#I doodled this SUPER quickly in the one hour I had before work yesterday | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

juhakx · 3 years

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Sketchbooks and Soccer Players- Kim Sunwoo

Genre: Fluff with mild cursing, Soccerplayer!Sunwoo / Artist!Y/N (gender neutral), Slight couple Moonbae because why not

Word Count: 2263

REQUESTED

"Y/N!" You hear someone shout, causing you to jump up slightly and release the pencil that was in your hand. "I've been calling your name for like five minutes! You know I can't go inside the art room without Mrs. Park's permission."

"Sorry, Kev, I guess I got too wrapped up in my piece," You chuckle, quickly closing your sketchbook and packing up your things so he wouldn't have to wait on you any longer. Tossing your bag over your shoulder, you jog up to Kevin and greet him.

"How was your day?" You ask, taking out the lollipop you had stored in your pocket and unwrapping it before placing it in your mouth.

"Raspberry this time?" He asks. "Also, today was okay before I shouted at my best friend so we could go home, but they ignored me and proceeded to doodle in their notebook. Let me just tell you, it made me feel like I was as worthless as the p in raspberry. What were you drawing that had you so engrossed, anyway?"

Kevin pushed the school doors, and you made your way to his car as you recounted how much of a luxury it was that your best friend was also your neighbor.

"You know, just someone," You mumble, putting on your seatbelt.

"Someone? You don't normally draw people. Is your obsession with Lee Dongwook getting so extreme that you started drawing him?" Kevin giggles, thinking back to your avid Viki sessions of watching Goblin and Tale of the Nine-Tailed together.

"No, I'm not that weird," You laugh, lightly shoving him to the side.

"So, who is it?"

Your mind drifts back to yesterday, the day of the encounter. Sceneries: Forests, mountains, valleys. That was more of your expertise when it came to art, however, nothing was as scenic as the boy you met yesterday.

Kim Sunwoo. Everyone knew him. Everyone wanted to date or be him, there was no in-between. You didn't think much about the kid before because your paths never clashed, not until yesterday.

"Woah, I'm so sorry!" He said, his chest heaving from running from the direction of the soccer field.

"Oh, you're fine!" You replied, picking up your sketchbook that fell out of your hands. You were just about to enter the art room, the safe haven where you would draw until Kevin was done with choir practice.

"Y/N, right?" Sunwoo asked. You couldn't help but remember the shocked look on your face when he knew who you were.

"Yeah, Y/N," You replied.

"Y/N," He had repeated, this time with a small smile on his face. It was the most beautiful way you had ever heard your name said, to a point where you swore you heard it echoing in your head right now.

"Y/N."

“Y/N, we're here you weirdo, snap out of it," Kevin shrieked, smacking your arm to get you out of your daze.

"Oh shit," You mumbled, realizing that you were no longer in the school parking lot and instead at your house.

"You zoned out for like ten minutes after I asked you who you were drawing. Is everything okay? Are the paint fumes getting to your head?" He mocked.

"No, just thinking. Anyway, you were right earlier. I wanted to try drawing people, so I was like go big or go home and started sketching Dongwook's face today," You reason. No one needed to know that the only thing running through your head was Kim Sunwoo on repeat, even when you saw him passing by the art room once again.

And that's how the next week passed. You continued your sketch of Sunwoo, trying your best to remember exactly what his face looked like up close. However, he continued to pass by the art room every day, just close enough for you to recognize the familiar tan skin and soccer uniform. Though you never made eye contact with him, you knew when he passed by, your eyes catching the movement across the room every time.

"Aish," You groaned out, erasing his eyes for what felt like the fifteenth time that afternoon.

"Everything alright in there?" You heard a familiar voice say, causing you to look up from the drawing. Upon seeing his face, you immediately close your sketchbook.

"Sunwoo!" You exclaim, half in fear and half in genuine excitement.

"The one and only," He laughs. "I heard you from outside, are you okay?"

There was worry in Sunwoo's voice, causing your heart to clench. "Yeah, I just suck at drawing," You chuckle.

"Oh, I doubt that. You're always in here, so there must be some artistic bone in your body," He reassures you.

You sit there in silence for a moment before Sunwoo's eyes widen, and he begins to shake his head from side to side. "Not that- not that I've been watching you or anything, I just like to pass by the art room now cause I always see you in here. Wait, that sounds weird. I don't just come to see you, but you're just always working really hard, and it's really admirable to see you and you look really nice when you draw. Not that you don't look nice any other time! But also the only time I've ever really seen you is in the art room, so I guess I really don't know what you look like any other time. Not that I wouldn't be opposed to it! I just-" Sunwoo heaves, letting out a heavy sigh before standing there with his head in his hands.

"Sunwoo, calm down!" You giggle. "I mean, I noticed that you were passing by too, and I glance every time whether you notice it or not. The soccer uniform really suits you," You compliment. You could feel your heart beating out of your chest, his sudden outburst making you want to laugh and cry at the same time.

"Oh, this?" He says, looking down at his jersey. "This is nothing, I would much rather be good at art than soccer."

"You? You're not just good at soccer, you're freaking great. I mean, you've been on varsity since freshman year," You exasperate. A small smile breaks out on Sunwoo's face once he hears a small fact of his life slip from your mouth.

"Oh shit, speaking of soccer," Sunwoo mumbles, glancing at the clock that was inside the art teacher's room. "I gotta go. I forgot that break was only five minutes. It was really fun talking to you Y/N. Good luck with your drawing!"

Before you could even say goodbye back, he ran back to the direction he came from.

"Was that Kim Sunwoo?" Kevin says, appearing in front of the doorway from out of nowhere.

"Don't ask," You breathe out, still breathless from the interaction you just had. "Did choir practice end early today?"

"Yeah, you know Jacob Bae?"

"Brown hair, super cute, part of the basketball team?" You ask, wondering if he was talking about the same guy that was in your calculus class. As you await his answer, you pack up your supplies for the day, leaving the portrait of Sunwoo incomplete for yet another day.

"Super cute? That man is like jacked. I fell in love with him as soon as he walked into the room. Anyways, apparently, the choir teacher has been trying to recruit him for like two years, and he finally came by to audition. Mr. Lee kicked us out right away and told us we were done for the day.”

"Oh my god, I hope he joins! Maybe you could finally get a boyfriend," You tease, making your way towards Kevin's car.

"Yeah, well, you aren't much better, sketching Dongwook’s face for the past two weeks."

"Right, Dongwook," You mutter.

It was truly ironic that the amount of time Kevin thought you were thinking about the famous Korean actor, Lee Dongwook, was actually devoted to Sunwoo. Even after talking to him daily when he passed by the art room, you were still just as enamored by him.

"Long time no see," Sunwoo smiles, swinging his body across the doorframe.

"You're right," You look up to see the familiar face that you had quickly grown to love. "It's been a very long 24 hours."

“And how is my favorite artist doing?” Sunwoo asks, making his way over to you. You admire the soccer player, slight sweat beading against his forehead, and his face flushed from the heat outside.

“You know, you’re not supposed to be in here without Mrs. Park’s permission,” You say, knowing that if the teacher found him in here, he would get in trouble. You wait for a witty response back, but you soon find Sunwoo squinting past your shoulder and looking at something.

"I- Is that me?" Sunwoo whispers.

Your head whips back to the sketchbook that you had forgotten to close, Sunwoo’s half-colored face on display for him to see. You shoot up from your chair, hoping that you could somehow fix this, but as you stand up, Sunwoo takes a seat next to the drawing, moving the sketchbook closer so he could examine it.

"I mean," You strain, wanting to burst into tears right then and there. You were finally getting to know Sunwoo and becoming friends with him, and now he was going to think you were a creep, an absolute loser. "I mean yes, but it's not done yet. I still have to color like half your face. Don't be weirded out, please. I don't really draw people, but when I saw you, I thought I just had to. I'm sorry if you think it's weird, I'll scrap it. I promise," You ramble.

You glance at Sunwoo from the corner of your eye, but he continues to look at the sketch you made of him. You couldn't tell how he felt from his reaction, the only expression he was making was a look of ponderance.

"I- You know what," You begin to say, getting up from your seat and reaching for the sketchbook. You pull at the perforation of the page, beginning to tear it out. "I'll actually just get rid of it. It's weird, and I'm really sorry-"

Sunwoo grabs your hand before you can tear it off completely, an exclamation leaving his mouth. "No!"

"What?" You whisper underneath your breath.

"I love it. You're really talented Y/N," He looks up at you from underneath his eyelashes. A soft smile played on his lips.

"But, isn't it weird?" You ask, confusion laced in your words.

"I mean, I passed by the art room every day for three weeks just so I could look at you for a little bit. Every time I passed by, I debated with myself on whether or not I should ask you out. If anyone's the weird one, it's me," He confesses.

The room is silent for a few more seconds, your brain whirring at what felt like a million miles per hour.

“I didn’t think anyone saw me like this,” Sunwoo says, a soft smile on his face as he traces his drawn eyes with his fingers.

“What do you mean?” You whisper. “Everyone sees you like that.”

“Not like,” Sunwoo breaths out, his eyes glimmering with something you couldn’t quite place. “Not like this.”

“Do you think, I don’t know, maybe you’d wanna see me outside of this place? Cause I really fucking like you, and I hope you do too considering you drew me like I hung the stars in the sky,” Sunwoo says, turning to face you.

You break out into a wide smile, relief flushing through you.

“Silly, you couldn’t have hung the stars in the sky,” You sigh, reaching down and brushing the hair that was covering his eyes out of the way. “They’re all in your eyes.”

Sunwoo lets out a breathy laugh at the cheesy line before closing the sketchbook and placing it underneath his arm. No matter how hard he denied it though, a light blush littered his cheeks.

“C’mon, we’re skipping soccer practice,” Sunwoo holds onto your hand and drags you out of the room while you struggle to get your backpack and throw it over your shoulder in time.

“Sunwoo!” You laugh, trailing behind him as he pulled you all the way outside of the school and to your first unofficial, official date.

The local art museum.

“What the fuck?” Kevin mutters, finding an empty art room with colored pencils scattered where you would usually sit.

“Maybe they were drawing so hard that they turned into the colored pencils,” Jacob says, peeking into the room.

“They probably went out with Sunwoo, I had a feeling something was up with them anyway. They tried to convince me they were drawing Dongwook from Goblin, but I don’t think they know that I look at their sketchbook when they get snacks at their house,” Kevin shrugs.

“Dongwook? What an attractive man,” Jacob mumbles, staring into space.

“But not as hot as me, right?” Kevin jokes, turning back around to leave. He was excited to introduce you to Jacob, but it seems like there was something else on fate’s agenda.

“Oh, never. Actually, since Y/N is busy with their lover, want to go to this coffee place I really like? It’s on me,” Jacob says, throwing a wink in Kevin's direction.

“What? No, I couldn’t do that,” Kevin refuses, a blush overtaking his face.

“Nonsense, it’s a date,” Jacob affirms, dragging Kevin out of the very doors Sunwoo pulled Y/N earlier.

a/n i had too much fun with this... and can u tell i love lee dongwook, because i do.

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junietc · 4 years

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ink flows well when drawing flowers (adriennette)

adriennette x flower shop and tattoo artist au

pairing: adrien x marinette

word count: 4489

warning: none, just an immense load of fluff

summary: marinette often finds herself spending time at a certain blonde boy’s flower shop

a/n: it felt only fitting that i made marinette the tattoo artist since she was super into drawing and adrien is just adorable as fuck as flower shop owner. also, happy five year anniversary miraculous! thought i would celebrate with this fluffy one-shot

