#remember when everything was happy and full of gay panic

[scmg11]

KATE BISHOP x READER

THE WORLD’S GREATEST ARCHER (PART 4)

A/N: HELLOO BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE!! First of all MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

How are you guys?!

Anyway, I know last chapter was pretty intense and so full of words, but I hope you enjoyed it!

Here is part 4 of The World's Greatest Archer!

Enjoy ❤️.

Sending so much love to each one of you to wherever you are ❤️.

-

Summary: Y/N and Kate have dinner with Eleanor and Jack. Then Y/N has to save Kate's and Clint's ass from the tracksuits.

Warnings: none.

Word count: 8736 words.

-

"Y/N drop it. I’m not gonna show my Hawkeye gadgets collection to you."

"Oh c’mon! I need anything I can gather to mock him!" Y/N pressed after they exited the subway, patting the archer’s arm pleadingly.

"No, because I know what you’re trying to do."

"Enlighten me then. What am I trying to do?" Y/N smirked mischievously as Kate rolled her eyes and pushed on the girl’s shoulder softly, making her falter a bit in her steps.

"You want to come into my room to see your poster." Kate started with an accusatory tone, a small lilt of fond exasperation also clear in her voice, as she stared Y/N down and watched as she put a clearly fake innocent face on with a big, bright smile adorning her beautiful features. They fell back into step, walking side by side, their arms brushing softly from time to time, and both shivered when the slightest of touches of their hands between their bodies triggered hard goosebumps down their spines and made electricity invade every cell of their bodies deliciously, also warming them up just a bit from the cold of the night as snow fell down the streets, in front of them, on their heads and settling on their hair softly, wrapping the city in a wonderfully, fairy white blanket. They thanked the cold so they could cover their blushes up on their cheeks and pretend it was due to the cold wind hitting their skin, when in fact it was their gay panic transforming them in blushing, flushing messes as they couldn’t even function properly with just a small brush of a hand on their own, "I’m not gonna show it to you. It’s embarrassing now that I actually know you."

"I don’t think it’s embarrassing Kate! Me falling on my ass right in front of my date during my first date ever is embarrassing. My mom talking freely about her sex life with me to mess up with me is extremely embarrassing. Walking in on Hulk after taking a bath and seeing him naked is embarrassing, especially when you had to fight alongside him. I can keep listing all the things that are embarrassing but you having a giant poster of me in you room is not embarrassing. It’s everything but embarrassing. It’s cute, adorable, pretty badass."

"Did you really see the Hulk naked?" Kate asked with wide eyes and shivered alongside Y/N after she nodded at her in affirmation, "okay, you made some pretty solid points, but it’s still embarrassing to me. Besides, we would be really lucky if my mom will let us go to the bathroom, let alone let us chill in my bedroom. She will be in her investigator, protective mom mood tonight."

"It’s understandable. She wants to know you’re safe. I will assure her that as long as you are with me, you will be safe." Y/N stated resolutely as she met Kate’s eyes and smiled at her, the young archer reciprocating it right after and bumped their shoulders together in appreciation.

"Okay, remember, do not meet her eyes when she scrutinizes you, she will read your mind and discover all your secrets in a second." Kate stated seriously after they entered her mom’s building and waited patiently for the elevator to arrive.

"Well that’s impressive, especially since I can read minds too. Does your mom’s eyes glow like mine?" Y/N joked in a light tone and watched as Kate pressed the button for the penthouse floor with a snort.

"Only when she’s angry. That’s not a good sight to witness." Kate cracked a joke herself and felt pride swell in her chest at the cute giggle the Y/E/C girl emitted right after.

"Let me guess, you witnessed it too many times to count."

"Yeah, I like to get on her nerves." Kate admitted with a mix of pride and shyness right before the elevator’s doors opened, "after you."

"Such a gentlewoman." Y/N joked some more to cover up the light blush on her cheeks as her stomach flipped over itself at the chivalrous gesture, doing it again when Kate took her coat from her and hung it on the coat-rack.

"Hey mom."

"Honey, come here." Y/N watched with fondness swimming into her Y/E/C eyes as the two hugged and felt a tight grip around her heart thinking about how much she missed her mom. "Y/N."

"Hi, miss B-" Y/N started but she stopped herself mid-sentence when Eleanor stared at her pointedly, "Eleanor." They shared a quick hug before pulling away gently.

"Dinner will be ready in 20 minutes or so. Why don’t you go chill a bit in your room? Oh and don’t forget to show her around." Y/N tried with all her might to keep her wide grin at bay and prevent it to broaden as she looked at Eleanor smiling at them both genuinely before throwing a small glance in Kate’s direction, who was flushing furiously beside them.

"If Kate is up to it, I would love that."

Kate rolled her eyes at the girl stressing the word ‘love’ but sighed in relief when her mom didn’t pick it up and looked at her in a mix of reprimand and expectation, "follow me then Y/N!"

"Great! I’ll call you when dinner is ready!"

"Okay mom, thank you!" Kate yelled over her shoulder as she pushed Y/N up the stairs and smiled widely at her before turning around and heard the girl chuckle under her breath, "do not say a word when we’ll get to my room. Or I’m shutting you up with a punch."

Kate’s stomach exploded into millions of butterflies at Y/N’s giggles increasing in volume and had to retrieve her hand away from her lower back to stop herself from caressing it affectionately, "not even to comment how cute it is that you have me on your wall?"

"Y/N, I’m seriously thinking about skipping my room in this house tour."

"Oh please no! For all I care, despite this huge house is amazing, I only want to see your bedroom." Kate groaned in fond frustration and exasperation and quickly showed Y/N around, smiling widely at the awe expression never leaving Y/N’s features before sighing out loud in anticipation when they arrived outside the last room of the house Kate needed to show to Y/N.

"Not. A. Word." Kate gritted out before moving to the side and inviting Y/N into the room, who had a shit eating grin on her features instead.

"You worry too much Bi-holy shit!" Y/N stopped mid-sentence to exclaim with wide eyes and her mouth hanging open when her eyes immediately fell on the poster in the room.

"Hey! I told you to not say anything!" Kate whined childishly as she stomped her feet on the ground with a big pout in her lips and her arms crossed under her chest.

"Well excuse me, it was well due that exclamation!" Y/N smiled brightly as her eyes stayed fixated on the poster, hearing Kate sigh some more as she closed the door, the faint click of the door closing filling the silence in the room, before she approached her and stopped right beside her, bumping their shoulders together purposefully. "This is huge."

"Can you focus on anything else please?"

"Oh like that picture of Clint you have on that cork board?" Y/N countered back as she took her eyes off the poster and met Kate’s eyes with a big, smug smirk.

Kate groaned out loud and hid her flushing face into her hands, "I hate you." The archer’s voice came out muffled but still intelligible enough for Y/N, who laughed heartily at the cute and adorable reaction.

"Don’t worry." Y/N spoke up after her giggles subsided and patted the archer’s back softly, making her remove her hands from her face and met her intoxicating blue eyes with a reassuring grin, "your secret is safe with me."

"I don’t even know what’s more embarrassing now."

"Like I said before, it’s not embarrassing. Maybe that Clint picture can be a bit shocking, but this poster it’s so fucking cool!"

"You’re just saying this because you are in it." Kate rolled her eyes in fond annoyance and exasperation and pushed on Y/N’s shoulder gently.

"No, I’m not, I swear! I didn’t know I looked that good while sweaty and wore out."

"You are always looking good." Kate widened her eyes and clamped her mouth shut with her hands after that, something that made Y/N cackle up in amusement, "shit, I said it out loud, didn’t I?"

"Yep." Y/N affirmed with a wide smile, trying to act cool while her insides pretty much exploded at the admission, as she stressed the ‘o’ and watched in delight as an hard blush appeared on the archer’s face and it made her smile to widen ten sizes, "thanks. You also always look amazing Kate."

Y/N watched as Kate’s red hue deepened instantly at her truthful words spoken with a soft tone and walked closer to her, "why is it hot all of a sudden? Do you feel hot too? Should I put the air conditioning on?" Kate rattled off quickly as she fanned her scorching red face while adamantly avoiding the girl’s gaze she was trying to make Kate to meet.

"No Kate. Calm down, you are starting to resemble a tomato." Y/N gingerly put her hand on Kate’s back and caressed it gently, feeling the archer’s muscles stiffening under her touch, but also noticing how defined they were but restrained herself to let her hand wander around to feel them thoroughly, before they relaxed at her small, comforting circles. "Okay, that’s good." Y/N commented as she noticed the red blush was starting to subside and decided to give some mercy to the black haired beauty by changing their conversation subject, "can we talk about that cute little bow?"

Kate’s face erupted in a wide grin at the question and her eyes instantly fell on that aforementioned item hung on the wall, "it was my first bow. My mom wasn’t so happy to buy it and she wasn’t sure it was a good, safe and appropriate sport for a little girl but she quickly changed her mind when I started winning trophies and medals, understanding I was born to do that." Y/N smiled warmly at the archer and went to open her mouth to reply to Kate’s story but she was stopped in her tracks by a soft, faint knock on the door, "come in!"

A second later the door opened and Eleanor’s face appeared with a big smile, "dinner’s ready girls!"

-

It was a surprisingly quite and comfortable dinner. Both girls were expecting Eleanor to ask a lot of questions but she just tried to know Y/N better with questions about herself, not getting too much deeper into her personal life. "So Y/N, any significant other in your life?"

"Mom!"

"What? It’s just a simple question." Kate rolled her eyes at her mother’s innocent comeback and watched as she took a sip of her wine with her eyes fixated on Y/N, who was totally unaffected by the question.

"No, I dated a few people but those were just flings. I had been too busy to actually date someone, with y’know the blip and the whole fighting Thanos thing." Y/N explained calmly as she sipped gingerly at her water before placing it back on the table.

"Oh yeah!" Kate interjected with bright eyes and turned towards Y/N excitedly.

"Thank you by the way." Jack butted in with a grateful smile and lifted his glass up to Y/N, who smiled politely at him and nodded softly.

"Don’t mention it." Y/N continued to smile at the man before settling her eyes on Eleanor once again and broadened her grin as she leaned her clasped hands on the table and kept going, "so yeah, I had been distracted by few things to consider getting myself into the dating area seriously."

"But it must be a little lonely, isn’t it?" Eleanor sported a sad expression, a gesture that screamed ‘motherly’ all over and dusted a sense of longing into her chest. She missed her mom like crazy.

"Okay mom, enough. Let’s change the subject, can we? Jack the dinner was wonderful."

Y/N turned her head gently towards Kate and lifted imperceptibly her eyebrow at her after hearing her totally too sweet tone and tried to understand where she was going with this but the archer kept staring at Jack head on, "thank you darling. The secret for a good risotto is to agitate with love."

"Wow, you cook, you are rich, you care for my mom. You are almost too good to be true." Kate smiled brightly at the man, a small bite hiding behind her tone that only Y/N could detect but she kept a poker face on and listened silently and intently to the conversation. "So what’s with all these swords, you fence?"

"I dabble."

"So why don’t we take out one of these babies and we have some fun?"

"Well-"

Jack was stopped mid-sentence by Eleanor who shook her head in determination, "no, please no. We had enough drama this past week. I want to enjoy a normal, quiet dinner."

"Perhaps your mother’s right." Jack smiled wistfully at Kate as she patted Eleanor’s hand gently with a loving grin.

"Oh c’mon, why not?" Y/N wanted to laugh at the girl’s stubbornness, but she was also intrigued as to why she was so adamant to fence with Jack.

"I’m convinced."

"Oh please, she only said ‘why not?’. That’s not a valid argument. It’s not even an argument." Eleanor shook her head in disappointment at her fiancée when he just smiled guiltily at her.

"And yet." Kate smiled when Jack excused to take his equipment and met her mother’s unamused gaze, "c’mon, it could be fun."

They all sat up from the table when Jack returned and gave Kate her equipment before helping him in moving the table out of the way, "she can be so stubborn sometimes."

"Yeah, but I prefer the term eager." Y/N joked with a giggle and watched as Kate finished suiting up and waited for Jack to get in position.

"Honey, be careful." Eleanor said as she crossed her arms and leaned her back on the wall with Y/N leaning on her shoulder on the doorstep of the living room with her crossed arms.

"When am I not careful, mom?" Y/N chastised herself for finding Kate slipping the protective mask on with just an imperceptible tilt of her head and smiled in amusement instead when she heard Eleanor’s witty comeback.

"I was actually talking to Jack."

Y/N watched mesmerized at how good Kate actually was, her body moving gracefully with precise jabs, "stop letting me win Jack!" That made Y/N furrow her eyebrows at that, detecting a clear lie into Jack’s tone when he affirmed the opposite.

"Kate!" Y/N gasped in shock and got ready to stop her friend with her magic as her hands surged forward in position and her eyes glowed blue when Kate lunged forward with her sword and almost hit Jack in the face, but the man was quicker than her and parried perfectly, making Kate’s sword fall off her hand and roll onto the floor. "You could’ve hurt him!" Eleanor’s tone was full of anger, reprimand and shock as she stared at her daughter with eyes wide with disappoint.

"No, I knew he would parried my jab. I wanted to prove he is lying, which I successfully did." Kate took her hat off hastily and stared Jack down, who was acting too casual and laid back for Y/N’s and Kate’s likings.

"I might’ve downplayed my skills and lied repeatedly about them." Jack stated nonchalantly and smiled at Eleanor, "I’m gonna go change."

"You are unbelievable." Eleanor pointed her forefinger at her daughter before walking into the living room while shaking her head disapprovingly.

"I was just trying to prove to you Jack is a bit suspicious." Kate started as she pulled the zipper of the uniform down and hastily took it off of her, letting her black t-shirt show her amazing arms and deciding to neglect her blazer for now since she was too hot from the argument unfolding with her mom to dress herself back at the moment. Y/N had a serious hard time in not ogling at the wonderful sight that was Kate in a simple black t-shirt and swallowed imperceptibly to get rid of the sudden dryness of her throat as she tried to focus and understand what Kate was telling to her mom about Jack, since the girl talked about her suspicions about him with her the night prior and she was right, everything was a bit dubious and he was extremely untrustworthy despite him trying to put up an innocent façade with too much excitement and eagerness about everything as he tried to appear perfect in front of everyone. But was he really perfect? That’s what they were trying to find out. Yeah, they. Y/N decided to help Kate investigate on her mom’s flawless and perfect fiancée. "He is too perfect! He is hiding something!"

"Oh don’t be ridiculous!" Eleanor waved Kate off as she sat on a small armchair while Y/N stayed closer to the archer as she placed forcefully the uniform on the couch’s cushions and walked towards her mother. Y/N stayed closer to the couch to assess the scene in front of her silently, "you are overreacting."

"Don’t you think it’s a bit suspicious that the same night his uncle threatens you, he is murdered by a sword. How many murders happens by a sword? Let me take a guess. Zero, mom." Kate sat on the small table and crossed her arms angrily as she clenched on her jaw, the gesture making the muscles there pop out and making her jaw more defined and that caused Y/N’s head to spin a bit.

"You are looking too much into things."

"It’s more than that! There are street gangs Molotov cocktails, and a ninja-"

"STREET GANGS?!"

"What is a Molotov cocktail- wait- are you old enough to drink?" Jack came back into the living room and went straight for the bottles full of alcohol to pour himself a drink, making a joke with a wide grin as he asked in worry with his forefinger sticking out from its grip on the glass in his hand to point at Kate suspiciously his question.

Y/N wanted to snort at the incredulous look Kate regarded Jack with before rolling her eyes at him, then focusing on her mom talking once again about her future in Bishop Security. "Now please, apologize to Jack."

Kate stared ahead of her for a few seconds before turning her head towards him with a mischievous and mocking grin on her lips, "I’m sorry Jack for pushing you to say the truth."

Jack laughed heartily at Kate and shook his head, rounding his arm around Eleanor’s waist as she made her way towards him while also a small chuckle left her lips, "she is a smart one, isn’t she?" Jack passed the glass in his hand to Eleanor, who thanked him with a grateful smile, before he got out of his embrace with Eleanor and walked towards Kate as he rummaged into his blazer’s pocket for something, "butterscotch?"

Y/N watched as Kate’s smug grin fell of her face and worry settled on her features as she stared at the sweet candy into Jack’s hands before making her way towards Y/N to retrieve her blazer and coat, putting them on quickly, "I- I have to go."

"Kate what’s wrong?"

"N-nothing. I just- I just remembered I need to take care of something for w-work."

"Kate I’m your boss, I’m sure I can let it slide."

"I’m sorry. I’m- I’m gonna call you later. Let’s go." Kate grabbed Y/N’s hand and pushed her out of the living room, Y/N having just enough time to say bye to the both of them as she got pulled away, stopping just to let her take her own coat before walking out of the penthouse, ignoring Eleanor’s gaze that followed them and their joined hands until the elevator’s doors closed, then Eleanor’s eyes focused on Jack who shook his head imperceptibly and shrugged unknowingly before popping the candy into his mouth and smiling sweetly at his fiancée.

"Kate what’s wrong? Why did we leave so fast?" Y/N asked in worry as she tried to keep up with Kate’s fast pace as she walked as far away as possible from the building, before stretching a hand up to call a cab.

"He offered me a butterscotch."

"Okay and?" Y/N asked confused as she opened the taxi’s door and let Kate in first before following her.

"It was a monogrammed butterscotch, his uncle’s Armand III’s butterscotch." Kate clarified as she typed away on her phone.

"Oh shit." Y/N exclaimed with widened eyes and bit down on her bottom lip as she stressed over the situation in her head, "are you sure?"

"Yeah, I saw them when I sneaked into Armand’s house the night I met you. I’m 100% sure." Kate huffed out at something on her phone before meeting Y/N’s eyes, making the girl believe what she was saying and what she was thinking about Jack, her suspicions starting to become really solid, to strengthen and to cement more and more each passing day their worries about Jack.

"Okay, fuck this is a lot."

"I’m trying to contact Clint but he is playing hard to get and he is not answering me. I’m gonna call him." Kate called Clint and put the phone on speaker, huffing in frustration when it stopped a few seconds later. "Should I try again?" Kate asked rhetorically, meeting Y/N’s eyes for a second before clicking on Clint’s name and called him again, smiling when this time she heard him pick up the phone, "y’know sometimes calling again isn’t the best option but it wor-"

"I’m sorry. Clint Barton can’t come to the phone right now."

Kate stared wide eyed in shock at a just as much astounded Y/N at the unknown voice and both looked down at the phone in the young archer’s hand when the stranger hung up the phone, "who the hell was that?"

"I don’t know, let me track Clint’s phone." Kate answered absentmindedly at Y/N’s question as she was already working on locating Clint’s phone, "yes!" She exclaimed in victory when she got the exact position and showed the screen to Y/N, "sir, I need you to speed up please."

-

"Okay Kate, we’re gonna split up so we can cover the entire perimeter quickly. When we’re done we’ll meet here again."

"Yeah, okay." Kate nodded in understanding as she secured the quiver behind her back while adjusting her bow in her hand.

"We’re just checking out for threats or if there are guards outside. We’re not attacking. Not yet at least." Y/N stated and punctuated slowly each word to make Kate understand to lay low for now. "We’ll meet here again in 3 minutes."

"Noted." Kate nodded once again, Y/N not noticing the absentminded tone she used while her eyes focused all around them. "I’ll see you in a bit."

"See you in a bit." Y/N smiled at her and went to turn around to cover the side of the building’s perimeter she needed to cover but Kate’s voice stopped her and made her turn back around to face her.

"If I see a possible threat, what do I do?"

"Just knock them out. As quietly as possible."

"Okay, yeah!"

Y/N snorted at Kate’s enthusiasm and watched her turn around before doing the same and getting to work. Thankfully the area was clear, no one was outside, so she assumed all the tracksuits were inside the building. They weren’t exactly the smartest gangs she faced but they knew how to be dangerous and someone could get hurt easily when they were around, especially if their boss was involved directly, so she was extremely cautious to not be heard from them because it would get Fisk’s attention if it got to him that two Avengers were snooping around in his business. She sighed in relief when she didn’t hear any sound that could mean Kate encountered a tracksuit and had to knock him out and walked back to their designated spot. "Kate, where are you?" Y/N asked in a hushed tone as she controlled her watch and noticed she had been waiting for Kate to come back to where she told her to for about 5 minutes now. A few seconds later the sound of a glass breaking caught her attention and made her move her head up to the roof as her eyebrows furrowed together in confusion, "what the-?" Y/N’s eyes immediately became blue as she used her magic to fly on the roof and assess what the hell just happened only for her mouth to slack open when she noticed the window’s glass that was right in the middle of the roof had a big whole in it, an human size whole, and Y/N face slapped herself when realization hit her. "Kate, what did you do?" Y/N murmured under her breath and sighed when she leaned over a bit on the window’s broken glass, being careful in not being caught by the tracksuits, to assess that in fact Kate fell from the roof right in front of Clint sat on a chair - she smiled a bit when she noticed he had a rope in his hands, meaning he already got his hands out of the rope tied around his wrists - and that now they were surrounded by at least 10 tracksuits all pointing a gun at them.

"Oh wow." Kate exclaimed as she recovered from the impact and looked around the room with wide, incredulous eyes, something that made Y/N snort under her breath as she tried to listed to the conversation below, coming up to her a bit muffled but she could still clearly detect what they were saying. "I-I didn’t realize we were supposed to bring guns." Kate laughed softly under her breath before rolling her shoulder a bit, "ow."

"Oh Kate, you should’ve listened to me!" Y/N exclaimed under her breath as she tried to come up with a plan to let them escape without getting them hurt. "I can’t just land there and knock everyone unconscious. I don’t know how many people are there. They are heavily armed. Okay Y/N think." Y/N talked under her breath as she paced back and forth on the roof, "great, they’re tying Kate and Clint to a kiddie ride." Y/N lifted her hands up in frustration before bringing them to her face to cover it a few seconds then moved her fingers up and massaged her temples. "Think Y/N. Think. Find the best solu-" Y/N stopped herself in her tracks and trailed off when she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket and lifted it up to see who was calling. Panic rose into her chest when she read the called ID and willed her voice to sound casual when she answered the call, "hey mom."

