Queen of the Crown with a face always in a frown. Oh how far she’s fallen. Shadows always grip her gaze and pull her mind. Exterior of ice and teeth ready to fight no cat swears they’ve seen her cry. But when the moon falls and she’s all alone her thoughts swirl like a whirlpool. The passing fish either a treat or a stinging bite to her throat. It seems over time the polluted fish have grown. And yet the most abundant most painful thought is always;

Was it worth it?

===============

@oldfacesnewdawnoffical ‘s very own Rainfall (Bluestar). Needed to draw something and felt like drawing her. She’s about to step up and say some shit, all cats waiting on baited breath to face her sharp tongue.

(Rainfall is a dull blue cat with slightly darker color point patterns on her face, legs, and ears. On these areas are sharp stripes that are slightly purple toned. She has sharp yellow eyes with the inner corner of the left one a dark blue, a scar is up her lip and a little fang pokes out. A ginger fox coat goes over her neck with two fangs in her right ear, two yellow feathers at her tail, and three small shiny stones under the feathers. On her head is a crown made of curled brambles with a shiny shard of the moon stone in the center. Branches are at her paws and behind her with three new twigs to the right, one snapped with a leaf on its end. A darker purple tint is over the piece)

TIMING: pre-goo PARTIES:  @fox--tales & @recoveringdreamer LOCATION: mike's pawn shop SUMMARY: felix is once again showcasing the haunting vending machine that stole inge's mom's stuff, this time to miyeon! CONTENT WARNINGS: none

The second Miyeon heard that there was a guitar coming out of a vending machine at the pawn shop, she started running. Only she had to turn around halfway there because she totally forgot that she had to pick up chips for the guy waiting there. She had no idea why he wasn’t as excited about the whole thing as she was. Come on, what’s more interesting to find in a vending machine, a chair or a bag of jalapeño chips? She knew her answer but this dude was apparently different. That probably made him boring, but she really did not care just then as she burst into the door of the grocery store. “Sorry, sorry, excuse me!” she yelled as she darted between shoppers, narrowly avoiding being run over by carts and almost slamming into a few people. Her shoes squeaked as she turned down the snacks aisle. “jalapeño, jalapeño, jalapeño…” she muttered as she glanced up and down the aisle. Of course, right where some teenage dude was standing.

“Hi, I need you to move,” she said as she shoved him out of the way, wrapping her arms around as many bags as she could carry. The guy shouted and started grumbling but she was already yelling, “sorry, bye!” and darting back down the aisle to the checkout counter. Where she may or may not have jumped in front of someone to throw the chips on the self-checkout table before they could mosey on over. “It’s an emergency, sorry!” She wasn’t even sure who she had cut in front of or what sort of dirty look they were probably giving her, she was too busy dragging bags of chips across the scanner and throwing them into bags. Miyeon tapped her card, hit the buttons, and didn’t even wait for the receipt to print. She was out the door and headed to the pawn shop. 

‘I’m here, I’m here!” she shouted when she turned the corner to the block that the store was on. She had in fact been running the whole time. And she was realizing she needed to work on her cardio. Oh god, it was so much easier to run as a fox. Why was it so hard when she was on feet instead of paws? Ugh! Miyeon tried to keep her pace up, but it was slowing little by little as she approached the dude at the vending machine outside the store. “Did anything… else… happen?” she said between gasps for air. As soon as she was at the machine, she threw down the grocery bags stuffed full of jalapeño chips. “Chips… I got them. Now what… Tell me.. Or show.” She tried to stay upright and not collapse on the floor from exhaustion, gesturing to the vending machine, hoping that was enough explanation.

“No, wait!” She held up a finger before he could say a word, digging into her purse for her phone and quickly flipping through to open up the audio recording app. “On the record? If you don’t mind?” She batted her eyelashes and gave a small smile, hoping that she looked way too cute to say no to. She may be a fox girl, sure, but she was a star student of the ‘puss in boots school of how to get what you want.’

The vending machine was… weird. Of course, in Wicked’s Rest, ‘weird’ was a pretty common thing. Felix was learning that the funny little quirks he thought he’d misremembered about their hometown were actually very real supernatural phenomena. They just… weren’t really sure what was causing this one in particular. In all honesty, their parents had never really focused on teaching them about anything other than balam and things that were dangerous to balam. Hunters, mediums, and exorcists were all at the top of that list. Magic vending machines? Not so much.

So Felix was a little out of their depth here.

The girl he’d been speaking to online seemed… interested, at least. They weren’t sure if she had any ideas on how to ‘resolve’ the problem or not — they weren’t even sure if it was actually a problem — but she wanted to know more. And she was bringing him chips, which did solve the problem of the balam’s rumbling stomach, at least. Most people would have probably given up and gone off in search of a snack someplace else after the third unsuccessful attempt at liberating chips from the vending machine, but not Felix. Felix was determined. And… maybe not the best at applying the logic of trial and error. 

A voice rose up, and Felix glanced over as she approached. She was younger — maybe about Van’s age. But the girl wasn’t really what they were focused on here. It was the grocery bag in her hands that had the balam’s full attention. Their stomach rumbled again, almost as if it was asking a question. We can eat that, right? And yeah, they could. They could definitely eat that.

Just… after their demonstration, probably. They had agreed to these terms, after all.

“I was waiting on you. Um, are you okay? Do you need to rest? We can do it in a second.” But she was determined, too, wasn’t she? She pulled out her phone, she batted her eyes, and really, she didn’t have to lay it on so thick. Felix had no reason to say no. Nodding, they turned back to the vending machine. “Sure, yeah, on the record. Uh, give me… Give me fifty cents? I’m out of quarters.” They’d used up every coin they had trying to get these coveted chips.

Miyeon might have been out of breath still, but she was just about ready to jump in excitement when the guy turned to the vending machine. Her phone was on, full battery, ready to record, button hit and…

He had to be freaking kidding. “Are you serious?” Miyeon gave an exaggerated sigh, stopped the recording, put her phone in her other hand, and started digging through her purse for change. “I don’t even carry cash anymore, let alone change, ugh!” Sheer desperation kept her rummaging, but it was so hard to see anything in there, it was so full. 

“Hold this,” she said, handing this dude the contents of her purse. First up was a small travel pack of tissues, then the lip gloss, mascara, lotion, hand sanitizer, then the pens and pencils. She didn’t really look up to see if he was managing all this. And why should she, anyway? It was his dumb fault that they were out of change and his hands looked big enough to hold a lot of things at once. Bigger than hers, at least. 

Miyeon was one second away from dumping the whole thing upside down and shaking her purse to see if anything came out but she knew better. There was no use, she wasn’t going to find any ch– “Ouh! Ouh! Something shiny! Hold this,” she said, handing him a small notebook and a small bottle of ibuprofen. She dug further in and grabbed the coin in question. It was silver. It was bigger than a dime. Maybe it was a– 

“Are you freaking kidding me?!!” she shouted up to the sky, stomping her foot. A nickel. A freaking nickel. This was plain evil. She screamed a little again before pausing to think. There had to be a solution. She glanced around and hoped something would jump out at her.

Oh. They were in front of a store. They could make change! “Do you have any cash?” she asked, finally looking back at the guy who was trying and failing to hold all the contents of her purse. “Oh. Sorry,” she said, holding her purse open in front of him, “you can put all that back now.” 

She seemed disappointed, and Felix offered her a small, apologetic smile. Maybe he shouldn’t have spent all his quarters trying to get chips from a vending machine that very clearly did not contain chips regardless of how it looked through the glass.

Nodding, they held out a hand to hold whatever it was she needed to be held… but there was a lot of it. Tissues, lip gloss, hand sanitizer, mascara, lotion, pens and pencils. How did all of this fit inside her purse? Was it magically enhanced somehow? Bigger on the inside, like the spaceship on that show with the weird accents? It had to be. Maybe that was why she was so interested in the vending machine — because it was like her purse. 

Still, Felix stood dutifully, accepting each new item thrust into their arms. It was a little hard to balance all of them, but he could manage. After all, jaguars and balance went together pretty easily. They craned their head as she seemed to find something she needed, hope rising up in their chest…

…and falling right back down again when he saw what was in her hand. A nickel. That wouldn’t get them anywhere, would it? Shrugging, Felix looked down at their pockets, but couldn’t reach them with his hands full. It wasn’t until she gave the okay that they began carefully placing things back in her bag, doing their best to put them back in reverse order that they’d been handed. Otherwise, wouldn’t it be hard for her to find them? The bag was apparently bottomless.

With their hands free, Felix dug around in their pocket, tongue sticking out the side of their mouth. Receipt, paperclip, car wash coupon… aha! Grinning, they pulled out a crumpled, soggy five dollar bill and held it out to her. “Here. Um, we can get some quarters for that. Right?” Yes. That was how currency exchange worked.

Miyeon stood there, blinking, looking at the sad, pathetic bill they were holding up and she tried to put a smile on her face but it was shaky at best. Her facial expression was probably about as rough as that five-dollar bill. “Yeah, that’s…. perfect.” She had to force the word out as much as she was forcing the smile.

Her hand hovered in front of her, reaching for the money. It looked disgusting. How long had it been in his pocket? She was just about to take it from his hand when she hesitated. “Oh my god, is that… is it wet?” She couldn’t help herself. The look she gave him was a mix of disgust and shock. 

Miyeon swallowed back a gulp and reached back into her back to grab a tissue and her bottle of hand sanitizer. With the tissue wrapped around her hand, she took the cash, holding it by the corner and keeping her hand held out far from herself. “Use this,” she said, handing him the hand sanitizer while she cringed. “You clearly need it. I’ll be right back.”

She trotted to the door of the shop and practically jogged to the counter, dropping the dollar bill on the counter like a grenade. Now that it was no longer her problem, she shook out her hands and her whole body to rid herself of that gross feeling. “Hi, I don’t know if this is still worth anything but can you exchange this for quarters, please? We need it for the vending machine outside.”

The cashier raised a brow but took the money and started ringing her up to get change from the register all the same. “Cash is cash,” he said with a shrug. “But I don’t know why you’re bothering. That thing doesn’t work anymore.” 

Now it was Miyeon’s turn to look confused. She opened her mouth and was about to tell him that he was super wrong, but immediately thought better of it. This was her story after all. “Thanks so much!’ she said with a saccharine smile, heading off now that the coins were in hand.

“No problem. Not my business how you want to waste your money,” he said before lumbering back to work.

Miyeon ran back through the door and to the vending machine and her current partner in journalism (and definitely not crime), holding out the coins with one hand and reaching for the hand sanitizer with her other. “Here you go. I’m surprised they took it.” Once she had wiped her hands down and shoved the bottle back in her purse, she grabbed her phone and got ready to record. For real this time. “Okay, ready!”

She didn’t look entirely thrilled with their offering, and Felix wasn’t sure whether to be offended or apologetic. She took the cash either way, though she didn’t seem entirely thrilled with it. Felix shrugged sheepishly, looking down at his shoes. “I got rained on. And maybe it went in the washer, too? And — And I fell in a lake the other day, but I don’t know if these were the pants I was wearing.” They probably were. He didn’t own a whole lot of pants.

Reaching out, they took the hand sanitizer and squirted some onto their palms, busying themself with rubbing their hands together as the girl made off with their money. For a moment, they wondered if this whole thing was a ploy to rob them, but it wouldn’t be a very successful mugging, would it? All that work just to make off with a very soggy five dollars? She’d be a bad robber. And besides, she’d seemed genuinely excited about the vending machine.

Felix looked back to the aforementioned vending machine now, inspecting it carefully. It still looked just as normal and unassuming as it had the first time he’d shoved a quarter in it. A normal vending machine, except for the part where it gave them chairs and bicycle wheels instead of the chips he really wanted. At least this deal with the girl and her bottomless purse had solved that particular problem.

Speaking of the girl… she was back now, hands full of quarters. Felix traded the hand sanitizer for the coins, shrugging again when she expressed surprise that the five had still been acceptable. “I’ve spent way worse looking ones than that. They, um, they’ll accept half a bill as long as it’s the bigger half. They’re supposed to.” They’d done a lot of reading about damaged currency… largely due to the fact that their general luck tended to leave them with a lot of it.

Turning to the vending machine, he flashed the camera a shy smile before beginning to drop quarters in the slot. Fifty cents for a bag of chips. It was a trade they’d been trying to make all day long. The quarters fell with twin plops, though it sounded… a little different than vending machines usually sounded. Felix scanned the number pad. “Okay. B4. That’s the chips. Ready?” They mashed the buttons in turn. B. 4. 

The machine whirred, a strange not-quite-mechanical noise coming from inside. Strangely, through the glass, nothing seemed to be moving. But then — plop. Something hit the bottom of the compartment. Felix lifted the door, stuck a hand inside…

And pulled out a lampshade. Large, gaudy, and beaded. They turned, showing it to their new friend. “Not chips,” they announced. “See? I pressed for chips.” 

Miyeon was trying not to bounce with excitement while holding the camera. Steady. She had to keep it steady. This was the money shot. This was going to be her– Well, okay, sure she didn’t know what this would do for her journalistic reputation at the end of the day, but that didn’t matter right then. All that mattered was being there on the scene, on the ground floor, getting the story, breaking it live! Alight, okay, she had to calm down, still had to hold the camera steady and at the end of the day, it was just a weird vending machine, not exactly solving a cold case or something like that. 

She inhaled and tried to hold her breath as he pressed the button, watching intently as the machine whirled and gurgled. Some part of her was worried that it would in fact just be chips. But it was so much better than that. Her jaw dropped to the floor and it took everything she had not to scream and start jumping up and down. Camera. She had to hold the camera and get the shot. But as soon as she had the shot of him pulling the lampshade out, it was all over.

“OH MY GOD!” she shouted, surely making the audio on the video absolutely cap out. “That’s so cool!” She ran over to the lampshade, camera still in her left hand, and reached out to touch it. It was real alright. No trickery, very solid, didn’t have any weird seams or fold lines. “This is way cooler than chips! And like, I got you chips. Who cares about chips? There could be anything in there!”

Miyeon darted over to the actual machine, still filming a very terrible and shaky video, and ran her hands across the buttons. “I wonder how it determines what to spit out. Like you pressed the same button multiple times, right? And got different things.” She bent over and looked inside the door where the things came out. It looked ordinary. And way too small to fit a whole lampshade. But she’d seen it come out of there with her own eyes. Sticking her hand in didn’t reveal anything new, either. “I mean we know it doesn’t just give you what you want the most or anything like that,” she said, crouching down even further all the way to the ground to try and look underneath it. “Because if that was the case you’d have like so many chips.” Nothing was out of the ordinary with the machine visibly. It had to be some kind of magic. The whys and the whos and the whats all swirled around in her head but she knew that this dude had even less answers than she did despite spending more time with the machine than she had. 

“Do you like need a lampshade at all? Or a guitar? Like are these things you thought about buying absent mindedly or something? Or is it just random?” She hopped up and turned to face him, grabbing his arms, camera still rolling but utterly forgotten by this point. “We should run experiments! We have enough change, right? This is so awesome, what if we get, I don’t know, like a canoe out of it or something! Or a one of a kind collectible! Maybe there’s a creepy doll, oh my god, do you think there’s a creepy doll? Don’t pull out a creepy doll please.” She was babbling but she couldn’t stop herself. Miyeon walked around to the back of the vending machine and there was a clear gap between the frame and the wall. There was no way it was just feeding though. She stuck her hand behind it and sure enough, it was just dead air. She squealed and turned back to the chips guy. “I could make such a good story with this! Do you think we can buy it? What if we sold tickets to people to come try it out! Do you think it would run out ever?”

While Felix found the vending machine odd and perhaps a little unsettling, their new friend seemed to find it exhilarating. The way she cheered when they pulled the lampshade from the slot was enough to bring a small, shy smile to the balam’s face. It was nice to see someone happy; they liked that. They liked it a lot more than they liked buying chips from a vending machine, so the sacrifice was probably worth it.

They held the lampshade still as she touched it, as if it mattered if it moved. The beads hanging down jingled with her touch, though the noise was fairly muted compared to her excitable yelling and loud voice. Felix got the feeling that even if the vending machine spat out one of those large, booming speakers that people put in their cars, it wouldn’t be loud enough to drown out the sound of Miyeon’s excitement. And they kind of liked that. People should be allowed to be loud with their joy, even if Felix felt anxious at the idea of allowing themself such a thing.

“Uh, yeah,” they confirmed. “Same button every time, but it never spat out the same thing twice. Some lady said that one of the chairs it spat out was her mom’s, so I took it back to her. But I don’t — Maybe she was lying.” They felt guilty for even suggesting it, but they’d never actually seen the ‘mother’ that they’d delivered the chair to. And it didn’t make a lot of sense, did it? For one thing in the machine to belong to a specific person when everything else seemed random. “A lampshade definitely isn’t what I wanted most, though. I wanted chips. Which I have now, because you brought them! Thanks again for that, by the way. I, um, I really appreciate the chips.” 

They were glad, at least, that she seemed to recognize that there was something going on. “What kind of magic? And, um… Why?” That was what really bothered them. Magic they could understand, but what was the intention behind it? What did someone gain by making a vending machine spit out random household objects rather than chips or snacks? Surely no one would go through this kind of trouble without reason.

Carefully, Felix considered her question. They tried to determine whether or not any part of them might have been thinking of the objects they’d gained when they’d used the vending machine in the past. “I play guitar,” they said, “but I don’t even think I have a lamp that would fit this. I mean, I don’t really even use lamps. My apartment has overhead lighting. Do you need a lampshade?” Maybe the vending machine had read her intentions instead of Felix’s, if that theory had any weight. “We can try more if you want, yeah. Uh, do you want to try?” They offered her the quarters in their hands. Maybe there would be a different result if she did it? It wouldn’t make any sense, but it would be some kind of a clue. Right?

“There could be a creepy doll. I don’t think a creepy doll would be any weirder than a chair or a pasta strainer.” Both of which were included in the list of things Felix had pulled from the vending machine. “But I don’t… have enough money to buy a vending machine. I’m pretty sure.” They didn’t know how much the machine would cost, but they were running pretty low on cash after all the quarters they’d sunk into it.

“Never the same thing twice?” Miyeon repeated, looking at the visible contents of the vending machine. She wondered if the items corresponded to something, had some sort of meaning tied up in whatever was going on there. No that didn't make any sense, they just said they pressed the same button every time. 

“Oh my god, it was her mother's chair?” she said, turning to face them, eyes growing even wider. Miyeon paused. Yeah, looking at them, she was pretty sure that they were easy to fool and pick on. Poor guy. He seemed nice. She hoped they didn't get picked on too often but something about them gave her the impression that wasn't the case. Maybe they didn't notice and that's why they were able to stay so chill about things. 

“Me?!” Miyeon's jaw dropped to the floor. How in the heck had she not considered trying it? How had she not already begged to try it out herself? She was slacking on her investigative journalism, clearly. She was so used to being a third party observer that the possibility of participating felt like a foreign concept. “Ye! You're right, yes, oh my god — take my phone. Record the whole thing!” she said as she grabbed the quarters from their hand, practically squealing at the thought of trying this for herself, and shoving her phone into the chip guy's hands. She was at the machine and about to slot the quarters inside when Miyeon paused and turned back to face them. “I mean, please record it. If you could?” she asked with a sheepish smile. She couldn't believe she had been so rude as a result of her sheer enthusiasm.

She watched and waited for her new friend to figure out how to work her phone. “It's the red one the— No, now you stopped it, you have to hit it ag— Yeah, perfect!” she instructed from the other side of the camera. She took a deep breath and turned back to face the vending machine. ”Okay. Here goes nothing.“ 

Click. Clank. She pushed the quarters into the slot and heard them rattle down into their new homes. She pressed the same buttons that the guy had in the same order, careful to select the right ones. One. Two. Enter. 

The machine started whirring and stirred to life. The kitsune was on the edge of her toes, leaning down to watch whatever was going on, wondering if she would get something new or just receive the long awaited bag of chips in question. She heard something thump in the bottom of the drawer and glanced at the camera quickly to make sure it was still rolling and that everything was in clear view. Miyeon pushed it open and slowly reached her hand in. No matter how hard she tried to look into the darkness to see what it was she was grabbing, everything was obscured beyond the view of the flap. Her hands wrapped around something solid, though, so there was  nothing left to do but pull it out and reveal her prize.

Please don't let it be a creepy doll.

With a tug, a large wooden object spilled from the machine. It was strangely shaped, it was hard to tell what it was at first. Was it another chair? Or—   “Oh my god, is this a rocking horse??!” she shouted as she got a better look at it. Poking it, it was clear it was solid wood, the real deal, no illusion to be seen. She set it down and began admiring her haul. “How the hell did this,” she said, pointing at the horse, “come out of that!” She finished by pointing at the machine.

“This doesn't get old. but I just, I have to know why it's like this. Like what's going on, why is there a whole garage sale coming out of this thing? Is it pulling from another dimension? What happens if we break it? Or tip it over? Or shake it?” By now, she hoped her companion knew that she was asking these questions of the universe, not of them specifically. “You stumbled onto something so interesting. I don't know what to do about it but I'm so glad you shared it with me.”

—

“Not since I’ve been doing it.” Which was, admittedly, longer than what most people would have given the machine. Felix had always been more than a little gullible; as a kid, their siblings would take advantage of it, playing pranks that they’d all laugh at together even if the laughter from Felix’s lips had been a little less genuine. It had come from a good place back then, at least. None of his siblings had meant him any harm, and none of the pranks had ever been meant to hurt anyone. These days, though…

It was hard not to think about Leo. Felix tried not to, tried never to, but it was so hard to keep him out of their mind. He’d preyed on that gullible nature in a way so much more sinister than anything anyone had done before or since. What would he have said if he’d seen Felix at this vending machine? With Inge before, with Miyeon now? The balam tried to distract themself, letting Miyeon’s voice tug them back to the conversation. “And her pasta strainer. And a vacuum, too. Uh, I think — a lot of the stuff in there was her mom’s. So maybe it, I don’t know, maybe it has to do with the person?”

Which could be proven or disproven by Miyeon taking her turn. Felix held her phone in their hands, squinting at the screen. Working someone else’s phone was hard, even for people who hadn’t spent their prime phone-wielding years living off the grid in the middle of the Maine wilderness. With Miyeon’s instructions, they managed to get it working. Only the first few seconds of the video would feature their thumb in front of the lens, which was a win in Felix’s book. They flashed Miyeon a thumbs up as she inserted the coins.

She pressed the button, and Felix leaned in close, belatedly remembering that phone cameras had zoom and utilizing it. She leaned into the machine. She reached in. She pulled out… a rocking horse. Felix stared at it, nodding. Yeah. All right. Checked out.

It made no sense, from a physics standpoint. The horse shouldn’t have fit in the machine at all, but they’d just seen it come out. “Is it yours?” Felix whispered, still holding the camera. “Or — Maybe it’s your mom’s?” Maybe the machine retrieved things from people’s mothers. Maybe Felix had only come back with a random assortment of items that evidently belonged to other mothers because theirs was —

No. Not a fun thought process to dive into. There was a rocking horse to admire. Felix took a step closer, panning the camera over it. “It looks, um. Well made?” Not mass produced. Was that anything? Was that a clue? “I don’t think we should break the machine. What if they ask us to pay for it? I spent all my money trying to get chips.” But they offered her a small smile at her gratitude, shrugging. “I don’t mind. I, uh… I’m just glad you believed me.”

—

Miyeon knocked on the wood. She wasn’t sure why, it just seemed like the thing to do. It made a nice little sound when she knocked and she guessed it was solid but honestly, she didn't know how to tell one way or another. She then pushed it to demonstrate the rock and it looked like really sturdy and solid to her. The kitsune didn’t know what to expect out of a quality rocking horse versus a non-quality one but like if she had to guess, this was quality. The story this guy told about the person’s mom’s items totally didn’t make any of this make any more sense, though. She pursed her lips and looked back up at them. “There was more than one thing of her mom’s? That’s odd. Who was she? It sounds like someone worth following up with. I mean, if this is a story. I don’t know. I think it is. Do you think it is?” She reached out and took back her phone, thanking him for taking the video again. 

She couldn’t hold back a laugh at the thought of her mom having a rocking horse. “I don’t think my mom ever had one of these.” The thought of her fully grown mother riding it sent her into a fit of giggles. “These so weren’t even invented when she was young enough to use that.” Her hand flew to her mouth to cover it, like she could swallow back the words. Ugh, maybe he didn’t catch her slip up. Or maybe he would just think she was making fun of her mom like a normal person might, calling their parents older than dinosaurs or whatever. Usually, that was what people assumed. Which like totally made sense, there was no reason to believe her parents were legit ancient, no hyperbole. 

“Anyway, good point. Breaking it would be a bad idea.” Even if she could probably afford to buy it. “Um, do you mind if I mention you in this story? If I write it? Or share it on the air, I mean?” She should really get this in writing but she ran her so fast she left her standard waiver forms at home. She always had a few in her work bag but that bag was not here. “Oh, uh, I guess I should mention that I host a radio show. And, like, introduce myself.” She was so caught up in this whole thing it had slipped her mind. Her manners really went out the window when she could feel a story right there for the taking. “I’m Miyeon,” she said, holding her hand out to shake, “I host Good Wicked Morning. Nice to meet you.” Afterwards, she gave a little shrug. “Of course I believed you, silly. This is like so not the weirdest thing I’ve covered this week. It is probably one of the coolest, though. And definitely the least depressing.” This was some weird town fodder that didn’t involve death or someone getting maimed. All in all, this was wholesome. She always needed more of those kinds of stories on the daily. 