feel free to leave some requests and hope you enjoy ~

~~~~~~~~

Dupois road was known for its multitude of shops and variety of small cafes that adorned the streets; but what it wasn’t known for was its little flower shop that stood at the end of the road. It was small and not all that well known, but those who went there always left a good review and frequently returned as regular customers.

Though Marinette Dupain Cheng was not one of those customers, she did find herself drawn to the quaint little shop and quite fond of its owner, Adrien Agreste.

No matter the day, she always seemed to find time to stop by the small shop. The large windows allowed for a bountiful stream of light to illuminate the store and the sun seemed to only rival the warmth of the smile that Adrien would give her as she walked in.

“Back again already?” Adrien’s voice was obviously teasing but inviting, nonetheless.

“It’s my lunch break and I’d much rather spend it here than stuck third wheeling Alya and Nino.” She took her usual seat across from him near the end of the counter. “Besides, it’s not as if I’m harassing your customers. If I vividly recall, plenty of your costumers find me absolutely charming.”

Marinette smiled goofily in attempt to poke fun at the blonde. It had been merely a week ago that a customer had walked in when Adrien was feeling slightly agitated and reacted more abrasively than usual. So, Marinette tried to assuage the situation by being her cheerful self and was thereafter deemed “absolutely charming”.

Marinette giggled, taking out her sketchbook as Adrien rolled his eyes at the girl before joining her, resting his elbows on the counter-top. “Remind me why you keep coming in here?”

“I’m offended, Sunshine, I always thought you enjoyed my company.” The two shared a laugh before she went back to her doodling and responded properly. “I suppose flowers are a common request, so practice is always helpful.”

Marinette worked at the tattoo parlor just a couple stores down from the flower shop and was one of their most popular artists. Though she herself wasn’t adorned in tattoos like some of her coworkers were, she did have a couple scattered across her body. There was one of a ladybug on the inside of her ankle done by her best friend Alya and another of a cluster of macrons on the side of her rib-cage in honor of her parents’ bakery opening up its second store in London. There were various other little ones that she might’ve given herself with a stick and poke on late nights where there was nothing else to do, though those held less of a significance.

Moving away from the counter and into the back-storage, Adrien’s voice rang with a question. “Well then, what flower do you need for today’s practice?”

Marinette thought for a moment, eyes trailing around the shop, looking at the various arrays of plants that adorned the walls and clusters of flowers placed in vases. The store smelt fresh and the floral perfumes eased her nose after being cooped up in a room with somebody for at least an hour. “You choose for me this time,” she finally responded, eager to see what he would pick out for her.

“Are you sure?” she heard him ask. She hummed a yes in response and flipped to a new page in her drawing book. “Alright, then. A white gardenia for you, Ms. Marinette.” He walked back in holding a white flower in his hand. “White gardenias symbolize purity and trust and are given to convey the message that the recipient of these flowers is lovely.”

“Is this your way of telling me that you find me lovely, Agreste?”

“Quite the flirt, aren’t you?” he rolled his eyes as she smirked taking the flower from his hand and examining it. It was a beautiful flower and Marinette was delighted to understand what it had meant. This was something that she looked forward to every time she entered the shop. Learning what each flower meant was a joy because it meant that she could give her friends and family flowers not only for the beauty of them, but with a secret message.

Placing the flower down in front of her, she sketched out the basic shape of the flower in pencil, later adding the petals and smaller details. Once she felt confident enough in her design, she changed to her pen and drew a replica. Adrien watched her draw, fascinated by her precision and focus. His eyes were glued to her paper and were only interrupted by the sudden ringing of the chimes above the entrance door.

The sound alerted Adrien as he stepped away from Marinette and smiled at the customer. “Welcome! Can I help you with a flower arrangement or are you just browsing?” It was his usual greeting that Marinette had grown accustomed to hearing after popping into the store every so often. The lady that had walked in smiled at him before speaking.

“Hi! I’m looking to buy some flowers for my girlfriend. She’s coming home after being gone for a year working abroad so I’m picking her up from the airport.” She looked excited; her eyes filled with a sense of joy that caused Adrien to smile.

He nodded and thought for a moment before quickly dashing to the storage room once again. He came out with a pair of flowers: a pink lily and a white orchid. “Here, star gazer lilies and white orchards are both ways of conveying ‘I miss you’ but I think that considering she is your girlfriend, the lilies would be better suited. They symbolize admiration and missing another, so I think they’ll work out well.” He handed her the flowers and she inhaled its scent before smiling brightly.

“They’re perfect. I’ll take a bouquet please?” Adrien nodded before starting to build the arrangement. Marinette watched him carefully take the flowers and wrap them up in cellophane, his fingers folding the plastic gently and taping the ends with a sticker. As he handed her the flowers, she thanked him, paying for them before heading off with a smile evident on her face.

He waved goodbye before returning to Marinette who was still drawing and tapping her on the shoulder. “Coffee?” The smile on her face was enough of a response for her to slam her sketchbook shut and stand up.

“Sounds perfect.”

-----

Adrien was growing accustomed to hearing the tinkling of chimes at noon signaling Marinette’s lunch break. So, when he noticed it was already 1:31 and Marinette had yet to make an appearance, it was safe to say that he was slightly alarmed.

The bells suddenly chimed, and Adrien would be lying if he were to say he wasn’t the tiniest bit disappointed when his best friend Nino appeared through the doorway instead of the bluenette. “Nino! Surprised to see you here.” An automatic smile made its way to Adrien’s face as he and the bespectacled boy exchanged a hug. “I assume you’re here for some flowers?”

“Yeah, I need to pick up some flowers for Alya actually.” He scratched the back of his neck in embarrassment. “It’s our six-month anniversary today and I forgot to buy some so here I am. At the best flower shop in all of Paris.”

Adrien chuckled at his forgetful friend before picking up a couple of roses in the back and creating a bouquet. “If it makes you feel any better, Alya came in this morning before her shift.” Nino’s eyes widened in surprise before laughing and taking the roses from the blonde. “You two really are perfect for each other,” he teased as Nino paid for the flowers.

“I suppose we are.” A heartfelt smile rested on the boy as he grinned at Adrien. “I noticed you looked disappointed when I walked in. You weren’t expecting a certain tattoo artist, now were you?”

Though he refused to admit it, his felt his cheeks tinge pink as the words left his best friend’s lips. “I – she usually comes in much earlier, so I was concerned alright. It’s nothing like that.” He was reassuring Nino but at the same time if felt as though he were trying to reassure himself. He didn’t like Marinette, did he?

“I didn’t mention any names.” Adrien’s cheeks turned a more violent shade of red as his friend laughed. Nino made no further mention of the girl but something about the smug smile that tugged on his lips made Adrien think otherwise.

After his friend left, Adrien went back to work, rearranging the bouquets or sweeping any loose petals that were scattered across the wooden floor. Ten minutes, maybe fifteen had passed before the doors to his store opened again. His back was still turned away as he tried to reshelf some flowers, so he responded with his typical greeting, “Welcome! If you need any help with an arrangement, I’ll be with in a just a second and but if you’re just browsing go right –”

“Didn’t you just switch up those flowers yesterday Sunshine?” a knowing voice teased him, causing him to turn around.

“I reckoned you were finally going to show up. I suppose the shop was getting a bit too quiet for my taste,” he joked as the girl made her way to the counter. “Don’t you have a shift right now?”

Marinette clucked her tongue before dropping off her things on the counter top. “Alya’s watching for me. She owes me a shift anyways considering how many times I’ve taken hers because of an impromptu date with her boyfriend,” she walked over to where Adrien was, holding up a couple of the flowers that he was moving. “Need any help?”

“What? No practice today?” Adrien took the flowers from her hand and placed them into a vase, moving the flowers around for the prettiest arrangement. “Could you pass me those roses? The red ones,” Marinette nodded, reaching over to grab the flowers but as she was trying to pass them to him, her foot tripped over the broom that Adrien had left leaning against the wall. Before she could face-splat against the floor, Adrien quickly discarded his flowers and caught her, arm slipping around her waist.

“Agh!” Marinette squealed as he held her upright. His arm was snaked around her waist, supporting her balance and their faces were close to the other. The room was quiet and all that could be heard were the sounds of their hearts beating rapidly. A blush tinged both of their cheeks as they stared into the other’s eyes.

Adrien was quicker to react, apologizing profusely; “are you alright? Sorry I really should have put that broom away earlier I just wasn’t expecting –” before another word could be spoken Marinette stopped him with her own apologizing.

“You’re sorry? I should be sorry! I was being careless and clumsy, and I should’ve watched where I was going before –” Marinette rambled, only to be cut off by somebody clearing their throat. The two looked behind them to see a man who couldn’t have been all that much older than them with a grin.

“Though I apologize for interrupting the two of you I was wondering if I could get some help with a bouquet?” the two young adults both blushed at the reminder and immediately separated. Adrien was quick to clean up before aiding the man in his needs.

Marinette went back to her spot at the counter and tied her hair up in a bun, trying to avoid contact with either males in the room, doodling in her sketchbook. From what she had gathered this was the man’s first date and he wanted it to be perfect. She smiled at the thought of being gifted flowers, her pen quickly sketching the scene in front of her.

From her spot at the end of the counter she watched as he wrapped the peonies he had selected into a bouquet and handed them the man at the other side of the register. Her lips tugged into a smile as she watched him graciously converse about the man’s upcoming date and how excited he was. Something about watching Adrien easily talk to all his clients always made Marinette filled to the brim with happiness. Looking down at the drawing in front of her, she traced over the lines on his arms of the still image of him handing the flowers to the man.

“What’cha drawing now?” his voice had suddenly rung as Marinette jumped in surprise.

“Adrien! I didn’t see you there,” she quickly squealed, slamming her sketchbook shut as he leaned over her shoulder. She turned around, eyes meeting the blonde. She was startled by how close he was to her yet again. Her eyes seemed to travel down his face, admiring his features as the sunlight hit them. In attempts to diverge the conversation and hide her now rosy cheeks, Marinette motioned towards the shelf; “do you need any more help with cleaning up? I’m here for the rest of the hour.”

Adrien looked over at the small mess that they had made before nodding.

“That would be perfect.”

-----

The tattoo parlor that Marinette worked at had a drastically different aesthetic than the little flower shop Adrien was used to. The walls were a dark grey colour that contrasted with the white designs that decorated the walls. There were shelves placed around the parlor that were filled with knick knacks and various other decorations. On the walls were also different framed artworks and photographs of tattoos or drawings and most of the light came from the pot lights that were sporadically placed above him.

He made note of how the shop was always playing music as he walked in, waving hello to Alya who was leaning against the table that stood in the front of the parlor.

Her eyebrows raised upon seeing the ex-model as she faked surprise. “Agreste? What are you doing here? Ooh lemme guess, here to pick up Marinette for your first date?” the auburn-haired girl teased.

“Haha, very funny Alya,” Marinette walked in, a smile appearing on her face when she saw Adrien. “You ready for your first tattoo?” How Marinette had convinced Adrien to get his first tattoo he knew not. But he was still eager and excited for the experience and it didn’t hurt the he would get to be around Marinette some more.

Alya’s face contorted to one of shock. “A tattoo? If somewhere to tell me that the Adrien Agreste were getting a tattoo, I would’ve never believed it.”

“Well a lot of people didn’t believe I quit my father’s modeling agency and opened up a store but here we are,” the three laughed at his response before Marinette made signal for him to follow her into the area in the back of the parlor.

She motioned for him to take a seat on the large longue chair in front of him and disappeared for moment, returning with a booklet. She handed it to him and opened the book. “You can look through here if you want any ideas but considering this is your first tattoo, I would recommend going for something simpler than the designs that are in the back of the book.” Adrien thought for a moment flipping through the contents of the book, stopping at certain designs, contemplating them before continuing to look through the rest of them. “Nothing catching your eye?” she asked.

“Actually, I was thinking of doing a flower, but I still don’t know which one,” Marinette smiled. Of course, he would want a flower, he does work in a flower shop after all. “I thought it would be only fitting since you practice drawing flowers in my shop all the time.”

“A flower by yours truly? I suppose it is rather fitting,” she smiled and thought of the varieties of flowers that he could choose from. “What flower are you thinking of? A rose? That one’s popular. Perhaps a lily? You always liked those. Maybe a –”

“You pick for me,” the confidence in his voice took Marinette by surprise. Though she was touched by the trust that he had in her for choosing a reasonable tattoo, she was still taken a back that he wanted her to choose his first tattoo.

“Are you sure? But this – I mean, this is your first tattoo you know?”

“I know.”

“Then why would you want me to –”

“Because I want the tattoo to mean something to me.”

“You work in a flower shop and yet none of those flowers mean anything to you?” Marinette deadpanned, ignoring the cheeky grin that appeared on the blonde’s face.

“The one you choose will,” he said it with pure confidence as he smiled. It would be a blatant lie to say that Marinette’s face had not turned bright red at his remark.

Curse how smooth he was.

She tried to smother her blush as she pondered. What would be the best choice for Sunshine boy himself? An idea clicked through her mind as she smiled excitedly. “How about a sunflower? The only flower that could rival with you, sunshine boy.”

The smile on Adrien’s face was more than enough to know that Marinette’s choice was a perfect one.

After ten minutes of coming up with initial design and chatting with Adrien, Marinette settled on a smaller, simple design, very minimalistic and Adrien decided on placing it on his left upper arm, near the shoulder. After prepping the design and cleaning the area where the tattoo was going to go, Marinette was ready to get started.

Adrien was surprisingly good with the pain and remained still throughout the process. The two talked for nearly the entirety of the time, catching up about life and just gossiping about their friends.

“What’s your favourite flower Marinette?” he winced slightly, due to the pain. Though she was used to him pestering her with questions, she still wondered how many questions the green-eyed boy had in him.

Marinette thought for a moment, eyes trailing over his exposed arm before settling on an answer. “I suppose it’s always been a cherry blossom. Call me corny but they remind me of spring and it’s just always so beautiful to see them,” she paused from her work and pulled down slightly on her t-shirt, showcasing her collarbone. “I got it done when I had just turned twenty. Probably my most painful one but I love it nonetheless,” on the skin underneath her collarbone was a cherry blossom branch that reached out to her shoulder. It was pink and delicate looking and somehow Adrien found himself staring at its beauty for much longer than he’d anticipated.

“You say it as if you haven’t been twenty in ages. You’re only twenty-one Marinette,” he mentioned with a provoking smile.

“And you’re only twenty-two. So, don’t try and act like you’re so much wiser than me Sunshine,” she teased him before going back to her work.

Adrien leaned back into the chair and thought of his life a couple years ago before he had decided to open his shop, how his father would react to such ludicrous idea. Not only is he “tarnishing” his skin but the idea that his first tattoo would be of a sunflower? He would have been thrown out of the house if he were still living there.

They continued to talk, somehow stumbling across the topic of dating. “How did it go with that one guy you went out with?” though he didn’t show it, Adrien was tinged with jealousy. He wasn’t quite sure why though, just the feeling, perhaps the idea of Marinette being close with somebody else made him upset. It was probably just that he was afraid she wouldn’t pop into the store as often. Yeah, that seemed like a suitable response.

“Kim? We didn’t go out. We’re just friends, have been since we were in middle school,” the idea of dating her swimmer friend was one that Marinette refused to think of. Though she was confused as to why Adrien thought it was a date. “Though he did say that he had a friend who was potentially interested. I think his name was Luka, I’m going to be meeting with him in a couple days.”

An exasperated sigh slipped out of his mouth. Though he didn’t wish to intrude on her love life, he still felt compelled to tell her that going on date might’ve been a bad idea. Why? He had yet to find an excuse suitable enough to tell her because based on what he had read in books and in movies, “I don’t know”, was a bullshit answer. “Oh?” he managed to respond.

“You holding up alright?” she asked him sincerely. Her words seemed to be laced in concerned after seeing the blonde close his eyes in pain. He nodded his head and before she went back to work. There wasn’t much more left to do, just a couple touch ups and details and before they knew it, Marinette was done.

Standing up she handed him a mirror to look at the final product. “And we’re done! Wasn’t so bad now was it,” she gave herself a little pat on the back for her work. Adrien examined the tattoo and smiled upon seeing it.

“It looks perfect! What do you think?” the flower was beautiful, and Adrien couldn’t have been more ecstatic about the results. His eyes looked up to meet Marinette’s and she flashed him a grin.

“Almost as bright as you, Sunshine boy.”

-----

Call it fate, call it not wanting to spend an hour stuck in the tattoo parlor where her coworkers were complaining about how their boss wasn’t letting them break for the weekend, whatever it was, it caused Marinette to spend another one of her lunch breaks at Adrien’s flower shop.

“I’ve got a pot of pansies for you to practice drawing, their sitting in your usual spot,” Adrien responded, currently on the phone. Marinette looked over to see a fresh pot of purple pansies and smiled. She took a seat and started to draw, waiting for Adrien to get off the phone.

Her eyes were focused on the drawing in front of her. The ink of her pen slowly running out especially considering how long she’d had it for. She included a beautiful intricate design engraved into the pansies and went over the lines in ink, shading where she felt like made sense.

She felt his figure watching her process from behind the counter and met his eyes. “Thoughts?” she asked him, curious to know what he thought of the drawing. She turned her sketchbook so that it would face him, and he looked at it eagerly.

“It’s gorgeous as always,” he grinned at her, lightly tracing over the drawing with his finger. “You know, pansies were actually used in the Victorian Era for secret courting. They mean loving thoughts or that you are thinking of the other,” he continued to ramble on about the flower and Marinette watched him, finding it adorable how nerdy he would get about flowers and what they meant.

Not that she would admit that to anyone.

Marinette inhaled the sweet scent of the pansies and played with its petals. “I had no idea that these were such romantic flowers,” she had to admit that hanging around Adrien had opened her eyes to how many other flowers there were. Before their encounter she could probably name only a couple flowers but now her floral vocabulary consisted of at least twenty. “You know I had a client ask me for a tattoo of a gardenia and they looked so excited when I knew what they were. What would I do if you didn’t have your little flower shop?”

“I’m sure you could find another flower shop to practice at,” Adrien chuckled, heading to the back to start on another arrangement order.

But none of those flower shops would have an owner as charming as you. Marinette thought watching him come up with a cluster of pink and red roses. The two sat in a comfortable silence, Adrien messing around with an array of flowers at the counter as Marinette sat on the opposite side, now practicing drawing the bouquet of hyacinths that Adrien had given her after the pansies were done. Her pen moved along the paper, eyes shifting from up to look at the flowers to back down.

Fiddling with the rose in his hand he asked her a question. “How did your date with the Luka boy go?” His voice seemed quieter than usual, as though he had been nervous to ask. Shrugging her shoulders, she kept her eyes on the piece in front of her.

“It was alright,” she hummed, fingers outlining the corners of the paper. “But we both agreed that we would be better off as friends.”

Letting out a sigh of relief, Adrien set down the roses. “Well if you’re any interested, my friend thinks you’re cute,”

Marinette didn’t look up from her drawing but snorted in response, “What friend?”

“Me,” swallowing whatever pride he might’ve had left, he confessed. “I’m the friend.”

His voice seemed nonchalant and a smug smile rested on his lips as the words escaped his mouth but the rapid beating of his heart in his chest was a dead giveaway that the boy was nervous. The pen in Marinette’s hand nearly dropped in surprise. “Oh? You should’ve told me earlier. I think your friend is quite adorable himself,” she let out a laugh as her eyes finally met his.

“Really?”

“I mean, it’s hard to resist a ball of sunshine,” Adrien snorted at her comment as he leaned closer to her from across the counter. His face was much closer to hers than it had ever been, his green eyes more vibrant than usual. Marinette smiled, moving closer as well, leaving a smaller space between the two, a heavy blush marking her cheeks.

“Is it now?”

Adrien sealed the space between their lips, a smile forming as they kissed. It was soft and delicate, the smells of the roses he had left on the table filling the air. After they parted, a pair of lovesick smiles were prominently displayed on their faces.

“And it’s even harder to resist when that ball of sunshine is as good of a kisser as you are,” she teased once more, causing him to roll his eyes before locking their lips once again.

#adrienette #miraculous ladybug #miraculous imagine #miraculous lb #miraculous au #adrien x marinette #marinette x adrien #flower shop au #tattoo artist au #flower shop tattoo artist #fluff #adriennette fluff #adrien agreste #marinette dupain cheng

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starkerisendgame · 5 years

Note

this is my cheesy cliché-romantic prompt, please write it if you like this kind of stories, lol: Peter has had a crush on Tony since forever. He has confessed his love to Tony three times, and Peter has been rejected each time. The first one was when he was 10, the second one at 15, and the last one at 20. After so long, Peter decides to give up. He starts dating other people, trying to find love, then one day Tony reappears again into his life.

I’m so sorry this took so long! But I really hope it was worth the wait and that you enjoy it. This is in two parts because it ended up being way longer than I initially planned it. No smut in part one, but 90% of what Anon asked for happens in this chapter.

Prompts are always open

[P. 2 | P. 3]

Peter meets the love of his life aged ten, lounging in the grass of a local park and devouring the Chemistry book that Aunt May got him for Christmas. A pair of glossy combat boots stop right besides his pink lemonade, a figure casting a dark shadow over his book.

Peter looked up slowly, scowling at the interruption. How was he supposed to study hard and become a world famous scientist if people kept interrupting him? The boots give way to skinny black jeans that clung to legs longer than Peter could ever hope for his to grow. The legs faded into a black t-shirt sporting a cat playing the drums, and then to the prettiest face Peter had ever seen.

“Page fifty-eight is wrong, y’know,” the boy commented casually, hands tucked into his jean pockets. Peter’s scowl deepened, and he stared for a moment longer before furiously flicking through the pages. Page 58 turned out to be on metals and their chemical properties. Peter scanned it, before looking up again.

“It’s a professional science book. It can’t be wrong. And even if it was, how would you know?” he asked, reaching for his lemonade and sipping. The boy actually laughed, soft and amused before crouching down, elbows braced on his thighs. One long finger tapped a single paragraph on the page.

“The book claims Tungsten to be the strongest natural metal, and Chromium to be the hardest. Both of those are wrong. The world’s strongest and hardest metal is one in the same: Vibranium.”

Peter frowned a little, reading the paragraph quickly as the boy spoke. Vibranium? That sounded made up. And he’d never heard of it before.

“You’re just making that up,” he pouted, pushing away the boy’s hand. He chuckled again, low and soft and it made Peter’s tummy feel funny. All flippy, like he was on a rollercoaster.

“Am not,” the boy shot back, teasing and mocking. Peter pouted harder, drawing his book closer. “Vibranium was discovered in the 1800′s, and is pretty much a secret outside of a select few Government organisations and my family; who have a big clump of it sitting in a secure storage facility out in Antarctica,” the boy remarked. It was Peter’s turn to laugh, now.

“You’re a big, fat liar,” he dismissed, then frowned. “Wait. I’m not supposed to be talking to strangers. Go away before Aunt May confiscates my Game Boy again,” he huffed, looking back down at his book. He missed the soft smile the boy gave in response, and missed the scent of aftershave as the boy got up and walked away.

One week later, Peter was back at the park, sprawled out on the grass with several packs of snacks and his chemistry book. He’d brought a notebook this time, jotting down notes and little doodles to help him remember things. There was a science expo next month, and he was determined to be super smart and science to impress the important scientists there.

