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#I have always written just to tell a story and never to put any group of people down
sleketon666 · 2 days
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So... I decided to post that little writing I did for my Tav Marie and her first meeting with Rolan, Lia and Cal. I couldn't help myself and added some friendly banter between her, Astarion and Gale in the end
Just for the record - I've never written anything properly in English and it's been a while since I've written in my native language as well. So pardon any mistakes that you might see
Tags: fem Tav, first meeting, fluff
While walking into Emerald grove, Marie takes a good look on the place first. She has always been a cautious type who needed to spare at least a few seconds for studying her new surroundings before engaging in any conversation.
Even if she hadn't talked with Zevlor prior she would still know that some kind of conflict was unfolding here: the tense atmosphere in the grove made it clear to any adventurer that strangers were unwelcome in this place. Nor were welcome those seeking for a refuge.
Before searching for healing from Nettie and meeting Kagha, Marie and her two more talkative companions - a fellow wizard and an elf rogue - decided to stop for a trade. Even facing the risk of not living to see another day, they'd still rather lighten their pockets and exchange whatever junk they could find with some coin. And in case the tadpoles in their brains let them live a little more, they'd need supplies.
Before stumbling upon the grove Marie took the lead in their group. She has never been the one who wanted to be in charge of anything and tell others what to do, mind you. Gale just didn't seem to want that either and Astarion- well, he didn't seem like a reliable sort. So it appeared to be that Marie was the only one competent and willing enough for the role of a leader. It's not like she was not responsible or never put the needs of others before her like good leaders do, quite the opposite - she possessed such qualities. But not the charisma. If someone more endearing, easy-going and more capable of giving inspiring speaches and such will join them, she will gladly follow their lead. But for now she'll have to wait for such person.
Speaking of which, while trading with a halfling, Marie for once took a step back, allowing the other wizard do the talking (and the rogue - the pickpocketing). Meanwhile, she herself took her most loyal companion, her old notebook, and started writing down everything - the list of supplies they needed and the amount of gold they were about to both gain and spend. She always did the counting quicker than most (in which she took a lot of pride) so she made herself useful even when speaking wasn't required.
A few minutes passed by and trading turned into one of the most tedious things to ever imagine - a small talk. As Marie was putting away her notes and not listening to the other three men talking, her gaze started to wander. This time instead of the grove itself she looked more closely to the people in it. More druids seemed to be further, at the heart of the grove, while here only tieflings remained. Most of the ones she saw looked rather tense - and no wonder, giving the circumstances. Poor people, she thought to herself. Back in Baldur's Gate she heard very little of what happened to Elturel, but the stories and rumours she heard of were already enough to let her know that the refugees had been through a lot. So if simply talking to the new leader of the druids could help them, Marie will help for sure.
As Marie was getting lost in her thoughts, her feet lead her further away from companions and closer to the center of the grove. Still wanting to remain a silent observer, she kept her mouth shut when other tieflings passed by, and she pretended not to notice how they looked at her. At the end of the day, she was just as much of a new face for them as they were to her.
But her peaceful and quiet observations weren't to last forever. Marie felt her pointy ears twich slightly when she heard a few voices - all loud - getting closer to her (although, perhaps they were approaching the gate rather than herself). "I won't leave them behind!" she heard an angry yet pleading female voice first, and then a male one: "You're going to get us killed!" She shifted her gaze towards the direction from which the voices came and saw three tieflings arguing.
"We don't even know these people!" the voice belonged to a male tiefling who was the one walking towards the gate and looking behind his shoulder to continue bickering. The staff on his back and his colourful robes let Marie assume that he was another spellcaster, perhaps a wizard even, much like her and Gale.
"That doesn't matter." Said the woman following him with an angry look on her face, as if she was convincing him to stop, to stay.
"Of course it does. You would choose strangers over us!"
"That's not what I said." The woman's voice now held more spite in it than before.