Y/N slapped herself on her forehead at the squeaky, definitely not casual and chill voice she used, her tone shrill and showing she was panicking, "hey honey, how are you?"

"Oh I’m good, yeah. Yeah. You? How are you doing? What’s up?" Y/N whined internally at her pathetic self for not acting normal during a stupid phone call with her mother and pleaded herself to get a fucking grip on herself. She hated lying to her mom and she knew her mother would know the truth nonetheless she was chill or not.

"I’m good. Everything okay? You seem stressed."

"What? Pfft! No, everything’s f-fine! Y’know just spending time with Clint, you know how much I enjoy making fun of him. Oh I’m also spending time with Kate, the girl we saved from some troubles she put herself into. She is so funny and sweet! You should meet her, maybe you can visit soon so you can meet her properly and-"

"Y/N! Slow down sweety." Wanda stopped Y/N from word-vomiting some more and let a small, knowing smirk appear on her features at her daughter’s behavior, "what trouble did you and Clint find yourself in now?"

"Ugh, I hate that you know me so well and know how to read through my voice." Y/N grunted as her mother laughed heartily and chanced another look at her friends now riding on their rides as sun started to rise in the early morning sky. "I can’t really talk right now, I need to find a way to pull Kate and Clint away from our threats."

"Who are you against to?"

"Kingpin and tracksuits."

"Oh shit, how bad it is?" Wanda asked in worry as she bit down on her bottom lip, a small smile tugging at her lips at Y/N and Clint always finding themselves in these kind of situations when they were together.

"They are currently tied on kiddie rides while tracksuits makes fun of them." Y/N explained with a loud exhale at the end of her sentence, rubbing her temple harder to try to find a good plan of action, but her mother’s laugh made her stop pacing.

"Oh my god, can you please record it? I want to blackmail him with that!"

"Mom!"

"What? I’m sure it’s a funny sight and I want to enjoy it too!"

"Unbelievable." Y/N snorted under her breath as she shook her head at her mother’s antics, hearing her continuing laughing her ass off as she probably was trying to picture the scene in her head. "I’m trying to save their ass by squeezing my brain while you want me to record him ride a pony."

"Is he riding a pony?! Oh you have to absolutely record it now!"

"Mom!" Y/N laughed heartily at her mother’s Wanda’s sentence and she had to cover her mouth with her free hand not holding her phone to her mouth to prevent the tracksuits to hear her loud voice and small chuckles and make her cover blow up and pretty much giving away, communicate and tell them her actual position on the roof. She tried to regain her composure as she giggled some more alongside her mother, who was clearly having too much fun with Clint riding a pony, but she was also feeling a care-free warmth invade her chest at how genuine and happy her mother seemed to be right now, something that was lacking a lot these days, not after what they did in Westview. "Stop laughing! I need to focus, this is serious. I need to find a plan to help them out without having about 40 tracksuits shooting at us."

"Do you need help? I can help you from here if you tell me about your whereabouts, how the building is organized, what are your access points, your exits and so on."

So Y/N started to explain everything to her mother who listened intently and spoke up only a few times, helping Y/N come up with a pretty solid plan of action. "Okay, I’ll call you later. I love you."

"I love you sweety, please be careful and tell Clint we need to talk. Oh and don’t forget to record him, just a short video, for me! Thank you hun! Good luck with mission ‘save Kate’s and Clint’s ass’! Bye, love you!"

"Love you mum." Y/N hung up her phone and, as she promised her, recorded a short video for her mother, laughing under her breath at the clear distress, anger and annoyance on Clint’s features before stopping the video. She almost dropped her phone and made it fall right in front of the tracksuits from the hole in the window when her eyes settled on Kate, riding a spaceship, her body rocking softly to the kiddie ride’s rhythm as her face stayed neutral with a sprinkle of irritation on her features. She had to literally detach her eyes from that mesmerizing and extremely hot sight, pulled her mind out of the gutter and spurred into action, using her magic to stop the kiddie rides and watched as the tracksuits got quickly bored and started minding their own business. She got ready to teleport right beside Kate and Clint to help them out when someone else entered the room, making her stop in her tracks. "Shit, it wasn’t in the plan another one of them!" Y/N furrowed her brows when she watched the girl free Clint’s hand but tied him up again when she understood he wasn’t exactly the best at using sign language, "oh shit! Kate!" Y/N whispered under breath in alarm when she saw the girl wrap her arms around Kate’s neck and tried to strangle her, but a curly, black haired man beside her stopped her. "Okay, I can’t exactly appear out of nowhere now, but I can always free them from- okay nevermind, Clint just freed himself." Y/N rolled her eyes in fond exasperation and sighed aloud, "show off! Well it seems I just need to free Kate’s hands, oh no, playboy is keeping an eye on her. I can’t use my magic, he will see it and he could shoot at her. That’s not happening." Just as she was about to at least melt the gun in his hand with her magic, an arrow flew in the air, scratched the boy’s ear, making him distract from Kate as he hissed in pain, before landing between Kate’s hands and on the tape to rip it off and free Kate’s hands and wrists. "Oh fuck it. To hell the plan, I’ll improvise." Y/N lowered down from the window and fell right between the fight taking place in that moment, immediately knocking a thug out when he tried to charge towards Kate. "Hey Bishop!"

"Y/N!"

"What happened to ‘let’s lay low and check the perimeter’?" Y/N asked in amusement with a smug grin, watching gleefully at the sheepish blush appearing on Kate’s face, making her even more beautiful as her face contorted in apology.

"I’m sorry, I saw an opportunity and I wanted to help Clint."

"Don’t worry, the most important thing is that you’re safe. Both of you. Watch out!" Y/N pointed behind Kate and quickly lifted the tracksuit charging towards her with a mist of blue and threw him on the other side of the room, slamming it into a wall.

"Behind you!" Kate threw a chair over Y/N’s head when she crouched down and hit a tracksuit on his face making him fall on the ground, unconscious.

"Thanks!" Y/N smiled at Kate in gratitude and watched as a big smile unfolded on her beautiful face while nodding at her in acknowledgement. "Nice shot. You did a good throw."

"Thanks! It’s all in the tricep and wrist y’know?!" Kate explained as she pointed with her hand at her arm, "but the bicep also does its good work. I mean, it’s the reason why I workout so-"

"Hey! On your left!"

"Oh shit, hold on!" Kate rounded her whole body around and kicked a tracksuit right in his face, making him fall on the ground while Y/N took care of two others trying to shoot them with their guns, making the guns disappear from their hands before lifting them off the ground and smashing them together face to face.

"What’s up with me and all these Steve’s quotes?" Y/N asked absentmindedly as she assessed the room for other possible threats coming towards them while Kate snorted under her breath at her sentence as she punched particularly hard another tracksuit’s face, right on his nose. They both grimaced when they heard a loud cracking sound as they saw the man fall on the ground with a shriek of pain.

"See? Biceps do a great work too!" Kate exclaimed after she lifted a tracksuit off his feel and slammed him on the ground forcefully.

"Here he is!"

"My hearing aid is broken, we need to go."

"Hold on." Kate stopped them in their tracks, making Y/N stop Clint from moving since he couldn’t hear at the moment, and she run towards the guy who was pointing a gun at her while she was still tied on that kiddie ride and slid on the ground before grasping the pillar and making her whole body round around it before hitting the guy’s legs and making him fall on the ground hard, making Y/N believe she had never seen something so cool and so hot in her life. "We can go now."

-

"Admit it grandpa, you like to show off!" Y/N smirked around the edge of her cup as she made fun of Clint after his show of jumping off the bridge and stuck them on the side of a train passing by under the bridge. They returned to Y/N’s apartment to rest a bit after their sleepless night before deciding to investigate more on Jack. The whole situation being too sketchy to not look into it.

"Look who’s talking. You are like your mother, always showing off your hands and their movements. We get it, you two are good with your fingers!" Clint exclaimed in fond exasperation before taking a big sip of his coffee and leaned his head on his arm on the table. Y/N wanted to snort at the unintentional innuendo and was ready to speak out a witty remark, but she stopped in her tracks to gulp the lump that formed in her sudden dry throat when she saw with the corner of her eyes Kate, sat beside her at her kitchen table, fidget on her spot as she cleared her throat after chocking on her coffee’s sip then biting down on her bottom lip gently.

"Let’s all take a well needed nap. Clint the guest room is all yours."

"Thank you." Clint lifted his head up from his arm and smiled in appreciation at Y/N before sitting up slowly with a few grunts and limped slightly towards the guest room.

"Kate you can take my bed. I’ll tidy the kitchen up and then I have to call my mom. She had been spamming my phone asking for the video of Clint riding a pony." Y/N giggled under her breath and felt her heart explode in her ribcage when she heard a small chuckle from beside her.

"I want that too, please!" Kate spoke up before pouting at Y/N and smiling triumphantly when a ding echoed around the kitchen, "thank you! And are you kidding? I’m staying on the couch. Go take some rest too."

"No, you are taking my room. End of discussion."

"I’m not moving till you go to sleep on your bed." Kate countered back and stared Y/N down determinedly, making Y/N almost get lost in her beautiful ocean blue irises as her brain turned into mush.

"Then I guess we’re staying here then." Y/N crossed her arms and lifted her right eyebrow up in challenge.

"How about a compromise? We share your bed or your couch. Whatever works with you."

"Okay! Let me just tell my mom I’ll call her later, she wanted to know if we got home safe."

They tidied up the kitchen and made a beeline towards Y/N’s room and Y/N’s bed, sprawling on it unceremoniously as the fatigue of the night caught up with them. "I don’t bite Y/N." Kate giggled when she noticed Y/N moved towards the far end of the bed, almost too close to the edge of the bed to fall off of it, "you’re gonna fall off the bed. C’mere."

Y/N took deep calming breaths as she scooted closer to the archer and almost combusted into mushy feelings when Kate grasped her hand and cuddled onto her arm, nuzzling her cheek on her shoulder as a hum of approval left her lips, "should I put an alarm on?"

"Yeah, what time is it?" Kate asked after breathing out blissfully, her sore muscles relaxing and her breath evening as sleep started to wrap her in a good, deep slumber.

"11 a.m."

"Okay, we had brunch before getting back here, so I guess you can put an alarm for 4 p.m? 5 p.m?"

"4:30 p.m. it is." Y/N smiled as she put an alarm on and placed her phone on the nightstand, before relaxing as much as she could with the archer clinching onto her, "goodnight Kate."

"Goodnight Y/N, sleep well."

-

"So Kate is working with you guys on an Avengers level threat?" Eleanor asked in disbelief as she eyed Y/N and Clint sat respectively on Kate’s right and left side.

"Well not exactly." Clint answered truthfully as he put a poker face on and acted chill, something Kate was struggling to do since she was bouncing her leg under the table as she wrung her fingers anxiously and Y/N had some troubles in keeping her smile at bay as she watched that adorable sight.

"I’m helping him though. You see CB1 has some problems and he needs my help-"

"CB1?" Clint asked under his breath with a confused face as Y/N chocked on the sip of tea she was drinking at the nickname Kate just made up. "No one calls me that way, CB1."

"I’m just trying it for a second." Kate murmured under her breath with her head turned slightly towards Clint before focusing her attention back on her mother, who was still staring at her confused and completely unconvinced about all this entire situation of having two Avengers in her penthouse with her daughter and about these two Avengers allegedly working on a case with her, "as I was saying, we were just passing by here and we needed to use the bathroom, well he did. So we’re just gonna-"

"A notification on my phone tells me-" Eleanor’s authoritative tone, alongside with her mother’s inquisitive stare and scary gaze, stopped Kate in her tracks as she was sitting up from her chair to escape this situation, but it seemed it was all completely useless, "that someone tried to log into my account 10 minutes ago. Any thoughts Kate?"

"Nope." Kate stressed the ‘p’ out as she avoided her gaze, "we’re just gonna go, there’s-"

"Can I see you out?" Eleanor met Clint’s eyes before focusing her gaze on Y/N’s Y/E/C irises, both tentatively nodding with forced smiles on, clearly in distress and embarrassment.

"Yeah, we’re gonna-"

"We stay." Kate sat back down dejected at her mother’s tone that left no room for objection and sighed out loud in frustration while crossing her arms under her chest and laying back on the chair’s backrest.

"I’m just gonna wait right outside of the building. If you need something text me." Y/N snorted under her breath to not be caught when she saw Kate jump slightly on her spot at the sudden voice in her head before meeting Y/N’s Y/E/C irises with her wide, excited, curious but also shocked eyes then nodded right after she wrapped her mind around Y/N’s words. After about an hour Y/N was surprised to see Kate exiting the building with a determined face on, "well that was fast."

"Next time warn me when you decide to talk through my mind, I almost screamed in fright!" Kate approached Y/N and slapped her arm gently when she heard her giggle, before starting their walk towards Y/N’s apartment.

"I’m sorry! I’ll clap my hands next time so every eyes in the room will be on me, just to be sure I’m being careful and sneaky." Y/N joked with a witty remark and chuckled some more when Kate grunted in frustration and bumped their shoulders gently, making her stumble just a bit in her steps.

"Anyway, I need to stop quickly to the store to buy a few things." Kate stated vaguely a few moments later, looking in the distance with a proud smirk and resolve shining brightly into her ocean blue eyes.

"Why?" When Kate didn’t answer, Y/N asked more, "do you care to elaborate?"

"I need to buy a few things for Clint." Kate kept on sharing just a bit of informations as she reviewed her plan into her mind, still looking ahead of her.

"Okay? Why?" Y/N tried again, getting amused but also a bit exasperated in a good way about Kate’s lack of elaboration.

"I just wanted to buy a few things for him."

"Kate." Y/N stated with an amused tone as she pushed the archer a bit on her shoulder with her own and giggled when she heard the black haired girl snort in happiness at her own teasing, pushing on Y/N back just to bask a bit more in their playful banter and bickering, both not caring not even a bit about the strange looks people passing by them were giving them, "you looking ahead of you with that smile is freaking me out."

"I was thinking what to buy for Clint!" Kate laughed as they rounded the corner and stopped at a traffic light and waited for the red light to turn green walk across the street. "He is postponing his flight to go back to his family just to help me, so I wanted to make his stay here a bit more homey and christmassy."

"Kate." Y/N started with a warming tone as she looked at her in awe, her heart swelling about three sizes at the thoughtful gesture Kate was about to make for Clint to make him feel a bit more at home despite this entire mess they found themselves in, not only because Kate decided to put on Ronin’s suit to help people out at that auction, "that’s so sweet of you and so very thoughtful!"

"I owe him this and so much more. The same goes with you. You are making sure I’m always safe. You didn’t have to wait for me outside my mom’s building but you did."

"You don’t need to thank me, but if you want to,100.000 dollars would suffice." Y/N joked and reveled in the snort followed by the cutest giggle she ever heard Kate emitted and sighed out loud blissfully as they continued to stroll over New York’s busy streets.

-

"Okay, you need to make sure it turns around the corner to hit the TV to turn it off, okay?"

Kate nodded and took a deep breath before snapping the small, round decoration from her middle and ring finger and made it fly across the room. "Who wants some more-"

"Oh shit!" Kate hastily run towards Y/N that got hit right on her forehead by the decoration, the hit being a bit harsh that it made her stumble back and fall on the couch when the back of her knees hit the armrest of her couch. "You okay?"

"Which one of the three Kates in front of me is asking?"

Kate giggled and shook her head before caressing gently Y/N’s forehead to assess the red scratch the decoration left on Y/N’s forehead, making Y/N’s stomach flip over itself at the sweet, tender touch, and sighed when she noticed it will fade in a few hours since it didn’t cut her skin off, "the middle one."

Clint rolled his eyes at Kate’s joke and helped Y/N up to a sitting position, "I think it’s time for bed."

"Yeah." Y/N nodded still a bit unfocused and turned her head around to look at Clint into his eyes, "I think so too."

"Do you want to put some ice on that?" Clint asked as he was already walking towards the kitchen but Y/N stopped him in his tracks.

"No don’t worry, I’m okay. The guest room is all yours grandpa."

"Glad you’re feeling better." Y/N and Kate giggled at Clint’s grunt at her nickname and shook his head amusedly, "goodnight girls, go to sleep, it’s gonna be a great and busy day tomorrow!"

The thee of them made their ways towards the two respective bedrooms after changing into more comfy clothes. Kate sighed out blissfully at the comfort settling on her when her muscles relaxed on Y/N’s comfortable bed and heard the girl do the same, "thank you for letting me borrow your clothes."

Y/N had to literally stop ogling like a lovesick puppy Kate with her clothes, but she couldn’t help herself when she had the cutest sight she had ever witnessed laying right beside her in her bed - let’s not focus on that particular detail to prevent Y/N’s heart to burst out of her ribcage for its maddening quick rate - so she just tried to play it cool by smiling at her and nodding softly, "you don’t have to thank me, it’s not a problem."

"I’m sorry for hitting you." Kate tentatively lifted her hand up and caressed Y/N’s forehead softly, the small indent left by the decoration starting to fade as the flush was subsiding, and made Y/N gasp imperceptibly under her breath at the touch, now aware more than ever about how close their faces were as they laid on their sides, face to face, on her bed.

"Don’t worry, it was an accident." Y/N slapped herself inwardly at her voice quivering, forcing herself to not combust right in front of the young archer’s eyes for her amazing touch, touch that was still happening as her fingers caressed her forehead’s skin gently, and willed herself to compose herself and get a grip on her pathetic, useless gay self, "it was an accident right?"

Kate giggled when Y/N lifted her right eyebrow up inquisitively with a skeptic look on, "oh no, you got me! I better run away!" Kate cracked a joke as she reluctantly pulled her hand away from Y/N’s forehead and lifted them up in surrender and laughed alongside Y/N after putting a frightened look on her face.

"Nice trick by the way."

"Clint never taught it to you?"

"Well when you tend to have magic hands, you usually do tricks with your magic." Y/N joked some more as she lifted a hand up and created a blue mist that moved around her fingers, missing Kate’s small shudder and imperceptible gulp as her head caught an innuendo that clearly wasn’t there, just like it happened that evening, and tried to get her mind out of the gutter, too much busy focusing on her fingers.

"Do you regret having these powers?" Kate asked mesmerized as she stared at the blue mist before meeting Y/N’s eyes, "you told me about your story and how your mother at some point hated her own powers, so I was just curious about your own feelings about your own powers. I mean, you don’t have to answer my question, it was just pure, innocent curiosity-"

"Kate." Y/N grasped Kate’s forearm with a small chuckle to make her stop rambling and smiled at her warmly and tenderly, "I did too, at some point, hate my powers. For a long time I thought about being stupid for loving them when all I did was causing pain to so many people. But recently, after taking a break from everything and everyone, I came to my senses. I got this powers to help people. Just like I always thought. I just- I don’t know lost my way for a while. I was in a really bad and dark place and when you give your demons room to do whatever they want to your brain, well with powers like my powers and my mom’s powers people get hurt. Badly."

"Do you- want to- elaborate?" Kate asked slowly, stressing her words out in a soft voice to not scare Y/N as she stared into space with a completely blank expression on as she played with the hem of Kate’s - well it was actually Y/N’s one - t-shit’s sleeve.

"Have you ever heard about Westview?"

"No."

"Of course not, SWORD covered up the entire thing thanks to Monica. Anyway, Westview is the place where my mom and I were at our lowest and with my mom, we held hostage of an entire small town." Y/N started and grimaced when Kate gasped in shock, but she fought against the tears and got herself ready to retell Kate what she did to the people of Westview with the help of her mom and what really happened there.

#kate bishop #katebishop #kate bishop fics #kate bishop x reader #kate bishop imagines #kate bishop imagine #kate bishop fanfics #kate bishop fanfiction #kate bishop smut #kate bishop fanfic #kate bishop fic #kate bishop x y/n #kate bishop x fem!reader #kate bishop x original female character #kate bishop x original character #kate bishop x oc #kate bishop x you #kate bishop x female reader #kate bishop fanfictions #mcufam #mcu imagines #mcu x reader #mcu imagine #mcu smut #mcu fandom #mcu fanfiction #mcu fanfictions #hailee steinfeld #haileesteinfeld #hailee steinfeld x reader

[rollforjackass]

GOOD OMENS S2E5 STUFF

TEN THOUSAND?????? FUCK OFF

THE BALL!!!!!!! THE BALL THE BALL IT'S TIME FOR THE BALL!!!!!!!!

1965 doctor who annual -- HE GAVE AWAY A BOOK FOR GAY LOVE I'M GOING TO SCREAM

"my beloved spouse" this whole street is queer where do i sign the lease

PUT. THE FEZ. BACK.

crowley being goofy with the crystal ball

shax this look for you. milf

ERIC!!!!!!!!! LOVE OF MY LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!! HE'S MADE IT BACK FOR ANOTHER SEASON!!!!!!!!!!!

crowley is So disappointed in his persistent attempts at french

"you've been together long?" CROWLEY I SAW YOU SWALLOW ON THAT

"other people's love lives always seem so much more straightforward than our own" crowley i'm going to fucking rip my own head off

OH MY GOD SHE FUCKING KILLED ERIC

well that's a terribly romantic little set-up with the rose in the vase and vine with fairy lights

"smitten. :)" michael sheen i can't do this with you anymore

crowley why are you being so ominous about this. why all the wine. what is going on

DON'T FUCKING REVEAL TO GABRIEL THAT YOU SWITCHED PLACES WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU???????? HE HAS A HARD TIME FORGETTING THINGS?????????

"but, i was there. and i do remember, oh very clearly, the look on your face, Archangel Gabriel, when you told my only friend to shut his stupid mouth and die. and i. did not. care. for it."

JUMP OUT OF THAT WINDOW????????????????????????????????????

OH

Jim's Mug

there it is!!!!!!! the infamous Wait And See!!!!!!