Something thunked into the grass before him and rolled, all the way through the grass until it bumped into the edge of his chemistry book. Peter eyed it warily. It was a metal ball, about the size of a ping-pong ball. Bright silver and it looked really shiny, like it had been polished. Peter looked up further, and saw the boy from last week strolling towards him.

He walked all the way up and sat down opposite Peter, long legs crossing in the grass. Peter watched him the entire time, hand still paused mid-sentence. The boy was wearing dark grey jeans today, and a white shirt with an AC/DC logo across the chest. His head tipped, and he watched Peter with a soft, curious expression.

“Half a pound of Vibranium. Super-forged and polished into a perfect sphere, just for you,” the boy remarked, pulling a lollipop out of one pocket and peeling off the wrapped. Peter looked down and after a moment he put down his pen, reaching for it. It felt light, for its weight, and the metal was cold, perfectly smooth to the touch.

“This is probably just steel or something,” he pointed out, and the boy shrugged, sucking the lolly with a wet sound.

“You can do whatever you want to that, and it won’t break, scratch or dent. The only thing that can damage Vibranium is more Vibranium,” the boy tossed back, taking the sphere from Peter’s hand and tossing it up and down like a regular ball. “You could take a chainsaw to this thing and all you’d get is sparks.”

He tossed the ball back to Peter and they spent the next two hours going through his chemistry book together. The boy turned out to be called Tony, and he was super smart. He was turning twenty next month. Peter worried a bit about talking to someone that much older, but Tony was sweet and smart and helped him to take notes.

Tony’s phone went off a little while later, and he checked it before pulling a face and looking across at Peter.

“Well, I gotta go. But try to scratch that thing. Let me know if you succeed,” he grinned, ruffling Peter’s hair and standing. He was already walking away by the time Peter realised he had no way of letting Tony know either way and he watched helplessly as Tony slipped into a sleek, black car on the sidewalk.

That night Peter attacked the ball with several kitchen knives. He threw it down the stairs. He tried to chew it. He tried everything he could within the house to damage it, but nothing worked.

Eventually he gave up, sitting on his bed and staring in wonder at the still perfectly smooth ball before he snuck an egg cup from the kitchen and put it in pride of place on the middle of his shelf.

He went back to the park on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday of the following week, but Tony didn’t show up.

He was already there the following Tuesday however, sprawled on his back on the grass with his eyes closed and his face tilted up towards the sun. Peter approached slowly, two bottles of cola tucked under his arm, chemistry book tucked under the other. He was almost above Tony when the boy smiled, slow and sweet.

“Sorry I haven’t been around much, Pete,” he murmured. His voice was thick, raspy. It was then that Peter noticed the dark purple bruises under his eyes, and the large, blotchy red patch on one side of his jaw. Peter shuffled nervously in the grass, dropping his head.

“Um… If you’re sick, we don’t gotta study today,” he mumbled in response, shrinking when Tony cracked open one eye to study him. After a moment though, he was smiling again, pushing himself up onto his elbows to pat the grass besides him.

“I’m okay. We can still learn about atoms,” Tony comforted softly, and that’s what they did. For over an hour, until Tony looked up, face falling as a tall, kind of fat man in a suit approached then. He looked like he should be dressed for a funeral.

“Mr. Stark, its time we should be going,” the man greeted quietly. Peter’s pen slipped across the page when he twisted in shock, staring accusingly across at Tony with wide eyes. His best friend wasn’t just Tony, but Tony Stark. Son of Howard Stark, one of the world’s leading inventors and scientists.

Tony glanced across at him with a small, half amused and half sad smile, pushing to his feet.

“I’ll be back on Thursday, kiddo,” Tony hummed, dusting off his pants and following after the man, who gave Peter a polite nod in goodbye. As they walked, the man held out a tie and a jacket towards Tony, and it occurred to Peter for the first time that Tony had been wearing a smart shirt for once.

The next morning, as Peter sat at the table eating his cereal, the news turned to Tony Stark, dressed in a suit with a pair of deep red sunshades on. What remained of the Stark family announced that Howard and Maria Stark were dead - Victims of a terrible car crash due to bad weather. They had been buried late yesterday afternoon, a quiet and private affair.

Peter’s heart sank. Tony had must’ve gone straight to the funeral with that man. He fretted about it all day, nervously chewing at his pen and bouncing his leg the entire time. He wanted to go to the park, wanted desperately to see Tony, but Tony had said Thursday.

The day couldn’t come quick enough, and Peter barely breathed as he stuffed his dinner into his mouth, ignoring May’s alarmed looks and almost headbutting her with how quickly he gave her a goodbye kiss on the cheek, jacket half-on as he fled through the door.

Tony was waiting for him again, sat cross-legged in their spot. He was wearing the same shades he had been on the news the other morning and wore a large, soft black hoodie. He looked up when Peter came scurrying across the grass, mouth quirking into a friendly smile.

Peter skid through the greenery, sliding onto his knees and crashing into Tony with almost enough force to knock him over as he wrapped his arms tight around him.

Tony stiffened under his touch, arms hanging hesitantly in the air, but Peter squeezed him a little tighter, tucking his head down and after a moment Tony relaxed, arms coming loosely around Peter’s waist.

They met up every week after that, always in the same spot near the holly bush. They got through Peter’s book pretty quickly and Tony brought more, an endless supply of books on anything Peter could think of.

He also brought Peter stuff, sometimes. A tiny, tiny 1ml science beaker from the lab at Stark Tower. A weird type of berry from Africa, where Tony went for the weekend while Peter was home with the flu.

Two weeks before his eleventh birthday, Peter looked up from his book on stars, squinting across at Tony, who was doodling a dog wearing sunglasses on his notebook.

“I love you.” he announced after a moment, confident. He’d asked Aunt May what it meant to love someone, and if it was okay to tell them. She’s told it was when even the thought of someone made you happy. When you wanted them to be in your life for a long time and when you felt comfortable around them.

Tony paused, and then laughed, sharp and short. “No, kid. You love pancakes and your Aunt and sleeping in on a Saturday. You don’t love me.”

Peter frowned and went to argue but then Tony was quizzing him on what gasses stars were made up of, and it was dropped.

Peter lay awake that night, tossing and turning as he thought about it. He was pretty sure he loved Tony. He always looked forwards to seeing him. Tony made him happy and made him smile all the time. He knew Tony’s favourite colour and how he liked his toast and he always felt like he could tell Tony anything. That was love… Right?

Aged fifteen, Peter buried his face in Gwen’s shoulder and whined, shoulders slumping. His phone lay screen-up on the table, depicting an image of Tony stepping out of a fancy restaurant, arm wrapped tight around a pretty blonde girl. It was his second girlfriend of the year, a nice but kind of snooty girl named Alita.

“You’re jailbait anyway, Pete. Find someone your own age,” Gwen advised, voice cool but not unsympathetic as she turned the page to her book. She was right; Peter had known Tony was too old for him the moment he realised that Tony’s smile made his tummy flip in a funny way. The moment Aunt may blew up when she found out just who Peter was always running off to study in the park with.

(Tony had promptly arranged for them both to have dinner at the Tower, and had immediately wooed Aunt May. She had come around to them being study buddies by the end of the night; how could she not? Tony was sweet, charming, quirky. It hadn’t taken Peter a year to fall in love with him, after all.)

“She’s just… I mean she’s obviously… She isn’t…” Peter couldn’t think of anything to say. Alita was actually pretty nice, if you got past her picky, high standards for living. She had been super friendly when Tony had brought her along on one of their study meets, and had been pretty interested in their current topic - physics.

“Not you,” Gwen finished for him, pushing his head up so she could give him one of her Mom looks. Peter scowled and looked away, stabbing his breaded chicken with a little more force than required. Alita and Tony had been dating for three months now, and each morning the heavy, cold feeling in Peter’s stomach grew. He thought back to being ten, to telling Tony he loved him in the middle of the park, to the way Tony laughed, like it was a big, bad joke.

They didn’t go to the park often, these days. Tony was now the big boss at his parents’ company and spent most of his days learning how to run it and making lots of big changes. They still saw each other each week, but school and a big company didn’t leave a lot of time for laying around in the grass.

“Have de-ageing or ageing machines been invented yet?” he questioned aloud, and shrieked when Gwen slapped him with her book. That was a no, then.

Tony was waiting for him at the school gates, leaning against the bonnet of a fancy car that Peter had forgotten the brand name of. He had rich, glossy blue shades on today and was wearing a loose, matching blue silk shirt. Several other kids were hanging around, phones out and obviously trying to engage.

Peter felt rather powerful striding across the grass and towards Tony. Tony straightened when he approached, uncrossing his legs and opening the car door with a flourish for Peter.

“Your humble ride home, Little Prince,” Tony greeted, voice thick and soft as he mock bowed. Peter snorted, sliding onto the rich, buttery leather and tossing his beg into the footwell.

“You’re so embarrassing,” he grinned, but he didn’t mean it. Not at all. His heart actually felt like it was going to burst. A few months ago for his fifteenth birthday Tony had given him an official internship at Stark Tower, as his personal assistant.

It basically meant Peter could come around whenever Tony was there, and usually ended in them making up crazy things and ordering takeout.

It also meant Tony picking him up from school like this. Peter had lost count of how many times he’d daydreamed of just running over to Tony, jumping into his arms and kissing him. Tony was starting to grow a little facial hair now, a light dusting of stubble that made Peter feel all funny whenever he thought about it.

“So, how was school, Petercakes? That kid still being an ass? What is it…Flake?” Peter snickered, slouching back into the seat and pressing the button for his window as Tony started the car, peeling carelessly out of the parking lot.

“Flash,” he corrected, with a one-shouldered shrug. “It’s okay. I mean, he believes me about the internship now you’ve started picking me up, but. I don’t think anything would shut him up completely.” When Peter glanced across Tony tipped his head, that challenge accepted smirk on his face, and Peter pointed at him.

“Tony, no.”

“Tony, yes,” he shot back gleefully, before reaching across to nudge Peter gently. “Relax, I’ll probably just arrange a field trip to SI or something. Sing your praises in front of everyone. Hey - bet I could get photos of you framed on my walls by the end of the night.”

Peter groaned, sinking lower into his seat.

Today’s Important Science encompassed going to the movies to see the new Fast and Furious film, before eating their weight in ice cream to determine if chocolate chip mint was better than toffee crunch delight. Tony got them two small cones to go, and they parked up at the beach front, watching the lights twinkle off the dark water.

“How was your date with Alita yesterday?” Peter asked in the comfortable silence that fell, cringing immediately afterwards. Great. A perfect, private evening together and he was bringing up his girlfriend. Besides him, Tony cringed in tandem.

“We, uh… Actually broke up. That’s why we went out to dinner. As a break up… Thing,” Tony mumbled in response, turning away and looking out of the window as he crunched the last of his cone. Peter almost dropped his in surprise, blinking across at Tony. But… They had looked so cosy leaving the restaurant.

“She was just… We weren’t right for each other, I guess. Y’know how it is,” Tony shrugged after a brief pause, pulling a wet-wipe from the glove compartment and cleaning off his fingers. Fidgeting, mostly. Peter could relate. He suddenly felt itchy within his skin, too warm. Tony was single again. He bit at his lip, trying to think of what to say.

“Oh. Well… I still love you,” he breathed out, stiffening when he realised what he’d said. Across from him Tony chuckled, reaching out to fluff up his hair and casting a fond look over the rim of his glasses.

“I’m glad me being a lonely old man doesn’t change the way you think of me,” Tony responded, voice light and teasing. Peter shifted his gaze away, out to the illuminated waters.

He didn’t know if Tony thinking he was joking was worse than Tony realising Peter had meant it. He stuffed the last of his cone into his mouth to avoid saying anything else, and another few moments passed before Tony begun to drive him home.

Peter leaned across the centre console when Tony pulled up, dragging the older man in for their customary hug. Tony was broader than he used to be, shoulders filling out, biceps bigger and rounder. His tummy was different, too. Thick muscle and lean abs in place of where he used to be slim like Peter was now.

His hair was soft, fluffy. A little longer than Tony usually kept it, and his aftershave was musky and heavenly when Peter nuzzled into the crook of his neck, squeezing tightly.

“I meant it,” he breathed against the warm skin there, closing his eyes tight. “I do love you. I know I do. And you can laugh like you did last time, but that doesn’t change it.”

Tony briefly stiffened against him, before he relaxed, petting gently at Peter’s hair. “You don’t know love, Peter. You’re fifteen. You’ve still got years left to learn and grow and experience things. To learn love and how it feels. To find someone. Now go on, before May shouts at us again.”

Tony let him go, pushing his shades higher to his eyes again, and Peter’s heart broke as he scooped up his bag, fleeing for the safety of his bedroom. He cried that night, tucked up against his pillow, duvet pulled up to his cheeks.

He knew what love meant. He had since he was ten, looking into Tony’s honey-coloured eyes and wishing he could look at them forever.

He knew he loved Tony. Knew belatedly that he always would. But this was the second confession of his love, and the second rejection of his feelings.

He fell asleep in the early hours of the morning, eyes red and cheeks ruddy. He stayed in bed for most of the day, avoiding his phone and citing illness when Aunt May lingered in the doorway, brows pulled in concern.

Tony picked him up on the Sunday. Neither of them raised what had happened, and neither of them acted differently to before. Peter supposed it was as much as he could hope for.

His twentieth birthday rolled around sooner than he could have expected, frantically finishing his entry exams for MIT and dealing with moving out of Aunt May’s apartment.

His faux internship in his teenage years had developed into an actual job at Tony’s marketing and research department. Tony was thirty these days, a heart-stopper and a bonafide billionaire thanks to his savvy, smart business choices.

Where Peter had remained a baby-faced, slim figure, Tony was tall and broad. He worked out daily and it showed in the expanse of his shoulders, the ripple of his biceps when he wore tank tops in the experimental labs. SI was branching into medical aid these days. Tony had grown his facial hair into artful stubble, thick and accentuating the sharp line of his jaw.

He was jaw-droppingly attractive, and Peter’s harboured love had only grown as he watched Tony go from a lost and uncertain young man into a grown, confident man.

Other people had seen the change too, and Peter had lost count of Tony’s partners at this point. One-night stands and brief stints at relationships. Time together cut short or cut completely because Tony was whisking away his latest slice to some Malibu getaway.

Peter tried not to be bitter, even when Tony begun a two year relationship with Peter’s manager, Ms. Pepper Potts. He tried to be supportive. Tried to be understanding whenever Tony cancelled their plans. Tried not to let his sadness show at the dark hickeys he often found littering Tony’s throat. His love never waned, not even slightly.

He rejected any advances from anyone else, knowing that he would be unable to stop himself thinking about Tony. Imagining it was Tony taking him to the movies or Tony kissing down his chest. Gwen watched disapprovingly each time he batted away an attempt at flirting, but remained the supportive (if blunt) friend.

He was laying on his bed, frowning at his latest set of study papers when the door flung open and Tony strode in, pausing only briefly to toe off his dress shoes and to flick the door shut behind him. Peter jumped at the sounds, craning across to try and see who was invading. He really didn’t have the energy to fend off a robber at this point in time.

“I’m hosting a party at the Tower, for your birthday,” Tony had announced, kicking Peter aside and taking his warm spot on the large queen that Peter had invested in. They still tried to make time for each other these days, but this was the first time Peter had seen Tony outside of work in over a week.

“Are you?” he asked lazily, frowning down at the now disorganised mess of paper. Tony dipped his glasses down and cast Peter with one of those flat do you dare doubt me looks that Peter had learned early to not to second-guess.

And that was how Peter ended up on the balcony of the Tower’s penthouse, gazing out at the stars and desperately trying to distract himself from the fact that Tony seemed to be flirting with everyone in the room except for him.

It had been an alright party, all things considered. Tony had invited Gwen and a few of their mutual friends from Stark Industries, and apparently several other people he knew but Peter didn’t. They were all nice people, chatty and knowledgeable and all ready to drink until they passed out.

Tony had brought lavish gifts in a pile almost as tall as Peter and the majority of the guests had all brought a gift or two along as well. Peter now had more ties, watches and bottles of alcohol than he had space for but he was delighted at each one, taking a shot each time he opened a present as instructed

Tony had bought him a dorky lab coat, (”in honour of how we met, Petercakes.”) and two soft sweaters. A gorgeous, deep red tie that Peter was sure matched one Tony owned himself. Three bottles of expensive, fruity alcohol and several small baggies of various chocolate covered fruits. A pair of classy, dark shades and a massive bath set filled with fruity scrubs and fizzy bath-bombs.

Peter had no idea ho he was gonna get all of it back to the Tower, and he vaguely mused on just leaving it all here for the night and picking it back up in the morning. He let his head loll against the cooling breeze, grip slackening on his flute of champagne. He’d lost count of how much he’d had to drink.

“What’cha Bruce Wayne-ing for out here, Peter?” came Tony’s slightly slurred, drunk-high voice from behind him, and Peter couldn’t help stiffening a little, gaze lifting from his arms to the city line before them. His stomach twisted with the thought of Tony mingling in the crowd, chatting up girls and flirting with boys.

“I’m not Batmanning,” he pouted, forcing himself to look when Tony came up half-besides him and half-behind him. Tony smelt like expensive whiskey and musky aftershave. His hair was mussed from the sleek style it had been in earlier, and three smudged lipstick prints dotted the line of his jaw.

Peter turned his gaze away.

“Out here alone, gazing moodily at the dark night, while a party in your honour is in full blast behind you,” Tony hummed, leaning against Peter’s shoulder heavily as he joined him in staring out at the twinkling lights of New York.

It took a moment for Peter to hone in on the scent of smoke, and he turned his head in alarm, only to find Tony grinning across at him, holding out a tiny cupcake with a single candle.

“I’ve already done the cake,” Peter mumbled, watching the small flame flickering in the breeze. Tony had custom-ordered a massive cake, with icing and sprinkles and little white chocolate cookies and all other sorts of decoration. It had taken Peter eight breaths to blow out all the candles. Tony met his gaze, eyes dark and pupils blown.

“I know. But… This is special. Just for us,” Tony murmured, still watching him. Peter’s heart immediately begun to race, pounding against his ribs as he met Tony’s stare.

“Make a wish then,” Tony coaxed, a lopsided grin quirking his mouth as he shifted his weight against the balcony. Peter kept his eyes as he listened, putting all of his faith and effort into thinking his wish before he leaned down, blowing the flame out with a short, sharp puff.

“What’da wish for?” Tony asked not even a second later, plucking the candle and tossing it aside to the floor as he offered Peter the cupcake. Peter hesitated, taking it and staring into the icing while he gathered his courage. Should he say it? Didn’t that ruin the magic?

He shifted uneasily, looking back out across the city as he sucked in a breath. “I wish you believed me when I say I love you,” he spat out in a rush, clutching the cupcake so tightly that it crumbled under his grip, icing folding across his knuckles. Tony stiffened besides him, pulling away a step and turning to face Peter, but he continued before Tony could say anything.

“I’m old enough to know love. I have been since I said it the second time. And… And I wish you loved me back. I really do. I know you don’t and I’m not gonna force it but I just… I mean it, Tony. And you know I do. I love you. I always have, and I think I will for a long time. Maybe always. But I just… That’s what I wished for. That you stopped treating it like a joke.”

Part of the cupcake fell away in a sad, dramatic slide and Peter forced himself to drag his gaze up, away from the view and across to Tony. Tony, who looked…Devastated. The expression on his face was enough of an answer for Peter, if the look in his eyes had failed to get the message across.

“Peter…I’m sorry, I…”

Peter let the rest of the cupcake fall, dropping his gaze to his trembling hands as he shook his head, unwilling to hear it. Unwilling to hear another rejection. He spun on his heel, almost stumbling as he fled for the door, pushing through and into the bright, loud warmth of the room.

He stuck the wall, desperately skirting anyone who noticed him with an apologetic smile as he fumbled for his jacket, forgoing the elevator for the stairs.

He made it down four floors before he sank against the railing, gasping for air. His vision blurred with tears and he dragged himself to the elevator, hitting the button miserably as he stared down at his icing smeared hands, willing the crushing sensation to give him enough time to get home.

His phone buzzed three times in his pocket, but he ignored it, stepping into the elevator and huddling into the corner as it carried him down to the foyer.

The night security looked surprised to see him, but obligingly ordered a car to be brought around, waiting with him and helping him into the back when it arrived. He wiped at his eyes, faking not feeling too good when the driver (Harry? Henry?) asked if he was alright.

When they arrived outside his house, the driver got out and helped him up, patting his shoulder comfortingly. He caught Peter’s eye, expression almost…Knowing.

“Whatever he said or did, kid… Don’t hold it against him too much. Tony hasn’t been right in himself since his parents. He’ll make it up to you. You’re the best thing that’s happened to him.”

Peter almost threw up on the spot, mumbling in response and darting for his door. The driver waited until he was inside, safe, before he left. Peter sank back against the door, finally giving into the burning sensation in his throat and howling as the tears begun to pour. Three times, he thought miserably.

He doesn’t love you. Never did. Never will.

A distant memory re-called itself to the front of his mind and through the haze of depression Peter fumbled for his phone, slick fingers sliding on the screen as he took several attempts to log into the Stark employee server. The announcement was still there, and his heart thumped with an icy determination as he scanned it.

Stark Industries was opening a new PR division in Malibu. 121 positions available.

He flipped to his email, thumbing in Pepper Pott’s ID. Despite her and Tony’s break-up she had remained a valued member of the company, double-acting as Tony’s PA and a member of HR.

His heart sank lower and his blood run colder with each word, until he felt numb as he hit send. He let his head fall back against the door, phone sliding to the carpet and he squeezed his eyes shut.

It was for the best.

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starrynavigator · 4 years

Text

I got this letter from Megan and then the first thing she said to me when I found her was she wanted to move out, so I had to write a fic on how that transpired.

Note: megan's nickname for me is lollipop

-----------

"Hhhh..."

Megan let out an anxious sigh. She'd been toiling over this letter for the last half an hour, reading and rereading it, making sure it sounded good enough to send to the resident representative.

"Maybe I should just toss it, this is silly of me to send anyway."

She reached for the garbage bin next to the stand when a voice interrupted her thoughts.

"What do you think you're doing, private?"

Megan bolted up, clutching the letter to her chest. Wilbur stood before her. How long had he been there, watching her agonize over this? She blushed, covering her face.

"Oh goodness, I'm sorry Wilbur. I dont mean to waste paper. I just... can't find the words to say what I'm feeling. I thought writing them out would help me feel better, but now that I have them on the page, it just seems silly."

Orville looked up from his book from behind the counter. "I could give it a read, if you'd like. I'm about as impartial as you can get!" He glanced at Wilbur and laughed. "Well, Wilbur too, but he's not much for reading."

Wilbur nodded. "Negatory, this bird has one love, and that love is flight." With that, he picked up his coffee from the desk and walked off into the back.

Orville rolled his eyes. "He's up until 2 am most days watching old compilation videos on NookTube of pilot commands."

He extended a wing to Megan. "Anyway, mind if I take a look?"

Megan fidgeted a little. "Promise you won't laugh?"

Orville snapped to attention, doing a salute. "I would never!"

Megan smiled and handed him the letter. "Let me know what you think."

She waited, watching him read over the page. He looked back at her and grinned. "This sounds just like you, Megan. I wouldn't change a thing."

He cocked his head, a little question mark appearing above it. "What did you get them that took so long to decide on?"

Megan blushed. "Well, I know they like umbrellas, so I thought I'd get them a really cute one I saw the other day. But I was worried if they'd like it or not. They really seem to like ones with fun designs and I thought this would be up their alley."

"What a thoughtful gift! I'm sure they'll love it."

She pulled out the umbrella and handed it to Orville. "If you think the letter is good, would you mind sending it off with this attached before I get cold feet again?"

"Okidodoki!" Orville did his dodo magic and stuffed an umbrella into a letter and tucked it away. "Was there anything else you needed?"

"No thank you, Orville. I really appreciate your help."

"Any time!" He smiled, and Megan took her leave.

