent. Some were from the year before and some from the year before that. Ones of you coming out of your old job, some with your colleagues. There were pictures of you outside of your apartment and even a few of you in your apartment window on the phone. You felt sick. You moved the pictures out of the way to the pile of papers behind of them. Medical records. There was the record of you going to the hospital after Billy insisted that you be checked out when you were mugged. One from when you broke your arm two years ago after taking a tumble at work. How the hell did he get these? They were confidential. The paper after that had your body seize up. It was some kind of police record. The mugshot staring at you was the man who mugged you. Leonard Yates. He’d been arrested for multiple things and his release date from prison had been the day before you’d gotten mugged. Your head was spinning as you tried to understand what you were looking at. It didn't make sense for Billy to have these things. This wasn’t normal things to have on your employees. Or your best friend. These were surveillance pictures and personal and confidential information. Things he shouldn't have. And who the hell had taken these pictures? You thought you’d gotten to know Billy pretty well over your time here at Anvil, especially staying with him. But looking at this now, you felt like you didn't know him at all and it terrified you. You’d spent so much time with him, bonded so much. And yet, he had all of these weird things stored in his desk the whole time.

You heard the door and panicked, scooping the contents back in the file and standing up so fast your head spun. You clutched the file to your chest, keeping your name facing you as Billy walked in.

“Hey, you need somethin’?” he asked, closing the door behind him. You tried to calm yourself. You didn’t want to confront him, you were far too scared and confused right now. You just wanted to leave. You didn't want him to know anything was wrong. Your brain was having a hard time adjusting to what you’d found and that it was your Billy that had this stuff. If it was just the papers and not the pictures, you might have asked him about it. You normally felt comfortable enough with him, trusted him with your life. But after seeing all of those pictures, you felt uncomfortable. A dread prickling at you that screamed at you to run. For the first time, you didn't trust him at all.

“I just needed the file on McDaniels. Thought I’d take it with me tonight and read up,” you smiled, willing your heart to calm down before it beat out of your chest. Billy nodded, eyes going to the filing cabinet, his desk and then the file in your hands in quick succession and you felt unable to breathe.

“You find it alright?” he asked. He didn't sound like he suspected anything and you let out a shaky breath as you nodded.

“Yeah. I’ll leave you to it,” you smiled, rushing past him and to the door. Just as you had it open slightly, his hand was on it slamming it shut. You whimpered, body seizing up as he stood over your shoulder, strong arm keeping the door shut. 

“You really shouldn’ta snooped, Y/N,” he sighed from behind you. His voice felt rough in your ears but there was an air of resignation to it.

“I didn’t. I was just looking for the file and I found it,” you bit out, you knew it was futile though. You both knew it. He grabbed your arm and moved you away from the door, putting himself between you and it. You felt your legs shake slightly as you tried to figure out how to get out of the situation you found yourself in. How did it come to this? That your best friend was the one you were afraid of?

“Please just let me leave, Billy,” you begged softly, your voice almost a whisper. He tilted his head at you as he rolled his shoulder.

“You know I can’t do that. Not now you’ve seen shit you weren't supposta see,” he muttered as he shook his head. He wore an odd expression you’d never seen directed at you before. It was intense. A mixture of sadness and anger. Disappointment. 

"I'm sure there's a perfectly reasonable explanation for what's in the file. I'm sure you have them on everyone who works here," you weren't sure who you were trying to convince at this point. He laughed incredulously, brows raising as he gave you a look.

"That's funny. See… that was what I was gonna say if you ever found it. Yet now, here we are and even I know you don't believe that. I shoulda known you were smarter than that," he looked amused and it only unsettled you even more. He looked nothing like the Billy you’d grown to care for.

"Sit down," he commanded as he gestured to the sofa across the room before snatching the file from your hands. All you wanted to do was flee the room but you knew you had no chance. As soft and kind as he'd been with you, you knew how lethal he could be. You had no chance. So you obediently moved over to the sofa and sat down. Billy tossed the file onto the coffee table in front of it before he sauntered over to a cupboard to pour a drink. Your eyes darted from him to the door. You really didn't think you'd make it. His reflexes were scary. You could scream since some people were still in the building but he could easily snap your neck before anyone got close enough to help you. You were broken out of your morbid thoughts by Billy thrusting a glass of what looked to be bourbon in your hands before he plonked himself onto the table. Now he was sitting opposite you and far too close for comfort. He took a long pull of his drink, rolling his shoulder and working his jaw. 

"You wanna know the truth about why I gave you this job?" He asked pointedly. His dark eyes were too much to bear and you looked down at your drink, a feeling of dread curling low in your stomach.  When you didn't give him an answer he decided to continue. 

"I've been watchin' you for the past two years," he stated it so casually, like he was talking about the weather and your eyes snapped up to him then, wide and panicked. You should have gathered that from the pictures but you'd naively hoped he wasn't behind the pictures and that he'd just acquired them. The invasion of your privacy made your skin crawl and you felt sick.

"Mr Johnson used to talk about you all the time. I didn't get it. Didn't get why you were so special. At one point I figured you were fuckin' him or some shit but I knew he'd be talkin' about it if he was. And then…" he trailed off with a light laugh, licking his lower lip before he took another pull of his drink. "Then I met you at that ball. Soon as I laid eyes on you it felt like I'd been hit by a damn Mack truck. I wanted you. And all night you were out of reach. And when you finally do come my way, you give me a breezy hello before you prance right back off again. Like you looked right through me and I wasn't even there," he murmured softly before laughing again.

"And you know… I think it just made me want you even more," he chuckled, shaking his head. You really didn't know what to say. You felt many things and none of them good. The worst part was knowing if Billy had approached you again that night, you probably would have gone along with it. You'd never have known the darkness that lay inside of him. The man sitting right in front of you was like a completely different person to the one you knew and it was terrifying. 

"You've got no idea how many times I asked Mr Johnson to let you go. To let me have you. Everytime I offered him money, it didn't matter what amount, it was always the same answer. You were priceless. And I mean, I agree with him, but it didn't exactly give me what I wanted so I had to take matters into my own hands," he smirked darkly. Your heart faltered as you blinked slowly at him, brows furrowed. He laughed again. That awful amused and condescending laugh that you realized you hated. 

"See… that look right there. You really have no idea, do you?" he chuckled. 

"About what?" You asked breathlessly. This Billy was not the Billy you were used to and you really didn't like it. You felt like you’d had the rug pulled out from under you and your brain was having a hard time processing any of it. 

“Well, Mr Johnson was in the way of givin’ me what I wanted. So I hadta get rid of him,” he explained slowly, as if talking to a child. You shook your head rapidly, stomaching churning.

“You- You couldn't have. He had a heart attack, I saw it happen,” you argued weakly. You didn't know why he’d lie to you about this. The smile he gave you was chilling and you clutched your glass tightly.

“No, see he didn’t just have a heart attack. He had a heart attack ‘cause I switched his meds,” he answered. You felt like you were going to throw up as you stared right at his cold and emotionless face. You wondered if this was some kind of nightmare. You hoped it was. This was nothing like the kind and caring Billy you’d grown to know. Your mouth opened but you had no idea what to say with that devastating bomb dropped on you. You were pretty sure you’d burst into tears at knowing you were the reason he was dead, but you felt oddly numb on the inside. Some sort of shock. So instead, you chugged from the glass, needing something you knew you wouldn't find there. 

“Don’t… don’t give me that look,” he huffed, shaking his head with a frown.