—

“Maybe. I can give you her contact info if you want to talk to her.” Inge wouldn’t mind, would she? She wanted to get to the bottom of why her mom’s things were in a vending machine, too. She had to. Otherwise, what was to stop all her mother’s things from being stolen and put in vending machines again? “Maybe there’s a story, I don’t know.” Felix wasn’t the best at determining what was noteworthy, what ‘stories’ people might find of interest, but plenty of people had seemed intrigued by the vending machine and Inge’s mother was another piece of that puzzle, wasn’t she? Maybe there was something to be done there, something to be gained. The woman with him now was nice; they thought she might deserve to gain whatever she wanted from the experience.

Felix furrowed their brow as she spoke of her own mother, eyes darting to the horse. “Weren’t… invented?” When were rocking horses invented? Should they google it? They’d assumed they were an old invention — it wasn’t like there was much to them, after all — but maybe they were a newer thing. Not for the first time, Felix wished he could ask his father about it. There was so much they wanted to ask him, and they were so afraid they’d never get the chance to. It was terrifying.

“Oh, yeah. You can mention me if you want to.” There was a beat, and then she was introducing herself and Felix realized that they’d neglected to do the same. “Uh, Felix. Mendoza. Is my name. For, you know, you to mention me.” They let out a little laugh, kind of relieved to hear that she had covered stranger things than this. It made them feel a little less paranoid, a little less afraid of being called a liar. “It’s nice to meet you, Miyeon. I, uh, I look forward to checking out the show.”

Liar

Part 3

Loki x female!reader

Word count: 1,7K

Warnings: angst, typos, everything sad besides doggo

Tag list:@gaitwae @lucywrites02 @hard-to-be-the-bard @birdgirl90 @laramoonworld @belovedadam @mascaracoffee @serebrum @myworldgoesboomz

Loki felt miserable. If only he knew what would he start with that lie. Why couldn't he tell her Y/N is his cousin or something? She and her golden-fish-like IQ would've believed him. Damn him! Damn him and Tony for making him do this! Why couldn't Stark do it himself! It was his idea afterall!

Loki was lying on a rug in his bedroom. He didn't feel like he deserved the luxury of a warm soft bed. He was looking through photos and selfies of Y/N in his phone. Her happy smile, her arms wrapped around him in a hug in his favourite selfie of you (his wallpaper), her two fingers giving him horns from behind his back and him doing it back to her. He counted, he had only 7 pictures of her in total. 'I should've taken pictures of her more often,' he thought to himself and wiped his eyes to get clearer view. He should've took a picture of her doing the most mundane things. Reading a book, drawing on a windowsill, chatting with someone. She always had this spark in her eyes whenever she talked about some of her interests. He wanted to see that spark again.

Loki caught himself dreaming of you again. 'Let her go,' he told himself. 'It will be better for her and you.'

But he didn't want to get better. Not without her. But he fucked up big time. He apologized. He showed her a proof of his innocense. She chose to put space between you two. And that was okay, right? He's already used to it, right?

His eyes were staring outside the window the whole night, but he wasn't watching anything. He needed them open, for whenever he closed them he saw you. Either crying and screaming like you did few day ago, or sad smile you gave him few hours ago, or your happy grin you have worn what seemed like ages ago.

Sky changed its shades of blue from dark to light. The morning sun made him realize that no, he isn't used to it.

*

The need to walk to your room was big. But he couldn't. He promised to leave you alone if you wanted. And you did.

So instead he hid in one of the old rooms everyone forgot about and never really used. He needed to be alone.

No one came looking for him yet. The only sign of someone remembering his existence was one message from Tony. Something about the info Loki got from that woman being useless and agents are taking the lead from the Avengers. Good to know he unknowingly destroyed his whole relationship with Y/N for nothing.

When he read those words the first time he wanted to smash the phone on nearest wall, but that meant losing all the pictures with you and he simply couldn't do that.

Loki wandered where where you. If you were safe. Maybe you took your dog out. Or made someone do it, so you didn't have to risk meeting him in the halls. Thought of you still avoiding him sickened him.

His lower back started to ache from sitting in pragraph position for too long. He decided to stretch and walk a little, clear his head. The plan was to go to kitchen, steal something small to eat (not because he was hungry, he needed a distraction) and go back to his secret room. Or the roof. What will came first.

With a glass of water and pockets filled with chocolate he started walking towards the exit.

Suddenly he heard small clawed paws hitting the floor making soft clicking noises. He followed the distand sound to find your little pup, Rex, walking around as if he owned the place. If he was here then you'll be nearby. Loki looked around the room, but besides the small dog and him it was empty.

When the little guy got his sent into his nose, he turned and sprinted towards Loki. He expected the pup to bite him, just like you promise you will train him, and mentally prepared himself for attack of small dull needles on his ankles.

To his surprise Rex started jumping on his leg, trying to reach his hand. When Loki lowered it to his level he started to lick it, his tail wagging wildly. Good to know at least he doesn't hate him.

"Did you escape her and went on an adventure, little guy?" he asked scratching behind his ears. Rex rolled on his belly and silently asked for scratches. Loki was more than happy to provide.

"Well, we can't leave it like that now, can we? She'll be worried sick if she doesn't find you in her room. Like this one time when she couldn't find her favourite plushie from childhood. We turned her whole room upside down just to find it. Later that day she realized she accidentally left it in my bedroom," he smiled sadly at the fond memory. "We laughed a lot afterwards. I fear she'll never laugh in my presence again," he stopped scratching.

Rex sat up and tilted his head at him.

"I know, I know, it's basically my fault. And I understand why she feels like that. Who wouldn't after their best... ex best friend said those things about them. I just wish I could turn back time and change everything."

"And why would you do that?" loki turned around to be met with face of none other than Tony Stark.

"You would never understand," he looked away.

"I'm capable of undertanding a lot of things, don't underestimate me."

Rex found new sent in the room and ran up to Tony. "Aaaw, is he yours? I never thought you'll be a dog person," Tony picked him up and got a good look on him, while Rex was trying to reach his face with his tongue.

"No, he's Y/N's. He must've escaped from her bedroom. Please, take him to her," he started walking away.

"No way, your friend, your problem. I'm already a very busy man even without pets," he put Rex on the floor and gently nudged him towards Loki.

"Here's the thing, I can't. I can't face her. And I am more than sure she doesn't want to face me."

"What happened? Don't tell me it's some petty reason like 'you picked the wrong movie' or 'those flowers don't go with ma vase'."

Loki rolled his eyes and took Rex to his hands. "No. She heard me telling lies to that woman we needed for those informations and now she doesn't trust me. I doubt she ever will."

"Just tell her how it was. How hard can that be?"

"Don't you think I already thought of that? I showed her the video from security cameras yesterday and she still doesn't want to go back to being my friend. And I understand why," he stared deeply into Rex's puppy eyes. As if the little dog felt his sadnes he tried to cuddle up to his chest.

"Then pray tell, cuz I could never understand women's logic."

Loki played with Rex's soft fur. "She knows I'm a great liar. She might think if that was a lie and she couldn't tell, then might be wondering how much of other things I told her were lies," Rex started chewing on Loki's thumb. "The truth is I never told her a single lie. Only that one time when she asked me if I'm smiling because I saw Thor fall down the stairs," he chuckled.

"Then tell her you never lied to her," Tony suggested.

"I can't. She won't believe me. Didn't you hear what I just said?"

"I did. But listen, life is complicated enough already, why making it more miserable by not talking each other's issues out? Just go to her, return her dog and ask to talk to her."

"What if she slams the door in my face just like the last time? Then what genious?"

Tony shrugged. "I don't know. Write her a letter and slide it down her door?"

Loki rolled eyes and started walking in the direction of your bedroom. "Your advices suck," he called behind his back.

Here he was. Standing in front of your door, which was slightly ajar. Explaining how Rex got out. Behind those doors he laughed with you, played games with you, watched movies while cuddling with you. So many pleasant memories. Scarred by the freshest one.

He remembered the fear and panic he felt when you started shouting at him. He remembered every last word you told him. Those kinds of words only left your mouth in his worst nightmares. He never thought he'll hear them in real life.

Tiny bites along his wrist brought him back to present. He didn't know what to do. Should he stand there and wait until you come out? Or should he knock? Call out for you?

His questions got answered sooner than he thought. "What are you doing here?" he heard her voice coming from the opposite end of the hallway.

He quickly looked down at Rex in his arms, the opened doorand realized how it must look to you. "I'm not stealing him, I swear. I found him wandering around the Tower," he held him out to you.

You took him, your fingers brushed his for a moment. You coughed. "Ehm, thank you. For bringing him back, I mean."

"No problem," he stood there awkwardly, hamd behind his back.

He figured you didn't want to say anything more and he took a step to walk around you.

"Hey," you called out.

"Yes?" he asked hopefully, waiting for your next words.

"I...... uhm," you bit your lip nervously.

He saw her wilingness to talk as his chance. "Can I speak with you? About all of what happened? Please?"

You looked up at him, a small relief in your eyes. "Actually, that's what I wanted to ask you."

"Oh, okay," he felt like an awkward teen rather than over century old man.

Both of you stood in the hallway. Until you broke the silence. "Well, do you want to come in?" you pointed at your door.

"Yeah, okay. Why not? Your bedroom is nice for talking," Loki mentally slaped himself across the face for saying such stupidity.

"Yes. I suppose it is," you gave him a small smile and closed the door behind the two of you.

New Boxer Beat Chapter’s out!  boxer-beats.com

    Boxer Beats was almost at the finale, again. Foxie and Lesbuni sat together, despite the larger crowd and tight seating, Lesbuni always made sure there was room for Foxie and her guard. However, the bunny could tell Foxie wasn’t feeling her best.     “I’m sorry about the other day... are you still upset?”     Foxie watched the show, looking empty. “It’s not a big deal. There’s just a lot going on right now.”     Lesbuni hugged her arms around her girlfriend, “Well I’m here to make it better!”     After a few more fights, it was Foxie’s turn.     “Are you... dressing up for this match too?” Lesbuni wondered, “I-It’s fine, whatever you want to do...”     Foxie smiled, she was glad to see Lesbuni knew not to control her, and to try accepting her instead! Like anyone else, Foxie just wanted to be herself. Or, in this case, someone else. ...But it still counts as being herself! Right?     Foxie got dressed into her Anomaly outfit, and already she felt so much happier!     The hamster announcered, “Laaaaaadies and women, girls too - welcome to one of the last fights of the nights!” The gals in the audience cheered in excitement.     “And all you guys out there...” The men in the audience looked up, Oxnard smiled and casually said or asked, “Sup?” The guys mumbled in response, also casually.     “And to all my not-guy and not-girl pals in the audience...”     “Are you just going to group us all in one category?” A chameleon under the booth yelled out in response.     “Nope!” Oxnard huffed, “I’m going to read out each type I have listed here and give everyone a semi-interesting starter. And then when I’m done, I’ll listen to whoever tells me that I forgot to include someone.”     “Anomaly, you can start the fight while I read all these.” Oxnard waved his wrist at him to start.

    “Good luck, Anomaly.” Don Badge waved from the audience, his big red nose pointing in the air, and a great big smile shining underneath. “You’re Don’s favorite.”     “Awww...” Anomaly sighed, he loved having fans! “Why don’t you come see me after the show sometime, little buddy?” Anomaly winked in Don’s direction.     “Um. Hey!” From the other side of the audience, Lesbuni growled.     “What? I know you don’t wanna see me after the show... but I’ll show you inside of me after~” The audience got a good laugh out of that, it sounded dirty! But that was Anomaly saying he’d be back to Foxie after... right?     “Don wants. To see you. Always,” the badger rang back.     “You stop that!” Lesbuni yelled, “I’ll come over there and beat you so bad, I’ll wind up in jail too!”     “Hey guys, come on, there’s enough split personality here for everybody’s body.” Anomaly awkwardly grinned, “I’m supposed to be the one fighting up here, not the audience!”     “Oxnard’s taking too long!” A chameleon in the audience spoke up again.     “The audience isn’t being patient!” Oxnard yelled back.     “Don’s hitting on my girlfriend!” Lesbuni cried and started climbing over seats.     “Don has. The fox hots.”     It was chaos. Everyone was fighting, and Anomaly was still without a fight of their own on stage! But finally, the lights dimmed and focused on the entrance, where a chubby, round figure stood unwillingly.     “WELP. THEY FOUND ME. GUESS I GOTTA FIGHT.”     It was Anger Mouse!     It looked like the mouse didn’t want to fight, the Do-Gooder following him kept patting his back, nudging him up on stage, “You can quit the fight if you don’t want to do it.”     “WHO SAID I DON’T WANNA FIGHT?” Anger Mouse yelled up in response.     “Then why were you hidin-”     “I WASN’T HIDING. LET’S FIGHT, ANATOMY.” The fat purple rat hopped into the boxing ring.     Anatomy, er, Anomaly, raised an eyebrow. Did this mouse really want to fight?     “ALRIGHT. IT’S BOXING TIME.” Anger Mouse announced, “WE’RE DOING DODGEBALL.”     Suddenly, a bunch of bouncing rubber balls fell from the ceiling, most bounced out of the ring right after landing in there.     “GAH! GOSH DARN IT. Stupid balls.” Anger Mouse complained. “YUP, WELL, y’know the rules, don’t ya?” He whispered to Anomaly, looking sincere, “You just gotta hit me with balls to win the match. COUGH COUGH. AHEM. SO LET’S FIGHT, WITH OUR BALLS.”     The audience all stopped fighting, they wanted to watch this!     Anomaly picked up a dodgeball, “Um, is the referee going to come out and tell us to start? Or... do we just start?”     Oxnard announced over the speakers, “Aro’s in the bathroom. Just fight!”     Somewhere out there, Aro the referee was quite embarrassed, hearing the speakers from the announcer echo into the restroom. No one needed to know that!     Anomaly shrugged, eyeing Anger Mouse to make sure he was ready, and threw!     ...But he missed.     Anger Mouse waited for Anomaly to find another ball and throw it, but he missed again. “HEY, COME ON, AIM A LITTLE.” The fat rat picked up a ball! And then he, he... rolled it to Anomaly? “TRY AGAIN.”     The fox threw again, but it went right over Anger’s head.     “WHAT’S THE DEAL? YOU CAN’T THROW?”     “You’re too short!”     “WHAT!?”     Anomaly picked up a ball outside the ring, and came back in only to... roll it over to Anger Mouse. “If you’re so good at throwing, prove it.”     Anger Mouse confidently picked up the ball, leaned back to throw, aaaand... dropped it. “HA! YOU CAN’T trick me THAT easily...” his voice started to crack and squeak. At this rate, no one was going to get the other out.     “Come on F- uh, I mean, Anomaly!” Lesbuni cheered, “You went to pie school, or whatever. You should know how to throw balls!”     “Throwing pies and throwing balls are very different, they’re totally different shapes!” Anomaly panicked, things weren’t looking good. “It’s complicated, you wouldn’t understand!”     “TRY USING BOTH HANDS,” Anger Mouse screamed. Anomaly couldn’t handle so many people yelling at him. This wasn’t as fun as his first performance.     “Wait... a performance!” Anomaly grinned, anything was more fun as a show. The fox dashed around the ring, collecting balls all for himself. “Watch this, Angry Pants!” Anomaly started juggling three big dodgeballs in his hands, the audience was mildly curious. But then the fox started walking forward, right onto a dodgeball! But Anomaly didn’t slip - he stood on top of that ball as he juggled the others in his paws. He then raised a leg, balancing on one foot!     “Hey Anger, keep an eye on these balls for me.”     “YOU’RE MISSING A PAIR,” he grumbled as he peeked under the fox’s tutu.     “Hey, it’s a costume! Don’t judge me there.” Anomaly giggled, and suddenly lost their balance. “Oh fudge!”     “GAH!”     As Anomaly landed on his back, the dodgeball under his foot shot forward, right at Anger Mouse! It punted the little guy right off stage - flipping over the ropes and landing on the ground outside the ring.     “Anger Mouse is outta the house!” Oxnard exclaimed, “Anomaly, watch out!”     The fox on his back looked up, the three balls they were juggling were falling right towards him!     “Those balls are coming down on him hard!”     “I wish I was in his boots right now.”     “Happens to me all the time! What’s the big deal?”     With the audience’s eyes all on those balls, Anomaly timed his kicks to knock the first two away. The third was on its way, but the fox reached up and caught it in both his paws. He was safe!     “Whew! He did it folks,” Oxnard yelped over the speakers. “That was almost a draw, but Anomaly is goin’ to the finals! That performance was quite a kick in the balls, fella. Watch it next time.”     The audience cheered, and Anomaly hopped around happily. He did it!     “You’re amazing, Anomaly.” Don cheered from one side.     “You’re gonna win it all, Foxie!” Lesbuni squeaked from the other.     Anomaly was happy, but hearing Foxie’s name brought him back to reality. It was back to being Foxie with the show over. She wished these moments lasted longer. Foxie was left wondering one more thing about the fight...     “HEY!” As Foxie went back to her guard in the hallway, Anger Mouse chased behind her, “WAIT.” The short mouse took her hand as they went through the exit.     “Um, what’s up?” Foxie asked the little guy.     “YOU’RE GOING TO THE FINALE.” Well, that was obvious.     “Yeah... I mean, I won the fight... so, that makes sense.” Foxie nodded.     “I DIDN’T try to win.” Anger Mouse grumbled, looking down at the floor.     “You didn’t? Haha, I didn’t even realize it... you gave me a lot of chances to hit you, huh?” Foxie thought. “And you almost didn’t show up at all!”     “I WAS HIDING. I WAS GONNA GIVE YOU THE MATCH.” Anger Mouse sighed, “I didn’t want everyone to watch me lose. But...”     Anger Mouse rubbed his face, was he sad? What was going on? Foxie pat his head gently, she almost forgot, this loud little guy was just a little kid.     “What’s wrong?” Foxie leaned down to ask.     “DON IS MY FRIEND. I GUESS. SO... Y-YOU GUYS... GET TO BE IN THE FINALS TOGETHER.” Anger Mouse sniffed, “HE WANTED TO SPEND THIS WHOLE COMPETITION WITH YOU. THAT’S THE REASON WHY HE JOINED. THAT, and I asked him. I thought we would be on a team...”     Anger Mouse lost on purpose, so that Don and Foxie could be together in the finale?     “Oh, Anger... you didn’t have to do that.” Foxie smiled sympathetically.     “HE’S GONNA FORGET ALL ABOUT ME.” Anger Mouse shrieked with a high-pitched scream, “HE WANTS TO BE FRIENDS WITH YOU INSTEAD. DON’S THE ONLY ONE THAT CARES ABOUT ME. I’LL BE FORGOTTEN BY EVERYBODY.”     “Anger, no... that wouldn’t happen.” Foxie rubbed his back, looking at either of their guards to step in... but no such luck. She felt like she was playing mommy. “If Don and I become friends, we can all be friends together!”     “Y-YOU’LL join us?” Anger asked, sounding hopeful.     Were Anger and Don in a club? Well, whatever made him happy again. Er, wait, was Anger Mouse ever happy?     “Sure, I’ll join you guys. We’re all boxing prisoners here.”     Anger Mouse squeaked and grinned wide, clapping his gloves together. “Heeee!”     You know, when he wasn’t being an angry brat, this rat was kind of cute.     “THANKS LADY.” Anger Mouse went towards to his guard and reached for his hand, “GOOD LUCK WITH DON. KICK HIS BUTT!”     The chubby mouse chuckled and walked off into the hallway. Was Foxie supposed to beat Don? Or... if he was a fan, maybe it was his dream to be on stage with Foxie in the finale?     Foxie felt happier as she left for the night, “For a pair of bad guys, Don and Anger Mouse sure are sweet.”

REQUEST: Can you do a scenario where lev meets his s/o because she playing the piano or singing. Thank you. Love your writing.❤️

A/N: Thank you for requesting!! Ok Sasha storytime 😳😳 I used to be in a piano class since I was 5 (I quit, but I still play just for fun). And I joined this competition when I was 9 and got selected as one of the finalists - and I was so fucking surprised bc jesus, I play averagely for all I can say... I’m not the best, but I’m definitely not the worst. But there was this messed up system where more familiar faces/winners would definitely be chosen. And despite some other kids messing up a lot, the MCs removed me first bc “Sorry, no one knows you around here. You played better than some others, but maybe if you talked more, you could win. No one really wants a winner they’re not familiar with.” I couldn’t really say anything. I knew they were right. So I left with a Certificate of Participation and not even proof that the judges chose me as a finalist. THIS particular event got me so fucked up for so long that I tried to get myself sick/injured so that I wouldn’t have to go to my piano classes for 4 weeks straight. Eventually, I pulled out after my exam and started playing for myself, with the songs that I enjoy, whenever I want. So,,, fuck those MCs and my teacher, I’m a bad bitch you can’t kill me 😎 *plays Superbass by Nicki Minaj* FEM!READER BELOW

duende. | haiba lev

summary: in which lev has no sense of direction, but finds a lone sugarplum fairy along the way.

word count: 2438

warnings: none

(n.) the feeling of profound awe experienced when viewing a piece of art, watching a performance or listening to music that has deeply moved a person

It’s difficult to tell precisely... but Lev was definitely lost.

It wasn’t his fault the school had to be so large! What’s the point of having so much staircases when they weren’t going to lead to one conjoined hallway? It was like a maze, except Lev knew he wasn’t getting anywhere near a familiar area.

Crap! he cursed, pawing nervously at his empty pant pocket. I left my phone in the clubroom.

Light was already fading from the west-side window and he hadn’t come across anyone for the past 15 minutes. He recalled something Taketora said about a part of the school being dead deserted. Was this that place? He couldn’t tell.

He was getting impatient. If Lev didn’t hurry up and submit his additional worksheets to Sakamatsu-sensei before sundown, it was over. Goodbye to the club’s training camp. Goodbye to becoming the greatest ace Nekoma has ever had. Goodbye to everything he ever cared about.

Instinct taking over, he ran as fast as his legs could carry him and called out to the empty hallways for someone. Anyone. “Hello?! Sakamatsu-sensei...?!”

And when the vacant corridors replied back to him, Lev stilled, frozen.

“...Piano?”

Alisa had told him something about ghosts once. It was right after she’d gone out to watch some horror movie with her friends. Lev couldn’t remember exactly her words, but his sister had “slept” with her eyes open that night and he wondered if he should be taking her advice seriously.

But this didn’t sound like a ghost. Something that sounded so beautiful wouldn’t have any murderous intention behind it... right?

The melody reminded Lev of those old ballets his grandmother would play on TV when she visited. Every glissando a delicate spin by one of the performers, and every perky note a tiny leap. He could almost see them, those beautiful dancers, and Lev wondered—if he were to trace the music to its source, would he find a charming sugarplum fairy waiting for him?

His feet were already ahead of his thoughts. Lev couldn’t even tell where he was in the gallery of clubrooms. His senses of direction numbed, he relied on his ears and the sweet, sweet melody of the piano that was getting warmer. And warmer. Warmer.

Hot.

“Or...chestra Club?” he read out, the placard’s kanji wrapping itself around his head. Peering through the rectangular window of the doors, Lev zeroed in on the bareness of the room, save for the large grand piano settled in the center.

This is the place... right? he thought, retreating slowly. No one’s here.

Looking around for good measure, Lev scratched his head. Ah, geez, I don’t even know where I am anymore. He reconsidered throwing away his curiosity and return to his quest for the third year’s Teacher’s Room before his Biology teacher could scold him for his incompetence. But the little fluff of hair peeking out from behind the piano swayed him over and he didn’t even stop to think when he barged through the doors.

“Fairy!”

The girl who squeaked in shock really did convince Lev for a millisecond that she was a fairy. Straight out of that stage his TV had replayed for him. Tiny in stature, eyes shining like morning dewdrops and fingers pressed again the white keys, thin and graceful as if you were producing magic. All excluding the lack of a pair of shimmering wings sprouted on her back, you were an enigma in this barren universe.

“I’m human,” you said, voice like air. Breezing and pushing like wind.

Lev approached the center of the room, speculating if your glamour would disappear if he were to come closer. “T-That song you played. That was from a ballet, right?”

“It’s Tchaikovsky,” you replied bluntly, grinning. “I feel like I’ve seen you somewhere before, can’t recall... We’re not too familiar, but you’re awfully rude for a first year, aren’t you? At least address me with the proper suffixes if you’re going to assume my species like that, Giant-kun.”

Speak for yourself! he thought, becoming more and more amused by this fanciful person. “I mean, you don’t look like a high school student either—”

You, completely ignoring him, returned your attention the piano, playing another song. This one faster, more fluid. Seeing your hands up-close, Lev eyed the muted details of your hand. A gentle blush on its skin, illuminated by the sunlight from the large window sitting ajar. His sister would kill to have a hint at your manicure routine.

So this is what a pianist’s hands looks like.

“Oh, I remember now,” hands coming to a rest on your skirt, the fairy girl turned to him, as elegant as ever. Now that the room was silent, there was a nervousness that lingered in the air. “You’re one of Kuroo’s boys, aren’t you?”

Hearing the familiar name of the no-nonsense captain of the Volleyball Club, Lev perked up, “You know Kuroo-san?”

“Of course, we’re in the same class after all.”

Same class. That would mean—no way!

“Y-you’re older than me?!”

You gave him a bright smile. Added to your fairy-like personage, Lev couldn’t help but to notice that this upperclassman of his was aware of his existence. There was actually a girl—who was awfully cute and just his type if he thought about it—in this godforsaken school who knew about Nekoma’s ‘ace’, Haiba Lev.

This was a dream, right? No, he shouldn’t be saying such a thing. In fact, Lev had gotten so engrossed in this reality that he didn’t realize how much he was staring into your beautiful face before you piped up again.

“Oh, it’s almost time for me to lock up. I forgot to ask, did you need anything when you came in here?”

Wait, what time is it?!