"Can we all stop shouting? No?" The third tiefling, the tallest and seemingly the strongest one, finally spoke up just for his words to go completely unnoticed.
Despite his desperate attempts to seize the exchange of accusations and sharp words, the heated conversation continued. By that time Marie had already figured that the three must be close - perhaps friends or a family even. And it looked like all of them were incredibly stressed over the need to sit and wait either for a chance to escape or for their doom. Honestly, she couldn't blame any of them. She too would be restless if she found herself in situation like this one.
"This is about your precious Baldur's Gate." Getting more and more frustrated, the female tiefling now stopped the pleading and instead started to accuse her stubborn companion.
"I care about our lives. Our futures." He kept saying, almost unfazed.
"No. You just care about your stupid apprenticeship!" This time her words struck a nerve and made the man stop and turn around.
"Take that back! Right now!" He now sounded not just furious or bitter, but offended. And it didn't look like his friend was about to apologise. Instead, she only glared at him.
Now not only did the argument get more personal, but it's participants stopped too close for Marie's comfort which left her in an awkward position, even if the others weren't bothered by her presence. She would gladly continue eavesdropping, but preferably at a longer and safer distance. So, trying to not attract any unwanted attention she started to quietly walk away, leaving more privacy to the three tieflings until the conflict escalated further. It was none of her business, after all.
"Hells, we can't just leave. They're kin," surprisingly, the woman now sounded calmer. Perhaps she noticed presence of a stranger nearby and decided to lower her voice? Or perhaps, she herself was getting tired of arguing.
"I'll not gamble our lives, our futures, on people who are as good as dead. We must leave for Baldur's Gate at once."
The woman sighed loudly, clearly with annoyance, as a reply for the man's stubbornness.
"Can we all just take a moment? Please?" the tallest one kept trying to calm the others.
"You! You were one of those who fought at the gate, right?" She then suddenly pointed at Marie, completely ruining her attempt of making escape out of an unwanted social interaction. "You saw those goblins fight. Tell Rolan how without us those people can't stand a chance against them!" She said glaring at the man who she was arguing with. Rolan was his name, apparently.
"Um.. well," taken by surprise, Marie stood still, unsure on whether she actually should say anything or not. Ugh, great. Just as she wanted to rest a while from the stress of beginning conversations with strangers, she was dragged into one. And a quarrel no less! Feeling out of place, she desperately tried to gather her thoughts into a sentence.
"What's the point of blades and spells if we don't bloody use them? We should stay," the woman kept talking before Marie could do so much as say a word. "These people aren't fighters. We can help."
"Or yell louder, that's fine too." Clearly tired of arguing and being ignored, the third tiefling too started to get annoyed.
While her eyes were hidden under dark glasses, Marie took a quick look at each of the tieflings she was now, apparently, talking with. From what she could tell, the conversation could go on forever, exhausting each of its member. She couldn't be sure that whatever she was about to say wasn't going to be dismissed, but perhaps she could give it a try. The situation in the grove was already uneasy enough for the tieflings, there was no need for more bickering. But the woman was right - the refugees needed all the help they could get.
"The goblins had put on a hard fight," as Marie saw all three tieflings now looking at her, she tried to keep her posture as calm and neutral as possible, hiding her slight nervousness. "You can be of great help to your people and it would be safer for you to travel in larger group, too. A single blade or spell can make a huge difference."
"Thank you!" A smile finally appeared on woman's face as she looked at Marie with gratitude. Then, she looked back at the others. "It's the right thing to do, and you know it."
"Lia's right, Rolan. We're better then this," the tallest one added, hopeful (just like Marie) that this will put an end to the argument.
"Zurgan. Fine. I'll stay too," likely unconvinced by Marie's words but annoyed at his friends, the one who was named Rolan, exhaled sharply. "Lest you both end up with your throats slit by goblin's blade."
The glare Rolan gave Marie at the end didn't go unnoticed by her. She only replied with a slight smirk and a tilt of her had as a sarcastic "you're welcome". She knew that she did right by convincing them to stay, and she wouldn't allow his frown make her feel bad.