“What look?” you bit out. Your tone was harsh but at this point, you were pretty sure you were next on his list so you found it hard to care about being polite anymore. Mr Johnson had taken care of you. He was almost fatherly. And he’d been taken away because the man in front of you had some kind of sick obsession with you. One that started when he met you and you barely paid him any notice. Would any of this have happened if you’d have paid him a little more attention? If you’d have gone home with him that night, would he have quickly realized you weren't worth it and grown bored?

“You’re givin’ me that goddamn disappointed look. It's all over your face. And I know… I know you cared about him but he had to go. If he didn’t, you wouldn't be sittin’ here right now,” he muttered tensely. There was a strange look in his eyes and you couldn't tell if it was thinly concealed rage or desperation. Maybe a bit of both. 

“Do Frank and Karen know any of this?” you asked warily. The idea that the pair were in on it made your head spin. They’d been so kind to you, you’d become friends. But then again, the same could be said about Billy. He barked a laugh at your words and gave you a look like you were stupid.

“You really think I could talk to them about this? Besides, they’re too wrapped up in each other to notice I exist most days,” he scoffed, bitterness coating his tone. It gave you only a tiny modicum of relief that the past few months hadn't all been lies. No, just the parts where Billy was involved. Where he’d gained your trust so completely that you would have trusted him with your life. You’d seemingly resigned yourself to the fact that you wouldn't be getting out of this. You knew too much. He couldn't just let you go. And since this was it for you, you wanted some more answers.

“The mugging… you had something to do with that, didn't you?” you asked plainly, a blank look on your face as you met his eyes. He scrunched his face up a little, rolling his shoulder as he looked down before back at you.

“I didn’t… I never wanted to hurt you. I didn’t. But I needed somethin’ to bring you closer to me. Things weren’t movin’ like I wanted them to, so I made it happen. I know some people. I managed to get him out if he agreed to do it. But he was just supposedta scare you. Maybe push you about a bit. And when I saw what he did to you… well lets just say he won’t be around to hurt anyone else,” he bit out, dark eyes flashing dangerously. You subconsciously moved back in your seat, trying to create space even though it didn't work very well. Your body was starting to feel heavy and you wondered if the stress was going to kill you before Billy did.

“You got a guy to mug me… and then killed him for mugging me?” you asked derisively. You hadn’t meant to say it out loud but at this point, did it really matter? Being scared wouldn't help you get out of this alive. Nothing would. He pinned you in place with a hard look, his jaw ticking a little.

“I got a guy to scare you and he ended up assaulting you,” he replied tensely. You didn’t feel like trying to argue. He was clearly unhinged. You didn’t reply and instead finished your drink. Maybe if you were drunk it wouldn't hurt so much when you were murdered. Would the actual murder hurt more than the deep betrayal you were currently feeling? You weren't sure that was possible.

The silence was thick in the air and Billy never took his eyes off you even though you were staring at your empty glass. He seemed on edge by the lack of conversation.

“I’m not gonna say sorry, ‘cause I’m not,” he admitted shamelessly. You snorted a mirthless laugh as your eyes once again met his.

“Of course you're not,” you shook your head with a roll of your eyes. How hadn't you seen it? Were there red flags? Or maybe you ignored them because you loved your job here. You’d grown to enjoy it and the people and you’d grown close to the monster in front of you. 

“I’m not. ‘Cause it worked. It brought you closer to me. I remember… back when you first started here. When you saw someone followin’ you home, you came to me about it. And it felt…” he trailed off with a soft laugh and you watched as he closed his eyes, a strangely soft look passing on his face. “It felt so fuckin’ good. You came to me for help, for protection. You trusted me. And doin’ what I did only made that stronger,” he said firmly. You blinked slowly at him for a moment, your head feeling fuzzy. It seemed like the more he spoke, the more your brain was having a hard time processing his words.

“It was you, wasn’t it? Following me home?” you asked with a sigh. He rubbed the scruff on his face a little as he flexed his hands.

“It doesn’t matter,” he muttered dismissively. 

“Of course it fucking matters, Billy. Don’t you think after all of this I at least deserve the truth?” you asked. You hated how your voice cracked, a sliver of emotion peeking out of the numbness. He frowned as if the hurt in your voice was hurting him. 

“Fine, you want the truth? Yeah, it was me. I also had a strong word with your landlord which is why you ended up with me. I planned it all. And I did it all for you. For us,” he implored, leaning forward a little. You instinctively moved back and he didn’t look happy about it.

“There is no us,” you huffed, your voice cold. His dark eyes narrowed to slits as he worked his jaw and you wondered if this would be the moment he killed you. Instead, he closed his eyes and inhaled a deep breath as if to steady himself. The idea of upsetting him pleased something inside of you. He’d hurt you so deeply with all of this. All the lies and betrayal. Making you feel something for him only for him to turn out to be deranged. You were going to die anyway. The least you could do was hurt him too.

“I don’t get it. I really don't fucking get it, Billy. You did all this for ‘us’, yet you kissed me. You kissed me and then said sorry. You could have taken what you wanted,” you scoffed, using air quotes when you said ‘us’. He let out a frustrated noise, running his hands through his hair and making it unusually disheveled. 

“You’re right, you don't get it. I knew you weren't ready. I knew if it happened then you’d pull away. I couldn't have that. I didn't mind playin’ the long game if I got you in the end. There was no way I’d get you just for you to walk away,” he glowered. 

“Right, because you care so much,” you muttered. His eyes flared with something dangerous but your body seemed disconnected from your head. You didn't even tense.

“I do care!” he hissed at you.

“No, you don't! You’re insane! You’re obsessed with me!” you yelled back, not even caring if anyone was still here at this point. He slammed his glass down onto the coffee table so hard you were surprised it didn't shatter and this time your body did react as you jumped a little.

“I love you! You -You don’t get to minimize that! You don't get to tell me this is just an obsession! I know what I feel. I’m in love with you, Y/N, and all of this shit has been so we could be together!” he insisted vehemently. You knew there was no point in reasoning with him. You just wanted this to be over with. Your head didn't feel quite right and you wondered if drinking the bourbon had been a good idea. You stood up, not really knowing what your next move was. But when you did, you found your body feeling like jello and you almost fell right over. Billy caught you effortlessly, now standing in front of you. You’d been feeling a little odd, but chalked it up to the intensely stressful situation you found yourself in. But this felt different. Wrong. 

“What…?” you murmured, trying to regain control of your limbs to pull away from him. Your body didn't seem to obey you anymore. When you blinked up at him as he still held you tightly, he gave you a dark smile.

“Shouldn’t drink on the job, sweetheart,” he smirked. This wasn’t just the alcohol, this was something else. He’d drugged your drink, of course he did. You were stupid to accept a drink from an absolute psycho who was obsessed with you. But the more you internally panicked, the worse it got and your vision was getting fuzzy. 

“Just relax, Y/N,” was the last thing you heard before darkness consumed you.

—-----

You woke with a startled gasp, your bleary eyes on the ceiling as everything came back to you. Through your blinding headache, you could feel you were under a duvet and you hoped you’d had a bad dream. A very vivid, awful dream. But when you glanced around, you noticed you weren’t on Billy’s couch. You were in his bed. The only time you’d been to his room was to put him to bed when he’d been drunk, you always respected that boundary. All the while he was crossing every one of yours. You moved to sit up and your body still felt heavy and it ached. You had more control than you did before in the office though and after some struggling, you managed to sit up and lean against the headboard. It felt like it used all of the little energy you had though and you put your head in your hands. It felt like someone was beating you with a baseball bat.