Lev let out a strangled noise between a dying boar and a tearful sob. Collapsing on the floor before his worried senpai, he squeezed the papers in his hand. Oh, it was over now. Over, over, over. Hello wretched make-up exam, goodbye glorious training camp...

Kneeling down next to him, you peeked at his wincing face. “H-hey, are you okay? Is there anything I can do to help?”

Raising his head to look into your swirling eyes, Lev pursed his lips. Damn, you were totally going to think he was uncool after this. Grabbing you by the shoulders, he lowered his head in a bow.

“Senpai, could you show me the way to the third year’s teacher’s room? I’ve got an assignment to submit before 5 pm and I don’t know where I am! Please, senpai, I need to—”

No more words were exchanged when you grabbed Lev’s collosal hands in your delicate ones and dragged him through the door. You sped and hurtled down the corridors, bringing him along with you in this strange joyride. It was a funny sensation, similar to being towed around a park by a wild dog on a leash—except you weren’t a dog, but simply a shorter person whose size reminded him a bit of Yaku-san...

“S-Senpai—?!” he wheezed out, long legs pedalling in front of him. For someone nearly half his height, you were really fast; he wondered if you should’ve went for the Track and Field Club instead of the Orchestra Club.

Just as he had thought of letting go before you became a physical hazard to him, you skid to a halt in front of a door. Panting, you smiled up at him. “Here we are. Y-You’re not late, right?”

Eyes darting between the doors to the teacher’s office and you, the burning intention of a hug fuzzed out Lev’s brain—unfortunately, that would have to wait until later. Shoving the door open, he dashed inside the near-empty office and handed over his pile of crumpled assignments to the jaded Sakamatsu-sensei, face red.

Filing through the papers, the Biology teacher griped. “Well, all the assignments I asked for you to do are here... I’ll inform the Volleyball Club supervisor that you’ll be able to join the training camp this weekend.”

Saved. He was saved.

Exiting the office, he bowed before you—his fairy godmother—and murmured. “Thank you, senpai! You saved my life... ”

“Y-You’re welcome,” you said. “But I don’t think I went as far as “saving your life”, um... what was your name?”

“Haiba! Haiba Lev. Thank you so much!”

When you giggled, Lev heard the choirs of angels fill his head. God, he really wanted to hug you, stuff you in his pocket and bring you home with him to coo at and cuddle.

“The pleasure is mine, Haiba-kun. You’re an interesting person, you know? I’m glad we met.”

Lev really felt like he’d won the lottery. Was this finally his chance? Was he going to get a super cute, older girlfriend before his intolerable seniors? Unthinkable! Yet here he was, indulging in the soft smile of Nekoma’s resident sugarplum fairy, as if his entire gag reel of clumsy flukes never existed.

“Ah! I forgot to lock the doors to the clubroom!” you yelped. Even in panic, Lev thought you looked cute. “It was nice getting to know you, Haiba-kun. The main staircase is right over there, so you’ll be able to get back without getting lost. Be safe!”

Before he could offer his hand in accompanying you—at least being next to you for as long as possible—you had already sped off into an indistinct corner, the amber light of sundown fading with your shadow. And once again, Lev was alone.

Damn. He didn’t even ask for your name.

══════ ⋆★⋆ ══════

“You’re asking me... if I know a girl in my class called ‘Fairy-senpai’?”

The gaze in Lev’s green eyes were resolute. “Yes.”

Kuroo sighed, wiping off his sweat with a towel. Day by day, he swore, the first-years were getting more and more difficult to deal with. “Someone named Fairy who hangs around in that derelict part of the third floor sounds shady as hell. And what club did you say she was from?”

“Orchestra Club.”

“We have an Orchestra Club?”

Lev was getting nowhere with the rooster-headed captain; it was either that, or Kuroo was intentionally leading him to a dead-end out of sheer mischief. Anything could happen with him.

It had been a total of 18 hours since he’d last seen you, and Lev’s head had never felt any emptier. He’d startled his parents and Alisa enough by playing one of his grandmother’s ballet DVDs once he’d arrived home. But it wasn’t the same. Even the visual movements of the ballerinas and the skill of the ensemble didn’t amount to your solo rendition.

Yours was more natural, more sturdy. Something he could feel and see without opening his eyes or reaching out to it. Smitten with your performance, Lev slept that night, head filled with the thought of seeing you again, his little sugarplum fairy in the maze of doors and desolation. And maybe, he’d even get your number this time.

“She’s really good at the piano and has a twinkly smile. Fairy-senpai is a bit short too, really tiny,” Lev hesitated to continue, looking around for safety “... A bit like Yaku-san’s height.”

“What’s this I hear about my height? Hey, Lev! Why aren’t you practicing your digging receives?!”

Wincing at the stinging kick thrown at his back, Lev pouted miserably. Watching the poor behemoth being dragged away by the demonic upperclassman, an implausible feeling of pity struck through Kuroo, and he called out for the libero.

“A cute girl who looks like a fairy, can play the piano and is in the Orchestra Club? In our class?” Yaku repeated after Lev and Kuroo’s explanation. Tapping his chin in deep thought, he replied dubiously. “Doesn’t that sound a bit like L/N-san to you?”

“Ehh? L/N-chan can play the piano? I never knew that.”

Yaku clicked his tongue indignantly. “That’s because you barely talk to her. Maybe if you attended cleaning duty properly, you would’ve realized that when you’re paired up with her.”

The sound of his seniors bickering was already white noise to him. L/N. Repeating the syllables on his tongue, Lev tasted a sugary relish linger in his mouth. What a beautiful name. A fitting name, and suddenly, he already sensed that your first name would be just as wonderful.

“Though I’m impressed that you managed to get a full conversation out of L/N-san. Did you scare her or something?” Yaku snickered at Lev’s unappreciative scowl. “It’s just that L/N-san only says something when she’s required to. Otherwise... she’s really quiet. I’ve only heard her say ‘thank you’, ‘I’m sorry’, ‘yes’ and ‘no’ for the past three years, everything else we know about her comes from gossip.”

Lev’s chest swelled up and he smirked. “Maybe she likes younger guys like me.”

“I think she likes you because you’ve got nothing going on in your head at all,” the team captain scoffed attracting the giggles of his surrounding teammates. “You are right though, Lev. L/N-chan is a really cute person... I might get interested one of these days.”

“H-Huh?! C’mon, Kuroo-san! I’ve got dibs on her first!”

Nearly there, the captain thought. Lev’s ears were already burning red, a clear sign of his impulsive outburst. And when the timing was right, the Volleyball Club loved to use his recklessness for profit.

Crossing his arms in faux doubt, Kuroo shrugged. “I don’t know... I highly doubt you’ll attract her attention if you’re not even a regular on the team...”

Furrowing his brows deeply, Lev snatched a ball from the ground and stared deeply into the captain’s lacklustre eyes. “I-I’ll show you! I’ll become a regular on the team and the ace! That’s why I’m going to go practice right now, right, Yaku-san?!”

Even Yaku, completely amused and alarmed, had to do a double take. “R-Right... Do your best then.”

“I will!”

Chuckling at Lev’s shrinking back, Kuroo patted himself on the back for a job well done. Kenma, who had watched the entire nasty exchange go down, was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Weakly punching his childhood friend on his shoulder, he grumbled. “Great... Now that he’s fired up about some girl, he’ll keep asking me for more tosses. Kuroo, if I pass out because of your ‘encouragement’, you’re paying for my health insurance.”

Lev couldn’t hear the new conversation happening between the team’s setter and the captain, but that didn’t matter right now. He was going to practice, become better, then the best. Then ask you out, his sugarplum fairy in the third floor’s Orchestra Club clubroom. Lev felt invincible.

“One cappuccino and chocolate brownie, please” - Chapter 12

Summary: Darcie Angel is thirty years old and owner of the famous cafe “The Coffee Cup” in New York City. She is known for her sweet smile and her amazing customer service. For six months now, John Wick has visited her cafe every day, earning himself a table that is always reserved for him. Darcie can’t stop thinking about him and when he asks her out one day, her dreams are finally coming true. But will it last?

John Wick x OFC Darcie

Word count: 1.8k

Warnings: None

Masterlist // Previous chapter // Next chapter

‘Miss Angel,’ Tina, Greg’s girlfriend says, ‘where is your boyfriend?’

It has been four days since I stormed out of John’s house and since he hasn’t come to the cafe, I haven’t seen him since. I still didn’t have the heart to remove the reserved sign, because no one can replace John.

‘Yeah,’ Roger says, ‘we haven’t seen him in days and to be honest, you look kind of miserable.’

‘Geez, thanks Roger,’ I huff, placing the tray on their table, ‘you really know how to cheer a woman up.’

‘I’m sorry,’ he says, ‘but you barely smile anymore. We’re worried.’

‘It’s nothing serious. We just got into an argument. That happens in relationships, no matter how old you are.’ I sigh deeply, thinking about his lovely smile when he sees me again. ‘Besides, some relationships aren’t meant to last forever and maybe this one belongs to that category. I’ll get over it.’ I place my hand on Roger’s shoulder and say: ‘If you kids need anything else, just let me know.’

‘You could give me mister John’s address, so I can go there after school to beat him up.’

Greg rolls his eyes. ‘Like you would stand a chance against him.’ He has placed his arm around Tina’s shoulder and I’m really happy to see him this blissful and content. ‘Thank you, miss Angel.’

‘You’re welcome.’

I go back to the register and while I’m cleaning up the machines, I can’t help but stare at another young couple. Today, and the days before that, the cafe seems to be filled with couples in love. Normally I couldn’t care less, I even liked it a bit, but right now, I want to kick them all out. Only pathetic single losers allowed in my cafe.

I did tell Jennie and Raye about the whole assassin thing and I could’ve known that Raye would find the whole thing insanely hot. She kept saying how romantic it was when he said he would get out for me.

For us.

I mean, she’s right, but I keep thinking about how dangerous it is on the other hand. Every time he kills someone, he angers a family, friends and loved ones. What if they come after him?

What if they come after me, my friends or Tiki?

The door opens and secretly I hope it’s John, but it’s the UPS guy, with a brown package in his hands. I walk up to the register and he places the package in front of me. ‘Miss Darcie Angel?’ he asks.

I nod. ‘That’s me.’

‘Could you sign here, please?’

I give the man my signature and thank him. It is addressed to me—and not the cafe—and I open up the package. It’s a pink book. I open it to the first page and I gasp when I read what’s on there.

It’s Bridge to Terabithia, but underneath the title, I see a stamp.

Bound by John Wick

Tears fill in my eyes. I remember him telling me he bounded book as a side job and what seems like a long time ago, he did ask me about my favorite book. I forgot I told him about it.

A piece of paper slips out. I quickly pick it up, before Tiki can destroy it.

Dear Darcie,

I’m sorry for what happened the other day. I really hoped you didn’t have to find out about this and especially not the way you did. I hoped that I could get out and start my new life with you. I was and still am ready to start over again.

I’m close to officially being out and maybe after that, I’ll visit your cafe. Maybe for the last time, because I would totally understand if you don’t want anything to do with me.

But I need to say properly goodbye to you then.

You changed me. Everything I told you over the past few weeks, I meant it. After Helen, I never thought I would start over with someone, but your cafe and you just showed me that even someone like me could get a second chance.

My last and final job will be tonight. I understand if you can’t forgive me, but I would really appreciate it, if you gave me another chance.

I know I told you this before, but I really need you to know this: The man you got to know, is the man who I truly am.

I love you, Darcie and I always will. You are the love of my life and you will stay the love of my life forever.

Please give Tiki a kiss from me.

Lots of love,

John

‘Come here,’ Raye says, pulling me to the kitchen. ‘Ellie, I’ll be right back,’ she tells our young employee. ‘What did you get?’

I show her the book and the letter and only after Jennie wraps her arms around my shoulders, I realize that I’m crying.

I feel Tiki’s paws against prick in my legs. Raye picks her up. ‘You go home,’ she tells me. ‘Take Tiki out for a walk and then after work, Jen and I will bring you chocolate, wine and we’ll talk, so you might feel better, okay?’

⟢⟡⟣

Poor Tiki, I took her for a three hour walk and the only reason we went home, was because I was starving. I eat some leftover curry from yesterday and sit in front of my picture wall. John insisted on filling up this wall with tons of pictures of us.

Since I’m really particular about the pictures I want, I only hung up two so far.

One is a picture I made of him and Tiki. We took her out for a walk and since Tiki kept pulling the leash, John ran after her. Once he got out of breath, he laid down flat in the grass. Tiki jumped on his chest and he let her lick his face. I had to take a picture of this, to make sure I get to remember this moment. The way he loves my dog, I hardly think he was real.

The second picture was when we went out for dinner, on our fourth date. I was wearing a blush colored dress, that was midi length and hugged my figure in all the right spots. John asked Hugo if he would take a picture of us and I never knew that Hugo is a true photographer. He even laid down flat on his stomach, to make the best picture of us.

I sigh deeply.

I really miss him. I miss his morning text and his confused look when I ask him to take a picture of me. ‘But why?’ he would ask.

‘So I can post it.’ I would bite my bottom lip and add: ‘On the Instagram.’

I open up his letter again, so I can read it over and over again. I love him so much.

My friends barge through the door. ‘Stop the pity party, Darcie Angel,’ Raye yells. ‘We are going to change in our pajamas, eat chocolate and drink wine.’

‘Do we really have to?’

‘Yes, sweetheart, because when we eat the chocolate, and drink some wine, we’re going to have a long talk.’

Jennie walks up to me and says: ‘You really need to think about this situation.’

‘Why?’

‘Because you’re miserable.’ Raye walks up to my kitchen. Just now I realize they are already wearing their pajamas. ‘Go change into your pj’s and join us.

Five minutes later, we’re all dressed in matching pajamas, a tartan pajama set that we bought together a few years ago. Jennie has the blue one, Raye has the yellow one and I have the pink one. ‘After reading that letter,’ Raye says, ‘and having to witness your disgustingly cute behavior on almost a daily basis, it is really obvious that this man loves you.’

‘But he is a killer,’ I say.

‘Have you ever felt not safe with him?’ Jennie asks. She doesn’t give me time to answer, because she continues: ‘Have you ever not felt loved? Did he literally threw Eric in his own mess and pushed him out of the door, because he was protecting you? Does he really love your sweet little Tiki? Has he told you that he would get out for you? That the man you got to know, the man is who he truly is?’

She’s right though, I think to myself. It’s all true. John loved me in a way that no one has ever loved me before. All the things he did for me…

‘Has he fucked you that good that he made you orgasm twice in one session?’

‘Raye!’ I say.

‘Sorry, sorry, miss Prude. Has he made love to you that—’

‘Don’t finish that sentence,’ I interrupt her. Leave it to her to make it sexual. ‘God, I love him so much, but the assassin part… I can’t seem to forget that.’

‘When he got out for Helen,’ Jennie says, ‘he married her and they were together for five years. The woman got sick, but he didn’t leave her side. What does that tell you about him?’

Everything I need to know, basically.

‘What he had with her, a normal life, he wants that with you.’ Jennie grabs my hand. ‘He loves you so much and… I would hate it if it didn’t work out between the two of you.’

Raye scoots closer to me and says: ‘You want him to sit at that table. If you were really over him, you would’ve removed the reserved sign. You don’t want someone else to sit there. You want him.’

It’s true. I want him. I love him. With all my heart. I look over at Tiki, who has curled herself up in a shirt of John’s, one that he left here and one that I can’t seem to get rid off.

‘You guys are right,’ I say. ‘I only want him.’

‘It only took four days, a lovely letter and some wine,’ Raye says to Jennie, high fiving her in the progress.

‘But I won’t call him tonight, though,’ I say. ‘It’s his final job and I can’t just call him. I don’t want to distract him.’

‘But you’ll call him tomorrow, right?’ Raye asks, cocking an eyebrow.

‘I’ll call him tomorrow.’

As if on cue, my phone starts to ring.

‘Maybe it’s mister Mustang,’ Raye says, grabbing my phone. She checks my screen and furrows her brows. ‘Oh, unknown caller.’

‘Maybe it’s him though,’ Jennie says.

I grab my phone and answer. ‘Hello.’

‘Is this Darcie Angel?’ The man on the other end of the line sounds so polite. Almost a bit preppy.

‘Yes, this is her.’

‘My name is Winston, I own the Continental hotel. I’m calling on behalf of Jonathan Wick.’

That can’t be good, I think to myself. ‘Is he okay?’ I manage to ask, while my heart rate is out of the roof and my palms are all of the sudden really sweaty.

‘During is final… job, there have been some issues.’

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

‘Miss Angel,’ Winston says, ‘Jonathan has been shot.’

Taglist: @toomanystoriessolittletime​

Blackberries (Adrinette April) Day 21: Magic

Or see it on AO3: Blackberries 

--------

Master Fu’s eyes flicked back and forth between them consideringly before he reached for the phonograph on the table. Adrien watched with mounting confusing as Master Fu pressed a few different spots on the phonograph. He couldn’t help a startled gasp when the phonograph suddenly opened and many compartments slid out, but he promptly forgot all about that when he realized that the Ladybug earrings and Black Cat ring were sitting right on top.

“You will have to return the Fox miraculous and the Bee miraculous,” Master Fu said, gently lifting the Ladybug and Black Cat miraculouses out and setting them on the table. The earrings and rings were so close, but –

“What about Trixx and Pollen?” Adrien asked, curling his free hand into a fist in his lap. “Will you be giving them to Coccinelle and Lynx?”

“No,” Master Fu said, so quickly that Marinette and Adrien exchanged looks. There was definitely more to that story, and Marinette couldn’t resist prying a little.

“Why not?” she asked. “It would be nice to have more help against Hawkmoth. I don’t think Coccinelle was well suited to the Ladybug, but that doesn’t mean she couldn’t be a good Bee or Fox. And now they’re both familiar with how a miraculous works.”

“I can only give a miraculous to people that I trust. When I spoke to Coccinelle and Lynx last night, both of them refused to relinquish their miraculous,” Master Fu said somberly.

‘I can’t blame them,’ Adrien thought, though he didn’t say as much out loud. He and Marinette knew all too well how painful giving up a miraculous could be. Even if Coccinelle and Lynx hadn’t had the chance to develop much of a bond with Tikki and Plagg, having a taste of the glory of being superheroes before having it ripped away couldn’t have been easy.

“But you have them right here,” Marinette said, puzzled. “So how did you get them?” Like Adrien, she could hardly bear to tear her eyes away from them.

“We went back after they were both asleep and took them,” Master Fu said.

“You – what?” Adrien said, blinking. Surely he had misheard that, and Master Fu hadn’t just admitted to burglary?

“Wait, who is we?” Marinette said.

“That would be me,” Wayzz said, lifting a tiny paw. To his credit, he looked a bit ashamed.

“I may be old, but I’m still capable of transforming,” said Master Fu, seemingly taking Adrien’s question as an insult to his age. When in reality, age was the furthest thing from Adrien’s mind.

“Wait. You transformed and snuck into their rooms?” Marinette asked in total disbelief. “To steal the miraculouses back?”

“Technically, I sent Wayzz in to retrieve the miraculouses while I waited outside on the roof next door. But you must understand that I had no choice, Marinette. I can’t allow the miraculouses to get into the wrong hands. Coccinelle and Lynx weren’t right for the job. Had the circumstances not been so dire, I wouldn’t have chosen them in the first place. Since they wouldn’t give the Ladybug and Black Cat miraculouses back, I had to take them by any means necessary. Because of that, I can’t risk giving them the Bee or Fox miraculous either,” Master Fu explained.

‘That may well be the creepiest thing I’ve ever heard,’ Marinette thought.

‘At least he wasn’t actually in their rooms, though I’m not sure sending Wayzz in is much better,’ Adrien thought. A top of the line security system could keep a human out, but a kwami? What was to stop Master Fu from doing the same thing to them if he decided he was dissatisfied with how they were handling things?

‘We’re going to have to think about this later,’ Marinette thought, shooting him a worried glance, and he gave her a nod before turning back to Master Fu.

“So Coccinelle and Lynx just… woke up this morning to find the miraculouses gone with no explanation?” Adrien said.

“Of course not. I left a letter for each of them explaining the matter,” Master Fu replied.

‘Wow. That’s – wow. A letter. I’m not even sure what to say to that,’ Adrien thought.

“Right,” Marinette said, because she didn’t know what to say to that either. Somewhere out there, two very unhappy kids were waking up to find their miraculouses gone. Adrien wondered if he and Marinette would be facing another akuma in the near future.

“Did Coccinelle and Lynx know who each other was?” he asked.

“No. I contacted them separately. They had never met in their civilian forms. That, I made sure of,” Master Fu said.

“Who were they?” Marinette asked, curiosity burning brightly through her. Adrien wanted to know too. If it was Alya and Nino – but then it couldn’t be both of them, could it? Not if Master Fu was telling the truth and Coccinelle and Lynx had never met before in their civilian forms. But it could be Alya or Nino and someone else that they didn’t know…

Master Fu shook his head. “I can’t tell you, and, before you ask them, I’ve already told Tikki and Plagg not to tell you under any circumstances. You don’t need to know. They’re never going to have a miraculous again. You knowing could put them both in danger if Hawkmoth akumatized you, and they can’t defend themselves.”

‘He has a point,’ Adrien thought reluctantly.

‘I guess we’ll never know,’ Marinette thought, sighing. Somehow they were going to have to make peace with that.

“Now, the Fox and the Bee,” Master Fu said, holding a hand out.

Marinette let go of Adrien’s hand, reached into her purse, and brought Pollen out. “Thanks a lot for your help,” she said, nuzzling Pollen’s cheek.

“It was my pleasure!” Pollen chirped.

Trixx flew out of Adrien’s pocket without prompting and grinned. “See you around, Kitten!”

“Definitely,” Adrien said, offering his index finger for Trixx to grab and shake. Then he took off the Fox miraculous, watching regretfully as Trixx immediately disappeared. He would have liked it if he could have kept both Trixx and Plagg around, but there was no way Master Fu would have agreed to that. And frankly, for the safety of Paris, maybe that was for the best.

He set the necklace on the table, keeping his hand on it until he had picked up the ring just in case. A rush of warmth that for once had nothing to do with Marinette made his hand tingle as he touched his ring. It was both familiar and comforting. Adrien smiled so hard his cheeks ached and quickly slipped the ring on his finger, watching out of the corner of his eye as Marinette copied him and exchanged the Bee for the Ladybug. A second, duller rush of warmth ran through Adrien as Marinette put the earrings in her ears.

Two magical flashes of light lit the room.

“Marinette!”

“Adrien!”

“Tikki!” Marinette cried, immediately grabbing her kwami in both hands. She clutched Tikki to her cheek, sorrow and gratitude welling up inside her.

Adrien wanted to speak, but words failed him. All he could do was hold out a trembling hand. Plagg’s impossibly light weight settled on his palm moments later. He brought Plagg into his chest and held Plagg there, but Plagg was contrary and wouldn’t stay. Instead, he wiggled out of Adrien’s hold and easily scaled Adrien’s arm and shoulder to end up on Adrien’s neck.

“Hey kid,” he whispered in Adrien’s ear, voice distorted by the force of his purr. “Eww, you smell like fox.”

The comment startled a laugh out of Adrien, and he was able to blink away the tears in his eyes. “Yeah, Trixx mentioned that you wouldn’t like that.”

“I don’t. No kitten of mine should ever smell like a kit. It’s disgraceful,” Plagg sniffed, nuzzling his head against the curve of Adrien’s jaw. “I bet your room stinks too. It’s going to take me forever to get the fox smell out of everything!”

“I’ll buy you lots of cheese, so you’ll have plenty of energy to work on it,” Adrien promised.

“You better,” Plagg said, now climbing up into Adrien’s hair.

Movement caught Adrien’s attention, and he glanced up in time to see Master Fu putting the Bee miraculous and the Fox miraculous back into the phonograph. When he closed the top, all the other compartments closed as well. As happy as he was to see Plagg again, he felt a little sad at seeing Trixx go and he couldn’t help but wonder if he and Marinette would ever see Trixx or Pollen again.

“Adrien, we should go,” Marinette said, wiping her eyes. “You’re going to be late.”

“Ah, shoot. You’re right,” Adrien said. He had to get home before Nathalie realized he was gone. He stood and so did Marinette, and then Master Fu got up.

“Good luck,” he said to them. “If you need me, here is my number.” He handed Marinette a slip of paper.

Marinette nodded shortly. “Until next time, Master Fu, Wayzz,” she said, and then she and Adrien left.

Reverse

Wrote this while I was at work. I hope you all enjoy

Eve woke to the feeling of something wet and slimy on her face. It wasn’t exactly the most pleasant way to wake up, and she jolted upright in a near panic for a moment only to be accosted by another round of slobbery slime and a paw to her stomach.

She grunted and spat out a protest arms flailing.

“Waffles! Waffles Stop!” Her sputtering turned to laughter, and the laughter made the dog even more excited, as his tial began to wag, and he stepped forward, planting a paw right on her boob. The party stopped right then as she turfed the dog to the side frowning at him though she didn’t mean it, “Ouch.”

Waffles wagged his tail and rested his chin on her bed.

“Thanks for that.” she grumbled, rubbing her chest with the flat of her right arm, “Not like I needed that or anything.”

He licked her hand and he couldn’t help but grin as she ran a hand over his ears and through his fur. 

She closed her eyes waiting for the best part of her morning: the realization that she captained a spaceship. The grin that split her face probably should have torn it in half joker style as she leaped from bed ready to live out another day of the best job ever!

And what did her enthusiasm get her, the sudden and jarring realization that she was missing a leg.

The realization as she tumble dof ballance and went plowing into the floor with a loud crash. She lay there for a second, staring up at the ceiling and contemplating her stupidity before a large nose appeared in her vision, and she got licked from forehead to chin by a big pink tongue.

She sighed, and sat up.

“Ouch.”