"Thank you, Rolan," Lia spoke calmly, ending the conversation at last.
The three turned back and started to walk away, only the third tiefling, the one who's name still remained a mystery, stopped before Marie.
"I'm Cal, by the way. Thank you for helping out. Both with goblins and these two," he said the last sentence with a relieved smile and held his hand for a greeting.
"Pleasure. Name's Marie," she replied politely. As Marie held her hand back to Cal, she felt his handshake to be much more firm and confident than hers, but not in an unpleasant manner. "By the way you tried to calm them down, Lia and Rolan are prone to arguing, I take it?"
"Yes, they are. They both will never admit it, but they'd take an arrow for each other. Also stab each other. Not sure what'll come first," he said with a shrug. "But I'm afraid they are gonna do the latter if I linger for too long. Nice meeting you!"
And before she could say anything, Cal already made himself scarce. Ah, a family then, not just friends. A grin spread out on Marie's face.
"Stabbing would certainly be more entertaining to watch," a familiar and disappointed voice sounded over Marie's shoulder. "Or at least another good punch in a face, like before."
Astarion spoke, clearly amused by the memory of his company's stoic and composed leader trying to reduce the tension between Zevlor and Aradin just for her to loose patience and throw hands at the adventurer.
She let out an irritated sigh at another of Astarion's whining before turning her face towards him.
"That guy had it coming, unlike people here. And I'm not proud of what I did to him, alright?"
"Oh? Is our leader feeling a gnawing pang of conscience?"
"A bit. I should've given the pleasure of hitting that brute to Zevlor. And his punch would be considerably stronger than mine, no doubt."
Surely, Astarion was expecting to hear a lecture about morality, so seeing his face light up with surprise and more amusement than before was a sight.
" Ah, there you are," soon, Gale started to approach the two." It seems that both of you weren't present in a conversation that I had with Arron-"
"Who?" both Marie and Astarion asked.
"...The trader?" The wizard said with a hint of chastising in his voice. "As I was saying, I had the pleasure of learning from him that there is a certain crypt nearby. And since we have a chance of being in a shortage of gold sooner, rather than later, I suggest we at least take a look at it."
"A crypt, you say?" a glint of interest light up in Marie's eyes (albeit hidden behind glasses).
"Ugh, I'm not usually in a mood for searching through dusty old tombs, but if among the bones and skulls we'll find a treasure, I suppose it'll have to do." Said Astarion with a pout.
"It is tempting, but it'll have to wait. First things first, we need to talk with the druids." Marie spoke up, dismissing both the annoyed roll of the rogue's red eyes and approving smile of the wizard. "Moreover, if my eyes did not deceive me, the Blade of Frontiers himself joined our fight with the goblins before. He could be a useful ally, so I'd have a chat with him as well."
"Just wonderful, another bleeding heart to join our ranks." Astarion said under his breath, but loud enough for his companions to hear and disregard his complaints.
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fantasticalleigh · 1 year
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I don’t mean for my gingerrose drawings to be harmful towards anyone. I like the dynamic of the AU and make art featuring this because it is fiction using fictional characters and it is definitely not something I would support in real life unless it’s between consenting partners. On that basis, I’m not going to delete it BUT I won’t be drawing for it again.
I don’t know if “begged” is a typo or not but these are the only messages I’ve received regarding this. Felt I had to include that since the past-tense of the word implies you’ve messaged me before. IDK if anyone tried expressing this concern through Twitter as well but I deactivated my Twitter in November.
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ikeuverse · 1 month
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MR. FUNNY GUY — l.heeseung
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PAIRING: heeseung x fem!reader GENRES: fluff, humor WC: 3.8k+
WARNINGS: a few swear words, mentions of alcohol. yeji, sunghoon's sister, is portrayed in this fic as being of age, because there is a part that insinuates that she has been drinking.