“Here, you need to drink this,” Billy murmured as he walked in, making you jump a little. His voice was low and soft as if he was concerned. He was holding a bottle of water in his hand as he walked over, opening it as he perched on the bed next to you.

“Is that a joke? The last time I drank something you gave me, you drugged me,” you muttered, glowering at him. He sighed with a little frown, still holding the bottle out to you.

“That was necessity. I needed to get you outta there without you causin’ a scene. But now you need to drink this or you’ll feel a hell of a lot worse,” he said apologetically. You chewed your lower lip for a moment as you considered your options here. He hadn’t killed you like you thought he might. He had a perfect opportunity when you were knocked out. But somehow him kidnapping you felt worse. You knew he hadn't done anything to you while you’d slept though as you were still fully dressed. The only thing missing being your shoes. Now you had a choice to make. You could keep resisting and making it difficult and he probably would end up killing you. Or you could play along with his bullshit until he trusted you enough. Then you could escape. You weren’t sure just how long it would take to get him to really believe you, but if it meant you didn’t die then you’d do it. You weren’t ready to give up just yet. You’d play along with his twisted fantasy and at the first chance you got, you’d flee. You gave him a look for a moment as he watched you patiently, looking more like the Billy you were used to than the crazy person back in his office. It unsettled you. You took the bottle of water and sipped on it. You hadn’t realized how thirsty you were until your body demanded more and you ended up chugging on it. Whatever he’d dosed you with apparently dehydrated you too. He looked pleased you’d acquiesced to his demand as you placed the bottle on the bedside table. 

You tensed when his hand came up to your face, resisting the urge to shove it away as he cupped your cheek tenderly. It reminded you so much of the day he’d kissed you when he was drunk, back when he was normal Billy to you. It hurt. His hand then moved to your forehead as if checking for a fever as he worriedly looked at you.

“How are you feelin’?” he asked softly. 

“Like I’ve been drugged,” you muttered wryly. You didn’t mean to, you weren't supposed to be sassing him right now. But you knew if you had any hope of him trusting you, you couldn't just declare your undying love for him. He wasn’t stupid by any means. You had to slowly seem like you were warming up to him. Do as he asked and act grateful. He snorted at your words but it didn't have any mirth in it. He looked disappointed as he moved his hand away from you.

“I know you're upset… but you gotta know, I don’t wanna hurt you,” he sighed. You dug your nails into your palms to try and stop your mouth from blurting out things that wouldn't help your plan.

“I know you don't. I just don't get it, Billy. Why didn’t you just come and talk to me again two years ago? Ask me out? Why all of… this?” you asked carefully. You’d let him try to explain himself. Try to justify his bullshit. And you’d let him believe that you were starting to understand him. He licked his lower lip, staring at the wall for a moment before he looked back at you. 

“I’ve been with a lot of women. I’ve seen a woman and knew I had to have her for one night. But with you… with you it was different. I knew I didn't want you for just one night and it confused me. Ain’t ever felt that shit before and I wasn’t sure what to do. I’m used to feelin’ important, havin’ women fallin’ at my feet. But you… you acted like you didn’t give a shit,” he chuckled wistfully, raking his teeth over his lower lip. 

“And I felt it. That… bitter sting of rejection. And I knew if I spoke to you and you did it again, I wouldn't be able to deal with it. I don't deal with rejection well. Was given up as a kid by my drug-addict mother who loved drugs more than her own kid. I know what it's like to feel unwanted like that. And with that sucker punch of emotion I felt when we met, I fuckin’ knew it would kill me. And I was scared… So I didn’t. And then I wanted to know you better, figured if I did, maybe I had a better chance. Find some common ground. But I could never… I could never find the goddamn balls to just reach out. It's why I kept pesterin’ Mr Johnson to let you work for me. I knew if I could just get you there with me and spend some time together, you’d feel it too. That I could get you to love me. But the longer I went without you, the more I needed you. And it just kinda snowballed from there,” he murmured, looking down at his hands. He sounded like he genuinely believed his words. Like he thought it was a valid justification for stalking and kidnapping you, for murmuring your boss, getting you kicked out, for getting someone to mug you and then killing them. But you didn't correct him because it wouldn't help your plan. You stayed quiet for a moment, not really knowing what to say that would make it seem like you were starting to come around, because you weren’t. But Billy continued anyway.

“You know… you called me insane back at the office and maybe you’re right. Lovin’ you has made me crazy. Wantin’ somethin’ I couldn't have so much. And it's not just superficial bullshit either,” he huffed, his dark imploring turning to you once more with so much intensity you felt your heart skip a beat. 

“I love you. I love you with everythin’ I have. There isn't a damn thing I wouldn't do for you,” he said fervently. Except let me go, your mind supplied. 

“And I know you don’t believe me, not yet. But you will. I know I can be… intense. But I ain’t ever loved someone before. Ain’t ever felt like this. But what I do know is that you belong to me and I belong to you,” he insisted. 

You really didn't know what to say. Your brain scrambled with something to say to him to get your plan in motion. You really didn't want to be here with him for longer than necessary. It was a far cry from the comfort you usually felt with him.

“You should have just told me how you felt. You didn't need to do all of this, I never had to find out. You knew I felt something for you because I kissed you back. If you would have just told me how you felt, you’d have found out I felt the same. It didn't need to come to this,” you said softly, trying to swallow down the bile those words brought you as you lied. He looked at you for a long moment, a million and one emotions passing on his face before he snorted.

“You don't love me,” he shook his head, his voice sounding pained.

“Maybe not. Maybe it's not love yet. But I feel something. When you kissed me, the only reason I got spooked is because you have a reputation. I didn't want things to change, I didn’t want you to get rid of me the second we had sex like all the others. I like working at Anvil, with you. I didn't want you to just drop me like the others because I care about you,” you frowned. It wasn't a total lie. That had been the main reason why you’d freaked out. You wouldn't say you loved Billy, even before finding out how crazy he was. But you definitely had felt something. You’d grown to care about him deeply and more than just a friend, but you hadn’t allowed yourself to fall in love with him. He clasped your hand quickly and your breathing hitched as he looked at you like you’d just murdered a puppy in front of him.

“I would never treat you that way,” he insisted firmly. You knew your plan was working.

“Well, how would I know that if you didn't tell me how you felt?” you asked with a shrug. With one of his hands still holding onto yours, he scooted closer as his other grasped your jaw gently and tilted your face up to his. Being so close to him made you dizzy and not in a good way like it had done before.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry I was too much of a coward to tell you how I really felt. I’m sorry it came to this. But you feel somethin’... I know we can get past this. We can be happy together,” he implored. Despite everything he’d done, you felt a pang of pity at his hopeful face and words. He’d briefly mentioned about his childhood and you felt bad that this small child had been so damaged by being unloved that this is what he turned into. But you wouldn’t excuse what he’d done. You couldn't. No matter how sorry you might feel for him, he was dangerous. And you couldn't let yourself get sucked into his bullshit. 

“I want to be happy,” you whispered, looking into his dark eyes. Not with him. You could never be happy with him. But you wanted to live. You wanted to get out of here and live a long and happy life and forget this ever happened. He smiled softly, his thumb stroking your cheek as he leaned in. You knew what he was expecting and you knew you had to give it to him since your plan was working. You closed your eyes as his lips met yours and you tried to pretend Billy wasn't a monster. He was the soft and kind Billy you’d grown to know since working with him. The Billy who would make butterflies swarm your belly without having to do much. The Billy you felt safe with. You kissed him back, trying to make him believe your lie and he groaned softly, deepening the kiss. You felt sick. But you didn't let it show as you leaned closer to him and kissed him with as much fake desire as you could. When he pulled away, he was looking down at you like you were made of gold. It made your chest hurt. You'd never had anyone love you. It felt like a sick cosmic joke that when it happened it made them deranged. If he wasn't crazy, it would be great. Having someone adore you this much. But it wasn't a sweet and innocent love. It was tainted by blood and lies. 

He stroked your cheek one more time before moving away from you and you felt like you could finally breathe again. 

“Are you uh… you hungry? I can go grab you somethin’?” he asked after clearing his throat. This could be it. Your window of opportunity. 

“I could eat,” you smile tentatively. He grinned then, looking more relaxed than you'd seen him since you’d found that disgusting file. He nodded, standing up and hovering a little.

“There’s a Chinese place just down the street. I know it's your favorite. You just rest,” he murmured, giving one last smile before he walked away. He only knew it was your favorite because he’d been stalking you for two years, not because you were friends and your fake smile dropped the second he left the room. You held your breath until you heard the front door shut and your body sagged. This was it. You waited a little longer on the off chance he’d seen right through you. But when all that greeted you was silence, you tried to get out of bed. Your body was still weak and groggy and you had a hard time standing up. But this was life or death and you weren’t about to let your stupid body ruin it for you. You shuffled into the living area, peeking around anxiously as if you thought he was about to materialize out of thin air. There was no one here though and you tried to get to the door like you were wading through molasses. When you finally reached it, you tried to open it to find it locked. Of course it was. So he didn't trust you completely yet, you were stupid to think he would. But now what? You couldn't stand the thought of staying here with him any longer. How long would it take until he trusted you so much that you’d be able to just walk out of the door? You couldn't do it. You didn't have it in you. You knew he’d expect you to be intimate with him too and the thought made you feel sick. The idea of Billy getting you into bed wasn't appealing as it had been once. Now it just made dread fill up your entire being. If you stuck around, he’d know you were lying and you’d wind up dead. You had to get out of here. 

You felt like you’d spent ages trying to pick the lock on the door with a paperclip you’d found and a flathead screwdriver. You’d seen it in a movie once and they'd made it look easy. They lied. But as the seconds ticked by, you knew Billy was getting closer to coming back and your fear turned to blind panic. You couldn't go along with your plan. You were going to die. It was you or him, and you knew who you’d be picking. You dived away from the door when you heard the jingling of keys outside of it and you clutched the screwdriver in your hands, rushing to the kitchen area behind the counter. You felt like you couldn't breathe. You quickly hid the screwdriver behind your back as he opened the door and he looked startled to see you as he walked in with a bag to take out. 

“You're up?” he asked, no inflection in his voice to tell you what he thought about it.

“I was getting fed up with just laying there. Trying to get my muscles going again. I hope that's okay?” you gave him a sweet smile and he gave you one back as he gestured to the table.

“Guess we can eat here then,” he mused. As he walked into the kitchen space to grab plates, you moved around the other side of the island, trying to keep the screwdriver hidden from him. Now your back was to him, you had it clutched tightly in front of you. Your eyes glanced to the now unlocked door. Surely he wouldn't chase you down once you got out of the apartment and down the stairs. There were other people living here too. They’d call the cops. He wasn't stupid.

“What the…?” Billy's confused voice had you turning around as he moved to grab the bent paperclip from the floor where he’d seemingly stood on it. His eyes met yours then and now you’d turned to him, he could see the screwdriver. You saw it flash all over his face and you made a dash for the door with a yelp. But with your body still in slow motion mode, he grabbed you before you got there. You swung wildly behind you with the screwdriver and you hated how easily he disarmed you. Any self-defense he’d taught you went flying out of the window in your state of panic but you weren't sure it would help you against someone like Billy anyway.

“Let me go!” you screamed, crying out when your back suddenly got slammed into the wall harshly. Now you were face to face with a very angry-looking Billy. He also looked hurt.

“You lied to me?” he asked, voice low and dangerous but wobbling ever so slightly. 

“Like you haven't been lying to me all this time?” you hissed at him. 

“I told you, I told you why I did all that!” he yelled, his dark eyes looking more unhinged than you’d ever seen them. 

“You’re fucking insane! You’ve been stalking me for years and now you've kidnapped me and you really think this is normal? Do you really think I could ever love someone like you, Billy? You're a monster!” you sobbed helplessly.

“Don’t you say that!” he screamed, slamming you back into the wall and making you cry harder at the pain. 

“You're nothing but a monster and I could never love you,” you bit out through your tears. He looked like you’d just stabbed him right through the chest at your words, his obsidian eyes full of unshed tears. You knew you were fucked so what did it matter anyway? But you wouldn't go down without a fight. You brought your knee up and kicked him in the groin, making him roar with pain and anger as he stumbled away from you. You tried to scramble to the door but he gripped the back of your shirt.

“I won't let you leave me!” he roared as he yanked you back so roughly you went careening backwards. You head smacked into the corner of the wooden coffee table and nothing mattered anymore.

Billy’s chest was heaving as he looked down at you for a moment. You didn't get back up. You didn't keep saying hurtful things to him. You were still, like a doll. And then he noticed blood rapidly pooling from under your head.

“No,” he whispered brokenly, rushing to you and dropping to his knees.

“Wake up, Y/N!” he demanded through a choked sob, tapping your face. You didn't move. His fingers went to your neck but there was no pulse. No anything. 

“No! No, no, no! Don't do this to me!” he cried desperately, shaking you as if that would wake you up. He’d done the unthinkable. He never wanted to hurt you and now you were gone. He sobbed, clutching your body to him and not caring about the blood he was getting all over him. 

“Please, I’m sorry. I’m sorry!” he begged helplessly as he cradled you. After a few moments, a cold emptiness settled over him like a blanket. You were gone. And he’d done this to you. He’d taken away the only thing he ever loved. He was like a poison. Spreading into everything he cared about. And what did he have without you? Nothing mattered. Not Anvil, his money, Frank or Karen. None of it mattered if he didn't have you by his side to enjoy it with. He gently placed you on his sofa before standing up and wiping his tears. Your blood streaked all over his face, but he paid it no mind as he slowly walked over to the fake painting on the wall and opened it to reveal a safe. He punched in the passcode, your birthday. He took out his handgun, already loaded and ready to go. He barely even glanced at it before he made his way back over to you. He carefully moved you so he could sit with your head in his lap, gazing down at your lifeless face. You looked so peaceful. So serene. 

“I’ll be with you really soon, baby,” he whispered, holding the gun to his temple. He had to believe that. He loved you so much, did so much for you and for the both of you. There was no way it was all for nothing. You’d be reunited and you’d welcome him with open arms in the afterlife. You had to. A loud gunshot resounded in the apartment and his body went limp over yours. An eerie silence overtook the place then before the faint sound of sirens could be heard making their way there. But it was too late.

#billy russo #billy russo x reader #billy russo fanfic #billy russo imagine

[prince-rowan-of-the-forest]

To Make a Heaven of Hell (6/?)

----

After messing up cooking canned soup, Virgil decides maybe he'll try his luck going to a restaurant with some of the others instead.

----

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Chapter warnings: None as far as I'm aware.

Notes:

It feels like it's been ages - I'm not sure if it actually has or not, or if I'm just imagining time passing again, but hey.

Chapter 6! We're getting new characters next chapter baybee

Just for copywrite sake btw, unless I specify otherwise I did not come up with any place names in this fic lmao. All credit to that goes to Jaysea.

“So,” Emile said sitting Virgil down on a nearby bench, “How’re you finding the Hellp Desk?”

“Oh- uhm- it’s pretty good?” Virgil said, frowning, they hadn’t quite been expecting an interrogation when they got down here, then again, maybe Emile was just curious? “I mean - they’re all really nice? And I’m glad I’m allowed to stay with them - gives me something to do.”

“That’s great! Keeping busy is such fun, and I’ve heard the desk is great for some catharsis too,” Emile winked, Virgil was pretty sure that was referring to beating up pedophiles with spiked bats, but he couldn’t be certain.

“Yeah,” Virgil nodded, “Judy makes great snacks too.”

“Oh her pies are just the best aren’t they?” Emile laughed, “She shares them with us sometimes - oh! So whats your paradise like? Assuming you have one, of course?”

“Oh-” Virgil said, trying to keep himself from visibly recoiling at the question, but already he felt that sick feeling pool back into his stomach, what would Emile think? When he found out that Virgil was still to much of a coward to even approach his door? “I…”

Emile watched him for a moment, face falling, “Oh… are you like Ruggy? A hell-bound soul working for the desk?”

“No- no, I have a paradise I just…” Virgil quickly corrected, before mumbling, “Can’t accept it…”

The demon’s frown turned into something a lot more sympathetic as he patted Virgil on the shoulder - giving him a second to move away before doing so. Virgil accepted the touch just a little stiffly.

“I see, well - we have a lot of souls come through here, ones sent and ones who have paradise,” Emile said, “You’re more thna welcome to come down here to chat whenever you’d like.”

“Really?”

“Sure as sugar’s sweet!” Emile grinned, standing back up, “I gotta get back to work, but I'll see you round?”

“Sure,” Virgil shrugged, Emile winked at him before walking away, tail swaying behind him. 

Well. That was something that just happened. 

Virgil didn’t move from that bench for a long moment - long enough for another one of the demons to stop and ask if he was alright - but eventually he stsod up, ran himself through one of the breathing exercises an old friend had taught him back in the mortal world and walked out of level one as confidently as he could possibly manage.

—-

Another night, a few days later, Virgil had been left alone in Lily’s house once again. She had left a couple things out in the kitchen that he could make up for dinner - and she’d also given him the names of a few decent restaurants and pubs he could go to instead the second night he had stayed with her. 

It was odd, Virgil thought as he attempted to cook up a can of soup using the stove, how quickly he’d adapted to this lifestyle. He wasn’t even so scared of going near the oven now. 

But it was strange, too, because Virgil hadn’t had a parental figure in his life for… a few years, and even when his parents were around they weren’t… good.

They wondered if the relationship they seemed to be gaining with Lily was something like what a parent was supposed to be. At least to a teenager. 

There was no reference point - nothing in his previous life was at all similar to this, especially not his own parents. So this was uncharted territory. Virgil felt a little bit like he was wading through the ocean wearing a blindfold, he had no clue which step would end up with a rock through his foot. 

And he knew he was being overly cautious. Lily wouldn’t hurt him, he knew that now. The old fear was just still there nagging at the back of his mind. 

The soup was… disappointing. Virgil didn’t think you should be able to fuck up canned soup - especially not in paradise, literally all he needed to do was heat it up, but somehow he’d messed it up anyway. They sighed and got rid of the disgusting soup before looking - for the first proper time - at the list of restaurants Lily had stuck to the fridge. 

None of the names were familiar to him - maybe one or two he had heard in passing, but he hadn’t yet been anywhere other than Common Grounds. Going out somewhere would mean good food, but it would also mean eating alone around strangers and potentially getting lost. So, for obvious reasons, Virgil didn’t really want to do that. 

Maybe he didn’t have to go alone, though.

Pulling out their phone, Virgil opened up the groupchat Lily had added him to and contemplated sending a message. 

The groupchat consisted of everyone they knew at the Hellp Desk - as well as a number of users he didn’t know the identities of. He was fairly certain that one of them was Remus’ twin brother, specifically the one with a Disney profile picture with the nickname ‘Your Prince Charming’ who constantly talked about theatre and insulted Remus. Two of the chat members had matching profile pictures (of the angel and demon characters from that one show he’d seen all over tumblr a few months before they died but had never gotten round to watching) and Virgil was fairly certain they were Emile and his husband now that he’d met the demon. 

There were a few users who he couldn’t guess the identities of, though, he assumed they were just more of Lily’s friends and family and tried his best not to throw his phone whenever one of them talked to him. He was used to interacting with people online, it wasn’t that different if he had the very real chance of meeting these people he kept sending dumb memes to in person at some point. 

Currently there were no conversations going on - but it was rare for the groupchat to be quiet for long. Virgil wouldn’t be interrupting anyone if they sent a message, so why were they so nervous about it? Maybe because he’d never been the first to start a conversation here before? Maybe it’s because he was making a request this time, and not just sending a reactive meme or responding to a conversation. 

Virgil took a deep breath and let it out with a shake of their head, this was a non-issue, barely even a problem, not something to be stressed about, just send the damn message. 

<xx4llpanic-nod!scoxx> Hey guys - is anyone around? I wanna get something to eat but don’t wanna go alone ._.

<xx4llpanic-nod!sc0xx> Just wondering if anyone wanted to come with maybe - haven’t decided where yet or anything

<xx4llpanic-nod!sc0xx> I don’t want to get lost

<xx4llpanic-nod!sc0xx> or stared at, yknow. But it’s fine if not no pressure. 

<xx4llpanic-nod!sc0xx> Sorry I’m spamming - i’ll shut up.

Virgil paused in their word vomit, trying to take deep breaths, they’d sent something now and that was great. Now he just had to wait for a response - oh, and he should probably apologise about the smell in Lily’s kitchen. 

<xx4llpanic-nod!sc0xx> Oh, wanted to say sorry abt the smell in ur kitchen @Nearamir I fucked up canned soup. 

<TacoTime> How do you fuck up canned soup??

<Your Prince Charming> I’ve done it.

<TacoTime> Yeah but you’re you, I’m asking how baby V fucked up canned soup.

<xx4llpanic-nod!sc0xx> Literally no idea man idk what to tell u.

<Nickel> Greg and I are spending tonight in my paradise - sorry V! I hope someone will go with you <3 (also, are you okay?)

<xx4llpanic-nod!sc0xx> Other than the crushing weight of eternal existence? I’m fien, soups not tho.

Virgil sighed, unsure if he’d even get a response at this point. They all seemed distracted by the soup disaster, but hey-! Only one person had actually said they couldn’t go so far. Of course, he knew that meant Greg couldn’t either, Lily and Bel were all out doing something too, so they wouldn’t be able to either, which left…. Not many people. Now that he thought about it. 

<TheMonsterUnderUrBed> HEy emo u wanna come w/ me and the front deathk nerd we were gonna register for trivia at luckyleaf if u wanna come n get smth 2 eat??

Virgil sighed in relief, okay, maybe it was Remus - who he wasn’t sure he was comfortable eating around - but Logan would be there too. Seeing him again would be pretty cool, he still needed to say thank you properly for the help when Virgil first arrived. Besides, Logan seemed nice, he wouldn’t mind seeing if they could be friends… Lily had said eternity was better the more friends you made. Virgil thought it would be worth a shot. 