That was probably going to leave a bruise. Not that she didn’t already have enough of those.

SHe turned to find waffles rolling her prosthetic access the floor, using his snout to roll it. She grinned and thanked him, rubbing his ears as she locked the leg into place, running her fingers across the cool blue carapace that made up the sleeve. There was a whirr as the Stee-eye leg connected, and she flexed  the two human toes.

From there she was finally able to climb to her feet and limp over to her closet and the mirror.

She threw the closet open and inspected her clothes. She could either look professional today….. Or like a complete idiot.

She thought about it for about .25 second before deciding.

Complete idiot it was!

Nonchalantly,she pushed aside the hanger than held her pristine grey uniform, and its single star on the shoulder and rummaged in the back for something fun to wear. She had plenty of star-wars t shirts, and other sci fi paraphernalia, but today felt special. She didn’t know why but it just did.

Ah! perfect !

She reached in and pulled it out.

It was a dress, just above knee height and slimming, but the best part about it was that it was made to have a pattern like R2-D2 on it, and AND.

IT HAD POCKETS.

She tossed it back on the bed and went rummaging for some shoes. She got bored five seconds in and just grabbed her heelies. They wouldn't match for dam but she loved them and anyone could fight her if they disagreed. She paused, then again, if she were to fall, she might just flash everyone her underwear.

She sat there thinking for a moment before deciding.

Compression shorts, perfect.

She pulled the clothes on, gave herself a cursory look in the mirror, smoothed down her short blond hair, adjusted her eyepatch and then walked towards the door throwing it open and…. Having an immediate heart attack.

After a moment of panic she leaned against the doorframe, “Simon! What did I tell you about waiting a few feet AWAY from my door.”

Simon stepped back,his head tilted one dark eyebrow raised , “Sorr, Admiral.”

“You don't have to call me that when I’m not in uniform you know.”

“I feel more comfortable this way.” He said, his light british accent dusting the words 

She shrugged, “Whatever makes you comfortable I guess.” And then she rolled off down the hallway.

Simon jogged after her, “Ma’am i…. Well not to …. Tell you how to do your job.”

Sh rolled her single eye upward, “You always tell me how to do my job Simon. So lets not make pretences.”

He paused and ten sighed, “Maybe formal wear would be more….. Appropriate for a working environment.”

“It's casual friday simon, besides, it wouldn’t kill you to break one regulation every once in a while.”

“It might get me fired.”

She tilted her head to look at him, “Your commanding officer would have to report you simon…. Now Remind me who your direct commanding officer is?”

He sighed, “You.”

“Damn straight it is.”

She turned the corner and nearly rolled into a pipe, dodging out of the way just in time to plow into Angel who was making her way up the hall. The two of them toppled over and plowed into the floor.

Angel looked up at her with an expression that was neither shocked nor surprised, but grinned, “Well I didn’t expect this, this morning, but I’ll take it.”

Eve quickly sat back blushing so hard she could eel her entire body tingling, “I um…. I don’t think so.”

Angel shrugged, brushing her long dark hair away from unusually perfect skin, “Your loss.” 

Eve rolled her eyes but then grinned.

“Nice dress.”

“You know the best part.”

“What?”

“IT HAS POCKETS!”

Angel laughed at her, and together they moved up the hallway talking quietly. Angel had been one of her best friends for a very long time. The marine had once been an olympic figure  skater before joining the marine, and even now Eve liked to joke that she was far too pretty to be a marine mostly in front of the other marines who took the teasing in good grace.

“Where you headed.”

“Had to take to krill this morning.”

Angel snorted, “Watch out, she is on one today.”

“Why?”

“She just recently learned about spontaneous human combustion, and now she is worried that we are all going to explode into flames.”

Eve frowned, “She does realize that has only happened like…. Maybe fifty times in all of human recorded history if not less.”

“Trey telling her that.”

“She shrugged, I guess.”

Together they walked their way into the infirmary, and even from here they could hear the high shrill voice, “SPONTANEOUS HUMAN COMBUSTION. Because apparently humans can just BURST INTO FLAMES. Oue of all the things i have to deal with, your insides getting inflamed and exploding, your immune systems attacking itself, random cells growing in clumps but NO. NOW i have to worry about EXPLODING INTO FLAMES.”

They came around the door just in time to see a scene of carnage. Krill was standing on one of the beds brandishing a scalpel, and Dr. Kade was standing just below her his dark hair rumpled and his glasses askew over his handsome face. He looked so done.

“Morning krill.” Eve said walking up to the bed, “Bit early for a mental breakdown.”

“NO IT IS-”

“Should I mention that we aren't exactly sure if that can happen or not. Mostly likely is they accidentally set themselves on fire and no one could find evidence otherwise.” She wasn’t sure if she was lying or not, but anything to get Krill to calm down when she was in one of her moods.

She stopped, “Really.”

Eve glanced over at Dr. Kade and winked forgetting for a moment the wink was mostly negated by the fact her other eye was covered, “yeah,totally.” Dr Kade added, ‘Forgot to mention that/”

Eve patted the little alien on the shoulder, “Alright everyone can just calm down. I came to bring you this, mysurvey.” Krill took it an Eve patted her hand, “hopefully the morning goes better eh.”

She turned and wheeled fro mth room, nearly crashing into the doorframe, hearing a loud sigh from Dr. krill as she went.

Angel and Simon followed her down the hall and into the mess hall.

Maverick was already there his trey piled high with a small mountain of food, but that shouldn’t have been surprising. A mountain of food for a mountain of a man. He was over six feet tall, and had muscles for days. He probably needed like 3000 calories just to fuel all that.

“Slow down, Mav.” Or you might hurt yourself 

Mav turned to look at her, his one blond eyebrow raised, “Look who's talking. I saw you put down two pizzas by yourself just the other day.” 

“Brain food.” She announced walking over to the waffle maker and grittle.

Naozumi was there too this morning, looking like the god of the sun as usual. Everyone said he should have been a model and not an engineer, but he settled for making the gre engineering jumpsuit look like a runway accessory.

“Morning Naozumi.” She said, upturning a bottle of syrup over her pancakes.

“Morning, Admiral.” he said his voice a booming base that echoed around the room 

“How my girl doing this morning.”

“She’s alright, the left compression filter will need to be changed on our next go round, but other than that, she seems happy.”

Eve grinned, “Excellent, just what I like to hear.” 

She turned and took her seat at the table with the marines Angel, Maverick, Jackson soon to be joined by Naozumi and, eventually Kanan came to join them, her highly polished red carapace glowing slightly under the overhead lights.

She turned to look at Eve, “You seen my brother doay.”

Eve shifted in her seat, “Sunny…. No I haven’t Seen him.”

Kanan grunte shrugging her large shoulders, “Guess I’ll find him later.”

“Probably down in his little workshop, did you check there?” 

Kanan shook her head, “No, I didn’t. It isn’t urgent, so it can wait.”

Eve was the first to finish eating, inhaling her pancakes like it was a last email before jumping up and wiping her mouth clean. Gotta run guys. They nodded to let her go and she jogged out the door and down towards engineering nearly slipping down the stairs when one of her wheels caught But she caught herself on the railing and hurried downward.

“In for a surprise this morning.”

She paused and looked up to where Conn was lurking, her tendrils billowing and undulating in the darkness.

“You are freaky, you know that. Like really freaking creepy.”

The starborn smiled, her lips parting to show a spiral of circular teeth, “I know.”

Eve shivered and continued her way downwards hurrying through a maze of small passages before she finally made it into the little room at the very base of the ship. She paused in the doorway watching him as he wrecked shoulders hunched, the blue of his carapace glowing bright in the light above.

She shuffled her feet a bit nervously before knocking quietly on the metal, “Knock knock.”

Sunny turned his bright gold eyes brightening when he saw her, “Eve… I have something for you.”

She brightened up, “Wait, really…. But it isn't like… a holiday or something?”

He stood a good foot taller than her, walking over his hand behind his back golden eyes shining bright, “Does it have to be a holiday for me to make something for you.”

She shifted her feet feeling guilty, “But I didn’t get you anything.”

He huffed, “Eve, I don’t want things, I just…. This is one of the only ways I know how to show you that I care.”

She pause, “I don’t know watching both the star wars trilogy and prequels with me was pretty long-suffering of you.”

He laughed and shook his head before reaching behind his back and pulling out.

A spear.

Her eyes widened a bit, and she took its warm metal in her cold hand. It was beautiful, “you made this.”

“He smiled, just for you…. Because you’re short.”

She rolled her eyes at him stepping bac and spinning it around in one hand before over hand swiping and snapping it back to the right.

“Do you like it.”

She spun it around again and pointed it at his throat, “You, me, dueling circle, after work.”

“It's a date.”

She blushed then stammered then swallowed hard and managed to squeak out, “I… ur, yeah.”

Sunny just did the Drev version of a grin at her.

It was just then that the alarms overhead began going off, red lights that blinked and roared.

“Shit!”

She turned and raced up the steps, Sunny hard on her heels. 

Her implants buzzed, “Admiral, Kree pirates spotted harassing a civilian transport vessel.

She changed her direction and raced towards the docking bay, “Get a darkfire prepared for me, I’m on my way.”

They acknowledged and then dropped off, but by the time she made it, a team was already waiting for her. Heedless of how very public the cargo bay was, she kicked off her shoes and stripped off her dress leaping into the flight suit and puling it on so familiar with the suit it might as well have been a second skin.

From there she ran over to the suit station and was fitted into a space flight suit helmet under her arm as she ran to the ladder leading up to the darkfire cockpit. Sunny stood just below the ladder, “Kick ass out there.” he said.

She grinned at him as she slid into the cockpit pulling on her helmet with a hiss as the canopy lowered over her.

“Prism, play Danger Zone.” She said into her mic, and the AI responded.

She left the music quiet and the line open so she could hear, but the beat of the music road inside her,and her hands clenched tight around the controls as the darkfire rolled into position in the airlock.

“Airlock depressurization in three.” 

She waited, her heart hammering in her chest, feeling the sudden prickling.

She sighed she always had to pee before things like this. Then again, it could have been worse, the last flight she was on, her ovaries had felt like Darth Sidious was using force choke on them. There is nothing worse than flying a fighter jet when your body can’t tell the difference between cramps and needing a toilet.

Sound was sucked from the world as the airlock opened, and she gunned the engine, roaring silently into space and out towards the distressed transport ship.

The kree never saw her coming. 

After all, she was the best pilot in the fleet, and she loved to fly.

None of them ever stood a chance

Dreaming

summary: idol minho, fan reader ??? lots of smiling and overall just soft things...nothings changed, i still suck at summaries 

words: 2.1k

a/n: not my best work and also not edited but i haven't written in so long and i kind of just forced myself to write this,, hopefully someone still enjoys it lol 

you noticed the boy ahead of you panicked as the cashier behind the counter gawked, slightly yelling out a “omg, are you lee minho???!!”

this definitely caught your attention, especially since you were a huge fan of said idol

“uh? what?” he says, as you noticed his fingers fidgeting from behind the counter

“you’re the guy from stray kids!!” she says out loud, her voice beginning to catch the attention of others

you couldn’t really tell if it was him or not as he was wearing a face mask and his bangs mostly covered what was left of him

however you scanned him up and down and noticed the little cat paw airpod case hanging on his belt, hidden behind his large sweatshirt

and so you confirmed that the person standing in front of you was indeed, the one and only, lee minho from stray kids

“n-no th-that’s not me , i-i uh��” he replied frantically, his hands quickly yet unnoticeably playing with the hem of his black sweatshirt

seeming as the boy has entered panic mode, you decided to step in and help him out

linking his hand around yours, you turn to him “babe, what’s taking so long?,” you say, smiling sweetly as your eyes gave him a stern look seeming to say ‘play along’

minho couldn’t explain it

there was just something about you that made him put his trust in you

maybe it was your smile

maybe it was because he recognized your face

or maybe it was just due to the outburst of the situation that he found himself in the middle of

whatever it was, he played along with your little act

“uh….. uhm I forgot your order, what did u want again princess?”

princess ?/!:?;??? holy fuck!?!?!? he catches along quick...u swear u could die right there but instead you playfully slapped his shoulder, “Oh cmon, I've told you like 5 times now,” you say jokingly

facing the cashier, “add a matcha frappuccino with a pump of hazelnut please,” 

“uhm yes ma’am, will that be all?”

“yeah that’s all,” you say as minho fished for his wallet, getting ready to pay

“so you’re really not the guy from stray kids???” the cashier asked again

‘gosh, when will she let that go’ you thought to yourself

“he looks like lee know huh!!!” you say enthusiastically, at this, minho seems to freeze up by your side until you continued with “I tell him that all the time and he never believes me!” you finished with a pout as you and the cashier shared a laugh

minho handed her the total of your drinks as she bid you two a goodbye with “our waiters will bring your drinks out to you once they’re ready”

you made your way over to an empty table, expecting the boy to sit with you yet he had other plans

“what are you doing???” you whispered as he sat at the table across from you

“uhm... sitting?” he replies as it’s the most obvious thing in the world

“ uhh yeah, why are you sitting all the way there??”

“am i not allowed to?”

BITCH OMGJAHDJDHSHS

“hello,, in case you haven’t noticed i’m supposed to be your girlfriend!!” you say as you quietly stomped towards him and took the chair by his side

“look, don’t worry I don't want anything, I'm just trying to get you out of this coffee shop in one piece,” you explain since you start to feel the nervousness oozing off of the boy and that was the last thing you wanted to make him feel  

“why?” he says puzzled as to why you were helping him

“because i’m a fan, and i would like it for my idol to go back home in one piece,”

“y-you know it’s me?”

“y-yeah, you’re gonna need a better disguise if you wanna go out in public and not be recognizable” you reply, giving him a soft smile

at this, his eyes turned into little moons and you realized that he was smiling behind the black face mask sat upon his face

“thank you,” he says sweetly

you stare at him, mirroring his expression when you realized “oh!, i need to pay you back!” you say as you opened your wallet, however right when you were about to grab your money, he stopped you, his hand quickly enveloping yours but leaving as soon as it came

“you don’t have to... think of the coffee as my way of saying thank you,” he says, his voice gentle and soothing

“uh, okay, thank you,” you stutter, the feeling of his hands around yours still hazing your mind, making him laugh

you couldn’t believe it, you were really sitting in front of your idol, and not just any idol,, your BIAS...having a conversation with him, making him laugh

holy fuck you really are “y/n” from all the aus written out there

you stared at him until you realize that you’ve been staring for too long

clearing your throat, you try to open up a conversation

“so what are you doing out here anyways?”

“huh?”

“you just finished a concert, shouldn’t you be at the hotel with the rest of the boys...getting some rest?” you wondered

“oh well uh- i came out to clear my mind”

“ah, okay,” you say, not wanting to ask anymore as you felt like you were crossing territories that you shouldn’t be crossing

a couple of minutes later, your orders were finally brought out to your guys’ table

“Well, i guess this is goodbye,” you say as you guys walked out of the coffee shop together, sadness taking over as you realized that you would have to part ways with him

“Actually, I was gonna ask for one last favor,” he said, breaking you out of your thoughts

“Uh-yeah sure, a-anything,” you reply, trying to hold back the smile that was forming on your lips

“I forgot the way to my hotel,” he says sheepishly, scratching the back of his head

“D-do you want me to walk with you?” you ask, slightly baffled at his confession

“If you don't mind, my hotel is [enter name of hotel in your city] and it's just, I don't know the city that well and what if something like what happened back there happens again...i just wouldn’t know what to do and-” he continued

He said this all in a matter of seconds that it was hard for you to understand so you finally cut off his rambling by stretching your hand out and grabbing his

“ok cmon boyfriend, let’s go get you back to where you belong,” you say dragging him towards the way of the hotel, earning a laugh from him

As you guys walked side by side, you expected him to drop your hand already, however it seemed like he held on to it even tighter

However, you weren’t sure if he did or if it was just a figment of your imagination and so you asked him, “are you okay with me holding your hand?”

With this he smirks at you, “well, you're supposed to be my girlfriend, right?”

You let out a small giggle, “ that was back in the coffee shop, you don’t have to keep holding my-”

“No,” he says abruptly, causing you to to turn and look at him

“I-i like it, it’s nice,” he continues, slightly nodding his head, almost like he was telling himself ‘good job for speaking up’

reader , I honestly have no idea how you're still holding on, I would have fainted already

“Besides with the life I live, it's not everyday I get to hold a pretty girl’s hand... and even have a girlfriend,” he said softly, the vibe in the air slowly changing from a lighthearted one to a more serious one

You, being the cheerful one that you are, decided to break the tension, “what do you mean! You get to hold pretty girls’ hands all the timee!!,” you exclaimed

He looked at you like ‘what the fuck do u mean’

“Stays!” you reply, like it was the most obvious thing in the world

Again he let out another laugh, this one different than before...this one more alive… I guess the mention of his fans just sparks something different in the boy 

“..yeah but that's different,”

“ how is that different? I'm a stay just like them and were holding hands,”

“They're not as pretty as you,” he says smiling, as he took a sip of his drink, acting like those words didn't just come out of his mouth

‘Oh minho, you smooth mother******,’ you thought to yourself, trying to regain your senses

“I like your necklace” you say, changing the topic to ignore the butterflies erupting in your stomach, yet you couldn't hide the smile that was begging to be shown

he doesn't reply and just continues smiling, his hand still in yours, as the two of you continued to walk side by side, the hotel getting nearer with each step you take

After a good 3 minutes of silence, you contemplated what to say until the boy beat you to it, “you look familiar,” he says aloud

“Huh?”

“I feel like ive seen you before,” he said, eyebrows furrowing as he continued to think, which honestly he’s been trying to remember where he’s seen you ever since he first laid eyes on you

You laughed out loud and he looked at you, an eyebrow raised, curious as to why you found his statement so funny

“That's because you have,” you pointed out

‘Huh??? Where ??”

“I was at the hi touch today,” you say, giving him a smile

“oh..Oh, OH!,” he replied, his hands swinging yours in large motions as realization finally kicked in, “you were the one that called me your brightest star!” he chuckled, slightly teasing you

“ohmygod,” you say laughing along with him

your guys’ laugh mixing along together in the night air, creating an almost perfect melody

“yeah that was me,” you say breathlessly after the both of you calmed down

perfect timing as well, as you stopped right in front of the hotel, “well, here you are,” you say with a soft smile

“Thank you for tonight -uh,” he was about to say your name then realized he never even did ask you

“y/n,” you say, finishing it for him

He smiles at you, “thank you for tonight, y/n,” he says softly

“anytime,” you say back, mirroring his tone

“maybe next time i get lost in this city, I’ll have you by my side again to help me find my way,” he continued as he brought his mask down

you were now seeing all of him, and damn, his pictures don't do him any justice 

this man was truly the definition of beauty

you almost forgot that he was holding on to your hand until he brought it up to his lips, giving the back of your hand a soft kiss, breaking you out of your thoughts as you watched him do the small action

the same action that got your heart doing flips all over the place yet you composed yourself

“I hope I helped clear your mind,” you whisper, having a hard time regaining your voice after what the boy did

for the umpteenth time this night, he smiled at you, “get home safely okay,” he says as he turned his back from you and disappeared into the hotel, leaving you breathless and unsure if you were dreaming or not

It wasn't until a tall man in a black shirt came up to you that you finally regained your senses

How long were you standing out there for? You honestly weren't too sure

“Are you y/n?” he asks

“Uhh y-yeah, who’s asking?”

“Thanks for getting minho back safely to us, we've been worried for hours,” he says, as you finally realized that you were talking to their manager

“Oh uhm- it was no problem! I had nothing to do anyways,” you say sheepishly

“Well, he told me to make sure you get home safe so i'm here to be your uber driver,” he replied with a laugh

“Oh no, you don't have to, I know my way around,” you say, not wanting to cause a problem

“Please, it's the least we could do,” his manager retorted

Not having the energy to argue, you nodded and accepted the request

“By the way, he asked me to give this to you,”

and there in your hands, lay the cold, shiny, silver necklace that was around the boys neck, forever reminding you of the carefree night that you two shared

‘I guess it wasn't a dream after all,’ you thought to yourself, your smile as bright as the stars in the sky

Pile Of Cubs

Tony came up to the family floor from the lab a little after noon and had his attention on the tablet in his hand as he stepped off the elevator. Pepper had called and harassed him about his filling email inbox and also to remind him about the meeting he had in a couple of hours that he totally forgot about. Not that he would admit that out loud, but it didn't matter since that was the sole reason Pepper called him. That was why she was his CEO. She said she had tried calling Stephen first, but when he didn't answer, assumed he was dimension hopping and tried her chances at calling Tony directly. Except, Stephen most definitely was not dimension hopping, so that was another reason Tony went back upstairs instead of staying in the lab until the last possible minute.

He needed to make sure everything was okay.

Neither Friday nor Victor alerted him to any problems, so it had the billionaire scratching his head. At least for the first ten seconds after stepping onto their floor.

"Honey? Pepper said she tried to call you. It was just to remind me about a meeting I--"

Tony stops when he enters the living room. All his questions about the sorcerer's whereabouts answered when he looked down on the floor. All of the kids were piled together, and it took a little bit of head tilting to find out that, yes, Stephen was buried under all of them. He was laying on his stomach snoozing away with seven kids laying on top, against, or across him, all sleeping as well with the menu of a movie replaying on the tv. Their three kids, the three Barton kids, and Cassie were all sprawled out, some part of them touching Mama Bear...and even Tibbs was a part of the pile. He likely just saw the cub pile and wanted to join the cuddling and wedged himself into whatever free space he could find.

It happened to be the back of Stephen's neck.

"Fri...tell the Barton's and the dumbass version of me and Stephen where their kids are and to get them at their own risk." Tony mumbles quietly as he exits the living room and walks into the kitchen instead.

FRIDAY responds quietly so not to disturb the living room occupants. "Scott and Quill have been notified. Clint and Laura already know."

"They must have..." Tony looks back up from his tablet and finds the Barton couple sitting at the kitchen table with some lunch. "...raided my fridge. Did you try to get your kids?"

Clint shudders. "I tried to grab Nate and your wife opened his eyes...and they were completely green. So I backed off and he closed his eyes again. Mama Bear kind of scares me."

Laura smiles. "We decided to enjoy the quiet instead."

"Good call. It won't last. You got an extra one of those?" Tony motions toward their sandwiches with his free hand and Laura points behind him to the island behind him.

A large plate stacked full of different types of sandwiches sat on the counter with some plastic wrap draped loosely over it to keep it somewhat fresh. There was plenty to feed Tony, Stephen, six normal appetites, and then his mutant teenager's appetite. It must have been Laura. She was one of the few that knew just how much Peter could eat since she helped make dinner whenever she, Clint, and the kids visited the tower. She knew how to feed the two super soldiers and the resident god as well. She and the rest of the cooking members.

A good thirty minutes passed in quiet as the three finish their lunch and Tony gets through a good chunk of his emails when Nate and Diana were the first to wake and join them. Laura got up and gave them each their preferred sandwich when they climbed onto a chair at the table and they eat sleepily, their lunch slowly giving them needed energy.

"Hey Little Miss." Tony leans over Diana and kisses the top of her head. "Have a nice nap with Mom?"

"Mmhmm..."

"Good. I gotta leave for a meeting soon so can you help keep your brothers out of trouble?"

Diana nods. "Cassie can help right?"

"Sure. She'll keep Underoos on his best behavior."

Clint chuckles. "Whipped."

"That's what I said but he denies it at every turn." Tony says as he turns off his tablet and places it on the counter.

A muffled low baritone voice reaches them in the kitchen and a few moments later, the rest of the kids shuffle in and grab some food, joining Nate and Diana at the table. Tibbs was next to trot in, and much to Tony's amusement, he hopped onto one of the bar stools at the island before hopping onto Tony's shoulders.

"Don't get comfortable furball."

"What are you doing up here? I thought you were down in the lab." Stephen says with a yawn as he steps over to Tony and grabs Tibbs off his shoulders.

"Was just telling the favorite child that I have a meeting soon." Tony says after kissing the sorcerer and handing him a sandwich. Peter and Harley stop midchew and glare up at the engineer who grins back. "How was the cub pile nap?"

"Rejuvenating." Stephen holds his sandwich away from Tibbs' questing paw. "When are you leaving?"

"Thought I might leave now. Give Pepper a heart attack for being early." Stephen snorts in response as Tony walks back to the elevator. "I love you demon children and princess. Be back in a few hours!"

"Rude." Peter and Harley mumble in unison and Diana waves.

"Bye Daddy! Guess what!"

"What?"

"I love you three thousand!"

Tony raises both eyebrows and looks at Stephen with a smirk.

"You hear that tesoro? Three thousand. Wow."

Stephen rolls his eyes. "How ever will I amount to that level?" He asks, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"I think that puts you in the five hundred range--"

"Leave before I throw Tibbs at you." The sorcerer threatens.

Tony smiles and smooches at him with a wink before the elevator doors close and Stephen places Tibbs on the ground. The gray tabby meows at him and he sighs before tearing off a piece of his lunch meat and leaning over to offer it to the feline. Tibbs takes it with a loud purr and Stephen takes the empty seat next to Diana that Tony had occupied earlier.

The 'cub pile' that Tony and the other parents so fondly called it really was rejuvenating to Stephen. Especially magic wise. Having the kids around while he rested always helped lower his stress levels, but the pile? Instant calm. Stress levels lowered and his magic regulated itself...and really...it was the kids. In the past, the kids would have been the last thing to calm Stephen, but now they were a big part of it. All the kids loved him, he wasn't really sure how that happened with the other four kids but it did. Maybe it had to do with how he cared for them when they were sick or whenever Clint or Scott asked him to watch their kids.

To think this all started with Peter.

"...is Dia really the favorite?" Peter asks and Stephen shakes his head.

"He was just being Tony." Laura says for Stephen. "There's no such thing as a favorite child."

"That's not what Dad said." Lila says and Clint points at her.

"I told you that in confidence. Way to throw me under the bus."

Laura scoffs and smacks her husband's hand down, and the archer grins as he assures her and the kids that he was joking. After lunch, the Barton's went back down to their floor, and Cassie elected to stay with Stephen and the other three. Diana wanted to play with her, and FRIDAY said it was best that she stay upstairs anyway. Harley went back to the living room to watch another movie, Cassie and Diana went up to the little girl's room to play, and Peter stayed with Stephen in the kitchen. The teen lays his chin in his hand and pets Tibbs when the feline jumps onto the table, and Stephen cleans up the kitchen. When Peter stayed uncharacteristically quiet though, the sorcerer looked up from the plate he was washing and watches the teen stare out the window.

"Peter...Laura is right you know. There isn't-"

"Yeah. I know." He interrupts.

"Is something wrong?"

"...not really. I just..." Peter trails off and scratches behind Tibbs' ears. "Is it wrong to miss the days when it was just the three of us?"

Stephen dries the plate and puts it away. "No. You were used to being an only child, then suddenly you gained an older brother and then a sister almost at once. Not only that but then the snap happened. Diana was suddenly older in what seemed like ten seconds to us." Stephen joins Peter at the table by sitting in the seat opposite him. "A lot happened in a year for you."

"For all of us really." Peter says and Stephen had to agree.

Peter wasn't the only one who had to adjust. Harley lost and gained family, Dia was born...then the snap happened. Tony lost Stephen and the boys, raised Diana and Cassie by himself and that thought just led to Stephen's heartache. He didn't get to watch Diana grow up. Sure, he had the rest of her life, but he missed all her firsts. He barely had the memory of her first word and she had just started crawling. Now? She was walking, talking, full of sass, and already in kindergarten. At least he wasn't completely alone in the regards of missing out on five years of his child's life. Scott missed out with Cassie too.

Sometimes the few pictures and videos that FRIDAY took weren't enough. Those were the days that Stephen dropped everything to spend the day with his daughter. Things took time to flow after everyone returned. Diana had to adjust to actually having Stephen and the boys in her life.

"We all have bad days Peter. I'm sure Tibbs does too since he was snapped as well."

Peter snorts. "I don't think he really counts. He accepts pretty much anything."

"That's true." Stephen chuckles softly.

He would never mention the reality where Tony had died. How broken their family had been. How lost Stephen had been because Peter lost another parent, because Harley had been closest to Tony, and how Diana had been left with near strangers. The sorcerer tried so hard to keep it together for the kids, but the emotional pain was too much. They clung to Stephen, almost never leaving his side, until finally Steve and the others planned one last time heist. It was then that Stephen truly realized what Tony meant to them...to him.

"Are you sure Dad didn't mean it when he said Dia is the favorite?" Peter asks.

"I'm going to tell you a secret, but you can't tell your father I told you."

"Okay?"

"The whole time heist you heard about? It wouldn't have happened if Tony didn't want you and Harley back."

"And you."

Stephen smiles. "I was just a bonus."

"Please...it's a miracle he survived five years without you." Peter leans back in his seat when Tibbs jumps down into Stephen's lap.

"I believe we have Pepper and Rhodey to thank for that...as well as Cassie."

Peter nods in agreement and Stephen reaches over to run his fingers through the teen's somewhat tamed curls. Of course he knew Tony wanted Stephen back as well, but the boys were definitely what kicked his husband into doing something. He sacrificed himself to give his kids a better world, but they would never know that. Stephen and Scott were the only two who shared that secret. Tony had an idea, but he didn't remember the pain. It was better that way and the two that remembered didn't need to. They had their lives. Their distractions.

Their families. Whole ones.

"Hey Mom! I think I just found porn on tv!" Harley yells from the living room and Stephen instantly scrambles out of his seat, sending Tibbs to the floor. He races into the living room, prepared to snatch the remote to change the channel, but finds an approved movie playing instead. "Ha! I knew that would get your attention. Can we have pizza for dinner tonight?"

Stephen stares at Harley before narrowing his eyes. "Are you kidding me?!"

"I don't joke about pizza."

The sorcerer scoffs and grabs a nearby pillow to smother his oldest child with, only letting up when Harley shoves the pillow away. Stephen grabs the remote in retaliation, changes the channel to one of Diana's cartoons, and then walks away with the remote.

"NO! FRIDAY change it back!" Harley yells.

"Disregard that. Neither you or Victor are to change the channel until I say otherwise." Stephen says and both AI's respond with an affirmative as Peter laughs from the kitchen.

So - thanks to @whatsupwithjinx who was so kind, to transalte my Fanfiction, I am finally able to post it in Englisch. Again a big thank you to you!

"Its too dangerous!" "I already told you, I can handle it!" Nathalie protested. "Your health is not improving, your seizures are getting worse and worse, sometimes you can barely breathe! You literally collapsed earlier today!" Nathalie couldn't deny that. Her seizures had really gotten worse. It always felt terrible, as if her lungs were burning and every breath was made not of air but of ashes. But she didn't want to give up Mayura or helping Gabriel reach his goal. "The Miraculous is repaired, so the side effects should stop soon!" Gabriel sighed once. "It's been 3 weeks..." "It gets better!" "Nathalie... I do realize that you're lying to me, you know..." She lowered her head. "I just want to help you..." "I've told you so many times, you don't need a miraculous or Mayura to help me, when are you going to understand that?" Nathalie would never understand. The results they got so far spoke volumes. He had never been as close to his goals as he had been while she supported him as Mayura. Did he not want to see that? Besides, it was so much fun to be Mayura. She just couldn't give it up. "I've done it before, I just need a-" "I said no!" Gabriel spoke up louder now. "You will not use the Miraculous until you're fully recovered." "But sir, I-" A dark glare forced Nathalie to stop talking, biting back the rest of the sentence. He turned around and was now standing with his back to her. "I will not discuss that any further. If you keep talking, I'll take the miraculous away again." Nathalie repeated these words in her mind. "I'll take the miraculous away again." She was seething with anger. He wasn't that concerned when she used the broken Miraculous before, and now that it was repaired and the consequences were basically non-existent, she was not allowed to do it any more? Of course, Nathalie had acquired a level of professionalism over the years that helped her appear calm without revealing her emotions for long as she wanted."I understand, sir." Having said that, she turned around and left the room. She walked down the hall, gritting her teeth - she had to vent, to let this anger out somehow. "That didn't go as planned..." Duusu, her little Kwami flew to her, having been safely hiding in the background before. "I know." "He's just worried about you!" "I know..." Nathalie sighed. She knew that. But she just felt they would lose the closeness they had built while she was Mayura. And she didn't want that. She wanted to be more than his right hand. She wanted to be close to him. See him stand tall and help him. More than anything else in the world. But she couldn't just disobey his rules. She knew he wouldn't hesitate to take her Miraculous away. And she didn't want to lose Duusu. She had found a friend in the little Kwami. "I'll probably have to accept it." Nathalie added. Duusu smiled. "I'm sure you'll be Mayura again, as soon as your coughing and dizzy spells disappear!" "Thank you, Duusu, but when will that be? The Miraculous has been repaired, why don't the symptoms stop?" Duusu shrugged. "You're probably just weakened by using the broken Miraculous for so long." Nathalie's eyes clouded for a moment, but she quickly collected herself. "I will probably have to wait..." Finishing the conversation with this statement, she went back to work. She did not wait until she felt better. On the contrary. At least Nathalie had something to distract herself with. ________________________________________________________________ It had been a few weeks already and despite the fact that Nathalie had fewer seizures now - at least not while Gabriel could see - Mayura was still banned. And it happened just as she feared - the two of them began to grow apart from each other again.Nathalie had repeatedly tried to talk to Gabriel and convince him that she was healthy enough for Mayura. But he remained resolved. Nothing could change his mind. Once the situation almost got out of hand and he wanted to take Duusu and take the brooch away from her. She had been able to prevent that, yes, but... But she could not just sit around idly. She followed the news on her tablet. Gabriel, or, rather, Hawkmoth had already found a victim and the fight was already in full swing. Nathalie had stayed in the study. He turned down Mayura's help anyway. So why come along? Her eyes darted to the window. No. She just couldn't sit around waiting for Gabriel to change his mind. He'll probably never do it anyway - not like he ever did... She put the tablet on the desk and walked to the window. Duusu followed her, frantic and worried. "What are you doing?" "Something I should have done a while ago! Duusu, spread my feathers!" Nathalie - no, Mayura now - opened the window and stormed out. What a wonderful feeling that was! Such a light feeling, as though she could fly. Grinning, she jumped from roof to roof. Always faster. How much she had missed that. This freedom. She almost forgot the reason why she had transformed in the first place. She wanted to prove to Gabriel that he needed her to reach his destination. And would you look at that, she didn’t even suffer any side effects. Who would have thought? Was the great Gabriel Agreste mistaken? No time to question that. She hid behind a chimney a few roofs away from the fight and watched Hawkmoth’s champion fight. She had never seen this specific man akumatized yet, but he didn’t seem any stronger than the others. How disappointing. Why would Hakwmoth even give weak abilities like that to someone who would obvously have fight two superheroes for their Miraculous? Mayura shook her head. No time for that. She took a feather out of her hand fan and filled it with energy, colouring it blue. "Fly away, my little amok, and help this poor helpless one." The feather flew and hit her victim quite quickly - just as quickly as a black-glowed hand latched on Mayura's arm. "Becoming sloppy, huh, grandma?" Cat Noir, apparently, have noticed her. "Aren’t you a bad kitty..." She tore her hand out of his grasp and attempted to attack, yet the boy was nimble and jumped back a few steps, avoiding it. Mayura stood upright again. "Did you really just leave your partner alone? What happened to teamwork?" Even though she was talking, she was on the move, immediately going for another attack. "What about you then?” Cat Noir countered, dodging again. He was good with close combat. “Where is your husband?" "He is not my husband!" "Paw-lease, like anyone believes that..." Mayura did not react, instead keeping on the attack, so as not to give herself away, even by accident. And while the boy couldn’t dodge every punch, he never backed down. They fought for a bit, until a beeping noize distracted them for a small second. "Looks like you're running out of time, Cat!" "Still got enough to get you, grandma!" Mayura gritted her teeth. Neither of them looked away from each other, so neither of them realized that someone had joined them until Hawkmoth, who had noticed Mayura’s appearance (obviously), grabbed Mayura by the hand, pulling her away from one of the blows. To be fair, though, she could’ve totally dodged it herself... Cat Noir gasped, freezing in place. "Hawkmoth?!" But the man barely paid any attention to him, glaring at Mayura instead. She was so in trouble now, she realized with a frown. That wasn’t the only thing she realized. Only now, when the adrenaline and joy started to wear off, she noticed how strained her body was. And the usual burning in the lungs came back, too...Why? Why?! Wasn’t it fixed? Why couldn’t she use it without suffering the consequences? She barely noticed her surroundings - or the fact that Cat Noir still hadn’t resumed his attacks, or that Hawkmoth let her go, while she struggled to remain standing. Hawkmoth stepped closer. "This isn’t over." Was he talking about the fight or the conversation they were definitely going to have when they returned? She really couldn’t tell, not with the pain searing through her brain. He put his arm around her, carefully lifting her up. Well, apparently she was in too much pain now to keep the façade. He turned to the boy. "I'll take care of you another time!" And with that he took off with the woman in his arms. Sure, Nathalie thought absent-mindedly, there will be another time... They would soon meet again. But Mayura, she thought with unusual bitterness, will probably not be around for that.

Fic: Meet Cute (John Wick x OFC)

Summary: Lilah finally gets to meet the tall, dark and handsome man she had been lowkey crushing on for the last four months when his dog gets loose and comes to play with her. Based on the prompt 58: “You smell like a wet dog”

Author’s notes: 1) Canon divergent AU, because I’m adding a bigger time gap between John finding his car in the beginnings of JW: Chapter 2 and Santino coming around with a marker to give John a chance to go back to retirement and properly grieve over Helen. This piece would be set in that time period. 2) Also I’m a big sucker for soft!John, ok? It’s one of my favorite things. I have this headcanon that he doesn’t really know how to flirt or show someone he’s interested in them. I highkey think Helen might have been the one to make the first move between them. 

Warnings: none, I think. Unless dogs playfully jumping on people freaking you out.

As often as Lilah could, she went to the park on her lunch breaks. It was a bit of a walk from the office at the Psychology department, but it was definitely worth it for the opportunity of not feeling the pressure of hurrying up with her meal to go back to work; to actually feel the sun and breathe air that hadn’t been artificially renewed and carried the faint traces of sanitizer.

There was this old oak she liked to sit beneath. It provided enough shade to avoid overheating and gave her a great view of the rest of the park, allowing her to people-watch and imagine stories for their lives, one of her favorite hobbies.

Lilah took a bite of her tuna sandwich and checked her watch. It was 12:30 already and her favorite subject of observation was apparently late. He was always there on Tuesdays, along with his blueish grey pitbull. He would sit by the fountain and watch the park with an almost wistful look. He kept one hand resting on the dog’s while he ate a sandwich, sneaking a few pieces of meat to his pet,. Once he was done, he would stand up again and leave, always walking past where she was sitting.

She didn’t know what it was about him that caught her eye. It was more than just his handsome features, that she was sure. Maybe it was the fact that when Lilah first noticed him four months ago he had this air of sorrow and grief. But as the weeks passed that seemed to ease some. She even caught him laughing once when the pitbull got a little greedy and stole the last bite of his sandwich while he was distracted.

And at some point along those weeks, he started looking over and giving Lilah a quick nod of greeting as he walked past her. He apparently also noticed that she was a frequent presence in the park. Lilah would reply with a smile and a quick rub on the dog’s head when it started approaching her for curious sniffles. Probably catching the scent of her cat on her clothes.

This had been Lilah’s Tuesday’s ritual for a while, and she was a little disappointed that they weren’t there today. Their presence always helped to brighten up her day and make her forget that her research wasn’t yielding the data she needed or that Lilah’s advisor had asked her to review their paper for the hundredth time just because the woman didn’t like one of the authors Lilah used as reference.

Resigned that she probably weren’t going to see them today, Lilah finished her sandwich and put on her headphones. She still had another ten minutes before she had to go back, and she was adamant on enjoying every second of it.

Lilah laid back on her elbows humming along the music in her ears, once again counting the days until she would finally defend her dissertation and all of this underlying stress and constant worry would finally be over and replaced with stress and constant worry from an actual teaching position.

Lilah was startled back to reality when something grey, furry and very wet collided with her chest. Her squeak of surprise turned into laughter as the familiar pitbull yapped happily, trying to lick her face.

“Hey buddy!” she greeted, scratching it head and neck, noticing a piece of his leash still attached to the collar by the clasp, the tip torn.

“Where did you came from, huh? Where’s your tutor?” Lilah asked managing to sit up as the dog settled heavily on her lap and she couldn’t help but grin.

“Dog, Off!” A gruffy voice called seconds later and the pitbull moved off and laid down next to her.

“I’m so sorry, he knows better than to jump on people,” the man said, narrowing his eyes at the pitbull.

The dog seemed aware that he did something wrong, because he covered its face with its paws. It was the cutest thing in the world.

“It’s fine, really,” she replied, scratching the dog’s head. “He knew I was a friend.”

“He still shouldn’t have,” he said with a sigh, crouching down and examining the torn leash on his hand. “Most people are scared of him.”

And she didn’t know why, but something told her there was some kind of underlying meaning to those words.

“I’m not,” Lilah declared, watching him as she petted the dog.

“I’ve noticed,” he replied, meeting her gaze. He had the most beautiful eyes.

“What’s his name?” Lilah asked, looking back at the dog, a little unnerved by the intensity of those brown eyes.

“Dog,” he informed, looking down and rubbing his nape, seemingly embarrassed and Lilah giggled. “I’m really not good with names.”

“If it works it works,” she assured with a shrug, sneaking a glance at him. He was watching her again.

Lilah was at loss of what to do or say. It was one thing to watch him from afar and wonder about him, who he was, what he did. It was totally different to have him here, this close, watching her back. She decided it might be safer to keep her focus on Dog.

“Hi Dog!” she called.

The pitbull recognized his name and turned his head towards her. He almost looked like he was smiling, and Lilah chuckled. He was wiggling his tail but didn’t move towards her. She realized that despite running off, Dog was very well trained.

“How about you? Do you have a name?” Lilah mustered the courage to ask, looking back at the man.

“John,” he replied looking almost startled that she had asked.  

“But not Doe, right?” Lilah joked.

It was a lame one, but John still chuckled, so she counted as a win.

“No, not Doe,” he answered, eyes darting to somewhere behind Lilah, before he patted his leg once.

Dog got up from where he was lying next to Lilah and moved to his side. John wrapped his fingers around the collar, holding onto it with a firm grip. From what she have seen so far, it didn’t seem like Dog needed to be held down, so she glanced behind herself, noticing a guy glaring at John and the unleashed pitbull. Lilah realized John did it more as a reassurance for other people than actual necessity.

Lilah glared back at the guy watching John and Dog, almost as if to challenge him to say or do something. She knew how to put on a mean scowl if she needed to. She was a Latina woman raised in Hell’s Kitchen after all.

Finally, the guy hurried away and she looked back at the pair in front of her, finding John smiling. It was a small, barely there quirk of lips; almost as if he wasn’t sure how to do it, but it was there. Lilah smiled back and ducked her head a little embarrassed.

That was when she finally noticed the mess of muddy paw prints and grass stains in her clothes and laughed. She had felt her shirt uncomfortable wet as soon as it happened but got distracted by John’s arrival and completely forgot it until now.

Her laughter must have attracted John’s attention to it as well, because he winced as he stood up and offered her a hand to help her up as well. Lilah did a quick double take because, Damn! He was big guy. It wasn’t just height either. He had broad shoulders and chest that filled up his white shirt quite nicely. It was very attractive, and Lilah flushed.

“Please let me take care of dry-cleaning? He ruined your clothes,” John asked, taking a card from his pockets and offering her.

“You don’t have to,” she assured, pushing the card back. “Trust me, making friends with Dog’s probably gonna be the highlight of my day.”

And maybe it was her wishful thinking, but Lilah thought John looked almost disappointed as he pushed the card back into his pocket.

“If you’re sure…” he trailed off and Lilah nodded, gathering the rest of her stuff. It was time to go back to work. “It was nice to meet you, John. You too Dog.”

“I didn’t catch your name,” John asked before she could step away.

“Lilah,” she answered grinning, glad he had asked. “Bye John.”

She petted the pitbull one last time, before she waved at them and started to walk away. Before she stepped on the sidewalk to cross the street, she looked over her shoulder. Her entire life she hated the feeling of being watched and today the feeling of eyes on her was overwhelming.

But it was just John still standing there, holding onto Dog and watching her go. That made her pulse speed up and she smiled. John smiled back and waved.

The stop light opened before she could wave back so she hurried to cross the street with the other pedestrians. When Lilah looked again, John and Dog were gone.

As Lilah made her way back to the lab, she barely noticed or cared that people were giving weird looks and a wide berth. John was still in her head and she knew he would be for the rest of the day.

“You smell like a wet dog,” Was the first thing Sid, Lilah’s friend and fellow PhD candidate, said when she walked back into the office they shared at the Psychology department. “What the hell happened?”

He had finally turned around to look at her, eyes widening in shock at her state. Lilah just laughed, still too giddy to really share what happened. Instead, she dropped her bag at her desk and picked up the backpack she kept under it and headed for the bathroom.

It wasn’t until she finished changing clothes that it hit Lilah: John might had looked disappointed when she refused his card because that might have been his way to try and give her his number, but she completely blew that.

Next Tuesday, as Lilah took her place under the oak to have lunch, Dog appeared by her side tail wiggling, but he remained still, sitting on his hind legs. She noticed the leash still attached to his collar and when she looked up John was also there.

“Hi,” Lilah greeted, breathing and heart speeding up at the sight of him

So, she looked back at Dog offering him a hand for him to sniff. He took it as an invitation and plopped next to her, resting his head in her lap. He looked up with begging eyes, waiting to be petted. Lilah chuckled and scratched behind his ears.

“No wonder he dragged me here,” John commented with that small smile and Lilah noticed he was carrying a brown paper bag with him. Probably his own lunch.

“Wanna join me?” She invited after a second of deliberation. Her heart felt like it was trying to bust out of her chest.

“He didn’t leave me much of a choice,” John replied with a snort, nodding at Dog.

Lilah’s stomach dropped in disappointment as she looked away and pulled her hand away from Dog. Maybe she was wrong last week. Maybe he was just trying to be polite when he offered his card and to pay for her dry-cleaning.

“Sorry,” she mumbled, trying to ignore how Dog kept shoving his head under her hand again with a small whine.

“Shit! That came out wrong,” John sputtered, combing his hair away from his eyes and sigh in frustration. “Sorry. I’m not very good at this.”

“Me either,” Lilah confessed finally relaxing. It was reassuring to see that John seemed as nervous as she was.

For a moment, the two of them just stayed there, watching one another with matching hesitant smiles.

“It’s lunch. I think we can make it work,” she said at last and John’s smile widened.

He sat down, back resting against the oak as well, Dog sandwiched between them.

“Yes. I think we can,” he declared, glancing sideways at her and it almost felt like a promise to Lilah’s ears.

xxx

stray kids reacting to you waking them up by kissing them all over their face

requested by anon

a/n: oh hell very nice

warnings: very soft things ahead read @ ur heart’s own risk

chan

- o heck - o goodness - where even do u start - he’ll prolly be passed the heck out if he even gets the chance to sleep - so like,, u’d often avoid tryna wake him up - esp caus we ALL KNO HE NEEDS IT,,, LIKe,,, - anyway - but he already slept for a good 10 hours and u know he needed to be somewhere so u hopped over to the side of the bed n started showering channie in kisses - just!! some soft n innocent pecks all over his face - his eyes slowly flutter open n he’s kinda confused for 5 secs but when he realizes he’s being,, showered in love n affection… the BIGGEST smile appears on his face - ok u know the face chan makes when he smiles rlly big where his eyes sorta disappear and he giggles a lil bit while smiling - fricfricfricfric abort mission as a chan stan im attacking myself - he’s just grinning like a fool and ur beginning to get flustered so u stop - he takes this opportunity to smooch ur nose - “good morning, sunshine!”

woojin

- i’d like 2 imagine u often fall asleep cuddling woojin bc he’s The Bear of the Century - he’s just… v v v warm and soft - but one time u guys fell asleep on the couch after watching some good ol’ romcoms, buried in each other’s arms - u were very much asleep but the sun kinda hit ur eyes as it seeped through the curtains and u woke up, feeling a little bit of weight on ur waist - u realized woojin was still snuggled into u - ajdlkasjdklajlkdajsl ur heart was melting wow what does it feel like 2 wake up smothered under the snuggles of the love of ur life - u shifted ur postion to plant tiny kisses all over his face bc ksjaldjlaksjldaj kim woooooooojin - like he was already awake bc u shifted in ur position but he decided to pretend he was sleeping so he could receive more kisses - kim woojin is a sly lil’ fricker ʕ •ᴥ• ʔʕ •ᴥ• ʔ - when woojin opened his eyes suddenly and smiled his Woojin SmileTM,, u almost fell out of the couch - “ur awake!!!” u exclaimed, covering ur face - “yes, I am,” he answered, pulling u into a close hug - suddenly ur face was like - 0.5 cm away from his n jkdslkdalsdjklasjdlka - he rested his forehead on urs so he could stare into your eyes,, which he thought were just. ugh. So heckn beautiful - “I didn’t expect to be woken up in such a pleasant way,” he admits, letting his eyes linger on yours.

minho

- ughhh I feel like minho loves this sorta thing - k so like - minho took one glance at his cats and decided that he was jealous of them bc they were sleeping so peacefully - so he decided, ‘yknow,, I’m going to take a good, well-deserved nap.’ - thing is - he forgot u were coming over to hang - when u got to his house, u saw minho just,, paSSED OUT on the couch - lmao me - u were just gonna let him sleep more for a bit caus g00dness knows he is in need of rest - but soonie and doongie started to meow and paw at their empty bowls - smh minho,, feed ur siblings - so u kneel down beside the couch and attempt to wake minho up - but ofC NOT BEFORE PULLING OUT UR PHONE AND SNAPPING PICS OF THIS BAREFACED BEAUTY - usually people look decent sleeping,,, but minho was just,, OUT COLD LMAO - next time minho teased u,,, u had smth u could use against him (◕ ˬ ◕✿) - its not like u took pics bc he looked rlly cute and peaceful,,, like,,, um,,, TOTALLY NOT - anyway,, his cat-siblings were getting kinda hungry so u moved over n started 2 plant smol kisses on his face - he mumbled some incoherent strings of sounds, but ended up fluttering his eyes open - when he realized it was u pressing kisses on his face, he just grinned - “oh?” he teased. “can’t resist me, can you?” - but his confident demeanor couldn’t fool you. you saw his ears turn bright (and I mean BRIGHT) pink - “no, not really. It’s more for you because I know you like it so much.” - “so do it more, why don’t you?”

changbin - CHANGBIN FALLS ASLEEP EVERYWHERE AND ANYWHERE - JUST SAYING - LIKE,, HE’S THE MEMBER MOST OFTEN CAUGHT SLEEPING ON VLOG - so when you find him knocked out cold in the studio, you’re not even surprised - it’s supposed to be lunch break but the others made u go and get changbin, who they thought was still working on music prod - NO! HE’S ASLEEP - u walk towards the sleeping boy and kiss the top of his head!! - ughh he smells good - a natural, fruity scent - wow seo changbin. just marry me - u make ur way from his hair to his forehead, then to the tip of his nose, then his cheeks - u were even considering giving him a short peck on the lips but u were interrupted bc those lips u wanted 2 kiss started to turn upwards into a smile - his eyes were closed but u could tell he was awake n u started 2 kinda get flusterd bc ‘O NO CHANGBIN CAUGHT ME BEING SOFT’ - expecting some kind of witty remark about his handsomeness, you brace yourself… only to find… - changbin looking at u with such a tender gaze - asklajdlksjdklad reader,, - he is so in love with you. - his eyes say it all: the way he stares at you so delicately is proof that he, seo changbin, is deeply, madly in love with you. - “So… are you gonna continue and kiss me on my lips? I mean… it’s too late to stop now.”

hyunjin

- LSJADLSDJLKASJDLKASJDAS HWANG HYUNJIN IS WHIPPED FOR KISSES - like honestly - he loves receiving kisses just as much as he loves giving them - this is actually how he wakes u up quite often—by smothering u in lil’ smooches - HE MAKES SURE HIS LIPS ARE ALWAYS IN PERFECT CONDITION BC HE N E E D S TO BE SURE THAT WHOEVER RECEIVES HIS KISSES LOVE THEM - and o my hell, u rlly do - but one time, you wake up and he’s still asleep, cuddling his pillow - this is when u decide to turn the tables and for the first time… pepper him in kisses - just. all over his face - but wait. U wanted 2 make sure they were The Best,, so u even took an extra step and quietly made ur way to the bathroom to brush ur teeth - THE LEAST U COULD DO WAS KISS HIM SMELLING DECENT, ALRIGHT - anyway, u crawled into bed again and started to smooch him all over his face - u just - admired every single one of his facial features and kissed them - he woke up with a sleepy giggle and before u knew it,, u were the one being smothered in kisses - “I see you’re trying to use my tricks on me. That’s so adorable.” - EVERY TIME I IMAGINE SLEEPY HYUNJIN I KINDA DIE A LITTLE BC SLEEPY!HYUNJIN ON CAMERA’S REALLY REALLY CUTE henlp im soft - bonus: on days hyunjin is especially hard to wake up, you do end up kissing him but he replies with the most obscure things - you: smooches him - him: “please don’t tell me they ran out of chicken”

jisung

- listen - anything u do to jisung makes him weak - he’s just so - HE LOVES!! AFFECTION - he’s constantly asking u if u could meet up - I mean, in regards to ur schedules - bc he rlly enjoys being w u !! - and u love 2 be with him - Saturday nights became hangout night for u two - usually u’d go shopping or take a walk in the part - sometimes even just go on spontaneous trips to far away - but tonight, yall jus wanted to stay in - the weather has been cold lately, so yall opted to jus snuggle and watch Netflix - it was already quite late when ur movie finished and by the time it did, jisung was sleeping on ur shoulder - ‘ah.. he must be tired,’ you thought, examining his face - he looked,,, so tranquil, so calm… - what a rare moment bc we all know he’s rlly l o u d - but ur shoulder was starting to hurt and u wanted to make sure u could sleep comfortably - “jisung,” you whispered, planting a kiss on his forehead. “wake up… the movie’s over and I don’t want to sleep sitting down.” - he stirred a little bit, but his eyes remained closed - “jisuuuuungggg…” you mumbled, “if you don’t wake up, I’m going to kiss you.” - he’d woken up already, but seeing as you made such an offer, he mustered all his strength not to smile and pretended he was asleep - you sighed and smooched his cheeks. “jisuuung, wake up.” - “no,” he said quietly. “if I do, you won’t kiss me.” - gosh darn fellas which kdrama is this - why am I writing such cheesy things,,, I actually apologize - “can we please not sleep sitting down??? My back hurts, okay??” you requested, slapping jisung’s squirrel cheeks playfully. - “okay, but you have to wake me up like that again tomorrow.”

felix

- one word: - disaster - absolute calamity - rule 1: don’t make lee felix’s heart melt or else - but like - u, dear reader, are a rule breaker - anyway - ur neighbors w/ felix so u can easily just barge into his house n wake him up for school - and that’s what’d happen anyway - you guys would wake up, wake each other up, get ready, then head out together - it was just an average morning, and u went over to felix’s house like usual - his mom kindly let u inside and thanked u for always taking time to wake her mess of a son up - “it’s my pleasure,” you answered, heading to his room - sdjaklsdjlaskdjal did I ever mention - felix is THE BIGGEST KID ever - sometimes, it’s hard to spot him on his bed because there are like,,, - A LITERAL MOUNTAIN OF PLUSHIES - and some of them are really big - so u walk over to him and in the whirlpool of stuffed toys, you spot his face - its kinda funny how he’s sprawled out on his bed tho - if u took out the blanket, u’d see his limbs just,, everywhere - so when I say he’s sprawled out, he’s really sprawled out - gosh was this what u were gonna deal with in the married life??? - anyway u went to just smack him in the head w a pillow - like usual - but then for some reason - his face looked extra cute today - maybe it was the plushies - maybe its just because he’s sleeping - you knew rule 1 said: don’t make lee felix’s heart melt or else - but !! the way !! he was !! lying there !! - u could not resist and u kissed every single freckle on his face - “wake up, sleepyhead,” you whispered, running a hand through his hair - when he woke up and realized what was happening - he s c r e a m e d - rip headphone users - yall know how he screamed when changbin kissed him in the survival show, right?? - yeah, THAT, but 10x more wild - he just let out a ghastly scream and fell off the bed,, - wrapped himself in his blanket - “felix!!” you exclaimed, “what’s wrong??” - “STOP!! IT’S TOO EARLY TO BE IN LOVE WITH YOU, [Y/N]!!!!!!”

seungmin

- he’s not the biggest person on skinship - I mean yeah he was cool with it but it wasn’t something he’d search for every second - homeboy’s jus chill - he’s a very diligent boy who believes that rest is v impt so he always makes sure to sleep early so he can wake up early - so usually its him who wakes u up with a gentle pat and a kind “good morning!” - but one time, u find out that he’s out late because minho insists that skz extends practice for a little bit - that little bit turned into a p LONG WHILE - totally not bc they fooled around during practice,,, lmao… what r u talking about - anyway, long story short, seungmin gets home late,, but he doesn’t rlly care bc it’s a weekend after - he finds u already asleep and though he’s disappointed he can’t talk to u now, he settles in to just cuddle u until he falls asleep - when u woke, u were surprised to feel a weight on ur waist - aaaand there it was folks, a seungmin in slumber - aaaaaaahhh u were lowkey shocked bc!!! Seungmin !! was cuddling u!! - rare - u felt very thankful and happy that seungmin had u tight in his arms - for a while, u just laid in bed and thought about how much u loved this boy - soft morning hours = very open - it wasn’t until he shuffled and turned to the other side of the bed when u decided to wake him up so u could have breakfast - u decided to kiss seungmin all over his beautiful face !! - when he woke up, he frowned… - “…ew, [y/n]. you’re so cheesy.” - u scrunched ur nose. “mmm? You don’t like it?” - “no, not really,” he answered, leaning to kiss you on the lips.

jeongin

- ASDFGHJKL OKAY SO LIKE - highschool!au real quick hope u don’t mind - u were dating jeongin for quite some time - and u were v v v v v happy with it !! he treated u very well - whenever u’d go out, he’d always be rlly considerate - lmao the first time u went out,,, he bought a nice jacket that ur friends said u found cute on guys - he TRIED to impress u, and u couldn’t help but laugh bc the tag of the jacket was still on the back, which means he must’ve only bought the jacket in attempts to make u swoon or smth - anyway - u were really in love with his sweet boy - this sweet boy… who u wanted to surprise after his chorale practice - but as the evening crept in closer, u started to worry - where was jeongin?? - he wasn’t in the practice room - u checked everywhere !!! and he wasn’t there!!! - u even shot him a message but he didn’t reply - ur last stop was the library, and lo and behold - homeboy fell asleep on his books - we stan a hardworking student folks - u couldn’t help but giggle - shaking him lightly, u mumbled, “hey jeongin… wake up, it’s late and the library’s about to close.” - all he did was move his head and stir a little bit - his bangs covered his eyes a little, and u decided to brush them off… - … A MISTAKE - suddenly he looked RLLLLLLY MCHECKIN’ CUTE - oh dear oh no - ur cheeks flushed and u didn’t know what to do - asdfghjkl u SORTA RLLY WANTED TO KISS HIM - u don’t know what washed over u, but in a sec, u were peppering kisses on this sleeping boy’s face - his eyes flickered open and as he felt your lips brush against the skin on his face,,, - his cheeks became tinted with strawberry red - his ears??? PINK AS THE DAY - HE COULDN’T EVEN SPEAK PROPERLY - “t-thank you for kissing me!!!!” was all he could say before melting in his seat.

Movie Magic|| Taylor and Remmy

Mirror, mirror, taped to the wall-- who the least human of them all?

CW: mild ablest language mention

The real question of the week was, how did you clean an apartment that felt as if the grime was an inherent part of decor? As if it were just part of the apartment itself. Remmy stood in the middle of the studio, looking from the derelict living room, with only a TV stand and fold up table next to the window, to their bed pushed all the way to the other side of the room next to the closet. They’d asked the front desk to borrow the vacuum and when they were handed a little hand vacuum, had exasperatedly run back up to the apartment and spent the next two hours kneeling on carpet as they vacuumed up as much as they could. It gave up almost ¾ of the way through the job, so Remmy had pushed the mattress over what hadn’t been vacuumed. That still left the fact that Remmy didn’t have a couch. There were two fold up lawn chairs at what was supposed to pass as a dining table, but Remmy didn’t see those as being too comfortable for prolonged movie watching. Frowning, they decided to pile up the pillows and blankets against the wall and push the TV stand down so that it was at the foot of the bed. A good enough solution for now, but perhaps the idea of a couch should be added to their list of things to get. Remmy spent more time over at Blanche’s place than their own most days, but a couch was probably a good idea. But it would have to wait, because there was more cleaning to be done before Taylor got there.

When Remmy was satisfied enough with the cleanliness of the place, they glanced at the clock. Not too long now, but they reeked of the same must the apartment always seemed to have, so it was a quick shower and a quick change of clothes. They were just drying their hair, noticing how long it’d gotten-- perhaps they needed a haircut too, they couldn’t remember the last time they’d gotten one-- when there was a knock at the door. Moose, from his perch on the bed, looked up, and Remmy stumbled out of the bathroom.

Remmy lived completely across town from Taylor, and she was very concerned with being late. She’d done her best to look good for this little movie night of theirs. Remmy was cute, and Taylor would be lying to herself if she claimed she didn’t want to impress them. She vainly knew it wouldn’t take much, if their kiss was anything to go by, but still. She’d opted for a tight black tank top, black jeans, topped off with a flannel for a splash of color. She’d freshly shaved the sides of her head and put on some aftershave on her neck, her version of perfume. All that, blowdrying her hair, doing her makeup, it had taken longer than she anticipated, and she showed up at Gallows End Estates fifteen minutes after they’d agreed on. Hopefully Remmy was okay with fashionably late. She climbed the stairs to their apartment number, not particularly bothered by the less than stellar exterior of the building. With a quick knock, she signaled her arrival and waited patiently, a bit of a knot forming in her stomach suddenly.

“Coming! Sorry!” they said, hurrying over and unlocking the door, throwing it open. A smile seemed to automatically pull itself onto Remmy’s face when they opened the door and Taylor was there. “You made it!” they blurted, then pressed their lips together in a thin line. “I mean-- of course you made! You said you would. It’s not like you wouldn’t. I didn’t think you wouldn’t show up! I don’t think you’re that kind of person! It was just, um--” God, Rem, shut up. Even Moose seemed embarrassed by their rambling already, sighing as he turned his head away to lay back down on the bed. “Sorry. I’ll um--” stepped out of the way and ushered Taylor to come inside. “It’s uh...not much! But it’s home. For now.” A pause. “I hope.”

The moment she laid eyes on Remmy, Taylor smiled to match theirs. “I sure did,” she echoed, her smile spreading even wider as Remmy rambled. They hadn’t changed a bit since that night. It was easy to forget what they were like in person when it was easier to censor words on the internet. Taylor liked it. Listening to their subconcious pouring out felt so unfiltered and raw, something Taylor could appreciate since she used that same technique sometimes to write her music. “I’d never stand you up, you don’t gotta worry about that,” Taylor reassured, walking in as Remmy stepped out of the way. They were right, the apartment really wasn’t much, but they’d tried their best. She could tell they’d cleaned, and just that made Taylor smile. “So what’s on the docket for movies? Got anything picked out?” 

Movies. That’s what Remmy had forgot! Idiot. “Oh, um--” they closed the door behind Taylor and redid the latch before scurrying over to the TV stand and throwing it open. “Let’s see uh...Blanche brought a bunch more over the other day. I know you said you like horror, I think there’s a few horror here….Or i’ve got this weird collection box that’s supposed to be all the hits from the past few years. Um...Date Movie?” Their breath caught immediately after saying the name. “Or uh-- something called Baby Driver? And um-- the newest Alien movie. I watched all the old ones when I was a kid, but I don’t really remember them much. Oh, she also brought me this collection of all five Final Destination movies. So really it’s um--” stopped, realized they’d talked almost without taking a breath or pause for two minutes. “S-sorry...I don’t um...have people over often.” Moose gave a huff, as if to further the point. Remmy looked over at Taylor from their spot crouched in front of the TV stand. “It’s uh...your pick.”

Taylor had forgotten to bring movies as well. She’d meant to, but she was already so late she’d left the stack she’d picked out on her kitchen counter. Luckily Remmy did have a bit of a selection. Nothing really stuck out to her until their final suggestion though. “I love the Final Destination movies! I hope you have snacks though. They weirdly always make me hungry. Marathon?” she suggested, still standing right inside the doorway. She was a bit nervous to approach Moose since last time. “I brought Moose a peace offering,” she said, reaching into her inside jacket pocket and pulling out the locally sourced bone she’d bought for him.

“Oh, um, yeah!” Remmy said, perking up as they pulled out the movie collection. “I’ve got plenty of snacks. Blanche stocked up my fridge last week and I haven’t even made a dent in most of the food yet.” They set the DVD down on the TV and padded over to the little minifridge in the wanna be kitchenette are and popped it open. They’re “pantry” was a metal shelf next to the window. “I’ve got like...chips. Popcorn! It’s microwave popcorn though, there’s no stove here. Um...soup? Some weird cheese crackers. Applesauce? Weird…” They glanced back over at Taylor, noticing her still standing in the doorway. “Oh, you can um-- come sit down or something? He’s fine. He’s just mad about the vacuum,” they said, coming over to her and holding out their hand for the bone. “You can give it to him! I-if you want.”

How much Remmy seemed to mention Blanche both warmed Taylor’s heart and, well, slightly worried her. They were a lot closer than Taylor thought. No wonder Remmy had freaked. But Blanche was taking care of Remmy too it seemed. Lending them movies, stocking their fridge. It was all very cute and domestic. “Can’t have a movie without popcorn, right?” Taylor commented, grinning over at them. They were so accommodating. So cute. Her nervous energy must have been written on her face though. “Are you sure? He didn’t like me much last time.” She tried to take Miles’ advice and not be so tense. Relax and try not to expect the worst. “Help me give it to him?” she suggested, holding the bone out for Remmy so they could both hand it to Moose.

“Oh, yeah!” Remmy said, their face lighting up. “Good idea! Maybe if he sees me helping you, he’ll be less worried.” They took the bone in one hand and motioned for Taylor to follow them over to Moose, who had been watching the whole scene from the bed, his head laying atop his big paws. He lifted his head when they got closer. “C’mere bud,” Remmy said, crouching, “want a treat?” He stayed on the bed for a moment, as if deciding whether or not to trust the new person in his house, before standing, too tempted by the smell of the fresh bone. Though his ears still pressed back, he tentatively took the bone from them, turned, and padded to a corner of the room, laying down to enjoy his new treat. “There! That went much better.”

Taylor smiled proudly as Moose took the bone and padded away. At least he hadn’t growled that time. “Still don’t think he likes me, but we’re getting there,” she said. “Right Moose?” But he was fat too busy picking at his bone to pay attention to her. So Taylor moved to climb on top of the bed, huddling herself in the little seating area made of pillows. “This is nice,” she said softly. Remmy had clearly made an effort, and Taylor appreciated it. “You’re a good host, Rem.” She bit her lip as she watched Remmy in the little kitchenette. “It okay if I call you that?”

“Oh, uh-- thanks! I um...tried. It’s hard to make this place um...look good,” Remmy said as they went back over to the kitchenette to gather snacks. Stuck a bag of popcorn in the microwave and hit cook. “Oh, yeah! That’s-- that’s totally fine! I don’t mind. The guys in bootcamp all called me different things, so really I’m used to being called by whatever. Uh-- I have lemonade, ginger ale, or sweet tea to drink. Or water?” They looked back over at Taylor on the bed and felt that flush of warmth in their cheeks again, hiding it behind the fridge door.

“Sweet tea please,” Taylor requested, catching Remmy’s blush no matter how much they tried to hide it. “If it makes you feel any better my houseboat doesn’t look too hot right now. Gotta replace some floorboards and shit. Flooding left a lot of water damage.” She looked around, realizing that sounded like a backhanded compliment. “I’m serious though, this place looks great. I’m honored by your effort. You really didn’t have to.”

“Oh, no,” Remmy said, reappearing from behind the fridge with two sweet teas and handing one over to Taylor. “I really did. I don’t think-- I don’t think I’ve cleaned since I moved in like two months ago. It needed it. Guess I just needed an excuse to make it look good.” A brief grin, before they cleared their throat and stumbled back to the TV. “So, uh...you really like these movies? I’ve never seen ‘em...what’re they about?” they asked, popping in the first disc and pushing play. Luckily, the TV they’d snagged had come with a built in DVD player. At least there was that.

Taylor graciously took the sweet tea and took a sip, watching Remmy closely. For being such an anxious open book, sometimes they were hard to read. She could feel the nervous energy wafting off of them. Or maybe that was just her own. “Yeah! It’s about someone having a vision of some horrible accident that kills them and a bunch of other people, and then they save some of the people when they freak out about the vision.” She grinned and lifted her finger, wagging it in front of her face. “But you can’t cheat death, and he comes to collect the lives he was robbed of.” She sat back again, patting the space on the bed beside her to urge them to join her. “It might sound like I just spoiled it, but they’ve all got the same formula. It’s the creative and gory kills we’re here for.”

Just be cool, Morgan had said, just be yourself! Remmy nodded, crawling over to the spot next to Taylor, settling next to her. Their face felt warmer again. “Oh that’s-- that’s a crazy concept for a movie! Sounds kinda scary.” They popped open the popcorn bag and held it over to Taylor. “It’s the super buttery kind, hope you like butter,” they chuckled, not noticing quite how hot the bag was. They didn’t really feel much anymore, physically. It left them craving to feel touch, of any kind. “Creative kills,” they said, “never thought I’d hear that as a sentence.” Another toothy grin, crooked on their face.

“It’s okay,” Taylor said, instinctively tucking her arm over Remmy’s shoulders. Not even trying to be smooth or anything. It just felt more comfortable. “I’ll protect you if it gets too scary,” she teased, plunging her hand into the popcorn bag. It was a bit too hot and she winced, but came out with a greasy handful anyway. “Oh I love butter. Best thing about the movies, really.” Taylor mirrored that cute little grin of Remmy’s, having to stop herself from kissing them. It was too much too early. She knew they were nervous, and the last thing she wanted was to make them feel used somehow. “I’ve been obsessed with gory movies ever since I was a kid. Always made me weirdly hungry too,” she admitted, shoveling her handful of popcorn in her mouth. “When I’d get too scared or weirded out by it though, I’d always just think about how the filmmakers pulled it off. Like what sort of effects and shit they had to use. When you imagine someone lying on the floor under a dude wearing a latex torso, pumping fake blood out of a tube, everything gets a lot less scary.”

Remmy felt their chest tighten again as Taylor hooked an arm around their shoulders. They’d craved human touch for so long, and now all they could do was sit stiffly. They remembered how nice it had felt to lay on Morgan’s shoulder, wrapped in her blanket burrito, why did this feel different? They eventually let themself lean into the touch, if only slightly. “I was never too bothered by gore, but I’m a sucker for jump scares. Don’t let me hold the popcorn, it’ll-it’ll go everywhere, probably,” they chuckled. Raised a brow, looking over at Taylor before back to the movie. A bunch of kids were crowding through an airport. “Really? Is that how they do it? I’ve never thought of things like that. Guess that’s why I’m a sucker at watching scary movies and stuff.”

Taylor could feel the stiffness in Remmy, and she rubbed her hand on their arm as she pulled them a bit closer to her. Even with all the anxious energy, they were a calming presence to Taylor. “Jump scares don’t bother me much. I like to be scared. Gives me a logical place to focus my anxiety. Like look, this thing on the screen, I’m supposed to be scared of it. Not of a conversation I had three years ago that suddenly popped into my head, you know?” She shrugged, turning her face slightly to get a better look at them. “Speaking or gore...which one was it?” She asked, looking down at Remmy’s body. She might as well rip the bandaid off. “Which arm?”

“I can get that,” Remmy said, choosing their words a little carefully. The doctor’s had said they would probably experience some form of anxiety once back at home, but they hadn’t told them what it would look or feel like. “I was taught mostly how to um-- focus my mind on small tasks, so that it didn’t start making anxious thoughts. So it’s kinda the same thing? They’d have us do like puzzles and word searches a lot at the halfway house.” Remmy froze when Taylor mentioned their arm. They stayed very still for a moment, before looking down at their hands in their lap. They didn’t wanna talk about it. They knew they probably needed to, but they really didn’t want to. Especially not with someone they might like. Like, like like. Remmy bit their lip. “Um...the-uh-- the right one.”

“That makes sense,” Taylor said. She was completely ignoring the movie now, focusing on Remmy. That was what putting on a cheesy movie was for though, right? So you could just talk over it and still have background noise. “I can see why jump scares would get to you though, with your PTSD.” She wanted to be sensitive about it, but she felt like tiptoeing around the right words would just sound condescending. “The biggest jump scares in these flicks are explosions, but we’ll keep it turned down.” She could feel Remmy stiffen under her grip, and she just gripped them tighter in return, holding them closer to her body. “What happened?” she asked gently. “I’m not gonna judge.”

“With the--” Remmy started, but stopped. All the doctor’s had said they would probably experience stress symptoms for a while after getting back, Remmy just figured that was what happened. And then it would get better. Like all wounds. That’s what Moose was for, right now. To help them heal. “Right. Yeah. It’s not so bad. It um-- should be fine. I think I’m just super gullible, is the main thing.” They somehow found talking about that easier than wrapping their head around telling Taylor about their missing arm. “Uh...we went down to the beach. To uh-- get pictures of the chest. But instead, a bunch of those um-- giant lobster things? Showed up and swarmed the beach and...we ran towards the shelter for safety, but they were getting close so I tried to like...hit one. And it--” they stopped suddenly, shaking their head. “It sounds insane. Even when i say it. Like, it happened to me, I was right there, and other people saw it but-- it’s just insane. Things like that don’t happen.”

Taylor hoped she hadn’t said something wrong, but the moment passed before she had a chance to clarify. Maybe being so blunt hadn’t been the right route to go. She was quiet as she listened to their story, nodding along, her mouth slowly dropping open as they went on. She’d heard of the giant lobster things, but she hadn’t actually seen one yet, surprisingly. “We? Who was you with?” she began, before shaking her head. That really wasn’t the most important question, but now she understood why they’d went back alone. As much as Taylor could chastise them for it, she probably would have done the same thing. “Well, things like that do happen, clearly.” Taylor picked up their right hand and brought the knuckles to her lips, giving them a soft kiss before lowering their hand and holding it in her own. “Like I said, I’ve seen some weird shit…” Her voice faded. Was she really ready to tell someone else?

“Oh, um...Blanche and Cece,” Remmy answered quietly. “Blanche said she was gonna go whether or not I was with her, so I kinda had to let her come...But I told her to stay by the car! And of course she didn’t! Cece was just happening by I guess. But they both jumped down to try and get me away from the lobsters, and we ran, and it--” they paused again, watching, entranced, as Taylor lifted their hand to brush her lips over their knuckles. Their head felt very light, suddenly. “I, um….before you….you should know I…” they looked at their hands interlocked. “I don’t think I’m human.”

She didn’t know who Cece was, but hearing that Blanche was with them at the time, it was all starting to make sense now. It sounded very Blanche to jump into action like that too. Taylor almost chuckled at the thought, but stifled herself. She noticed how Remmy’s voice completely cut off when she touched them, and it made her grin ever so slightly. But what they said next caused Taylor’s face to drop, and the gears in her mind to turn, slow and rusty feeling. “Can I be honest with you, Rem?” she whispered, nudging their chin to look her in the eye. “I don’t think I am either.”

Remmy felt like they were going to vibrate out of their skin with the silence hanging between them. Oh, god, they’d scared Taylor off, hadn’t they? She was going to get and leave and never talk to Remmy again. Because their arm had ripped off and regrown, and because they were too much to handle, and because they probably weren’t human, and-- “Wait,” they looked up when the words registered. I don’t think I am either. “You’re--” they didn’t really know what to say, so they said the first thing that came to mind. “Are you a bear?”

Taylor let out a huff of a laugh, brow furrowed at the question. “A bear? What? No!” Where had they even gotten that from? “This isn’t a joke,” Taylor snapped, but her voice softened just as quick as it had spiked. “Let me show you. Come here,” she said, climbing up out of the bed and tugging Remmy along with her toward the bathroom. Luckily, they had a mirror above the sink. Before Remmy entered, she held them at arms length in the doorway. “Promise you won’t be scared?” she asked, biting her lip. “Only one other person knows about this.”