NOTES: this came to me as a totally random thought and made me want to write it, without pretension. yes, konon is written as jake's girlfriend just because i wanted something totally different, and i've never seen anyone put her as the girlfriend of any of the boys. idk, nothing special, hehehe. i hope you like it!
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Every group of friends consists of having outstanding personalities or a representative for each thing among them. Heeseung could be the personification of the funny kid.
He had always been in charge of making the best jokes and making everyone laugh ever since he met his friends at the end of high school and the beginning of university. With Heeseung around, it was as if there was no sadness at all.
Even his attitude was that of a big, awkward, funny guy, which gave him even more credit for his antics. 
Heeseung was responsible for making Jake stop crying when he got his first low grade in calculus at university. Not even his girlfriend was able to cheer him up, but Heeseung trying to prepare a smoothie and forgot to close the lid of the blender, causing all the fruit and mixtures to fly around the kitchen... Oh, that got a good laugh out of Jake. And a few curses from Jay, for sure.
Heeseung was also responsible for making Sunghoon and Yeji cry with laughter a week after their puppy went missing. She was crying and he said he would help his friends find her, even if their hopes were slim. Heeseung did find her, but that didn't stop him from coming back all wet and with mud all over his shorts because the dog had wandered into a garden and he ran with his life to rescue her. Telling that story out loud made it all worthwhile in the end.
What Heeseung never managed was to get many smiles out of you, Yeji's best friend. It wasn't as if you and she joined Sunghoon's group of friends very often, but when you did, you were the only one who stayed quietly in the corner of the room and didn't crack a smile when he made a joke.
At first, it didn't make much difference to him, not least because you only appeared occasionally and Heeseung only found out about you sometime later. Because you really were so quiet that you seemed almost invisible. But as time went by and Yeji attended more and more of the boys' meetings – even more so after she and you made friends with Jake's girlfriend – Heeseung didn't want to admit it, but he started to feel a bit insulted. 
Why weren't you laughing at his jokes? Why didn't you crack a single smile at his antics in front of his friends? You were supposed to hate him, in Heeseung's mind. That was the only explanation for why he never saw a single curved movement of your lips.
"Relax, man" Sunghoon said one night when the two of them were in the kitchen preparing the popcorn for the movie. "Yeji said that Y/n is like that, very closed," he took a larger bowl to pour the contents into, placing it next to another in case he needed a spare. "She took a while to open up to the girls, so maybe it's nothing personal."
So it would seem. Heeseung thought, rolling his eyes as he tried to forget about it and focus on the movie night they all had together.
A whole month passed and he tried not to focus on the thought that you didn't like him, because if that were the case, Heeseung would have gotten there first. He knew everyone there before you did, so if you didn't like him, you might as well not hang out with them anymore and just be friends with Yeji and Jake's girlfriend.
But no, that night what he wanted to happen happened. And without expecting much, without creating any expectations that you would smile at him.
"What are you three doing?" Sunghoon approached and ruffled Yeji's hair, hearing his little sister grumble and curse him for it. 
"Trying to make sushi at home" she huffed "But Konon's the only one who can, and she gives the hardest tasks to me and Y/n to do."
"Come on, I think we're doing fine," you said, avoiding looking at Konon because you knew she was laughing at the two of you.
You held up a hot roll you had just rolled, hoping it wouldn't fall out of your hand and spill all the rice. Your eyes met Sunghoon's and then looked at Heeseung, who was standing in the kitchen doorway.
"You're doing a great job," Sunghoon complimented.
"Yeah, long and crooked... Looks like Sunghoon" Heeseung pointed to the hotroll in his hand, and he almost shouted when he heard the sound of your laughter.
It wasn't possible what Heeseung's eyes were seeing at that moment. You. Laughing and then smiling at him... Did that really happen?
Sunghoon abruptly turned to Heeseung as if he was thinking the same thing. Of course, he and the boys were the only ones to hear Heeseung's lament that you never smiled at anything he did. But now it had just happened.