~~~~~~~~~~~

The next day, the sky darkened and rain poured down. Megan awoke to the sound of rain pattering against her windows, the rustling of the trees in the wind. She smiled, and went about making her breakfast. How fortuitous, now lollipop would be able to use their new umbrella. Just as she was putting her oatmeal on the stove, there was a knock at her door. Her heart jumped, was lollipop really up this early? She quickly opened her door, but instead found her black and white rabbit neighbor, Dotty, standing there with a bag.

"Morning! I could totes smell you cooking something scrumptious in there, so I thought I'd crash your breakfast party with some muffins!"

"Oh, good morning, sundae! Come on in, I'd love the company!" Megan let her inside. "Maybe even more than your muffins."

Dotty pulled the container of muffins from her bag and set them on her table. "I made them extra sweet, since I know that's your favorite." She took a carrot cake. "Anyway, whats up with you? Got any plans today?"

Megan took the oatmeal off of the stove and served them both. "Well, i was going to go do some exercises in the plaza later but I'm not sure now, with all this rain."

Dotty nodded "ugh, right? I'm soo ready for it to be summer, go away rain! I'm gonna craft this cool mask I thought up earlier. I was watching a streamer I like do this playthrough of a video game, and I was only half paying attention but I kept seeing these cuuute little forest things that wore leafs as masks! So I'm gonna go recreate them so I can do a little closet cosplay of them, doodle dip."

Megan smiled at her friend's enthusiasm. "That sounds like fun! I'll be sure to tell Riley you're crafting when I see them, you know how they love learning new DIY recipes."

An explanation mark appeared above Dotty's head. "Thats right! Weren't you working for like, eeeveerrr on finding them an umbrella? Whatd you settle on?"

Megan reached over and grabbed a lemon poppyseed muffin out of the container. "Well, i figured since they really seem to like umbrellas that look like something else, I'd get them one that looks like a kiwi."

Dotty put her hand on her chin, thinking, a thought bubble floated above. "Thats a super cute idea, but I am worried about what they might wear with that? I like, totally don't mean to bring you down but I don't think I know anything they usually wear that goes well with green and brown."

Megans blood ran cold. She hadn't even thought about what Riley normally wears.

"Oh gosh, I hadn't even thought of that! Shoot, I have to go see if Orville hasn't mailed it yet. Maybe I can still take it back!" Megan jumped up and threw on her raincoat.

"Wait, Megan, you really don't have to do that. I'm sure senpai-" but Megan was out the door before Dotty could finish.

*maybe there's still time... oh why didn't I consider this beforehand...*

Megan burst into Dodo Airlines, out of breath. "Orville!" She ran up to the counter. Startled by the sudden giant purple bear, Orville jumped, splashing coffee onto this uniform. Megans heart fell further.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry Orville!"

Orville brushed himself off. "Thats okay, it happens more often than you'd think. What's got you in a tizzy?"

"I need to unsend that letter from yesterday, I've made a terrible mistake!"