“Oh, I--” Remmy started, “I wasn’t joking! I’m sorry if you thought-- I saw someone turn into a bear. They’re the only um-- non human I know.” They picked themself up after Taylor, following her towards the dinky little bathroom. Luckily they’d just recently taped a small vanity mirror up to the wall (poorly). “Oh, um, I-I promise. Why would I be scared? I mean-- I won’t be scared. I promise. Cross my heart and hope to die.”

Taylor decided to leave the bear questions for another time, nodding as Remmy promised not to be scared. “Okay...okay…” She took a deep breath. Then again. She could still back out of this if she wanted to. It wasn’t too late. But before she could make that decision, she tugged Remmy into the bathroom, letting them get a full view of her reflection. While a normal looking Taylor stood next to them, in the reflection stood a scary visage. Sharp, pointed teeth, feathered face, fleshy but scaley skin, and large wings folded close to her body where her arms should be. “I’ve seen this in the mirror for as long as I can remember. I don’t know what it means, but it’s not normal.” Her lips were synced perfectly with the feathered reflection. “I used to think she was someone else. Like I was being haunted by a demon. But as time’s went on I...I think that is me.” She looked over to Remmy, nervous to see their reaction.

Remmy stayed still as Taylor gathered herself. Admitting something like this must’ve been hard. Remmy still hadn't 100% accepted that they weren’t human, but that lady Lydia online seemed to think so, and so did Morgan, and even Cece. It wasn’t normal to regrow an arm. Taylor tugged them inside and Remmy’s eyes met the creature in the mirror. Were they seeing that right? Was it a trick of the eye? No...Taylor’s mouth moved in tandem with the bird in the mirror. Someone on the TV was screaming about something, but Remmy just stared for a while. “So you’re a bird?” they finally said, turning to look at the human looking Taylor standing next to them. “That’s cool! I think? Is it cool? Is it weird that I said that? Can you like...turn into that bid? The person I met that was a bear was able to just...turn into it. It was weird and kinda scary but they seemed nice enough. And like, you’re nice and you’re not like..hurting me or anyone! And like, if magic and vampires and bear people exist, why not bird people? So it’s cool. Right?”

Remmy’s reaction hadn’t been at all what Taylor had expected. They were freaking out about regrowing an arm (admittedly weird) but was totally fine with Taylor’s reflection being a fucking bird monster? The logic didn’t add up in Taylor’s head. “Well, I haven’t turned into one yet. Besides, I’m scared of heights, so no flying for me!” She attempted to joke off her nervous energy. “You really think this is cool? This is terrifying, Rem. What am I?” She was trying not to be too dramatic, but she was prone to it by nature. This conversation wasn’t really about her, in the long run. She moved to sit down on the toilet lid, holding her head in her hands, only looking up when Remmy spoke again. “Magic and vampires? You’re joking, right?”

“O-Okay,” Remmy said, scratching the back of their head, suddenly nervous they’d upset Taylor. “M-maybe ‘cool’ isn’t exactly the right word but I’m-- I’m really not good with words. As I’m sure you’ve figured out. I just! I don’t think it’s like-- it’s not bad! I’ve found out a lot of really strange things exist in like the past two weeks and it’s a little exhausting and maybe it’s easier for me to just believe these things at face value? Like I just found out I can see ghosts now, and it’s like-- have I always been able to see them and not known? Or is this a new thing? Is it like...just here? Pretty sure I didn’t see any ghosts in Afghanistan. O-or Pakistan. Or at boot camp. Pretty sure I didn’t eat raw meat before, yet here we are! So, like-- if all that is possible, of course magic is. Plus I literally saw it happen right before my eyes, and yeah, maybe I was a little out of it at the time cause my arm was regrowing right before my eyes, but-- it happened! And I saw it! And, yes! Vampires! I’m being serious! They attacked Blanche! How else do you explain that chest on the beach making people cold without like...giving them hypothermia? I guess maybe it just makes sense to me. A-and maybe I don’t know what you are or what I am, but it’s not-- it’s not a bad thing, I don’t think! It’s confusing, don’t get me wrong, but it’s--” Remmy suddenly stopped. They realized they hadn’t taken a breath in that entire ramble. “S-sorry…” they said quietly, sinking to the floor in the doorway. “I ramble when I’m...nervous...I guess it’s a little more shocking than I thought, you being...your reflection….” they paused again, wordlessly reaching out and grabbing the razorblade sitting on the sink. They held out their hand. “Watch.” was all they said, before running the blade smoothly along their skin, cutting it wide open. But no blood spewed, no wincing, no pain. The skin fell back in place, seamlessly growing itself back together in just a few moments. “So...I’m kinda freak out about me, too.”

For a moment Taylor thought they were legitimately making fun of her. That the arm thing was all fake and she’d fallen for it and maybe they didn’t even see anything in the reflection. Maybe they were playing her for a goddamn fool. But she should have known better. Remmy probably didn’t even know how to intentionally hurt someone’s feelings. She let her face soften as they spoke, trying to take in the rambling they put forth. It was...a hell of a lot of information all at once. She felt her eyes going wide, almost feeling out of breath herself as they just kept going, and going, and going. “It’s okay,” she said softly as they sank to the ground. Before she could say anything else, they were cutting their skin and it...didn’t bleed? “What the fuck…?” she whispered as she watched it heal back up almost instantly. “That’s some Wolverine shit. Fuck.” So they hadn’t been lying about the arm, that was for sure. “Okay, yeah, I believe you that some weird shit is going on in this town. Weird people. And we’re just a couple of freaks.” She lifted her shirt and showed Remmy her belly button. Or lack thereof. Just a realistic looking tattoo. “I never had a belly button. My Dad said it was just a birth defect for whatever but…” she let her shirt drop again. “Goddamn, my head feels like it’s spinning, Rem. Can I have some water?”

“Freaks?” Remmy said, their face contorting. They didn’t like that word. They’d heard it a lot as a kid. Freak, couldn’t look people in the eyes. Freak, counting their steps, starting over if they got out of order. Freak, had to open and close their locker three times before taking anything out. Remmy shook their head vigorously. “We-we’re not freaks. Just different. Just...different.” Remmy’s eyes fell to the emptiness of Taylor’s stomach, save the tattoo. They’d never heard of people being born without belly buttons, but with everything else that they were finding out, it was the least weird. “Water. Right! I can...I can do that!” They scrambled up, feeling suddenly cramped in the small bathroom, that shaky feeling in their hands that they got when they heard a loud noise. Grabbed the water filter jug from the fridge and poured out two glasses, bringing one back to Taylor, staying a little outside the doorway this time, hands clutched around the glass. “So, um....some dude just got his head cut off on the TV. Should I pause it?”

Taylor thought she might have offended Remmy with her words, but she stayed silent. Different. That didn’t sound much better in her mind. But then again, the age old emo kid question, what was normal anyway? Definitely not all this. As Remmy scrambled to get water Taylor stayed put and just tried to gather herself. Process everything she’d just heard and seen into something coherent and digestible. It was a hard ask, for sure. When they returned, Taylor graciously took the glass and chugged it all down, not realizing how thirsty she’d been. She let out a small chuckle at their words and got up, setting her glass on the sink as she approached them, reaching up to brush some hair out of their eyes. “Whatever is up with us, whatever we are, we’re gonna figure it out, okay? Together.” She caressed their cheek as she smiled the smallest of smiles at them, unintentionally ignoring their question.

Remmy stayed still as Taylor stood up, fingers brushing their cheek again, kinda like that first night they’d met. They swallowed, a lump in their throat. “O-oh, you...you don’t have to um, worry about me. I’ll be fine! I’m more interested in um-- helping other people out, you know? Whatever is up with me, I-I’m sure it’ll work itself out,” they said quickly, not quite moving from their spot, but not quite responding to the touch yet. They gripped the water glass tightly, not even noticing the little crack their pressure was putting on the plastic. “Um-- I-I know I gave you a lot of stuff to um, process, so if you wanna like...just sit that’s cool. I’m cool with that. Or we can like, go for a walk. It’s not very um-- scenic around here. But there’s a hiking trail! Or i-if you just wanna go home, th-that’s okay, too! I don’t mind. I’d understand.”

Taylor was such a hypocrite sometimes. The same things that came from Remmy’s mouth she could hear herself saying. ‘Don’t worry about me I’ll be fine’. But hearing Remmy say it, touching their skin, she could practically feel how they thought of themself. It almost hurt. She’d always been able to relate to people in a deeper level than was probably normal, but she’d never felt such strong empathy for someone before. It was almost a little too intense. “Let’s uh, lets go for a walk,” she said, nodding and taking a step past them and out of the cramped bathroom. “I think I need some fresh air.

Had they said something wrong? Remmy watched Taylor step by them, noticing their eyes pool from a cool green to deep brown. That was weird. They were a familiar color, though, distracting Remmy a moment. Something about them felt...sad. “O-Okay…” they said, following after her. “Hold on.” They made their way over to the dresser next to the bed and grabbed Moose’s lead, bending down to put it on him. Their hands were almost shaking and they weren’t sure why. Stood back up, looking over at Taylor. “I….” they weren’t sure what they wanted to say, but they wanted to say something, “Sorry. Today was supposed to be...nice. Not...this…”

Taylor waited as Remmy got Moose ready to go, and once they were she pulled open the door and held it for them and Moose to pass. “It’s fine, Rem,” she said, her voice holding an edge of exasperation, but she quickly stifled it, swallowing it down before she spoke again. “It was nice, in its own weird way.” She watched as Remmy and Moose passed and shut the door behind them, following them outside. She caught up and laced her hand with Remmy’s free one that wasn’t holding Moose’s lead. “Thanks for trusting me.”

“Oh, yeah, of course,” Remmy said, “No problem. I-I mean, why wouldn’t I? You haven’t done anything to make me not trust or believe you.” Maybe that was a naive way of looking at things, but Remmy wasn’t a skeptic. They trusted people at face value, they believed them because, to them, no one had a reason to lie. It had backfired on them quite a few times, but it wasn’t in them to not trust other people because of someone else’s faults. They squeezed Taylor’s hand. Moose was being awful good, not even a growl. “Hey, um-- have your eyes always done that? The uh, color changing thing?”

Taylor just grinned at their response. Of course. God, they were far too kind for their own good. It honestly worried Taylor a bit. One day someone would take advantage of them and their kindness if they weren’t careful. “What?” she asked, brows furrowed. “My eyes changed color?” She dug her phone out of her pocket with her free hand and looked at herself in it. The only way she could see her normal reflection. “What the fuck…?” she breathed. “My eyes are brown now? What the fuck?” She stopped in her tracks, just staring into her own eyes. They still looked like her own, but darker. Heavier. Full of something that didn’t belong to her. She looked over to Remmy. “You think this has something to do with...you know?”

They’d only just made it down the stairs and into the courtyard when Taylor slowed to a stop, pulling out her phone. Okay, so not normal. That was...kinda good to know. Remmy blinked, letting her parse it out herself, biting their bottom lip. “I mean, could be?” they said, “Here, lemme see,” they motioned for Taylor to turn towards them. “Maybe it’s just the lighting out here? O-or inside?” Or magic. Or whatever it was Taylor was. Remmy’s head was beginning to swim a little, too, as if something at the back of their mind was pushing to be free, to be remembered.

“No, they definitely changed color. Maybe they’re brown now because I’m full of shit,” Taylor attempted to joke, but a smile didn’t accompany her laugh, so it just sounded harsh and dry. “This is insane.” She was freaking out more about this than hearing about Remmy’s arm. She was honestly surprised by how calm she’d been about that. What did that say about her? “I think I...need to go home.” She reaches out and put a hand on Remmy’s shoulder. “It’s not you. I love spending time with you. We’ll watch those stupid movies properly someday. I think I’m just too spooked right now. I’m sorry.”

“Oh, yeah, no-- i’ts--” Remmy started, stuttered, stopped. “Yeah, that’s-- I get it.” Of course Taylor wanted to deal with this alone. She didn’t need Remmy sticking their nose in and trying to help. “You, um-- me, too. I mean, spending time with you. I like...doing that. Like that, too.” Their eyes flitted up to Taylor’s, but that palpitation that rumbled in their chest whenever they made eye contact started up and they had to look down. They were so familiar, so warm, so...Moose’s cold nose pressed against their palm. “Right, yeah. Rain check! I’ll take a rain check on the movie night. I-I-I promise I won’t um-- watch them without you. See?” Lifted their hand, fingers crossed. “Promise.” They remembered, now, whose eyes were that color. That soft, creamy chocolate color. “I um-- I hope you-- feel better.” Moose whined.

Taylor could slightly feel Remmy’s sudden distress and she did her best to calm them, leaning forward and giving them a peck on the cheek. “You too, babe. Like I said, we’ll figure this out.” She leaned down to Moose, hesitant around first but trying to stay confident, giving him a quick pat on the head. His ears were back like always, but he didn’t growl. Progress. “Until next time,” she said, before making her way back to her truck. Once she climbed in, she leaned her head on the steering wheel, taking a few steadying breaths before pulling her phone back out again. She had to get a proper picture of this. But when she looked this time, her eyes were green again. “What the fuck….?”

“Until next time,” they repeated. Remmy stayed put for a long time after Taylor walked off. Moose stayed with them, whining quietly, pressing his nose against their hand, but they didn’t feel it anymore. Why had Taylor’s eyes done that? Was it because of Remmy? Or something else? Why had they turned that color? Remmy didn’t want more questions. They already had so much on their mind. But they liked Taylor. Maybe more than they’d even initially thought. Would her eyes always be that color with Remmy? They didn’t wanna be reminded of him every time they looked at her. Of Dario. Remmy blinked, eyes suddenly cloudy. Moose tugged on his lead, pulling them back towards the apartment. They followed, mindlessly. Stepped inside. Someone on the TV got hit by a falling building sign. Remmy slid to the floor and put their head in their hands, unmoving. The credits rolled.

sick day

also available on ao3

post-endgame / sickfic / domestic fluff

featuring worried parents pepperony & big brother peter

word count: 4646

The shrill sound of the bell indicating the end of the last period of the day is definitely the best thing Peter has ever heard. Mrs. Warren starts reminding them about the next week's quiz, but her voice gets muffled by the sound of Peter's classmates packing their bags and dragging their chairs across the floor noisily as they stand up. Peter is able to hear it due to his super hearing, so he messily writes down a reminder on his planner before throwing everything inside his bag and hurrying up to catch up with Ned who is already waiting by the door.

"So, MJ and Betty told me during lunch they want to go grab some pizza tonight, are you in? I think Zach and Tyler are coming too, but I'm not sure," Ned says as they step out of the classroom into the hallway, already packed with students. He pauses for a moment before continuing, "You know, it's enough time for you to… hang out. In Queens. For a while. If you know what I mean. We were planning to meet up at 8."

Peter chuckles, but shakes his head. "I'm gonna spend the weekend at the lakehouse. I'll only have time to pack a bag when I get home, so no hanging out in Queens today, I guess," he explains, tugging the hem of Ned's jacket, silently indicating he needs to stop by his locker.

Ned hums as Peter inputs his passcode on the lock. "I thought you were going to be around again this time. It's been a while since you went there, yeah?"

"Not that long," Peter says, pulling out his Chemistry and Calculus textbooks. His Physics one is already inside his bag, and with three different exams scheduled for the following week, he will have no choice but get some revision done during the weekend. "It's because Pepper went on a business trip, and Tony had to tag along, for some reason. Guess it was pretty important."

Tony mentioned something about going with Pepper to California to deal with some issues of the company - Peter didn't really understand what those entailed, only that the couple would be gone for two weeks. They left Morgan in Mrs. Rhodes' care, who is by all means Morgan's honorary grandmother. She invited Peter over multiple times the past few days to hang out with them, but due to the pile of homework he had to complete, the countless of tests his teachers were scheduling plus patrols, he had no time to barely breathe, let alone visit them. It didn't stop him from feeling bad, though.

Peter doesn't think he has sleep for more than four hours during the past week while trying to balance all aspects of his life, and it's getting to him. Despite the stamina that came with the spider bite, he can still only push himself so far. He feels quite lethargic due to the exhaustion, and just can'twait to fall asleep in his room at the lakehouse tonight.

"Well, we'll miss you, man," Ned says as they start walking towards the exit again.

"I'll come back Sunday afternoon, though," Peter says as they head down the steps. "Maybe there'll be some time to hang out."

"Alright, you let me know," Ned says.

They hurriedly do their handshake when Ned spots his bus parking in front of the school, and Peter watches him run towards it in order to grab a seat, pushing some people by accident in the process. He smiles a bit to himself, but as soon as his friend is out of sight, he can feel the exhaustion creep on him again.

He feels bad for not patrolling after school as usual, but at the same time he knows he wouldn't be able to do much. At best, he would stop some muggings before falling asleep on a random rooftop out of pure fatigue. He doesn't really want to be woken up by a desperate call from Tony asking if he's alright - not again - so Peter decides it's probably for the better.

xx

Happy knocks on their door at 5 p.m. sharp, only a few minutes after Peter is done packing his bag. From his room, he hears May opening the front door and greeting Happy excitingly, as if they hadn't seen each other just yesterday.

Peter cringes to himself. He still refuses to stop and think about that .

He pauses when he hears a third voice in the living room, loud and familiar.

"So, where's the kid? Please don't tell me he forgot we were coming."

At that, Peter stands up right away, heading to his door as May laughs, answering he's just getting ready. He walks through the short hallway and into the living room, pausing as the three adults turn around to face him.

"Tony," he breathes, a big smile on his face as he closes the distance between them. Tony catches him in a warm hug, chuckling against Peter's hair and patting him on the back.

"Missed me much?"

"I didn't know you were coming!" he smiles as he steps back, glancing up at the other man. "Hey, Happy!"

"Hi, kiddo," Happy says. "How have you been?"

"Good, good," Peter says, despite everything.

"You look a bit tired," Mr. Stark points out, not unkindly. "School's been tough?"

"He's been working hard," May answers for him, her tone proud but somewhat concerned at the same time. She pats him on the back softly while looking at Tony. "This weekend will be good to him, so make sure he rests a lot."

"Don't you worry, there will be no studying done under my watch," Tony reassures her, winking at Peter. "So, you ready?"

Peter nods, already turning towards his room. "I'll just get my bag!"

Turns out Tony was already in town to meet with someone and decided to wait for Peter so that they could head to the lakehouse together. However, he also finds out Happy will actually be staying behind with May, which is fine, but also totally weird. After hugging May goodbye, he tries to glare at Happy but only ends up receiving an amused - but also suspiciously nervous - chuckle and a hair ruffle from the man.

Once finally on their way to the lake house, Peter can't help but nod along sleepily as Tony talks away about his time with Pepper in California, sat comfortably on the passenger seat of one of Tony's many fancy cars. They're not even out of town when he finally dozes off, head resting on top of his hoodie crumpled up against the window.

He doesn't know how much time has passed once he wakes up, but they're on the road. The sun is setting on their left, and the sky is all shades of purple and orange. Music is playing softly from the speakers, and Tony glances at him once Peter raises his head.

"Hey, sleeping beauty, thanks for conking out on me," he says.

Peter smiles, stretching his arms in front of him with a groan. "Sorry, it's been a long day."

"I'm just kidding," Tony says, but Peter already knows. "Sleep more if you want. We have around half an hour left before we get there."

Peter nods, raising his hands to rub up and down his arms. Even though the AC is off, he feels colder than usual.

He catches Tony looking at him again through his peripheral vision, and soon he's supplying helpfully, "There's a blanket in the glove department."

"Oh, thanks," Peter says around a yawn.

He opens the glove department and pulls out a carefully folded Paw Patrol blanket, certainly Morgan's. It's thick enough though, so Peter doesn't hesitate before covering his upper body with it, resting his head on the same place as before. He's out again a few minutes later.

xx

The next time he wakes up is by Tony shaking him gently, a hand on his shoulder. Once Peter's eyes flutter open and focus, he realizes they've arrived at the lake house, and night has fallen.

"We're here, bud," Tony announces, opening the door on his side to step out.

Soon enough, the dark landscape is illuminated by the warm light coming from the inside of the house as the front door opens and a tiny figure steps out. Morgan comes running directly towards Peter as he steps out of the car, and despite all the fatigue, he picks her up easily.

"Pete! I've missed you," she says, loosening the grip her short arms have around his neck only to kiss him on the cheek with a loud smack .

He giggles despite himself, twirling them both around. "Me too," he says. "Sorry for not visiting you at Mrs. Rhodes house."

"It's okay," she says.

Peter puts her down and she runs to greet Tony just as Pepper steps out of the house, heading towards the car. Peter meets her halfway in a gentle embrace, sighing softly against her shoulder.

"How have you been, sweetheart?" she asks, pulling Peter back to look at him properly. She brushes a curl away from his forehead, studying his face attentively. "May told me you've been so busy with school."

"Yeah, it's been hard, but I'm almost done with most tests," he shrugs, smiling softly.

He's sure Pepper knows how tired he feels when she says, "After dinner you'll go to bed right away, yeah? We can do whatever you kids want to do tomorrow."

"Yeah," he breathes, smiling gratefully. He turns around to face the car, "I just have to get my-"

"Tony will bring your bag inside for you," Pepper interrupts, raising her voice so that said man can hear. She wraps an arm around Peter's shoulders, leading him to the front door. "Right, honey?"

"Yeah," Tony grunts, and Peter looks behind his shoulder only too see him balancing Peter's bag on his right shoulder and Morgan on the left one.

xx

Peter feels weirdly dizzy when he steps out of his room after showering and changing into some comfy clothes. He suspects it might be because he hasn't eaten in a while, or because he hasn't slept for a long time the previous night despite his nap on their way from the city, but, either way, he feels like crap.

He plops down on the couch next to Morgan, who's attentively watching My Little Pony on Netflix. He can hear Tony and Pepper cooking in the kitchen, and the smell of homemade tomato sauce drifting from there.

Peter closes his eyes, resting the back of his head against the soft cushion of the couch. He hears Morgan giggling at a particular funny line and Pepper complaining about something Tony's done in the kitchen, but soon these sounds become muted and he starts to fall asleep.

He almost dozes off when he startles himself with a violent sneeze.

Morgan jumps from where she's sat next to him, looking at him with wide eyes before saying, "Bless you."

"Thanks, Mo," he says, the sound coming off a bit nasal.

He makes a quick trip to the bathroom to blow his nose, and settles on the same spot next to Morgan when he comes back. This time, he falls asleep without any interruptions.

"Bud, dinner is ready," Tony's voice drags him back to reality. "You're really worn out, hm?"

Peter groans in response, feeling the man's brushing through his hair. A moment passes, then the hand pauses.

"You're a bit warm," Tony observes. His hand travels down to press against Peter's forehead, then his cheek. "How're you feeling?"

After a moment of consideration, Peter opens his eyes tentatively. "Head hurts a bit. I'm feeling kinda weak, too," he admits after a few moments of hesitation, not feeling like hiding it.

"Well, you might be coming down with a fever," Tony sighs, a worried crease between his brows. "Pep, can you get me the thermometer?"

Pepper, who had just entered the room with the plates to set the table, frowns at them. "What happened?"

"Kiddo's a bit warm. He's not feeling very good, either," Tony replies, hand gently landing back on Peter's hair.

"Oh no, sweetheart," she sighs, placing the plates down on the table. "I'll be right back."

Morgan makes her way from the dining table, where she was excitingly waiting for her spaghetti plate, to the armchair near Peter and Tony. She looks down at Peter with a frown, so similar to her dad's - Peter softly smiles up at her, reassuringly.

Pepper comes back only a few moments later with the thermometer. She turns it in and hands it to Peter, who closes his lips around it with a sigh.

"Come help me put the table, baby," she calls Morgan. "Peter's just fine, hm?"

Morgan follows after her mom silently, not before throwing one last fearful glance behind her shoulder.

Once the thermometer beeps, Peter pulls it off and Tony takes it to check the reading.

"105.3," he pronounces. "Well, you do run a little hotter than us, but that's a little bit high for you."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah," Tony sighs, looking down at him empathetically. "I would only really start worrying if it goes above 106, though. I think with some proper food in your system and a long night of sleep you'll be just fine."

"God, I hope so," Peter groans, rubbing his hands across his face. "That would suck."

He hears Tony chuckle, and in the next moment the man is standing up. "C'mon, before Morguna eats all the food."

xx

Peter usually helps to wash the dishes after dinner when he's over at the lake house, but this time Tony brushes him off.

"I can handle a few dishes on my own," he says, patting Peter on the shoulder and turning him towards the staircase. "Go on, I'll check on you after I'm done."

Peter can only nod sleepily in response, slowly starting to climb the steps behind Morgan and Pepper. The little girl is already proclaiming which bedtime story she wants to read this time, and once they reach upstairs she turns around to look up at Peter.

"Do you wanna read, too?" she asks, reaching out to take Peter's hand in her own tiny one.

Peter's heart breaks a little. Throughout dinner, he tried to speak up and join the conversation not to frighten Morgan with his condition, but it wasn't much. Looking down at her, he can easily understand she doesn't want to let him out of her sight just yet.

Pepper puts a hand on top of Morgan's head, gently brushing her hair back while giving Peter a reassuring look. "Peter needs to rest, sweetheart," she then says, looking down at Morgan. "You can play with him tomorrow, alright? Say goodnight."

Morgan pouts, reluctantly letting go of Peter's hand. "Goodnight," she says.

Peter smiles tiredly, reaching out to pat her in the head. He'd usually give her a hug and a kiss, but he doesn't want to risk spreading any germs. "Goodnight, Mo."

After turning around and heading to his room, Peter doesn't even bother to turn on the lights. He makes a beeline for his bed and crashes into it, then tiredly arranges the covers on top of his body.

He wakes up to someone touching his hand. He startles, eyes shooting open, but once his vision focuses he sees Tony sitting on the edge of his bed in the semi-darkness, holding Peter's wrist against his chest. The lights from the hallway are entering his bedroom through the narrow opening of the door, and thanks to that Peter is able to see the watch Tony is slipping on his wrist.

"What…?" he begins, trying to sit down.

"Hey, it's alright," Tony reassures him, easing him back against his pillow with a hand on his shoulder. "Didn't mean to wake you up. This is to track your vitals during the night, okay? FRIDAY will let me know if your temperature rises."

"Oh," Peter replies, bringing his wrist closer to his face to inspect it.

"How do you feel?"

"About the same," Peter replies, eyelids already starting to feel unbearably heavy again.

Tony sighs, tucking the covers up to Peter's chin before standing up. "Even though you have the watch, let me know in case you need anything, yeah?"

Peter hums in response, eyes fluttering close. The last thing he hears is Tony softly wishing him a goodnight and the door behind closed with a muted click after he steps out of the room.

xx

The next time he wakes from sleep, is to quiet voices talking in his room.

Before even opening his eyes, the next thing Peter feels is a pounding headache and how... damp his clothes feel. He whimpers softly at the pain, and suddenly he hears someone shushing him and a hand brushing through his hair.

"Pete, come on, I need to give you some medicine," Tony's voice says. "Can you sit up?"

Peter tries, but there slightest movement he makes with his head makes the headache pound at his skull. "Hurts," he manages to groan softly.

"I know, kiddo," Tony replies. "The medicine will help."

He blinks his eyes open, and he spots Tony sitting on the exact spot to when he was slipping the watch on Peter's wrist. Behind him, Pepper is standing up with her arms crossed over her chest, looking over them with a frown.

"I'll get him another shirt," she says once as Tony helps him up.

Looking down, Peter realizes his shirt is almost soaked in cold sweat.

"Come on, arms up," Tony tells him quietly, minding his headache, tugging at the hem of his shirt.

Peter weakly lifts his arms in front of him, and Tony drags the fabric up his chest, through his head and then through his arms until he's shirtless. He whimpers, feeling colder than ever, but soon enough there's another shirt - completely dry this time, thank God - going over his head.

The movements make Peter feel a bit dizzy, so he closes his eyes as he leans back against the pillows Pepper arranged against the headboard of the bed.

"Don't fall asleep, Pete," Tony urges. When Peter's eyes flutter open, he sees Tony opening a small pill bottle. "Give me your hand."

He drops two pills on the palm of Peter's hand and gives him a glass of water.

"This should work for your metabolism. Superhero Ibuprofen, if you will," he says conversationally as Peter swallows the pills. "Courtesy of Bruce. Your Aunt should have some back in Queens, too."

Peter feels a wave of warmth wash over him. Knowing that there are people thinking ahead for him, taking care of this kind of stuff even though he thought he would never get this sick ever again, makes him feel a little bit better despite the pain.

Peter didn't even noticed Pepper was gone, but suddenly she steps out of the adjoined bathroom of his room with a wet cloth and a hand towel.

"Come here, sweetheart," she guides him forwards gently so that Peter is sitting on the bed but not leaning back against the pillows. She uses the towel to wipe off some of the sweat from his collarbones, neck and his face.

While she does it, Tony hurries to change his pillowcase, so that when Peter's eased back to lay down on his back again, he's not grossly covered in cold sweat anymore. The slightly cold wet cloth is placed against his burning forehead, and as Tony adjusts it against his skin Peter can already feel himself drifting off.

"Th'nks," he manages to murmur before falling asleep.

xx

Peter's temperature doesn't rise again throughout the night, but he doesn't sleep very well. He turns around a lot and the movements only serve to make him even more dizzy. When morning comes, instead of waking up to FRIDAY or Pepper announcing that breakfast is ready as usual, the door opens slowly and Tony steps into the room with a bowl on one of his hands. Peter wasn't deeply asleep to begin with, so his eyes flutter open at the noise.

Peter only blinks up at Tony as he sits down on the edge of the mattress and places the bowl on the nightstand. Through his mostly clogged nose, Peter can smell oatmeal, banana and honey.

"Your temperature dropped," Tony observes, voice almost a whisper. He raises a hand to brush Peter's messy curls away from his forehead, and he notices that the wet cloth placed there during the night is gone. "Feeling any better?"

"Head doesn't hurt anymore," Peter replies. "It feels kinda heavy though. Feeling kinda weak."

"That's because you haven't eaten anything since dinner," Tony observes promptly. "Try eating this and then going back to sleep, alright? You gotta sleep it off, rest as much as you can."

"Kay," Peter agrees, only because he just wants to get over this sickness as soon as possible.

"Good kid," Tony praises. "You should get sick more often. You're never this compliant."

Peter scoffs. "Ha ha," he says, slowly getting up. "You know I-"

He interrupts himself when the door creaks as it's slowly pushed open. Both he and Tony turn around to look, and sure enough Morgan is peeking through the narrow opening, wide eyes fixed on Peter.

"Mo, weren't you eating breakfast?" Tony asks.

"I finished already," she replies, unusually quiet.

Tony sighs fondly, reaching his hand towards her. "C'mere."

Morgan hesitantly steps inside the room as Peter reaches for the oatmeal bowl on his nightstand.

"Your brother's fine," Tony reassures her, pulling her up to sit on his lap once she's close enough. "He's improved a lot already, yeah? It happens. He'll be up soon enough, climbing up walls and giving us all heart attacks."

Peter smiles. "Yeah, don't worry," he agrees, holding back a wince at how hoarse his voice sounds. "We'll get to play before I leave."

"Today?"

"I'm afraid not yet today, baby," Tony answers for him. "Maybe tomorrow. Petey needs to sleep as much as he can to be strong again."

Morgan huffs, but nods. "Okay."

She only stays for a few more minutes, still looking terribly sulky as she goes away to find her mom. Peter sighs after swallowing a spoonful of food, feeling terrible about the whole ordeal. He was supposed to be perfectly fine , playing on the edge of the lake with Morgan during the morning and then coming back inside to revise for his exams during the afternoon, only to spend the evening before and a little bit after dinner with Tony in the garage. He missed them all so much, but now he's making them spend their time looking after his sorry self.

Being sick really fucking sucks.

"Stop sighing, you're depressing me," Tony pipes up a while afterwards, looking up from the phone he pulled out of his pocket. "Don't blame yourself for this, alright? Pep and I were expecting this. She spent a long time away from everything familiar to her, but even now that we're back her routine is still not back to normal. It would be kinda weird if she wasn't acting up a little bit."

Peter thinks a little about it. Before Tony and Pepper had to leave for California, Peter saw them practically every weekend and therefore was able to spend a lot of time with Morgan. She's still probably facing the same separation anxiety as he is, but worse. Not surprising for a five year-old.

"Still sucks," he concludes grumpily. "I hate being sick. I didn't think I would fall sick again after the bite."

"Me neither," Tony sighs. "But it's alright. The good news is that you're improving really quickly, so you should be fine by dinner."

"Yeah," Peter nods, putting the bowl back on the nightstand. He rubs his hands over his face. "Gosh, I feel so tired."

"As expected," Tony sighs, patting his ankle above the covers before standing up. "Go back to sleep. I'll wake you up for lunch."

xx

Peter naps during the day as advised, but again, it's a weird kind of sleep. He can't get comfortable no matter what, and his head starts to hurt again. He dutifully eats the soup Pepper brings him a few hours later, but he's quite dizzy and doesn't even manage to finish it. Tony gives him another dose of medicine and tells him to go back to sleep, looking down at him with a worried frown Peter thought he wouldn't see again this weekend because he's supposed to be feeling better already.

Well, his condition does improve a little bit, but he still feels like utter crap. Tony thought he would be as good as new by dinner, but he doesn't make it to the dining table. They bring him more soup, and afterwards Tony convinces him to take a shower. Peter manages to shower on his own, leaving the door unlocked in case he crashes, but thankfully that doesn't happen while he's under the showerhead. However, it's once he's weakly pulling a pair of clean sweatpants over his boxers that he loses his balance, colliding painfully against the sink before descending to the ground.

"Fuck," he hears Tony say, and in the next second the man is dressing Peter's trembling frame in a shirt and hoodie. Peter didn't even notice he had entered the bathroom. "Are you okay? Did you hit your head?"

Peter shakes his head softly, but his vision suddenly becomes blurry as his eyes well up with tears.

"Kiddo, what's wrong? What hurts?"

"Everything," he whimpers, quite pathetically. But it's true - everything hurts. His head feels heavy and fuzzy, his nose is clogged all the time, he feels like he's fucking freezing , and while he was supposed to rest during the day, his fucked up brain decided to give him disturbing nightmares instead.

He starts crying out of pure exhaustion, mental and physical. This weekend was supposed to help him relax and recharge, but so far it only made him more miserable and turned him into a huge bother to Tony and Pepper.

"Hey, hey, hey," Tony says, sounding quite startled. He wraps a hand around Peter's shoulders, crouching besides him on the bathroom floor. "Don't cry, buddy. It's alright, I'm here. Tell me what's wrong."

"I'm so fucking tired," Peter whines, choking on a sob. "I just wanna rest but I can't."

"Oh, Pete," Tony sighs, pulling into into a warm embrace. Peter rests his cheek on his chest, hiccuping softly as tears run down his cheeks. "It's okay. You're getting better. I know it sucks, but it'll be over soon."

He runs a hand up and down Peter's trembling back, squeezing him against his chest for a moment before pulling back. He wipes Peter's tears away with his thumbs, even if they keep on coming.

"Come on, let's put you in bed," he says, standing up and pulling Peter up with him.

Tony tucks Peter in, but follows suit and lies down next to him on the bed once he's settled and covered in blankets like a human burrito. He wraps his arms around his covered frame, tucking Peter's head under his chin.

"Try to rest now, yeah? I'll be right here with you," he reassures Peter. "If it doesn't work, I'll still be here."

Peter sniffles. "Okay," he whispers back. "'’M sorry."

Tony clicks his tongue, pressing a kiss against the top of his head. "You have nothing to apologize for," he says. "It's not your fault you got sick. It probably had to do with some weak self care skills, but it wasn't your intention. We'll work around that, yeah? Don't you worry."

"Okay," Peter says again, sleepier by the second. "Th'nk you, Tony. Love you," he adds as an afterthought.

He both hears and feels Tony chuckle lightly. "Love you too, kiddo."

(Tsukishima+a Dog fic, ch6 - Dr. Seaweed)

It wasn’t that anything really dramatic happened, or that Tsukishima wanted to lose touch with Igogusa. It just sort of happened.

He’d joined the Self Defense Forces primarily because he didn’t actually have any other aspirations for himself. It wasn’t that there were any special benefits he specifically was going in for- the healthcare provided was the same as anywhere, really, and he didn’t really have any interest in trade school. The interest rates for borrowing money were shit too. But, on-base housing meant he didn’t have to go through the trouble of trying to find a place. It was either that he try to find an apartment while hiding the money from his father, or go homeless while looking for one, so there wasn't any time to think about it.

Igogusa had offered to just let him stay with her until he was able to find someplace, but forcing himself on her when her parents were threatening to cut her off was too much for him to even think about- so he just texted her a quick, ‘sorry :(‘ and flew out of Sado.

There were a few turbulent weeks after that where Igogusa yelled at him for the asshole move of just jumping ship, but after that things mostly seemed to stabilize. He settled at the base in Osaka and she’d gone to university for a degree in biology.

They used to text a lot, and sent each other letters, whenever Tsukishima had enough leftover from paying utilities for his apartment on base. Then, they texted less and less. Igogusa forgot his birthday, and in turn, he’d forgotten to wish her a happy new year; they apologized and continued to text even less.

By the end of two years, Tsukishima and Igogusa had officially drifted too far apart to remember to tell each other when they got a new phone number.

At the time, it’d stung, of course, but that was just life. People drifted, and usually, they drifted away from him. It didn’t really bother Tsukishima at this point. Seeing Igogusa again after all this time, though, was still a shocking and pleasant surprise.

“Your dog is fine- promise,” Igogusa hurriedly said, grinning a little while looking down at Nugget sitting in front of her with a dopey little smile on his canine face, “He’s absolutely adorable!”

“Thank you,” Tsukishima said, to which Nugget croakily barked at the praise and at Igogusa holding out a hand for him to sniff. Apparently not sure whether to ask if she could pet him, she pulled her hand away, rubbing the back of her neck.

Hand lifting to her mouth, Igogusa said, “I just. Wow- it’s been a long time, hasn’t it?”

“About a decade, yeah,” Tsukishima said neutrally, trying to rein Nugget back in from where the pitbull was sniffing around at Igogusa’s red heels. Igogusa winced a little, and alright, that. Might not have been the best choice of words, in hindsight. He caught himself before he could think any meandering thoughts about 2020 and hindsight, mildly horrified by the prospect that he was edging closer and ever closer to making dad jokes. Not that he knew what those were like either, but- “I thought you were still down in Honshu?”

“I haven’t actually been on the mainland in years,” Igogusa said, eyes lighting up. “Though, I did just move in, here…” Adjusting her bag and starting to move without even waiting for Tsukishima to get his rowdy little boy under control, she was already starting to walk and talk. Tsukishima followed after, with Nugget trotting along in front of them with stubbed tail wiggling.

“That’s a coincidence- I just settled down here, too,” Tsukishima said.

“I see! I was wondering where you ended up getting off to,” Igogusa said, single visible eye crinkling at the corner from her smile. “You were still on that base, right?”

“I didn’t actually leave it until a bit ago, either,” Tsukishima said, tactfully deciding not to mention the deployment.

“I figured as much- I don’t think I ever saw you come back to Sado,” Igogusa said before pausing. Tsukishima, who didn’t really know what to say to that, just didn’t. The silence dragged on for a few moments as they, somewhat awkwardly, walked in the vague direction of the university. Shit, Tsukishima still had those papers… In front of them, Nugget paused in his little bouncing jig and looked over his shoulder at his master.

Despite the excitement of seeing her again, there was still something a little distant about the interaction. They were starting to catch up, but it didn’t… rekindle anything. Not really. If anything, they were just falling back into the motions.

Either way, it felt strangely immature to still be calling her by that childhood nickname. Her actual name was Shizue.

“Ah, well,” Shizue quickly said, trying to dispel the vaguely heavy atmosphere with a wave of a perfectly manicured hand, “I guess being on base was at least a bit exciting, right? Lots of things to do, disasters to clean up…”

“A bit, yeah,” Tsukishima nodded, idly wrapping the black fabric of the leash around his palm in another loop. “Not much opportunity to slack off.”

“It’s better to keep yourself busy anyway, I think,” Shizue said laughingly, a comically haunted look crossing her face. “It was the same way back in grad school… all those papers...”

“Yikes,” Tsukishima couldn’t really imagine it- then again, he couldn’t really imagine himself passing any kind of entrance exam in the first place, or being able to wrap his head around whatever went on in a doctoral program. Maybe if he’d actually studied as a teenager instead of just coasting by and getting into fistfights he might have had a chance, but as it stood, it was too late for that.

“It wasn’t too bad, though- most of it was lab work anyway,” Shizue said, eyes gleaming with excitement. “Plus, once I was stationed back out in Sado, there were all sorts of new ones!! I don’t think I’ll ever see a centrifuge that ran that cleanly again…”

“It’s amazing how far technology has come with those,” Tsukishima said as if he knew what Shizue was talking about. He did not, in fact, know what she was talking about. He’d never even heard the word “centrifuge” until this conversation. Shizue paused on the street corner and was looking away, so maybe he’d have time to quickly google that. She looked back and Tsukishima hastily shoved his phone back into his pocket as they crossed the street, quietly apologizing to the younger man he’d accidentally elbowed while doing so.

“Mhm- and it helps, since samples tend to be rather fragile, you know, with the ice baths and boiling baths,” Shizue continued on with a pep in her step. “But once all that DNA gets beaded up, it’s worth it!! Especially since even minute little nucleotide sequence differences can mean totally different structures- it’s the difference between Gracilaria bursa-pastoris and Gracilaria coronopifolia- ah,” Shizue finally paused, glancing at Tsukishima, “sorry- types of red seaweed. If there’s even a little error it could screw the whole thing up, and then examining the underlying mechanism behind the hydrocolloid agar in its cell walls gets tricky because what if the sequence that got destroyed was the one that informed the messenger RNA? It’s all very delicate work...”

“So you ended up doing… genetic sequencing?” Tsukishima was really grasping at straws here. He understood maybe a third of what she was saying- otherwise, she may as well have been speaking an entirely different language. It didn’t help that he’d basically forgotten all of his high school biology class. He might have just used that as a free period that year actually, now that he thought about it. “Genetic sequencing of igogusa, right.”

“Yes!” Shizue clapped her hands, a wide smile on her face, “you do know that igogusa is actually parasitic, right?”

“Oh- not really, no,” Which made Tsukishima want to kick himself for mentally calling her Igogusa, now- had he really been accidentally comparing her to a parasite?

(Had everyone back in their hometown been comparing her to a parasite…? The thought of it, knowing that most of the others in town weren’t nearly as dense as Tsukishima was, made his blood boil. Quietly tightening his grip on Nugget’s leash, he quashed that down.)

“So you have to wonder, why do we keep it around, really?” Shizue continued, wrapped up in her explanations with a passion that Tsukishima had… never really seen from her. Not even when they were kids and talking about leaving the island together. “It’s edible, of course, but no one really wants to eat plain seaweed anymore- we can extract the agar from it for food, but you can also extract it from Gelidium species- and species like Gelidium sesquipedale is clonal, so it’s easier to harvest and isolate,”

“Right,” Tsukishima said passively.

“Well, it turns out that Gracilaria species like igogusa could have antiviral properties against JEV!” Shizue finished triumphantly, turning fully to Tsukishima and walking backward so that she could have room to look him in the eye. “Right now, anyone who doesn’t have the vaccine can be at real risk for developing the symptoms of encephalitis, and there’s no actual medication for it- with this, we may be able to combat the infection, especially if it turns out that it can help with the neuroinflammation. There’s no concrete evidence that the inflammation specifically will be reduced, but…” She smiled, “I have a hunch.”

Weren’t we just talking about seaweed…? Tsukishima mentally pondered as he said, “That sounds- really good. It’s impressive.”

“Isn’t it?” Shizue’s smile widened, and with a small pang, Tsukishima realized that this was maybe the most that he’s ever seen her smile. That was good- it meant that she was much happier where she was now, conducting her experiments and possibly laying the groundwork for some medical breakthrough or another.

Smiling back a bit, Tsukishima nodded. “Yeah.”

A loud bark from Nugget startled them both as he hopped from one front paw to the other, looking impatient. Glancing around, Tsukishima saw the glowing sign that informed him they’d arrived at the university. Shizue looked back at Tsukishima sheepishly, bowing her head. “Ah, sorry- I took you all the way out here when you probably have other plans…!”

Nugget shuffled closer to lean his whole body against Tsukishima’s legs, panting. Tsukishima idly bent down to scratch behind one of Nugget’s ears as he said, “It’s no trouble- I needed to come here anyway.”

“Is that so…?” Shizue tilted her head, “I didn’t know you were a student, Hajime- you might have been in one of my classes!”

“I’m not- I’m actually one of the guards,” Tsukishima said, reaching into his bag to pull out the papers. “I didn’t realize you were going back to school,”

“Oh, no, I’m not a student either,” Shizue smiled, “I’m actually here as a professor with the biology department.”

“Oh.” Tsukishima blinked, caught somewhat off guard. Well, it made sense- it’d been ten years. More than enough time to become an academic doctor. Maybe even a medical doctor on top of that? It seemed that Shizue had some stake in the medical field- he’d have to ask… “Congratulations… Actually,” Wait. What exactly was the name on those seaweed studies?

Glancing at the papers in his hand, He caught ‘Dr. Suzuhara’ scribbled hastily along the top. Granted, Suzuhara wasn’t an uncommon last name- but even so, he felt pretty stupid, not even connecting the dots as Shizue was speaking.

Shizue tilted her head a bit. Tsukishima held the papers out, “Would these be yours, Dr. Suzuhara?”

Shizue looked at the papers blankly for a moment before snapping them up into her own hands with maybe a little too much force, eyes widening. “Oh… oh, goddammit,” Shizue cursed, cheeks flushing red as she shoved some of her hair out of her eyes. “They are, they absolutely are- I am… so sorry, Hajime?” She touched her face, flustered, “I thought I left these in my office-!”

“They were actually in Dr. Inoue’s last lecture hall,” Tsukishima said, mildly amused. Nugget huffed and pressed tighter into Tsukishima.

“Then I probably left them when we were having that welcome party…” Shizue muttered, mostly to herself, and Tsukishima’s eyebrows raised.

“You brought your research notes to a welcome party?” Tsukishima questioned. Now that Shizue mentioned it, there had been at least one or two suspicious brown stains on a few pages that, rather than smelling like chemicals (which would have been expected), smelled more like soy sauce… And wasn’t Doctor Inoue a literature professor in the first place?

“Well-!” Shizue opened her mouth, trying to defend herself, paused to try and find the words, and when she couldn’t, just said, “... Everyone else did it too…”

Shizue’s face was flushing redder by the minute, and Tsukishima decided to cut her at least a little slack. They both were equally terrible with handling embarrassment- that hadn’t seemed to change. “I guess I wouldn’t understand- I’m not the professor here.”

“True…” Shizue said, slowly calming down before lighting up a bit, a serene smile on her face. “But since we both work here... I suppose that means we’ll just be seeing each other more often, right?”

“I guess so, yeah,” Tsukishima said, unable to keep the corner of his mouth from tilting up a bit in a lopsided smile.

Shizue’s smile was infectious as she slipped her phone out of her pocket, typing in her passcode. “Here- add me on Line,” So Tsukishima took his own phone out and they exchanged numbers again for the first time in a little less than ten years. With that done, before Shizue could open her mouth, Nugget whined even louder and flopped over onto his side, resting his chin on the pavement.

“Ah,” Tsukishima said, getting a glimpse of the time, “Nugget’s tired,”

“Pfft-!” Shizue bit her lip, raising a fist hand to her mouth to politely cough into it.

Tsukishima squinted a bit, “I really don’t understand why that’s so funny to people. It’s just his name. I didn’t choose it...”

“I know, I know,” Shizue said, raising her hands placatingly. “It’s just a name I didn’t expect any dog of yours to have, I guess? If you’d have named a dog, I mean.”

“What do you think I would have named him?” Tsukishima asked, somewhat incredulous.

“Honestly?” Shizue said, tilting her head to the side in thought, “You can’t name for beans, so you’d probably have just named him ‘Dog’.”

“I-” Tsukishima paused, trying to think of another, less direct name. His eyebrows furrowed. “Shut up.”

Shizue laughed lightly at that, dimples showing in her smile. “You’re the same old Hajime as ever, I see…” She looked down at Nugget, “In any case- I’ll leave you two alone tonight, then. But don’t think you’ll be getting off the hook that easily!” She suddenly pointed at Tsukishima himself, poking him in the chest lightly with a single finger as she stepped closer. “I was just talking about myself today- next time, I want to hear what you’ve been up to.”

“I already said, didn’t I?” Tsukishima said, fiddling with the leash in one hand.

“Not really, no- I want to hear you really talk about your life over the past few years,” Shizue said, taking a step back and smoothing out her skirt. “So look forward to that, alright?”

“I’m already bursting with excitement,” Tsukishima said flatly.

“I know you are,” Shizue said, finally turning. “Good night, Hajime,”

Tsukishima watched her go a few steps, a little surprised. For a moment there, he thought that she would have hugged him… “... Good night.”

For a few seconds, he watched her retreating back entering into one of the campus buildings. For a moment, Tsukishima imagined gently setting Nugget’s leash down and giving chase, just to wrap his arms around her and say, “You know, I really did miss you.”

But, Tsukishima didn’t do that. Instead, he gently tugged on Nugget’s leash.

Nugget whined because he was grumpy and a little sleepy, but eventually rolled up to his paws and stretched out, getting ready for the walk. As Tsukishima started back the way he came, trying to avoid the glaring sun that was piercing into his vision now that he was walking towards it, he found himself wondering if he had ever actually done… anything.

Speaking to Shizue and seeing her find her passion, find something to contribute to and devote herself to wholesale only made him realize that he still didn’t have anything like that himself. There wasn’t anything, in particular, Tsukishima wanted to do, even though his discharge meant he had nothing but time.

Even thinking about hobbies, he was drawing a blank. He read, mostly, or sometimes watched television, or cooked- but it wasn’t as if he was devoted to anything. He didn’t want to really do anything with it… Which, thinking back on the last ten years, has always been the way things were. All Tsukishima had aspired to was to merely exist- have enough food and shelter to not end up on the streets, or worse. Back in Sado…

As it stood, Tsukishima’s life had exactly zero impact. He’d been a pretty bad kid and raised hell as a teenager, but never enough to actively traumatize or ruin anyone’s life. He’d become a soldier and tried to pull himself onto the straight and narrow, mostly providing disaster relief through the JSDF, but it wasn’t as if he excelled at it or anything. Any other recruit could so exactly what Tsukishima had done.

The only impact he had right now was on his therapist, giving him a client so that a more emotionally fucked up patient didn’t have to cross their threshold just yet. Even that could have been accomplished by any kind of anonymous person.

In every respect, Tsukishima was perfectly average. There wasn’t anything of substance to him, and he had no skills that could be especially praiseworthy. He wasn’t even motivated enough to finish high school properly.

Still. That was going to be a pretty boring thing to tell Shizue. Glancing down at Nugget, he let out a breath, running a hand down his face. “... Maybe I should take up Russian or something. What do you think?”

Nugget, being a dog and therefore not at all understanding Tsukishima’s internal monologue nor the ordeal of existence, had no objections. So, Russian it was.