And he wasn't sure if he wanted to see it again, because strangely Heeseung's heart was pumping in a way that he wasn't happy about. Not to mention the fact that, apart from thinking about your smile and the sound of your laugh for weeks, the boy wasn't proud to say that he had dreamt about it.
Was it stupid to say that he had actually dreamed of your smile? Shit, that couldn't be possible.
"Heeseung!" Jake shouted to get his friend's attention, snapping his fingers in front of his face.
"Fuck, what a fright" Heeseung wriggled in his chair "What's wrong?"
"I've been calling you for about five minutes, what world were you in?"
"In the world where Y/n keeps smiling at him" Sunghoon hummed.
Fucking bastard... How did Sunghoon have to be so direct like that? All right, his friends knew and couldn't stand to hear Heeseung fantasize about it for weeks, but hearing it out loud from someone else made him feel like a bit of an idiot.
"In my defense, I'm still in shock about this" he tried to say, hearing Jay's laughter from across the room.
"Still? How long has it been... like, three weeks? A month?" he asked, already knowing the answer. If Heeseung were to count, it had been a month and a few days, because every month the girls tried to make a different food. And he distinctly remembers his skills – not unlike Konon's – in rolling the seaweed into sushi.
"Do you like her?" Jake sprawled further back on the sofa, almost throwing his legs over Heeseung's lap. Sunghoon was sitting on the floor staring at the TV while the movie was still playing.
"What? No" he said too quickly, regretting it the moment all the boys' eyes landed on him.
"Dude, you literally went to great lengths just to make her laugh for you" Jay got up from his chair to walk over to Sunghoon and sit down next to him on the floor.
"And when that happened, you didn't stop talking about it the whole time," Jake added.
"I said you could all make me stop talking—"
"We don't want to, it's cute" Sunghoon smiled "Besides I think it happened a few more times after sushi night."
"What?" it was Heeseung's turn to shout, startling Jake who was cursing at him quietly as he curled up on the sofa.
At that moment Heeseung was standing in the living room, pacing back and forth near the TV and watching his friends with mixed feelings. Jake was still recovering from his shock, Sunghoon was pressing his lips together, feeling guilty for saying it just then. While Jay held in his laughter and closed his eyes to wait for the conversation to unfold.
"You're just telling me about this now? Fuck Sunghoon, what do you mean?"
"Dude, I'm sorry" he said, "It's just that you got so excited about it that if I told you she smiled a few more times, you might explode."
"I'm exploding right now" from the coloring of his face, it could be possible.
What do you mean you smiled at Heeseung or something related to him and Sunghoon didn't say anything at all? Now he wanted to know, what was the occasion? Had he done something funny, said something at the wrong time, or made a joke? Or did you genuinely smile just because he was around? What had been the circumstance in which you smiled at him?
"All your gears are turning at the moment and I think it's my fault" Sunghoon got up from the floor, straightening his pants and then sighing, "But she smiled at times when you weren't looking."
"Why?"
"Look, I know your mind because I've lived with you for years, but I have no idea what she was thinking about it" Sunghoon's words had a unique effect on Heeseung. He was even more pensive.
"Yeah, he's right," Jake said.
"You too..." Heeseung then turned to Jay.
"Dude, we talked about this for hours and worked it out together," he defended himself, cringing when the other threatened to approach.
"Hey, calm down!" Sunghoon held him by the shoulders even though he knew his friend would do absolutely nothing to any of the three "Now that you know, you can do something about it."
"Yes, kill the three of you."
"Or talk to her and ask why" Jake shrugged and stood up, giving his best smile in response "Now how about we order something to eat? I'm starving."
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"No, no more drinks for you today, young lady" Sunghoon snatched the glass from Yeji's hand, listening to his sister's protests even though she was already a little upset.
"But hey, we're celebrating" she tried to catch it, but to no avail, her older brother was taller and would surely use that to his advantage.
"Celebrating what? The loss of your liver?" