#pretty shitty borrower au

[cr0g-0]

sosososo what does eddie do after that 'oh shit i'm hurting him' realization?? does he soften his grip and just hold him gently in his palm or does he set him down? does steve run away or stay put? i can imagine eddie just being 'no wait :(' if/when steve darts back into the walls,,,

also i know you said that eddie takes steve everywhere so would that be right from the very first moment they meet, or would eddie set out to capture steve again so that he can make sure the borrower doesn't leave?

also also have this: t!steve in eddie's lunchbox. what will he do?

ps. he can cower in fear, just sit there, maybe get into the los drogas, or perhaps just sit in there, contemplating how he went from being a badass who stabs bugs with a toothpick to a guy who's sitting in a void that is a 20 year old's lunch box sitting with a bunch of weed and a bag of fucking pretzels

ALSOO is steddie romantic, bromantic, or platonic for you?? :0

Eddie is so like-'oh shit i did a bad wait no stop trying to leave-:(' He set Steve down for a second and after a second of staring and heavy and fast breathing, he opens his mouth to speak and Steve fucking bolts away. Eddie reaches out to grab him but barely misses him, his fingers brushing Steve's tail. Steve is scared shitless and also Eddie tries to reach around inside the hole Steve escaped through and he just looks to see finger's grasping and feeling around for him. He does have nightmares that night. They are not at all good.

Eddie, who's curious but also wanting to find the little guy before another horrible heatwave hits (Cause fuck the 'it's cold and winter so borrower is stuck trope'/j I want blistering hot, you should not travel due to dehydration-) sets out commically bad traps. (all bad on purpose to lower his guard but also cause it's funny ok-)

And the best part is steve gets caught in like-a majority of these traps and it has the opposite effect that Eddie wanted and he is at a loss. He stops trying for a bit which makes Steve actually lower his guard and also food so he gets caught in a really small wire trap :( Hhsjah Steve just sitting in the lunch box like-'ig I die now????' cause Eddie put him in there without explanation cause he was in a rush.

I am always just thinking of steddie period I have no care in the world but I will say that i lean to romantic cause I can-

Also Dustin only finds Steve because somebody is irresponsible and dumb and also maybe forgot to close the lunchbox after a moment-

#smog ramble #stranger things g/t #tiny!steve #giant!eddie #giant!dustin #pretty shitty borrower au #brick is absolute beloved

[carolperkinsexgirlfriend]

Steddie Upside-down AU Part 5

Part 1 Part 4

Eddie’s filled a shitty back-to-school backpack with anything useful he can find. There’s more wet wipes, and gauze, antiseptic, and a hammer. He’s got a lighter, a few newspapers, and a few shitty plastic cups. In a fit of whimsy, he stuffs a pack of playing cards in there as well. 

They go.

Hawkins is bigger than he remembers. Eddie’s not sure if it’s just the fatigue, the general atmosphere of this place, or it’s just another fucked-up thing that’s just a little off about this place. Hawkins, but not.

And god, he didn’t ever think he’d be homesick for Hawkins. His trailer, sure. Wayne, of course. But Hawkins? No way.

But he’s pretty sure he’d give his left kidney to be walking down 2nd street with all its residences clutching their pearls and crossing the street to avoid him. 

The street stretches out before him unnaturally. It’s quiet. There’s ash in Harrington’s hair where he walks by his side. Eddie’s never felt more out of place in his life.

“Do you think we’ll make it back?” he whispers. It’s so quiet, it feels like his words bounce across the town, anyway.

Harrington’s gait stutters. It could be from his fucked up feet. Eddie doesn’t think so. His brows pinched, lips pursed, skin golden under its ashen sheen.

“Someone will have noticed us missing by now, right?” He doesn’t sound sure. Eddie can’t fathom why.

“It’s…Sunday, Right?” Eddie asks, not waiting for an answer before continuing, “I’m supposed to be at band practice. The guys will notice.”

Harrington nods, starts walking again. 

“What about you?” Eddie asks.

Harrington’s eyes are shifting back and forth like he’s watching the ghosts of the real world in this fucked up mirror dimension. Hell, maybe he can. 

“Nancy noticed,” he says, quiet enough that Eddie barely picks up on it. He’s looking down at his feet and he looks small. Unsure. Before he looks up at Eddie from the corner of his eye. “Right?”

Eddie looks at this guy he’s hated for years, this guys who Eddie’s sure didn’t even notice him enough to hate him back, and says the only thing he can, “Right.”

“She’s smart.”

“Wheeler seems like a baddess,” Eddie says, even though she doesn’t. It makes Harrington smile down at his borrowed shoes. 

Eddie reaches out, squeezing lightly at Harrington’s elbow in comfort before skipping a few steps ahead, feeling his ears burn red. Harrington jogs to catch back up. They walk in silence after that.

The walk down the winding path surrounding the quarry is harrowing. It’s long, sure, but the way the red sky is reflecting back off the water’s surface has his gut sinking into his boots and weighing his feet down. It doesn’t look promising.

It looks even less promising up close. But beggars can’t be choosers, and Eddie feels one second away from falling to his knees and begging to a deity he doesn’t believe in.

He pulls out one of the stupid plastic cups, toes of his boots dipping into the red water as he bends over the reservoir and fills the cup, handing it to Harrington. Might as well take advantage of his tagalong jock test dummy,, and all that. 

Harrington grabs it from him, staring down at it dubiously. He tips it sideways, eyeing the liquid speculatively as it pours out of the cup and onto the concrete at his feet. 

It’s hard to tell if it’s actually red, even watching it drip onto the ground. The light’s too fucked, but it’s at least transulscent. It’s not blood, or at least not only blood. Eddie’s more concerned about the ash mixed in, to be honest.

Harrington’s still staring down at the remains of his cup like he’s not sure what to do with it. 

“Don’t drink that,” Eddie says.

Harrington doesn’t reply, but he can feel him watching as Eddie digs through his bag, pulling out a drugstore T-shirt and the second cup. He snatches Harringtons cup from his fingers, puts the T-shirt overtop, and then puts the other cup on top of that, before flipping the cups quickly.

Some of the liquid splashes out as it pours into the second cup, but most of it makes it to its rightful destination. Eddie pulls the T-shirt away and eyes the cup. He pours it out again, humming in pleasure and there’s no ash floating in the puddle at his feet.

A glance in the original cup makes him gag. Harrington siddles up to peer over his shoulder at the congealed black sludge left at the bottom, smeared with ash and dirt.

“I’m glad I didn’t drink that,” Harrington says.

Eddie laughs, handing the remnants of the second cup back over to Harrington. The look in the other boy’s eyes tells Eddie he knows he’s the guinea pig in this arrangement, but he gamely takes a sip. Eddie holds his breath when Harrington makes a disgusted face, but when he doesn’t keel over and die, he takes another sip. 

“Tastes like shit,” Harrington says, downing the rest. 

When Eddie filters the next cup, he can’t help but agree. It tastes like too-strong coffee mixed with blood, and Eddie’s never liked coffee. 

“How’d you learn to do this?” Harrington asks as the squat next to each other, Eddie filtering water, and Harrington filling the water bottles they’d collected from Melvald’s.

“I didn’t,” Eddie says, wringing the T-shirt out. When Harrington scoffs, he continues. “I just read about it in a book one time, and thought maybe it’d work.”

Harrington snorts. It sounds like a pig. Eddie hates himself for finding it endearing.

“You’re such a nerd,” he says, nudging his shoulder into Eddie’s. From his crouched position, Eddie almost goes tumbling into the water, but Harrington snags his shoulder and yanks him abc, laughing all the while.

“Fuck off, man,” he says, but it lacks its usual heat. 

It’s hard to completely hate a guy who dragged you bodily out of a window and away from your untimely demise. It’s hard, but damn if Eddie’s not going to try.

They fill the water bottles. It takes longer than it should, as Eddie tries to find clean enough spot on the T-shirt to make filtering the water any more even possible, but they manage.

Eddie doesn’t put the soiled garment in his backpack before slinging it onto his shoulders. It’s heavier now, but something in him eases with the time they’ve gained with the water. Days of survival has now stretched out to weeks.

He thinks of that Thing again and wonders if that’s a good thing at all. With the way Harrington is grimacing as he slings his own pack onto his shoulders, he’s having similarly grim thoughts.

They both stare up at the steep path they’d come down, hours before.

“What now?” Eddie asks.

Steve sighs, and starts trekking back up the hill. Without any better ideas, Eddie follows.

Part 6

#steddie upsidedown au #steddie #steddie fic #steve harrington #eddie munson #stranger things #my fic #ive started posting the new portion of this when i have completed a new portion with one part locked and loaded #it's going pretty well!!! #also i am Not Editing it so feel free to send any errors my way #i plan to just write and release and then clean it up for ao3 posting

[hausofmingi]

his good girl - chapter 1

pairing: song mini x stripper!reader

tags: stripper au, smut series

warnings: slight mentions of stalker, bad words (tee hee), dom!mingi, sub!reader, riding, daddydom!mingi, finger sucking, being carried and getting fucked, a bit of physical roughness (reader receiving), degradation but also praise, cum eating (off the floor!), aftercare

wc: 3.8 k

an: so I decided to give the reader a name because that feels more realistic to me as a reader than y/n. I find that sometimes reading "y/n" takes me out of it a little, so lmk if you find this helpful as well! Also, I am a little depraved so right off the bat, this gets very crazy kinky

minors dni!! 18+ only!!

“Where is the red garter belt I let you borrow?” You are racing around your and Lina’s small apartment, trying to prepare for yet another night on the job. 

“I don’t know, I may have left it at the club?” Lina answers from the bathroom. 

Red is his favorite. You don’t want to disappoint. 

“Well great Lina thanks for that, I’m never letting you borrow my shit again.” 

“Love you too!” she calls after you as you leave to go shopping. It’s not like you’re against making another trip to get some new pieces, but why do you always make the same mistake in letting Lina borrow your favorite stuff…

Your’s and Lina’s apartment is in a pretty run down building in an unsafe part of Gangnam, but no matter how shitty it is, its yours and you really want it to feel like home. 

But, that doesn’t mean you don’t feel the pair of eyes watching you as you exit out of your apartment building and walk towards the bus stop. 

You have been noticing that lately, the feeling that someone is watching you. When you leave your house, when you’re at the grocery store, while you’re going on a run. You try and brush it off because this is normal for women and all that, but today, you pay just a little harder attention. 

Out of the corner of your eye, you see a figure in a black hood (Jacket? Coat? You don’t want to look too hard) standing across the street from your apartment building. You walk a little faster to the bus stop just in case. 

That night, after spending more than you should on new lingerie sets, you and Lina are about to take the stage for your first stage set. It’s almost midnight, which is usually the time he makes his appearance. 

You always get butterflies, but not the stage fright normal kind of butterflies, the kind that make your clit perk up and your nipples harden. 

Why do you always get so worked up over a man who hasn’t even fucked you?, you think as you make your way up to the stage. 

You really have become quite the pro at this. After 4 years of working for this club, your boss has dubbed you his favorite girl. Doyeon always protects you and gives you the most popular customers, knowing you will always keep them coming back. 

You always thought it felt nice to be appreciated, especially knowing he didn’t have any intentions of coming onto you, on account of he’s a flaming fruitcake.

Its a good ways into your set, and his table still sits empty. You feel the sweat start to form on your back, but try to stay in your routine. 

Why isn’t he here? Where could he be instead? Did his company find out he was doing this? 

You always got scared that it might be leaked that idols come here, knowing the sasaengs stalker habits. Mingi, being a part of one of the biggest Korean boy groups, Ateez, must have a large number of crazy fans following him. 

Did they find out and tip the press to show up here? You didn’t see anyone outside though… Your mind runs rampant with all of the reasons that it could possibly be as you walk off stage and collect your tips from the stage manager. 

Tears start to threaten to spill, and you think you are crazy yet again to be this affected by a man you haven’t even had a conversation with. 

On the way home, Lina can tell you’re bothered and nudges your side as you walk home. 

“So you know how Taehyun has been requesting me a lot? Well he mentioned his upcoming tour tonight, I think he might finally take me along with them!” She exclaimed excitedly. 

“Don’t be ridiculous, he’s just saying that so you’ll suck him off some more.” you say. 

“Well damn… What’s got you all worked up honey?” She always called you honey when she was trying to comfort you. 

“Mingi didn’t come tonight..” you admit. 

“On a Thursday? That’s… super out of character. Well don’t worry, I’m sure practice just went long or he has an early morning schedule or….” her talking trails off as you dissociate. 

Lina has always been a nice friend, agreeing to move in with you without knowing you very well, trying her best to always cheer you up. It’s not her fault you felt like you guys were never really close. You give her props for trying though. 

You pull out your phone and check his bubble and instagram, seeing if maybe they could give you some clues. Nothing. 

You fall asleep that night thinking of the last time his fingers swiped your lip, hoping it wasn’t the last.

—

The next night at the club is gloomy. Even though it’s a Friday, attendance is lower and your energy is even lower. 

The feeling of someone watching you has been bothering you all day, but the guy in the hood has yet to make an appearance. You are just looking forward to curling up in your bed tonight and continually refreshing Mingi’s bubble messages. 

The stage manager calls for everyone to get onstage for the final number and the other girls rush out. You take your time though, not feeling like getting in a rush for this menial thing. 

You hang your head in your hands, covering your eyes and taking a breath. Just get through it, he’s just a man, you try to remind yourself. 

A smell reaches you, like a really expensive cologne. Musky and masculine, and somehow… dominant. 

You look up and standing in the doorway is him. He stands as if he owns the place, hands in his pocket, opting for a fitted vest tonight in lieu of a jacket. 

And he’s staring you down, studying you intently. If it was anyone else, you would feel the need to cover yourself and apologize. But not with him. 

You probably look like a dumbass, staring at him through the mirror with your mouth slightly open. 

He speaks first. “You were worried.” It’s a question but he doesn’t need an answer. 

“Yes,” is all you can manage to squeak out. 

He leans against the doorway, messing with his shirt cuff. You still haven’t moved, frozen in place. How did he get in here, past the security guard? How did he know which dressing room you were in? Was he the person in the hood you noticed this morning? He must be stalking you… Why doesn’t that bother you more? 

He notices your anxiety moving through you. “Don’t worry, I just know the security guard. He owed me a favor. I’m not a stalker” he responds, as if he read your mind.

“That’s… good” you say. 

He drops his arms and strides towards you, slowly as to not spook you. “Well thank you for worrying about me. I’m okay, for now. But, here’s the problem my love,” he draws his finger up your arm, making your hair stand up and bumps form. “You may be in trouble.” 

You aren’t sure what he means. “What kind of trouble?” you ask. “Like legal trouble?” 

You are afraid that maybe one of the idols ratted this place out and the feds are going to come knocking down your door and take you all away. Would Mingi still visit you in jail? Surely not, there’s no lap dances there… 

He sticks his finger under your chin and pushes it up to make you look at him. Drip. 

“Please stop letting your mind get ahead of you, baby. Let daddy speak.” DRIP. 

“A sasaeng has been getting very close to you. Too close. I can’t let you get hurt.” Awe, he wants to protect you. DRIP DRIP DRIPPING. 

“How did they find me?” you ask. 

He leans against the counter as he continues, “I am not sure, I don’t even know how much they know. Sasaengs are insane people with insane complexes. This one has been stalking me since pre-debut. But I’ve always been careful that she doesn’t see me come in here. So how she knows that you are important to me, I don’t know…” IMPORTANT TO HIM??? 

Okay you’ll have to throw these underwear out at this point. 

“So what do I need to do then? To protect myself I mean” you ask him. 

“Nothing, I want you to do absolutely nothing and let me handle it. But in the meantime, you can’t go back to your apartment.” 

Hate to say it, but fine by you. Maybe you’ll save some money by not having to replace your stolen shit anymore.

“Where will I go instead?” you ask. 

“You’ll come stay with me.” Jesus Christ, 20 year old you would be freaking the fuck out. But, it doesn’t make you freak out, in that way at least. 

“What about Lina, what about my job? I can’t live with you, much less San and Seonghwa. I’ll never see you. What if you have to travel for schedules? I’m just supposed to stay in your dorm 24/7? I have a life! I barely even know you! You only ever say 4 words to me, and then fucking leave me in a puddle, how can I just-” 

His hand stroking the side of your cheek cuts you off. “Again with the mind racing, baby. I don’t want you to uproot your life, it will be temporary. I have my own apartment now too, so we won’t be with other members. It will only be until we are 100% sure you are safe to be alone. I will take care of you, I promise.” he reassures. 

You lean into the hand that holds your head, a few tears falling into it. You finally get the courage to look up at him, making eye contact. He has dropped his heavy, dominant demeanor. Instead, his eyes hold only comfort and concern. 

Maybe he wasn’t kidding; maybe you really are important to him. 

After a minute of silence, “Okay, so what do I need to do right now?” you ask.

“Change and pack up your stuff, we are going to the apartment. Make a list of what all you need from your apartment when we get home and I will send a staff to collect it all in the morning.” 

“And take a breath, princess.” You unclench your jaw, which you didn’t even realize was clenched. He kisses your forehead before reaching down to grab your duffle bag that you carry your things in. 

You think in silence as you pack. Take a breath he says… he will protect me he says… Why me? Why is protecting me, a stripper, just some stripper that he barely speaks to. He doesn’t even know my real name…

“Yes I do,” he says from the chair he has sat down in to wait for you. Oops, you must’ve said that part outloud. 

“It’s Cora.” You like the way he flips the “r” of your American name with his Korean accent. 

“How do you know that?” he ignores you. “How do you know I used to live with San and Seonghwa?” “Touche…” you respond.

“All done?” he asks. You nod. He crosses to you and starts stroking your arms to comfort you. 

“I want you to remember though, you still have to be a good girl for me at the apartment, can you do that?” 

You look up at him through your eyelashes, surprised that he still is holding this up even at a time like this. Is it all an act, or is it truly how he is? Either way, you are turned on once again. 

“Yes..” you respond. He cocks his eyebrow, questioning your answer. 

“Yes what?” 

“Yes… daddy.”

“There’s my good girl.”

With his hand on your back, he guides you out of the dressing room and out the back door, where a black hatchback with tinted windows is waiting. He holds open the door for you, and helps you into the car. If only other men treated all their strippers like this…

The car ride home (whatever home means at the moment) is very silent. He has his hand on your thigh the entire way, the other staying steady on the wheel. His thumb rubs back and forth, another attempt at comfort you’re guessing. It works, sort of. 

Just smelling him and being near him your body is relaxed, knowing he will take care of you and wanting to give yourself to him. It’s like you are under his spell, which is crazy. You are usually so independent and self-sufficient. What about him makes you want to grant his every wish? 

“Shouldn’t you be blindfolding me, so I won’t know where your apartment is and so I won’t run away and all that?” you ask, kind of joking. 

“You won’t” he says while keeping his eyes on the road, fully confident in his answer. 

He’s probably right. 

–

Finally you reach the apartment. You almost drifted off to sleep, even though the drive was only about 20 minutes. He parks right outside the front door of the building and gets out to open your door for you. He offers his hand to help you out of the car. It’s much appreciated because you are still in your platform heels, just throwing a coat over your outfit you were going to wear to perform in. 

He keeps his hand on your back as you walk up to the doors, through the lobby, and up the elevator. It’s a really nice building with a concierge and fresh flowers all over. Sometimes you forget how big Ateez really is, and figure that Mingi bought this place with his own money. 

You wonder if he has neighbors on his floor. Do they know he lives next to them? Does he talk to his neighbors at all? Do they know that he is having his own personal stripper move in with him?

They’re gonna know now, from how loud you are being. 

How you ended up riding him in his dining room chair about 15 minutes later, you’re not so sure. 

—

He was going slow, too slow, slow enough that you could feel every. single. inch. 

You tried to grind your hips and get him in deeper, but the tight hold he had on your asscheek lets you know that even though you are on top, you are not in control. 

His other hand is holding your face, his thumb hooked in your mouth. You suck and gag on it as much as you can, but it’s hard to focus when he is going this slow. 

You felt high, things were getting foggy. All you knew is that you wanted to please him. 

“My beautiful girl, doing so well. You were waiting for this for a long time weren’t you?” his deep voice sends sparks to your clit and makes you even wetter, if that’s even possible. 

You can only close your eyes and nod. You want to throw your head back, but his hand on your cheek and thumb in your mouth keeps it facing forward. “Now baby, what did I say? Eyes. on. me.” 

He jerks your head a bit, just to make you a little scared. 

You know he would never hurt you. 

Unless you asked. 

You open your eyes like a good girl. How could you not be a good girl for him? 

His breath catches when you make eye contact with him again. His eyes bare into your soul, never breaking. 

You whimper a little when the head of his cock catches someplace you have never felt before. He smirks, knowing. He hits it again, making the upper half of your body keen forward, his thumb slipping out of your mouth. 

Your hands, which were bracing on the back of the chair, move down to his pecs. You are desperate for him, desperate for that feeling that release you dreamt about him giving you. 

You start to bounce since he let go of you, letting his arms hang down and his head fall back in pleasure. You are doing that to him. You are making him let go. 

You grind his cockhead up against your g-spot over and over again, drooling down his neck. 

You wish you could see what you guys look like, his giant body draped over the chair in ecstasy, you sat on his thick thighs bouncing on his perfect cock, licking up and down his neck. 

You’re close, really close, and your walls start to constrict down on his cock. His eyes shoot open and he jerks his head up at the feeling. 

“Hold on princess,” he practically growls at you. 

Hold onto what? You think. 

He grabs underneath your thighs, holding his hands behind your back and lifts the both of you out of the chair with him still inside of you. 

Oh my god, holy shit. 

This was too good, you couldn’t have even dreamt this up. 

You wrap your hands around his neck and he pummels into you as fast as he can, hitting your g-spot every single time as if he has memorized the angle. The sound of his balls hitting your ass covers your cries of his name. 

“Fucking. Take it.” he says, his forehead touching yours. He has essentially lost control of his body, just bouncing you wildly up and down his cock. 

It’s coming, It’s coming. Please, please, please, “please.” You don’t even know what you’re begging for, if you’re even talking out loud. You feel like you are losing your grip on reality, its so so close. 

He stills inside of you, leaving his cock right on the spot you need the most. He just shallowly thrusts, just rubbing your g-spot with his cockhead. Holy shit, it feels like fucking heaven. 

“Now,” he commands. 

And you obey. 

You flutter around him, feeling how his shallow thrusts stutter when you cum. You don’t stop for at least a full minute. 

“Thank you thank you thank you, oh fuck, thank you daddy” is all you can say as your clit jumps in ecstasy. 

His eyebrows are furrowed together, he’s close too. Right as your orgasm tapers out, you tighten your thighs around him and give him 3 bounces. That’s all he needs. 

He pulls you off of him just as he’s cumming, holding you away from him so you can watch the cum drip out of his cock and onto the floor. It’s so beautiful, you think. 

He sets your legs down on the floor, but they can’t hold you up and you fall to your knees. You can barely see straight, and you can’t catch your breath. Holy shit he may really have fucked the shit out of you. 

You keep your eyes turned to the ground while you try and slow your heart, but you see him start to squat down to your level. He picks up your chin with his hand to look up at him. “Baby… you need to clean up your mess.” 

“Wh..What?” you stutter. 

He stands up straight again, looming over you with his giant presence. “Clean it up.” his gaze falls to the ground and yours follows. 

Oh… you get it now. 

Not breaking eye contact, you lean your head down. You stick out your tongue and lick up the cum that he let fall to the floor, as well as some from you that you didn’t even realize had dripped down. He smiles. 

You feel like a pet, like a slave. 

You fucking love it. 

“That’s my good girl.” he praises you. You wipe off your mouth and look up at him through your eyelashes. He squats back down to your level, seeming to have fallen for your puppy dog eyes. 

“Does my baby need help getting cleaned up?” 

“Yes daddy.” 

He bends down to pick you up, which he does with ease, as if you weighed nothing. He guides your legs to wrap around him and he carries you into the bathroom. 

He sets you down to sit on the toilet and turns on the shower to start heating up. Why do you feel so dizzy? You gaze can’t focus. 

“Cora… don’t pass out on me my love.” he holds your face in his hands. 

“What do you need baby?” you grab onto his wrist to try and steady yourself. 

“Just a minute… I’m sorry.” 

“Don’t apologize, take your time.”

He strokes your hair as you take a few deep breaths to steady yourself. 

“Is the shower ready?” you ask. 

“Yes my love, whenever you are.”

“Will you help me?” you ask.

“Of course” he says as he starts guiding you towards the shower door. 

He lets you step in first and before you can protest that you can shower on your own, he steps in behind you. 

It's a really big shower, with beautiful blue tiles and a detachable shower head. Detachable? Huh…

You lean into his chest, your head barely meeting the middle of it due to his height. One of his arms wraps around your body while the other starts to shampoo your hair. 

Why do you already feel so comfortable with him? As if you have been showering together for years. You literally just licked this man’s cum off the floor and have no remorse about it. Should you feel guilty? 

Nah, you kind of just feel like bragging to other Atiny’s on Twitter. I sucked his beautiful cock!! Suckers!!! Probably wouldn’t be the best idea…

After washing the rest of your body and getting you out of the shower and making sure you brushed your teeth, you are now tucked into his extremely comfortable bed. You don’t usually sleep naked, but it seems right when he is too. 

You turn to face him in the bed. He was already staring at you, it seems. 

“You know, I wasn’t expecting us to fuck right off the bat..” you admit. 

“Me neither, but I am not surprised. It’s hard to resist you.”

“You’ve been resisting me for the past 6 months. You know I always craved more from you.”

“Yes I did know. But I didn’t want to enjoy you in such a public space. I just craved being around you. Its hard to resist you, though, princess. Just know that.”

I guess that makes me feel better, but still… so many things unanswered.

“I know you are probably questioning a lot of things. Just try and get some sleep tonight, okay my love?” he asks. 

“Okay..” you agree in a small voice, knowing that you will wake up tomorrow with even more unanswered questions. 

“Good girl.” He curls his arm around your middle and tucks you into his side, kissing your forehead before drifting to sleep. 

He smells like the same cologne he was wearing earlier tonight. Beautiful, musky, and masculine. You let yourself drift to sleep, breathing him in.

OKAY I DID IT MY FIRST CHAPTER. plz reblog and like.

#ateez mingi #mingi x reader #song mingi #mingi #mingi smut #kpop smut

[earthstellar]

it is time to be old on the internet: TFP Ratchet's hatred of 2010 era human tech is hilarious

every time Ratchet complains about shitty human technology in TFP, it's so funny to me, that shit is so good

because, I mean, I grew up with the first computer in my house being a fucking Tandy 1000, which to be fair wasn't exactly the hottest model even then, but still LMAO

the first modem I ever messed with as a kid was the wood box phone receiver type, the acoustic coupler ones, which was my dad's, and he only had it because his job at a local university meant he could borrow one from their tech lab (so we didn't technically own it)

if I remember correctly, the one we had ran at 300 baud, which was fucking amazing for such a set up at the time. slightly later AOL dial up looked like lightning speed compared to that shit.

my first chat rooms were BBS/Usenet (whenever I could connect) and IRC chats. now everyone has Discord and I still don't understand how that shit works lmao but that's more of a me problem and less of an age problem, I think

we got dial up (in the "modern" sense of it being AOL dial up service with the infamous hell noises) in my household in 1994, back when it was pretty much a brand new thing (at least for AOL), and I remember the Eternal September Usenet rush, lmao

imagine if TFP took place in the 80s/90s, oh my god

(I'm assuming TFP takes place in roughly 2010 because that's when the show premiered, and Miko has some kind of Razr-inspired flip phone, so if we assume it's supposed to be based on the first model of Razr, then at the earliest that places the show in 2004)

Ratchet would have gone completely insane with old school internet capable consumer level human tech

Ratchet: "How do I look at photos on this monitor?"

80s Raf: "what"

Ratchet: "what"

oh god now I want an 80s/90s TFP AU so fucking bad. imagine 80s Raf. it's so good

oh god, IMAGINE 90s RAF. just getting traumatised by terrifying shitty mid-90s FMV horror games. this poor boy. but imagine his hype when the PS1 would come out in the USA in 1995. the hype would be so fucking real. lmao

also for those of you who are Younger and Blessed With Good Internet From An Early Age, if you want a good idea of old school internet shit, go ahead and watch WarGames (1983) and look up 2600 Magazine and Mondo 2000 if you don't already know about those.

(personally I consider WarGames and Hackers (1995) to be the two best simultaneously dumbest and best movie depictions of computer bullshit in their respective eras, although Hackers was more of a thing that informed cyber culture after it released rather than reflecting actual hacker culture as it was at that exact time but anyway, please watch them if you have not seen them already, you will love this shit lmao)

I assume almost all of you already know about this stuff, but just in case, I want to mention it. those two movies are really good. lol

anyway, Ratchet dealing with early internet. early shitty human tech. or at least the 90s shit. imagine Ratchet having to listen to the fucking dial up screeching. the kids having to look through geocities webrings to see if any images of the bots had been leaked on any conspiracy websites. just 10/10 lmaooo

"I hate talking to machines" Ratchet, buddy, you have NO IDEA how bad it could have been!!!

anyway I'm old, I guess that's the point of this post LOL

#tfp #tfp ratchet #tfp raf #transformers prime #just thinkin' #maccadam #maccadams

[cyncerity]

NO ONE ASKED FOR THIS BUT HERE IT IS ANYWAY

Ok so Store Shifter AU this takes place after Dream is semi-comfortable growing back to human size and he’s met Karl and Q and he knows Sapnap and Tommy are shifters. Yes that is all important for context in this story.

This started with me wanting to write fluffy Disc Duo noms and it became so much longer I apologize but my love of writing dialogue cannot be held down

tw: soft, safe vore, injuries (nothing graphic but people get hurt), intrusive thoughts ig?

it’s past 2 am i just really wanted to finish this

Something was wrong. Something was very wrong.

Dream was still getting used to a few things now that he knew he was a shifter. Nothing too unbearable, it had been a little while since he had learned properly what he was and how to deal with it all, but some things were definitely harder than others. As far as he was concerned, he still grew a few inches every time someone startled him a bit. But this was…different.

It had started with the weird smells in the store. Like someone had lit a giant candle that smelled like the best thing he could imagine. Then it started to get weirder. The smell would almost shift slightly depending on where he was, maybe being sweeter or spicier or more sour. Then he noticed it only changed when he was around different people. At first he thought maybe it was a coincidence and people were just using a new deodorant or something, but why was it so weirdly strong? Why did it make him feel weird? What was wrong with him??

He made another horrifying discovery later while talking to Punz. They were just restocking in the back, talking as usual when Dream once again took note of how his friend smelled. He smelled like that unidentifiable aroma that had filled the store, mixed with some sort of vanilla or tea. It was heavenly. Dream made the horrifying discovery that he was practically drooling at the scent. Punz didn’t just smell good, no…he smelled appetizing.

It only got worse as he managed to subconsciously pinpoint a scent to every one of his friends, and he soon realized that the unidentifiable good smell was just humans in general. Every time the store opened the air would fill with the scent, and Dream started wearing a face mask just in case he ever forgot to swallow back down the drool that had built up. It was getting increasingly harder to deal with, to say the least.

He hit a breaking point during his lunch break only a few days later. He went to the staff room, heating his shitty microwave burrito and taking a bite only to spit it back out seconds later. It was absolutely disgusting, to the point where he couldn’t even stand eating it. So, he tried something else in the communal fridge. Tasted like dog shit. Another thing, same result. He was starving, why did everything taste awful? What was he going to do? Why was the only appealing thing people? No way he would ever…

He shut that thought down as quickly as it came up. No, that was stupid to think about, just…no. That could never happen, he wouldn’t go that far, ever. But, there was only one person who might know how to actually help him. He hated to bug him on his day off, but at least he knew he was still in the store.

He went over to his personal cubby and reached for the little box he had hidden taped in the top corner of the locker. He sent a quick text to Foolish that he’d be out for a bit and to run the shop while he was away before pulling his borrower clothes out of the box.

He was pretty sure he remembered where Ni- Sapnap’s base was, it shouldnt be too far.

***

“No man, I’m telling you, you gotta eat someone.”

“No! That’s…no, absolutely not! You cannot be serious, there has to be another way!!” Dream cried, hands pulling back his hair roughly as he tried to process what Sapnap was saying. He paced across the floor of the “living room,” really just the biggest room Sapnap and his fiancés had carved out (he wondered how they had even done that to begin with but this really wasn’t the time to ask) where they kept actual chairs and most of their chests and clothes. Sapnap just shrugged from where he was seated on one of the makeshift chairs, idly fiddling with the multicolored braid he wore around his own waist that Dream now knew represented his relationship with Quackity and Karl.

“What will happen if I don’t? It’ll just go away…right?” “I wish.” Sapnap responded, dejectedly dropping the braid back down to where it hung at his side. “Take it from someone who waited too long. Bad shit happens.” “What kinda bad shit?” Dream asked quietly, sitting next to Sapnap. The other shifter sighed as he continued, making a point not to make eye contact. “This was a few years ago, only a short while after I shifted for the first time. About as long as it’s been for you, actually. I started to feel…restless. I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t be around people, it was bad. But, I thought I could take it. Just, ride it out, y’know? But…I snapped. I didn’t have many people I cared about left after…” he went silent. Dream figured he hadn’t meant to add that bit, and he could only assume he was about to talk about whatever had unlocked his shifter instinct.

“…you don’t have to talk about it.” Dream muttered, placing a hand on Sapnap’s shoulder. Sapnap just sighed and patted his hand in response. “I know, it’s just…still hurts, yknow? Even after all this. My dads, they…it’s complicated. Long story short, my relationship with my dads after I became a shifter was…strained, to say the least. Didn’t help that one day after the incident my biological dad took me out for a walk to try and get closer with me again and a hawk attacked us. I…I lost control. I vaguely remember shifting, not even to a full human size, only a few feet tall, just big enough to eat him. I remember fighting my father out of that damn things claws, but I didn’t stop there. Some instinct in me didn’t think he was safe yet, so…” his breath hitched, but he took a deep breath in and out and continued on anyway.

“So, I swallowed him. I was completely out of it, just growling and hissing, I don’t even remember if that bird survived the encounter or not, I just remember coming back and feeling thrashing in my stomach, hearing my dad sobbing, begging for his life, begging me to let him live. It…I hate to be dramatic, but I think it was just as scary for me as it was for him. It hurts to hear someone you love think you’re gonna kill them. It…yeah, it sucked. I spit him out and ran. I took Quackity and Karl and never went back.” “How is your dad now? Is he doing better with…the whole shifting thing?” Sapnap just laughed sadly in response. “Fuck if I know. When I said I never went back, I meant it. The last time I ever saw him was right after I spat him out, never again since.” “That’s…that’s horrible. Do you even know where he is?” “No, but I don’t think I need to. The look of disgust on his face when he saw me shift for that first time was enough, I don’t need to see what he thinks of me now that I literally ate him alive, even if it was a while ago.”

“…I think you should try and make up with him, if you ever see him again. He’s your dad, i’m sure he’s forgiven you.” ‘I’m sure he still loves you’ goes unsaid, but Dream is sure Sapnap knew what he meant. “Your perception on what is forgivable by borrower standards may be a little skewed, since you’re a human born shifter. As far as he probably thinks, I tried to actually eat him. That’s one of the top things borrowers live in fear of; being eaten.” “Right…” he trailed off. They sat in silence for a moment before Dream decided to change the conversation to something that he really didn’t want to bring up but probably should.

“This may be a bit of an odd question, and this is really awkward, but I really don’t know who else-” “Yeah, you can eat me.” Sapnap interrupted, a smug look on his face that showed he knew exactly where that comment was going. “Just, you should know that it’s a protective instinct. Some weird fucked up mix of a predator drive and a nesting phase, but you’re gonna be most inclined to do it when people you love are in danger.” “So what are you saying?” “I’m saying that eating me will make your instincts die down a little, enough that you’ll probably at least be able to eat normal food again, but it won’t work fully. And, I love you man, but you don’t know me that well, all things considered. I’m not part of what your brain considers to be your ‘pack.’” “So what do I do?? If you’re not part of my ‘pack’ or whatever the fuck, who else can I…I don’t even wanna fucking say it, but you know what I mean. I know Karl and Quackity even less, and you’re the only borrowers I know at all! There’s literally no member of my pack as small as you…er, us, right now, I guess.” “Oh, Dream…” Sapnap just trailed off, looking worried. Dreams eyes widened. “Don’t ‘oh, Dream’ me, what are you about to say, what did I say, what’s wrong?”

“Shifting isn’t just about going back and forth between borrower and human size. You’d probably…I mean, more than likely..do what I did. Grow.” “What do you mean…?” Dream asked quietly, almost afraid to hear the answer. Sapnap stared off, trying to ignore the fear in Dream’s voice. “I mean grow. Giant. Bigger than human size. Big enough to..to swallow another human. It’s possible, i’ve done it. Not swallowed a human, I mean, just grown bigger than human size. And once you do it once, it becomes easier for that to be a default. Believe me, growing bigger by accident can be a real pain in the ass.” Sapnap finished, and Dream just slowly took it all in. Great, just fucking perfect. So he could be giant, too, not just tiny, why the fuck not? And he could possibly, maybe, accidentally just eat one of his employees or customers. Fucking fantastic. “…ok, great.” Was all he could think to respond with. What else could he say? Every fucking day he was just being reminded more and more that he could never go back to the life he had. He could never be human again, and he hated it. Sapnap seemed to sense this, and just rested a hand on Dream’s shoulder to comfort him. Dream couldn’t do much else other than lean into it.

***

Dream decided to go back to work after using his lunch break to talk to Sapnap, which in hindsight probably wasn’t the best decision. Sapnap had told told Dream that they could both take the day off tomorrow so he could guide Dream through how to…eat him (and god did it feel wrong for him to be thinking of that), since he had promised his fiancés he’d help them borrow some heavier supplies that day, and he was the strongest of the three. But Dream didn’t have much else to do other than go back to his job, so that’s what he did, despite not really wanting to be around people at the moment. He was distracted and distant as he went through his checklists, helped customers, and did other menial manager tasks.

It all really started to go wrong when he agreed to help Foolish grab something from a higher shelf in the back.

Really, he should have been paying more attention. All he had to do was hold the damn ladder steady as Foolish grabbed a heavier supply box. But his mind was somewhere else, clouded and distracted, distantly more focused on the revelation that Foolish smelled of salt water taffy and gummies than keeping the thing holding his little brother ten feet off the ground steady.

So when Foolish grabbed the crate and accidentally shifted his weight a little to far to the right when he was about halfway down the ladder, it shouldn’t have been a huge surprise that he fell, and fell hard.

Had Dream been paying more attention, maybe he could have steadied the ladder, or warned him, or maybe have even broken his fall. But as it was, Dream was fully out of it until Foolish hit the ground with a pained yelp and a thud from the crate, barely missing his shoulder. God, a few more inches and that would have crushed him.

Dream ran over to help, because shit, that was his little brother. His little brother who was groaning in pain on the floor, who was injured because of something he could have prevented, whose breathing was evening out as his consciousness faded, who was lying injured on the ground and he didn’t even know how bad the injury was and-

Dream felt something wrong. Physically wrong, not just in his head this time. Something in his gut tightened, constricting within him, sight blurring and mind unable to penetrate through the agony-filled haze. He dropped to the ground, unable to keep himself upright, desperately clutching at his middle in a feeble attempt to ease the pain, pain worse than almost anything he’d ever felt. He couldn’t even yell, everything in him was taught, tightened as far as it could be, all he could do was make pathetic squeaks with the noises he forced out of his closed up vocal chords in place of screams as he sobbed quietly on the ground. He wasn’t sure how long he laid there, clutching his gut as tears dripped down his face onto the floor, but it couldn’t have been long before something spoke out in his head, without tone or a voice, just an all encompassing urge.

‘Store him’

Dream squeezed his eyes shut, avoiding looking at his brother now lying limp on the floor. ‘Store him.’ He clutched at his head, yanking his hair, trying to give himself anything else to think about. ‘He’s hurt. He can’t get hurt if he’s in you.’ His breathing became more sporadic as something akin to a migraine started, and his clothes felt just a bit tighter. ‘You hurt him. Help him. Store him. You want to.’ Dream cracked an eye open only to come to the horrifying realization that he was bigger than he’d been a few seconds ago. ‘I want to.’ Dream tried to ignore the all encompassing emptiness he felt within him. ‘I don’t want him to hurt. I’ll help him. He’ll be safe within me. I love him.’ Dream hated that the instinct in his mind had shifted it’s point of view. He didn’t want these thoughts. They weren’t his. He didn’t want them to be his.

The thing that snapped him out of his thoughts was the circulation in his limbs starting to be cut off. He belatedly realized that he was now much bigger than he had meant to be, not that he had meant to be big at all. He didn’t know exactly how tall he was, but Foolish looked…he looked small. Not just because of the size difference. Foolish had always been so much larger than life, ever since they were kids. Seeing him limp just felt…wrong. What he belatedly realized was that Foolish was about as tall as the length from his palm to his elbow. Still fairly tall, definitely not the size difference between a borrower and a human, but still fairly small. He remembered what Sapnap had said about the last time he’d seen his father; that he hadn’t grown to human size in order to eat him, only just big enough to swallow him down. Dream looked at himself in comparison to his brother and thought he now knew what Sapnap had meant. Like a snake and a rat, or some other larger rodent; they never looked like they could get something that big down, but somehow they managed it. Dream was horrified to realize that if he truly wanted to, right at that moment, he probably could. It wouldn’t be comfortable, and there was even a chance he would choke and pass out from lack of oxygen before he got him down, but with enough determination, he definitely, terrifyingly, could.

His body seemed to belatedly realize that his limbs were starting to turn purple from the constriction of his clothes, and now that the instict not-voices had died down a bit from the initial shock of seeing Foolish hurt, he began to shrink back down, thank god his clothes were actual an good, durable material. And thank god again that no one had walked in during all that. And while he was thinking that, thank god a third time that he was the only one with a key to the security room. It would be an absolute train wreck if anyone but him saw…whatever had just gone down here.

In the end, Dream just ended up sending an emergency notification to Punz, telling him to get to the back rooms immediately, and just left. As much as it hurt him to leave his injured brother, the instinct was still there, as it had been for days, and the pain in his gut had dulled down to a more muted but still definitely noticeable pain. He didn’t want to risk what could happen if he stayed, even if the worst seemed over with. He didn’t want to risk Foolish learning what a monster he was. He’d be better at home, alone.

***

Suffice to say, Dream wasn’t all that happy when his front door opened after he’d only been there for about twenty minutes. Maybe Foolish had stopped by? Or Punz? But did they even know he’d gone home? Maybe Sapnap…wait did Sapnap know his address? Did he even know how to use a computer well enough to look it up in the system? Maybe he’d-

All of Dream’s thoughts were cut off as he smelled something entirely new, but familiar all the same. Something sweet, but slightly sour and bitter, like strawberries that weren’t quite red and ripe. That and, oh yeah, the entirely unfamiliar scent of burned and melted flesh and peanut oil, weirdly enough.

Dream’s gut twisted painfully again as he practically tripped down the stairs from his bedroom to the living room to see Tommy standing there, dropping his bag by the door like he always did, except this time there was a noticeable section of his forearm wrapped in bandaging, but his son just stared at him with confusion. “Shouldn’t you be at wo-“ “What the hell happened to your arm?!” Dream interrupted as he ran to close the distance between them, grabbing Tommy’s arm to see what had happened, only to let go a second later when heard his son hiss in pain. “Sorry, sorry, I just…” Dream’s words trailed off as the pain in his stomach became worse and the urges started to ring out again, although softer then last time. ‘He’s hurt, I let him get hurt, I can put him somewhere he can’t get hurt again.’ And oh great, it started in the first person this time. At least they were easier to ignore. Tommy, entirely unaware of Dream’s internal conflict, just sighed. “I’m fine, big D. Had an accident with the fryer, that’s all. Just dropped the fry cage a bit too fast and some of the oil splashed on my arm. It’s not a huge deal, didn’t really bleed, barely hurts at all anymore after Wil had me pop like four Advils. It’ll probably be one hell of a nasty scar, though.” ‘I wasn’t there for him when he was hurt. I will put him somewhere where he can’t get hurt again.’ The instinct rang out, a bit louder this time, loud enough for Dream to notice the worrying shift in wording. It was minor, but he didn’t like how it had already changed from ‘I can’ to ‘I will.’ Tommy, apparently mistaking Dream’s lack of response for a prompt to continue explaining, went on. “I didn’t even think I needed to come home, really. Just, y’know, restaurant policy, I can’t exactly work with food while I have an actively…well not really bleeding, but something is certainly leaking from it. Looks gnarly as fuck, though, you should’ve seen it, big man. Anyway, the store can’t really take another hit from the health department, so here I am. Probably for the best so it doesn’t get infected, anyway. I just didn’t expect y-…um, Dream..?” Tommy cut himself off. Dream, who was only half paying attention, snapped his head back to Tommy. Or, at least, where Tommy should be. Where had he gone? And why were his clothes so tight agai- oh god damnit.

Dream looked down to see Tommy, just staring at him with a confused expression. In Dream’s panic he actually managed to shift back down on his own free will, which he’d pat himself on the back for later, but for the moment, he was a bit concerned about what Tommy had just seen. “Uh..I- uh…” “Are you ok?” Dream kind of froze at that. “What?” “Are you ok?” Tommy asked again, more firmly this time. “You’ve never accidentally shifted big before, and you’ve been kinda hunched over and pale, not to mention you smell like you’re in pain.” Now it was Dream’s turn to be confused. “..Smell...?” “It’s like…hmm…like you’re regular scent, but more…less good, that make sense? Like, not as…appetizing? Would that be a good word to use?” Dream kinda just stared, only moving to blink. “How can you even-“ “Don’t tell me you forgot I was a shifter.” And, oh, right, of course Tommy would know about all of that, he was a shifter. Dream didn’t know how he forgot that, other than he’d just assumed Tommy was human for so long that it was still weird to think he was anything else. “Right, duh. Sorry.” Dream asked, facepalming at his own stupidity. He’d chalk that one up to his instincts fucking with his brain for days on end.

“You’re also drooling a lot, y’know.” Tommy pointed out unhelpfully, making Dream’s eyes snap open as he became once again painfully aware of the emptiness in his stomach, and how much his instincts would love for the kid in front of him to fill that void. The still potent smell of his injury didn’t help quell his instincts much, either. “S-sorry, sorry, I really don’t know what’s wrong with me.” Dream lied, wiping the excess spit from his lips. “I just started to feel a bit sick, kind of an upset stomach, so I came home early.” Tommy didn’t look like he quite believed him, but he just shrugged. “Whatever you say. Though…are you sure that’s all it is? Definitely nothing else?” “Yes, I’m sure.” Dream said firmly, because what else could he say? ‘No, actually, I’m very not ok cause I almost ate Foolish earlier and now I want to eat you?’ Yeah, right, not gonna happen. Even though Dream’s stomach seemed to disagree as it made a louder-than-he-would-have-preferred gurgling sound that he quickly tried to dampen with his hand and a fake coughing fit. Tommy just kind of inspected him for a little while longer before sighing and seemingly giving up.

“…Alright then, man, I hope you feel better soon. You should probably go take a nap or something, you seem like you need it. Not to be rude, but you look like absolute shit right now.” Dream scoffed. “Yeah, I’m sure I do. A nap doesn’t sound too bad. Just, make sure to replace your bandage, its starting to get yellow. There’s a medkit and disinfectant under the bathroom counter.” Dream turned to go back up the stairs as he heard Tommy swear behind him, mostly likely cursing out the fact that he already had to change bandages and re-clean his wound. But, he’d be fine to do it by himself. The last thing Dream wanted was for his urges to become too strong and to scare his kid. So, he retired to his bedroom for the night, quickly changing into pjs and doing his best to ignore the hungry sounds coming from his gut, adamantly refusing to give in to what it wanted. Just a few more hours. A few more hours and then Sapnap could show him how to fix this.

***

Dream woke up to a weird weight on his face and some thing poking at his eye, which was honestly probably one of the worse ways to wake up. His first thought was that a rat had somehow gotten in his house as he yelled and jolted up, suddenly far more awake than he’d been seconds ago, although his mind was still clouded with sleep. The thing on his face yelled out as it practically used his face as a springboard to grab onto his hair, now that the surface it had been sitting on had gone vertical. He yelled out again as he desperately tried to grab the thing from his head, only to hear more yelling in response, and, probably more importantly, words. He let himself freeze for a moment so he could actually hear what was being said, and he finally registered his own name. “Dream! Dream!! It’s just me! Jesus fuck, calm down, let me down! It’s me!!” Dream reached over to his bedside and clicked a lamp, going cross eyed as he tried to look at the figure dangling less than an inch from his face.

“Tommy? What the fuck are you doing??” “Can you understand me?” “Huh??” “Can. You. Understand. Me.” “Uh…yeah??” “Then let me the fuck down!!” He cried, still dangling helplessly by Dream’s hair. He wasted no time in bringing his hands up under his now shrunken son, who let go of his hair almost instantly and fell into his waiting hands. “Thank fuck. I didn’t know how long it’d been since you shrunk, I was honestly just hoping for the best. It’d probably have scared you a lot more if I’d woken you up and you’d only heard squeaking.” Tommy laughed, though Dream’s brain substituted something much more sinister and worrying. ‘I could have hurt him. If I didn’t know it was him, what would I have done? I need to keep him safe.’ His stomach tightened up even worse, and he muffled the pained noise he was tempted to make. Shit, why was he in here? And why was he small?? Of all the times for him to decide to shrink and go in his room, this was definitely one of, if not the worst. And as if to prove his point, his stomach made a louder noise than earlier, but Dream chose to ignore it in favor of turning his attention back to Tommy. “What are you doing in here this late? And why are you small?? You…you really shouldn’t be in here right now.” He moved to set Tommy down on the floor next to his bed, where he couldn’t reach him, but Tommy jumped off his hands and into his lap instead. ‘It’d be so easy,’ his instincts rang even louder, ‘I wouldn’t have any trouble getting him down. Keeping him safe.’ Dream pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes. He couldn’t be thinking like this. Not with Tommy here. “I’m not leaving.” Tommy said with a resolve Dream couldn’t even imagine coming out of Tommy’s mouth. “I’m not leaving until you feel better.” Dream dropped his hands to look Tommy in the eye. “Tom, you don’t understand. You don’t know what’s going on, you have no idea what I want to do to y-“ “Let me rephrase that.” Tommy interrupted. “I’m not leaving until you eat me.”

“…What?”

“You heard me, bitch. Either you eat me or I sit here all night making your instincts worse until you snap.” He said, matter-of-factly. “But how do you…?” “Do I have to remind you again? I’m a shifter! We’re both shifters!! We both have the same shit to deal with! Only difference is I’ve been a shifter longer, so I’ve already gone through this. Which is also how I know that you really wanna eat me right now and that instincts get worse at night.” Dream was about to argue until his stomach rumbled again, and Tommy looked down to his midsection then back to look him in the eye with an expression that Dream knew meant he wasn’t gonna convince Tommy of any lie. ‘He’s been through this, and I wasn’t there to help him. He went through this pain and I did nothing. I can help him now. Store him.’ “I..I don’t want to, I can’t…” “Bullshit. It’s clear as fuckin’ day you do so just do it.” Tommy’s voice was harsh until his next sentence. “Dream, you’re hurting yourself, why won’t you let me help you?” ‘He wants it. Store him. He wants me to, and I love him. Store him.’ “Because..because…” ‘Store him. Keep him safe. Keep him safe inside yourself. I can keep him safe inside me.’ Dream put his hands back over his face, partly because he didn’t want to look at Tommy at the moment, and partly because he kinda felt like he was gonna cry and Tommy didn’t need to see that. What was there to say? What could he possibly say to make any of this feel better? He felt like a monster. What kind of fucked up person would want to eat their family? Their brother? Their son? He knew he wanted to but he couldn’t rationalize that he did. He couldn’t accept it. So how in God’s name was he supposed to explain that to Tommy?

“…would it make you feel better to know that I ate someone too? That other shifters go through this?” Tommy asked. Dream just laughed wetly in response. “Sapnap told me. He explained all of this earlier. I don’t think your story could be as bad as his was, but you can still tell it.” “Oh, mine wasn’t bad at all, actually. Tubbo agreed to it.” “What the fuck is a Tubbo?” “Oh, you don’t know him? I’ll have to introduce you two later…” Tommy finished, seemingly unsure of what else to say. “Would…would it make you feel better to know..I’ve been…eaten before?” Dream dropped his hands slowly, tears visibly staining his cheeks, but that wasn’t his main concern at the moment. “Y..You have…?” “Yeah. Practically daily, if I’m being honest. That’s how I knew it was safe for me to eat people when this shit happened to me. Cause I’d been eaten before.” Dream just looked at him for a minute in shock. His son had been…eaten before. Without him knowing. That was…certainly something, wasn’t it? ‘He’s been getting eaten yet I won’t eat him. I’ve been trusting strangers to keep him safe. It should be my turn. It’s my turn. Store him.’ Dream sniffed and wiped one of his eyes as Tommy anxiously waited for a response. His hair was pulled back for once to reveal his pointed ears that Dream rarely got to see, since Tommy constantly kept them hidden to prove he was human, like Sapnap did. He didn’t like how downturned they were. Did Tommy think he was mad? Or was that just a reasonably private thing to expose? Oh, it was probably mostly the latter, wasn’t it?

Instead of giving a responsible or normal response, Dream decided now was the perfect time to ask a probably not very important question, partially to make Tommy feel less embarrassed and partially just cause he wanted to ask and knew there were probably very few other appropriate times to do so. “…It’s not Wilbur, is it..?” Tommy’s ears immediately perked back up as he looked at Dream with a mockingly offended face. “Fuck no!” He shouted, making an exaggerated gagging noise to prove a point, making Dream laugh. “I think I’d die of second hand smoke just by being in his mouth! Its fucking gross! Man’s doesn’t need to know how much technical cannibalism goes down at his store. No, its the tall fucker, you’ve met him, he’s got hetero..hetero…I don’t fucking remember.” Tommy finished and oh, Dream couldn’t just not take that bait, it’d be sinful. He barely kept himself from laughing as he asked “…you know a hetero?” “Oh FUCK OFF!! I meant the weird eye thing, we both know he’s gay as hell!” Tommy yelled back up, though he was also smiling, and Dream couldn’t help but laugh out loud, wheezing a bit as he tried to maintain his composure. But, he did notice his tears had dried up.

“You feeling better, big man?” Tommy asked, and Dream smiled a bit more and nodded. “Then do you think we can get on with this? I’m tired, I wanna place to sleep and you’re closest.” Dream looked back down, debating for a moment before setting his hands down beside Tommy, the smaller shifter immediately taking the chance to climb on.

Dream lifted him just below eye level, Tommy sitting down to get comfortable, seemingly understanding that there was still more Dream wanted to ask. But Dream couldn’t exactly say what. So, Tommy filled in. “You want to know what I enjoy about being stored?” He asked, and Dream in that moment found he liked the term ‘stored’ far more than he liked ‘eaten’ or ‘swallowed.’ He nodded. Tommy looked down and began to wring his hands as he spoke. “Well, it’s warm, for one. It’s, like, this all encompassing warmth, cause, y’know, people are warm. But its not overbearingly hot. It’s also dark, which is to be expected, no big surprise there. I do have partial night vision, though, fun fact, so I can still see a little bit. It’s also fairly quiet, save for the noises of organs. I can clearly hear breathing and a heartbeat from in there, and, I’m not gonna lie, and you’d better never bring this up again or so help me god I will clart you, but its…its relaxing. There’s a strong, steady, unceasing rhythm, and it’s calming, in a weird sort of way. I’m in there and every just…goes on around me, like I’m not even there. It’s this weird tranquil sort of peace.” Tommy looked up at Dream, who was just looking. Not with disgust, or confusion, or judgement in any sort, but like he was trying to understand more. Tommy appreciated that. So, he went on. “I’d say the best part is…and, again, the clart thing applies here, too, but…I don’t know, its just feels…nice. It feels nice in there.” He finally settled on, face starting to heat up from embarrassment.

Like hell was he could stop there, though, something was finally getting through to his dumbass of a guardian. This was for Dream (well, mostly Dream, but himself partially since some of his pack instincts were mad that Dream was refusing to take care of himself). “It’s like…spongy and squishy and…I’m not even sure how to describe it…its kinda smooth, but its flexible most of the time..whatever, it doesn’t matter. It’s just nice. It sometimes makes noise, not that I’ve ever minded. The noises make the walls vibrate weird, which is cool. It’s almost always, like…moving. Swaying, or something. It’s weird, cause I know that the room I’m in is alive and its…” Tommy looked back up at Dream, who was still looking back at him. He continued. “Well, lets just speak hypothetically here, it’d be…you. Fully, entirely surrounded by you. And…I don’t know about you, but…but that’s a nice thought to me. I’m safe, in there. Protected, fully unavailable to the outside world. Any move you make, I feel. Every breath, every heartbeat, I hear. Only you can hear me, and I can hear practically nothing but you. It’s…I don’t know, it’s something not many people get to do. Not that normal people want to, but, hey, maybe they would if they could, who knows. But, we can. And more so, I trust you enough to do this. I’m completely at your will in there. For that time, I’m entirely yours, but I know with my whole soul that you’d never take advantage of that. Because you love me as much as I love you. And believe me, I…I love you a lot, Dad.” He finished, never breaking eye contact. He could see tears start to well in Dreams eyes, even if his face remained mostly neutral. Then he smiled, shifting Tommy to one hand as he used the other to wipe his eyes. “…ok,” he finally spoke up softly, and Tommy’s ears perked up as he waited for what he hoped Dream was going to say. “What do I need to do.”

Tommy grinned ear to ear, his ears perked up fully now. “Practically nothing, just get me to your mouth and I’ll take it from there.” Dream took a moment to process it before breathing in and out slowly, and lifting Tommy to his lips, barely opening his mouth. If this were Ranboo, Tommy would probably yell at him for not helping enough. Hell, if this were Dream doing anything else, he’d yell at him. But, he knew that this was probably difficult and very, very uncomfortable for Dream, so he decided to not be rude for once. Instead, he just pushed down on Dream’s bottom teeth, which gave way with very little pressure, and climbed inside about half way.

Dream froze. Oh god his son was in his mouth, that was so weird, fuck, this felt- His own thoughts were cut off when his stomach cramped again, worse than before, worse than it had since he’d gotten back home, but not quite as bad as with Foolish. He sucked in air through teeth gritted lightly against Tommy’s midsection, vaguely even registering that he had partially closed his mouth, as his instincts rang louder than ever before. ‘This is right. This is right. Swallow him. Store him. Keep him safe.’ “Ok, big man,” Tommy called out, voice slightly muffled from behind his cheeks, and Dream feeling the weird sensation of vibration from his voice on his tongue and hard palate. “This is gonna sound weird but I’m too dry to get down your throat like this. Hurts like a bitch if I’m not damp enough, trust me. I need you to get me, like, covered in spit.” Dream made a vague noise of confusion in response, so Tommy clarified. “I’m asking you to lick me, bitch.” Dream took a few more deep breaths as he Tommy pulled himself in fully, though he had to curl himself up a bit to fit the whole way, and Dream began to move him around his mouth, slowly and carefully so he didn’t accidentally shove him against his teeth or do something that could hurt him. Tommy, for the most part was doing his best to keep still, thankfully. Dream was already feeling weird about having someone in there, he couldn’t imagine how much worse this would get if he was moving, too.

Eventually, Tommy’s taste started to register, too, and he was admittedly shocked at how good he tasted. It was just like how he smelled; strawberries, but slightly bitter and sour, which Dream now assumed was from the pain of his injury. He remembered Tommy saying he could tell Dream was in pain from his scent, but in the moment that hadn’t fully registered in his head. Huh. He’d have to ask Tommy what he smelled like later. Thankfully, though, he didn’t taste any peanut oil or other obvious signs of the injury, so Tommy must have re-wrapped it well. Still, though, something in him screamed to just drag him down already, to make his poor injured child feel better, but he wouldn’t without the green light from Tommy. After a few more moments, he felt more than heard Tommy laugh. “I must taste pretty damn good, you’re drooling again, it’s practically flooded in here.” Dream realized he was right, and that ok, maybe there was more spit than necessary, and maybe some of it was leaking out of his mouth a bit, but that was not one of his concerns at the moment. Dream responded by shoving at Tommy lightly, pressing him into his cheek, and he could feel Tommy lightly kick out at his cheek in response, and Dream was sure that it had made some sort of visible indent in the moment. “Ok, I’m ready. You can swallow. I’ll go down headfirst, that’s easier on you. And tilt your head back. I don’t think you’ve ever swallowed anything as big as me, so you’ll definitely want gravity on your side here. Also, put your hands on your throat, one right above your clavicle and one right under your chin.” Dream made another noise of confusion. “Just trust me, do it. And swallow when you’re ready, it’s boring in here and I wanna sleep.” Dream rolled his eyes, but tilted his head back as he felt Tommy situate himself correctly. He took a few more deep breaths in and out through his nose, and, finally, swallowed.

Dreams eyes widened and it took all of his willpower not to gag as he felt what he could only presume to be Tommy’s head enter his throat. He felt his neck bulge out underneath his hand as Tommy slipped down painfully slow, and his stomach gave another painful growl. It was a tight fit, to say the least, tight enough that he could feel Tommy’s chest rising and falling clear as day in his throat, a calm rhythm that directly contradicted the near hyperventilating he was doing. Tommy’s head was almost at his other hand by the time his feet even entered the throat, and at this point Dream was almost glad he had been drooling earlier, since just swallowing over and over seemed to get him down faster, and the spit was helping. He felt the first of Tommy drop below his collarbones into his chest, and made the horrible discovery that he couldn’t breathe. He frantically swallowed him down even faster, just trying to get him out of the way as soon as possible, and he soon felt the rest of him slip into his chest as well. The second Tommy was away from his windpipe he was gasping for air, clutching at his chest where he could feel the uncomfortable weight that was Tommy moving slowly deeper into him. He placed a hand on his stomach, bracing himself for whatever it would feel like when Tommy did manage to end up there, and trailed his other finger down slowly to give himself a rough idea of where Tommy was, not that he couldn’t feel him, but the visual tracking helped a bit.Dream braced himself when his two hands met, the one tracking Tommy just above his stomach, and he tensed as he felt Tommy slip into the chamber, his stomach actually distending a bit to fit him and growing under Dream’s palm.

And all at once, he felt miraculously better.

He wasn’t sure what he was expecting, but he certainly didn’t think it would be this instantaneous. But his instincts were no longer screaming at him, instead filing him with a bone-deep relief that this was finally right, and this was where Tommy was meant to be. His stomach stopped hurting, the cramps gone now that the feeling of emptiness was replaced with heavy, living weight in the form of his son, whose natural body heat seeped into the walls around him, warming Dream from the inside. It reminded him of eating soup, except the soup was solid and alive and he could feel it’s heartbeat if he was still enough, and Tommy would never get cold. It felt…good. He hated to say it, and he’d think about the implications of it later, but it actually felt really good. He felt Tommy move from within him and, oh fuck, that was a weird feeling, but not an entirely unpleasant one. He still couldn’t help that his breath hitched and he tensed in surprise, effectively squishing Tommy between his stomach walls, which made his stomach make a whole new round of weird noises, but he felt and heard Tommy laugh it off.

“So,” Tommy said, the smug tone clear even through the walls of flesh and muscle surrounding him, “was it really that bad?” “The swallowing was, yes.” Dream replied, shuddering at the idea that he’d have to do that backwards to get Tommy out. “Yeah, sorry, big man, kinda forgot to mention that you wouldn’t be able to breathe for a while while doing that.” “Oh yeah, cause that’s not something I needed to know at all.” He responded sarcastically, finally letting his stomach muscles loosen around Tommy as he began to relax. “The rest of it…ok, you win, it wasn’t that bad.” He relented, hearing Tommy start to celebrate in him. “I told you, I told you!! Now you’re as weird as I am bitch! Get used to this, I want cuddles more often now.” He huffed, clearly proud of himself. Dream scoffed fondly, placing a hand over the slightly moving bump on his belly. “Of course, how could I deny you cuddles, that would just be evil of me, wouldn’t it.” “Yeah it fuckin’ would.” Tommy agreed, laughing lightly.

Dream began to relax further, trying to fall asleep, hand still over where he felt his son, but found that it wasn’t just Tommy moving around slightly. It was his entire stomach. He placed both hands over it and felt clear as day that it was contracting and moving without him telling it to, the gurgling less loud, but more constant than it had been. Tommy, however, didn’t seem to mind, just content to be moved wherever the muscles around him pushed him. “…Tommy? Is everything alright in there?” He asked nervously. “I’m fine.” Tommy responsed almost immediately, picking up on his guardian’s distressed tone. “Everything’s perfectly fine, your body just isn’t used to having things that aren’t food in your stomach, so it’s doing what it would be doing to help food digest faster.” “Oh my god, are y-“ “I’ll be fine, this happens every time, relax. Everything will chill out once your gut realizes I’m staying right where I’m at.”

Dream sighed in relief, as weird as that all sounded, at least Tommy was ok. He was safe, where no one but Dream could get him. And god, did that feel good. He had known Tommy before the…incident, back when the kid was just his little cousin and not his son. Before what probably unlocked his shifter traits had happened. It had taken a long while for Dream to see that sunny, optimistic little boy he’d come to love again after that. It had taken years for Tommy to open up again, even if he he wasn’t as open, and probably never would be again. That didn’t matter. He loved him anyway. Dream loved Tommy, he loved him so, so fucking much. He’d told Tommy he’d always be there for him when he adopted him, that he’d keep him safe, and he intended to keep that promise for as long as he was still breathing.

“Goodnight Tommy.” Dream said softly, laying back down and gently rubbing his stomach, which only resulted in more gurgling sounds. What Dream wasn’t expecting was the feeling of tiny hands against his stomach, rubbing along the inside of his stomach, massaging in places he never would have thought would feel good. Yet, here he was. He flopped backwards the rest of the way, hearing Tommy squeak in surprise as they both started to laugh. “I love you, sunshine.” Normally, Tommy hated when Dream pulled out that old nickname, but he didn’t seem to mind it tonight. “I love you , too, Dad.”

Bonus (as if this wasn’t long enough jfc)

Dream had somehow gotten to work late. Foolish had practically shaken him awake like a half hour before they both needed to be there, and they probably would have made it in the building on time if Dream hadn’t spent the entire car ride apologizing for letting Foolish fall five feet off a ladder the day before and get minimally concussed and bruised, with Foolish constantly interjecting that it was his own fault for his shitty balance, and it quickly turned into a lighthearted argument. Dream didn’t mark it up on either of their records, he thought arguing about the ladder incident was a good enough reason to be late. After all, he was the boss, what was he gonna do, fire himself? Foolish asked him if he wanted to grab a snack from the break room for breakfast, since they had forgotten to eat in their rush out the door. Dream went with him, but ended up declining.

“How come?” Foolish asked, mouthful of a granola bar. “Did you eat yet today?” “Nah, just not hungry, I don’t know why.” “Huh. Did you eat a big dinner?” “Uhhh…” Actually, Dream couldn’t recall eating at all the day before, and possibly even the day before that, but he didn’t exactly need to share that. “…I don’t think so, but I can’t quite remember.” “Odd.” Foolish said, turning to throw away the wrapper to his granola bar as Dream subtly lifted his shirt to see that he at least definitely at least looked full, way more full than normal. But how could he not remember eating that mu- “Oh, by the way,” Foolish said, turning his attention back to Dream. “Did you see Tommy this morning?” Dream’s eyes widened. Ooooohhhh right. Shit. Yeah, that would be why he wasn’t hungry. “Uh, he, uh…he..he’s at a friends place. Yeah, left last night to head to a sleepover. Hence why you didn’t see him this morning. He wasn’t there. He was at the sleepover. At someone else’s house that wasn’t ours.” Dream realized he should have stopped talking a while before that point, but he wasn’t exactly the best liar. He smiled genuinely as best he could, but the odd look on Foolish’s face showed that he was probably more likely grimacing. “…ok then. I’m gonna go check…something. Join me when you stop being weird.” He clapped Dream on the shoulder as he walked past him and out of the break room.

Dream waited a couple seconds after the door shut before he ran to lock it and immediately fell back onto the beanbag chair they kept in there, surprisingly not waking up Tommy, who he could now register was actually fucking snoring still. Seriously, how did he forget he was in there? “Well, it seems my help is no longer needed.” Dream heard a familiar voice come from above him, looking up to see Sapnap sitting at a vent near the ceiling, legs and tail dangling off the edge. “How could you tell?” Dream sighed. “Besides the world’s most conspicuous coverup story? I watched the cams from yesterday, you were definitely worse than I thought. I figured you’d have snapped and eaten someone by morning. Just surprised it wasn’t Foolish.” “I’ll have you know that I did not snap, I- wait how were you watching the cams??” “There are vents in there too, y’know.” Sapnap shrugged. “Karl, Q, and I watched them when we’re bored. It’s like our own personal bad reality sitcom.” “Ok, I’m gonna ignore that you just said that.” Dream mumbled, pinching the bridge of his nose before looking back at Sapnap. “My son helped me out.” “Oh right! I forgot he was a shifter.” “Yeah, I did to, and I also forgot he was in here, I guess, so now he’s stuck here until I have time to get him out.” “Good luck with that, having time to get him out and knowing how to are two very different things.” Sapnap said, standing back up. “Wait, Sap, what does that mean?” But the shifter just laughed as he waved and walked off. “See you when my shift starts!”

“…Great.” Dream said, barely audibly. He just sat rubbing circles into his stomach before he felt something stir and released the pressure. He heard Tommy yawn and felt his hands press against his stomach as he stretched his arms, making almost imperceptible indents in the skin around him. Dream decided that whatever he felt when seeing that could be pushed back and dealt with later. “Good morning sleepyhead.” Dream cooed as Tommy mumbled something incoherent, probably cursing. “…what time is it?” He eventually asked, sleep still clinging to his tone. “A little before 8, so I’m already at work.” “Let me guess, you forgot I was in here so you went to work and you’re just now realizing that you don’t know how to spit me out?” “What? No!……yes.” Tommy sighed obnoxiously loud as he readjusted himself. “Y’know I should’ve expected that. I’m too much like you sometimes, your dumbass-ery rubs off on me.” “…context?” “This is exactly what I did when I stored someone for the first time.” He responded shamefully, making Dream wheeze. “Oh, I wouldn’t be laughing to hard yet, big man, I have a secret weapon you don’t know about.” “Oh yeah, pipsqueak? What’s that?” He heard Tommy laugh quietly to himself as he moved to a part of the stomach he hadn’t been in yet, and gently stroked a higher area. Dream froze, taking in the sensation again. “So what do you think that’ll-“ He cut himself off as something started to feel off in his throat. He pressed his hands to his neck as the sensation grew, and became strangely audible. He heard Tommy laugh louder as a horrified look grew on his face. “What’s wrong, Dream?” Tommy laughed. “Didn’t you know you could purr?” Dream just stood frozen for a second. “…What the ACTUAL FUCK-“

#I WROTE THIS IN 2 DAYS #it’s like half edited #it’s 3 am #well practically 3am #idgaf i have 2 minutes #anyway #HOPE YOU LIKE THIS CAUSE IM PROUD OF IT #ITS SO FUCKING LONG #i didn’t mean to tease two characters traumatic events #but #>:) #cyncerity #mcyt g/t #mcyt gt #giant!dream #tiny!sapnap #tiny!tommy #sizeshifter!dream #sizeshifter!tommy #sizeshifter!sapnap au #store shifter au #tw vore #soft vore #safe vore #dsmp vore #mcyt vore

[unicyclehippo]

One word prompt: splinter

this is set in an au i have been toying with for the last mm week or so. enjoy

//

ASHTON 2 might be the most talented craftsman Imogen has ever met. And once she started thinking about how many craftsmen she knows, the list was actually decently long. Growing up on a farm’ll do that for a girl, she supposed. He’s not as good coming up with a name for himself—hence his newest name, which Ashton was happy to loan for the week (anything to piss off Hexum). Ashton was going to borrow Orym’s name—who asked his boyfriend for a new name and Will suggested “Achilles” straight away—except then Fearne wanted to be Orym and no one knew how to - nor intended to - resist her pout so Ashton took their name back and now Ashton was ASHTON 2 (capital letters and all) and Imogen’s headache was knocking insistently at her temples but it was worth it to have so many friends that they could do dumb shit like this.

The issue remained, however, that ASHTON 2 didn’t have a good name for himself and, as much as he liked to fuck around and pretend like it didn’t matter, Imogen knew it had been bothering him. Which was why she was risking splinters in her ass sitting on the woodshop tabletop—gallantly dusted off for her—and trying to find a way to broach the topic that hey, she might’ve spent the last fortnight compiling an insanely extensive list of names that he might like or take inspiration from. It had seemed like a good idea at the time, she so badly wanted to help, but now that she had to explain herself and the project, she was thinking herself into knots about whether it was weird or too personal and yeah it’d been four months and he hadn’t picked one yet but what if he didn’t want her help with it or anyone’s help and actually it was pretty shitty that she’d done this or—

‘Did you want something or did you just come to stare at me?’ He gasped. ‘Imogen! Wanted to get me all on my lonesome? For shame! I’m not a piece of meat to be ogled and objectifi—‘

‘I’m not here to stare at you.’

ASHTON 2 barely paused before flexing his arms like a bodybuilder, striking a few slow poses. ‘No offense but that’s dumb as hell. These puppies are a hundred per cent certified Wildemount meat! Nothin’ hotter on the market!‘

‘Didn’t you just say you’re not a piece of meat?’

He sighed, shaking his head. ‘Imogen, Imogen, Imogen. This is a fundamental of business! Misdirection, redirection—‘

‘That’s close up magic, I think.’

‘—getting the customer on the back foot so we can reach a mutually sa-hat-isfying agreement!’ At the vaguely sexual tone, Imogen just rolled her eyes.

ASHTON 2 laughed and, dropping his pose, moved back to the wood he’d been examining for whatever his next project would be. He hauled one back to his workstation—a square stump, distressed, splintered, weathered, like it had been part of something else before it found its way to his table—and clamped it in place.

He needn’t have bothered posing, she thought idly. There was something so capable and confident about him when he was like this, focused on his woodworking; it didn’t hurt either that he cut a handsome figure in his stupid (and definitely not workshop safety approved) shorts and henley.

Once the set up was done, he turned back to her and scratched thoughtfully at his scruffy beard, his beloved beard just now growing in and so fiercely maintained. Sawdust and wood chips puffed out of it, making him cough.

‘So what is it then? You got someone handsomer to stare at? No, no, not possible. Well, maybe Ashton. Doesn’t seem your type though. Aha—you got someone prettier to stare at? I know what you’re thinking, it’d be difficult to find someone prettier, I’m a prime specimen no matter which way you cut it, but maybe…tall, dark, and weird is more your vibe?’

Heat burned across her cheeks. Imogen levelled a glare at him. ‘Not everything is about who is pretty,’ she snapped, pointedly ignoring the way he waggled his brows, way too fucking knowing. ‘I came here, you dick—‘ she said, throwing her pen at him when he muttered that she wasn’t the first, ‘—because I spent the last two weeks putting together a list of names you might like, alright?’ ASHTON 2 stood straight in a jerky motion. Surprise slashed across his face. Imogen continued hurriedly, ‘If it’s weird and you hate it then we can just pretend it never happened but we—‘

‘We?’ ASHTON 2 asked, all the brash volume gone. He sounded odd.

‘Yeah, everyone gave me a few names to add to the list. Orym said I should be the one to show you but they really did most of it.’

He fixed her with a shrewd look. ‘Right,’ he drawled. ‘Like how you totally weren’t involved in the fire alarm glitch? Or how that fight was all Voe’s fault and you had nothing to do with it?’

Imogen smiled ever so slightly but didn’t reply. Instead, she flipped open the first page of the notebook. ‘Ashton.’

‘It’s ASHTON, actually,’ he said, half-yelling the name in the way they all had been. ‘And actually it’s ASHTON 2.’

‘No, it’s the first suggestion.’ She tapped the first entry. ‘Ashton’s pick. They’re “so up for maximum chaos”,’ Imogen relayed, air quotes and all.

‘Could be fun,’ he laughed. After a second, he shook his head. ‘Nah. Pass.’ Imogen nodded, moving her finger down the line. Before she could read off the next one, he continued, in that odd tone from earlier, ‘It should be all mine. My name. Right? Not borrowed from a friend. I don’t - wanna do that anymore.’

Dark eyes met hers. He had been through a lot of changes in the last months and for a second, Imogen saw him starkly as he was. Firm, square jaw. Scruffy beard and brows. A splash of pimples across his cheeks and chin. He spoke loud and often because he liked to hear his own voice, deeper, puberty cracks and bassy. He wore his shorts and cuffed his uniform shirt up to his shoulders to show off his hairy legs and Ashton-killed-me-at-the-gym arms because he could, wanted to. He revelled in becoming, in being himself. He revelled in boyhood, in every part of it, and the transformation too, pointing out the weird and wonderful. What was woodwork if not reshaping? Was that why he liked it?

What she wanted to ask felt too much, like always. She tried to tame it, soften it, but failed. As always. Asked, ‘Are you scared?’

‘No!’ he scoffed. His head dropped and he scuffed at the sawdust floor. ‘Maybe a bit. It’s a bit final, isn’t it? Seems like a waste, containing something as majestic as me to just one name.’

Imogen shrugged. ‘You don’t have to. And we don’t have to. Read through this list or do anything you don’t wanna do. I just thought it might be nice to know that we cared. That…we want you around,’ she said. She’d planned on saying it for a long time, ever since parents day, really. Every time she had imagined saying it, it had come out quiet, tentative, like she wasn’t sure how much she was allowed to confess to caring but now—it was loud. Certain. Did he know that’s what he did for her? That he showed her how to care loudly for her friends? ‘It’s a big choice, or it isn’t and you pick again in six months or whatever, but—it’s you. We love you.’

It was harder to cry on T, he’d told her months ago. Emotions felt different—he felt it in his hands and his shoulders and his ears. It didn’t always hit his chest anymore. It didn’t always crackle up to his eyes. If it was easier to cry, he would be crying now, she thought. He swallowed harshly.

‘Show me this list, then. And afterwards,’ he added, hopping up to sit next to her on the table, ‘you can tell me about how the fuck you got dragged into helping with the Winters Crest Fest.’ Her cheeks burned, remembering how Laudna had only had to ask very sweetly if she would help and she had nearly fallen over herself agreeing; he cackled, seeing the colour in her cheeks. ‘Someone’s got a girlfriend,’ he crooned, digging a sharp elbow into her ribs.

‘We’re not talking about that - shut up! We’re not—we’re talking about you. Isn’t that your favourite topic? What about Albert?’

He settled—still smirking though, the dickhead—and said, ‘Was that Ashton as well?’

‘Yes?’

‘Pass. You know what that’s a reference to, don’t you?’

Imogen groaned. ‘That fucking dick.’

‘Exactly.’

She crossed it out. Twice. ‘There’s good names in here, I promise. Archie.’

‘Don’t hate it.’ He watched her draw a star beside it but held his tongue until she had drawn two next to “Charlie” and one next to both “Courtney” and “Jordan”. ‘Did you…come up with a rating system? To help me pick a name?’

‘Laudna suggested it.’

‘Oh did she now. Clever,’ was all he said. Imogen suspected it was because he was navigating that weird not-crying space again, more than him deciding not to tease her.

#prompt fill #you can ignore this #tagging my stories #cr fic #imogen & chetney

[showrunnerihardlyknowher]

How did everyone meet their respective giants/tinies in your stardew au?

Did Serena/Jacob just happen to head in the mines/forest on a very bad luck day and suffered the conquences or is it kinda an abridged version of their main stories, but they are just in less shitty/horrible circumstances than their mainline counterparts?

I'm going to assume that everyone else has a pretty simular backstory to their mainline counterparts since there probably isn't too much that had to be changed for their stories to work in this au.

Ie. Jasper, Milo, and etc.

Little bit of both, it's sort of implied that this town is a hub of activity, which led to ABC and Athena keeping watch for the giant monsters and aliens respectively.

Serena would have been stalked/kidnapped while walking home at night and upon surviving, be recruited to work at the ABC Superstore (which is essentially Joja/Best Buy). If you have good friendship with her, she'll gift you various surveillance gear that you can use for Felix's mission to gather different types of "strange evidence". You can find redacted files that explain chunks of her story, and one day per season she'll be extremely spacey and may reveal extra details if you talk to her

No one knows what happened to Jacob, just that he went missing in the woods for a couple days and now refuses to go anywhere near them, except to look for Reagan whenever she goes in. He pretends it doesn't bother him but still refuses to talk about it and insists you shouldn't go messing around in there. You can find clues about a meteor shower the night he went missing and his sketchbook in the woods, so he was probably out there doing nature studies for art before he got yoinked.

You can overhear conversations between Jacob and Reagan about him warning Reagan that the woods are too dangerous, while she insists that the kitties are nice and one of them wants Jacob to come back and play again. If you find Reagan's toys in the woods and return them, you'll gain her friendship, and thus win Ylva's favor. Jacob tends to babysit her on weekends and festival days, so they've probably had plenty of previous playdates in the woods, hence why Reagan would go and find the kitties on her own adventure

Kumiko is an exchange student for college, Taiyo simply followed her. Which sucks, because the reason she went to an abroad college was to be halfway across the globe from him.

Jasper's story is pretty cut and dry from his original fic. You can find the journal notes in the cliff tunnels from C.A.R and himself. The lighthouse island is closed during winter though, so he'll be on the mainland and Deus will be hibernating.

Dean and Jamie already know each other as their stories have taken place in their hometowns previously. Dean is allegedly here on "business" and Jamie followed for no particular reason at all and certainly not to make sure news about Negasonic doing something nefariously illegal doesn't pop up for Nano to stop.

Felix will only meet Athena after enough evidence has been collected for him to launch an investigation in the desert region, where he'll finally catch her and start a similar plotline to their canon story.

Ben has already accidentally adopted Milo at this point, but it's still a vary fresh relationship, so he may ask things about parenting and pet ownership but get very uncomfortable if you press for details. You're also not allowed in his home unless you have a high enough friendship and proof of borrower activity. After he trusts you, you can actually go to his house and meet Milo, which will then boost your status with local borrowers and increase the chances they'll leave you with a gift every so often.

Don't ask Mayor Danny about anything, she doesn't know what the fuck is going on, but she'd got a rly comfy chair to sit in at town hall (:

#ask #anon #stardew rip off

[torse]

AU / headcanon scene - "Bed"

posting these because I'm bored. they'll be a horrible combination of meme and angst. sorrynotsorry Dunno what city. can be ToG. Notkin has a prosthetic leg because ˜”°•.˜”°• reasons •°”˜.•°”˜

Grief and Notkin get jumped by some gang, they're holdin their own pretty well until Notkin gets a little too clever with a sneaky razor. The henchmen have had enough of him and toss him off the bridge and into the river. The other goons are like ??? "we were supposed to rough them up, not drown them" Grief's brain: oh good thing I didnt get drowned. drown. OH YEAH NOTKIN CANT SWIM- So Grief jumps in after him, fishes him up, and slowly they make it to shore (its not a huge river) but they're sopping wet, beat up, and across town from their home. Grief, although he is a big strong man for sure totally, might be a little out of shape. So they take a break from limping on a bench, Notkin is pretty much passed out at this point. Some old geezer was spying on them from his window, opens the door and offers them a bed for the night. Which is hella sus. but apparently hes rich, old, and lonely. so if Grief gives him a good story and company, the old man will take that as payment. They get in, dry off, and get into loaned old man clothes. They’re given a bed and grief tosses Notkin in for the night (who is very out of it, probably getting sick from Water Germs and shitty immune system and/or getting knocked around. and almost drowning. Every Problems Disease-) Notkin: Is this real? Grief: (overdramatic) I’m afraid so Notkin: no, the bed Grief: yup. Genuine mattress of the highest quality. Only for the sickest of lads Notkin: is it mine? Grief: no, but we’ve been given permission to borrow it from the king of the land himself- Etc just a bunch of “wow.. bed” and Grief being Grief Ends with Grief being like: “Now hush and rest up. The sooner you get better the sooner you stop being a pest. Do I need to tuck you in? (sarcastic)” But Notkin real out of it and gets teary eyed because he hadn’t been in a bed since his dad was alive- And Grief realizes somethin is up, and doesn’t know what to do, and is so tired from the day and has a moment of “I lost connection with my childhood friends. Now I don’t have the connection this kid wants-” etc He’s just hovering awkwardly by the bed while everyone is having a bad day :^)

#pathologic #notkin #bad grief #they #headcanon #idk if I want to tag this with all the patho things bc its garbage HC #whump

[cr0g-0]

SOMEONE

SHOULD

MAKE ME WRITE AND DRAW FOR THE SIZESHIFTER AU

MAKE ME WRITE THE BORROWER AU

AND MAKE ME WRITE SOMETHING

#smog ramble #stranger things g/t #pretty shitty borrower au #shifted dice and sorry smiles au

[carlosfruitsnacks]

can i still ask?if not,ignore this

Please may i have a Carlos Madrigal x fem filipina reader where Carlos sees her reading books and decides to join her reading club.

After that they become friends and maybe more?

Thank youuuuu

p.s.,sorry if im irritating

"ating nobela"

summary:

— Carlos wasn't a fan of stories or tales about love, but when he laid his eyes on you, he begins to believe that this was the start of his own love story.

genre:

— modern-au, fluff

notes:

— female and Filipino reader. I do not speak fluent Spanish and all of the Spanish here is translated from google, feel free to correct me.

warning/s:

— none

a/n:

—  hiiii sorry this was late but I hope you like this <3

The past few days have been hectic. Everyone was always in a rush these days, often occupied with tasks in life. Carlos Madrigal can say the same. He's been constantly trying to keep his grades afloat though if someone asked him, he wouldn't care if he got a shitty grade. But then he would remember his mamá's chancla and he would shudder, a chancla from his mother does things to his integrity. Carlos couldn't bear to see his brother Camilo finessing his way through it all, a tiny part of him was jealous and impressed.

It was the end of another day at school but unfortunately for the students, finals were coming up tomorrow. As much as Carlos wanted to go home and just play his guitar, he needed to study to pass tomorrow's examinations. So, he scowls and makes his way to his school's library. He'll just borrow some textbooks and leave. The teen enters the enormous library filled with various students, all cramming to get some studying done. Carlos prevents himself from being one of them.

Briskly, Carlos walks through the bookshelves and searches for the books he needed. He grabbed one for math and for chemistry, all he needed was a textbook for history. As he smoothly navigates his way to another section of the library, he passes through an aisle containing novels and classic literature. 

Carlos stops when he discovers a girl leaning on one of the shelves, reading deeply into a book. He can feel his heart coming to a halt before palpitating rapidly, he gulped and shakingly wets his lips. The girl looked so gorgeous and busy burying her nose into the book, Carlos watched her eyes reading the contents, he was captivated. He stood there for a while, admiring the pretty stranger. Eventually, said stranger catches him red-handed gawking at her.

"I'm sorry, do you need something?"

She softly asks. Carlos finds himself tongue-tied, opening his mouth but a word doesn't get out. He might've looked like an absolute dumbass right now. Luckily, he manages to pull himself together and slowly approach her. He sees the book that she's reading and recognizes it. The book was one of his mother's favorite novels, a love story that was told over and over again. Suddenly, Carlos has an idea.

"I can't help but notice that book you're reading"

"This? Oh, I just started. Wait, don't tell me you're going to spoil the plot for me?"

She furrowed her eyes at him, playfully. Carlos takes the opportunity to chuckle and lean against the shelf, close to her.

"I could. Okay, so Joe and this girl-"

"Hoy! Huwag!"

"I've read the book a couple of times, the plot is pretty predictable"

"Oh, so you read Mr. ...what's your name?"

Carlos shows her a toothy smile as he shuffles the books to his other arm and brings his hand for her to shake. She takes his hand and Carlos tries not to melt inside by her touch.

"Carlos, Carlos Madrigal"

"Nice to meet you, Carlos. I'm [Name] [Surname], do you also have impeccable taste in books?"

"I can admit that I have versatile taste in literature"

"Hmm, impressive. Got any recommendations?"

She shuts her book close and gives him her full attention. Carlos was lying when he said he was a bookworm, he was only trying to garner her attention. Fortunately for him, his mother has a fascination with tons of novels while growing up so he'll use whatever book she read to his advantage.

The teen talked with [Name] for the rest of the day, completely forgetting why he was in the library in the first place. Luck was on his side because of the books he recommended (that he saw his mother reading and that he has heard of) made her think highly of him. Carlos can notice her smile growing bigger with each minute she babbles her favorite novels to him. However, the breathtaking moment fades away when she excused herself to go attend her book club. Carlos hides the disappointment with a casual wave, telling her that he'd see her around.

After she left, he stands awkwardly for a second as a smile crept up his face. It felt so odd to feel incredibly giddy about someone. Carlos was stumped that he forgot to ask for her number. But he had her name and the fact that she part of the book club told him that he'll be seeing her soon. Was this his chance to impress? Perhaps. But Carlos isn't the one to take things for granted.

Carlos gingerly goes home and immediately asks his mother for all of her favorite books to read during his free time.

Wherever he went, Carlos would always find you, a book in hand. He hasn't gotten the chance to talk to you ever since the first encounter so he resorts to admiring you from afar. Of course, he has done his fair share of stalking you on the internet. Turns out, you were the president of your book club, your hobbies are well..reading, and you like a lot of genres. Since he borrowed some of his mother's favorite books, he started reading. Carlos has finished three books in the past five weeks.

"Oye, hermano, what are you reading?"

Camilo slips beside him in the cafeteria during lunch. Carlos ignores his presence as his twin brother took a peek at the book he's reading.

"Hey! Isn't that one of mamá's books?"

"So what?"

"Why reading them all of a sudden? I thought you hated sappy love stories"

"I...I needed to read it for...literature class"

Carlos tries not to sweat under Camilo's suspicious gaze, to his relief, the latter simply shrugs the topic off. Midway through a chapter, Carlos spotted you in the corner of his eye. He subtly directs his gaze on you, taking a seat and pulling out one of your books, and starting eating lunch. He can feel his cheeks heating up at the sight of your beauty. Carlos slowly lowers his book and begins to stare at you, forgetting about the world at the moment.

God, you looked so pretty like that. You took a drink out of your soda, Carlos never wanted to be a soda bottle so fucking bad. Your [Eye Color] eyes are busy tracing the words on the book, if only you looked at him like that. He watched every reaction you would make to what you were reading and it makes him all fuzzy inside. Carlos wished to brush your hair and whisper sweet nothingness to your ears while you read a book. He wanted to hold you as delicately as you hold that book. He wants to-

"Earth to Carlos?"

Carlos snaps out of his trance and glared at Camilo, who was waving a hand in front of his face the entire time he was daydreaming about you. Camilo smirks his way.

"Oh, I saw what you're looking at"

"You didn't see shit, pendejo"

"Uh-huh. You were swooning over none other than [Name] [Surname]"

"How...how did you-"

"Come on, hermano, you were being obvious. Plus, me and [Name] share the same classes"

Camilo laughs when his twin brother crossed his arms and frowned at him. They shared the same room since five, they were wombmates! Camilo knew how Carlos behaved, and vice versa. He takes a sip of his apple juice.

"[Name] is a fantastic girl. If I were you, I would join her book club"

"...And why would I take advice from you?"

"I heard she was looking for one last club member to fill the spot, don't think you are her first option"

Camilo watched in amusement as all the color in his brother's face drains. Carlos gritted his teeth, he can't let it happen, he needed to join your book club before anybody else steals his place! So, at the end of the school day, Carlos went sprinting to the book club. He found you talking to one of your club members. He sucks in a breath and gently knocked on the door.

"Hey"

"Uy ikaw! Carlos, right?"

"Yeah, I was thinking if...if you have one last slot for me to join in"

"No way...you're joining the book club?!"

"Yeah..."

"Perfect! I would love to have you as my member!

Carlos was enjoying the beaming smile on your face as you excitedly welcomed him into the club and introduced you to the other members as well. All of a sudden, there was a knock on the door. Carlos' jaw dropped when he saw Camilo standing in the doorway, he watched you rush to him. Quietly, he listened to your conversation.

"Here are the papers for my brother's club application"

"Thank you! I'm not really in a rush in finding new members. I have plenty of slots left!"

What?!

"Ah, you see, mi hermano likes to read books so why not join your club, eh? Don't worry he's not gonna bash someone's head against the wall! I promise, he's a really cool guy to be with"

"Well, he has interesting taste in literature so..."

Carlos took a peek and saw the slight tint of pink on your cheeks, he looks at Camilo in the eye and found him mouthing a 'you're welcome' his way. He was conflicted if he wanted to punch or thank his twin brother.

Joining the book club was the best decision Carlos has made in his entire life. Surely it was because he gets to spend time with you and get to know you more. Weeks after joining the club, Carlos has grown closer to you. Finally, you gave him your number as you two spent the past few weeks chatting.

You would be more open to him, insisting on hanging out after school. Carlos loved to spend time with you alone, reading books. He learned to love your habits and the way you would sometimes speak to him in Tagalog. You two became incredibly close to the point you would invite each other over to introduce to your families. It was a bliss to know that both of your families are fond of you and Carlos.

You two did together almost everything. Having sleepovers, going to concerts, stargazing, and exploring local libraries. Carlos couldn't imagine it wouldn't get better than this until one night. He invited you over to his house for another sleepover. It was way past midnight and both of you were still awake. You just randomly looked at him across his bed with flushed cheeks.

"Carlos?"

"Yeah?"

"I like you, more than a friend"

Carlos merely contains himself as he crashes to the floor. He sits up and looked at you with owlish eyes, you avoided his gaze.

"It's okay if you don't feel the same, I just wanted to let you know..."

"[Name], I like you too. For a while now"

You gave him a bewildered expression before burying your face with a pillow. You have no idea how Carlos waited and wanted to tell that. You shyly glanced at him, fully blushing.

"Really?"

"Yeah. [Name] I...I don't really like reading but I saw you that day at the library and I knew I had to make you mine"

"Carlos, you're kidding"

"I'm not. I literally borrowed my mamá's books and read them all so I can impress you"

"Tangina Carlos pinapakilig mo buong internal organs ko!"

Carlos has no idea what you said but he's guessing that you're expressing how your feelings for him are true. Carlos wasn't a firm believer in romance he often read in books, but seeing the way you look at him now with those lovely eyes, he's on his way to believing.

"So, will you go out with me, [Name]?"

"Oo! Of course, Carlos!"

"Great, I want to know where the rest of ating nobela leads to"

taglist: @vanevafu, @irisia-ckzkb1109, @elegantkidfansoul, @candykamikun, @cahmilo, @pochi-moochika, @justzei, @try-cry-why-try...join here!

masterlist

#encanto #disney encanto #encanto fanfic #encanto fanfiction #carlos madrigal #carlos my beloved #carlos madrigal my beloved #carlos madrigal x reader #carlos madrigal x y/n #carlos x you' #carlos x reader #carlos x y/n #carlos madrigal x fem!reader #filipino! reader #jay's fanfics™️ #jay's fluff fics™️

[ponyregrets]

Chash, have you ever thought of writing bellamy as a Unite content maker? I was watching this one guy from the US who makes Unite content (spragels, he's very good) and I noticed an alolan ninetines stuffed toy he had in the background and immediately thought of your galar au bellamy. this will now live in my mind rent-free

okay this isn't Bellamy streaming unite, but Spragels has been my work background noise for the last couple weeks so I have been thinking about streaming a lot. Bellamy definitely has an Alolan Ninetails on his screen. AO3 link!

~

Bellamy becomes a streamer entirely by accident. Before he started, he knew, in theory, that people did stream as a whole thing, another incomprehensible online career that he didn't understand the appeal of. He wasn't going to stop anyone else from enjoying it, but he never expects to be involved himself.

But, as with so many things he never expected to be involved in, he starts doing it because of his sister. She finished college and moved across the country because she thought she should be independent, which means she can't admit that she's missing him and feeling homesick and struggling. But after twenty-two years of dealing with Octavia, he knows how to read between the lines.

"What are you playing right now?" she asks, couple weeks into July. "I feel so out of touch with your dumb games when I can't watch you."

"We could still do that, right?" he asks, idly spinning his chair. "That's a thing. I could get it on the computer or something."

"Could you?" she asks, dubious. "That sounds pretty advanced."

Bellamy pauses. "Well, Raven would probably do it for me."

"If you want, I guess," she says, which is Octavia for I'd like that.

"Might as well ask. It's not as fun playing video games alone, anyway."

It's true, as a bonus. Bellamy started playing games on a used Nintendo 64 he found at Goodwill, which he told himself he was getting for Octavia as much as himself. By the time he got it, the system was old enough that he could find games cheap, or borrow them from his friends, and as those same friends upgraded to the newest and shiniest consoles, they were happy to pass along their older ones to him on the cheap. He'd said he was collecting them for Octavia, but as it turned out, his sister wasn't actually as good at video games as he was. At first, it was an age thing--Bellamy's six years older than she is, so of course he was more coordinated than she was when she was little--but even as she got older, she never really enjoyed playing the way he did.

If she hadn't loved watching him, he probably would have given up on the whole thing as an unnecessary indulgence, the kind of thing hobby that didn't do any good. But Octavia would ask him to play and settle in against his side, watching and backseat driving, and so he kept doing it.

And now, at twenty-eight, living on his own for the first time ever, making a decent enough salary that he can buy himself a few nice things, he figures it can't be that hard to make sure his sister can still tune into him playing games whenever she wants.

It's just that, once Raven makes him a Twitch account and teaches him how to use it, people other than Octavia start watching him.

"Why would they do that?" he demands.

"I don't know," Raven says, unimpressed. "It's your shitty stream. You set it up like I told you to?"

"Yeah."

"Then it's public and it's got the name of the game you're playing in it, so I guess people are searching for whatever you're playing and found you. It's not like you're bad at it."

He slants a wary look at her. "Were you one of them?"

"Dude, come on. Of course I subscribed to you. And I watched a couple, yeah. We should set it up so the viewers can hear your sister. You replying to her is cute, but it would be cuter if we knew what she was saying."

"You know I'm not going to go pro, right?"

"Why not?"

It's one of those impossible questions, which are kind of Raven's specialty. To Bellamy, it's a question that answers itself, an obvious thing. People don't actually become streamers, and the ones who do put a lot of work in, and he has better things to put effort into than becoming a big-name video-game streamer.

"I don't even know how it works," he says. "I'm just fooling around. Don't you have to be good?"

"You're not bad at games. And you're fun when you talk about them. I'm not saying you should quit your job and dedicate your whole life to it, but I know you love picking up cash where you can. If you're doing it anyway, why not see if you can get some popularity and subscribers?"

"What's your angle here?" he asks, frowning. "Why do you care?"

"Honestly? I just think it would be funny. You're like the least technologically proficient guy I know, I would love it if you got internet famous."

"I guess when you put it like that." He finishes his beer. "So, how do I become a famous streamer?"

He agrees to everything Raven suggests except for a camera, which he refuses mostly because his living arrangement is great in almost all ways, but a good setup for filming himself wasn't something he prioritized. The rent is cheap and his housemates range from unobjectionable to actually pretty cool, but the trade-off is personal space. He has his room, which is on the small side, and while he doesn't mind playing games there, a camera would pick up a lot more of his living space than he'd really like. He and Raven try it a few ways, but everything they set up is either insanely unflattering or shows off some part of his private space he'd rather keep private. His room has all his favorite things in it because he has nowhere else to store them, and he doesn't want to share them with the internet.

"Fine," Raven says, huffy but resigned. "But if you start taking off, we're going to figure this out."

It's one of those things that's easy to agree to mostly because he doesn't think he'll ever take off, but then Ground Zero comes out.

Initially, the game isn't on his radar at all. It's one of those team fight games that are popular right now, and Bellamy's always found them to be a bad fit for him mostly because he doesn't think he's good on a team. Or, rather, he always thinks he's good, but his teammates always seem to be bad, and the frustration tends to get the better of him. But he's also never really given them much of a chance. By the time he hears about them, everyone else already seems to be better than he is, and he just avoids it because he doesn't like losing.

But Octavia, like Raven, is invested in him becoming some kind of big-name streamer, and not only does she believe that streaming Ground Zero will get him a lot of views, she thinks the game looks cool and wants to see it. So, of course, he gets it, and it turns out he's actually kind of good.

"Don't get me wrong, I hate the idea here," he tells his two hundred or so viewers during his first stream. "Like, the concept sucks. But the gameplay is really fun."

"What's wrong with the concept?" Octavia asks.

"Are you asking or is the chat asking?" he asks. Her job on stream is to make fun of him and also read the chat while he's playing so he doesn't have to look away from his games, and she's very good at both.

"Everyone wants to know."

"Look, the designs are cool and they've got some interesting lore, but the basic story conflict is colonialism. You've got the technologically advanced space people coming down to Earth and trying to take land from the native population."

"Yeah, but the space people are still from Earth," Octavia points out. "Like, their space station died, they have to go somewhere."

"In theory, it's a complicated moral issue," he grants. "But the game doesn't really seem interested in grappling with it. They're just presenting it as two sides with equal claim to this random part of Earth who have decided violence is the only option."

"The backstory says diplomacy failed."

"The backstory doesn't say if there are other places the spacers could go. Like, they just landed in this place and decided they have to live here, specifically. Did they even try to find another location? The maps are all nice and green, it seems like there are plenty of resources to go around."

"Okay, this is getting boring. Colonization sucks, agreed, but let's talk about the good stuff in the game."

"There's a pretty good range of characters and playstyles, even at launch. I like that you're assigned randomly to the space or ground side for each match. You can play similar characters for each, like, if you're into ranged healing, you have options on both teams, but they play differently, so it's hard to really get into a rut playing just one character. It has the problem I always have with MOBAs, where everyone wants to be the hero and not enough people want to pick up supporter roles, but there's a lot of versatility in the moves you can select and the items you can scavenge, so even if you're a healer, you can still kick ass."

"Which is what you like to do."

"I don't think I'm a bad carry," he admits. "And if the team will let me be one, I like doing it. But it's nice that pretty much all of the characters have some flexibility. You're not locked out of carrying just because combat isn't your specialty."

"Moonboy420 in the chat wants to know if you ever want to throw the game when you're on the space side. Just to stick it to the colonizers."

He snorts. "No, but I do feel a lot less bad when my team loses if we're the spacers. Like, yeah, it sucks to lose rank, but we deserved it. And then you get people like this," he says, glaring at the screen. "The game's been going for less than two minutes and our medic is just running around in circles and spamming the ground is beautiful in the chat. That usually happens with players who really favor one side or the other and they're mad they have to play the side they don't like. Which, again, it's random, so if you're really attached to being spacer or grounder, this game isn't a good fit for you. You're just making it suck for everyone else."

"AnitaDarling says that she's played fifteen games and gotten assigned to grounder every time, so she's getting more and more nervous about being bad at the space characters. She wants to know if you'll put together some tutorials on how to play all the characters."

"Huh." He frowns. "Is that something people want? Guides? I usually just stream myself playing, but I could probably give it a shot."

People do want it, and he starts getting more attention, both for his own streaming and for his videos about how to play well. It's kind of a trip, watching his numbers tick up, the weirdest kind of ego stroke, but once he hits one thousand subscribers, Raven says, "You have to start showing your face."

"Why?" he asks. She's not physically present, but she called him and he picked up assuming it was important. He wouldn't have said that his branding was a good enough reason to use the phone, but he should probably start thinking it is. "I'm doing fine."

"Have you ever watched another streamer?"

"A couple." It's weird because as he starts to become known, other people want to do things with him. They want to team up and do streams together and he'd been meaning to ask Raven how to decide which ones to do, because his only idea was to let Octavia decide and he doesn't actually trust her. Mostly, he's been visiting their channels and trying to figure out if they're more popular than he is and what they're doing better.

"All of them are on camera, right?"

"Yeah, so?"

"It's weird that you're not. People are going to wonder why you're not. It's not exactly a good way to get attention, unless you want to make your whole identity a mystery. Which I don't really recommend, because that just encourages people to try to figure out who you are. It's not the reason you want to stand out, you know?"

"Okay, so, what, you think I should move? I can't stream from somewhere I don't live, not without it being a pain. And I don't want to rearrange my entire bedroom for streaming. I'd have to rent a storage locker or something."

"You could ask Clarke."

He frowns. "Ask her what?"

"She's got a pretty big art studio in her apartment, I don't think she's using all of it. She might let you set up there. Worth asking, anyway."

"Huh. You think?"

Clarke exists in a weird place in Bellamy's life. She's technically their landlord, but it doesn't really feel that way, mostly because Bellamy has very bad associations with landlords, but Clarke is cool. Her dad died her senior year of college and she decided the best thing to do with the money he left her was investing in a house. She rented out most of the rooms to her friends on the cheap, and as people found other living arrangements or jobs, she brought in new tenants as needed. Raven ended up living there after she and Clarke found out they were fucking the same dude and both dumped him, and then when Raven moved in with Gina and Bellamy was looking to downsize after Octavia left, she gave him her room.

He likes Clarke, liked her even before he started living here, but she's not really part of the house in the way that he gathers she once was. None of the people living in the house are her original roommates anymore, and now she lives on her own on the second floor while everyone else is on the first floor with Murphy living in the basement like some weird gremlin. If someone else was moving out, he could potentially ask about getting their room for some extra rent, but he'd basically given up on finding anywhere in the house.

He sort of forgets that Clarke has all that space up there and probably isn't using all of it.

"The worst she can do is say no," Raven points out. "But she probably wouldn't mind."

"You really think it's that important?"

"The world deserves to see your pretty face."

"I guess when you put it like that." He sighs, glances at the clock. It's almost six; if Clarke agreed, he could maybe get set up and stream tonight. "You think she's home?"

"Probably."

"Cool, I'll ask her."

He doesn't really see Clarke very much thse days, and it's always a little weird when he does. Before he moved in, they'd met a few times socially, at parties and other outings, and he'd been idly thinking about trying to flirt with her after he found out she and her girlfriend broke up, but that seemed like a bad idea once he was paying her rent. He hasn't been avoiding her since then, really, but he thinks she might have noticed he wasn't hanging out with her as much at their various events.

Part of him hopes she noticed.

He goes up the stairs to her floor and knocks, hears an immediate, "Who is it?" back, all wariness. Clarke really is kind of awesome.

"Bellamy."

"One sec."

The door opens and the sight of her in flannel pajama pants and a low-cut tanktop is almost enough to make him change his mind about the whole streaming question. He's always put his best foot forward with Clarke, and he's somehow only now realizing that she doesn't know about his whole video game thing, and he has to tell her.

"What's up?" she prompts. "Everything okay? Bathroom flooded?"

"Oh, no, nothing bad." He rubs the back of his neck. "I actually had a favor to ask."

"Yeah?"

"Raven thought you might have some space I could use to film myself."

It seems like the best way to phrase it before it comes out of his mouth and especially before he sees the way Clarke's eyebrows shoot up. "Film yourself doing what, exactly?"

"Playing video games."

Her mouth twitches. "So you can check your technique?"

"No, it's not--" He rubs his face. "Raven set me up streaming video games for my sister and the two of them think it would be funny if I get really popular. And I guess if I want to be really popular, I need to show my face when I stream, and there's nowhere good for me to do it in my room, so I thought you might have somewhere I could use."

The smile she's been fighting off wins the battle. "So, what, they need to know you're a hot guy playing video games or it won't work?"

"All the popular streamers record themselves," he says, because it's not like he can confirm or deny that he's hot, or ask her to elaborate on her position. "It's good for the parasocial relationship, I guess."

She crosses her arms, leaning against the doorjamb. "And you're into that."

"If I'm going to do it, I might as well do it right. And everyone keeps telling me to do it."

"And Raven said I might have some space you could use."

"I'll pay rent for it," he offers. "Or while I'm using it, I guess? Fuck, I don't know. This is new for me."

"Come inside, Bellamy," she says, stepping into the apartment. "Have a seat. Stop stressing. What are you looking for here?"

He sits down on a chair in her living room, trying not to feel self-conscious. It's only a little bit weird. "Depends, I guess? Like, right now I usually just stream whenever I'm playing video games so my sister can watch if she wants. But I probably don't have to be on camera every time."

"So, what, you're imagining a couple times a week you drag a TV and recording studio up here and play video games for an hour?"

"I hadn't really gotten that far."

"It sort of sounds like what you're actually looking for is a place where you can set up all your gaming stuff and use it whenever you want for however long you want."

He winces. "It doesn't have to be that."

"But that's your best-case scenario."

Her expression is open and without any apparent annoyance, but Bellamy still feels like he's on dangerous ground. "If I had my own place with a couple of rooms, yeah, I'd probably want that. But I don't need that here."

"But if we could do that, you'd want it?" she asks, sounding thoughtful. "Like, if I gave you a key so you could come up whenever and just play your games up here, that would be the easiest thing, right?"

"Uh, yeah, I guess." He's trying not to gape but it's not going great for him. "Is that an option?" he finally asks.

"It might be. I expanded one of the bedrooms into the closet to make a studio last year and it's honestly bigger than I need it to be? I think you could have, like, a corner"

"You really don't have to do that," he says immediately.

"Yeah, you weren't exactly holding me at gun point. It might be fun. Can I watch?"

"My stream?"

"Or you filming or whatever. I can be behind the scenes."

"If you want. I can pay a little extra in rent--"

"Bellamy," she says, cutting him off with a smile. "You don't have to. It's fine. Honestly, it's kind of lonely up here."

It's the first time it occurred to him she might gain something from this. And Raven probably already knew it. "Yeah?"

Her smile is a little wistful. "I like having more room for my stuff. But I definitely feel more like a landlord than a housemate these days."

"You could just invite us up to hang out," he points out. "You don't have to let me set up shop in a corner of your studio."

"But if I invite everyone up, Murphy might hang out," she shoots back. "I'm just saying, if this would help you out, I don't mind. And if it sucks, I'll tell you."

"Are you sure I can't pay you some extra rent?" he asks. It really sounds too good to be true.

"If you start making money streaming, I'll let you give me some," she says, and he smiles.

"Deal." She offers her hand and they shake on it. It feels a little mercenary to immediately "So, uh, when can I start?" but it is pretty much his biggest question.

Clarke shrugs. "Are you busy now?"

They go to check out the room first, just to make sure that it'll work for him, but it's not like he has a lot of requirements. There's enough space and outlets, and he can probably put up some decorations for visual interest.

Downstairs, they find Jasper hanging out on the couch and draft him into helping. Bellamy had been sort of absently worried that some of his housemates might be jealous or upset about his getting some extra space, but Jasper just wants all the information he can get on Bellamy's Twitch career.

So everyone is going to know. It's fine.

Clarke helps him set up, mostly by critiquing his background for not being fun enough, and she ends up going into her room and grabbing some Pokémon stuff for him to display.

"I don't really do Pokémon streams," he points out.

"You need to have some visual interest. You can use them until you get some stuff from your games."

"Thanks," he says, and immediately regrets the sarcasm. "But really, thanks. I really appreciate it. I don't know if I'm actually going to stick with this streaming stuff, but it's nice to have the option."

"No problem. It's cool if you see me sometimes, right? Or do I need to avoid being on camera?"

"It's fine," he says. "No big deal."

He doesn't stream that night, but he records four instructional videos he'll be able to upload over the next few days, and it is kind of nice, seeing himself on screen. He's always expressive when he talks, and having those smiles, his eye rolls and exasperation captured on camera is kind of nice. He watches the first video to make sure everything came out okay before he posts it, but he's not worried. He knows they all came out great.

Even Clarke's Pokémon add something.

She's in the background of the third video, which he notices when he's prepping it to post two days later, but he doesn't really think much of it. All his audience is going to learn from that is that he lives with a blonde woman who wanders behind him sometimes with a paint brush.

"Everyone wants to know who the girl is," Octavia tells him within half an hour of the video going live. "I feel like you should probably tell them soon but all the speculation might be getting you hits."

"They care?"

"Maybe the parasocial relationship is better if they think you aren't an awkward nerd whose last girlfriend is now dating his tech support. Or at least think you're an awkward nerd who landed a hot blonde girlfriend."

"I could land a hot blonde girlfriend," he grumbles.

"Uh huh. Are you gonna stream tomorrow?"

"That's the plan."

"Maybe just open with an introduction for her. Landlord, right?"

"Housemate," he says. "I don't think the chat likes landlords."

"And you want them to like her?"

"I like her. I don't want the chat to spam fuck landlords or something whenever she shows up."

"Yeah, that would suck. You can put it off if you want to," she adds. "I don't care. But if the chat asks about it, I'll relay their questions."

"Cool," he says, and texts Clarke as soon as he hangs up.

In theory, he's allowed to just unlock the door and go upstairs to stream whenever he wants, but it doesn't feel like that yet. So he asks if he can come up, and Clarke says he doesn't have to ask, and he still knocks on the door before he opens it.

She's sitting on the couch with a sketchbook. "At what point do you stop being polite?"

He takes a chair across from her. "No idea, but it hasn't even been a week."

"True. I thought you weren't streaming tonight?"

"I'm not, but apparently my followers are already asking about you, so I thought I'd let you know."

"Mostly who you are and what you're doing in the background of your videos, I guess. My sister does most of the comment monitoring for me, she said you got a lot of attention."

It's true, but not the whole truth. Bellamy actually did go and check the Clarke comments and about 90% of them were omg bell has a girlfriend, which seemed like a pretty big assumption. He wishes he wasn't into her just to prove them wrong, but less than a week of interaction has reminded him that he's still pretty into her.

She perks up, of course. "Yeah?"

"I thought you might want to drop by a stream on purpose," he offers. "Just walk by and I can call you over for an introduction. Or I can just explain you. Your call."

"Explain me?"

"Housemate."

"Not much of an explanation."

"I figured you might not want to give your life story to my random Twitch followers."

"I'm not very good at video games," she says, which feels like a total non sequitur until she adds, "Could you teach me?"

"On stream?"

She shrugs. "Unless you think it would be bad content."

"That would probably be great," he admits. "I'm working on a series of how to play characters, but I thought I could probably go more basic for, like, total beginners. The basics of playing. We could do them together."

She looks so pleased it makes his chest ache. "Really?"

"I make a video, you test it out, and then we do a debrief. What helped, what didn't, stuff like that. I'm kind of new to the instructional videos, maybe I suck at it."

"We can cover the basics off camera," he says. "And if you hate it, we don't have to do it."

"Well, what are you doing now?""

He has things he should be doing, of course. Streaming isn't his whole life. He has a regular job, and even if he's done for the day, he has laundry and chores. He tries to limit his video-gaming to a few nights a week, just so it doesn't consume him, but this is video games with Clarke. And if he leaves now, he'll go downstairs and sit in his room trying to read and thinking about how he could be with her instead.

"Not even a little."

She has such a pretty smile. "I did watch a couple of your videos."

"Yeah?"

"The intro ones. But I don't have a gaming system, so I couldn't try it out."

"If I'm not using my stuff up here, you can always try it out. We'll just make you your own profile."

He gets her set up on his PS5 and she makes an account for Ground Zero and finishes the tutorial without any major issues. The controls are pretty standard to Bellamy, what he would expect after years of playing games, but Clarke takes a little while to identify some of the buttons and get herself doing things correctly. Still, she manages to pick up items, use them as weapons, and heal some people, so she has the basics down.

"We might as well start filming, right?" she asks.

"Why?"

"If it's good, you'd rather post it," she points out, not unreasonably. "And if it sucks, you just don't."

"When you put it like that," he says, and turns the camera on. Clarke brought her chair in from her desk, so they have to do a little repositioning, making sure both of them are in frame and visible, but once that's done, he thinks it's kind of nice. Not as lonely. "Hey, everyone," he says, with the wave he hasn't talked himself out of doing yet. "Bell here. And I've got my housemate, Clarke."

She waves too. "Hi."

"I had some people wondering about her in my last couple videos and it's actually thanks to her I'm doing these at all because I had nowhere good to film and she's letting me use her studio. So everyone in the comments say thank you, Clarke."

"You don't have to do that."

"You do," says Bellamy. "It's not optional. Anyway, Clarke's never really been much of a gamer, but she wanted to try it out. So we're going to find out how good I really am at helping total newbies figure out what to do and whether or not you should listen to me. This is the test."

"What if I'm a prodigy?" Clarke asks. "Then you get credit for my natural talent."

"I'm fine with that. She did the tutorial off camera because I don't think anyone thinks the tutorial is interesting. If she is a prodigy, I couldn't tell from that."

"Ouch."

"You didn't know which joystick you used to move."

"There are like five different things that look like they could control which direction I move on this controller," she shoots back. "I don't think that's on me."

"Yeah, there's a lot of stuff you get used to, playing games a lot," he grants. "It's easy to forget." Something occurs to him, and he frowns. "If you don't play video games, why do you have all these Pokémon? She made me add Pokémon," he tells the camera, although he thinks he might cut this. If nothing else, he doesn't really want Octavia knowing he let Clarke decorate his streaming space. "So you can also thank her for the visual interest."

"My best friend and I really liked the anime and the cards. My parents didn't approve of video games, but they were okay with those. So he and I would get each other Pokémon stuff, and then my relatives realized I liked Pokémon, and I still have a bunch of aunts and uncles who give me Pokémon stuff if we see each other for holidays because they don't know anything about me. And I like Pokémon Go," she adds, a little defiant.

"Well, at least you appreciate the relatives' presents. How are you feeling about doing a game?"

She worries her lip. "I assume it'll match me with other new players?"

"That's the idea. The matchmaking is kind of hit or miss once you get to higher levels, but when you're just starting, they'll either match you with other new players or bots."

"Bots?"

"AI players. They're really dumb, but you can usually beat them."

She shoots a dubious look in his direction. "Usually?"

"Sometimes they're so stupid they sabotage the game. I had one where we would have won if the bots just helped me seize an objective, but they were fighting the other team instead and we lost."

"You're really getting me excited to play this more."

"It was your idea. So, any idea about what kind of character you want to play?"

She shifts a little, shaking out her shoulders. "I watched a couple of your videos."

"Really?" Hopefully he's not visibly swelling with pride. "Why?"

"I was curious. I wanted to see what you were doing in my studio."

"So, what did you learn?"

"I don't think I'd be good at melee fighters. You said the important thing for them was mastering the combo attacks, and that doesn't sound like something I'd be great at. But hiding in the bushes sniping people and doing first aid sounds like a pretty good fit for me."

"Okay, cool. You can do that whichever team you're on, and it always helps your allies."

"I know. Like I said, I watched your videos."

"Okay, you're the expert," he says, holding up his hands. "I won't say anything."

"I didn't say that. You focused a lot on what items and skills to pick but not, like, basics. Where should I be, what should I be doing?"

"Okay," he says, smiling. "Basic of the basics. First, start the match. Then we'll know who you are and what you want to do."

The video with Clarke does well, and of course, Octavia can't shut up about it.

"The chat totally ships you two."

"I don't know what that means."

"Yeah, you do."

"Well, I wish I didn't."

"She's cute. You could do a lot worse."

"I pay her rent."

"So? That means she's rich and she could support you while you try to go pro streaming. I'm not seeing a downside here."

He rubs his face. "Thanks, O. That's really helping."

"She probably wouldn't want to be on your dumb stream if she didn't like you. Like, come on. That's pretty unambiguous."

"Maybe she wants to learn to play video games."

"Uh huh. When you get together, I'm going to say I told you so."

"I hope you will," he says, and goes to read the comments. He might be a little pathetic.

Clarke isn't always on his stream. She has her own life and hobbies, and between her art and her real job and having some kind of social life, she doesn't have that much time for video games. Whenever she plays, it's with him, and they usually film it and he'll cobble the best of and most interesting moments into a weekly feature that his followers seem to love. Every time she walks by when he's streaming, the chat explodes with non-stop CLARKE spam, which, to be fair, is also how he feels when he sees her.

"I can't just ask her out, right?" he asks Miller, a month later.

"Apparently not. I assume if you could, you would have. Is it like a medical condition?"

Bellamy scowls at him. "Dude."

"What? You ask her out. If she says no, it sucks and you get over it. If she says yes, you go out with her. Just get it over with."

"She might stop wanting to hang out with me."

"I'd be more worried about breaking up."

Bellamy groans and drops his head onto the coffee table. "Please don't give me more things to worry about."

"Yeah, I guess you don't need the help." He pauses. "What's your nightmare scenario here, exactly?"

Bellamy thinks it over. "Worst case is, I guess, she kicks me out, I have to find a new place to live, the rent is more expensive and my finances get a lot worse. Bankruptcy, homelessness, dying in a ditch somewhere."

"Okay," says Miller. "Odds on that?"

He smiles. "Obviously that's not going to happen."

"Cool, glad that's out of the way. What's the realistic bad case?"

"I feel weird around her and I don't want to hang out anymore. I stop streaming from her place and my weird Twitch followers ask me why. It's awkward for a while."

"Yeah," Miller agrees. "Sounds realistic."

Bellamy scowls at him. "That's it?"

"I think that's probably the worst thing that might actually happen. Do you actually care if you have to stop streaming? I still can't tell how invested you are in the whole thing."

It's a valid question. "You know I've got an ego," he points out. "I like being popular. And I like being good at a game. And if I'm going to be good at it, I might as well be good in public and help other people? Raven is doing stuff to work the algorithms and stuff, I'm getting more followers by the day. I still don't think it's going to be my job or anything, but yeah, I like it. I don't want to stop."

"So, would you?"

"Would I stop?"

"Yeah."

"I probably wouldn't, you know, stream from her place."

"If she said she didn't want to date you?"

Put like that, it does seem like kind of an overreaction. "If she wasn't comfortable with it. And I'd worry she wouldn't say if she was uncomfortable."

"If Jasper asked you out, would you stop talking to him?"

"No."

"Okay then."

Bellamy smiles faintly. "Trying to logic me out of it, huh?"

"Or into it. Look,the longer you wait, the harder it is to make a move. Right? If you'd just done this before you moved into her place, we wouldn't even be having this conversation."

"But I might be paying way more for rent." He sighs. "I could ask if she wants to get dinner, I guess. Low pressure, just checking."

"Worst-case scenario, she says no. And if you're normal about it, she'll be normal about it."

"The older I get, the more I think those do you like me y/n notes were a good idea. Indirect, no confrontation, and if it's no, we never mention it again."

"Or you could just talk to the girl you like, like an adult."

Bellamy has to smile. "Or that, yeah."

He's still planning to wait a couple days. It's partially cowardice, obviously, but his justification is that they're filming a joint videos the next day, and if he waits to talk to her until after that they'll have a couple days before they see each other again, which should be enough time to work through any awkwardness.

He's also chickenshit, but he's got a timeline. There's a plan.

And then, when he goes up to film, Clarke opens the door and asks, "Want to make out?"

"Um," he says, trying not to gape. "What?"

"I just thought I should check. I thought you probably did."

He recovers enough to say, "I do, yeah. I was going to ask you to get dinner."

She laughs. "You should see your face."

"Sorry. I just wasn't really expecting that."

"You were going to ask me to dinner, but you didn't think I wanted to make out?"

"Well, I wasn't sure you were going to say yes," he says, and leans down to kiss her before she can respond. Her hands tangle in his hair almost as once, like maybe she's been thinking about how much she wants them there, and Bellamy tugs her in by the hips, pulling her flush against him.

"I was going to say yes," she murmurs between kisses, making him smile.

"Cool, I still want to get dinner."

She pulls back to look at him. "I did think you were going to ask me out," she says, half-accusatory. "Like six months ago."

"I thought it might be weird once I moved in."

She groans. "I told Raven! She was like, he'll be living with you, you can hook up! And I said it would make things weird."

He's not laughing at her, but he can't help laughing. "Did Raven tell me to stream video games from your studio to try to set us up?"

"Yeah, absolutely. And I didn't think it would work, so she's going to be really smug."

"Me streaming isn't actually a turn-on, is it?" he asks, mostly out of curiosity.

"You didn't really need the help, but it's cute. And," she looks away, smiling as she bites her lip, "you should see your face when you look at me."

"When I look at you?"

"I wasn't sure you were interested, but Raven said I should watch when I show up on the streams. Your sister tells you I'm around and your whole face lights up."

Color rushes up his neck, but he's pretty sure he's lighting up right now. "Yeah," he says. "Of course I do."

She's smiling at him now. "That's why I thought you'd want to make out."

They don't end up recording anything that night, which Bellamy doesn't mind at all, and Octavia does tell him she told him so, which, as promised, he minds even less. He kind of owes her. The streaming thing is working out pretty great for him, after all.

[angelinaheartshapedbox]

A Slapshot To The Heart

eren jaeger x gn!reader <3

college au/smau. hockey player eren<333. musician/dancer reader.

summary: y/n l/n is a sophomore at paradis university with a scholarship in music. while taking a necessary technology course to complete their major, they meet the infamous hockey player, eren jaeger. y/n does their best to avoid him, but their efforts fail as they continue to run into him everywhere. they soon find that eren isn't the douche bag every depicts him as, and grows very fond of his company.

WARNINGS: swearing, lower case intended, not super proofread, reader uses they/them pronouns, i'm sorry if y/n is a lil feminine at times :((, reader is attracted to all genders, eren is a huge himbo dork, any major trigger warnings will be given before each chapter.

this series is entirely sfw. mild suggestive themes, but nothing explicit.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

point one!

"hey, i know you, right?"

word count: 1.1k

chapter tws: none.

little did jean know that i wasn't even driving yet. i was grabbing my bag, keys, and laptop while rushing out the door. now, i'm driving and heading to the cafe that we always meet up at. i'm very eager for my [drink order].

i get to the cafe pretty quickly since it's only a few blocks from our apartment. i step out of my shitty little car, the cold air immediately nips at my skin, and i pull my jacket out. i can see my friends sitting out our usual table through the glass. i push the door open, the aroma of coffee filling my nose.

"morning!" sasha says as she waves enthusiastically.

"g'morning" i reply. i pull out a chair where my order is sitting.

"eat fast we have like," jean looks at his phone, "ten-ish minutes."

"okay, mom" i mumbled through a mouthful of bagel.

"you're disgusting," he scoffs.

"that's not what your mom said!" connie speaks for me.

i hold up my palm, and he smacks it, "nice."

sasha laughs and jean looks at the three of us, extremely unamused. i smile at him before biting into my bagel again.

eventually, we decide it's time to go, and we pack our things. the other three get in jean's car, and i get in mine. it takes about two minutes to get to school, and another five to find parking. we now only had eight minutes to get to our respective classes.

"usual place for lunch?!" i yell at them from the other side of the parking lot.

"yeah!" connie shouts back, holding a thumbs up.

"mkay! mwah!" i blow them all a kiss as i turn around.

i pull out my phone to see where my new class is. "room S17." i tuck my phone away, and speed walk to the S building. thank god my class was downstairs.

i murmured to myself as i walked through the hallway, "fourteen, fifteen, sixteen… seventeen! there we go."

i open the door, and peer into the classroom. i see professor hange sitting at their desk in the corner. i didn't know they taught this course. they were my chemistry professor my freshman year, they were my favorite.

i see that most of the seats have been filled there's a few scattered around, but they're all in the first three rows. i place myself at the very end of the second row, closest to the door. there's an empty seat next to me. i look around to see if i recognize anyone. i notice mikasa sitting in the front row, her friend armin sat next to her. i also notice eren jeager standing in front of them, talking.

"okay, it's currently thirty seconds until we begin, i'd like to ask all you to take a seats," hange stands with a big smile on their face, "eren, go sit down, so we can start our fun semester."

eren turns his head, "huh? oh, got it." he walks away from his friends, a few other hockey guys laughing as he passes them. he does a few fist bumps as he finds a seat. which seat, you may ask? oh, just the one directly next to me.

hange starts speaking about the course syllabus. everyone takes their notebooks out to take notes. i feel a tap on my shoulder as i write, i turn to eren.

"can i borrow some paper? i forgot my notebook" he asks with an awkward smile.

"uh, sure" i return his grin, and rip out a few sheets for him.

"thanks" he says.

"no problem" i reply, and returned to my paper.

i get about two seconds of quiet.

"hey, i know you, right?" he whispers, leaning in a little.

"we went to high school together. we were in mrs. kelso's history class junior year" i glance at him quickly.

"oh, shit, yeah. y/n? right?" he questions, tilting his head.

"yep" i mumbled, popping the 'p'.

"cool, cool. you know mikasa too, huh? i've seen you guys in the music room. where else have i seen you?" he continues to pester me.

"i'm jean kirstein's friend, probably at hockey games."

"that's right! that's crazy we've never talked before" he started to get louder.

"yeah. super crazy" i try to brush him off. i take my phone out under my desk to text jean.

i'm left alone for the rest of the hour and a half class. i don't really wanna get involved with eren in any way. he just seems like bad news, and i don't have the time or energy for that.

once we're excused, i head to my music theory class with mikasa. eren's class happened to be in the next building over, so he walked with us. mikasa and i talked about our band as eren followed behind us.

"that's cool. that you're starting a band," eren said as we walked.

"yeah, we're excited," mikasa replied.

"annie, ymir, and sasha are in it too," i added.

"that's dope, i'd love to see you guys play" he mentioned.

"i'll let you know when we first play," mikasa told him, "this our class. see you later."

"alright, bye. have fun," eren walked out the door at the end of the hallway.

mikasa held the door open for me, and i entered. the familiar faces from last year, including my professor. i take a seat, and prepare for the lesson.

when the class ends, i head to lunch with mikasa. i enter the cafeteria where connie and jean were waiting for me. no sign of sasha, though. mikasa breaks away from me to go to armin and eren.

"where's sash?" i ask the boys as i sit across from them.

"picking up our doordash," connie answers.

"good, i'm starving," i groan.

"you owe me 8.29 for your food, by the way," jean tells me.

i open my phone to venmo him, "you're the worst."

there's a text notification on top of my screen, it's an unknown number. i click on it to see what it says. "probably some scam," i think.

"holy shit, he texted me," i said.

"who texted you?" sasha came from behind me, placing our food on the table, and sitting down.

"eren" i reply.

"jeager?" she and connie say at the same time.

i nod, and show the table.

"what the fuck, man?" jean furrows his brows.

"what? jealous?" i tease.

"ew. no, you're not my type" he cringes.

"yeah, but you obviously have a fat crush on him. you're a little obsessed, j" i mess with him more.

connie stifles laughter, and sasha's already eating.

"you know what? i'm gonna tell him to stop texting my roommate. it's weird" he stands.

"jean, no. he's just texting for school reasons" i stop him before he does something completely embarrassing.

jean sits back down, "whatever."

i return to my phone to reply to eren's message.

previous next

masterlist!!

a/n: that's all for this chapter lol. idk how i feel about this series i think it'll get better. anyway, thanks for reading. <3

character info! y/n and jean are super tight🤞🏻 when eren and jean found out they were on the same team they lost their shit.

#college au eren #eren jeager x reader #eren jeager x gn!reader #eren yeager x reader #eren yeager x gn!reader #aot fanfiction #snk fanfiction #gn!reader #aot #snk #aot smau

[butterflydm]

wot reread: lord of chaos (chap 47-end)

For the first time, this book isn’t better than the one before it imo. I would currently rank them (strongest to weakest): The Fires of Heaven; Lord of Chaos; The Shadow Rising; The Dragon Reborn; The Great Hunt; Eye of the World. I’m not sure if any of the remaining books will be able to top TFoH for me tbh. We will find out!

spoilers for lord of chaos

1. Elayne tries to demand (in an icily royal way) that Mat lend her his ter’angreal against channeling each night so that she may study it. Mat pretends to be ignorant of anything she’s talking about to the point of driving her to complete frustration. Annoyed at him, and potentially trying to teach him ‘manners’ like she bragged to Egwene that she would, she inspects his men’s horses and gives him her opinions on how well he’s done, as if he were one of her men.

2. Important future note about Ebou Dar culture: “a woman killing a man was considered justified unless it was proven differently”. It’s also a culture that’s very big on dueling.

3. Anyway, for all that Mat has a lot of random gender essentialist thoughts (like pretty much everyone else, though his tend to come with more insults and colorful language) he doesn’t see any reason why Birgitte can’t be a Warder, which puts him one up on pretty much every Aes Sedai who meets her.

4. The Aes Sedai also start channeling at him (presumably trying to study the effects of the medallion since he won’t let them borrow it). On the fourth day, they figure out that they can use the Power to make other things hit him. Super classy, guys. After that happens, Mat goes and drinks until he can’t stand up (because the thing that he was using for protection has a loophole that makes it less effective). This is honestly such a shitty thing for them to be doing to him. (we find out in the next chapter that Adelas and Vandene were the ones doing all the channeling and, wow, it would have done wonders for Elayne and Nynaeve’s relationship with Mat if they had... you know, told him that, but I guess Aes Sedai secrecy/solidarity is why they did not)

5. I admit that Ebou Dar does sound like a beautiful city. Not wanting to stay in the palace (good instincts!) Mat picks an inn at random -- the Wandering Woman, run by a woman named Setalle Anan. And the dice in his head stop. I really wish he would pay more attention to this sort of thing, tbh, the dice and his luck. He always ends up regretting it later that he didn’t (or, rather, he always ends up going through regrettable things because he didn’t). I’m actually going to mark this as another potential place for an AU and see how well it maps out if Mat had listened to his magical intuition here.

6. Nynaeve and Elayne are frustrated because, despite Egwene raising them to full sisters, Vandene, Adelas, and the Aes Sedai here in Ebou Dar are all still treating them like Accepted. Ah, now that Elayne is officially Aes Sedai, she’s introducing Birgitte as her Warder to everyone. And we learn that the reason that Adelas and Vandene came to Ebou Dar was to look for “runaways” though Elayne and Nynaeve do not know more than that. Aviendha was amused by Mat before but has now decided that he’s ‘irritating’; that would be Nynaeve and Elayne’s influence, I assume. Ah, and we learn that Egwene had a ‘discussion’ with Birgitte and learned the truth about her.

7. Elayne and Nynaeve go off to meet Queen Tylin, while Birgitte and Aviendha start their search of the city. Also, as of this point in the books, Nynaeve is twenty-six and Elayne is eighteen. We learn that Elaida has sent an ‘embassy’ to Ebou Dar as well, with two Sisters -- Teslyn and Joline. And the Whitecloaks also have an embassy here, led by Carridin, who Nynaeve and Elayne remember from Tanchico.

8. After Tylin tells them two of them how perilous things are for her here, Elayne tells Tylin all about their search for a ter’angreal to fix the weather. Tylin gets more instant trust than almost any other character in the series! Nynaeve is as startled as I am, at least. Elayne did it out of queenly solidarity, it seems. “I know how my mother felt about Aes Sedai traveling about Andor, never letting her know what they were doing.” Elayne also bets Nynaeve that she can have Mat “knuckling his forehead” for her within ten days, and Nynaeve takes the bet. There’s nothing riding on the bet tho.

9. Min “brought up” her viewing about Perrin needing to stay next to Rand to save him twice in front of Perrin and Rand wishes that she hadn’t; he really wants Perrin to go to Tear to be the visible face of Rand’s distraction army but now that Perrin knows about Min’s viewing, he won’t agree to do it. But Perrin didn’t want to go to Tear even before he heard about Min’s viewing, so *shrug*. Perrin says “what I want hasn’t seemed to count much since the first time we saw Moiraine” like he didn’t just go on an entire side quest of his own even while his ta’veren sense was saying that he should stay with Rand.

10. Loial is back and he and Rand catch up a little. Rand lets him know that his mother, Elder Haman, and Erith are now in the Two Rivers, where Rand thought Loial was. Loial is in a panic over it, since he’s not ready to get married and settle down in a Stedding. When Rand suggest that maybe Loial can talk to the Elders of the various Steddings so that he can put guards on all the Waygates, Perrin  blows up on Rand, telling him that he’ll use anyone. Rand agrees but points out that he’s willing to use himself up as well.

11. Min arrives, frantic, to tell him that seven Aes Sedai are coming from the embassy (Rand has forbidden more than three at a time to enter the Inner City). She also punches him in this scene hard enough that she “made him grunt”. She’s spending way too much time with Faile. Can we just have ONE relationship without casual violence being a part of it? But because of Min’s warning, he is able to meet the Aes Sedai somewhat prepared (though very on edge due to Min’s viewing about Aes Sedai hurting him at some point in the future).

12. Demira speaks for the group and tells Rand that they have decided his restrictions for them are null and void; they will no longer follow them. Lews Therin is panicking in his head and argues that the situation is too dangerous and they need to strike first.

13. When Min gets back to the inn, she sees that two more Aes Sedai have arrived - Bera and Kiruna, the two that had been sent to the Aiel Waste to try to chase Rand so long enough. Which means there are now thirteen Sisters in Caemlyn, which is the number that Rand/LTT says means anyone, no matter how strong in the Power, would be helpless in front of. Panicked again, Min immediately leaves the inn to inform Rand. Bera and Kiruna both talk about how Rand must be “leashed” and “brought to heel”. And Min says that she’s sure these thirteen will hurt him; she’s talking out of her panic but Rand assumes it’s one of her ‘senses of absolute knowing’ that she gets about her viewings sometimes. And his flight here pretty much directly leads to him ending up in The Box (though I don’t think he ever thinks that through and asks Min to stop giving him vague ominous warnings about the future; but this does seem like a clear example of a self-fulfilling prophecy, where Min telling Rand about the viewing helped make it happen). Even without Min’s warning, he still might have panicked and fled, but it’s clear that his fear is considerably amped up by her viewing.

14. Rand tells Min that she will come with him for now but he will send her out of danger if it comes down to facing the Aes Sedai. She brandishes her daggers and refuses the idea. Brave but foolish, considering she has zero defenses against Aes Sedai (or Warders tbh; she’s spent a couple of months practicing daggers with Thom and that’s it; she would be dead in two seconds). He also collects Perrin and Faile to warn them. re: Perrin “he could not leave Perrin behind, and not because of any viewing; when Merana found Rand gone, one of them might well bond Perrin the way Alanna had him”.

15. So Rand is leaving for Cairhien with Min, Perrin, Faile, Loial, Gaul, Chiad, Bain, and Nandera with five hundred Maidens. I wonder if Chiad, Bain, and Gaul all feel like they don’t really fit in anymore due to having missed all the changes in Aiel society while they were in the Two Rivers. Sulin declares that she is coming as well. Everyone writes letters to leave to people, and the plot relevant ones are that Perrin tells the Two Rivers men to follow them to Cairhien, and Rand writes a warning to Taim about thirteen Aes Sedai and then a very harsh warning letter to Merana that he is going to Cairhien and she is allowed to follow with herself and no more than five other sisters, so that their embassy matches Elaida’s there. And Bera and Kiruna take firm control of the embassy.

16. Because it’s narratively convenient for Min’s presence never to be questioned by anyone from this point forward, the Wise Ones easily accept her as one of their own. Once I started noticing How Easy the narrative makes things for Min in her pursuit of Rand, it’s hard for me to stop noticing it lol. The Maidens let her walk in on Rand in his bath and wherever else she wants; the Wise Ones accept her as one of their own much more easily that we’ve seen them do with anyone else; no one expects her to become Aviendha’s first-sister and go through all the required trials before being romantic with Rand. She doesn’t need to try to adapt to Aiel culture in the slightest (as Elayne does), as all the Aiel are willing to bend over backwards for her instead, which is just... completely counter to how they behave in pretty much every other situation. All the obstacles that Elayne and Aviendha face in trying to be with Rand are completely non-existent for Rand and Min. But a big thing that draws me to pairings is their ability to OVERCOME those obstacles, so that’s probably a large part of why Rand x Min didn’t ever appeal to me as much as Rand x Elayne (dealing with conflicting duties) or Rand x Aviendha (dealing with differing cultural expectations). I have a hard time getting attached to pairings where the way for them is smoothed by the narrative, lol. I guess the ‘conflict’ in Rand x Min is supposed to be over which one of them cracks first and admits out loud that all the snuggling and kissing and teasing is a romantic relationship?

17. Oh. I almost forgot -- in addition to the paranoia and recklessness, Rand is also becoming more susceptible to flattery, because we learn that he does now believe Alviarin’s letter from the end of TFoH - he talks earlier about there being a faction of Aes Sedai ready to bend knee to him. So that’s three dangerous influences on his mental state. Plus he doesn’t eat or sleep enough and has Vaguely Ominous Warnings to deal with.

18. Rand is trying to figure out how to have Min around without revealing that she matters to him to the people around him who might take advantage of it. Rand notes that he’s more ill-tempered when she’s not around but that even she can’t pull him out of his depressions. The temper thing is ‘told’ here in the internal narration about Min, but we’ve actually seen it in action before with Elayne -- when Egwene accidentally riled up his temper at the start of TSR, Elayne talking to him cooled him down. Just her presence was soothing, iirc. So I assume that a similar thing is happening here.

19. Rand is still very attracted to Berelain (everyone is more horny in these later books) but is now blaming that all on LTT. So that’s getting worse, too, because earlier in the book, he was able to admit that he was the one who found Berelain attractive but now it’s Lews Therin who finds her attractive. And Min joins the group we like to call ‘All Wetlander Women Hate Berelain’. *annoyed sigh*

20. Even though Rand and Perrin have now both been in Cairhien together for ten days, that catch-up session that happened that first day with them hasn’t repeated and they have not been spending much time together, with Perrin blaming it on Rand being busy. This friendship is so casual and low-key compared to the intense... thing that Rand and Mat have going on, and it makes me sad all over again that Mat has left.

21. The Berelain-Faile nonsense has started and I am not going to waste my time talking about it. I will say this and only this, because it’s both the first and last thing that matters in this pointless storyline: “Berelain knew he was married, knew he loved his wife, and that should have been that” (especially since we already know from an earlier Min viewing that Berelain is going to fall in love with someone else later, so Berelain desperately chasing after a married man is EVEN MORE ridiculous than it might otherwise be). Wait. I will also point out that Berelain laughing and ignoring Perrin’s wishes that she stop being overly flirty with him is exactly what Min is doing in her “wear Rand down into admitting he wants to sleep with me” campaign. Now I’m done with the subject. Oh, wait, also go to AO3 and check out @lesbiancytherea‘s Berelain/Faile fic: The woman I have always desired to be mine.

22. Ah, yeah, and the whole reason that Rand is bothering to meet with Elaida’s delegation at all (when he gets taken) is because he’s trying to ‘even out’ the audiences that he had with the Salidar delegation. This is still all based on his panicked flight out of Caemlyn. And LTT keeps talking about needing to take care of Sammael but Demandred first. He sees the Aes Sedai alone because he’s been taking more and more risks even as he’s been getting more and more paranoid (it’s been stressing me out all book), and they’ve snuck their secret Aes Sedai sisters (too young to get the distinctive look) into the room, to shield him and take him. Galina takes over the embassy and the Red Ajah is in charge. Captive in that noble’s house, Rand has started to sink into a gray depression. But, yeah, remember way back when Aviendha made the Maidens promise to tell her all of Rand’s comings and goings and I said that just sounded like it would make Rand start to sneak off without his guards? Nandera tells us that he’s been doing just that. So that’s why the Maidens aren’t on instant high alert.

23 Wait... I’m kinda curious now what bizarre nonsensical way that Min is going to end up with Rand here, since she wasn’t with him when he was taken. For some reason, I’ve remembered (incorrectly) all this time that she was with him and that’s why she was taken along as well.  lol, she “vanished” between the tents and the palace, we are told by Sorilea. Okay, my guess before I get to the chapter with the real reason: one of the Tower Aes Sedai randomly saw her in the streets and recognized her as fortune-telling Min and so she has conveniently been kidnapped along with Rand?

24. Mat has grown used to being called “Lord Cauthon”. It makes things easier in Ebou Dar, he thinks. Fewer challenges to duels. Ah, they are having Olver ‘pick up’ shameless flirting from Mat in this book, but it’s confined to “beautiful eyes” here. And even that much, Mat disapproves of him doing. And it’s fine for there to be ‘grown-up things’ that kids aren’t allowed to do? Mat isn’t evil for flirting with women while being In The Presence Of A Child.

25. As they search the endless streets and buildings, Elayne and Birgitte see a ‘Domani wilder’ healing someone. A Clue but they’re focused on their search, so they let it pass them by. And Elayne and Birgitte also spot Mat and Nalesean, who have been drawn to the correct spot at a useful time by Mat’s luck, but Elayne and Birgitte are trying to avoid them, so they hurry along. Because in their PoV, Mat is only here to get him out of Egwene’s way, not to actually be useful. Maybe this would be a better jumping off point for an AU than the earlier one I was thinking of. Marking it for later. (if anyone could literally walk into the correct building by accident...)

26. We do get the interesting mirroring here of the Salidar Aes Sedai keeping Logain under a shield even as the Tower’s Aes Sedai are keeping Rand under one. And this all reminds me of the excellent Logain scenes that we got in S1 of the show. Looking forward to more Logain, definitely. Egwene is trying to get Logain’s thoughts on Rand, the amnesty, and the madness. Egwene is startled when Logain angrily bursts out that of course he wishes “I were with [Rand] now!”

27. Egwene meets up with Elayne and Nynaeve in TAR. We learn here that Egwene HAS talked with the Aiel dreamwalkers (well, Bair and Melaine) and they told her that you can only use need to find a specific thing once (’like trying to eat the same apple twice’). Egwene notes (internally) that the dreamwalkers might be happy to teach her but they are telling her nothing about Rand anymore and have gotten very sour on the topic of Aes Sedai in general. For the first time in ages, Nynaeve stays alone in TAR to talk to Egwene, so that she can ask if there’s any news about Lan (there is not).

28. Because she’s realized that the Hall is going to vote to gentle Logain, Egwene’s arranged to secretly have him freed.

29. Elsewhere in the camp, Lan arrives and Myrelle is waiting to meet him. We’re told that this (like Alanna’s forced bonding of Rand) is also considered awful and out-of-bounds, passing a Warder’s bond along to another Aes Sedai without his permission. Ugh, the way she thinks about him here: “a wolfhound mourning his dead mistress did not come to a new mistress willingly”. So she compels him to obey (which is what Alanna has tried and failed to do with Rand).

30. Back in Perrin’s PoV, Rand has been missing six days. Min is also missing. “he could feel Rand’s need like an itch everywhere under his skin”. Yeah, much less evocative and coded romantic than how Mat described it, lol. We also learn here that the Aes Sedai left three days ago, so Rand is three days out from Cairhien and heading towards the White Tower. They find out that Rand is truly missing from two people: Lord Dobraine has come to warn them about two Lords being murdered and Lady Colavaere doing some suspiciously political dinners; and Belelain has found Rand’s sword and Dragon belt buckle, left behind. Sulin INSTANTLY realizes upon seeing Aviendha’s two gifts to Rand that this means he has been stolen away and has not left of his own accord and she calls him her “first-brother”. The privacy thing I will always have issues with, but they really do love him so much. She is DONE with being a servant, she must SAVE HER BROTHER. Also, we can count Dobraine as very firmly Rand’s man.

31. lol “Perrin liked to think things through; when you were hasty, you could hurt people without meaning to”. Perrin really is just as self-deceiving as Mat or Nynaeve, I swear. He manages to think this literally moments after he has flown off the handle to scream at Berelain for simply entering the room. I actually have some thoughts maybe about how all three of the guys’ plotlines are representing PTSD, but I feel like that meta has probably been written years ago lol.

32. Yes, Min has been captured by Galina. We aren’t told who/how they took her, but apparently her knife skills weren’t as up to the task as she thought they would be when she was showing off to Rand earlier in the book; the fact that Jordan doesn’t even bother to tell us how she was captured does kinda make me laugh. And it is because Galina apparently recognized her from when she was hanging out with Nynaeve and Egwene, and knows they’re connected to Rand, of course, and now she’s hanging out in the same city as Rand so, you know, clear connection there. When Rand saw that Min was there in the camp, he went so wild with rage that he killed one Warder directly and another one died from the shock of being Healed. There are 39 total Aes Sedai in the group that is holding Rand captive. Rand’s treatment at the hands of the Tower Aes Sedai in this section really is truly horrific. Each blow that they hit against him firms his resolve to never trust another Aes Sedai. It is in Rand’s PoV that we learn that Sevanna and the Shaido Wise Ones are hanging out with this group (though we saw the bargain being made earlier in the book).

33. But, yeah, Min being here really does make me very ??? at why she’s exempt from being protected from Rand’s danger-aura in the future by being send away from him. Being close to him literally got her kidnapped; she was targeted exactly the way he was afraid that Elayne or Aviendha or the Two Rivers would be if he let people see that he cared about them.

34. Rand has another two-way conversation with Lews Therin, and he asks if they can work together. After a moment, LTT agrees. Rand tries to plan out a way to pretend to be broken so that they will stop holding him so hard, so that they will tie off the weave that’s shielding him instead of maintaining it. Galina’s goal for Rand: “when she brought him to the White Tower, he would kiss Elaida’s ring, speak when spoken to and kneel in the corner when he was not wanted”. She wants him to be damane, essentially.

35. ALL of the Maidens wanted to come, but got restricted to a thousand, as every Maiden leaving the city would make it very very obvious to the Aiel that Rand was in grave danger. There are also five-thousand other Aiel, ninety-four Wise Ones (”the strongest in the One Power near the city”; and ALL of the Wise Ones wanted to come as well, but they only let the strongest come. And Sorilea), five hundred of Lord Dobraine’s men, and two hundred of Berelain’s.

36. And when they rest for the night, Perrin calls out for the wolves to come and help them rescue Rand. Just as Mat reached a peak of a kind in this book (he’s very firmly Rand’s general, and loyal to him); so does Perrin, in being able to take command here to lead the rescue to save Rand without second-guessing himself or his willingness to lead. Which uh, makes it unfortunate that there are so many books remaining, because there’s only one direction for them to go.

37. I love the evocative descriptions of the wolves’ names. Gorgeous imagery. “Two Moons was really a night-shrouded pool, smooth as ice in the instant before the breeze stirred, with a tang of autumn in the air, and one moon hanging full in the sky and another reflected so perfectly in the water that it was difficult to tell which was real”. We also learn here that wolves can sense channelers. And the wolves are PISSED when they learn that Rand (”Shadowkiller”) has been caged and the word is passed around from pack to pack and “several hundred” are coming to help.

38. So, with the siswai’aman, we learn from Perrin’s smell-o-vision that they are jealous of the Maidens, while the Maidens are possessive of what they have -- obviously, this is about their connection to Rand, though Perrin doesn’t realize that. They are all devoted enough to Rand to be willing to fight Aes Sedai in order to try to save him, which most of the Aiel are not willing to do.

39. Seven days into chasing after Rand (so Rand has been captive 13 days total), Perrin learns (via the wolves) that they’re running into the Two Rivers’ men. Honestly, it actually kinda annoys me that Perrin did not bring Tam or even tell him Rand needed him (because he knew from the start that Rand was ‘tugging’ him away into his duties)? That’s his son. He doesn’t even know that Rand is the Dragon Reborn! Anyway, Verin and Alanna are here, as well as seven others, so three more than the six that Rand said were allowed to follow him to Cairhien.

40. So now three hundred Two Rivers archers, nine Aes Sedai, and sixteen Warders have been added to the army. So, if I were writing this in a way to make it so that more characters could rescue Rand... Perrin would be coming with the archers, and you would have Mat with this main army here (and the Band), marching from Cairhien. Can’t think of any easy way for Egwene, Nynaeve, or Elayne/Aviendha to be there though. It would need to be BEFORE Mat was sent to try to get Elayne to go to Caemlyn. But, of course, any changes here would depend on earlier changes as well, which I can’t predict. If Elayne and Nynaeve aren’t at Salidar at this point, then they could potentially end up in Cairhien or Caemlyn and thus go along. Though it probably wouldn’t make narrative sense for Egwene to be present, since she and Rand are supposed to be pulling apart at this point. Again, depending on how the storyline is going.

41. lol, yep, Gawyn will Technically Keep His Word to Egwene by not physically raising a hand against Rand personally, but not keep the spirit of his word, since he is helping to enable great harm to happen to Rand and is very aware Egwene would not be thrilled. Once again, Gawyn straddles that fence between two sides and tries to help both and neither at the same time.

42. Rand has been memorizing each woman that has taken her turn at beating him. Galina, Erian, and Katerine are the three that have done so more than once. He’s still desperately feeling along the shield and hoping that they will tie it off instead of holding it.

43. Pretty much all of Perrin’s allies all hate each other -- but they are all determined to save Rand, even if they die in the effort. Why doesn’t Perrin understand why the Aes Sedai have to go into the battle in order to fight? He was with Alanna and Verin and I’m sure they told him that they actually need to be threatened in order to help? Didn’t they? Maybe they didn’t, since they were fighting Shadowspawn. Hmm. The battle itself is pretty good -- it doesn’t go into too much gory detail but we get enough of what is happening to understand the story of the battle.

44. Taim and the Asha’man arrive via Gateways and level the playing field against the Tower Aes Sedai and the Shaido. That is... convenient timing. But we’ll see if Taim says how he knew to come.

45. As the battle rages, four of the Aes Sedai holding him have to tie off their part of the shield to join the battle, leaving only two actively holding on. He unravels three of the knots -- another Sister starts actively holding again, but he is able to burst through the shield of the three Sisters holding him before they can bring someone else into the shield to hold him. Min is magically unharmed by the chest exploding to free him because of course she is. Rand stilled all three of the Sisters who were still holding onto the shield when Rand blew it apart. Anyway, Rand promises to protect Min and she’s officially his Damsel Figure now, I guess, and the Damsel-fication of Min that has been slowly occurring over the course of the last couple of books is feels like it’s starting to reach Peak Damsel. Will this be her exemption clause out of his general “must keep everyone I care about far away from me if possible” attitude, because helpless damsels can’t be allowed to wander around on their own lest they tragically die as they are wont to do? I guess I will find out.

46. Rand starts picking out the Tower Aes Sedai and shielding them. When “Lews Therin” thinks that he wanted Erian, Katerine, and Galina ‘especially’, Rand denies that the thought could have come from him, despite the fact that it obviously did. He takes down Sister after Sister, but doesn’t see Galina (though he did get Erian and Katerine).

47. Rand and Gawyn are briefly confronted with each other; Gawyn asks Min to come with him to safety, she refuses and tells him that Elayne loves Rand. Gawyn leaves, swearing that one day he will see Rand die.

48. Ah, Taim says they were able to show up because he had “reason to be in Cairhien”. That is... very thin, but Rand isn’t really in a state of mind to challenge it. Taim offers to heal him and Rand refuses, thinking that if Taim touches him with the Power, however innocently, Rand won’t be able to stop himself from killing him.

49. When Rand sees Perrin arrive, he has to stop himself from looking around to see if Mat is there too. Oh, buddy, I wish he were.

50. When the Salidar Aes Sedai come to Rand, to try to tell him about rescuing him, he orders them to join the Tower Aes Sedai. They also disobeyed his commands -- they brought nine Sisters when he said to bring six -- and he has absolutely zero trust left for any Aes Sedai at the moment in time. So he orders them to kneel, and Taim enforces it. It’s a big contrast to the triumphant (with warning tones) ending of TFoH -- this is somber and ominous. Technically, Rand has won... after being caged and beaten nearly two weeks, after watching a horrific slaughter (which feels probably like an illusion to the invention of modern guns being able to cause carnage on the battlefield?). The Aes Sedai kneel and swear to Rand (I will note that Rand’s aversion IS limited to Aes Sedai and not female channelers in general; this event doesn’t make him start mistrusting the Wise Ones, for example).

51. In the epilogue, Rand’s philosopher friend is killed, conveniently creating a ‘job opening’ for the next book for Rand to get a ‘new’ philosopher ‘friend’. I actually did like Herid, though I disliked him being yet another Old Dude who is super into Girls Young Enough To Be His Granddaughter, like Thom was in TDR/TSR (though luckily Thom... grew out of it? before Elayne’s inexplicable crush on him).

52. Aran’gar frees Moghedien and Egwene wonders if Logain did it. Anyway, Moghedien has been summoned to Shayol Ghul. Right now in SG, the Great Lord is praising Demandred for “doing well” at “letting the lord of chaos rule”, which sadly is a tiny scene that makes no sense after the upcoming change to Demandred’s plot/location lol. Oh well. And the book ends on the Dark One laughing.

So, LoC is a pretty good book but I would not say it’s as good at TFoH. Better than TSR though (Perrin and Faile keep TSR from being better than LoC, I would say). In TFoH, any issues I had were super-minor and one of the main things that bugged me throughout the book -- everyone and their sister bullying Nynaeve -- ends with Nynaeve getting to triumph over Moghedien in the end. LoC, though, has some sections where it just felt like nothing much was happening, plus I learned that I... actually dislike Rand/Min? Before this reread, it was my least favorite of the Rand pairings but I DID like it okay. But this time, really digging into it, there’s just a lot of ‘yikes’ there for how much Min was willing to warp her personality, behavior, and looks in order to try to appeal to Rand and win him. Ironically, I’m actually super into Powered/Unpowered pairings, where one person is ‘mundane’/’normal’ and the other is magical in some way, all the way back to my love for Clark Kent & Lois Lane. But Min is... Min is no Lois Lane. I’ll leave it at that, lol.

Again, I DO think the show has lots of opportunity to improve the Rand x Min pairing to make it feel less ‘yikes’. If we can avoid the ringlets and the simpering on Rand’s lap to try to get him to admit he wants to bang her, I would be thrilled lol. And making it so that all the relationships get more equal ‘face time’ would also be an improvement.

Since (imo) we have entered the beginnings of The Slog, I am going to keep track of Sloggy Things. Two main things.

The first being -- how long does it take plotlines to resolve?

In the previous books, all main plotlines were resolved by the ending of the book -- they get to the Eye of the World in EotW, everyone goes to Falme and the Horn is used in TGH and the dagger has been retrieved, everyone makes it to Tear in TDR and Rand is officially proclaimed as the Dragon Reborn. It gets a little more complicated in TSR, because there are more storylines at play, but Perrin defends the Two Rivers, Rand becomes the Car’a’carn, and Elayne and Nynaeve get (and dispose of) the Sad bracelets. In TFoH, Couladin gets taken care of (which is both Mat and Rand’s plotline) and Rand takes control of Cairhien, and Elayne and Nynaeve get to Salidar. Egwene doesn’t really have a ‘plotline’ of her own in the first five books, though she tags along on other people’s -- but she’s getting a lot of training instead and also has some Traumatic Events happen to her that shape her perspective of the world.

Now we get to LoC. The goals of the characters:

Rand & Mat - take care of Sammael in Illian. NOT completed by the end of the book and entirely canceled for Mat. First time Rand has not completed the proposed plot of his book.

Perrin - do a ta’veren thing for Rand. COMPLETED! (but also much shorter PoV-wise than Rand’s incompleted arc)

Egwene, Nynaeve, and Elayne are all mostly chilling and waiting for a plotline to start for them in this book but we do open up the new plot threads for A Crown of Swords near the end of the book. Min’s only goal is to get Rand to have sex with her, but that is also uncompleted in this book I guess, lol. And Mat gets a new task assigned to him by Rand. I guess... technically, Elayne and Nynaeve’s ‘purpose’ this book was to get the Salidar Aes Sedai to side with Rand, so that is definitely NOT completed. But this goal also seems to get canceled when Egwene takes over, and the new goal is to march on Tar Valon and confront Elaida.

So, these are the tasks that are being set up to be completed in ACoS:

Rand - take care of Sammael in Illian (2/?)

Mat - escort Elayne to Caemlyn and watch her become queen (1/?)

Perrin - ???? Rand wants him to help with Sammael but who knows? (I mean, it’s a reread, so I actually do know, but it’s not said in this book lol)

Egwene - get to the White Tower and challenge Elaida (1/?)

Nynaeve & Elayne - get the Bowl of Winds and fix the weather (1/?); they also believe this will... somehow???... help the Salidar Aes Sedai to side with Rand.

And the second thing being -- how many times do we get unnecessary scenes/plotlines?

Which I will define either as scenes that are pointless (like the Berelain-Faile jealousy stuff which has already been shown pointless because of Min’s viewing that Berelain is going to fall in love with someone else entirely, so why are we wasting time on her trying to chase Perrin) or repetitive scenes that give us no new information.

Many of the earlier Salidar PoVs in LoC feel this way to me, like they could have been condensed into fewer sections, like Perrin’s were, and I believe this is definitely something that will get worse in future books (pretty sure the vast majority of one of the future books is like this lol). Jordan needed a stronger hand on the editor’s pen, someone willing to ask him “do we really need this scene or are you just trying to show off your worldbuilding?”

I’ll try to keep track of this one as I go, and then tote it up at the end of each book.

#wot #wheel of time #wot reread #lord of chaos #wot book spoilers #wot spoilers #cannot figure out these keep disappearing from the tags #if anyone knows about why tumblr does these things #i would love some insight lol

[aberooski]

fanfic asks: 22, 30, 49 💫

Oh yay! Thank you for the asks! 💜

22. Do you title your fics before, during, or after the writing process? How do you come up with titles?

This is an interesting one because honestly I don't have any specific point in the process where it happens. Titles just kinda find their way to me whenever they want. Sometimes I'm struck with inspiration early on in the writing process or even before I even come up with an idea, but I like the title so much I have to come up with a fic for it, or I'll have a fic completed and be struggling and fighting tooth and nail with my brain to come up with something to call it 🤭 let me pull a few quick examples from my pantheon!

Once Upon A Duelist, that one came super easily to me. Of course that fic being a Sleeping Beauty au, having the play on Once Upon A Dream was pretty simple to think of but I digress, it was an easy one to title.

Sons of The Stars on the other hand, that one I was ruminating and formulating titles for throughout the whole process and getting nowhere for the longest time. Angel's Tears was like that too when I wrote it back in the day. (Tbh in the market for a new title for that one, I used to love it but recently I've liked it a lot less)

And my Final Fantasy XV fic What Goes In. That one was super easy because I took it from a line of dialog that Gladio has in one of the cutscenes that was actually written into the fic.

And Sustained by Hate is the title of a song from Final Fantasy XIII and well the cutscene it plays in in the game is the scene involves a child trying to murder a man because he blames him for his mother's death, so 😬 but the title was very relevant because the only thing keeping Camula's soul together and keeping her from being assimilated into oblivion was her hatred of Jaden and desire for revenge, so she was quite literally sustained by hate. I actually borrowed or was inspired by a lot of titles from that game's songs and story chapters for the chapters in the fic too aksksk

I take a lot of inspiration from songs for both fic titles and chapter titles, ever since I was a kid writing shitty fics in actual physical journals. But I also sometimes just try to think of something relevant from my own brain aksksk

So yeah they just kinda find me whenever they want to, I don't really have any specific point in time where I come up with titles. But that honestly can be the hardest part of the entire process for me if they don't come to me early on in the process.

30. How much do you edit your fics? Do you edit as you write or wait until you finish the first draft?

This one's easy actually, I usually wait until the end and go back and do it all at once. Mostly because just about every fic I've written in the last like 5 years has been for the YGOBB so I've been writing on a time crunch for a long time and I'm a slow writer so I never had the time to spend editing as I go. I'd wait until the rough draft was done and turned in and then go back and edit after.

Now I've been going back and even editing and revising those fics again because honestly I don't think I did a very good job the first time. But I'm less horrified when I read my old fics now so that's good 😭

I do find myself going back and editing as I go more now than I used to, especially since I'm stepping back from YGOBB this year and taking a break from that. Love the event, but I think all my fics have suffered from the time crunch and I always burn out having to push myself to pump out my fics so yeah need that break.

But generally I do write a fic all the way out before I'll start editing so I can focus on one thing at a time. Get the foundation first and then build upon it. 👍

49. What fic of yours would you say is the best introduction to you as a writer?

Oh boy this one's actually a very hard question for me 😅

When I think about it I'm kinda tempted to say Sustained by Hate (abby's version)(from the vault)

It's a multi chapter fic which is my forte, it's in universe which I don't often do in my long fics, the concept is entirely plausible with Camula being brought back and wanting revenge for her defeat, it works in a lot of my little touches and portrayals of the characters

Dad Crowler, Hassleberry’s leg being an issue for him a lot, Alexis being protective of Atticus like to the max, Jaden going out of his way to try and protect the squad but specifically Sy, Bastion playing the role of team mom, Chazz and Atty's relationship period, and you even get some of my quirks and inner workings of my mind with Mrs. Rhodes and Mrs. Princeton hanging out on the sidelines

Also the blatant, very thinly veiled Little Mermaid reference of a plotline..... I mean c'mon the chapter is literally called Poor, Unfortunate Soul 😭

I also actually wrote a duel and that was really hard and I'm very proud of myself and everyone should be impressed 😭

Anyways that one is very me, there's so much in that fic that's very authentic to me and I think it's probably the best intro to me and my writing in terms of the long fics.

One shots, Salt In The Wound. No question. Maybe when I go back and edit that one A Friend In Need would be good too, and Traffic Lights is pretty good but again SITW is so authentically me as a Syrus stan/kin who has major beef with Zane.

I'd love to say OUAD, you know I would. But that's my magnum opus man, if that's your introduction you've set the bar pretty damn high 😭

And Sons of The Stars, as much as I demand everyone in the universe read it because I worked harder on that fic than anything I've ever written in my life, that is NOT a starter fic. It's 136k. And a whole ass built from the ground up au. And honestly draws on a lot of stuff in season 3 and there's a couple subtle nods to other works in it so it's not a starter at all. That's one to read after you've read a couple aksksk

So yeah, if you want a quality starter fic, Sustained by Hate is probably the way to go I think.

Angel's Tears or What Goes In wouldn’t be bad either if you wanted to see the progression of my work from high school to now. Even with the revisions I've done to both of those fics in the last couple months, in my opinion you can still tell I originally wrote them when I was like 18 years old.

But I legitimately think Sustained by Hate and Salt In The Wound would probably the best options depending on which length of fics you like to read.

Thanks again for the asks, these are so fun!!

☆ Abby ☆

#can't wait until I have more fics done so I can have more shit to talk about! 😆 #yugioh #yugioh gx #yugioh gx fanfiction #chazz princeton #atticus rhodes #stormshipping #alexis rhodes #jaden yuki #syrus truesdale #tyranno hassleberry #bastion misawa #dr vellian crowler #final fantasy xv #gladiolus amicitia #final fantasy xiii #Once Upon A Duelist #abby's just rambling don't mind her #abby's fanfic writer power hour #abby asks

[from-the-clouds]

all is on my side - kendall roy x reader

| Masterlist | 

Summary: After a breakup, your friend drags you to a stoplight party off-campus, where you meet a notorious senior. College! Kendall AU. Song inspo. 

Words: 3k.

Warnings: Contains SMUT (minors dni). Alcohol use. 

A/N: Yeah this pic above just made me think things so I had to let it out, and ya’ll have been asking for more Kendall. I know I’ve projected the idea that Kendall loves dirty talk onto him, but I think it’s canon basically. Oh, and no 22 year old man actually knows what they’re doing in bed, generally, so don’t let me set unrealistic expectations. Please enjoy, let me know what u think!! 

Ugh, where the fuck is she?

Music blasted over speakers, bass vibrating through the floor and slinking up through your shoes, adding just another level of annoyance to your already overwhelmed brain. Barbara, your friend, had disappeared into a sea of people bobbing in place to the music, leaving you alone and semi-drunk. 

There was something terrifying about college parties, you’d realized. They were nothing like the ones you saw in movies, with models dancing around a big swimming pool and bumping to music, shot in Hollywood hills mansions no student could ever dream of affording. They were more like this - hot and confusing, the best alcohol option usually being some potion of shitty-K and Kool-Aid mix served out of a plastic tub and poured into cups that now littered the floor. And the floor in question was already covered in spilled drinks, sweat, and other unidentified fluids. Half the time, they took place in homes that were arguably not suitable for human inhabitants. 

Looking for your friend was already made difficult by the three main colors worn by each of the partygoers - red, yellow, and green. A fucking stoplight party. 

“So you wear red if you’re taken, yellow if it’s complicated, and green if you’re single,” Barbara had said, sitting on her desk chair, painting her toenails. 

Most of the people here were wearing green - you being one of them, borrowed from Barbara of course. No one wants to be questioned about their status all night if they wear yellow, and the handful of people wearing red came as no surprise either. If someone was already taken – why would they willingly subject themselves to this shitshow? Wouldn’t they rather be inside, cuddling with their significant other? That was what you should’ve been doing, but the untimely event of being cheated on by your hometown boyfriend had interfered with those plans. 

Regardless, you were here, against your will. But it was sophomore year, and you had to enjoy this time while you could. It was easy to rationalize it that way. Maybe, you’d thank yourself for this experience someday. 

A splash of something cold, wet, and sticky hit your face, leaking down the shirt you wore, dribbling off your chin and down your back. 

Maybe not. 

“Oh my god, I am so sorry,” the voice barely registered, some stranger apologizing for something that they surely didn’t mean, but surely didn’t understand the severity of their actions. The damage was already done. Abandoning the search for your friend, you started on a different search all together. 

Bathrooms. The one downstairs was a no –  a line of people standing outside of the door, swaying back and forth, desperate to pee or puke – or maybe both. 

The staircase to upstairs had been lazily caution taped off, and by some miracle it seemed everyone at the party was respecting the boundary so far.

Fuck that. Ducking under the tape, hopefully out of sight from anyone, you snuck upstairs to the off-limits area. 

Jiggling a few locked doors - you had to give it to those people, they were smart for that – you finally had luck at the back end of the hallway, stepping into a surprisingly clean and cozy space. A plaid comforter covered a queen-sized bed, pretty bay windows looked out over the front yard. Of course the walls were littered in predictable posters - Pulp Fiction, Goodfellas, The Beastie Boys. Closing the door behind you, you sighed in relief at the reprieve. The tension that was caused by the chaos downstairs started to release from the pinch between your shoulder blades, your eyebrows, and you stepped into the ensuite bathroom.

Barbara’s shirt was ruined. There was no doubt about that. A large, red-tinged stain now accented the clothing item, it was almost impressive that the drink had somehow spilled on both the front and back. The real problem, however, was that there was no way your bank account could front the cost to replace it. Tears were burning the back of your eyes as you took in the damage. The shirt was ruined, along with your evening, which had been rocky since its inception. Not only that, but now you looked like a fucking idiot loser. Even though you weren’t really behind Barbara’s agenda of finding you a hookup to begin with, this definitely sealed the deal. 

“Uh, fucking excuse me?” you were so wrapped up in your own self-pity that you hadn’t heard the door open, and you stumbled out from the bathroom to find a stranger looking pissed. “What the fuck are you doing in here?” 

“I’m so sorry, I uh, was looking for a bathroom and-”

“The bathroom’s downstairs, you’re not supposed to be up here.”

The boy – well, he was definitely older than you, a senior if you had to guess, so maybe a man – stood in the doorway, blocking your exit. 

“The door was unlocked-” you pointed out, stammering for some kind of excuse but mostly just hoping he’d step aside so you could retreat. 

“What are you fucking, up here going through my shit? You think this is fucking cute or something?”

“No, I’m sorry I just-” the crack in your voice betrayed you a little. This was just your luck.  Tonight, you’d already lost your friend, and everyone here seemed to be having a good time except you. Not to mention you were moderately drunk, heartbroken - Oh god, you stupid bitch, are you actually going to cry right now? But the scold didn’t seem to help, in fact, the best move would’ve been to stop talking, which was the exact opposite of what you did. 

”I didn’t mean to intrude, I- I have this big stain on my shirt because someone spilled their drink on me - but this isn’t my shirt, so I needed to figure out if I could get rid of the stain so I needed a bathroom and I came in here. But it turns out the shirt is ruined, and I borrowed it from the friend I’m here with and I don’t have the money to pay her back for it. And now, now…I look like a fucking idiot,” your voice wavered, and tears tracked down your face, likely ruining the intricate eye makeup that Barbara had done on you. 

But maybe crying wasn’t the worst idea. Because the stranger lowered his arms. His stern expression softened, slightly, and you noticed then how handsome he was – mussed dark hair, big, brown puppy-dog eyes and full lips, stubble lining his jaw. 

“Okay don’t-” Looking somewhere between uncomfortable, overwhelmed, and unequipped to deal with the level of emotion just presented to him, he seemed to back down. “It’s fine I just don’t want people going through my shit. This is my room.” He stepped forward, closing the door behind him, blocking out a significant amount of the music and noise from the party below. 

Desperately swiping under your eyes, you sniffed. “No, of course not. I’m really sorry, I am.”

“You didn’t touch anything did you?”

You shook your head. “No, no…”

He put his hands on his hips, looking around as if he didn’t believe you. When he seemed satisfied with the investigation, he looked your way again, and sighed. 

“Do you want to uh, borrow a shirt?”

“Really?” 

“Yeah, you’ll catch a cold if you walk home in that.”

“Are you sure? I’ll get it back to you as soon as I can.” It was a surprising offer, but certainly not unwelcome. And…he was right, so you weren’t going to politely refuse. 

“Just take something old, don’t worry about it.” He opened his dresser drawer and rooted through the contents, producing a worn sweatshirt with the Harvard logo emblazoned on the front. “Here.”

“Thank you so much….uh….”

“Kendall,” he said, voice softer. “Kendall Roy.”

That last name sounded familiar, for some reason you felt like you’d seen it often in the headlines of the newspapers your father read during breakfast. But who knew? It didn’t sound like an uncommon last name.

“It’s nice to meet you, Kendall,” you offered him your name in return, which he repeated once before smiling softly.

“And what year are you, then?” 

“Sophomore,” you answered. 

“Yeah, makes sense,” he raised his brows. 

You scoffed, a little offended, but you couldn’t help but feel your face get warm. “Oh you can tell? Great,” sarcasm bled into your words. He crossed his arms, looking down at you and chuckling, a warm, rich sound that had your stomach twisting. Under his gaze, you felt small…but for some reason, you kind of liked it. “I’m guessing you’re older, if you live here.”

“I’m a senior.”

“Right, makes sense,” you looked around. “This is a nice house…and room.”

“Uh-huh, right, well that means a lot coming from the stranger who broke in,” he said, and you would’ve thought he was being serious if it weren’t for the twinkle in his eye. Maybe you were drunk but it seemed like he was….flirting?

“Hey, I thought we were past that already,” you answered, trying not to giggle. 

Chuckling, he nodded. “We are. And uh, yeah, I’m sorry for yelling at you.”

“It’s okay I….probably would’ve done the same thing.”

“Uh-huh. Right,” he tilted his head, studying you. 

You met his eyes, unable to stop the dumb smile from creeping onto your face, it was like something was lifting the corners of your mouth up, against your own accord. It was unclear what sudden shift in energy had occured for you to be suddenly swooning, but you definitely weren’t mad at it. Bashfully, you were able to force your eyes to the ground, just as his gaze met your lips. “I should, uh….change into this shirt.”

“Right, right,” he nodded, gesturing towards the bathroom, stepping backwards. He had been closer than you thought. You found your knees to be a bit more wobbly than usual. 

When you emerged a few minutes later, stained shirt balled under your arm, Kendall was sipping on a beer he must have produced from the mini fridge by his bed, looking outside at the parade of drunk young adults beginning to shuffle home for the night.

“I’m uh, gonna head out if that’s okay. Thanks again for the sweatshirt,” you said, and he turned to you, offering a flick of his chin. Just as you reached the door though, he called out.

“Before you go, can I uh, get your number?” he asked. “I might decide I want that sweatshirt back.”

You didn’t hesitate, offering a cheeky grin. “Yeah, of course,” 

++++++++++++++++++++

Several weeks later, you found yourself back in the same bedroom. 

Further research had revealed that Kendall Roy was indeed related to the family whose name was in the papers, the heir apparent to take over a multi-billion dollar media conglomerate. But you’d kept the information to yourself, even after he reached out several times through flirty texts and drunken phone calls. 

It was a little game, the two of you started to play. Cheeky, but mostly innocent, even though you knew from the get-go exactly what he wanted. Still, you had to play coy, just a little, but still give him enough to stay intrigued. You even opened up to him, just a little, about your ex who broke your heart, and in return he offered all his favorite secret study spots on campus. It didn’t matter if that was a fair trade or not, there was just something about him that was stuck in your head all the time. 

“Listen, I can’t stop thinking about that sweatshirt you stole….I really need you to bring it back to me,” you had heard the smile on his face even over the phone. 

This time, he had you pinned beneath him on his bed, tongue sweeping through your mouth. He tasted like beer and cigarettes, which might have been disgusting on someone else but on him, was like heaven. It was late, Friday night, and truthfully, you were kind of honored it was you he’d been thinking of. Raking your nails through his hair, you let him claim you, until he pulled away. 

“You wanna know something?” he asked. 

“What?”

“I didn’t give a fuck about the sweatshirt.”

“Really?” you asked sarcastically, and he laughed before returning his lips to yours. His hands were everywhere, everywhere but somehow still not everywhere enough. One of them slipped behind your knee, pulling it up to hook over his hip, earning a moan from you, fire licking down your body and immediately burning into your core. In just a few short weeks he’d managed to obscure the memory of your ex, who you’d spent weeks crying over, and you were hoping tonight he could erase it completely. Whatever he was doing seemed to be working. 

Barbara had warned you about Kendall, but you knew the risks. Sure, he was a partier, but lacked the usual disrespect for human beings – particularly women – that men his age often had. And you didn’t need any kind of commitment - you just wanted him. 

Kendall wasn’t shy about how in agreement he was, either. Hands slipped under your shirt, pushed your bra out of the way, and then were grabbing, squeezing, cupping. 

“Oh, fuck,” you moaned out, reaching to feel him half-hard in his pants already. 

His mouth moved to your neck, grunting against your skin as his hips rutted against you. There was nothing tender or slow about this, it was desperate and animalistic, but for some reason that only turned you on even more. This sort of attraction, so primal, so necessary, was all new. No one had ever made you feel this before. 

“You like that, pretty girl?” his mouth was by your ear, and he began to unbutton your jeans, pulling them away so he could rub your aching cunt through your panties. Of course, they were matching your bra - you pretty much knew what you wanted before coming over. A wave of relief settled over you as deft fingers found your clit, even through the thin undergarment.

“Yes,” you whined. “I do.”

“You’re not as good as people think, are you?” he asked, pushing aside your panties, knuckles swiping through your folds. “I bet you like feeling a little bad sometimes, though?” 

“Yes,” you panted out, but what Kendall said wasn’t entirely true. You had to specify. “For you, yes.”

He chuckled, pads of his fingertips teasing you open. “You’re so wet for me already.”

“I c-can’t help it,” you stuttered, voice shaking as he pulled down your jeans all the way.

“You want me to help you?” he asked. 

You nodded.

“Then sit on my face and let everyone hear what a little slut you are for me.”

There was no time to answer, even though it was an overwhelming yes. Somehow you were reoriented so you were on your hands and knees, panties around your ankles, kneeling on the pillows of his bed. Kendall’s head settled beneath you, between your parted thighs. This was vulnerable, you were all bare and exposed for him, had never let anyone have you like this before.

“You don’t have to- oh…god” 

His mouth was on you, and all concerns lay dead on your tongue. A staggered breath rippled through your lungs as you attempted to breathe through his ministrations, a lazy drag around your clit, down through your folds and then back and forth until your hips bucked upwards, overstimulated and unable to process the immense amount of pleasure he was giving you. It was only a matter of time before your legs would give out, and you would crush him. But Kendall didn’t allow the distance, large hands pulling you back down, kneading into the soft flesh of your thighs, forcing you to stay put. 

“Hands on the headboard, baby,” he rasped, during one of the rare moments his mouth separated from you. Obeying him, you found it was helpful actually, providing you with some stability, and you relaxed slightly, arching into his touch, whining and whimpering.

It didn’t take long for you to come, teeth sinking into the headboard to stifle the noises that accompanied it, one of them being a sharp cry of his name. The last few waves of pleasure had yet to subside before he was out from under you, mouth dragging back against yours as you both frantically tugged the remaining clothing off your bodies. 

“Want you to ride my cock,” he grunted. Once again, you were happy to oblige. Quickly, he was digging in his nightstand for a condom and rolled it on. Hips aligned with his, you lowered down on to him slowly, head falling backwards as you took him all the way until he bottomed out inside of you. He was so big, you could feel him so deep, so snug inside you. 

There were few words you had to describe the feeling, besides the ones you managed after rolling your hips forward onto him. “So good.”

“Yeah, that’s it, good girl,” Kendall leaned forward, mouth latching onto one of your nipples, and bucked up into you so you were forced to take him deeper. When you answered with a mewl, he spoke again. “Oh you like that, don’t you?”

There was a chance your lip might actually bleed by how hard you were biting it, nodding in response. 

“I bet he never fucked you like this, did he?” His hand rose to twist into your hair at the base of your scalp, pulling down and exposing your neck to him even more. You shook your head no in what little movement he allowed. 

You were getting close again, already, the head of his cock kept hitting that spot over and over as you ground down against him and he met you halfway. It was fucking perfect, your heart was racing, flushed all over, cunt clenching around the length of him. 

He was close, too, jawline all harsh angles, a bruising grip on your ass as his hands guided you onto him again and again. There was no point in attempting to hide the sounds you both were making, he had been right when he said everyone would hear. Good thing you didn’t give a fuck. 

His own release triggered yours, when you felt him all warm, pulsing inside you. You gasped and pitched forward, head falling in the crook of his neck. 

After, you laid next to him, blissed out and bleary-eyed, and one of his fingers absentmindedly drew shapes onto your back. You realized, then, that you might be in trouble.

#kendall roy #kendall roy x reader #college! kendall #succession #succession writing #succession fanfiction #kendall roy x you #kendall roy imagine

[dollslayer]

Sweeter Endings

Sugar Daddy!Steve Rogers x Reader

Summary: Still reeling from the financial realities of losing your mother you turn to a lucrative website for help and get more than you could have bargained for.

W/C: 5,325

Warnings: Smut (no minors 18+ only), light D/S dynamics, brief mentions of alcohol consumption, unprotected sex, swearing

A/N: NO MINORS, I wrote this for @donutloverxo 's Sugary 4k Challenge (Congrats!!) I love sugar daddy AUs so I was really excited to write this!! If you like it then please like/reblog/comment I'm all ears! Also maybe check out my other stuff if you want! Cheers!

Main Masterlist

____

The saying ‘desperate times call for desperate measures’ was truer than you’d ever imagined and you found out the hard way. Life had hit you hard last year. You had watched your mother succumb very quickly to cancer. A cold that just wouldn’t go away turned into a doctor’s visit turned into three months left to live. Having no one else in her life, the cost of her funeral and medical bills fell to you. The bills outweighing the inheritance you had no choice but to drop out of school.

One year later you were hanging on by threads to keep yourself off the streets without turning to a loan shark or selling yourself. Stocking shelves at a bougie grocery store in Soho by day and bartending in Tribeca by night had you working six days a week. What free time you had you were too exhausted to do anything with. Something had to give or you were going to collapse from the stress, you just didn’t know what.

A couple weeks ago you had been casually venting about how broke you were with a coworker when she jokingly suggested signing up for one of those Sugar Daddy sites. You laughed along with her but it sounded better than getting a third job. You had quietly asked one of your roommates to borrow their laptop saying you needed to look at job postings only half a lie, really and locked yourself in your room.

You were just gonna check out the website, maybe sign up and poke around, it didn’t mean you were committing to anything, just looking. You remembered first looking at the website once your shitty wifi loaded it, promising ‘beautiful and successful people making mutually beneficial connections’. You balked after reading that but you couldn’t look at any profiles without making one yourself so you had set to work.

After making your profile you hadn’t gotten any hits in about a week so you shrugged it off. You couldn’t keep hogging your roommate’s computer anyways so you set off back to work. Your days at the store wore on into endless nights at the bar and you wondered what other options you really had when you had no degree and no experience in any relevant field.

___

6 o’clock on a Thursday night, the typical after work crowd begins to roll in. The bar you work in is upscale, classy. Definitely trying to lure in the businessmen that worked in the area and their wallets. It annoyed you to deal with the same type of customers you did at the store all over again but with the high end crowd came good tips so you couldn't complain too much.

It was busier than usual when a group of men in suits walked in together asking for a booth. You saw a lot of business meetings take place over whiskey sours in this place so you didn’t think much of it. You tried your best to keep tending to your regulars when a pair from the group came over.

One of the men had deep brown eyes and a sly grin that when split gave you the perfect view of the gap between his teeth. He was confident but he had a kind look to him. His friend had dirty blond hair and a beard that clung to his perfect jawline and you’d be lying if you said you hadn’t snuck a second look. You turned your back and continued filling orders to distract yourself when one of them cleared their throat behind you.

As you turned to face them you found it was the blond calling after you. His face held a hint of surprise but it was quickly replaced by a look of amusement as he smirked and one brow lifted, like he knew something you didn’t. He was like any other typical customer for you, professional and handsome, probably over-confident in himself. You returned his smirk and prepared your best charming banter. Time to earn those tips.

“Something to drink for you, gentleman?” You offered.

“We’d like a round of scotch for the table over there. You don’t mind bringing it over, do you sweetheart?” the brown-eyed man asked.

“Of course not” you answered. Pricks.

“Good girl” the blond said with a wink. Creep. A hot creep but still. Before you could ask he took his card out of his wallet and put it on the counter for the tab.

____

A round had come and passed, soon they’d asked for another but this time it was just the blond that approached you. You lifted your eyebrows in anticipation of an order.

“You here often?” he asked. Ugh, not even a good pick up line.

“Am I here at my job often?” You retorted with a playful smile.

The man’s shoulders shook as he chuckled. “Sorry you just uh, you look familiar that’s all. What’s your name?”

You supplied him with it and asked him if he wanted another round of scotch. He nodded.

“Smart girl, I’m Steve by the way.” He laid down his business card which you picked up with a look of challenging curiosity. Steve Rogers, CEO of Shield inc.

Oh. You didn’t recognize the name but you definitely knew the company. It felt like a quarter of their employees stopped in for a drink throughout the week and it was prominent enough of a company that you read about it weekly. Play it cool, these types want to feel like an every-man at the bar but still wanna feel important.

You raised your eyebrows again in recognition. “Nice to meet you, Steve, I’ll have your round right out.”

“Good Girl” he winked again at you. Okay so it’s hot, but he’s a total stranger and you don’t even know him. Stay on your game.

___

10 o’clock came around and things were thinning out slightly, regulars made their way out, awkward Tinder dates and rowdy young 20-somethings made their way in. The party of businessmen was still around but they were hopefully wrapping up after the 2 more rounds they’d had. Steve approached the bar once more and you preemptively picked up the bottle of scotch.

“Whoa, easy, girl! I’m here to pick up the tab” He said, taking out his wallet.

“What’s the name on the tab?” You decided to play dumb but based off the grin on his face he knew you were playing with him.

“Steve. Rogers.” He replied, his tone was stern but his eyes told you he was in on the joke.

You cashed him out and left him to sign his receipt so you could make more drinks. You saw him move in your peripheral and turned your head to see his face.

“Have a good night, sweetheart. I’ll be seein’ ya” he promised.

“Take care!” You smiled back.

A few minutes later you circled back to collect his receipt and found three $100 bills staring back at you. You blinked dumbly in disbelief, who the hell leaves a 200% tip? Looking around to see if Steve was still here he was nowhere to be found. You had no choice but to pocket the money.

____

Another week went by and left you wondering how much energy and concentration it would take for you to just evaporate, since that seemed easier than going to work today. Sadly still in solid form, you punched in at the store and stowed your things in your locker.

Your upscale customer base was a mostly pretentious and successful group of yuppies so even though you were grateful to not be on the streets you were constantly reminded of the professional success you couldn’t help but feel that you were missing out on. Stuck instead to listen to incessant whining ‘is this organic? I won’t eat it unless it’s organic’.

The upside of this job was that the time went by quickly because you always had so much to do. Plus with how monotonous the work was it was easy enough to zone out. So much so that you hadn’t heard someone calling your name and approaching you. A hand softly touching your shoulder snapped you into the present.

You looked up, startled to find a pair of blue eyes staring back into yours. You took a step back and processed who it was. “CEO guy?” Steve?

“‘CEO guy?’ I thought I recognized you, ‘barmaid’ or should I say… ‘stock girl?’” He joked using his fingers to make quotations.

Now that you thought about it, the store isn’t that far at all from the bar, it would make sense if he’s in the area. You smiled and tapped your nametag in response.

“I just came in on my lunch to grab a few groceries” looking down at his basket it held some protein powder, some eggs, and one lonely banana. “Clearly, I’m single. But you’d know that already, wouldn’t you?”

Your brows twinged together in confusion. What is that supposed to mean?

“Excuse me?”

He edged a little closer to you and lowered his voice “SeekingConnection.com?”

Your eyes widened in shock. The fucking Sugar Daddy site! I forgot about that! Surprise was quickly replaced with humiliation. You looked down and away as you felt your cheeks heat up.

“I don’t mean to embarrass you” Steve placated, “But I gotta say, I’m pretty hurt you never responded to me. I sent that message weeks ago and let’s just say I’m not used to rejection.” He kept his tone light, letting you know he wasn’t mad.

“I-I um, I’m sorry, I don’t have a computer and they don’t have an app, I was using my roommates’ computer and I guess I forgot about it…” You admitted.

Steve nodded in acknowledgement. Please say something to salvage this conversation. Please.

“Well,” Steve rummaged in his pocket for another business card. “You got a pen on you?”

You dug around in your apron and came up with one. Handing it to him you watched as he wrote on the back of the card. He held the card and the pen out to you.

“That’s my number, I’d ask for yours but I don’t wanna make you uncomfortable, you already look like you wanna sink through the floor” Not helping, but I do. You took them from him and tucked them away in the pocket of your apron.

“You do have a phone right?” You only glared at him in response. “Well, if you check your profile, you would’ve seen I asked you out to lunch, offer still stands. Just text me when you’re free”

Should I even say yes? I mean, the winking the other night was weird but he’s good looking and at least somewhat considerate. I mean, it’s not like I had any other intention when I signed up for that site. What the hell. right?

“I… usually work mid shifts so I don’t know if lunch is doable, they only give me half an hour but, maybe we could do coffee? I’ve got tomorrow off from the bar I could meet you” you suggested.

If Steve felt pity for you he hid it well behind the wide smile he made when you offered coffee instead.

“There’s a place around the corner from here, just up a block, you know it? I’m off tomorrow at 6, why don’t you meet me there?”

“Sounds like a plan.” He winked at you again and started walking away. What the hell just happened?

____

You did end up borrowing your roommate’s computer once again when you got home to look up Steve’s DM. Sure enough, there he had been in all his internet glory. ‘Steve, 33, CEO. likes: art, conversation, whiskey. Digging around further on his profile you found that he owned several houses here and in Europe, he had a dog that was cuter than he was, and that he was ‘Seeking deeper connection’. All of these things piqued your interest.

‘Hey, Doll. Saw your profile and I had to ask, what’s a girl like you doing in a place like this? Kidding, of course. But maybe you’d care to tell me your story over lunch? Your profile says we’re both in New York. - Steve’ Sent three weeks ago. Fuck.

You had texted him earlier to confirm, which is how you found yourself walking up the sidewalk towards the shop with a mind running rampant with nervous thoughts. What if he just wants to feel big about himself in comparison to me? What would I even really have to offer the relationship? A college dropout working two dead-end jobs with no social life. You needed to snap yourself out of it. You were just meeting for coffee doesn’t mean anything.

Pushing open the door you found Steve waving at you from a quiet corner. He was still in a suit, presumably coming from work himself. Even the buttons on his shirt looked expensive. You were wearing dirty jeans and a worn pair of work boots paired with a flannel. You couldn’t have looked more different if you tried.

“I waited for you to order,” He said. You smiled up at him, only now realizing how tall he was in comparison to you. He ushered you both towards the counter where you both placed your orders. You moved to take your wallet from your purse but he had already beat you there.

“Really? As if I’d let the lady pay, and on the first date no less?” He said playfully.

“Oh, so this is a date now, is it?” You kidded.

Steve shoved his hands in his pockets and gave you that boyish grin and a shrug. The pair of you made your way back to the table and waited for your drinks to be brought over.

“How was work?” You asked, “What exactly is it that your company does?”

“We offer security and surveillance software domestically as well as international. Stadiums, airports, other government buildings. Things of that nature. And work was fine, thank you for asking” Steve said with a genuine smile. “How was your day, doll?”

“Oh, my day was fine, more of the same but y’know,” You answered half-heartedly.

“You know, you never answered me, what’s a funny, pretty gal like you doing on a site like that?”

Embarrassment hit you again, this time maybe accompanied with a hint of shame. You were saved momentarily by your drinks being delivered. He seemed truly interested and since he was paying you supposed you owed him an answer.

“I was going to Columbia and I had a pretty good internship when my mom got diagnosed with cancer. She died three months later and since it was only always just the two of us I ended up footing the bill. I was on partial scholarship but between the hospital and the funeral I can’t really afford the rest of tuition on top of working for free so here I am” you explained, “Oh my god, I’m sorry I’m totally oversharing aren’t I? You probably don’t wanna hear about a bummer like this, sorry”

You tried to laugh to ease the tension you thought you’d created. Braving a look at Steve, he looked thoughtful and only a little bit like he pitied you. You could live with that.

“I’m really sorry about your mom, mine also got really sick before she died, I know it must’ve been hard. What were you in school for?”

___

You and Steve talked for hours, trading anecdotes of childhood and talking about each other’s interests. You had a similar sense in humour so you got on swimmingly. The evening seemed to be coming to a close as the night sky sent in through the window.

Being with Steve was probably the most relaxed you’d felt since before your mom was diagnosed. It became difficult to focus on anything but your financial situation and even though that’s what brought you here in the first place you had managed to forget all about it.

“So look, us getting together wasn’t exactly the most conventional on meet-cutes but to put it bluntly,” He said, “The CEO life makes it hard to meet real people and it gets kinda lonely, I mean, you saw my grocery basket” You both laughed at that. “You need money and I need company, I feel like we could help each other out. Whad’ya say? Think you could put up with me?”

You knew what this was but hearing it put so plainly was a little surprising. At least he was to the point.

“So if I said yes what does that mean, exactly?” you inquired.

“Well,” he started, “We take care of each other. Let me cover some of your bills at the very least, make it so you’d be comfortable quitting at least one of your jobs. And you’d keep me company, we go on dates, maybe you could come over, there’s the occasional work event or charity gala I’d need you on my arm for. Thoughts?”

God I can’t even imagine what it’s like to work only one job anymore. Maybe I could even save up and go back to school. He’s cute and he seems sensible, why not?

“Could we maybe take things slow? What you describe is something I’m down for but I don’t want to make myself completely dependent on you. But I’d love to be there for you, and I have to admit, the thought of only working one full time job is pretty crazy to me” You laughed.

Steve swallowed and placed one of his large, warm hands over yours.

“I can do things the old fashioned way, if that’s what you’d feel good with. I gotta say though, with looks like that it’s not gonna be easy” he jested.

You smiled shyly and looked away. You both stood to leave and he held the door open for you.

“I’ve already got your number from when you texted me earlier but I’ll talk to my assistant about my schedule and maybe I could take you out to dinner this weekend?”

“I um, I’d really like that. It’s a date” You stated.

“Oh, so you think this is a date now?” He jested.

You lightly punched him in the arm and he took the opportunity to pull you closer to him. You looked up to find his face inches from yours. You could smell his aftershave and his deep voice gave you goosebumps when he spoke next.

“I kinda want to kiss you goodnight, would that be okay?”

You could only nod as he shut his eyes and closed in. Your lips met in one perfect, chaste kiss. You sighed and leaned into his hand as it briefly cupped your face.

You broke apart and made promises to see each other soon. You felt like you could’ve floated home as you boarded the subway, caught up in the swarm of newly forming feelings.

_____

You sat in the break room when your phone buzzed to life, ‘Saturday at 7?’

You were about to type out a yes when you forgot you worked closing at the bar. Your thumbs moved quickly to tap out the reply ‘Working, sorry :/ the pitfalls of bartending. Sunday at 7?’

You were nervous telling him no and asking to change plans. You hated not being able to make things work but you only just met the man and the weekend tips were killer, it’s not like you could turn the shift down.

‘Ah yes, almost forgot. Sunday works too, I’ll text you the details. What’s your address? I’ll pick you up’

Oh, God. Steve can’t see my building! His cufflinks probably cost more than my rent!

‘I’ll just meet you there, don’t worry about it’

‘Not a chance, doll. Just tell me where and I’ll come get you’

You let out a worried sigh but knew you had to let it go. You sent him your address and went back to work.

____

Saturday was maybe the longest day in your entire week, in fact you loathed it. Mornings at the store followed by running immediately to the bar. Last call in New York was 4am so it’s a good thing you didn’t try to make brunch plans with Steve for Sunday. But ultimately both your shifts passed without major incident and now it was Sunday and you tried to ready yourself the best you could.

The place Steve mentioned was fancy, you knew that much from a quick search. Panicking instantly upon realizing you don’t really have any nice clothes you turned to your most fashionable roommate for help. She loaned you a cocktail dress that was revealing enough to draw interest without giving everything away. You just hoped Steve would like it.

‘Downstairs, doll. Silver BMW’ you exhaled. Hoo boy, here we go.

____

Steve handed his keys to the valet and rushed around to open your door for you. You held his hand and you clambered onto the sidewalk in your heels. His warm hand on the small of your back as he steered you towards the doors was a comforting weight.

Dinner has been lovely so far, he chose a place that wasn’t completely white-glove but was upscale enough to make you feel only a little underdressed.

You joked back and forth with him over the course of the meal, talked about your lives, and even found out you both have a guilty pleasure for cheesy rom-coms. It wasn’t until dessert and your third glass of wine came that you realized how much time had passed. You frowned slightly thinking of the early morning ahead of you followed by a long night at the bar.

“What’s wrong, doll?”

“Oh, nothing I just didn’t realize how late it was, I’ve got both jobs tomorrow it’ll just be a long day that’s all” you tried to wave it off but Steve frowned in response.

“Quit the bar” he stated.

“What?”

“Quit the bar. This is your card, I’ve already loaded $3000 on there. Put me in touch with your landlord and I’ll get you taken care of.” He slid the card across the table to you. Your name printed on the front. This got real very quickly.

“Steve, that’s.” You were in shock, a loss for words almost “that’s too much, I don’t know what to say.” You felt embarrassed taking the money. You knew that was the essence of your arrangement but actually taking his money had you feeling uneasy.

“Honey, this is what I’m here for. Let me take care of you. Give up your late nights. I wanna take you out on the weekends and you’ll need to be available for events. You can stay at the store if you want but quit the bar, you don’t need it.”

You took a deep sigh. He did say he wanted you to be comfortable quitting one of your jobs; it's just making the change that scares you. But something about Steve felt safe so you nodded and looked up to him.

“I’ll put in my two weeks”

“Good girl” he patted your knee and you involuntarily clenched your thighs. He smirked at that but let it go.

____

A few months had come and gone since that night and your time with Steve had been great. Only working the one job gave you so much more free time. You'd spent a good chunk of it just trying to form a normal sleep schedule but all the time you spent with Steve made it difficult. Not that you minded especially since your allowance was monthly but he’d showered you with gifts here and there.

They started off small, perfume, chocolates and flowers, or a simple pair of white gold hoops that reminded him of you. They gradually became pricier and more elaborate. You’d felt guilty accepting it all at first but he was insistent you deserve the best. He had even mentioned you moving out maybe finding a better place but you reminded him you needed to go slow.

He’d also been nothing short of a gentleman. Out in public at least, you’d learned the hard way that he was an absolute animal in bed. It was becoming increasingly difficult to keep your hands off of him.

Something you had appreciated about Steve is that he never made you feel bad or less than for being broke. Never held his money over your head like leverage. You’d felt equal to him in all aspects, understanding you had just as much say as he did.

Still, there was a small nagging voice in the back of your head that reminded you Steve is not your boyfriend. This isn't a relationship and he's looking to get something out of just like you are. But if you were being honest you were catching feelings, it was hard not to when the man was giving you the fantasy. You decided to push that voice aside whenever it came up and let yourself be swept away. Maybe that would bite you in the ass but for now you were happy.

____

You were buzzed into Steve’s building and on the elevator ride up to his penthouse your phone buzzed. ‘I have to make a quick call- I’ve got a present waiting for you in the living room.’ You couldn’t help but feel giddy.

The doors opened and Steve was nowhere in sight but as you entered the living room a bag from Chanel and the Apple Store sat on the table. Oh god, what this time? I swear this man is too much.

You opened the smaller bag from Chanel first and found a beautiful black and white evening bag. It was sleek and simple, very much to your tastes. You were nervous to open the Apple bag, Steve always went overboard. Shakily removing the paper you pulled out the slim case in disbelief. A MacBook Air and a pair of AirPod Pros. The man well and truly spoiled you.

“You said you didn’t have a computer.” His voice came from behind you and startled you.

“Steve, this is too much. You’re too much.” You swung your arms around his neck and kissed him.

“Nothin’s too much for you, doll.” He kissed the top of your head.

“Think you could take a couple days off of work? I just got off the phone and confirmed plans for my house in Nice.”

A trip? France?? Oh my god. How is this my life? You felt so overwhelmed that you grabbed Steve by the collar and brought his face down to meet you in a kiss. His tongue swiped your lips and you granted him entrance. Moaning into his mouth your hands traveled up into his hair, pulling softly and coaxing a groan out of him.

He guided you to sit on the couch and brought you down into his lap. You ground down onto him and felt his hard-on through his slacks. Your hand moved slowly to undo the buttons of his shirt as he kissed down your jaw towards your neck. You sighed softly when he found your sweet spot and started sucking.

He helped you take off his shirt while you got started on his belt and undid his pants. He lifted himself off the couch slightly to move them down to his knees, taking his briefs with them. His cock stood proud and an angry red, leaking at the tip.

“I wanna ride you, I can’t wait.” You pouted as you writhed against him in need.

Steve tutted at you “that’s no way to get what you want. Ask me nicely, baby. Beg to ride my cock,”

You ground down even harder and whined. “Please, sir, please let me ride your cock. I need to feel you, I can’t wait any longer please.”

“Good Girl” Steve's hands flipped up your skirt and found your panties, ripping them to shreds. They were La Perla and had cost a pretty penny but he didn’t care.

He lined himself up and brought you down harshly gripping your hips. You moaned loudly in surprise and satisfaction and wasted no time moving back and forth. Steve made you feel so close and connected to him whenever he fucked you but he still made you feel sordid and dirty. You couldn’t get enough of the feeling, you’d gladly chase it.

His eyes were hooded as watched you chase your own pleasure and giving him some in return. His hands kneaded your ass and smacked it just to get a gasp out of you. He grabbed the back of your head and brought you in for a searing kiss that was all teeth and tongue. He’d nip at you and lick the pain away.

His hips met yours, finding your rhythm and speeding you both up when he gripped your hips.

“Can’t wait to have me, you had to fuck me on the couch huh?” Steve panted, “my dirty girl. So fuckin’ gorgeous.”

You put your forehead against his and went harder, pushing your clit to grind against the muscles of his abs.

“Only yours, sir.” Your orgasm was building. Steve was a pretty relaxed dom but you still needed permission.

“Sir, please let me cum I can’t wait any longer” you tried your best to slow your movements a bit.

“I think you can hold it baby, I wanna enjoy you a little longer”.

You could only whine in response and tried to slow your pace but his grip on your hips and his own movements pushed you further and further towards the edge. You tried to squirm out of his grasp but his hands only tightened. It felt like forever until Steve finally gave you permission.

“Go on baby, cum for me you earned it. Fuck your self on my cock and cum all over me”

Your movements were frantic, desperate to chase your orgasm when finally the perfect angle of his cock inside you and your clit against him set you free. You cried out above him and dug your nails in deep.

Steve held you firmly in place and started slamming into you from below, finally letting himself think about cumming. All you could do was hold on for mercy. Moments later he brought you down onto him one final slam as he came inside of you with a cry.

The only sound in the room was both of you trying to catch your breath. You sighed again and collapsed against him, nuzzling your face into his neck. He kissed the side of your face and let you make yourself at home while he caressed your back.

____

One shower and two more orgasms later you were both clean and made your way to the kitchen. Steve was gathering the ingredients for dinner when you hugged him from behind. Your head resting against his back. Steve twisted around and hugged you in full. You both stayed like that for a moment until you looked up at him.

You were so content. Moments like this where you were just domestic were some of the best between you. It wasn’t about money or material, it was just the two of you making dinner and enjoying each other, no barriers.

“Are you really going to take me to France?” Your voice came out muffled against his chest.

“Of course, doll. After dinner I want you to use your new laptop to buy some outfits for the trip. I left my card in your new purse.”

You lifted onto your tiptoes and kissed his nose.

“You really do think of everything, don’t you?”

“What can I say? I’m a planner” he retorted.

You didn’t know it yet but Steve was going to ask you to become official while you were there. He wasn’t worried in the slightest. In fact he’d never been so sure about something in his life.

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