Orville frowned. "But megan, we already went over how your letter was lovely. Besides, I already placed it in their mailbox, I can't just go and steal mail back."

Megans shoulders sagged. "Oh..." sighing heavily, she walked out.

Megan retreated to the coconut grove, sitting on one of the islands Riley had made. How could she claim to be a good friend if she didn't even notice their fashion choices? What else could she be neglecting to pay attention to? No one deserved an unobservant friend like her. Dotty had only been here a month and she knew more about lollipop than she did.

Maybe it would be best for her start over again. Maybe if she made a conscious effort to observe people from the beginning, she wouldn't miss things like this.

As she sat there thinking, a figure approached. She looked up to see lollipop, who was now rushing over to her.

"Megan! I got your letter! I-"

Megan put up a paw, shaking her head. "I know, it was foolish of me to send it. Look, i.... I think I need a fresh start, on a new island. I'm not growing that well here, I'm awful at noticing things. Maybe if I go somewhere new, I'll learn how to be a better bear and a better friend."

Riley's face fell. "Megan, how could you say that? You're a wonderful friend!"

Megans eyes filled with tears. "But... but Dotty has been here way less time than I have and she knows you so well!"

"Yeah, but you know me too. You know I love umbrellas and got me one I don't have yet! And look, it helped me coordinate an outfit for today!"

Megan wiped her eyes, actually taking in what lollipop looked like today. They were wearing a lovely green blossoming kimono, kimono sandals, and the kiwi umbrella. Megan smiled, and burst into laughter crying. Riley fumbled, looking distressed.

"Oh, uh, shoot, did I say something wrong?"

Megan shook her head, smiling. "Here i was, worried about not being observant enough, and I still didnt even notice what you were wearing. Can you ever forgive me?"

Riley hugged her. "Of course, you silly old bear. Our friendship is important to me, okay? My friendships with others will be inherently different, but that doesn't invalidate ours, I promise"

Megan nodded, hugging them back. "Thanks, lollipop. "

Riley looked up at them from their embrace. "Have I buttered you up enough to convince you to stay?"

Megan laughed. "Oh, all right. Maybe I'm right where I belong, after all."

Riley released her from the hug. "Anyway, just so we're clear: I love the umbrella. You really know me well."

Megan wiped away the last of her tears. "If my gift makes you happy, then I'm happy, sundae."

#acnh #animal crossing #ac megan #ac dotty #fanfiction #fanfic #look i finally wrote something

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221bshrlocked · 5 years

Text

I Put a Spell on You

Pairing: Bucky x Reader

Word Count: 2256

Warnings: fluffff. So much freaking fluff.

A/N: this was supposed to be a short drabble but things got outta hand quite literally and now I have this. I couldn’t not write something for Halloween so I hope you enjoy this :)

You assumed Wanda understood that you felt uncomfortable by her invitation to the small halloween party she was having when you continued to say no but then she barged into the coffee shop a few hours ago and demanded you get off your shift a little early and grab your costume.

“For the last time, I really don’t think that’s a good idea Wanda. I’m like an outlier and it’ll be very obvious and I’d rather not have anyone think I’m there because-”

“Y/N shut up, you’re coming. Literally everyone knows you by now and I’d highly doubt anyone will think that way. As a matter of fact, someone was super excited when I said I invited you.” Wanda grabbed her coffee from your hand before you even placed a cover on it.

“You’re lying...who was it?” You tried not to sound too excited, hoping she’d tell you it was a certain introvert who spent most of his afternoons in your little cafe writing and doodling. When she didn’t respond, you turned around and saw her already smiling at you.

“Y/N, go sign out.” You heard your boss yell out from across the shop and you knew Wanda had already spoken to her.

“Fine, but know that I don’t like any bit of this.” You took your apron off and walked past your boss, shaking your head at her when she told you she couldn’t deny any request by any of the Avengers. Quickly grabbing your things, you walked towards your place with Wanda and refused to wear the costume she brought for you.

“Why not? You’ll look really cute in this.”

“You mean I’ll look desperate. No thank you I already have one.” Throwing your things on the couch, you walked into your room to freshen up and grabbed the home-made costume before putting on some light make up and walking out.

“Are you kidding me Y/N? That could barely pass as a home-made costume.” She complained about the shirt and your lack of ideas to which you ignored before exiting your apartment

“I’ll have you know, I wore this to class yesterday and pretty much everyone was triggered. That shit is terrifying Wanda. I’m serious.” You attempted to convince her that your sense of humor was spot on but she ignored you all the way to the tower. Once you got there, Wanda handed you a special tag to wear so no one would stop you when you try to go anywhere.

“This will get you anywhere you want...actually, no. Anywhere you’re allowed to be in.” She sipped her coffee before pushing you towards the elevator, already hoping that everyone was on time so you wouldn’t feel awkward.

When the elevator rang, Wanda walked out and turned around, only to see the nervousness seeping through your clothes. “Hey, it’s okay. It’s just us Y/N. Pretend we’re at the coffee shop.” She smiled at you and you wished her assuring words would work but your nerves got the best of you.

As soon as you stepped out, you heard screaming and yelling from the opposite end of the room. Walking behind Wanda, you watched a bunch of middle aged men and women screaming at each other while carving pumpkins, laughing to yourself when you saw how invested Steve was in his own pumpkin. You didn’t announce your arrival right away, wanting to watch them in their “natural habitat” before things got awkward.

You were doing a fairly good job standing on the side and sipping some of the green juice from the large cauldron when you felt something pull on your shirt. Looking down, you saw a young boy staring at you with chocolate all over his face and his hands, which were now on your jeans. You laughed at his carelessness before kneeling down and smiling at him.

“Hi, I’m Y/N, what’s your name?”

“I’m Nathaniel. Why aren’t you wearing a costume?” He asked in all seriousness and you had to stop the laugh from erupting so he doesn’t think you were laughing at him. “I am actually wearing a costume. This is what some grown-ups are afraid of.”

“You’re afraid of a chocolate bar?” He asked again and this time, you couldn’t help but laugh at his innocence.

“Oh no sweetheart, this is the Bar Exam. It’s a little different from a chocolate bar. It’s like a test, a really very hard test that I have to take.”

“Well, if you study for it, won’t you pass?” He tilted his head to the side and you pouted at how cute he was

“I wish it were that easy buddy.” You ruffled his hair and watched as he smiled up at you before taking a chunk out of the chocolate frog in his hand.

“Hey little guy, didn’t I tell you to make sure you wipe your hands before grabbing anyone?” You knew who it was instantly, and wished you tried a little harder with how you looked. Looking up, you saw the one and only Bucky Barnes smiling down at you, the expression growing wider when he saw the way you reacted to him.

As much as you tried, you couldn’t hold back the starstruck expression you held. This was Bucky for god’s sake but his costume made it worse; his long hair was slicked back in a ponytail and not covering his face anymore. And my god, those eyes were such a vibrant blue, especially with the glasses adorning his sharp features. Then there was the cardigan and jeans that were both at least one size smaller. You didn’t know what he was supposed to be and you honestly didn’t care. All you paid attention to was how absolutely breathtaking he looked

“Wanda didn’t tell me you were coming.” Bucky asked as he grabbed the chocolate out of Nathaniel’s hand so he could clean his hands.

“I- umm, well, I initially said no but you know Wanda. She doesn’t take no for an answer.” You stood up and didn’t know what else to say, watching as Bucky grabbed a wet wipe and rub the melted chocolate from the little boy’s hand before telling him he couldn’t have any more chocolate.

“Hey hey this is your sixth chocolate frog and I’d rather not have Laura come after me. Now, go and see if Steve finished your pumpkin or not.” You watched as the kid ran to Steve and jumped on his lap to see his pumpkin, almost yelping when you felt something rub at your upper thighs.

“Hold still, there’s some chocolate here.” Bucky said as he knelt behind you and rubbed your jeans with a wet towel. “Damn, this kid really went for it huh?”

“Haha uhh yeah, yup. That- ahuha.” You didn’t know what to say, torn between wanting to focus on the hand holding onto your hips while pretending Bucky touching you wasn’t a huge deal.

“There, I got most of it out. Nice costume by the way, really funny.”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell Wanda.” You turned away when you saw how intense holding his gaze was and pretended you were getting more juice.

“Wanna carve a pumpkin with us?” Bucky was already walking towards the corner table where Clint’s other kids were sitting.

“I’m not really that talented to be honest, I’d just end up ruining your pumpkins.”

“Nonsense, we have a lot. And no one here is talented...except maybe Steve and I. And I’m definitely not biased.” Bucky smiled at you before motioning for you to follow him. You did silently and ignored Wanda and Natasha’s stares.

Sitting down, you introduced yourself to Lila and Cooper before turning to watch Bucky work his magic.

Within minutes, you were so focused on watching him carve the pumpkin that you didn’t notice when he stole glances at you. He was so talented with the knife and a part of you, the slightly inappropriate one, wished he was using those skills in a different way but you brushed the thought aside. Almost fifteen minutes later, Bucky was giving Lila her pumpkin and smiling when she screamed from how perfect it was.

“My god how did you do that?” You asked, holding the pumpkin up for Lila to take a picture before setting it down to look at it. In the middle of the pumpkin was a flying Tinkerbell with fairy dust all around her. It was both beautiful and on point that you couldn’t help but praise him.

“What can I say doll? I’m talented with my hands,” he watched as you flushed at his comment, knowing fully well you caught onto what he meant. Bucky winked at you before getting up and walking over to Steve to see his pumpkin.

“Now, how about Y/N judges which is the better pumpkin?” Steve asked Bucky and you immediately said no, not wanting to have any kids crying because you favored one super soldier over the other.

“We trust your unbiased opinion Y/N!” Clint said and laughed along with Sam when they saw your semi-angry expression. You honestly couldn’t tell which was better because as precise and beautiful as Bucky’s was, Steve’s was straight up art. He managed to carve out Van Gogh’s Starry Night and use correct shading on a pumpkin and you couldn’t tell which was better.

“Guys I honestly cannot decide. They’re both so unbelievable.” You turned and saw Lila telling you to choose the other one so her brother doesn’t cry and you ended up doing just that. “But I think Steve’s wins because nothing beats Van Gogh.” As soon as you said that, Nathaniel started jumping up and down and stuck his tongue out at Bucky before grabbing another chocolate frog and running to you.

“Here, the winner was supposed to take this one but I’ll give it to you because you’re not a meanie head like Bucky.” You hugged the little kid before taking the chocolate and walking out to the balcony to get some fresh air.

Seconds later, you heard someone clear their throat and asking if they could join you.

“Of course.” You motioned for Bucky to come and didn’t bother to look at him because you knew you’d look away immediately.

“Not gonna lie, I thought you were going to pick me doll.” When you said nothing, Bucky took a deep breath before stepping closer to you, his shoulder brushing your own and causing you to stop chewing on the candy.

“Hurt a man’s feelings darlin’, first you refuse my invitation then you choose Steve’s pumpkin over mine.”

“What invitation? I didn’t refuse your invitation!” You turned to face him and were surprised by how close he was.

“Yeah you did. I asked you weeks ago if you’d wanna come to this party but you said no. Then I asked Wanda to tell you and you still said no. Thank god she’s annoying when it comes to these things.” Bucky watched as realization dawned on your face, smiling when you shyly looked away from him.

“Y/N, look at me.” Bucky whispered, turning around to rest his elbow on the railing while trying to turn your chin towards him.

“N-no.”

“Please.” His request was so quiet you almost didn’t hear him.

“You make me nervous Bucky.” You didn’t mean for those words to come out but once they did, you felt embarrassment wash over you.

“I don’t mean to. I swear I don’t.” He managed to turn you towards him, smiling down at you when he saw the little pout aimed at him.

“I really like you darlin’, and ‘ve been trying to talk to you for weeks but you just get so busy at work and I don’t mean to bother you when your shift is over. But...is this okay?” He leaned down and whispered those words against your cheek, making you shiver from the close proximity and his cologne.

“This- is m-more than okay.” You responded and Bucky didn’t give you a chance to say anything else, slowly capturing your lips with his and pulling you closer to him until you only felt him. His hands rested on your waist and when he saw you responding to his touches, he dared to grab your neck and push you aggressively to him.

“Goddamn, what’re you doing to me doll? It’s like you put a spell on me and I- shit, I can’t stop thinkin’ ‘bout you baby.”

“I c-could ask you the same thing, especially with those glasses.” You laughed at his boyish grin, noticing the way his neck started to blush at your comment. “Well, you have to thank Wanda for that. She told me you liked men with glasses and I don’t need to wear them on a daily basis. But I could during halloween.”

It was your turn to blush, knowing you needed to both thank and kill Wanda when you saw her.

“Wanna have dinner with me?” Bucky asked, refusing to put any space between the two of you.

“I would love that.” Almost immediately, you heard loud screams and swears coming from the door, looking past BUcky and watching as Steve took money from Tony while Natasha aggressively grabbed the fifty dollar bills from Clint and Sam.

“You just couldn’t wait till Christmas could you?” Sam yelled at Bucky before heading back inside and you couldn’t help but laugh at the happy and annoyed expression on everyone’s face.

“Good thing I listened to Wanda.”

#bucky fanfiction #bucky barnes fanfiction #bucky x reader #bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes #bucky barnes/tony stark #halloween fanfiction #marvel fanfiction #bucky smut #bucky halloween #sebastian stan

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uxannie · 4 years

Photo

Rosie playing our Ideation Game, photographed by Annie

Annie’s Ideation Game

A few weeks ago, our team settled on the theme of ‘freecycling’ as the focus of our smart city project, with an emphasis on reuse, rehabilitation, and sharing of material resources. This led us to seek out interesting places in the city where we saw some potential for integration within a ‘freecycle’ smart city system.

Last week, we considered the myriad of interests around this theme and distinguished locations (e.g. libraries, Amazon lockers, etc.) from the objects that inhabit and/or move through these locations.

Based on our observations so far, we distilled a whole city’s worth of things into four ‘archetypal’ objects, whose lifecycles we will study. These include books, toys, clothes, and plants. We elected to base our ongoing observations, interviews and desk research around the creation of personas and lifecycle journeys for these objects. A deep understanding of these objects and their past and present lifecycles is necessary to design for their future (just as in UX, a deep understanding of users is necessary to design for their needs).

So we had a plan for personas and user journeys, adding some structure to our research. Now it’s time to start ideating. How could we facilitate the most creative possible ideation around our topic? My first instinct was to return to our beloved theme of play to uncover solutions, turning over ideas about how to use play to uncover various potential smart city innovations around the topic at hand. I grabbed my sketchbook and ‘thought out loud’ through sketching various game formats, including a card game, a game of dice, and a board game:

Sketches of game ideas, drawn and photographed by Annie

These ideas then percolated in the back of my mind for a few days, and yesterday morning, the concept for a game gelled. This game was inspired by the Quiet Year game that Joyce introduced us to, which we played during our first team meeting, and requires the following materials:

playing cards

dice

a marker

a big sheet of paper

imagination

collaboration

In our Ideation Game, the playing cards are assigned object-location combinations, such that each object represents a suit, and each number/face card represents a location. The numbers on the dice represent different types of technologies. Before the meeting, I generated an initial series of designations, to which the team agreed and amended.

The rules of the Ideation Game, written and photographed by Annie

The purpose of the Ideation Game is to generate innovative, out-of-the-box ideas through imagination and collaboration. To play the game:

A player draws a card and rolls a dice, which will give them a combination of an object (suit of card) + location (number/face of card) + technology (dice number).