JANE AUSTEN HOURS IN THIS MOTHERFUCKER HELLLLLLL YEAH

bitch i'm about to cry over this ball i can fucking feel it in my bones

oh please don't crash the ball, please please please. we deserve some dancing

DON'T YOU TOUCH MAGGIE YOU FUCKS

everyone talking like jane austen :( aziraphale means well but he's making people uncomfortable

motherfucker's making googoo eyes bc he wants to be dancing like that with crowley i fucking Know It

my darling magic shop owner's partner in the yellow dress, i owe you my life

WHILE WE DANCE????????

the fact that crowley knows the steps to this dance even though he's not under the same spell as everyone else :')

THE BOOKSHOP IS AN INDEPENDENT EMBASSY

"you came to me. i said i would protect you, and i will." "you don't need to. i'm going out." IN FULL ELTON JOHN REGALIA

I'M GOING TO BREAK SOMETHING

aziraphale's general look of fucking ANGER at her threats, we've never seen him like that before

aziraphale running to the back of the bookshop to panic where no one can see him -- MAGGIE MY LOVE STAYING TO HELP HIM

crowley and our darling seamstress are iconic

"you're a good lad" "i'm not actually. either." FUCKING SCREAMING MY HEAD OFF

"we aren't in danger! crowley will be back in a moment, he will have a plan." "why don't you stand up for yourself, make your own plans?" "oh i am. but rescuing me makes him so happy."

YESSSSS THE CROWLEY TEAM-UP WITH MURIEL IT'S EVERYTHING I'VE EVER DREAMED

#good omens spoilers #go2 spoilers #I'M ACTIVELY PANICKING ACTIVELY CRYING AND PANICKING

[azurefishnets]

AO3 Profile Fandom: Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective Words: 2649 Summary: Bailey and his coworker meet for dinner and dancing. Is it a date? Bailey's not sure, and the panic is rising...

"sissel and missile trying to put up party decorations using their little paws before remembering they have POWERS" "alma and cabanela going shopping—bonus jowd holding ALL the bags" "those two gay prison guards, dramatically getting ice cream or chicken together"

So see, these are all great prompts and I couldn't just pick one?! So I picked all three and then panic danced my way through writing this fic... I hope you enjoy the weird mishmash that resulted! Happy Ghost Swap 2022, @redwoodrroad!

Snow fell, flakes fluttering down and to the sidewalk all around him in dozens or hundreds of tiny, crystalline kisses. It fell on his ears, red from the cold, and on his hair, loosed from the unremorseful and not-terribly-special prison of his warm and wooly hat. The rowdies overcame the guards in this case; his hair blew freely in the cold wind. Bailey stomped his feet in place and blew on his fingers. It was perilously close to a dance, a good thing because he was cold:  dancing would warm him up. Yet it also meant that he was on the verge of panicking because his coworker was late. He was late for their date and that meant that he was held up! By… a woman! And she wanted something from him! Or something like that, anyway. Bailey’s worries were endless.  Maybe this wasn’t a date. Maybe they were supposed to meet somewhere else. He’d wanted to see dancing. Maybe they were supposed to have met at a club. Maybe… his feet sped up to a nervous shuffling and his fingers began, involuntarily, to wiggle preparatory to his hands rising into their too-long-accustomed vertical shuffle. 

He was on the edge of becoming a full on dancin’ fool, just like generations of Baileys before him. Yet, as he stood poised, his eye was caught by a small black kitten in the window of the storefront in front of which he stood. The little guy was frolicking with the ribbons and tinsel some enterprising clerk had left in the window to decorate a small tree. It batted the glitter into the air, then watched it fall with huge golden eyes. The tinsel glinted with the same rich, dreamlike light in sharp contrast to the white dazzle of the snow falling all around. Bailey’s movements slowed to a stop and he watched, distracted and enthralled, as the kitten caught tinsel with one curved, pink-beaned paw and shoved it at the tree. It wouldn’t stay where it was placed.. The kitten tried again. Tinsel fell, ornaments tumbled and rolled, but none went on to the tree. Bailey caught the kitten’s eye… did it look oddly sheepish? It was a strange look on a cat.

Bailey tapped a gentle finger on the glass. The cat put up a paw. There was a moment of communion between them before the moment was lost, the cat looked away, and Bailey’s coworker showed up at last. Bailey looked into his eyes and realized several very, very important things, here in this fraught and fragile moment. 

First, that man was terribly handsome here in the snow. He had pulled his own cap off and as he blinked up at the sky, his eyes squinting into the gloom of the evening, the glare of the streetlights, and the falling snow–it all made Bailey feel something soft and lovely inside, something he’d been pretending not to feel at work. Something warm, something all those generations of Baileys must have had a dance for and yet, it felt completely new.

Second, he was holding a small wriggling Pomeranian. The dog looked strangely familiar, but Bailey couldn’t focus on that. There was a third, important–the most important–thing he’d just realized. 

Bailey, who had worked with this man for ten years, who had talked with him about anything and everything in their long shifts, who had been teased and joked with by this most maddening coworker until it drove him wild with both confusion and frustration, and, finally, who had been asked out after much will-he, won’t-he… Bailey’s mind had gone absolutely and positively blank. White and pure as the snow. And in that white wilderness, one thing was plain; his coworker’s name was not there. He couldn’t remember it.

At all.

Ohhhh, this was bad. Horrifically bad! There was no way he was ever going to live this one down. His fingers started to twitch. He tried desperately to stop the shuffle. And still, his brain was tuned to only one, pervasive, intrusively loud thought.

Aaaaargh!

His coworker seemed not to notice Bailey’s incipient panic, preoccupied as he was with the Pomeranian.

“Hey, Bailey,” he said. “This is Lynne’s dog, isn’t it?”

“Huh?” Bailey responded intelligently. “Lynne?” He took a closer look at the Pomeranian, shoving his cap up so he could see better. The Pomeranian’s tail waved wildly and his tiny black nose twitched. “I guess maybe it is… why would I know? You’re the one–”

His coworker’s face twitched, an eyebrow raising. “I’m the one what ?”

Bailey drew himself up to his most prim, the tallest stance he could manage, stilling his feet as best as he could. “The one who has the dog,” he said with desperate, faked dignity. “You must have met Lynne somewhere on the way here.”

“Ooh, those the detectin’ skills that keep you working as a guard?” his coworker snarked.

Bailey reeled back against the window, groaning, “Aaaaargh!” It felt good to say it out loud, at least, and get back to their customary banter. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the kitten stop playing and sit up, interested. “Stop bringing up the detective’s exam! I studied so hard…”

 “Yeah, yeah. You really did.” The other guard winked at him. “But hey, ya failed, so we’re goin’ out for drinks and then you can show me “Dance Away the Pain.” That oughta be enough consolation.”

“I…well…” Bailey glared as his cheeks reddened. “I mean. If this is an actual…” He stopped, embarrassed. “No, it’s not a consolation prize at all!” 

His coworker waved his protests off. “Anyway, I did run into Lynne though. But she didn’t have the dog then, so…”

Bailey drew himself up again. “So you went out with her first!” 

The other guard gave him a blank stare. “...no.” He shook his head; perhaps it was fond. “But, see, she asked me to find her dog and then it was just a crazy string of coincidences…”

“Which you just went along with, I’m sure,” Bailey said, nodding. After a beat, he added, “...that was sarcasm. In case you couldn’t tell.”

His coworker ignored him. “I don’t think I would have found the little guy if I hadn’t dropped my hat in the park, and then I couldn’t find it, so I went lookin’ for it and a sweet potato dropped out of the sky. In front of where that big weird statue used to be, ya know the one.”

Bailey gave him a blank stare. “...no.”

“The weird-ass one in the park, Bailey. With the creepy eyes? Where they arrested our special prisoner?”

“Oh. Where that street rocker guy hangs out.”

“And the pigeons, that’s the one. So I saw a blue pigeon flying away with my hat.”

Bailey twitched. “ What are you even talking about?”

“Of course I chased it; it’s cold out,” his coworker said reasonably. “And the pigeon led me to a burnt out campfire, and dropped my hat, and there the little guy was. He was real happy to see me too! You should have seen him dance. Speakin’ of which…”

“This whole story…” Bailey said slowly, “is ridiculous. You didn’t want to see my dance after all, did you?!” His feet involuntarily moved him to one side, then the other as his arms began to gyrate. “You just wanted to laugh! At my pain! I can’t believe! You asked me out! Under false pretenses! ”

“What?” Bailey’s coworker gave him a genuinely flummoxed stare. “Nah, it’s all true. Come on, Bailey. I’m beggin’ ya, not this again…”

“Oh, I’m gonna dance! Until the world ends!” Bailey panted. “This panic! And pain! Are intertwined now!”

His coworker sighed. “ Why are you panicking, though. I’m here now, aren’t I?”

“Because! You’re dating! Lynne! And you lied! And for some reason! I! Can’t! Remember! Your! Name!”

Bailey’s coworker gave him a stare. “Ya can’t remember my– Are you kiddin’ me right–” his attention was caught by something behind Bailey. “What is that?”

“You can’t! Trick! Me that easily!” Bailey huffed. 

“No, but–’”

“Ho ho ho!” came a booming, jolly voice from behind him. “And have you been good guards this year?”

“Isn’t the outcome the same as if they’d been naughty?” a light, amused voice said.

“Come ooon, baby, it’s about the look of the thing,” a third, more sardonic voice drawled. “Theatrics, nothin’ like ‘em.”

Bailey swiveled, still dancing, to find Detective Jowd sitting in a large, cloth sided red wagon, surrounded by beautifully, fashionably wrapped boxes. The wagon was being pulled by a tandem bicycle crewed by Inspector Cabanela and a long-legged woman Bailey vaguely remembered from precinct parties as being possibly Jowd’s wife. Was it Alice? Alma? Something like that… his dance intensified in his embarrassment at being caught forgetful yet again.

“Ho, ho, ho!” boomed Jowd again, the sound sounding more like laughter and less like acting this time. “Good guards get presents from the man in red and white!”

“Wait, but aren’t you the one supposed to be giving presents here?” The woman winked at Bailey. “Oh well. Cabanela, you heard the man.”

“So I did, baby!” beamed Cabanela. “Sooo I did.” With a grand flourish, he gestured at the wagon. “A present for two good boooys!”

“What the–?!” Bailey heard his coworker say as a crate next to the door seemed to instantaneously switch with one of the beautifully wrapped presents, then slide its way to Bailey’s feet. Bailey tried to step back in time, but tripped, landing in the fluffy white snow. His dance stopped involuntarily as the cold shocked him out of his panic. 

The other guard stooped to pick up the box. “It says to Bailey and …” Bailey heard, but the sound was muffled by his snow-blocked ears.

His coworker reached down a gloved hand to lift him up. “Ya good, Bailey?” When Bailey stood, the other man shoved the box at him. “Here, let’s open it.”

Bailey carefully unwrapped the ribbon while, to his surprise, the other guard equally as carefully took the paper off the box. They opened the lid, only to be inundated by a great wash of glitter and rose petals propelled by a small device. 

“Happy birthday, baby!” cried Cabanela. “For spending with friends and loooved ones! Just so ya know, Jowd’s daughter built the glitter machine.” 

The woman Bailey was reasonably sure was named Alma snorted, laughing along with Jowd, who truly was belly laughing now. “Did they need to know that? Also, It’s not both their birthdays, surely!”

Bailey and his coworker peeked cautiously into the box to find a gift card for the Chicken Kitchen, along with more glitter and flower petals.

“We thought you boooys needed a little help pickin’ a place to eat,” Cabanela said. “Not my choice, by the way.”

“Sorry,” said Jowd, sounding completely unrepentant. “And, by the way, the special prison’s being repurposed now that Yomiel is free,” he added. “Sorry about that too, but you boys are out of a job.”

Bailey felt his former coworker’s hand spasm, then reach for his. Wait… was he panicking now? Without needing to dance? Bailey resolved to ask him for his secrets. Right after he remembered his name. For now, Bailey squeezed back.

Cabanela took the Pomeranian from the other man’s unresisting and now free hand. “We’ll get this valiant little warrior back to our baby,” he said, and handed him down to Jowd, still in the wagon. “She’s probably just finishin’ dinner herself.”

“Oh, with Memry?” Alma said, smiling. “Guess we’ve got this matchmaking thing down to a science.” She gave Bailey a funny little salute. “Good luck! And thank you for being kind to my husband.”

“Huh?” Bailey said, flustered. “I’ve only met him once or twice…”

“Don’t worry so much about it, maaan,” Cabanela drawled. “Onward!” He and Alma began to pedal, somehow, magically, in perfect synchronization.. The bike, the wagon, the three humans, and the dog shot away as if propelled by a missile and disappeared into the thickly falling snow.

“What was that…” Bailey’s former coworker said blankly as he pulled away. “Hey Bailey. Are we… unemployed?” His hands flexed a little and he looked around aimlessly. “I had just finished my card tower…”

Bailey dug in the box and pulled out a note, which blew out of his hand in the wind. Expertly, the other man caught it. 

“What’s this? Lemme see that.” He read it and looked up. “We’re invited to apply for a job with the new special investigations unit,” he said, his voice stunned. “With personal referrals from Captai– Captain Jowd? He got promoted? And Inspector Cabanela..guess he got promoted too.” He shot Bailey a slightly shyer grin. “Sorry for grabbin’ ya. I got, er… nervous.”

Bailey peered at the card, oblivious. “I don’t even know what to think any more,” he said blankly. “I didn’t know I had to be worried about this too. My poor stomach…”

“Oh?” his friend slid him a narrow eyed gaze. “Nerves? Or hunger?”

“Ergh… maybe both…” 

“Hmph.” The other man drew himself up in what Bailey realized after a moment was a parody of his usual posture. “Well then, maybe it’s time to panic after all.”

“Panic?” Bailey blinked. “Why would it be–”

The former guard carefully placed a foot backward, then another. His hands rose and he made an awkward squiggle in the air, then he stepped forward, waving a hand up and down. 

“It goes like this, right?”

“Err..” Bailey watched him, mouth agape. It wasn’t right, at all, but generations of Baileys were standing and cheering in his brain. He was trying. What more could one ask?

“It’s not panic time,” he said, nevertheless. “It’s a different dance when your stomach hurts.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. Dance Away the Pain.”

“Well, show me then.” Bailey’s ex-coworker shot him a slightly nervous smile. 

Bailey realized two more important things in that moment. First: heck. This guy was still handsome even covered in snow and dancing very badly. Second: In all that wilderness of white static in Bailey’s brain, the all-important name was back. It wasn’t even as if it was an uncommon one. The panic had just stolen it.

Bailey’s feet slid into place. His hands rose to the proper position. With one hand, he gestured. “This one’s done with two people. Wanna learn?”

“...yeah.” Bailey’s ex-coworker, current friend, possible partner, put a hand in Bailey’s and pulled him in a little closer. “But only if you remember my name.”

“Easy,” said Bailey, and said it. They both grinned fatuous grins and danced away into the falling snow as behind them, a Christmas tree in a window stood, perfectly decorated and leaves swaying gently in the breeze. Beside it, a small black kitten lay very still, probably exhausted by its efforts.

-

“Wait, that’s it?”

“Well, what else would there be?”

“Why were Jowd and everyone there?”

“Because it’s more fun that way!”

“Have you ever even met those guards?”

“Sure! Miss Lynne knows them, even in this timeline! They’re nice!”

“…Huh. So they just dance off and we never even learn Bailey’s friend’s name.”

“Well, I don’t know it, so…that’s just how my dream went, Sissel.”

“Well… at least it was fun. Hope they work it out in real life…”

“I bet they will! They’ve got us rooting for them!”

“Uh, sure. And like Cabanela always says, ‘ When in doubt, just keep movin’…”

“ So as long as they keep dancing, they’ll be fine?”

“In your dreams anyway. …and, sure. Maybe in real life too.”

“I’m gonna show them the dance Mr. Cabanela taught me, in that case! That should be perfect!”

“...You know, I think you’re right. They’re gonna be just fine.”

#ghost swap 2022 #fyeahghosttrick #ghost trick #redwoodrroad #writing af

[mysticalcloudlampshoe]

I recently had a flash back and thought "why don't you post the story" so here we are

I was 16 at the time still living with my parents and older sister (all abusive in some way). I was in the kitchen and walkes back to my room to see my sister looking through my draws. I immediately asked her what she was doing, startling her because she didn't know I was their. She turnes, walked to me and hands me my computer bag (which I didn't know she took) and told me I was a manipulative bitch and that she was going to tell my parents about what she found.

She walked away and I started panicking, I don't know how she figured out passwords (it was a compleat secret). So I looked at the search history on my computer to see she had in fact loged in and had been using it for about 3 hours. I was really scared because I had no way of checking if she had clicked on my "study material" bookmark (which was a doc with the links to a bunch of gay porn, and some of my own, not posted because i was still a minor) since i had a program that instantly deleted all history of the doc.

I thought she did because of what she said and prepared everything I would need to immediately flee the house. ( they were super homophobic and told me multiple times thay would kill me if they found out I was gay). Sent my friends text about what happened incase I needed their help. About 5 hours later, when both of my were home, she told them. My mom came to my room and told me to get in the living room now. I was shaking in my knees, got up walked to the living room to see my sister smile at me and my dad's furious face. He walked over to me and smacked me so hard i stumbled over and hit the wall. (It's probably good to note that he was a 256 pound 6' buff man and i was a 5'6 145 pound shrimp).

I thought he was going to kill me right their, he raised his had and shoved his pointer finger to my neck. "I taught you better than to like a faggot". I was terrified because that confermed my belief that she found the links. My dad then said "*sisters name* told us about the book". I then realized, the thing she told them, was that I was reading a story online with a queer (bisexual) main character (it was a man x woman but my sister saw the bisexual tag. no smut just fluff). Not that she found gay porn on my computer. I was grounded, they put parental controls on the laptop (that I paid for in full) so that I couldn't read anything from Ao3 again.

I think of this story a lot because it really shows the fear and Anxiety that people can get from abuse. Even if it isn't a situation like this, fear can still over come people for the smallest reasons. I think that's a good thing to know

BTW this was years ago, I laughed at it sometimes, younger me deserved so much better but he also did some dumb stuff because of anxiety. I remembered this when my boyfriend asked me if I has ever heard of Ao3 before, it caused me to have a panic attack becauseit remindedme of this story. He didn't know why but he didn't have to, he is the love of my life because no matter what it is he only cared about helping me.

This is all going to say that you can get trama from almost anything, because abuse can happen to anybody, anytime, in many different ways.

Learning to love myself again after leaving my family was one of the hardest things I had ever done. But I'm happy now, and it hurts my heart to know that a lot of people don't have that support because people don't understand what abuse can do to someone.

I love you all, goodmorning / goodnight little gummybears

[phoenixyfriend]

Anakin Assists the Jedi Council While On Medical Leave

AU brainstormed primarily by @atagotiak, @gelpenss, and myself.

Basically, a fix-it based in Anakin getting a peek into the daily life on the Council early, and accidentally Figuring Some Shit Out along the way, mostly because Palps Fucks Up.

So, Anakin gets injured in a way that limits him to Coruscant for a few weeks. He can still walk and talk, but he can't fight. The specific injury doesn't matter, just this:

Anakin runs errands on behalf of the council and sits in on meetings to take minutes as a "you're on medical leave but we need all hands on deck, congrats you get to be the secretary until we can send you on stabbing missions again" thing.

Also, there just aren't a whole lot of people with Anakin's clearance level. They had to send out Stass Allie to handle the mission that was originally next on Anakin's roster, and Anakin's the most convenient person to substitute into her position.

He's not super happy about this but he can more or less understand the point of it. Given that he gets antsy about needing to fight almost immediately, he can acknowledge the worth of having something useful to do, if only as the person who's writing down who says what and making sure everyone has the right file on hand.

(Besides, Obi-Wan jokes in a way that Anakin thinks might be encouraging, this is good practice if Anakin ever wants to be on the High Council himself!)

(This is a very helpful conversation.)

BASICALLY, Anakin is resigned to this but agrees because "Usually we have Master Allie handle this but we need her running that mission that was originally set for the 501st, so you get to fill in for her until you can switch back. Think of it as training for eventual mastery or admin or--listen, we're just really stretched thin."

Here's the key thing, though: Anakin isn't supposed to leave the Temple, for medical reasons, so Palpatine doesn't know Anakin is sitting in on Council meetings. They haven't met up since Anakin's last surgery, and because [muffled hand-wave reason] he didn't find out another way, like Anakin comming him or the Council giving him the heads-up about the change in attendance.

It's fine. He's just taking notes and doing preparatory research, he has the clearance, the Chancellor likes him anyway. Hell, they'd have had someone's Padawan doing this, before the war increased the necessary clearance levels. They'll toss in a quick message in the brief they send to Palps that he never reads anyway, and that's really all they need to do. Skywalker's getting some rounded experience and this way the medics won't be freaking out about him stressing his heart after getting electrocuted by trying to spar too early.

Palpatine doesn't talk directly to the Council, he just sends a recording the first time Anakin is there. It's a bit weird, but nothing goes wrong. Anakin's off-screen from whatever device they use to send a response, since he's not technically a member, just assisting for a bit on the part of Master Allie's duties that he's actually allowed to touch (and not the bits that are getting added to Mace, Plo, and Shaak's stuff).

The first four or so meetings are like that. Anakin starts having a bit of sympathy for the Council as he sees how many things they want to do that are hampered by the need for Senatorial approval, things that he would also want to do and didn't think required this much red tape.

About a week in, still mostly recordings with Anakin just sitting on the side playing paralegal, the wheel of fortune turns a few pegs.

Palpatine hands over a an order on the range of injury that a soldier should be treated for, "to ensure that republic resources aren't being wasted on clones that, while expensive, would actually be cheaper to replace than repair."

Oh, he dresses it up in prettier language than that. Anakin doesn't process it as such first.

The Chancellor manages to couch his phrasing in "prioritizing resources for taxpaying republic citizens and employees of the GAR," which... well.

The natborn commissioned officers pay taxes. The Jedi are employees. The clones are neither, because they're slaves.

Probably he frames it as the employees thing, very much the kinda language that sounds halfway ok unless you’re fluent in political bullshit.

And Anakin is really confused at first about why the council is upset by the order because, okay, he would PREFER to be able to use medical supplies on refugees when possible, but he understands prioritizing the soldiers?

He just looks up, totally lost, when someone groans and goes, "That's the third time this year, is he trying to get us all killed?"

And it vibes as such a genuine, aggrieved, sad reaction that Anakin is completely blindsided because it's not the sarcastic, petty resentment he kind of expected? It's just... desperate depression.

And someone gently has to explain that this is the third time they've had resources restricted to only GAR employees and that it's a polite way of saying "prioritize natborn officers, stop wasting resources on clones, we can replace them easier."

Or maybe he doesn't ask, because he's just there to take notes, not argue, and he can see the masters drawing up a response that amounts to "We would like to remind you that our soldiers do not fall into that classification, and to limit their access to our medical supplies is liable to cause a loss of life that we find unreasonably high. Please see the annotations attached to adjust wording so that the clones may receive the same level of care."

Anakin's internally just like "Yeah, that's phrased nice and addresses the main problem, Palpatine will obviously agree and change it!"

And then he comes in the next day and the response comes in and it's just dripping condescension about considering the clones actual people.

"This is why we can't use the bacta tanks on clones anymore, just the patches. We could use them at first, we had a few of the CCs get through fatal injuries with them, but they cut that off and said we could only use the tanks on Jedi and non-clone officers a few months ago. The Banking Clans keep tightening their belts on the army, and the Chancellor insists we put citizens first, and the clones aren't citizens. We've been arguing back as much as we can, but he keeps going on about the economy and we can't... we just can't, Skywalker. We're trying to save as many of our men as we can, but..."

Something like "Allocation of resources reiterated, the Kaminoans have assured the senate that the Jedi are far from exhausting the resources ordered."

And Anakin's like. He can't blame the council for lying about Palpatine's past or future actions. He just saw Palpatine's actions. Those actions were to order people under his control to throw away lives he saw as replaceable commodities.

These are his friends' lives.

His soldiers are being thrown away by a man in a tower that he trusted.

And then that man has the gall to suggest it's the council's fault.

Palpatine is good at what he does, especially in public, he dresses it up in flowery language and everything, but Anakin's just like "Those are my FRIENDS and also this is??? How slavers talked about their property on Tatooine???? FRIENDPATINE, WHAT THE FUCK."

Anakin can be passive aggressive sometimes as well as outright aggressive. So if he brings up the guidelines and why they make him upset in general terms, and Palpatine says something about how he’s sad the council doesn’t care about the clones...

Anakin, internally, having just watched the council scramble to save as many clones as possible within the guidelines that Palps handed down: Uh-huh.

(Anakin is just the gay horror teeth gif from queer eye.)

Just. “Yeah, funny you say that, Palpatine! Because as I remember, you told the council not to waste more resources than necessary while Mace Windu was arguing to expand the treatment range!”

Palps doesn't even have time to salvage the situation or attack Anakin because Anakin just bulldoze rants for fifteen minutes and then storms out.

Anakin... maybe does a little treason and gets a copy of the orders so he can ask Padme "Hey, can you explain the politics of this?" and doesn't tell her who wrote it so she isn't biased (he tells her that this is why he's not sharing the author's/speaker's name), and just lets Padme pick apart all the 'this is a nice way of saying they don't view the clones as people' details.

Alternately, someone on the Council sees Anakin dithering and manages to get him to admit that he's not great at political language and wants to ask someone to help him understand the full implications. The person--Mace? let's go with Mace--is aware that Anakin is on good terms with Senator Amidala, if not necessarily aware of the depth of said relationship. Mace points out that he's probably going to be seeing her soon just because he usually does and, as a Senator, she can get easy access to these sessions since they're not about specific missions, just allocation of resources, etc. It's not an optimal solution, but she's got a bit more free time than anyone else Anakin knows with the clearance levels, like Order members that are actively involved in the war effort.

Anakin dithers and panics and Mace, trying to be helpful, tells him that plenty of Jedi have made friends among the Senate over the years, didn't you know Qui-Gon Jinn was a personal friend of Former Chancellor Valorum?

At any rate, Anakin goes to Padme and asks her to explain it to him, because she knows how to phrase things so he gets it.

Anakin has to have her pause and he goes outside and destroys some things halfway through.

(Anakin maybe thinks back to the times Padmé or Obi-Wan were really obviously frustrated and when he asked, they said stuff like “I can’t stand Palpatine rn, sorry Anakin I know he’s important to you and you don’t want to talk about politics, let’s just talk about something else.”)

(Obi-Wan: I don’t trust Palpatine Anakin: you just don’t like politicians in general Obi-Wan: yes that is also true)

(Obi-Wan does like Bail and Padme but he does also talk a bit about how politicians generally aren’t to be trusted.)

#Anakin Skywalker #Sheev Palpatine #Jedi High Council #Mace Windu #fix it fic #star wars #star wars prequels #Phoenix Posts #Padme Naberrie

[yurimother]

Fishing for Lesbians: Arguments About Queerbaiting in Anime

The Owl House creator Dana Terrace once spoke about queerbaiting and said, "I see [baiting] a lot in modern anime, specifically."

But I disagree and believe that anime's problem with LGBTQ+ characters and audiences is, in fact, much worse.

Check out my new article: Fishing for Lesbians: Arguments About Queerbaiting in Anime

As queer people, we face so much torment and rejection that we turn to media, to fictional worlds. And when these worlds hint that they recognize and accept us, it gives us such hope that it will affirm our identities in ways reality too often does not.

Read it and other Secret Garden articles on Pateron

The Secret Garden is YuriMother’s series of monthly articles about Yuri and LGBTQ anime and manga. You can get exclusive access to the entire series on the YuriMother Patreon, and get other rewards like early access and more. Check out free articles and subscribe for the full series: https://t.co/3fkQ8lVSz0?amp=1

And check out a preview of the Fishing for Lesbians below.

...

The logical and literal interpretations of queerbaiting as we look at it do not apply to anime. So why is it still so frustrating when an anime we so desperately want to show same-sex romance does not? Why, as Terrace said, does it feel like these anime are "making fun of viewers for becoming invested in a relationship?" The constant and historic disregard and ignorance about LGBTQ+ audiences goes further than just trying to bait them in to improve ratings and sales. And it is hard to point the blame at a director or studio when this is what anime has always done. They do not need to put lesbian characters in because just having two women be friends is enough. It is still Yuri. They do not need to have discussions about gay and transgender audiences because BL and Yuri were never made exclusively for them, and in the vast majority of cases, they do not portray them and overlook their vast contributions to the genres. Indeed, the current definitions of queerbaiting does not do enough to express how disregarded and unnoticed we are.

As queer people, we face so much torment and rejection that we turn to media, to fictional worlds. And when these worlds hint that they recognize and accept us, it gives us such hope that it will affirm our identities in ways reality too often does not. It is why we all celebrated so hard when Luz and Amity asked each other out, why we look at every new anime that features two girls smiling with arms wrapped around each other's shoulders with hope, and why it causes so much pain and it is so overwhelmingly frustrating to have those hopes dashed again and again.

I can tell you exactly where I was when I binged the final season of She-Ra; describe precisely what I felt when I first saw episode 12 of Strawberry Panic and saw Nagisa and Shizuma kiss; articulate why I could not stand and was sobbing tears of happiness on Valentine's Day 2014 after I finished The Last of Us: Left Behind; perfectly recall the overwhelming joy and disbelief the queer community experienced and expressed on Tumblr when the Korra finale aired and our wildest dreams came true. Ask me in 10 years, and I can guarantee I will remember everything about July 31, 2021, when Lumity became canon. These moments of validation, excitement, and community are forever impactful. And as an anime fan and member of the LGBTQ community, I know what it is like to be resigned, and in a near-constant state of disappointment in a medium I love. It is not "queerbaiting", but a constant disregard and ignorance about queer people's lives and participation in anime and manga, and damn does it hurt.

Continue reading at https://www.patreon.com/posts/54386395

#Yuri #lgbtq #lgbt #patreon #the secret garden #lgbtq+ #queer #gay #lesbian #lesbians #girls love #gl #wlw

[useyernamesteven]

(Needed some goofy fluff to distract myself from the angst im writing so buckle up, its long. Based on that one post I cannot find so if anyone can help a homie out, much appreciated)

Raya/Namaari Accidental Marriage Proposal

Its not a far stretch to assume that the different tribes have different practices and rituals. And given the 500 year gap in communication its also easy enough to assume that the tribes don't know about each others differing customs.

For example: marriage proposals. In Tail its as cut-and-dry as asking. Talon people propose with rings and jade coin. When you propose in Spine you chop down a tree to show your commitment and strength.

The Fang propose with blades. Fang people love their knives, daggers, spears, and other pointy weapons, so if you want to ask someone to marry you, you do it with a blade.

I like to imagine it'd be because offering a blade to someone- who isn't family -is the equivalent of trusting your life to that person. I like to think the Fang value not only a person's strength and honour, but their ability to care and protect their people. So giving a blade to your chosen love is like saying, "I'm giving you this weapon because I trust you with my heart, literally and metaphorically".

But again, 500 year old divide means others have no clue what giving a knife to someone from Fang entails...

So maybe its been a few months or so after the Druun have been vanquished. Raya is still re-learning how to be a 'princess' while playing liaison between the tribes, with Sisu as her partner in crime. She likes it because she still gets to travel and she gets to see her new friends from the other tribes: Boun's business is booming, Noi has started talking, and Tong has become the new Chief of Spine.

Then there's Namaari.

Six years of playing cat-and-mouse together (or rather angry kitten and homeless puppy) can be hard to overcome. At first it was a struggle. And incredibly awkward. Namaari, too guilt ridden over what she'd done, and Raya, still angry and socially stunted, could barely hold a conversation together.

Eventually Raya, fed up with the weird awkward talk, dragged Namaari to Fang's training grounds and challenged her to a sparring match. And only when it was over, the both of them exhausted and laying on the ground, did they start talking, actually talking. About what happened with the gem, with Sisu, what they can't let go of, not yet, but what they hope they can move past one day.

It made things after easier because it was familiar ground for them, but it also opened up new paths too. Now in the months since they saved the world and having spent that time working together, Raya would like to consider Namaari a close friend.

Which is probably why she's so surprised when Namaari off-handedly mentions her birthday is next week. Namaari, who's less than thrilled about her mother's plans for a big celebration, doesn't even notice how much Raya's caught off guard. Namaari doesn't really care for her birthday, much less when her mother makes a big deal about it, but she still brushes her hair behind her ear when she asks Raya if she's going to attend.

Raya recovers, nudging Namaari saying that she's obviously going, and boasting about the amazing gift she's going to bring.

Which then leads to her dragging Sisu to Talon in search of the perfect gift (Sisu being the only 'person' she knows who can help being that she's a master gift giver... Sisu's words, not Raya's, but still). They run around Talon for ages, with Sisu practically buying everything in sight (with the Heart Palace Credit of course) but Raya can't find a single thing she thinks Namaari would actually like.

And then she spots a Fang vendor selling blades.

The woman is nice and she asks Raya if she's looking for something in particular. Raya says she wants to get a dagger for 'someone special' from Fang (not wanting to rack up the price if the woman knew who it was for, but also completely unaware to what she's just implied).

The vendor seems a little surprised but she easily walks Raya through picking out the perfect dagger for her 'someone special'. Raya ends up buying a pretty, yet functional dagger with a dragon engraved in the blade and an ornate box to keep it in. As Raya's leaving the woman gives her a pat on the shoulder and says, "All the best for the both of you and I'm sure she'll say yes," which Raya can't really make sense of so she shrugs and leaves to go find Sisu and her mountain of trinkets.

So now its the party, and when Namaari said Virana was making a big deal about it, she really meant it. People from all the tribes are attending and Sisu's brought her brothers and sisters and there's music and food and fireworks...

And Namaari stands beside her mother in a beautiful dress that makes Raya's heart thud erratically (it's totally platonic). Her and her Ba walk up to them and start making small talk before her Ba and Virana break off to chat with other dignitaries, leaving Raya and Namaari together.

Raya likes how Namaari relaxes around her when its just them, despite the room full of people. They talk and banter and tease and laugh, but more than anything Raya just likes being with Namaari. And when Namaari mentions how much she hates formal wear, how dresses don't suit her, Raya makes it a game to see how many times she can mention how beautiful Namaari looks while they're talking, just because it makes Namaari flush and do the hair thing she does when she's shy. No other heart-related reason.

Its not until much later when Raya suddenly remembers the gift she brought and she runs off to fetch it. When she returns she hands Namaari the sleek box with a smile and a sheepish "Happy Birthday dep'la".

And Namaari's blushing and smiling as she takes the box, telling Raya she didn't have to as she opens the box-

And immediately slams it shut. Her face turns bright red and she whorls on Raya with wide eyes and a panicked, hissed "whatareyoudoing?!" And poor Raya's totally thrown, so sure she'd picked out the perfect gift. "You don't like it?" But Namaari shoves the box back into her hands, with another frenzied whisper "thatsnotit!"

Well now Raya's a little miffed because "You didn't even look at it" and before Namaari can stop her she's pulling the dagger from the box and offering it back to Namaari.

Meanwhile the room goes incredibly quiet as everyone from Fang suddenly notices what's happening between the princesses. Virana nearly spits out her drink. Everyone else carries on like normal, but a few people watch their new Fang friends with curious looks, completely out of the loop.

So now Raya's essentially down on one knee without realizing it, Namaari's about to have a heart attack, everyone from Fang is on the edge of their seat, and the dragons are having a rousing drinking contest with people from Spine.

So the party is going great.

Raya (oblivious to the world save for Namaari) is giving Namaari her strongest puppy dog eyes because she'd spent so long looking for the perfect gift dep'la, and "You're pretty special Namaari, special to me, and you deserve it."

Namaari, as red faced as she is, softens at Raya's admission, smiling a little to herself before she takes the dagger from Raya with a soft "it's lovely dep'la".

And suddenly the room's loud again as people from Fang start clapping and whistling. Everyone else is lost but soon they join in as well, despite having no clue as to what they're cheering for. Namaari's back to being flustered and she grabs Raya's hand and hauls her toward Virana and Benja. Raya, finally taking in the room around them, is confused as to why people are congratulating her and Namaari.

Virana has recovered by the time the two approach and if no one knew better it might've also appeared she was trying hard not to smile. Namaari hisses something to her mother Raya doesn't hear, and she shoots her Ba a questioning look. Benja looks a little pensive but he's got a quirk in his lips that Raya knows means mischief.

Virana gently pats her daughter's shoulder before turning to address the room, excusing the four of them. They turn to leave but not before Virana calls out to the crowd, "And it goes without saying you're all invited to the wedding as well," and then ushers her horrified daughter, her baffled betrothed, and Benja out the door.

Instantly Namaari's in hysterics, asking her mother why she'd say that when Raya obviously didn't know what she was doing. Virana, quite obviously playing ignorance, asks why Namaari accepted the blade if she knew what she was doing. And poor Namaari can only gape, red faced and no come back.

Raya has finally caught on to what she's done and yeah, okay now it all makes sense. The vendor, Namaari's (gay) panic, the congratulations... she just proposed to Namaari. She just proposed to Namaari. In front of most of Kumandra. Oh toi!

Benja, still smirking to himself, ruffles Raya's hair before turning to Namaari and Virana and saying, "To be fair... Namaari did propose first."

Marriage proposals in Heart are an exchange of necklaces. So when Namaari had given Raya the Sisu pendant back when they were kids, they'd essentially gotten engaged and since Raya kept it, they've technically been engaged for the past six years.

(Too) Long story short, Raya and Namaari get engaged, get married, fall in love, and live sapphically ever after.

End.

(Okay, I'm done. Back to angst.)

#raya and the last dragon #ratld #rayaari #rayamaari #raya and namaari #oof i lost steam halfway through this #sorry its so terrible #i just didnt really feel like actually writing it out

[zhanyes]

19 days pandemic version / living together headcannons

I just want to imagine the boys living together because let’s be honest it’s going to be so chaotic but they deserve each other’s company

P.s. I know nothing about how China dealt with the pandemic so this is purely self-indulgent

- When the lockdown happened they were all at He Tian’s for a sleepover so they were forced to stay there for a few weeks until everything settled

- Mo guanshan kicked up a fuss over it but was actually just worried about his mom being left alone at home

Mo guanshan, already taking note of what to put in the pantry: “THE FUCK YOU MEAN WE’RE STAYING HERE?! NO!”

- Zheng xi is surprisingly okay with staying at He Tian’s for the time being, Jian yi says it’s because He tian has a ps5 (He’s not wrong)

-Mo Guanshan lost all respect for Zhengxi when he said “It could be fun.”

- Both Zhengxi and Guanshan’s parents agreed that they should stay for a bit just to be safe

- Jian yi is a panic buyer and with He Tian’s money they bought enough food to feed an army

- He forgot to buy necessities and Guanshan wacked his ass

Mo guanshan looking at the 9 full plastic bags of groceries: “You’re telling me OUT OF ALL OF THIS, you didn’t buy a single toothbrush?”

Jian yi, a dumbass: “I didn’t know we were having toothbrush for dinner?”

Mo guanshan brandishing a knife out of thin air: “Come ‘ere I’ll show you what's for dinner.”

- He tian is a menace in the grocery store, he’s bought about 4 pots, 2 pans, a new dish set AND knives set, 6 new mugs of different colors (Yellow for jian yi, blue for zhengxi, red for guanshan and black for him; the other two just looked nice) and a dozen of scented candles

Zheng xi, trying to keep Guanshan from committing murder in a grocery: “Why did you do this?”

He tian: “They were in sale! Buy one-take-one!”

Mo guanshan: “WHY WOULD YOU BUY 4 POTS OF THE SAME SIZE?!”

- They make it out of the store and Guanshan vows to never let jian yi and he tian do groceries

- Guanshan mostly cooks for everyone and Zhengxi helps out but jian yi is surprisingly a decent cook???

- He needs to be supervised tho because his attention span is limited to 5 seconds and he’ll forget he was boiling water

- He tian canonically can not cook. He is BANNED from the kitchen after he put sake in a pan thinking it was water

- He tian has 2 guestrooms in his apartment but he locks the other one and assigned Zhan Zhengxi and Jian yi to the other room

- Mo guanshan forces his way into Zhanyi’s room and He tian follows. That’s how all of them ended up sleeping in a single guestroom on the floor with mattresses stacked and pushed together

- Zhengxi introduces them to anime and Jian yi’s favorite genre is surprisingly action with a lot of fighting scenes and Mo guanshan (and He tian) likes slice-of-life

- He tian and Jian yi strays away from animes and movies related to the mafia and Zhengxi and Guanshan never asks, it’s an unspoken rule that those types of stuff are banned

- They have game nights because Jian yi thinks bonding is key to make their friendship last longer (and to avoid having anyone murdered)

- Every board game turns into a disaster. There’s no exception.

The boys playing monopoly:

Jian yi: “THAT WAS MINE YOU DICK! I WAS SAVING UP MONEY TO BUY IT!”

He tian: “Have you tried not being poor? No? Well that’s too bad.”

Zhengxi, is safe in jail and has the most land: “Lmao losers.”

The boys playing uno:

Mo guanshan: “Don’t do it…”

He Tian: “I’m sorry Mo this is the only way”

Mo guanshan: “No please you can find another way…”

He tian: “Goodbye, my love *puts a plus 4 down* Uno.”

Mo guanshan: *unintelligible noises of a loser* 

Playing scrabble:

Jian yi: “The fuck you mean gorjeus isn’t a word? That’s what I am.”

He tian: “You’re right, that's what you are. An absolute idiot.”

Chess:

Mo Guanshan to He tian: “You might be smart and winning but I have the power of violence and nothing is stopping me from flipping this table over.”

Word guessing game:

Jian yi: “It’s loud, annoying, depended and cries a lot.”

Zhengxi, guessing the word baby: “Is this you?”

Jian yi: “I- okay yeah that’s valid.”

- Zhengxi is very observant, he knows Jian yi well enough to know when he’s having anxieties about the pandemic, he knows when Guanshan needs some time alone, and when He tian is getting too lost in negative thoughts. He does what he can to help

- His bonding moments with Guanshan consists of listening to pop music and staying quiet

- The apartment is almost always alive and noisy, whether it’s Jian yi suggesting another game or Guanshan screaming about something, He tian takes joy in the fact that he’s with people he cares about

- He’s thankful for the noise after living in silence all alone for a long time. Jian yi knows the feeling of going home to an empty apartment and vows to visit more often with Zhengxi once this is all over (and drag Guanshan along assuming he’s not here already)

- Over time He tian smiles and laughs become a lot more genuine. Once, He tian laughed loudly at something Mo guanshan did and the only thing he can think of is, “Oh shit, happiness looks good on him.”

- Queue gay panic to Jian yi

Mo guanshan: “WHAT IS THIS?!”

Jian yi, remembering He tian doing the same thing yesterday: “Natural selection.”

- Jian yi loves all of them, really, but sometimes he feels claustrophobic from being kept inside for so long

- Zhan Zhengxi always notices, and he would sneak Jian yi up to the rooftop and they would stay there for a while so they can look at the stars, the city lights and Jian yi can breathe easier

- During those times, He tian relishes the alone time he gets with Guanshan, sometimes they talk and banter, but sometimes they just stay quiet and secretly enjoy each other’s presence (they steal glances at each other when they think the other isn’t looking)

- They grew so used to living with each other that they developed a shower schedule and Zhengxi wakes up the same time as Guanshan to help prepare breakfast

- He tian and Jian yi tends to wake up a little later and Jian yi gravitates closer for warmth so they end up cuddling until they’re forced to get up and eat

- Zhengxi takes a picture of them and sends it to their group chat

- He tian has hundreds of pictures of him and Mo, just Mo, the group, Zhengxi and Jian yi, and a lot more stolen shots that he keeps in a separate album in his phone

- He prints out his favorites, hangs them around the bedroom and frames some of them to put it in the living room. None of the other boys have the heart to take them down after seeing how happy He tian looks every time he sees the pictures

- Jian yi asks He tian to share the pictures to him too, he doesn’t print it out but he uses one of the pictures of all of them together as his lockscreen (his wallpaper is a stolen picture of him and Zhengxi He tian took when they were stargazing on the rooftop)

- When everything settles down enough for them to go home, they’re actually reluctant to go

- Still, Mo Guanshan and Zhengxi go home to their families. Jian yi stays with He tian since he knew his mom wasn’t at home anyway, at least this way they’ll both have company

- Guanshan claims (loudly) that he’s glad to get away from them but still video calls with them everyday anyway

Mo Guanshan, in the videocall for the nth time: “I’m SO GLAD. Those were the WORST weeks of my life.”

The others, hearing the same lie for the nth time: “Mhm. Whatever you say, Mo.”

- They have discord sleepovers because they all miss sleeping in the same room with each other (they never mention it but everyone knows)

- Mo Guanshan cooks meals for more than him and his mom and have it delivered to He tian’s and Zhan Zhengxi’s. When asked he claims it’s just leftovers

- Zhan Zhengxi’s body clock is fucked, he grew too used to waking up early so he just went with it and helps his mom prepare breakfast

- They all silently agree that they wouldn’t mind living with each other again in the future (again none of them ever mentions it but everyone is aware)

#19 days #19 days headcannons #jian yi #zhan zheng xi #mo guan shan #he tian #please i just love them all together #in my mind the mafia doesnt happen and they live together in highschool/college #next in line is tianshan headcannons #get ready #this got so long lol #should i make a masterlist

[mosswillow]

Books (Dark!Natasha Romanoff x Reader)

Summary: You meet the most beautiful girl. She’s everything you’ve always dreamt of. Red flags? What red flags?

Warnings: 18+ Adult content, Noncon/dubcon, smut, oral, yandere.

Word count: 1.5k sorry it’s shorter.

AN: This is part of my Dark! Avengers collections that you can find here. Any of them can be read alone but if you want to read all of them I suggest doing it in order.

Growing up your parents had a large bookshelf filled with all sorts of different books. You used to sneak out to the shelf and steal a book to read, hiding under your blanket with a flashlight until the early morning. It felt like there was always another book hidden away behind other books on the shelf. You would search and find the book, taking it back to your little spot and consuming it like candy.

You’ve always felt similar to a hidden book, collecting dust in the very back of a bookstore somewhere. Maybe someone will find you and carry you away. Maybe they’ll give you love and attention, putting you at the front of their bookshelf and showing you off to friends. You want so badly for someone to find you that you don’t consider that not everyone takes care of books the way you do.

---

She walks into your shop on a Thursday afternoon, sauntering in like she owns the place. Your eyes meet and she walks over to you, handing you a piece of paper.

“I’m looking for this book?”

You read the paper and lead her to a cabinet in the back full of first editions. You unlock the cabinet and pull out the one she wants, bringing it to the register and ringing it up.

“Will that be all?” you ask.

“Maybe I could get your number too.” Your mouth drops open.

“Um, yeah.” you smile, writing down your number on the receipt.

“I’ll see you later Y/N.”

You wave and smile having a mini panic attack when she leaves. How did she know you’re gay? How did she know your name? You look over to a mirror noticing your rainbow covered nametag. Ok, yeah you can definitely see how she was able to tell.

She texts you within the hour.

‘Hey, this is natasha.’

‘Hi! I’m glad you texted, it was so nice meeting you.’

You watch the dots appear and disappear several times before Natasha texts again.

‘I thought we could see a movie or something? A date?’

You let out a squeal which turns several heads in the quiet book shop.

“Sorry.” you smile.

‘I’d love that.’

---

You try on at least six different outfits, attempting to find the perfect one for your date. Every time you look at yourself in the mirror you feel ugly and unworthy of Natasha. She’s the most beautiful woman you’ve ever seen. You think about the slight wave of her red hair, the way her lips curve into a soft smile, how her hips sway elegantly as she walks around. You settle on a simple green dress and a pair of flats and take one last agonizing look at yourself in the mirror before leaving.

Natasha’s face lights up when she sees you. She walks over and puts her hand on your waist, moving her thumb up and down. Your heart flutters and you put your hands in your pockets, looking and down and smiling.

“You look beautiful.”

She slides her hand down, meeting your hand in your pocket and pulling it out.

“Your dress has pockets.” She smiles.

You laugh and nod, clutching onto her hand and walking in with her to the theater. Nothing that happens in the movie even registers. You’re so nervous and excited. Natasha holds your hand, squeezing it slightly during funny or sad parts of the movie. She leans in whispering little things several times, giving you goosebumps.

“We could go back to my place if you want,” She asks after the movie.

“I’d like that.”

Natasha leads you to Stark tower and you stop outside, looking between her and the tower while it clicks. How did you miss this? They're literally everywhere, on tv and the internet. You’ve even gotten advertisements at your house featuring their faces.

“You’re...”

“...An avenger.” Natasha finishes.

You almost back away and leave but instead take a steading breath and follow her in. You ride an elevator up to where Natasha lives, walking past several whistling Avengers and some women you vaguely recognize from gossip websites.

Natasha sits on her bed and you follow her. She takes your face in her hand and leans in for a kiss. You kiss her back, turning your body toward her and before you know what’s happening you’re on top of her, pulling off her shirt. This isn’t you, you don’t move this fast with people. You spend months just getting yourself psyched up to talk to someone. She pushes you off and unclasps her bra while you sit in awe. Natasha raises her eyebrow and you quickly get to work on your clothes depositing them on the floor. Natasha leans forward and kisses you again and you reach out feeling her breasts. She pushes you down and gets between your legs, smiling at you before bringing her face to your pussy. You come almost instantly, moving your hips against her mouth before relaxing. She climbs up and kisses you, pushing her tongue into your mouth and grinding against you.

“You like that baby?”

You nod and kiss her cheek before sliding down her body, leaving a trail of gentle kisses.

“I want you now.”

---

Natasha is the best thing to ever happen to you. You become a new person, your life starts revolving around her. You slowly pull away from friends and family, deciding to spend time with Natasha instead. finally your best friend calls you up.

“I just feel like you’re too caught up in her, it’s been a few weeks and you’ve already pushed away everyone you love.” She says

“I’m happy.”

“I didn’t say you weren’t, I just don’t want to see you lose everyone in your life. What’s happening is a huge red flag.”

You hang up and delete your friend's number. Natasha said your friends would do this, that they would try to say you’re moving too fast. You’re not though, what you have with Natasha is different, love doesn’t have a timeline.

--

It all happens so quickly. You’re sitting at breakfast with Natasha and then you’re standing in front of your business and home, watching it burn to the ground.

“It’s ok baby, I’ll take care of you,” Natasha tells you as you cry in her arms.

You move into Natashas room that day. She goes out and buys you everything you need, setting you up with a cup of tea and a warm blanket. You spend all your time with natasha. She takes you all over on dates, showering you with gifts and kisses. You slowly forget you even owned a bookshop or had a life outside of her.

That is until you walk past Tony’s room one day and hear them.

“I thought I told you not to leave this room,” Tony says.

“Please Tony, I just wanted a snack.” the quiet voice replies.

“And I want a girl who follows my orders. I think you need another lesson in who’s in charge here.”

You cover your mouth and listen to the sound of Tony’s hand strike his girl before running back to Natashas room. You grab your phone to call the friends you’ve been neglecting but notice that every time you try to call or text it won’t work. You check your settings and google it before finding an app you don’t remember downloading. It’s password protected and your heart drops realizing what it is.

“Did you put parental controls on my phone?” you ask natasha when she gets back to her room.

Natasha doesn’t say anything.

“I heard Tony and his girl earlier. He’s abusing her, we need to do something about it.”

“It’s not our place to come in between Tony and his girl, he knows best for her just like I know what’s best for you. I didn’t want you seeing what your friends were texting you.”

Suddenly, you realize every little thing Natasha has done to isolate you. You’ve ignored so much, so enchanted by her attention that you didn’t see all the little things. It’s not something you can ignore any longer. You stand up and walk to your dresser, pulling out clothing.

“We’re done. I’m getting a hotel”

Natasha closes and locks the door.

“Baby, you’re not going anywhere.”

---

It takes weeks for you to fully understand just how far Natasha was able to pull you from your life, how she cornered you and forced you to be hers. She found you at the back of a bookstore collecting dust, picked you up, and brought you back to her personal library. You were so happy someone was reading you that you didn’t realize how she was dog-earing your pages and writing in your margins. She cracked your spine, spilled coffee on you and wrote her name on your cover, and you enjoyed every bit of it.

Now you sit on her bed realizing that this is the end, it’s been the end for a long time. You belong to her now and nobody else will ever get the chance to read you.

#dark!natasha x reader #dark!natasha romanoff #dark!natasha x you

[benka79]

Queer Subtext in "The Guest" (Korean Dorama)

Or... how I justed wanted to watch a Gen Supernatural show and ended up falling for it's Beautiful M/M love story.

I don't know if you watch korean doramas, I do. This time I was on Netflix with my husband looking for a supernatural show, after watching a couple of it, and we crashed into "The Guest".

This attempt of analysis of the queer Subtext will have some spoilers so, If you don't want to be spoiled, jus scroll down. But go watch this show. Hahahaha

Disclaimed that, let's go to the East Sea...

Pansexual Flag for CHOI YOON and gay flag for HWA PYOUNG.

First apparition of Father Choi YOON, walking down a dark alley. You will find by his right, against a closed business shutter, Pansexual Flag Colors. What a presentation card for a priest, and is so symbolically beautiful, because philosophically, the spiritual leader should have the ability to love every creature, no matter what. So it applies to the decision of the writers to make Yoon linked to that kind of love.

Then we have Pyung, the medium. This boy is very enthusiastic, but he has surrounding him his grandfather and his best friend asking him, almost continually, to find a girl and get married. The poor medium doesn't answer, and he looks annoyed each time they mention that.

In one opportunity his grandfather asks if there's something wrong with him, and the boy snorts slightly, avoids eye contact and says, frustrated "No, grandpa."

Jumping to another scene... Yoon and Hwa Pyung are in the car, and Pyung's best friend, the shaman, is alone in another car. While they're talking by the phone, we can see behind the shaman the pride flag colors. And now you will ask... Why? Well... There's this part of the dialogue between Pyung and the shaman, in which he asks why he has to be alone in the car and Yoon and Pyung are together in the other car... Ahem... Pyung hungs the phone without answering. And the scene cuts to the shaman, with the pride flag in the background. The shaman frowns confused.

Nothing to add here...

Heart broken

There's two opportunities in which Pyung shows how heartbroken he was... Because of Yoon and how the writers wrote it with romantic subtext.

The first time Pyung faced Park Han, the assamblywoman, Choi YOON got mad and tells the detective he won't work anymore with Hwa Pyung.

Scenes after this, we have a very sad Pyoung in the shaman house, and his friend notices his sadness and asks if he was dumped.

Pyung looks somewhere and he repeats: "Yeah, I was dumped..."

Who just had dumped our cute medium? Well... Our cute priest.

Another scene in which he is in a worst depressed shape, again, in his best friend's house, he mentioned, gloomy, that at least someone is bothering him... Why? What had just happened in this episode? Well, Choi YOON said to him he couldn't trust him.

The shaman, insightful as he was, says that he looks too sad those days. And when Choi YOON goes surprisingly to his house, the shaman asks the priest if Pyung's depression is because he is in love with the detective. Well, kind of. I can't be very specific with the dialogues because I watched it with spanish subtitles. But that was the idea they transmitted.

Always looking when the other is not looking. And the handsome priest...

And remember in the police station when Pyung called Yoon the handsome priest that gives advises to the congregation in front of the cop?

Gif credit @setsmaker

Another huge subtext is Yoon looking at Pyung when he's not looking and Pyung looking at Yoon when he's not looking. Always related to sad things of their last being revealed or called back. And why is this meaningful and it has to be taken as queer Subtext or romantic?

Kang Hil Young is their female detective friend. As a very insightful person, she notices the relationship between these two boys and in the scenes, she's always separated from them but also she's a kind of nexus. Because both boys talk with her, instead of talk with each other, as the stubborn and shy boys in love they're.

All the "stealing glances" scenes are centered between Pyung and Yoon. And less about Hil Young. This is written on propose to show Yoon and Pyung relationship is different to Pyung and Hil Young or Yoon and Hil Young relationships. Because the boys have this aura between them, this romantic tension always around them. That doesn't happen when they're with Him Young.

The precious one, the fight and the "Titanic like" scene.

Pyung will ask Hil Young to save Yoon instead of him. He is determined to give his life in exchange of the priest. He calls Yoon THE PRECIOUS LIFE THAT YOUR MOTHER SAVED, when he asks Hil Young to take care of Yoon. Why would a bro ask to his friend to take care of his bro? Why he didn't ask to this bro to take care of his friend instead? 🤔😜

Pyung always showing up at Yoon's place after a hard day? Why Yoon? Why not Hil Young's place too?

Also the scene of Pyung trying to hide a talisman but at the same time, sliding his hand with it inside of Yoon's pants and Yoon gay panic face yelling: 'What are you doing?' And Pyung insisting in puting that talisman inside Yoon's pants and then failing, frustrated because Yoon discovered it was a tasliman?

Gif set credit @achiara

Priceless... And gay.

The scene of the fight between Yoon and Pyung WAS HELLA DRAMATIC AND FULL OF ROMANTIC SUBTEXT!

First of all, we had that music playing while Yoon tried to force himself to believe Park Il do (the demon) was inside of Pyung, because if he wasn't... That's would mean the demon was possesing Father Yang, that was like a second father to our cute priest.

Second, both friends had UNSHED TEARS in their eyes.

Third: Pyung was too heartbroken to react.

Fourth, the Yoon ended up ON TOP OF HIM WITH HIS HAND ON HIS THROAT, that, my friends, was one of the most hot m/m scenes. They remained like that, not strangling, but just his hand holding his throat. Like... Yeah. Go get a room.

When they thought everything was finished. Pyung was staying in his town and called Hil Young asking her to bring his stuffs from his apartment. To which she replies 'why don't you ask Yoon?' And our shy medium replies "He's too busy."

So, Yoon and Pyung didn't call each other, but they both called Hil Young.

She asks Yoon to be nice with Pyung because PYUNG HAD ASKED HER TO TAKE CARE OF HIM INSTESD OF PYUNG. (Yeah, she confessed that to the priest)

And i suspect she told Yoon about Pyung asking her for his stuffs because the medium considered Yoon was TOO BUSY. Why? Because the scene in which Yoon shows up in Pyung's town to check the people that had been posseses, he calls Pyung.

Our cute medium goes immediately : BUY MEAT, I'M FEELING SICK, STAY TONIGHT TO SLEEP IN MY HOUSE, and what does reply the priest? I'LL THINK ABOUT IT. NOW I HAVE TO GO BECAUSE I'M TOO BUSY. And he hangs the phone smirking!!!! Translation?

'I'm too busy because you said I'm too busy to bring your stuffs! I thought you didn't want to see me and now you are too happy to see me!!?? Watch me flirt with you and show you I'm not that easy.

And also, the poor girl is so tired to be the third wheel...

When they said goodbye in the road, Hil Young goes inside the car but Yoon and Pyung were there... Trying to sound cool, and 'You did well's 'Yeah, you top's, like two dorks, while the female friend watched them as if she was saying COME ON!!! ARE YOU SERIOUS? At the end Pyung confessed he was about to give his life in exchange of Yoon's life... And shy priest just goes inside the car.

But everything goes to hell when Park Il Do posseses Pyung and tries to strangle Yoon.

What did our cute medium yell to the demon? 'Don't touch him! Don't you dare to touch him!"

Gif credit @knights-in-whumperland

Okay... Those are not words you would say for a not boyfriend bro.

Then... Scene in the water...

They-fucking-held-hands!!!!

Gif set credit @r-a-n-x-i-e

The scene is so romantic I showed my friend (who didn't watch the show) a gif and she said WTF IS THAT? TITANIC?

Because, yeah, hella gay. They hel hands and then... Pyung reacts and before pushing Yoon's hand to release him to the surface, he rubbed his freaking fingers!!!!!

Not to mention he wss carrying with the rosary the priest left in his hand under the water for one entire year even when he wasn't catholic!!! HE DID IT BECAUSE YOON GAVE IT TO HIM!

To Conclude:

The subtext of a queer love story was magnificencia displayed, but it was more beautiful to see how inncoents, and shy and cute these two were with each other. So if you wanna see a cute m/m love story plus friendship loyalty and action, watch this dorama. I plenty recommend it!

PS: I'm calling this ship PYOON!

Buenos Aires, February 19 2020, 00:15 AM

#the guest #korean dorama #Netflix #korean show #ocn the guest #hwa pyung #choi yoon #hwa pyung x choi yoon #pyoon #the guest ocn meta #the guest korean dorama meta #pyoon meta

[melatovnik]

hi, can u rec other sbwy fics?

yes i most certainly can!

below under the cut is a selection of very good sbwy (and sgwy) fics, i.e., wangxian fics where wwx experiences compulsory heterosexuality. by no means is it a comprehensive list of all the excellent fics of this genre, because i'm a super slow reader and simply haven't gotten to them all yet, but these are just the ones i've read and enjoyed so far. of course, mind all tags/content warnings etc you know what's up

~ the Straight Boy Wei Ying universe series by raitala | rated E | 36K words total | i know this ask was prompted by my earlier rec of this series but i'll include it here anyway. a very charming wonderful story, with extremely massively hot sex scenes

Sit down next to me | 7K words

Lan Zhan has been in love with his tragically straight best friend Wei Ying forever. So what if some girl says Wei Ying is a bad kisser? Lan Zhan has to prove to Wei Ying that this is incorrect. Because Lan Zhan is a good friend. He out does himself.

If I hadn't seen such riches | 29K words

Sequel to "Sit down next to me" - if you haven't read this all you need to know is that Wei Ying thinks he is straight. He just really likes his best friend Lan Zhan. Who is incidentally a really great kisser. Who also made him come in his pants one time. Who also has a *really* big dick, which Wei Ying sucked one time, but, like, in an experimental way, not in a gay way. They are just really good friends, right? Lan Zhan is the best. Lan Zhan is crying inside.

~ Keep Up by mimilamp | rated E | 27K words | i actually just read this one today and wwhfoohgkhdghihHHHHHHhghhhhhhgh 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 INSTANT FAVE. MUST READ.

“She was going to kiss me,” Wei Ying says, muffled, into his hands.

Lan Zhan makes sure he keeps his breaths even. “Hm,” he says. Wei Ying looks up at him, wild: a little tipsy, perhaps. Confused, in a panic. His mouth is red like he’s been kissed—he hasn’t. He’s a lip biter, has a habit of picking at his dry lips, the winter sores at the corner of his mouth. It drives Lan Zhan to madness. He dreams of Wei Ying’s puffy mouth, often, sometimes with the real Wei Ying in a sleeping bag on the floor next to his bed. On mornings like those he wakes up in a cloud of embarrassment—hobbling to the bathroom at dawn, running a loud shower to hide the sounds. Wei Ying sleeps on.

“How do I—” Wei Ying starts, stops. He then lets out a single laugh, another. He says: “Oh my god. How do I kiss? Lan Zhan, how do I kiss?”

*

Or: Wei Ying has a girlfriend now. Wei Ying doesn't want his best friend to lag behind.

~ A Brilliant Idea by FrameofMind | rated E | 25K words | good for you wei ying

The one where Wei Ying (straight) and Lan Zhan (gay) make a shared tinder account to save money, because Wei Ying has brilliant ideas.

(Wei Ying has terrible ideas.)

~ worth it for the feeling by occultings | rated E | 8K words | they're both girls in this one! "straight" girl wei ying 🥰

“I’ve never gotten off with another person,” Wei Ying says that night, apropos of nothing.

~ ready to run by detectorist | rated E | 21K words | really really enjoyed the plot and atmosphere and everything in this story

“You should make a Tinder account for campaigning,” Nie Huaisang says.

Wei Ying chokes out, “What?”

“Sounds like an absolutely terrible idea,” Jiang Cheng says flatly.

“No, it’s a great idea!” Nie Huaisang insists. “You just swipe right on everyone and then send them a message about how they should vote for you. You’re hot, Wei Ying! People will definitely match with you and then you can swoop in and hit them with the politics!”

“I don’t even have Tinder,” Wei Ying protests. He’d downloaded the app in first year but had quickly deleted it after a girl responded to his message of wanna get a drink with yeah sure, what time?

“That can be easily fixed,” Nie Huaisang says.

—

Wei Ying downloads Tinder to help him campaign for his student union election. He gets a little more than he bargained for.

~ drop the game by martyrsdaughter | rated E | 28K words | cheerleader wwx + jock lwj + fake dating + practice kissing + insane sexual tension = me, flattened like a cartoon character after getting run over by a truck

Wei Ying grabs a pen from Lan Zhan’s desk, curling his legs into a lotus pose under the arms of the chair so he can easily spread the journal out across his lap. Even upside down, Lan Zhan can read his large, messy characters scrawled across the top: Lan Zhan + Wei Ying’s Rules for Dating.

Perhaps this was a bad idea.

~ big hands (i know you're the one) by martyrsdaughter | rated E | 8K words | WHOOF 🥵

“Not a big talker, hm?” Wei Ying tilts his head to one side. “That’s okay, I’ve been told I’m a good enough conversationalist for three. My tongue is multi-talented and—”

He has just enough time to feel her palm on the back of his neck and think, oh, her hands are so big, before his words are being stolen into her mouth.

~ Boy Trouble, We've Got Double by saltyfeathers | rated E | 60K words | LAN ZHAN???? BETHROTHED???? NOT TO WEI YING??????? it's less likely than you think! canonverse casefic, featuring tons of pining and wwx taking outrageous liberties with lwj's person, as is his right

Lan Zhan stands there in his immaculate, cloud-patterned Lan robes, watching him calmly, one fist tucked up against his back. “I am betrothed.”

Wei Wuxian blinks. “Are you…” He tries to laugh. Again, it sounds inhuman. “Is this about last night? Are you mad at me? I only remember some of it, Lan Zhan. I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable. I’m sure whatever I did I was just—” He gestures uselessly. He remembers being warm in Lan Zhan’s lap. He remembers fitting snugly in Lan Zhan’s lap. Wrapping his arms around Lan Zhan’s neck. Nosing at his jaw. “…playing around.”

“This has nothing to do with you, Wei Wuxian.”

~ cherry ass wei ying (Chapter 3 of threadfic) by saltyfeathers | rated E

wei ying is so straight he sucks lan zhan's fingers about it.

~ all(e)y (Chapter 11 of threadfic) by saltyfeathers | rated E

prompt fill on twitter for straight boy wei ying + fake dating that ended up being too long for twitter so now it lives here in stupid silly shame. sorry the fake dating is a complete flyover state in this. to make up for it, i wrote out an entire blowjob for some reason.

~ lan zhan has fallen in fuck-love with the straight toad boy (Chapter 14 of threadfic) by saltyfeathers | rated M | there is no chapter summary provided by the author. the title says it all, really

~ wei wuxian loves mysteries! (Chapter 15 of threadfic) by saltyfeathers | rated G | a canonverse character exploration of wwx, set pre-CR (before wangxian first meet). soooo good

~ the mall that has it all by saltyfeathers | rated E | 8K words | 😳 wrow

She introduced herself in the food court, breathless after sprinting across it in Lan Zhan’s direction and vaulting over a table only to crash into the seat across from her, ask, “Can I have a sip?”, spring forward with both elbows on the table to wrap her burgundy lips around Lan Zhan’s smoothie straw, wrinkle her nose, and say, “What is that, kale? Not really my thing, as like, a mall goth. Oh!” A pleased, chaotic exhale. “My name’s Wei Ying.”

Lan Zhan said, after taking a moment to fully process the last forty-five seconds, “What?”

or;

mall goth au

~ I Wish You Would by brooklinegirl | rated E | 52K words | lan zhan fucks guys, wei ying pines, and lan zhan also pines

Lan Zhan takes a breath. His hands are in fists on his thighs. He stares down at them hopelessly, then carefully unclenches them, one finger at a time, before taking another breath and reaching for his lukewarm tea. He'll go out, tomorrow. Maybe in the late afternoon. Something quick. Something easy. He'll text his brother first, the short note of when he should be home, so he'll know to track him. He'll be fine, just like he said.

~ all that and more by Euphorion | rated E | 20K words | hot hot hot! and a classic

Wei Wuxian locks his phone and puts it down, blinks at his ceiling, and picks it up again. The pictures are still there.

His first thought is that Lan Zhan meant them for someone else. That he just woke up at—he checks the timestamp—6:30 am on a Sunday and decided to go absolute full nuclear seduction option on some poor boy he met on Grindr, who would now be missing out on the best thing to ever happen to him because Wei Wuxian had a bad habit of distracting—of—oh.

Pieces of last night start to resurface and paste themselves together in his head. He winces.

~ dreaming and getting a glimmer by verseau | rated E | 27K words | THE comphet gloryhole fic

Wei Ying discovers himself.

~ wanna feel a different kinda tension by verseau | rated E | 10K words | THE comphet watching-porn-together-and-also-wwx-jerks-lwj-off-with-his-own-freshly-used-fleshlight fic

Four times Lan Zhan walks in on his roommate masturbating.

that's all for now! happy october!

#mdzs #fic rec

[ashesandhalefire]

i know, you know

alex, michael, and a lonely hearts club gone slightly awry.

-

inspired by @malex-cupid day one and three themes: wooing my way into your heart and valentine’s day.

-

“Okay, here’s a nightmare scenario,” Michael says as he eases back down onto the couch with another slice of pizza in his hand. He crosses his ankles on the coffee table and bites the tip off. Alex raises an eyebrow expectantly, drawing a sip from his beer, and Michael nods. After a rough swallow, he wipes the corner of his mouth with his thumb. “I once hooked up with a girl on February thirteenth. Totally lost track of the date.”

Alex rolls his eyes. “That’s not a nightmare scenario for someone like you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Michael takes another bite of his pizza and tries to talk around a mouthful of cheese, face twisted with playful indignation. “Someone like me?”

Alex leans his head against the back of the couch and says, “Charming people never end up in nightmare scenarios because they can, by default, charm their way out of anything.”

Brow furrowing, Michael wrinkles his nose. “I don’t think I’ve ever been called charming in my life. A few other choice words, sure, but not charming.”

“Well, I guess my perspective is a little different from the sheriff’s department. In my experience, you have a tendency to be very good at saying the right thing.” Alex wiggles his left foot where it sits, tucked beneath the center cushion on the couch, and rubs distractedly at his right knee. The knot in his sweatpants jostles close to Michael’s hip.

Entirely by accident, he’s significantly more dressed-down than Michael is in his slim jeans and crisply colored flannel. Neither piece of Michael’s outfit has the well-worn softness of his usual wardrobe, none of the torn seams or threadbare elbows, but the top two buttons of his shirt are undone like always and the collar hangs wide against his clavicle. Alex tries not to let his eyes linger.

As he chews through another bite, Michael stares back at him, and the gaze feels heavy enough that Alex turns away. “And, please, you’re sitting on my couch, watching my television, drinking my beer, and eating my pizza. If that’s not the direct result of charm, what is it?” 

“Dumb luck,” Michael says. Amusement glints in his eyes as he licks his lips. “Besides, this whole lonely hearts club thing was your idea.” 

“Yeah, but it was originally a party of one.”

Alex had quickly opted out, making his answer a polite but firm no, when Kyle mentioned the flier on the Crashdown’s front door that advertised the latest Wild Pony cash-grab attempt, but that hadn’t prevented him from running face-first into Isobel’s advertising efforts all over town for the next week and a half. General buzz at the post office and hospital implied that her reputation for event planning had drummed up some genuine interest from the locals, and that in and of itself cemented his plan for the weekend as pizza, beer, and whatever cable had to offer. His plan had, at no point, included running into Michael in the candy aisle at RiteAid at three o’clock in the afternoon on Valentine’s Day.

With an armful of personal care items marked with discount stickers, Michael had taken one look at the prescription envelope in Alex’s right hand and the box of chocolates in his left and said, “Got a hot date?”

“No,” Alex had said, wishing he’d chosen to put on something neater than his faded sweatpants. Michael rarely looked presentable by general standards, but he always looked good. “Just chronic pain and a sweet tooth.”

“You should come back tomorrow,” Michael had suggested. “Better sales after the holiday.”

“True, but then I won’t have anything to eat tonight.”

Michael had visibly perked, even though his face stayed neutral. “You’re not going to the singles night thing at the Pony? I thought Valenti would have roped you in for sure.”

“No.” Fleetingly, Alex had considered the idea of wandering through the crowded bar, equally decorated in distasteful neon and garish party store hearts, and trying to pick which of the Pony’s regular stock might like to have his drink bought by an openly gay veteran with one leg while his friends watch from the sidelines of their depressingly stable relationships. “There’s not enough booze in the world.”

“Yeah, I get that,” Michael had laughed. He hadn’t quite met Alex’s eye as they both carefully side-stepped the rest of the conversation. Alex had stopped paying attention, so he wasn’t sure if Michael had retaken to running up a tab yet. “Is is completely pissed at me, but I told her there was no way in hell.”

Alex had swallowed. “Got a hot date?”

“Totally,” Michael had said. He held up his hand and wiggled his fingers. “I think you’ve met him.” 

In retrospect, Alex blames the rest of the conversation on the fact that he’s been unshakably in love with Michael since he was seventeen. For the better part of a month, he’s been trying to work up the courage to throw out a line. But they exist in a strange no-man’s-land of casual acquaintanceship that borders on friendship and romance simultaneously, and Alex hasn’t quite found the right way out yet. 

“If you don’t have plans tonight, you could swing by.” Michael, already at the end of the aisle when Alex called after him, had looked mildly startled when he turned around. “We can get pizza. Or something. Whatever goes with beer.”

“Everything goes with beer in my world.”

“It’ll be a lonely hearts club type of thing,” Alex had said, primarily for the deniability. 

Michael had cocked his head. His eyes drifted lower and lower until they paused and climbed back up Alex’s body at a crawl. “Are you lonely?”

“I had a nose ring, remember?” Alex had clutched the prescription bag in his fist with a crunch and forced himself to laugh, even as bashful panic squeezed at his throat. “You don’t end up with a nose ring and Danger posters on your walls at seventeen unless you’re deeply lonely.”

A slow smile had stretched across Michael’s face, and he ducked his head like it was too private to share with the open aisle. When he looked up again, he wrinkled his nose to help steady his armful of bottles with a nudge of his telekinesis. “I’ll see you at six, then. Pizza and beer.”

Now, Michael breaks a wayward string of cheese away from his last bite and asks, “You want me to go home? Leave you to your pity party?” 

“No. I’m enjoying the company. I think it’s because you’re so charming.”

Michael laughs. “You’re so full of shit.”

“Fine, don’t believe me. But hooking up with a girl who was looking for a hookup on the day before Valentine’s Day is not a nightmare scenario.”

“Alright,” Michael says, nudging Alex’s bent knee, “so give me a better example.”

“Uh, pizza and beer with a guy that never learned how to chew with his mouth closed?”

Michael tears into the crust of his slice and says, muffled by food, “I’ll leave anytime. Just say the word.”

Alex pulls his foot out from under the couch cushion and rolls his heel into the side of Michael’s thigh. “Don’t be disgusting!”

Mashing his teeth, Michael chews with his mouth open for another two bites and then relents. He drops a hot palm into the exposed skin of Alex’s ankle, holding it in place, and Alex manages not to react until Michael strokes his thumb into the hollow beside his Achilles tendon. 

“I need a refill. Do you want another beer?” he asks, pulling his leg away and turning to plant his foot on the floor. He bends down to grope beneath the couch for his crutch. 

“Yeah, I’ll take another one.” Michael stands, taking his empty bottle in hand, and says, “I’ll get it. I know my way around the fridge.”

As he shuffles between the couch and the coffee table, he drops a hand onto Alex’s left shoulder and squeezes. The touch is gone almost as soon as it starts, but Alex still lets out an audible squeak on his next exhale. 

Being touch-starved is hardly new, but it makes him feel like an especially pathetic rescue cat when his body shivers at the barest graze. Twice it happened when Kyle leaned over to look at his laptop and put a hand on his back while they worked on the salvaged hard drives together, and Alex had barely been able to hide the heated flush in his cheeks. It’s more humiliating with Michael, somehow, because Michael has always been exactly the same. He’s always turned into Alex’s touch with eagerness, always looked for the most contact he could find. Something about touch between them turning casual and unaffecting on his end while Alex is gasping like an Austen heroine is especially unsettling.

He takes three deep breaths, holding the air in his chest and releasing through pursed lips, and then Michael squeezes between the end table and the chair with two beers. He twists the tops off with a twitch of his nose, and Alex watches the bent metal land on the coffee table with a ding. 

“Show off,” he says as Michael hands him a bottle. Their fingers brush against the glass. “You’ve never fought with a jar of pasta sauce in your life.”

Michael eases back down onto the couch, snagging the last garlic knot from the crimped tinfoil on the coffee table on the way, and says, “Rubber band trick works wonders. Not that I’ve ever needed it.” 

“Smug bastard.”

Alex watches the bob of Michael's throat as he takes a long draw from his beer. 

“Oh, here. Almost forgot.” Michael pops the rest of the garlic knot into his mouth and lifts his hips off the couch to give himself room to root around his pocket. After a moment of tugging, he tosses something across the couch. It lands on Alex’s thigh. “For your sweet tooth.”

Alex stares down at the packet of SweeTARTS heart candies, emblazoned with the same sentimental phrases as classic conversation hearts. “These are sour.”

“Well, yeah, but aren’t those the ones you like?”

Fingers toying with the crimped edges of the paper wrapping, Alex nods. 

“Then Happy Valentine’s Day.” Michael sucks a spot of oil and garlic from his thumb. “I had to go to, like, four different CVS stores to find them.”

“Thank you,” Alex says. “You didn’t— I didn’t get you anything.”

Michael shrugs. “You paid for dinner. Least I could do was pick up some candy.” 

-

-

Darkness creeps up on them while they trade sarcastic commentary about the fake detective comedy marathon they found on a higher cable channel. The lone bulb still on over the sink casts a warm yellow glow across the kitchen and dining room, and the living room flickers between dark and light as the scenes change on the television. 

Alex glances down at Michael, who has made himself comfortable with one leg dangling off the edge of the couch and the other curled up against the arm. His head rests on a pillow that he laid atop Alex’s right leg, and he has Alex’s left leg stretched out in front of his chest to keep it from blocking his view.

The shift was gradual: he slumped sideways and curled his legs up; he leaned on his elbow and tried to stretch out; he whined about his neck and grabbed the pillow off the floor, checking that it wouldn’t bother Alex’s knee if he put pressure on it; and he grabbed Alex’s left leg by the ankle to straighten it out while complaining that he couldn’t see. And now Alex’s shin is pinned beneath Michael’s palm, feeling the rise and fall of Michael’s chest whenever he chuckles at one of the jokes. 

They’ve spent hours together, rolling around in Michael’s cot and the back of his truck and motel beds, but Alex isn’t sure they’ve ever been more intimate. Quiet stillness has always been difficult for them to come by, and he can barely remember the last time they spent an afternoon together without some sense of doom hanging over their heads. They’ve certainly never laid on a couch together for four hours. 

Michael shifts, rolling onto his side, and his hand drifts down towards the top of Alex’s foot. The calluses on his palm catch against the weave of his sock, and Alex listens to the faint scratch of material without breathing. After a moment, Michael’s fingers slip beneath the elastic at the bottom of his sweatpants, and he strokes absently at the ball of Alex’s ankle. 

The fears and the doubts are as present as they’ve been for the last few weeks. All of their baggage is exactly the same. 

Alex winds one of Michael’s curls around his finger, and he feels the stutter in his breathing. 

With empirical evidence like that, he has to be brave. 

He mutes the television and says, “I don’t have to work tomorrow.”

“Okay.” Michael glances up. “Is this…new information? Should we be celebrating?”

“No, I mean—” Alex swallows. “I don’t have to go out tomorrow, so if you stay over afterwards, we can talk.”

Michael stares at him. “After what?”

Alex shrugs, but his eyes linger pointedly on Michael’s mouth. 

“Oh,” Michael says. He turns onto his stomach slowly, like he thinks moving too quickly will turn Alex skittish, and then he eases up onto his knees between Alex's legs. Carefully, he pushes the pillow on Alex’s lap out of the way and onto the floor. “Yeah. Yeah, I could stay over. Afterwards.”

Light from the silent television flickers against the side of his face, and Alex reaches for the loose collars of his shirt. Michael bends pliantly, anchoring his hands beside Alex’s shoulders on the arm of the couch, and lowers himself until their noses brush. Then, he hesitates. He nuzzles against Alex’s cheek, rolls their foreheads together, and sighs out a laugh. 

Alex giggles back, a nervous sound he has no control over, and asks, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. Nothing. I just— I don’t wanna screw up. This has been a no-fly zone for weeks.”

“It really hasn’t.”

“It really has. I have the bruised ego to prove it.”

A missing piece slots into place in Alex’s chest, loosening every ounce of tension left in his body, and he sags down against the couch cushions. He takes a moment to look up at Michael, at the vulnerable pinch of anxiety that crinkles the corners of his eyes, and then he reaches up to smooth his thumb over the crest of Michael’s cheeks. The wrinkles worsen, so he tows Michael in by his hips and shakes his head. “No. No, you’re— you’re cleared to land.”

“That’s not— ” Michael blinks, and then says, affectionately, “Oh, fuck you.”

He laughs, deep in his chest, and finally presses his mouth to Alex’s. Alex surges into the kiss, letting it linger until the smile splitting across his lips forces Michael to pull back. He tries again, but Alex can’t relax his grin, so, for a moment, they just breathe, silhouetted in the dark. 

Then, Michael says, “No regretting it tomorrow?” 

Alex shakes his head. “No.”

“No nightmare scenario? No backslide with my ex?”

“No.”

“No… I scratched my itch, now get out of my house?”

“No!”

“Okay, good. Good. Because I’m playing for keeps this time.” He settles his weight between Alex’s thighs, and Alex is struck suddenly with the realization of how easy it is to be happy, how earned it feels after all this time.

They kiss, lazy and unhurried, until the cable box starts to idle in the background and leaves them in a nearly pitch black room. The last three buttons of Michael’s shirt come undone under Alex’s fingertips, and Michael’s unshaved jaw scrapes his mouth almost raw.

“Next year,” he mumbles against Alex’s cheek in a moment of reprieve, “I’m gonna fill this house with roses.”

Distractedly, Alex hooks his heel around the back of Michael’s calf and says, “If you somehow have a quarter of a million dollars to waste on that many flowers next year, we will not still be living in this house.”

Michael’s whole body jolts.

“We?” he teases gleefully, and he digs his fingertips into the soft back of Alex’s knee. “Did you just forget we don’t have a joint bank account? Oh, fuck, you really do like me.”

A hot flush rises in Alex’s cheeks as he squirms. “I like your fake money.”

“I think you mean our fake money.”

Alex laughs. “I fucking hate you.” He turns away, and Michael bends down to kiss the exposed line of his neck. 

“You don’t,” he says between nips. “You really don’t.”

“No,” Alex agrees. “I really don’t.”

#michael x alex #malex #malex fic #malexcupid21 #roswell new mexico #alright it's DONE it's out of me so now i can read all the other ones lol #it's been a long while since i posted fic but!!! i kind of need them back together ASAP #my fic

[thegreenmetblue]

STARKER FESTIVAL SUMMER BINGO : 2nd square

not a date

read on ao3

Peter was utterly anxious. To be honest, he’s not even sure anything in his life stressed him more than that. To be fair, he wasn’t expecting this. At all. Let’s go back to earlier in the day. This morning to be more precise.

Peter was lying in his bed, watching some weird videos on YouTube. But it was Saturday morning. It’s what teenagers do on a early Saturday morning (read : at 10 am). Not that the boy was gonna say it out loud but it was either that, either reading fanfictions about Spiderman and Iron Man. But shhh if you ask him, he’d say it’s only for checking how people are describing him.

Anyway, he was watching some hilarious videos Ned has sent him for the last six days when his phone stopped the video in exchange of Tony Stark’s face. Peter’s heart skipped a beat in his chest, like every time Tony’s calling him. “Yes ?”, he answers with a faint voice. Most of the times, he has no issues talking to Tony face to face but god knows why, Peter has still big issues with calls.

“If this isn’t my favorite young adult. Hi, Pete. Im sorry if woke up you. Or maybe not that sorry, it was time to anyway.”, Tony’s voice says in the speaker. Peter’s cheeks redden at that. He doesn’t know the reason of it, but it’s been almost two months Tony stopped calling him a kid. And now he just said young adult, it gives hope to Peter’s poor heart. Maybe Tony stopped seeing him as a kid. Maybe he sees him more as an equal now ? Lost in his thoughts, the boy doesn’t even realize he didn’t answer to the man on the other side of the phone.

“Alright, imma take that as a no. Gosh, I wondered what happened to the boy that was practically begging to have all my attention.”, Tony laughs softly. Again, he just said Peter wasn’t that boy anymore. The boy makes a little shame sound to the man’s comment about his behavior, feeling his cheeks burning even more.

“N-no, im sorry, im here mr. Stark. You didn’t wake me up. And please take that back, I was never asking for you attention, old man.”, Peter shoots back. He loves doing that. He loves talking back to Tony. “Imma pretend I didn’t hear what you just called me. And Im also gonna pretend like you’re not shamelessly lying to me at the moment. Anyway, you have plans tonight ?”, Tony asks, a bit of growling in his voice. This automatically warms Peter’s heart. He’s probably gonna go to Tony’s lab tonight.

Peter was trying not to smile too much when he remembered Tony wasn’t actually there. “No, I don’t have anything. You want me in the lab ?”, the boy asks and immediately regrets his choice of words. want me in the lab. Fuck. He was gonna say sorry to that, but thanks god Tony speaks before he can make it even more awkward. “No actually I was thinking of something a little more fun. What do you say about eating in a fancy restaurant tonight ?”. Peter’s heart doesn’t skip a beat this time, it skips severals. Tony wants- what ?

“What ?”, he lets out, without even realizing it. “Should I take that as a no again ?”. Tony’s voice echoes in Peter’s brain but never gets analyzed. The boy’s still frozen, his phone hanging in his hand, the sound of his beating heart ringing in his ears.

“Peter ? Fri just told me your heartbeats are unsually high, are you okay ?”. And this time, that wakes him up. “Wh-what ? Oh.. no that’s- im okay, it’s just- MJ!”, Peter stutters as an answer. He swears he can hear Tony’s frowning’s expression in the silence that follows.

“I mean, she- MJ, she sent me a funny, a text, it reminded me of something and I huh.. yeah. No, that’s yes.”. Another long silence. that’s a yes. Peter feels like he just answered a proposal. “Yes as in, im free for tonight, mr. Stark.”, Peter finishes, his cheeks burning with shame.

“Great. And Im not gonna question what just happened, alright ? Be ready for 7.”, Tony simply says before hanging up. Just like that. Just like he didn’t just made Peter’s brain completely fry.

“Did Tony just asked me on a date?”, Peter asks himself out loud, alone in his bedroom, his jaw hanging in shook. What the hell ?

That’s how Peter started the most stressful day of his entire life. Exams ? Spiderman ? Thanos ? Forget all of this, he has a freakin’ date with Tony freakin’ Stark, that is the real stressful shit. He spends half of the day walking in his apartment.

Around 3, he starts to panic hard because Tony said fancy. But Peter doesn’t have fancy clothes. He stayed in front of his phone, hesitating to send Tony something about that or no. He doesn’t want Tony to think he only has kid’s clothes. But then, better this than showing up in a fancy restaurant with a pun-sweat right ?

PP : How should I be dressed for tonight ?

Peter finally sends, not asking but hoping Tony’ll understand what he meant. His smile increases when, 6 minutes after, his phone rings.

TS : Happy is gonna drop you a suit at 5.

Peter’s inside catches fire at that. The words sugar daddy are ringing in his ears. Tony is gonna buy him a suit. Just for tonight. For their date. “Oh my god, imma be sick.”, Peter mumbles. His heart has been beating so fast since the call. And he feels like he’s gonna throw up. And he’s also happy. So happy. But- a date ? With Tony Stark ? Peter has been in love with the man for- he can’t even remember. Of course at first it was just a fan crush, then a real crush, then it bloomed into full love. And Peter never thought he could had a chance. But- Peter’s thoughts get cut by the entry door opening.

It’s May. And it’s been 5 hours now that Peter is combusting with impatience all alone in his apartment that he just can’t help himself. As soon as May starts taking to him, he blurts out : “I’ve got a date tonight!”

That’s how the hundreds of questions start. May knows he’s gay. However, May doesn’t know he loves Tony and she definitely doesn’t know the actual date is with Tony. So when she starts asking who he is, Peter realizes it maybe wasn’t the best idea. So after receiving the 5 hugs May felt like she needed to give him for that, the boy sends another text to Tony.

PP : Can we meet at the park next to my building please?

And then, he lets May giving him advices for tonight. “Alright, I get why you won’t tell me. Even if Im a little concerned, I get it. Where is he taking you ?”, she asks, a big smile on her face. “I don’t know actually, he just said it was somewhere fancy.”, Peter answers, trying not to let his smile gets to him too much.

“And how are you gonna get dressed ? You maybe can try some of Ben’s suit ?”. And Peter’s heart warms at that proposition. “It’s alright May, I already have something to wear actually.”

The two next hours aren’t better, they’re worst. May continues giving him advices. For his sakes, Peter swears himself to never use some. Then he takes a shower, the longest he never took. Just in case. He wants all of his skin to smell good for Tony. His cheeks brun at this thought. Are him and Tony gonna.. ? Now his whole body is warming up and Peter can’t help but jerking off at the thought of him and Tony going home tonight and having some fun.

When Happy leaves him a text saying the suit is in the mailbox, the boy sneaks to get it. Once the suit is on him, Peter can’t stop looking at his own reflection in the mirror. It’s a light blue suit and fuck, he does look good in those. His whole skin is shivering because Tony bought it to him. Tony’s money is touching his skin. The boy snorts at his own weird thoughts. But he can’t help it.

A small whine escapes his lips when he realizes there’s still 1h30 before Tony comes to get him. And that’s the absolute worst feeling ever. Peter tries to work, to watch a tv show, to talk with May, to phone MJ or Ned, to build lego, but nothing is able to make the time look less slow. And the more the time passes, the more Peter’s stomach gets stress crushed.

When 7 pm is finally approaching, Peter’s not even sure he can breath anymore. “Peter, hey- Peter, please can you stop ?”, May finally snaps and Peter turns to her, ready to burst at her that she doesn’t know how he feels right now, but she shushes him before he can even start.

“Everything’s gonna go well, angel. But please, you’re gonna faint before you’ll even get there, alright ? You’re handsome my baby, he’s gonna love you.”, May tries to calm him by hugging him. He was about to answer her when the clock beside them shows that 7 pm is in 5 minutes. Peter jumps saying he’s gonna be late and rushes out of the apartment.

He went down the stairs, crossed the street and went to the park in a 1 minute time. His heart is menacing to get out of his chest. And when he finally hears Tony’s voice behind him, his whole body jerks and he turns to the voice.

His heart stops again. Holy fuck, Tony is- he’s god-handsome. Peter’s jaw opens and doesn’t close.

“You’re doing alright Peter ?”, Tony asks, after a few seconds. Peter tries. He tries really hard. But Tony is in front of him, in a grey suit that looks absolutely heavenly hot on him, and they’re going on a date and-

“Peter ?”, this time, he forces himself to answer before Tony decides to leaves him there. “Hum… huh- yeah? Yeah you look good. I- I mean.. Im good! Im doing… good.”. He watches in horror as Tony tries to not laugh at him. “Blue suits you, by the way.”, Tony comments and Peter tries not to blush or smile at that.

Then the older one shows him the car behind them and Peter hurries inside.

“So. Why the park ?”, the man asks after a few seconds. Peter’s brows frown in confusion. “Forget it. Everything alright Pete ? You look… tense. Did something happened while you patrolled ?”. And this time, Peter’s sure he’s blushing. Why can’t he just relax ? Okay it’s a date but it shouldn’t be any different than the rest of the time they spend together.

“Yeah.. Yeah im sorry I was just a bit nervous, you know… I… Im happy you invited me tho! So.. where are we going ?”, the boy tries to show he’s grateful for this. The last thing he wants is Tony thinking he’s not happy about the date.

“It’s an Italian restaurant, my favorite one. You’ll see, everything that’ll get into your mouth tonight will make you fly.”, Tony answers and there’s a silence. Peter’s cheeks burn hot now. Did Tony really said- oh my god. “Im just realizing how it sounds. Maybe not my best choices of words.”, the man laughs. laughs, as if he didn’t created a whole fire in Peter’s body. The boy just prays not to pop up a boner just because of a single sentence.

The rest of the ride is just small talks and when they finally arrive, Peter stays close to Tony, it makes him feel protected. And he likes it. The smile on his face is uncontrollable. He can’t believe he’s on an actual date with Tony Stark. His heart is about to burst from happiness. And the place is stunning, and Tony’s stunning. And Peter sees people watching them and he feels proud. He knows how much people want Tony. But Tony’s there with him.

Once they’re seated, Peter can’t help but stare at Tony who’s in front of him. And the only thing he can think of is that he loves him. But the boy shuts up. Tony didn’t mentioned it being a date yet, and even when he does, Peter can’t just say he loves him already.

When the menu comes, Peter just stare at the Italian names blankly. “I… I don’t understand anything that’s written.” , he murmurs to Tony, a bit ashamed. But the man just fondly snorts in response and translates him the different propositions. But after the explanations, Peter’s still lost as fuck. what the fuck are all of those ?. Tony laughs again, louder this time, noticing Peter’s lost face.

“You know what, I’ll order for you. How does that sound ?”. The boy’s heart stops and he flushes different shades of red at once. Tony is gonna order for him. “That- That sounds good. Im sorry I don’t know what are those.”, Peter finally says. “Hey, none of that Pete. Plus, Im kinda excited for you to try what I’ll pick for you.”, the man says, like it wasn’t making Peter squirm in his chair. Oh my god, he’s gonna die.

To give himself a bit of capacity, he pretends to read the menu once again and pouts noticing the prices aren’t there. Meaning it must be like, super expensive. He knows Tony can pay, and there’s a side of him that likes it. Because it’s easier for him to call Tony Daddy in his head. But there’s also a part of him that hates it because it feels like he can’t complete. May and Peter are kinda broke and Peter would have liked to be able to pay a restaurant to Tony too.

“What’s up with the pout ?”. Shit. “N-Nothing, mr. Stark really. It’s just… you know, I can’t… it’s a fancy restaurant and May and I aren’t…”, he begins but Tony cuts him. “Im stopping you right there, Peter. Im sorry if me picking a fancy restaurant embarrassed you, I should have asked where you wanted to go first. But don’t worry about that, okay ? Im not asking you to pay for anything, I invited you there.”. Peter feels his heart beating hard in his chest. “No, Im really happy to be there, I swear! I just… I just don’t want- I don’t know, forget it.”.

Tony does what Peter asked him, he drops the subject and start talking about Peter’s project in the lab. And that, it allows Peter to relax a bit. Because it suddenly feels like a normal time with Tony. And not a date. Well, a date yes but not an awkward one. And if Peter chokes on his own saliva when Tony orders in fucking italian in front of him, then at least, the man acts like he didn’t see it. And Peter’s happy there’s a table because explaining to Tony why he’s hard right now would have been real awkward.

It becomes a bit more awkward again when the meals arrive. Because Peter gets aroused by how good the food Tony picked for him is. Because Tony looks genuinely satisfied with the fact Peter moans at every bite he takes. And because watching the gorgeous man eating in front of him is also a whole show.

Peter is too occupied staring at Tony to realize he’s missing his mouth with the next bite he takes. The man laughs gently at him and Peter wants to fucking hide under the table because now Tony’ll think he doesn’t know how to eat.

“That’s good huh ? Knew you would like it.”, Tony smiles, after a minute of silence. The smile on Peter’s lips grows automatically. He likes that. He really likes that Tony knew what he’d like. “That’s… the best thing I ever ate mr. Stark!”, Peter answers, beaming with happiness. Even the awkward moments can’t ruin this for him. He’s so happy.

The rest of the evening goes well. So well even. But the more the end approaches, the more Peter can’t help but asks himself if something’s gonna happen or not. Like… Is Tony gonna bring him home ? Is he gonna kiss him ? Even the thought of that is enough to make Peter’s head feel dizzy. He can’t even let himself imagine something more than a kiss would happen. And if he does, he’s gonna combust in front of Tony. And before his mind decides to picture them having sex, Peter shakes his head, his cheeks reddening with both shame and want. He had so many dream about Tony, so many wet dreams about Tony. He has been dreaming about the man since even before they actually meet. And Peter feels like he would cum the second Tony lays a hand on him. That’d be pretty awkward. And then, Peter can’t help but wonder what Tony sees in him. He’s nobody. Tony can have whoever he wants, and still, he chose him. Does Tony know he’s a virgin still ? Would he care ?

“Okay, have you even listened to a word I just told you ?”, Tony asks, a jaded look on his face. Peter realizes the man has been talking to him and blushes in shame. “Im so sorry! I was thinking… I got lost in my thoughts, sorry.”, he apologizes, hoping Tony won’t think he’s boring him.

“Wow, he’s getting invited to the fanciest restaurant ever and still act like it’s not enough. What more do you want Parker ?”, Tony jokes and one part of Peter is happy he didn’t get upset. Another part of him just wanna scream he wants Tony to kiss him once they’re out of the restaurant. But what if Tony wanna take his time ? He doesn’t wanna sound as desperate as he really is.

“I’d really love for a car.”, Peter jokes back, glad he made Tony smile. “Ask and you shall receive.”. And Peter doesn’t know how honest Tony is with this. He hopes the man is joking. But Tony’s intense look in his eyes when Peter said those words is enough to make him realize the man is serious about this. “I was joking, mr. Stark.”, the boy adds, just to be sure he won’t receive a car tomorrow. Tony doesn’t answer anything to that, which is kinda weird, but Peter doesn’t think too much about it.

When the server comes back and asks if they want a dessert, Tony answers for him again. No. This time Tony doesn’t wait for Peter to even asks him, he just orders him something in Italian again.

“I could have asked him for ice cream you know…”, Peter whines, faking a pout. “Oh so he understands Italian now.”. And the smile Tony had on his lips almost all night is making Peter heart feel so light.

“I don’t, but I don’t think I need a italian degree to understand ‘gelato’, old man.”, Peter teases, making himself feels hot all over his body. He sees Tony’s gaze changing a bit too. Is Tony loving this as much as him ? “Brat.”, the man accuses and Peter stops himself to make a punishment joke. They’re not there yet.

The boy is now eating his damn vanilla ice cream and can’t help the blush creeping on his face again. Tony is staring at him. Not watching. Staring. Peter’s senses can feel his intense gaze on him, on his face. And the boy feels like he doesn’t know how to eat anymore. He’s sure he’s putting ice cream everywhere on his lips and wants to die about it.

“Y-You didn’t want to take something ? Huh… dessert or- or coffee ?”, he stutters, to make things less intense, because Peter is seconds away to moan under Tony’s gaze. “Im all good, thanks Pete.”, Tony answers and the boy doesn’t know if he’s dreaming or not but Tony’s voice sounded more… low ? He goes back to eating his ice cream, hoping it’s the last ice cream he’ll ever eat in his life.

When they finally go out, Peter feels drunk. He’s so happy, so nervous and so horny at the same time. He’d say so in love but let’s not brings more awkward to this. They walk in silence to Tony’s car. And just before Tony can open his car, Peter blurts out : “Thank you so much for the dinner mr. Stark! It was really really good and really fun. I liked it… a lot.”, he says, knowing he’s blushing again but doesn’t care at this point. Maybe Tony is waiting for him to make the first move. Because he doesn’t wanna rush him.

“Pleasure was mine, Pete.”, the man answers, a soft smile on his lips. And then, Peter doesn’t even realize what his body his doing, but that should be the good time no ? His heart is pounding so fast and loud in his chest, ears and whole body as he leans and kiss Tony. A smack. Just a smack. Because Peter doesn’t even know how to kiss. It was fast, but enough to make Peter’s heart explodes in his chest.

But then he sees Tony’s face. Tony’s frozen and shocked face. Shit. Did it was too soon ? Did it sucked ? Did Tony expected someone who could actually kiss him ? Peter wants to throw up. ”Mr. Stark ?”, he asks faintly.

“Peter. What… What was that ?”, Tony questions, his tone dangerously flat. “I- I thought… Im so sorry I... You know with the date and all, I thought maybe… maybe it was a good time to kiss you, you know ? Im sorry if Im not a g-”, Peter painfully begins but gets cut by Tony. “Wait- A date ? It wasn’t a date.”, the man says, his voice suddenly high. Peter’s blood turns cold in his whole body.

What ?

“Wh- What ?”, he breathes, voice already trembling. Oh god no. No no no no, this can’t be happening.

“This. That’s- Christ, Peter. It wasn’t a date. I- I didn’t- We’re not- Fuck.”, Tony panics, his voice almost screaming the last bit, stepping back from Peter. Peter who’s still frozen, watching what’s happening in front of him without being able to move.

“Oh god, Im so sorry if I made you think it was a date, kid. Im- It wasn’t my intention.”, Tony tries to apologize, clearly still panicking. The only word echoing in Peter’s brain is kid. Tony hasn’t called him like that for months. And now he’s doing it again.

“Peter, kid. Shit, you can’t cry- I- Peter Im so sorry I shouldn’t-”. And it’s only when Tony says that that Peter realizes tears are rolling down his cheeks. His heart feels heavy in his chest. No. His heart feels completely crushed in his chest. And the humiliation. The boy still stands there, only capable of crying in front of Tony, who’s panicking on his own.

“Kid, you- Im sorry, Im not mad I swear, we can’t- We just can’t. We’re not… that.”. And Peter’s heart feels like breaking again. “D-Don’t call m-me k-kid.”, and it’s the only thing Peter can lets out before fully starting to cry. Small hiccups escaping his lips.

Tony watches in horror, unable to do much. “Peter, im begging you- stop crying, im not mad, you’re- kid I-”, the man starts and if he wasn’t so much in pain, Peter would have been genially shocked to see Tony struggling so much to speak. “Stop ca-calling me a kid!”, the boy almost screams, surprising both himself and Tony. The man steps back again. There’s a silence. A loud one. A painful one.

“Im sorry. It’s my fault if you thought- Jesus, it’s my fault if you mistook this, Peter. Im sorry I let you think this was a… a date. You can’t- it’s not on you, Im not mad.”, Tony speaks again. But it’s only words. Peter’s brain shut himself. He doesn’t understand what Tony is saying to him. He just wants to die.

“But- But I lo-”, he starts, desperately, only to get cut by the man in front of him again. “No. No you don’t. You- Jesus ki- Pete, it’s not-” and there’s a silence again. “It’s not wh-what ? True ? H-How would you know ? And wh-why… what was al-all of this for if-if it was- n’t a.. a da-date ?”, the boy desperately questions, in between cries. Tony’s pained expression intensifies. “Pete, stop crying.”.

“Answer me!”, the younger one screams. He can’t believe Tony. It’s not true. Tony is just being- delusional.

“Christ why are you doing this ? Peter, it was just- just… us.”. Peter never heard Tony’s voice sounding so desperate before today. But he can’t care. He feels like he’s been crushed by a fucking plane right now.

“Us ? Ye-yeah and Im- im saying that us, is me lo-lo-loving you and you- you looking at me with- with that look in your eyes.”. And Peter can sees Tony’s eyes watering. Again, it’d be the first time he sees Tony crying, but he still can’t care. The man just steps back and sighs, passing both of his hands on his face.

“You stopped calling me ki-kid. And- and you order for me- and- and sh-shit! I- I know you like it. I know i-it because I can se-see it, mr. Stark. I- I want- I want you… pl-please.”, Peter cries even harder now, his voice constantly cut by cries. “Please.”, he begs again. And it’s even more painful because Tony doesn’t answers anything. The man just stand in front if him, completely frozen, with a pained expression on his face. But he doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t deny it. Why doesn’t he deny it ?

And suddenly, Tony’s warms hands are on his cheeks, trying to wipes the endless tears coming out of Peter’s eyes. But the sensation of the hand on his cheeks only makes Peter cry more. “Peter… Peter, baby.. please. You- fuck. You have to stop, alright ?”, Tony whispers, so close to him, but yet so far. baby.

Peter doesn’t realize he leans on the touch, he doesn’t realize Tony’s other hand is clenching hard on his light blue jacket. And despite everything that is happening right now, Peter only wants them to kiss. A real kiss.

But the next thing he feels is Tony’s strong body against him. The man is hugging him and Peter can’t help but hug him back, his cries still loudly getting out. “Peter, please. I can’t. You know I can’t. Im so sorry. I shouldn’t have invited you, I shouldn’t- I shouldn’t have let myself- I can’t.”, Tony murmurs those things in Peter’s ear, tightening his arm around the boy’s body and it only hurts Peter more. Why is Tony saying all of this ? What does it mean ?

“Please…”. It’s all what Peter is capable to say. Please love me. He feels Tony’s body, Tony’s warmth getting away and hates it. And the boy can’t take it. It hurts so much. So before Tony can even answer with another apologize, Peter’s wrists move on their own, and the next second he’s not there anymore, he’s on the top of the building next to the restaurant. He has to get away from Tony. He can’t stay there.

And if Peter hasn’t jumped on another building right away, he would have been able to hear Tony whispering on his own. “Pete… I wished you’d understand why this can’t be a date, why I can’t let you love me back.”, finally letting himself cry now that Peter ran away.

second square for @starkerfestivals 🙈🙈

alright so first of all im so sorry for this fjndldl 😭😭😭 this bingo is challenging me so much tho bc i wrote my first tony fucking peter and now i wrote my first sad ending

its just the first thing that came to my mind seeing ‘not a date’ so i followed my idea

also i edited it three fucking times bc tumblr was being a bitch with me today 🔪

#starker #ironspider #leah writes sometimes #starkerfestival summer bingo #starkerfestivals #starkerfestivalsevents #sfsummerbingo21

[awhst-alt]

I HAD THE BEST BYLER DREAM LAST NIGHT AND I REALLY WANNA SHARE IT WITH YOU ALL

it's so long (literally 2k words) so im gonna put it under the cut haha <3

so basically this would take place after mike and will start dating or something, idk exactly the time frame (i picture them being like 18 or something and this is the summer before college) and will goes to this summer arts program for like 2/3 months (i dunno how long american summer is but something like that) and its all the way far from home so there is dorms and stuff and he's "not in hawkins anymore" (no pun intended)

mike and will decide after will finishes his school they'd go to college together (cuz they're gonna be comic book artists together bc thats boyfriend shit) so throughout these months he's practically just waiting for will (<333333)

so one specific scene i remember from my dream involved will and mike getting off the bus to the school and then they hug and then mike grabs wills hand and brings him behind the bus and then he gives will a biggg kiss bc he won't be able to kiss him for 3 months. then they say they love each other and will gives him another quick kiss and is like "two kisses". they agree they'd call each other every day.

so will goes inside and mike goes back on the bus and goes home.

and basically the whole day is a whirl, until the end of it, in which mike is sitting in the kitchen near the phone waiting for like 3 hours for will to call, and will doesn't end up calling.

AND THEN IT GETS SPICYYYYY

so meanwhile at the arts program will asks like the front desk or something if he can call mike and they say phone is offlimits and they don't let him call mike

so then will goes to sleep and he's paranoid that he thinks mike is gonna hate him or something like that

mk than the next day in class there is this girl (they didn't reveal her name in the dream, ill call her stella) so stella is basically looking at will the entire class but will doesn't know it

so when they exit the class stella's like "hi" and will says "hi"

then stella says "i like your painting."

will is like rlly weirded out so he goes "thanks?"

"i um- hope this doesn't sound weird but i have no friends, do you want to be mine?"

"sure"

and then end of scene (this does not sound like a normal conversation but it's my dream so it doesn't have to make sense"

so BACK AT HAWKINS mike is still sleeping even tho it's like 3 pm because yk depressed boyfriend shit but then the PHONE RINGS and mike gets out of bed frantically and goes to the phone and he picks it up and is like "will?" and then it answers "it's el, idiot"

i feel like this is important for context but el speaks english very well now and hoppers back and she lives with hopper and not the byers anymore. ANYWAYS

el says "how's will?"

mike says "idk he didn't call"

"he didn't?"