<xx4llpanic-nod!sc0xx> K cool! I’ll tag along - where should I meet u?”

<TheMonsterUnderUrBed> yk tir na nog? meet us in 15?

Virgil sent back a hasty thumbs up before rushing back to his bedroom to find something to wear more appropriate for generally being outside than what he was currently wearing (a cat t-shirt and sweatpants, to be exact). He was fairly certain the gate to Tír na nÓg was just along a hallway he passed on the way to Hell. He just hoped he was remembering right. 

Once he’d changed into something far more appropriate for leaving Lily’s house and fixed his hair, he rushed back out - nearly disturbing Max - and grabbed a bag too, just in case. 

After checking themself over in the mirror, Virgil headed out into the paradise realm. 

Fifteen minutes after seeing Remus’ message, nearly on the dot, Virgil found himself stood waiting outside of the gate to Tír na nÓg, he could actually see the pub Remus had mentioned a little further down the hall, but he’d been told to wait here, so wait here he would. As Virgil waited for Remus to arrive with Logan, he began to wonder if he had actually missed them, or read the message wrong - or gone to the wrong place, maybe. But almost ten minutes later, Remus arrived, bouncing along the corridor with a disgruntled and ruffled looking Logan in tow. 

“Hi!” Remus grinned once they’d stopped in front of him, “Logan, emo, emo, Logan.”

“We’ve met,” Logan said, straightening the tie he wore under a blue diamond patterned sweater vest. Virgil wilted a little at Logan’s harsh tone, did he not want to be here? - or did he not want Virgil here?

“Hi,” Virgil said weakly.

“Hello, Virgil, I’m glad to see you made it out on the right side,” Logan said, tone immediately becoming less harsh, though it still had that same professional air about it - Virgil wondered if Logan was just like that. 

“Yup, I’m glad I’m here too,” Virgil chuckled, “Um…”

“I heard you had taken up a position with Hell’s help desk,” Logan prompted as they began to walk, Remus seemed happy to walk alongside them, humming along to some tune and swinging Logan’s hand - which Logan either hadn’t noticed that bay’d grabbed or didn’t care about. 

“Oh yeah - I uh- Judy introduced me to them and Lily sorta… adopted me, I think,” Virgil chuckled, “Oh wait- Remus?”

“Yesss?” Remus said, letting go of Logan’s hand and turning to walk backwards so xa could look at Virgil, “What’s up?”

“You mentioned signing up for trivia-” Virgil started, before being cut off.

“Oh yeah! I almost forgot! Me and Lo are signing up a team for the trivia!” Remus giggled.

“Yes,” Logan nodded, before noting Virgil’s confusion, “Every month Luckyleaf hosts a large trivia night, in which varied teams will compete, Remus has convinced me to enter a team with him and a few others this month.”

“Oh cool, sounds fun,” Virgil said, smiling, “Who’s on your team?”

“Me, the nerd, obviously, the shark, the intern,” Remus listed off on fizz fingers, “Oh, pinkie-pie and the coffee angel, though we’re one person short.”

Virgil stared in confusion as Remus raised an eyebrow, Logan sighed.

“Remus and I, Sharkie, Dantillian, Emile and his husband Remy, our team is called ‘Logan and the nincompoops.’ which I personally find distasteful but Remus is certain it’s humorous.”

Virgil snorted, “You said you were one person short?”

“Yeahh - we can’t find anyone else who’s chill with just doing this for fun, they’re all too competitive, and I heard Jan was on the Roman deity’s team again so we’re gonna get crushed anyway.”

“I am only doing this because Remus believes it will be funny.” Logan said, “Especially if we somehow do decently.”

“Remus is right, that is funny,” Virgil laughed, “Is anyone allowed to participate?”

“Yeah! Anyone!,” Remus nodded, “Why, d’you wanna?”

Virgil couldn’t help how he blushed and went quiet. He did want to join, a trivia tournament where he wasn’t actually expected to be super smart sounded like a lot of fun, they’d know everyone there - except Emile’s husband, they wondered what he was like - but if Remus didn’t want them…

“You’re welcome to be part of our team, if you would like to join,” Logan followed up on Remus’ comment, “We’d be glad to have you.”

“I’m no good at trivia,” Virgil said, before frowning, “Well - I suppose unless ‘Tumblr trends and holidays’ comes up as a topic.”

Remus snorted, “I mean, maybe, we’ve had some weird shit in there before, but yea, it’s chill - we’re called ‘Logan and the Nincompoops’ for a reason, y’know.”

“Right,” Virgil said, looking around at both of them, Remus looked to be vibrating out of eir skin with excitement, while Logan was more subdued, Virgil could see the hopeful glint in his eyes, “Yeah, sure, I’d love to join.”

----

General tags: @full-of-roman-angst-trash @reptilianrapscallion420 @your-local-random-dino @cutebisexualmess @glacierruler @roseianxiety @bella-bugatti-frogetti-baguetti (if anyone wants to be added, let me know!)

Hell's Belles AU tags: @awitchbravestheverge @twoalpacas @goldnskyart @anxious-mess19 @doteddestroyer :)

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#sanders sides #virgil sanders #ts virgil #my fic #fanfiction #sanders sides fanfiction #sanders sides virgil #remus sanders #ts remus #logan sanders #ts logan

[non-neutoniangender]

Well the train is started and so I guess I'm watching episode 35.

McAdverbot .... Sam this one is good, but you can't rap lol

Top table has a new member..... :/ I'm not sure putting Fearne next to Chetney was a good idea...

Oh I hadn't realized that they lost their note-taker

10k gold 👀 Thats a lot.

I gotta say, I love portable holes as a extraplanar storage option, because they require organizing, like you can just chuck shit into a bag of holding with very little care but with a hole, its just a easy to carry, very large box.

(Also its really funny how the starting storage options are worse in each subsequent campaign, bag of holding -> haversack -> portable hole)

Treshi got involved in stuff he didn't quite fully understand huh... Interesting that he is in some ways happy to be pulled out of it.

MOLD STORAGE!!!!

I love the question of "Is Laudna undead"

"I'm tired of leaving people behind" ....I should've finished EXU

Its really interesting that they players have to ask "is this above board or does your character know this" with regards to Delilah. The whole situation is very interesting

The whole "take notes about the briarwoods" is a really funny bit. I really like how big this world has gotten that character knowledge is much bigger than player knowledge in ways that doesn't happen in a typical campaign.

Sam....... the flask...... its way too on point, but its also such an odd callback to c2.

"at this point we're friends" found family my beloved!

I need to be normal about Matt playing his wife's character.....

I'm not being normal about Matt playing The voice of the Tempest

aaaaaaaaaaaaa voice actors are good at their jobs

"That is the best use of wood I've ever heard of" Chetney 🤣 I love how much everyone is essentially fangirling over keyleth, to be fair, she is a very cool level 20 character....

Oh this was back in the ✨Enhance✨ era of the internet

"Wow that was a big waste" "Ok Jester" What a great comeback. (you poopin?)

"Sweet little metal boy" good LORDY

Poor Ashton with character development. They're going soft. He's not happy about it

SAM MADE A SPELL!??!?!?!?!?! Share Dream?!? thats so fucking cool

Also I love the casts reactions to that.

Chetney just accidentally yelling

Since Travis loves a good d6, he should play a wizard!

Finally googled the meaning of Pyrrhic.... a good title choice.

I really appreciate that Matt is continually correcting people on Xandis' pronouns, I don't appreciate the cast continually forgetting.

.....oh my god. Will is gone because the resurrection didn't work....

Thats so much worse, I hadn't thought about that....

God I had almost forgot there was a city on the moon. Moon's haunted

I really love the idea of ashton, I love how dunamancy is now a central part of the world

Anyway, these mind sequences are very cool, I love them.

How does Matt even come up with, or plan these things?!?? I can't even imagine

"There is strength, but there is pain. There is pain but there is strength" good God!! Matt, that is so cool.

Oh my god Ashton..... poor kid.

I... I love this story though. Ashton. And the chronic pain is..... wow

It's really interesting to watch them try to figure out dunamancy from zero knowledge and just random stuff.

Perhaps not definitely, but I bet Matt's description of the inside of Ashton's head with stars and possibilities would've been different if the person had seen inside a beacon before.

"Do any of us know who we are?" asking the right questions

Delilah is dying with Laudna........ good God.

Man these players created some fucked up characters.

The moment of realization that the wisdom save was against Keyleth's scry lmao.

Keyleth!!!!!! I love her!!!

I love how she's like, buckle up fuckers, you're coming with me on a trip to whitestone.

Anyway, that episode was amazing and the ending was perfect, I cannot wait to find time to watch the next one!!!!!

#critical role #cr 3 ep 35 #cr3 #ashton greymoore #keyleth

[underratedandoverit]

okay, last orangekip request lol i love introspective fics, like when a character is thinking about how much they love the other and what exactly they like about them. so maybe a fic where oc is thinking about how much he loves kip during a mundane thing, like watching kip streaming or playing with his hair while he sleeps in his lap. can take place in the belt corruption arc or not. i'll leave it up to you 💚

~2,3k words orangekip (orange cassidy/kip sabian)

set in immortal fears/the belt corruption au. this is literally 2k words of me rambling about details and plot points in immortal fears and then the remaining few hundred words are like. actually something cute and fluffy lmao. i mean sometimes a man just gotta think, you know. but he has a good reason, as you can see in the end :3c

@stormbornpirate

on ao3

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

Usually nights like this made him anxious. The darkness surrounded by almost a deafening silence was rarely tolerable, whether he was alone or not, despite the horrors being mostly left behind him a while ago, he could still occasionally see shadows and figures move around in the darkest corners of the rooms he occupied.

Tonight things felt different. Maybe it was because it had been a relatively good day compared to many previous ones, maybe because he was tired but content with today's work that had gotten done even though it wasn't absolutely everything he wanted to do…

Maybe it was the sleeping Kip laying on the couch next to him, curled up against the side of his leg, head laid down comfortably on his lap.

Cassidy looked down at him, a small smile playing on his lips. They probably should have moved to bed ages ago, but ever since Kip had passed out on him almost as soon as they had gotten home, Cassidy just didn’t dare to wake him up and move the two of them to the bedroom. He looked so comfortable there, his steady breathing the only sound in the living room as Cassidy had muted the television to allow Kip to sleep in peace, as he was clearly exhausted after spending the whole day out in town.

Cassidy’s fingers ran absentmindedly through Kip’s hair, watching the bright coils he wrapped around his fingers untangling themselves and settling back to their places time after time. He honestly couldn’t really figure out how they had ended up here in the end, considering the extremely rocky start they had gotten off to years ago at this point.

They never really got along, or at least they never actively tried to. Cassidy was always with his tightly knit friend group, Kip was with his like-minded people. They didn’t hang out, they barely shared greetings in the hallways when they crossed paths. Sure they were familiar with one another, knew that they worked together and occasionally shared the ring too, but that was about the extent of everything.

Then one day, pretty much purely as a prank as Chuck had egged him on to do it saying how funny it would be to mess with them a little, Cassidy interrupted a promo by Miro and Kip. And that was pretty much the beginning of what had become a years long rivalry in most people's eyes at this point, most of them saying that Cassidy costing Kip the International title wasn’t the end of it either. Of course behind the scenes it was, leading them ultimately where they were now, but if people wanted to believe that the story still wasn’t over, Cassidy wasn’t going to let them in on their little secret.

Not that the road to get here had been easy for either of them. Cassidy could still remember Kip just disappearing after Arcade Anarchy was done, only later on hearing about the injury and the surgery he had to go through. At the time he partially blamed himself for it and putting them all through the match, though Chuck had convinced him that nobody was to blame, these things happened. Which, he was right, but knowing that he had been one of the last opponents Kip had faced in that match still poked his conscience occasionally, even after all these years. They had talked about it and Kip had said, multiple times, that he didn’t put blame on Cassidy as this was an issue he had dealt with prior to the match, but it was still occasionally bothering him, for one reason or another.

Maybe Cassidy blamed it so much on himself because he had seen and felt firsthand what being on the shelf had done to Kip when he eventually started to return to shows and the ringside.

His eyes focused back on the sleeping face of the Brit, watching the little content smile linger on his resting face, lips slightly apart as he was clearly asleep. The dark circles around his eyes were partially from the sloppy job of removing the makeup when they had gotten home, but Cassidy knew a big part of them were also the sleepless nights and the nightmares that kept him awake and alert for too many hours of the day. Kip wouldn’t admit to it at this point that it was still a problem, in his mind it had been tackled a long time ago, but Cassidy knew. He knew it all.

He knew how much of the makeup was a facade and how much of it was the real Kip Sabian. As much as the base of the eyeliner was real, the rest of it was nothing more than a cover up. To make sure nobody else saw how much it all had messed him up. The injury, the recovery, the return…

The box, the title hunt, the belt itself.

You could have shown Cassidy a single picture of Kip from any point of this timeline and he could have pinpointed exactly when it was taken, based on nothing but the way he looked. He had seen Kip go from the colorful though vengeful persona to the man in the deepest depths of hell, hellbent on revenge and redemption. While Cassidy hadn’t been there or a part of it every step of the way, he had observed it enough from the sidelines to have seen all of it develop. And he had been there enough to experience the worst of it firsthand.

His hand slowly left Kip’s hair, the palm pressing gently to the side of his head as his thumb ran over the other man’s cheek. Even in his sleep Kip leaned against the touch with a content hum, making Cassidy’s heart flutter at the sight. Despite everything they had gone through, both separately and together, they were still here, able to have this kind of a moment together. In complete peace.

He didn’t intend it to, but Cassidy’s mind wandered on its own back to the first days they spent together after Kip had been broken out of the curse, after he was no longer a champion. Cassidy had been the one to cost him the title, sure, but that had just been the beginning of it. It didn’t take long for Kip to fall prey to the aftermath, just as Cassidy knew he would be. And he had been there to pick up the pieces, to help Kip back up on his feet, whether he liked it or not, whether Chuck liked it or not, whether anyone liked it or not, because Cassidy knew he was the one that needed to do it, and he was the one that was able to do it.

It all started very rocky, and continued very rocky for a long time. Understandably it took Kip a long while to be able to get not only used to this changed situation where he was alone but no longer in control, and to accept the fact that he was not only getting help, but that he needed the help of the man he had proclaimed his nemesis. Cassidy didn’t mind this, it felt kind of bad to admit it, but he knew Kip didn’t have it in him in the end to fight against it. If Cassidy kept up with it, eventually Kip would give in, he would understand how all of this was necessary. Cassidy knew this, as he had been in the same boat before, only he had been in Kip’s place and Kris, and occasionally Chuck and Trent as well, in his.

Cassidy’s hand moved from Kip’s face, grabbing a gentle hold of his hand resting next to his head, easily interlacing their fingers. Even if Kip was asleep, this setup was so usual for them that it was ingrained into his muscle memory even if he wasn’t aware of what was happening around him. Cassidy observed his content face for a while, thinking how long it had been now that he had been able to look Kip like this.

It hadn’t always been like this. Hell, this hadn’t been the end goal at any point. Cassidy was just supposed to be here until Kip was better and able to get back on his own feet and take care of himself again, and then he was supposed to be out. That’s how it was supposed to be, only for a short period of time. Instead it had been almost a year at this point since they had moved in together, at some point down the line they had moved into sharing a bed – at the beginning this was to avoid extra nightmares and make sure Kip got the sleep he needed, but something about that clearly shifted the dynamic in the end.

Cassidy could remember multiple nights looking at Kip’s sleeping face, much like tonight, wondering how they ended up here. Where they would go from here. If there would be more than just him taking care of the Brit like it had been up to that point. Slowly seeing his actions help Kip, to genuinely make him get better and be able to get somewhat back into normalcy…

Somewhere in there, between all the good and the bad, the laughs in the day and confused, fearful tears cried in the night, his heart had decided that Cassidy was feeling more than just the need to help Kip to overcome this huge obstacle.

Cassidy felt extremely lucky to know that Kip shared those feelings with him though, he couldn’t even bring himself to think how things would be if he didn’t.

Feeling a lump forming on his throat the thought, Cassidy closed his eyes, inhaling deeply in hopes of calming himself down. Today had been such a tiring, hectic day it was no wonder him being this tired and having his thoughts running so rampant that it was making him emotional, but at the same time he didn’t want to cry and risk waking Kip up because of it. Cassidy was supposed to be the calm and collected one, he was always the stoic one, he wasn’t the one that was supposed to cry.

And yet, the tears were inevitable.

He barely stifled a sob, but the tears slipped past the shut eyelids, wetting his cheeks. Almost as soon as Cassidy could feel that, he felt a hand being pressed on his cheek, a thumb running over it, wiping away the tears.

“Hey.”

Cassidy opened his eyes, looking down at Kip, seeing the smile still on his lips, tired eyes looking back at him, just barely a hint of worry in them. While it wasn’t usual for Kip to see him cry like this, seemingly unprompted, Kip knew to not get him more agitated whenever it did happen.

“Everything okay?”

Cassidy offered him a smile, wiping his face with his free hand, giving a squeeze to Kip’s hand with the other. “Yeah… Yeah, sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you up.”

Kip looked at him, observing his face, like he was trying to find the lie that he knew he wasn’t going to find. “You sure?”

Cassidy nodded, taking in a deep breath. “Just thinking. About this. Us. …How we got here.”

Kip hummed in response, eyes finally leaving Cassidy, allowing him a little breathing room. Kip pushed himself up from his lap, stretching a little with a yawn. As Kip settled back to his spot on the couch next to Cassidy, he leaned closer to the blond, pressing a quick kiss on his cheek.

“I think about us all the time,” he smiled, pressing another kiss on Cassidy’s cheek before he pushed himself up from the couch, stretching again. “But it’s bedtime. Come on.”

Kip offered a hand towards him, Cassidy taking it without hesitation. But instead of letting Kip pull him up, Cassidy pulled the Brit closer and into a kiss. He obviously intended it as a passionate one, one hand running through Kip’s hair to keep him close as the man basically melted against him, in the end ending up sitting in Cassidy’s lap as the breath taken out of him was too much to keep him up on his feet anymore.

“You’ve really been thinking tonight, huh?” Kip gasped as he was finally able to get air into his lungs again, Cassidy just responding with a quick peck on his lips and a smile. Kip looked at him for a while, leaning closer as he snuggled his head against Cassidy’s shoulder with a quiet sigh. “I love you.”

Cassidy’s hand ran through Kip’s hair again, leaning his head against the side of his. “I love you too. But you’re right, we really should go to bed.”

Kip chuckled at him but obliged, pushing back onto his feet, raising a brow as Cassidy didn’t follow suit immediately.

“I’ll turn off the lights and such. You go ahead.”

“Well, if I pass out before you get there, that’s on you.”

Cassidy just chuckled at him, watching Kip leave the living room. Only after he could hear the footsteps going up the stairs to make sure he really was leaving his immediate vicinity, Cassidy stood up from the couch, reaching for the remote to turn the television off. He grabbed the jean jacket that had been laying on the back of the couch, hand stuffing into its pocket.

He looked at the little black ring box in his hand for a moment before putting it into the pocket of his jeans, knowing he could get away with hiding it from Kip for a little bit longer until the morning.

#fic #setting: belt corruption arc #character: orange cassidy #character: kip sabian #ship: orangekip #aew fanfiction #wrestling fanfiction #request

[multifandom-disaster-18]

(The SMG4 fans making theories are getting to me...) Ok, you know what? Why not. Let me throw a theory dart of my own. I feel like while another Adware encounter is too soon, this current timefeame is close to the WOTFI, which is known to be used for critical climaxes in previous Arcs. That is to say, maybe WOTFI might be used this year not to end an Arc but to start one instead. We saw that 4 and Wren were targeted for Reasons in the previous encounters, so what if Adware's next target is SMG3? But in order to get to 3's head, Adware has to gain information. What better source than 3 himself? Whoever made Mario steal 3's diary notebook might be connected to the Adware, and no one would even know it because we don't have information on what Adware even truly is!! As for another reason why target 3, redeemed villains are some of the characters who can have A LOT of personal things used against them selves!! Which is why 3 is freaking out so much, like cmon, he used a paper notebook instead of making diary videos or an online document to prevent hacking or data theft.

Oh wow! I wasn't expecting to get an ask, especially about SMG4 theories but LET'S FUCKING GOOOOO!!!!! Also, while I'll try to be pretty clear ans provide sources, forgive me if some parts don't make sense, I tend to word things weirdly sometimes, especially when theorizing like this. Anyways-

I'm gonna start off with the first idea you presented, that being the idea that this WOTFI could be used to start off a new arc instead of end one. As for now, from both what I've seen, and from what I've read/been told, it seems too early to figure out which direction things are going to take, although I will point out that during the outro for the "It's Gotta Be Perfect" movie, Luke did mention that this whole storyline is going to be different, so at this point I'm preparing for anything! (Exact Quote: "And no, this isn't just an arc, this is something much different.")

And as for the TV Adware's next target being SMG3, I'm actually pretty certain this is the direction the current storyline is heading in. And most of your reasoning is pretty solid, and basically what I've been thinking about since first seeing yesterday's episode. Such as whoever Mario gave the notebook to being connected to the TV Adware, and the idea of the information inside of 3's notebook being used against him. Although I do have a few additional ideas I may mention later once I have a bit more evidence for them.

I know I'm basically just typing out a long way of saying that I mostly agree with you, except for being a bit unsure on the first thing, and mentioning that I do have other ideas. But I'm basically just winging this entire response hahaha, I'll defintiely be posting more in depth rambles and general jokes as things continue to happen though lol, because HOLY SHIT I AM HYPED!!!!

Thank you for sending in an ask by the way!!! I love rambling about things like this so it just made my day to hear that someone was interested in my bullshit lmao-

#multi's bullshit #ask #smg4 #smg4 theories #I'm not used to sharing my theories #outside of a certain group #so apologies for not explaining them all right now #I really do appreciate the ask though