For example, if the player draws a 6 of Spades and rolls a II on the dice, according to the above key, Spades = plants, 6 = hospital, and ii = internet of things.

Therefore, the player must quickly imagine a scenario in a future smart city system that involves plants in hospitals, somehow using iOT (extra points if the scenario relates to reuse, rehabilitation and/or sharing of material resources, per our team’s chosen smart city theme).

Once the player throws out their first ideas, the team responds and the group collaborates together to imagine various scenarios involving this combination of object + location + technology.

Finally, the player who initiated the turn uses the marker and paper to draw a small sketch that represents their favorite imaginative scenario as imagined and iterated through the group’s discussion.

Once the player’s sketch is complete, the next player takes their turn beginning with step 1. Repeat as many rounds as desired/feasible!

We convened for the game after a group progress report and a quick strategic session about plans moving forward. To begin with, the team was super receptive to this game, for which I was really grateful :)

Joyce sketching, photographed by Annie

Gemma began the game by drawing the Queen of Spades and rolling a IV on the dice. This gave her the combination of books + bank + wearable tech. She told a story and we riffed on it, and then she drew a symbol. Rosie’s first draw gave us the combination of toys + family home + drones. Joyce’s gave us clothes + library + VR, and so on. We each took two draws and because of the richness of our collaborative ideation discussions, these two rounds took us two hours! But time flies when you’re having fun!

Gemma sketching, photographed by Annie

At the beginning of the game, people’s ideas were quite literal and in the ‘expected’ realm of ways our brains might normally connect these types of concepts, but as the game continued and we got our creative juices flowing, the ideas became more and more innovative and unexpected, generating tons of creative ideation! HOORAY! Equally as importantly, the laughter and playfulness continued to build up throughout the game, so by the time we finished we were in absolute stitches with giggles.

Our collaborative ideation sketch, photographed by Rosie

I’m sure you’re curious about what these little doodles meant to us and why they took two hours to produce! Rest assured, we will unveil the brilliance of our creativity in future posts through stories, images, and video.

In the meantime, I think it is relevant to briefly reflect on (my perception of) the success of the game in facilitating generative ideation. Our team has had a keen interest in play since the beginning of the term, when Joyce introduced us to the Quiet Year game, followed by our visit to the Play Well exhibit at the Wellcome Collection. I think we instinctively felt that play is a fantastic way of catalyzing creative thought. Certainly, at the Play Well exhibit, we saw examples of artwork and architecture inspired by play and/or incorporating play into the design process.

As a psychologist, I love to look for reasons to explain phenomena like this play/creativity link, and what comes to mind is the theory of divergent thinking (McCrae, 1987), which defines creativity as a style of thinking that diverges from linear reasoning and typical thought patterns or associations. Whether or not this is an accurate definition of creativity aside, we might think of play as one way of stimulating divergent thinking. Our typical thought patterns generally fall within the well-worn neural pathways of productivity/survival mode, which is necessary to complete work and fulfill daily tasks and chores. Thus, to push our thoughts out of these ruts, it helps to get out of the ‘work’ mindset.

Because people are used to playing games for social, fun, playful scenarios, the very act of sitting around a table with a group of people with playing cards and dice shifts us into a different mindset. We loosen up a bit. We laugh. We know we are expected to think on our feet, to react quickly, and perhaps most importantly: to take ourselves (and our ideas) less seriously. It’s just a game, after all, so we’re allowed to be totally silly and fantastical and out of this world...

(... and into a world of... cat bailiffs?! Ok. We’ll stop there for now, before our imaginations get completely out of hand..)

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lonedailydoodle · 5 years

Photo

Daily Doodle 233 – December 5, 2018

We got to see the biggest cruise in the world!!

One day.. One day I’ll be able to go inside it and spend a wonderful week shared with Pixie <3

Today I woke up early and quickly got on my PC, managing to finish the doodle and then leaving to Pixie’s again

I got there and had some breakfast a bit later, we had fun with helium and then watched Pixie play on the Xbox. I also got told that the Symphony of the Seas, the world’s biggest cruise ship was on the island and Pixie wanted to go see it. I was TOTALLY down with that too!

After a couple of hours, we left to refuel my car and then drive to the capital where the ship would be for another hour or so. Pix also fooled around with the rubber chicken he got yesterday by sticking it out the window and making it make its noise.

We got to the capital’s pier but then saw the insane amount of traffic.. which was perfect cuz we could see the ship for longer! Man I really want to be in this ship too one day.. So big <3

We left after escaping traffic on the way out and got home where we spent a couple more hours of the afternoon just watching Pixie play and then later staying in the room alone as Pix left to get his cousin from university

We had plans on replacing Wilson’s springs today but Pixie’s dad was too busy, so that plan fell apart.. We didn’t do much in the house before we left in Wilson to see a friend at a McDonalds nearby. Pix and he talked and got food Pixie wanted. Pix ate there and then we left home again for a few minutes

Then we left again in my car to a Walgreens nearby to get me a coffee as I was exhausted, then go home to spend a few hours doing the same, watching Pix play. I was also cold from his AC and tried warming up with his blankets, a jacket and Pix himself

This continued until we left to refuel his car, then go home again to spent the rest of the night just watching him do some homework, though I did leave to get him some late night KFC and told him I would feed him if he hurried it with homework.. But he ended up just swallowing everything himself, wow

Anyways, he was done and then struggled with his old printer constantly jamming papers until he finally got the homework printed. We then left outside to kiss goodbye as I wanted.. or originally intended to go home earlier instead of super late as usual.. But that didn’t work anyway..

I then left home and settled down, struggled showering again as the heater was STILL broke somehow.. I wish I could have known what my parents did to shower while I was gone.. Ugh..

Anyways, I wrote the doodle and headed to bed as I wanted to catch up with sleep as I would finally not have any alarms this time.. Aaaahhh bed~

#daily doodle 2018 #daily doodle #doodle #furry #art #jeany545 daily doodle

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17cafe · 6 years

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seventeen college au valentine’s date

(with member of your choice!)

so a little backstory

you and him are in the same art class

and you both always make these little doodles that take just a minute while you do other work

they were always super cute and to be honest it made you find him super cute

long story short things kept happening and u two ended up with crushes on each other hehe

and you found out you liked each other hehehe

just one day before it was valentine’s day he got to class before you

which he was very relieved about

and tucked his little doodle for you under a tin of markers that were at your spot

when you got to class you saw the corner of paper sticking out and u were like

“oh wow i wonder who could have done this”

super sarcasm

you look around for him though but don’t see him anywhere

he was hiding behind a corner looking at u kind of sneaky

to see your reaction

but he was too shy to like be beside you when you looked at the doodle

when you moved the tin off of it and picked it up

and unfolded it

you saw that the drawing was of you and him

and you were both holding this huge candy heart with equally huge smiles

and on the heart had the words “be mine?”

but in the bottom corner of the paper was another drawing

much smaller

of you both eating the candy heart because why let it go to waste

and you laugh then smile

when he sees you laugh he’s like hooo boy okay yes this is good

and he comes up to you finally

you’re actually so intrigued at how good the drawing is though it isn’t a normal doodle and you jump when he puts his hands on your shoulders

so you turn around and you’re smiling super wide and he’s smiling super wide and you’re like aWWWWW and hug him super tight

the other students in the room were going awww too

and some were ignoring u too but hey that’s okay

in response to the “be mine?” on the heart you say “yes do you even have to ask !!!”

he’s like i wasn’t sure! you can’t blame me! you play footsies under the table with the guy that sits across from us

you’re like uh do u really think that means he’s my boyfriend or something??

he’s like yeah

and you’re like hhahhaha !!! and he’s like ahaah

then the teacher is like okay kids sit down

and class starts

later on after school you stay a couple extra minutes to finish your assignment because you were almost done!! thankfully art was last class of the day for you

he stays with you of course

after a little while it was just you and him left because the other students all rushed outta there and the teacher left to go bake some clay

you bring up the footsies thing again and you start ranting

not angry ranting but just ranting nonstop

and he literally out of nowhere was like hey...and pecks your lips real quick so you stop talking

you actually gasp and put your pencil crayon down before leaning and kissing him back but on the cheek

he blushes SO HARD

he grabs your hand and bag and drawing and just pulls u out of the room and ur like WHAT are you doing

he doesn’t say anything and pulls you to the library

and sits at a secluded table and it’s so sosoososooo sweet

he just holds your hand and plays with your fingers and he just asks about your day and kind of mumbles things sometimes that u ask him to repeat

and it’s always something like “oh.. i just said you look cute when you make that face..”

the smile and faint blush never leaves his face as you guys talk with each other.. until one of the library workers is like hey we’re closing get out

now its an hour and a half since school ended and u guys are lke woah what

but he’s still holding onto your hand and grabs your bag for u again and leads you outta there

and there’s nobody in the hallways so u guys just wander around in the school and keep talking

but soon your phone rings and ur like whoop! i know what that is gotta go home

and you pout because you love spending time with him…

but he’s like “no that face is too pretty to pout”

boom your mood is instantly brighter

and he just smiles because he Knows and he’s like alright which way

you’re like ????

he’s like which way to your home

and he obviously walks you home

of course before you open the door to go inside he kisses your forehead.. and he’s like I’ll see you tomorrow right?? it’s valentines day you better come to school :((

and you’re like yes of course i will see you tomorrow!! and he grins and winks and says “tomorrow it is then”

when you go inside and close the door you just sigh and squeal and that dork is jumping around as he walks away and hops all the way home wow he’s such a happy boy

so tomorrow comes aka ~valentine’s day~

art class is right in the morning

and neither of you have afternoon classes !!

he got up early to look good for u.. he did his hair how you like it and wore a button up shirt with these nice black pants ooo

he got you candy hearts like the drawing and some flowers but shh you don’t know yet

also he drew another picture last night but wait for that ok

he came early because he wanted to be there before you again

he’s checking his hair and breath and making sure his shirt is all nicely resting with no wrinkles or anything

and he’s waiting in the art room beside the door when you come in

you don’t see him n hes like yes my plan worked

he silently follows you and waits until you sit down and whispers “happy valentine’s day~~” and holds the flowers and candy and folded drawing out in front of you and ur like WOAHH

OH BOY

HE PUTS ALL THE STUFF ON YOUR TABLE AND LITERALLY JUST. SPINS YOUR CHAIR

and kiss e s you

and it’s short but passionate and like it sucked the life out of you that was so unexpected

and he pulls back at looks at you all dazed and smiles

both of you are so red

he turns your chair back around and tucks you in before he takes his seat next to you and points to the flowers because he doesn’t want you looking at him he is TOO SHY

“do you like them?? they aren’t valentine colours but they reminded me of you~” because there’s yellow flowers mixed with the pink

and inside u are a total mess like crying but a good cry with heart eyes..

he’s giggling like crazy and you unfold the drawing finally and this boy

“im glad you like the flowers because–”

he drew your faces from side angles and your noses are touching and like the other drawing you both have those big scrunchy smiles

and you CANT you just hug him so tight and wrap your legs around him too because your chairs are against each other like one long chair and just

the other students coming in now are all smiley and some “awww” at you guys and you pull away but

he opens the candy container thing and picks one and brings it up for you to read before putting it in your hand

it’s one that said “be mine?”

more people are smiling and cooing at you guys and you hide your beet red face

he hides his face too but sees you doing it still and whispers in your ear

“you okay?”

you nod but still hide your face and he rubs your back and leans his head on the table right beside yours and hes trying to look at you

“lemme see that pretty face? pleeease?”

soon enough when class starts though he goes and gets the paints and brushes you always use & your project and brings everything to you

he gets to work but wraps his leggies around yours and you’re like ??? but he just keeps doing his own thing

u let it happen no questions just smiles

at the end of class he cleans up all his and your stuff for you too :’)

and you assume he just didn’t bring a bag or anything today because he has nothing with him

he just picks up all of your stuff and says

“we’re going out to get lunch today!”

and you’re just like ok sunshine!

he’s like o no i should be calling you that...

so you’re like “well why didn’t you”

“dang u right.. i’m sorry prince/ss” and he looks around once again seeing practically nobody in the room then kisses your cheeks like 10 times

all this luck of being nearly alone in a public place wow

you guys go to this small casual restaurant about a block away

you to pick a table as he orders and pays in advance because he knows it’s a good place they never mess up

you come back and ask “what did you order for us?”

he smiles at the word “us” and looks down shyly

doesn’t respond and picks up where you left off from the conversation after school yesterday

he lightly takes hold of your hand and stares at you so admiringly as you talk

the food all comes soon and ok are you ready

spring rolls with the sauce in a heart shaped dish

sandwiches cut in the shape of a heart

red drink with heart straw

dessert was a cupcake with pink icing and a bit of ice cream in the shape of a heart too

and you were like wo w they’re really in the valentine’s spirit!! and he was like hehe yeah

but really he had to request it and pay extra for all that but it was worth it because he loved when you giggled and smiled so much

when you guys finish eating and talking and get up

and when you’re at the door just about to leave the waiter comes up with one last thing

a heart balloon!! and hands it to you and u look at your boy

he shrugs and he’s like idk where that came from

you’re like well i do you goober and peck his lips and he’s like heHEEe

he caresses your cheek and kisses you back but you pull away kind of quickly because this is a public place

after leaving the restaurant you guys just walk around the neighbourhood talking and laughing and sneaking lil kissies in here and there

you end up laying in the field by your school and again luck is on your side because nobody else is out there and it’s a bit chilly but sunny and nice

so it’s just you guys on the grass

holding hands and he sings this little song he made for you after getting over his shyness about it

and it makes you fall so much harder

you tied the balloon to your wrist but somehow it came undone

and at one point the balloon flies up and you yell !! and he jumps up and you do too and jump onto his back and you touch the ribbon but it gets away :((

you huff and you’re so sad and lay limp on his back n in a soft voice he’s like “baby it’s okay hey it’s okay”

extra cuddles and kisses as u pretend to stay sad and say it was the most special balloon because he got it for you

tickles you a little so you laugh and man

keeps kissing u so much he can not get enough

they’re always so soft and warm just so delicate

it’s overwhelming because you’ve never really kissed before and now so many in one day !!! but it’s exciting!!

at one point you’re kind of on top of him attacking him in kisses to “get back” at him n you bring your hands up for better balance and end up tickling his sides and he jumps

you’re like >:))

continue the tickling and “revenge” kisses and omg

even though he’s laughing so hard all you hear is silence because you’re just focused on his face and how purely happy he seems and it’s like wow.. i caused that

but you end up laying side by side fiddling with each others fingers

you see the dot of the balloon way up in the clear sky

you two just spend hours at the field sitting and talking and sometimes getting up and running away from the other as they threatened to tickle you

soon enough it’s already getting dark?? you two were so caught up in each other that you didn’t even realize it

he thought dinner plans were too formal as you two just became a couple and you already went on the cute lunch date !! so he walked you home before it got too dark

you started rubbing your arms because you got cold

you had a jacket on already but he put his coat over your shoulders as well

when he dropped you off he got a little pouty

and you kissed him to make him smile again

of course he did

and of course he held your hands as he looked at you while you talked

he stood outside the door with you for a long time but then you got too cold and got a shiver

and he was like oh no okay go inside

he walked home in the dark and he was a little scared but that didn’t matter because he was so head over heels for you

when he got home he checked his phone and saw a message from you

but even before replying he called his mom and told her all about you omg

he couldn’t help himself

this... angel boy

likes you so much

he will always do anything to make you smile

and always protect you and help you and support you

and love you

and he knows you’ll do all the same

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biomeberry · 7 years

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Friends

Ayy, it’s ya girl Salty, back at it again with the fanfic!