"no, he didn't"

"okay. well maybe he will call later"

"yeah mb"

"wanna come over"

"ok"

so mike hangs up and gets changed and goes to el's house bc they r a couple o' besties and when he gets there it's like a therapy sessions bc mike usally talks to will every single day and he can't for like 3 months (unless will calls, but he's not going to) so he accepts he's gonna be depressed for 3 months and he's just talking to el about how he's gonna miss him so much and no be able to see his face and that shit

so el's like "well do u wanna do something to take ur mind off of him"

and mike's like "no im not gonna replace will" (I SCREAMED IN MY DREAM SRSLY)

but than el says "okay. guess im gonna go to the mall by myself" (ig starcourt is rebuilt by now)

and than mike bolts up and is like "fine"

"we can by something for will"

"okay yay"

so then they go to starcourt yasss!!

anyways back at the art school will is having lunch and stella is with he friends (even tho she said she doesn't have any friends) and one of her friends is like "omg did you see _____ he's so hot"

and another friend says "YESS! but ____ is cuter"

"what abt u stella? who do u have ur eyes on"

she says "byers" BUT NOOOOOOO WILL IS MIKES MAN

and they say "ew that kid who came back to life"

she says "yea. but he's cute, and shy, and once i wrap them around my finger i can get them to do anything"

so then she goes to sit down next to will at lunch

"hi will"

"hi"

"hru"

"im good"

"okay. good." and she gets upset because will goes ask how she is but she keeps her urging rage inside. and than they have this weird conversation and will is uncomfortable the whole time bc shes all like flirting with him and will is seeing someone obvi

but then she puts a hand on will's shoulder and he's shaking and then says something (idk what it is it wasn't explaining in my dream) then will stands up and runs to the bathroom. so he's just sitting in the stalls crying.

okay back at starcourt this part wasn't shown in my dream but im just gonna make up that mike and el go looking around starcourt for something for will (sort of like the mike/lucas/will montage where they were looking for stuff for el) and then i guess they find something for will and i don't have the slightest idea what they could have got for him BUT THEY GOT HIM SOMETHING GOOD

so mike's all happy but they'res still that depression inside of him lol

so fast forward a week, it really isn't explained but ill just make up that will still hasn't called mike, and he's super sad and all sleeping in but decides to look through his good ol binder full of will's drawings and in the arts school will and stella have a few more interactions im sure which are still very uncomfortable

okay so it's lunch again in the cafeteria and somehow will and stella are talking again but somehow it ends in stella kissing will and will like pulls away immediatley and is like "what is wrong with you!?"

and she says "what?"

"i'm seeing someone!"

"oh i uh- i didn't know."

the whole cafeteria is staring at them

so will's freaking out almost on the verge of a panic attack "idk what to do, he's gonna hate me and-"

"he?"

will has the look on his face like shit shit shit oh fuck no

"you're gay?"

"i-"

and will runs off once again. and everyone in the whole cafeteria knows that he's day and ofc with everybody being homophobic will knows it's not good at all bc everyone's gonna bully him

so then the next day he goes to class and the teacher is like "does anyone care to tell me where ___ is?" (it would be like a math question like 'where x is' but in art idkkk) and then the teacher calls on "will? can you tell me where ___ is?" and they'res a pause and then the teacher says "or perhaps you'd want to find your boyfriend instead?" (giving me anne with an e vibes prolly cuz i did a rewatch last weekend but i won't explain more in case some people haven't watched it but) anyways will stands up from his seat, everyone is looking at him, and he's shaking and so concerned but then he goes "fuck. you" badass will yeaaaa thats my boy

so then he runs out of the classroom and out of the school in a really cool montage way but then he realizes he's like 2 hours away from home but he runs and runs and he goes to a random bustop (it's not even garanteed if it takes him to hawkins but whatever) he gets on and tries to go back to hawkins.

and soon enough, he gets there, and immediatley goes to the wheelers because he needs to see mike and apologize for everything. so he's at the wheelers, and rings the doorbell, realizing he's still in his uniform lol but karen answers and mike is upstairs in his room sulking (i picture it would be 8 pm by now) so will asks for mike and karen calls mike. mike groans obviously because he doesn't know it's his boy, but he comes down, karen gets out of the way and as soon as he sees will they have a really big hug and it's super sweet and my heart UFHEIOSKA

mike says his usual "are you okay?" and mike is still confused as shit but will says "i'm sorry i'm sorry i'm sorry" and mike says "you don't have to be sorry for anyrhing" but will says "ill explain"

so then they go to will's room, side-by-side on his bed and will starts explaining everything

(this is mostly improvised by me but it's still pretty similar to the dream)

"i hated it."

"the school?"

"yeah. there was no you, (mike blushes lmao), everything was terrible, i felt so lonely, they didn't let me call you-"

"what?"

"they said the phone was off limits. i wanted to talk to you so bad and i thought you'd hate me"

"i could never hate you, will, even if i tried." will smiles

"and then there was this girl, and she hit on me and i didn't know what to do bc i'd be the face of the school if i told her i was dating you and was gay and today she kissed me"

"WHAT"

"im sorry im sorry i didn't kiss back and i was so scared bc i never was in a relationship before and i was so scared it was considered cheating-"

and mike LAUGHSS

"what? mike? what's wrong?"

"if you don't do anything back, it's not considerd 'cheating'"

"oh. good. are you mad at me?"

"what? no! no never!" so mike opens his arms and says "come here" so will and mike hug or something like that and then mike says "do you need me to beat her up?"

and will says "you can't even beat eggs. besides, your noodle arms wouldn't be able to do harm to even a fly"

so mike laughs and says "i'm glad your home"

so will blurts "i cursed out a teacher"

"you? cursing?"

"yes."

"might have to start calling you a bad boy now"

will just smiles and says "i love you"

and mike says "i love you too"

AND THEN END AND IM SO PROUD OF MYSELF BC I LOVE THIS DREAM LIKE I CAN'T BELIEVE MY BRAIN THOUGHT OF THIS BUT IM OBSESSED

ALSO ONCE I FINISH WYBMFFAE ILL PROBABLY WRITE THIS INTO A FULL BLOWN FIC BUT AHIHFUSAH

edit: i have no idea what mike did with the present him and el bought for will but i guess they ended up giving it to him lol

#byler

[91percentpynch]

jean moreau x pride months

happy pride month kids, here‘s some wholesome jerejean content for your soul!! does this make any sense? no. is it a mess? yes. hope you enjoy this!!

the first pride month

it‘s the beginning of june and jeremy starts acting weird

he smiles more, the real smile normally reserved for winning an exy game or when he‘s alone with jean

he started drawing flags on his face or on his eye lids, jeremy never wore make-up, not more than his usual eyeliner and nail polish

„what does that mean?“, jean asks, pointing at the flags on his cheeks.

„the pink, yellow, blue one means i‘m pan. you know, i like more than one gender, i told you that already. and the grey, purple, white and black one that looks like an arrow? that means i‘m demisexual, you know how i only feel sexual attraction to people i have a bond with? that‘s demisexual. those are pride flags, it‘s pride month. didn‘t you know that?“

of course jean didn‘t know, after all he was locked up in a bassement for 10 years and he didn‘t exactly talk the first time he came over here last year at the end of june.

„what‘s pride month?“, jean asked softly, knowing that jeremy would never judge him, never think he was stupid.

„it‘s a month for lgbtqa+ folks. that stands for lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender, questioning, asexuals, aromantics and everything inbetween. we celebrate ourselves this month, show how proud we are of ourselves and our community. we celebrate marsh johnson, the black transgender, gay sex worker who started the riots, stonewell, and basically threw a brick at a police officer and started the fight for gay rights“

„how do you know you‘re not straight?“, jean asked quietly. thinking about the way his mind keeps wandering back to jeremy, keeps wandering back to the thought of kissing him, holding his hand, the feeling of his soft, badly dyed ginger hair between his fingers.

„well i always payed more attention to the personality, than the gender. i never really cared what‘s between the legs. and it took me quite a while to figure out that i only feel sexual attraction to people when i have a connection to them“

„have you ever kissed a guy?“, jean asked, curiously now. in the nest it was forbidden, but kevin wanted to try it once, in the dark of the night, the saftey of their room. jean couldn‘t tell if he enjoyed it or not, he never really felt any kind of attraction really. only bone deep fear. burning anger. and whatever the fuck his heart was doing when kevin held him close.

„yeah, i had a boyfriend throughout highschool, sophmore year until the end of summer of our senior year. and then freshman year of college i had this girlfriend who was really controlling and yeah. that‘s it. have you?“, his voice was soft, it reminded jean of the sunlight forming some kind of halo behind jeremy.

„kevin wanted to try it once. riko caught us. that‘s how it began“, jean replied, a shadow crossing over both his and jeremy‘s face. in a moment of weakness, at the beginning, jean told jeremy what they did to him in the nest, after jeremy accidentally touched him from behind.

„do you want to try it again?“, jeremy asked, a small smile on his lips. „with me, that is“, he added, barely audible.

„okay“, jean replied, leaning in.

jean was a couple inches taller than jeremy, and jeremy had to stand on his tiptoes to close the last few inches between them.

it was a soft kiss, a different than the stolen ones from kevin. better. these tasted like sunlight, like warmth, like home.

jean kissed jeremy back. carefully, softly, being scared he would break him, destroy him with his darkness.

„how was it?“, jeremy smiled at him after they were done, exchanging kisses, not stealing them. they were equals, no one would hurt him for wanting this

„i think i‘m only attracted to you“, jean admitted quietly. „but like not sexually. i don‘t like sex. never did. i never thought anyone was sexually attractive, i never wanted this and i still don‘t. i‘m sorry“

„you don‘t have to apologize, jean. that‘s being called asexual, the lack of sexual attraciton that is. and the not wanting sex part? sex repulsed. very valid. i will never be like them, i will never force you to do anyhting you‘re not comfortable with“

„and what if you miss having sex and want it and i can‘t give it to you?“, jean asked, tears burning behind his eyes. „i‘m not worth of your light, your warmth, your love as it is. i‘m broken, i‘m dark, i‘m everything you don‘t deserve. you deserve someone who is fixed and happy and can give you the entire world and go places without a panic attack and and and“

„ssh, jean. it‘s alright. it‘s alright. i want you. no one but you. i really, really like you and i am glad you like me to. you‘re not broken, you‘re not dark. you are wonderful. and no one is fixed, we‘re all a little broken in our own ways. i struggled with an eating disorder. i have adhd. sometimes i feel a little sad without any reason and can‘t get out of bed. sometimes i can‘t sleep and other days i could sleep for days. i don‘t need the entire world, i just need you“

it was this june, about a year after jean arrived in california, that he not only found a person who saw more in him than his scars, but a person who loved him not despite of them but for them

the second pride month

it‘s been a year since jean and jeremy kissed for the first time. a year full of highs and lows, fights and making up, miscommunication and cuddles, sweet kisses and ones tasting of tears. but it was also the year jean figured out that he might not be a boy after all.

„do you ever feel like you‘re not a entirely a boy?“, jean asked softly, threading his fingers through jeremy‘s soft blonde hair.

„dude, i‘m genderfluid, remember? alvarez bursted in our room and threw these in our face so people could refer to me with the right pronouns“

„that‘s why you changed your middle name to sol isn‘t it? because you like the sun and you like your hispanic heritage and it‘s a female name?“

„exactamente mi corazón“

„what are you today?“, jean asked softly, as he did every day.

„they/them, i don‘t feel like a guy or a girl today. just vibing“

„i- i think i‘m not entirely a boy either. like i know i was born as a boy and i‘m okay with that. but i feel like there‘s more to that. i can‘t put it in words but i think i want to try to go by he/ they. what do you call those people who don‘t quite find in the binary? i think i‘m that“

„that‘s nonbinary darling. i‘m proud of you. you‘re doing great“

jean didn‘t know how to repeat to that so he just decided to pull jeremy closer to him.

this pride month jean found a little part of himself, another puzzle piece to the mystery that his own person and it felt like a tiny little step towards a future he never dreamt he would have.

it was also the month he started wearing nail polish, because he loved the look on jeremy‘s face when they did them. occasionally he will wear some eyeliner.

the third pride month

another year passed, this year jean got himself a support dog. to help with the anxiety attacks. to help him heal.

it‘s a dalmatiner, called luna. she was trained to feel when he is uncomfortable and come closer to him, licking his hands, being close, being there

it is also the month he wanted to join jeremy for pride

„what are you today?“

„a girl i think. jeremy or sol are both fine“

„will you draw the flags on my face?“, he asked on the day of the parade.

„are you sure you want to go honey?“, sol asked softy, while she went to the bathroom to get her things.

„would i have asked if it wasn‘t moi amour?“, jean replied. „wait hold on, don‘t answer that“, he laughed looking at jeremy‘s face.

„but i‘m sure. first of all it makes you happy. second of all you missed it the last two years. third of all it will piss kevin off and i love that almost as much as i love. and lastly i have luna, she makes sure i‘m fine and i can always leave when i feel uncomfortable“

„okay, babe. what do you want me to do?“

„i want my flags on my face and maybe you can do my nails“, jean replied, smiling at jeremy as he did ever so often. „cover the tatoo, will you?“, he asked softly, touching the cursed three, counting the days for his cover up appointment in july.

„it‘s soon gone honey. it‘s gonna be alright“, jeremy whispered, feeling the tension in jean‘s shoulders.

„which color do you want your nails? mine are pastel rainbow look! alvarez got me those for my birthday last month! do you want matching nails?“

„whatever you want darling, you can choose“

„neat!“

this year jeremy‘s hair were a soft pink. it was 2 am when he bursted into the room whisper shouting „jean i‘m gay i must do something drastic to my hair. help me?“ and who was jean to question his beautiful date mate.

so jeremy took jean‘s face carefully in his hands, starting to draw jean‘s pride flags (demiromantic, asexual, nonbinary) on his face, hiding his tattoo underneath the black/ white/grey/ purple stripes of the asexual pride flag.

„they have no power over you anymore mi corazón. and if anyone gives you shit i will come for them“, jeremy whisperes against jean‘s lips before softly kissing them. „and now give me your beautiful hands so i can do your nails. i‘m feeling a pastel rainbow“

for the parade jean is wearing one of the shirts jeremy got him. it‘s yellow with a rainbow on it. „so you have a little brightness in your life“, he would tell him when he go it for him. it was before they started dating. it was before jean was able to tell him „but you are the brightest thing in the world and somehow you chose me as your person“, paired with light blue ripped jeans and his yellow fans. they started wearing yellow when they came to california, cutting off black completely, replacing it with colors and brightness.

jeremy on the other hand wore rainbow dungarees with a white shirt and white doc martens. his hair was up in two space buns, little pride flags put into them.

„do you think they get the hint?“, she smiled with a blinding smile.

„you‘re so unbelieveably beautiful sol“, jean replied.

they got luna and went to the parade.

it was scary, yes. but it was also beautiful.

people approaching them, asking for selfies, talking to him.

at first he was a bit anxious, but sol took their hand and luna licked his feet and it was alright. no one was hurting him. no one would punish him. he was surrounded by pride and love and happiness.

at some point he asked a girl with rainbow hair, she reminded him of renee, if she could take a picture of him and jeremy. she said yes, took one of them smiling, one of them kissing, and one of them where jeremy just smiled at his person.

it was the pride month he came out via social media. it was the pride month kevin called at two am, telling him how happy he was for them. that he himself found a boy, fell for him, but is too much a coward to do something about it. it‘s the year where he gets a lot of love, many fans telling him how proud they are of him and at least the same amount of hate. but it was alright. they had jeremy and that was all that truly mattered.

now

year after year they returned to the pride parade, with flags on their faces, or around their shoulders

sometimes neil and andrew or aaron and kevin would join them, sometimes they would go with laila and alvarez and sometimes jean and jeremy would go on their own

after college jean quit exy, jeremy went pro and gave his money to moriyamas, while jean opened his own tattoo studio, wrote songs, wrote crappy poetry and slightly better novels, tried himself as a part time model and fashion designer

they found happiness and home in each other and celebrated their love not only in pride but also every single day of the year

jean and jeremy got more dogs, an apartment of their own with big windows so they could watch the sunrise and sunset together

they have their ups and downs, like every other couple, but that doesn‘t matter. never did. what truly matters is that they keep finding back to each other. that they keep ending up in the same bed, in each others arms.

jean moreau never believed in love, never believed in soulmates and yet he found their soulmate, found the love of his life. and they are happy they stayed, kept fighting, to find this. to make a difference to the world. to be finally free. to be alive, living instead of only existing.

„jean?“, jermey says, fidgeting with his fingers.

„what is it moi soleil?“, jean relies getting lost in these ocean blue eyes.

„do you remember what happened five years ago?“, jeremy asks, his eyes looking anywhere but jean.

„we kissed for the first time?“, jean answers, panic slowly crawling through his veins.

„exactly so i thought we could celebrate this at the beach. you know, where our first date was?“, jeremy says nervously.

„honey are you alrighgt?“, jean is getting more and more worried, jeremy has never been that nervous.

„sure, come on mi corazón“

so jean slowly gets up and carefully puts on his shoes. something is weird here, something is wrong

jeremy seems off the entire ride to the beach they had their first date at.

when they arrive jean takes jeremy‘s hand, noticing that they are shaking ever so slightly. it is something like a nervous tick of them.

jean and jeremy arrive at the beach in time to watch the sun setting, making place for her lover the moon.

jean looks over to jeremy, when they suddenly get up and start pacing.

„jer, you‘re scaring me. please tell me what‘s going on up there“, jean says touching his head lightly.

„okay. i can do this“, jeremy mumbles as he gets down on his knee. „jean moreau, you are the love of my life. the light of my existence. ever since i saw you for the first time i knew i liked you, more than i was supposed to. i never dared to hope you would ever like me, or love me for that matter, but somehow you did. somehow you didn‘t turn away when i told you i‘m demi or pan or genderfluid. you stayed. you supported me. you love me. and i want to spend the rest of my life with you, so do me the favour and in the name of god, should they exist, do me the favour and marry me“

jean feels tears running his cheeks. „of course i will marry you, you loser“, he laughs, as he pulls jeremy down to him and connects their lips together. and it feels like their first kiss. it always does. and they would do that for the rest of their lives.

#all for the game #the foxhole court #the raven king #the king’s men #jeremy knox #jean moreau #jerejean #jeremy knox x jean moreau #ship: jerejean

[neversatisfiedwithlife]

Day 7: Glitter

I’ve had this in my drafts for a good minute. Anyways, finally got around to proofing it🤪🤡 idk why that’s such an excruciating task, Anyways!! continuing out of order, my beloved. Day 7: Glitter for @gleeadvent

We’re All A Little Messy: Quinn/Tina (Read on Ao3)

Or Below The Cut:

"Is this a bad idea?" Quinn asked as she placed more craft supplies into the cart, her voice more than telling just how unsure she was, "no I mean like seriously Santana, is this the worst idea you've ever heard?" She stopped to look at her friend who seemed to not at all be listening.

Santana was few steps away looking at the glitter, eyebrows pulling together as if that was the most fascinating thing she'd ever seen. "More glitter," Santana smiled, all but ignoring her friend's current conundrum.

"Santana!" Quinn whined, though she would of course one-hundred percent deny it if anyone asked.

"Wow Quinn, I've never seen you like this. You're actually full, balls to the walls nervous," Santana chuckled.

Santana couldn't help but find humor in this moment. Quinn Fabray in a child like, nervy panic over a girl? Over anyone for that matter. That was unheard of. Santana was used to being the one who got teased about having gay panic, she definitely wasn't about to let this opportunity pass her by.

"I really like her..." Quinn said softly.

It was true, Quinn had never truly found herself second guessing her decision, or feeling truly anxious when it came to someone she liked. But Tina was different.

Tina was special.

"She's a design major you know," Quinn added, "she wants to go into fashion, her friend...Kurt's his name, they've been dreaming of being big fashion designers for as long as they can remember. They've always had this grand New York adventure formed in their heads-"

"There you go again. " Santana laughed kind heartedly. As much as she found small pleasure in teasing Quinn she couldn't deny that she was happy to see her like this; cheeks flushed red and eyes beaming as she spoke about this girl. As she spoke about Tina.

"Oh, right...sorry," Quinn gave Santana a crooked smile.

"Don't apologize, it's cute on you." Santana smirked, gesturing her hand towards Quinn's face, "the whole lovesick thing".

"But seriously Santana is it stupid?"

Santana sighed, turning to look at the arrangement in the cart, "I mean Quinn if a girl asked me to go on a date to make ornaments and drink hot chocolate I'd probably barf".

Quinn punched Santana in the shoulder, "Yea right, if Brittany asked you to do anything you wouldn't hesitate."

Santana scoffed, "shut the hell up Fabray," that was all she could say, because it wasn't not true.

Santana went back over to the glitter, "you can never have enough." She said gently. And that's all Quinn needed to know, because Santana wasn't about to admit how sweet or romantic the idea actually was.

"Sorry" Tina said shyly as her hand brushed against Quinn's.

Apparently all the glitter in the world wouldn't keep their hands from touching. There were four bottles set on the table and they'd managed to reach for the same one twice.

"Don't apologize " Quinn smiled, because there really wasn't a need. She loved feeling Tina's skin against hers, warm and gentle on everything she did. "You're dorm is really cool." Quinn glanced around at the mannequins and partially finished pieces. Fabric pinned together, sketch pads littering one desk with messy first draft drawings.

"Yea, it's kind of a mess in here. " Tina laughed softly, following Quinn's eyes, "I was going to tidy up but I couldn't decide what to wear and I guess this is kind of you getting a glimpse into the real me...kind of messy?" Tina mumbled the last bit, feeling a bit shy, maybe she should have taken ten minutes to tidy up the place, for Quinn.

Quinn Giggled, moving to gently bump Tina's shoulder with her own.

"Fuck! I'm so sorry," Quinn stammered as she watched the glitter splutter out of the canister, clearly going in with more force than she had anticipated.

"It's okay, really. " Tina looked at the sparkly mess that partially covered her hands. "Glitter can be a nightmare though." Tina smiled, shaking her hand free of the sparkly decorative item, watching the green and red sparkles fall into a messy pile on the table.

Quinn hummed, because that's all she could do. Her cheeks were burning and she couldn't help looking down at her lap.

"Hey," Tina cooed. "We're all a little messy," She half shrugged.

Quinn looked up, finding Tina's eyes on her, genuine and full. Full of admiration and honesty.

"I really like you..." Quinn whispered, the thumping of her heart, racing in her hears.

"I like you too," Tina leaned in and placed a kiss on the edge of Quinn's lips. "I like you a lot." Tina smiled against Quinn's skin before moving to properly lock their lips together, her hand moving from the table to the soft skin of Quinn's cheek, the glitter long forgotten in exchange for the warmth and comfort of a tender kiss.

#glee fanfiction #glee advent 2021 #quinntina #quinn fabray #tina cohen chang #idk lol I saw jeanne reblogging stuff and that gave me the juice to get this uploaded xD