Alright, I’ll never intro anything like that ever again. This was supposed to be a drabble but hit the 2k mark so that’s a thing. @prinxiety-logality-sanders-sides asked me to tag them the next time I wrote so hey. I’m also going to tag @sanders-sideblog for being a cool and supportive bean, hope you don’t mind!

Fandom: Thomas Sanders (I know I’m shocked)

Pairing: Prinxiety (mostly brotp with fairly strongly implied romantic feelings)

Prompt(s): the last two lines of dialogue

Summary: A collection of moments between childhood best friends Anxiety and Roman.

Warnings: Very deceptive beginning. This is gonna be angst guys. Childhood Prinxiety is precious but it doesn’t last. There’s some very light swearing I guess? Nothing too foul.

Roman doesn’t know what year or month or day of the week it is when he first meets Anxiety, but he remembers the moment.

He's coloring at the table. Thomas is busy with homework, which he isn't used to, so Roman is kind of on the back burner. He's vaguely aware of Thomas’s mom scolding him for leaving the project for too long.

“Roman!” Morality calls out to the boy. Roman looks up from his picture to see the oldest trait leading an unfamiliar figure into the room.

“We have a new friend! Why don't you show him around? I'm sure he'd like to get to know you!” Mo ruffles Roman’s hair before slipping back out.

The new boy is thin, with a too-large coat and too-small shoes, which he stares at instead of meeting Roman’s eyes. He reminds the young Prince of a nervous alley cat he’d seen once on Thomas’s walk home.

“Hi there!” The boy doesn't answer.

“I'm Roman, what's your name?” He tries again. No answer. The young prince bites his lip, thinking hard. He's not about to be bested so easily.

“I'm coloring, do you want to see?” The other looks up and gives the slightest of shrugs. “Awesome!” Roman walks back over to the table and picks up the paper. “It's a dragon witch, see? It's got fire and magic and lasers and stuff! I’m gonna battle it!” He uses the paper as a makeshift sword, with his own personal sound effects. He has a sudden thought. “Hey, do you want to draw too? I don't mind sharing my crayons!” The new boy seems to consider for a long while, before very softly nodding. He goes over to the table and grabs a piece of brightly colored construction paper and a black crayon. Roman smiles and goes back to his dragon witch, as the other boy colors the entire sheet of paper black.

“Ooh! Logan taught me a really cool trick with that earlier, let me show you.” Roman reaches over to grab another piece of paper. He then pulls out a small Swiss Army knife. “Don't tell anyone I have this, Mo would freak out.” He scribbles quickly with a thick layer of black crayon over the red paper. He then gently presses the knife into the wax, just above the paper. He scratches it off in the shape of a crown, then holds it up. The new trait’s eyes widen slightly, a small “woah” leaving his lips. He grabs a popsicle stick and tries it on his own paper. Satisfied with the result, he begins to doodle. The work in contented silence for a while.

“Um...Roman, right?” Roman jolts up at the sound of the other’s voice.

“Yeah!”

“You asked what my name was earlier…” He squirms in his chair. “I don't have one. Thomas’s mom called me ‘anxiety’ when he asked about me...but I don't have a real name like you do.” ‘Anxiety’ looks down again, putting an unnecessary amount of concentration into his doodling. For a moment, Roman is just shocked by the unfairness of it all. Why would you bring a trait into the world and not give them a real name?

“That's okay, I'll give you a name! Can I call you Ann?” Anxiety shrugs.

“Sure, if you want. I don't care.” But Roman can see the way his mouth turns up.

“Well, Ann, I’m super glad to meet you! Can we be friends?” He holds out his hand. Ann stretches out his own hand, pausing for a second before grabbing Roman’s.

“Yeah. Friends.”

2 weeks after Ann comes to live with the rest of them, Roman is woken up by a knock on his door. He's been practicing his vigilance lately, so as soon as he hears the noise he's awake, with one hand on the knife Mo still doesn’t know about.

“Come in?” It comes out too much like a question to be as brave as Roman would've liked, but all thoughts of that fled his mind as a tiny, shivering Ann crept through the doorway.

“H-Hey Roman.” He takes a couple steps back. “I'm sorry, I shouldn’t have bothered you, I’ll just go…”

“Nonsense!” Logan had just taught him that word yesterday. “If something has upset you in the dead of the night, it's my duty to kill it!” Ann looks slightly taken aback and opens his mouth to reply. He's cut off, however, by a loud clap of thunder. He lets out a small squeak and cowers. Roman can feel Thomas whimper too, his fear and anxiety getting the better of him. Ah.

“Oh, I see. That's a pretty bad storm, isn't it?” Ann nods.

“But it's dumb to be scared of them, you probably think I'm really lame. And, I-I know I'm scaring Thomas--I'm not trying to, but I am and so you probably hate me, too.” He rambled. Roman feels his heart break a little.

“Ann, don't be silly. About the hate, not the storms!” He clarifies quickly as the younger’s face drops even more. “I know you're just doing your job, trying to keep Thomas safe, right? Anyway, thunderstorms are pretty scary. I used to hate them, but then Logan told me that the sound is basically clouds bumping into each other! Cool, right?” Ann rubs his eyes quickly.

“Yeah, I guess.”

“Hey, come over here.” Roman pats the bed next to him, the other boy pads over, hesitant as always. “So you know how I'm Thomas’s creativity and stuff?” Ann nods. Roman grins and snaps his fingers. The large window high above his bed shifts from bleak rain and clouds to a bright, sunny day. Shadows from a tree bounce against the glass and cast the whole room in dappled light.

“Woahhh….” Anxiety smiles in spite of himself. “That's so cool.” He turns to look at Roman with shining eyes. “You’re really cool.” Roman blushes in spite of himself.

“Of course I am!” He tosses Anxiety a blanket. “Just because it looks warm doesn't mean it is. Don't be foolish.” Ann rolls his eyes, but smiles and wraps up anyway. They spend the next hour cycling through window designs, everything from lightly falling snow to a tropical beach with waves lapping against it. After a while, Ann’s eyes start to flutter shut. Soon enough, he leans against Roman’s shoulder, completely asleep. Roman gently moves the other boy so that he's lying on one of the enormous fluffy pillows that lined the bed. They both sleep better than they have in a while.

“No, no, hear me out!”

“Ro, for the last time we are not sneaking back into the middle school late at night and using Mr. Brunsby’s tables to make a skateboard ramp!” Ann gestures wildly with the straw of his smoothie.

“But it would be so cool!”

“Thomas will break something, and it’ll probably be a bone.” Roman sighs, flopping dramatically over onto the floor. Deep down he knows it’s a stupid idea.

“Why do you have to be such a buzzkill?” Ann wraps his arms around Roman, smirking. “It’s just what I do, Princey boy.”

“Ew.” Roman pushes him off, though secretly he doesn’t mind all that much. The other trait is weirdly warm and it’s kind of nice. “Okay, so what about--”

Slurp. Ann makes deadly eye contact as he sips his smoothie as loudly as possible.

“What about if-”

S l u u r p

“Ughhhhh. I was saying--”

Sluuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurp.

“ANN!” Roman shrieks and hits Ann so that he tips over, laughing wildly. “I hate you.” He puffs a lock of hair out of his face and pouts. Ann looks up from his spot on the floor.

“You love me.” As Roman looks at him, hair a mess and the grin still stretching across his face, he thinks that Ann just might be right about that one.

“I hate high school.” Ann wails, flopping onto the couch. Mo makes a sympathetic coo and offers the younger trait a cookie. “It’s terrible.” Roman joins him on the couch.

“Tell me about it. But hey, at least there’s auditions for the musical on Friday. I can’t wait to get back into it!”

“Yeah, yeah, Mr. Born-For-The-Stage. But speaking of which, is Thomas prepared?” Roman smiles proudly.

“Indeed! We have our song choice down, and we’ll make sure that he gets a good night’s sleep.” He pats Ann gently. “But, I know you get worried. Do you want to assist my conquering of the theatre?” He offers Ann the script. The other pushes it away. There’s a sick feeling in his stomach. Thomas really, really wants to do well on this.

“Are you sure? What if you forgot something?” Roman frowns, his brow furrowing.

“Yes, I am quite sure. And no, everything is in order.”

“You don’t know that though, do you? Not really.”

“Ann, don’t antagonize him.” Logan calls from across the room.

“I’m not trying too! Look, all I'm trying to say is that there are a million things that could go wrong.”

“And that’s not helpful.” The prince says, a little icily. Ann feels his throat constrict a little.

“Um...I’m just going to go. You guys don’t need me here.” He gets up and quietly begins to leave the room.

“Ann,” Roman says gently. “Just go for now. We can play video games later, how about it?” Ann shrugs and slinks out.

When that Friday morning comes and a very anxious and sleep-deprived Thomas pours orange juice in his cereal, Ann can feel Roman staring at the back of his head.

A plate smashes.

“Can you just stop?”

“No, I can’t! If I could, I would!”

“Thomas has been so happy lately. He likes the campus, he has friends, and he’s doing so well. Ann, I lo--like you, but you can’t just take over like this!”

“I’m not trying to!” His voice is harsh, abrasive and cold. But Roman isn’t oblivious. He’s learned how Ann reacts to things. He’s about to cry.

“Ann, listen to me--”

“Don’t call me that! It’s not my name.” Roman is slightly taken back. There’s never been any rejection of the nickname before. “Anxiety,” he says slowly, the syllables sounding wrong and foreign on his tongue. “Anxiety, you’re my friend. I care about you. I want to help you.”

“No, you don’t.” Anxiety hisses. “You want me to go away. You want me to just stop existing.” Roman is getting frustrated.

“You know that isn't true!” He’s starting to see red. “Christ, Anxiety! You know what? Yeah, my life would be a lot easier without you! Is that what you want to hear? That you're a burden? Well great, cause it’s true!”

Roman has never felt more suffocated by silence. Ah, crap. He's messed up. Anxiety--no, Ann, his Ann--really did start to cry then. Hot, angry tears that slipped down his cheeks.

“Hey,”

“Save it.”

Morality sighs.

“You two have been attached at the hip since the beginning of your existence. You’ll make up.”

They don't.

Then, Roman cries, too.

It's a Saturday morning, and Logan suggests they all do a spring cleaning of the mindspace. And Logan, who for all his brilliance could learn to take a hint or two, decides to pair up Roman and Anxiety.

“You two have disagreed on the pettiest things. It's high time that you resolve your issues through teamwork.” No amount of groaning or complaining from either party could change his mind.

And so, the two traits end up shifting through a box of Thomas’s old memories. Anxiety mutters the entire time about how Logan probably just wanted a chance to make out with Morality. It was a fair accusation.

“Hey, remember this?” Anxiety says, out of the blue. He holds up a beaten up cardboard crown. Roman leans over.

“Oh, yeah.” He reaches behind the crown. “What’s this?”

“Hey maybe don’t--” Roman pulls out a photo.

A much younger Roman and Anxiety are hanging from a tree branch, both holding popsicles. Roman is giving the camera a huge, gap-toothed smile, and the photo catches Anxiety mid-giggle, slightly blurry. He still brings his hand up like that when he laughs. The back of the photo is covered with Morality’s loopy handwriting. Princey and Ann, age 10.

“I remember that…” Anxiety says, very softly. Roman nods.

“You know, back then I thought we’d always be friends.” For a moment, the look on Anxiety’s face is one of pure misery. Loss is scrawled so plainly across his features it’s almost painful to look at. Then, he smooths his expression out and gets up.

“Yeah, well that’s where you were wrong.”

#sanders sides #sanders sides fanfic #my writing #angst #roman sanders #anxiety sanders #sorry guys #hope you enjoyed though

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inexchangeforyoursoul · 6 years

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Not gonna lie… I wanted to double up on this one and put the next Nami chapter in here so there’s another long one after all that hiatus. But I see it's already massive at over 4k, so I'm not disappointed in myself. :p

ps have y'all ever tried to draw Law with Cora's smile? I did, a few years back. You may have even seen it. It's pure nightmare fuel...

25. Grandma: off

"Yeah, these are vanilla flavored," she concludes after Law had her taste the ones with a yellowish hue on them, even though the smell was a dead giveaway.

"You can have those, then," he states as he's nibbling on the remains of an unflavored one.

"You dislike vanilla?" Kat asks, being somewhat surprised at the information. Like, it's a sometimes food, true… but she also won't straight-out turn it down when being offered. Nor does she know anyone who would. Well, didn't know anyone, who would.

"Nope. Once every blue moon I'll accept it, but generally? I don't like vanilla. Nor raspberries, blackcurrants…" He leans back into the chair, thinking about; "... pineapples. Licorice. Green apples and yellow tomatoes…"

"... zoes dis list 'ave an end?" she asks, munching on a vanilla flavored piece.

"... eventually," he nods, then continues in the same breath: "Artichokes, brussels sprouts… aubergines. Caviar. It's a long one."

She swallows the mouthful of crackers. Must be as long as the list of enemies she never received, except it's all villainous food. "I'm also not a fan of a few you just mentioned, but sheesh... didn't realize you were this picky." She doesn't consider herself a picky eater at all, considering how she likes most stuff others turn their noses up to, but him…? That's a lot of items. Sure, most of these would be hard to notice as they are relatively uncommon, but still. Plus there's bread. And raisins. And god knows, what else.

"Now you know. Deal with it," he states, biting into his last plain cracker.

"... you really are a princess." A princess perpetually stuck between Criminal brand and haute couture. She's… tempted to sneak a pea under the mattress.

"And her highness is about to give you new instructions, so get your shit together," he states then, getting up from his seat that's been turned towards the bed for the impromptu tea party. Kat follows him to the chest of drawers just as he motions her to get her ass over there.

"So," Law starts once having some mouth space to work with; "I guess you've already noticed these," he says, opening one of the small chestlets halfway. She nods.

"Today you will try to pop stuff inside them. Take this button, for example," he says, already putting it into her hand; "It's small enough to fit any of these; once you've managed to do that, take them out again. Without looking inside, of course. Start with the biggest one, proceed from there once you've done it without a hitch three times in a row, that is to say, the box remained intact." Having finished the briefing, he stuffs the remainders of the rice cracker into his mouth and digs out the biggest specimen from the bottom of the brick pile.

"..." The explanation was easy enough to follow, but… "I, um… wouldn't it be bad if I cut out too many pieces by accident?" There can be only so many boxes she can ruin and holes that can be made...

"Things you break that way, you can repair yourself… and I have a wee little feeling that you already know how to reassemble stuff. Boxes don't need surgical hands if you mess up, you're good to go. Godspeed," he says as he's stepping back to his chair, swatting her back while at it. He's gonna have another cup of that green tea.

"Oh… okay." Basically, if she was handed a plate broken in two… she could fix it as if it had always been under the fruit's influence, huh? Wow… it seems super logical, but she didn't think of that. Maybe because it would have been a little too convenient, considering all the stuff she can do already. A power that's all kinds of broken, indeed; and one which is, funnily enough, exceptionally good at un-breaking things.

Back to the task at hand, however… it… is kind of a relief that she has to do something else for a change, no lie. Even if it's just the next level of the same task. Well then… attagirl.

As expected and kind of feared, the operation just doesn't happen to be something within her skill range. If nothing else, the sheer challenge that the simple task poses is driving her will to crack the fucking, godforsaken, lousy code already. She's never been so pissed at random inanimate objects before. Not even the croissant from the other day.

She won't be able to pull off the freeing of the button for a while, that's for sure, but she's infuriatingly close to get to the solution of putting the button in without mass producing malformed guitar picks and miniature honeycomb statues, for all it's worth. (Could it be that her desk is actually fixed at home…? It would be nice to know.)

Law meanwhile is checking on her briefly every now and then… and has written some additional shit into this diary thing after a few occasions. For some reason, this doesn't sit all that well with her, but maybe it's just the fact that getting evaluated this way reminds her of elementary school. More specifically, the one art teacher who kept circling across the classroom like a vulture and wouldn't say anything, just write in a seemingly liberal note after the bells rang. It was a lucky dip of fours and the rare five for her; her taste clashed somewhat with hers, but since she was an overall nice and eager girl, the woman let it slide. Others weren't so... well, lucky. This teacher left fairly quickly as a number of parents complained about their otherwise excelling students getting a gracious 3, if not a barely passing 2 at the end of the first year of her work; the staff were also not exactly a fan of her, so there was little fuss. What even was her deal…?

Law waving a hand in front of her face pulls Kat back from the self-indulgent reminiscence.

"... there, now you're paying attention… It's about half past one, if you're hungry, be free to leave. Just come back within an hour or so, okay?"

"Oh, um… alright." Did she not notice him addressing her? Man, that's embarrassing… about as much as her stomach wanting attention all of a sudden and not being shy about it, either. Getting really tired, too… may have been trying too hard? A cup of coffee is in order for sure. She barely even remembers doing this for more than an hour…

The phenomenon is not foreign to her, although usually it's with something she enjoys. It always feels like waking from a nap wondering what day or year it is, except she's wide awake all along. Boy, does she hate when this happens at an inappropriate time.

Law wrinkles his brows in mild worry; she's absolutely out of it. Has been all day, to be honest. "... look, if… if you're like this because of yesterday evening, it's fine. Forget what I've just said and try to get your head clear before you come back instead, alright? You won't be able to work like this, take a walk, or whatever."

She blushes a little and starts fiddling with her thumbs; she's scattered enough for it to be beyond obvious… sheesh. "... okay."

Taking a walk seems definitely the way to go, she ponders over her lunch a few minutes later, still in some kind of trance; she's not up for doodling right now and it occurred to her that singing is a no-no. However, she also doesn't like to err around without a goal. Perhaps she could take a look at the cafe, or get more chestnuts… or… hm, there's been some stuffed animals on display, too, right? That seems to be something worth looking into. She has a stupid plan, after all.

As soon as she hops ashore a little after 2 o'clock, a familiar figure appears en route to the fair; Fugu seems to be returning with quite a lot of groceries.

"Hi," Kat waves awkwardly as they cross paths; she considered going the longer way, but… if he noticed her, too, it would have been really rude, wouldn't it. Take it like the fake man you are at the moment. And in general.

"Good day to you, too, Miss," the man greets her, slowing down a little, which she does herself; "are you going out to shop, too? Or is it just a walk?"

"A little bit of both…. I've been a dunce all day, so Law suggested I unwind somehow," she confesses while rubbing the sideburns, thinking back at the rather embarrassing convo.

He nods solemnly. "It is a good decision to step outside. Spending too much time down there can make one dull fast."

"Can't argue with that," she sighs. Not leaving her room in general is one thing, but cooking pretty much all day below deck in the dark is not something she could get used to on the long run. Travelling on that tin can must suck really bad… honestly, Law should have also come out. How many times has he left that thing since they've been like this? Up to five times? Next time, she's dragging him with her. Seriously, how the hell has he been surviving this in her body?! Anyway… "That sure is a lot of stuff you have, though… don't you need help with that?"

The man cracks a smile, thinking back to some past shopping adventures. "The others don't appreciate me taking my time… and the nagging kind of ruins the experience, you know? Speaking of which, though… I actually am running late today, so I'll be on my way. See you around, Miss, and have a good time!" With that, Fugu is already on his way at double the speed he came thus far to reach his alternate shadow that never met up with her.

"Thanks… same to you!" she waves in vain as there's noone to see the action, also picking up pace. She definitely won't want to walk out all the way to the new docks an hour away, there's nothing to see there apart from new ships and the hill with the pretty houses where rich traders and the odd noble live. The furthest parts of the fair will be about half an hour away, where a small chapel signals the end of the old district, but fast walker on longer legs than usual or not, that also would be a waste of time, to be honest… all in all, she shouldn't be out for more than fifteen or twenty minutes altogether for this. She asked for the coffee to be made for half past two, so she's got all the motivation she needs to get back in time, too.

First things first, Kat lets the nice smells seduce her and she gives into the temptation of another small bag of chestnuts even though she's not really hungry; thankfully, there's someone else there instead of the weirdo from the other day. Passing the notice board, she's surprised to see that two of the more 'famous' teens from the high-class parts have gone missing. Finds it hard to be worried a few seconds later upon noticing that they've not come home yesterday night; seeing how they are troublemakers, spending the night elsewhere wouldn't be much of a downgrade. But apparently, they've told their parents until now when they stayed out after curfew, they must be thinking of the worst, considering the news lately. That's kind of nice to know.

She skims the other stuff; apart from some job offers and wanted posters, all she can find is another notice from the police stating that the group from last Tuesday that's been taken into custody will be given over to a marine ship Saturday afternoon at 8. Kat raises a brow; while they did almost kill-slash-kidnap her and a bunch of people last week, why would they announce this detail… reading on, she comes to a halt with an 'oooh'. Alright, she can see the point now. According to their information, former fleet admiral Sengoku will be accompanying some greenhorn marines on the ship. Someone must be a fan. Regardless… she better keep low that day, maybe avoid coming outside altogether. Taking a mental note and swatting the worrisome thoughts about the port town disappearances into little clouds, she moves on. Walking deeper into the cheap stuff, she eventually does notice what she came for: a place with stuffed animals galore.

She takes a quick look around, and her eyes zero in on a really big, white teddy bear in the middle of a pile; it looks exceptionally fluffy. But, is it as soft as it looks? She steps over to it and slides a finger down its arm; yes... yes! That is absolutely the softest goddamn plushie that has ever graced her skin. Or Law's, but who the fuck cares. And it's… oh. Oh, boy. 12000 Bellys. Um… hm. Reconsidering.

As amazing it would be to shove this thing into his face as soon as she arrives… as a one-off prank and a useless gift, this really ain't worth the money. She also really ought to use the huge canvas she bought for like eight a while back, stroking it gently and contemplatively is not gonna get her anywhere. All it will do is drench the cotton in stinky human body oils.

Taking another look around, she spots a few more bears; she slides over most of them immediately, as they do not seem to fulfill her questionable standards regarding this purchase. One's too goofy, another is an unsympathetic, weirdly mixed brown color, and the third… she's not sure what kind of clothing that blinding neon vomit is supposed to be. She eventually spots another round ear hiding behind a pink doskoi panda. She pulls it out and… seems like a jackpot. At least it does look way too determined for an off-white chap with its black and white backpack that can probably fit some cash, and the black shirt. Honestly, if either would be striped instead of what they are, this would look like one really, really proud burglar bear. Well, then… nothing in this pile is over a thousand, so...

Kat approaches the ships with a sprint, knowing that she was already over 15 minutes with this little detour before even starting to browse the teddies. The slalom between the old warehouses is not something she likes because of the drunkards and thugs like those two lost whippersnappers that hang out in these abandoned parts from evening till dawn, and the odd dead body that people find about once a year, but hey… it makes things quick. She sees the mast of the Sunny peek out from beyond the roofs; already there, thank god. Running towards the shore already, she spies a lot of small… somethings around the last corner by the sea. It could be puke... but… nope. She slows down for a moment and squints; it's… sunflower seed shells. At least two average packages worth; someone must have come all the way out here to the two ships last night to sate their need, which looks like a straight-out addiction. Thinking about it, though, not only has she not seen any unsavory puddles, but the area has been really quiet in the past week or so, even if the people on the main street would cover up most of the noise anyhow… perhaps knowing that there are formidable pirates docking nearby has them worried…. or the more frequent patrols during the festival smoked them out at last? Who knows, really; she just hopes that the peace will be felt for a few more weeks. Sleeping by an open window is risky, because she cannot know when people will get too close to her quarters and break bottles or scream… but when they don't, it's the best sleep she can get apart from the very limited warm winter evenings, when she's had comfort food and a long, hot bath she reserves for the occasions. Having actual winter weather when appropriate is nice.

Kat finds it easier to crawl onto the huge ship by boarding the Tang first, since the ladder is somewhat suspended, so she takes the opportunity to have a quick look around for Law; by some kind of miracle, he actually is out here, seemingly sending some of his crew she doesn't know much to do something downstairs in this very moment. One of them has a tool box… maybe something about the engine or plumbing, then.

"What's up down there?" Kat asks walking up to him, with the hand hiding the teddy turned back. She's always found blatant hiding of presents counterproductive… having something in a hand that's not easy to recognize, while still not bulletproof, is the superior strategy by far. The mostly intact chestnut bag being noisy in the other also helps.

"Some pipe seems to be leaking in the showers," Law responds, looking at an accounting book page. If they need to weld in a chunk with a small one, there should be enough stock, but if they'll have to replace it, or even worse, it's the main line… they will have to find a shop. The funds are not looking the best at the moment, though, and he's no gonna ask Nami. Hm… what are the chances that they could scavenge some from these old warehouses…? Would be nice to have Scan available right about now. Maybe he will open a Bepo petting zoo to raise money, this once, and perhaps rope in Carrot as well...

"... is that something that happens often?" How much piping and stuff even is there in this thing? "When underwater?"

"12-18% more likely than on surface dwelling ships, pressure changes and all. Still not as bad as when the ventilation croaks eight thousand deep, trust me," he answers, putting the green marker ribbon of the three available ones on the page, then slaps it shut. "And, have you pulled yourself together?" He asks, turning his attention to her, though he's somewhat distracted by the bag.

"..." She kind of wants to hear that story. But not now. "Been a little irresponsible, as you can see," she pokes her head towards the item; "you can snack on it, if you want to. Otherwise, I've yet to drink a coffee to make sure I keep being productive, but yeah… I guess a walk was really all I needed, thanks," she says, trying to keep the smile levels in check. "By the way," aaand there goes the effort, "here."

Just like that, Law gets to see eye to eye with a stuffed bear that looks as if it was ready to fight him.

He blinks a few times, brows pulling closer together in confusion and surprise.

"Iiit's for you." The statement starts question-like, then ends sounding matter-of-fact. She… didn't really think this far. And can't read shit from that reaction.

"... for me." She just… she's actually handing him a teddy bear. The fuck.

"Mhm." She nods. "One more for the collection."

"What for?" His perplexed state leaks through his voice; he also grabs the thing so he can see her proper again; can't think of any rational explanation. Unless it's a joke, that is. Certainly sounds like it.

She shrugs. "... just because." There is no real goal to be achieved here. She just wants to drown him in embarrassingly adorable bears, preferably with as many people witnessing it as possible. And watch him struggle with the situation... this is as close as she can get without going bankrupt.

This... doesn't exactly sit well with Law. Because, if he's right about thinking that she's trying to compensate for… whatever, really… this is getting out of hand, no matter the reason. He can feel his pulse picking up pace; she's been doing it all day. The rice crackers, and tea... She doesn't seem to be lying about the chestnuts being an impulse purchase, but she just offered them, too...

"... Kat-ya... we need to talk."

Although the phrase makes her uneasy, somehow, the fact that he just used that name again shoos the other feeling to the side. "Oh... did a million years pass already?" she asks with honest wonder. Or... could it have been just 'a thousand years' the other day…? Well, same difference in this case.

He set himself up on that one, didn't he…

Seeing Law's disgruntled face, she adds: "Sorry, sorry... shoot away."

He lets out a sigh. "Look, about this…" he takes a passing look at the bear; "... aggressive attention and care stunt you're pulling... I do appreciate the sentiment, but stop. Being stalked by a surrogate grandma is not something I want, ever." Actually, let's just... "Please." He's low-key willing to get on his knees and beg if it becomes too embarrassing for him.

She's somewhat ashamed at his request and just a bit disappointed upon hearing that; "Oh... okay. Sorry."

Law reaches up and pulls at her ear gently, which is followed by the most unconvincing, little 'ow' on her side. "And stop apologizing for every little thing, sheesh. I'm just asking you to moderate yourself and take it down a notch, alright?" A whole 20 notches. She just bought him a goddamn teddy bear, for fuck's sake. One that is, in fact, sporting the same half-determined, half-smug expression he has on quite often. Be it a joke, poking fun at him or something genuine, this is too much. And it's, uh... kind of weirding him out?

He can't even remember the last time someone bought him something tacky that wasn't his crew. Or, well, the Strawhats as of a few weeks back. And he can't really tell her to fuck off because of this whole situation they are locked in. They have already passed the stage where he actually would tell her something like that, having a good idea how hard she would take it, not to mention that it would make everything exponentially worse, and he… frankly, he has no idea how to handle this situation. How do you communicate with those who are not backstabbing, murderous, thieving jackasses, or of generally questionable morals? With, you know… people?

"Okay... then, I should handle you less like a princess, and more like..." she starts after a second, stopping Law's train of thought, then stops herself as well, trying to decide on something less baby-able; children won't do, of course, nor animals, uh... "a flower!" All they need is some light and water... and the occasional fertilizer! Boom!

Law decides to push his little crisis aside for the time being, and suppresses the snort upon being compared to a 'flower.' He'll have to figure out how to act as if he had some fucks to give later. "Both of those comparisons are really weird, considering you're talking about me, you know. But… I guess. If you want to put it like that."

She flashes a big, optimistic smile, which just… doesn't quite fit his face, and never will. Still, it's as if he just gave her a treat for being a good dog. Which is, frankly, quite amusing. He can practically see her wag her nonexistent tail... Pulling her leg from time to time will be tempting. "And? Will you actually be able to keep to it?"

"Sure," she answers, then speaks up again after a few seconds, musing; "Honestly, I just want to... well, see you less morose all of the time, if that makes sense." Knowing what she does now, the memory of him silently laughing at the aquarium while she was butchering his person became a hundred times more pleasant. As is the chuckle from earlier.

… he really should have just let her leave yesterday. This has already gotten uncomfortable, not to mention that it reeks of trouble. "Seriously, Kat… if you are doing this because of what I suspect- which you are, let's be honest,- but even if not… it's still not your job to make me happy."

… saying that out loud feels so weird. It's almost as if he's speaking a foreign tongue.

Her pep goes as suddenly as it came. Partly because, well… Law's right. Still… "I like making people smile and laugh, though," she mumbles.

She's a difficult one, alright. He gives his head a frustrated scratch; "I never said you couldn't try, just... everything has a time and place, okay?"

She grumbles something that must be an 'okay' while nodding. Meanwhile, Nami has appeared over the railing, and calls out to her almost immediately:

"Kat, coffee is ready! You like it with two sugars and milk, right?"

It takes her a second to shake off the embarrassment and address the question. "I do," she replies at last.

"Now go, get that coffee," Law instructs, poking her with the book; "And wipe that frown off your face, brooding is my job, capiche?" Even if he'll be forever weirded out by how his face looks with a genuine smile plastered over it.

She can't help, but crack an awkward smile a that. "Yeah." Another moment of hesitation later, she steps towards the rope ladder.

Law sighs and takes another look at the bear. Now… will this thing fit into the chest with the dozens of others he's gotten throughout the years?

#KMKY

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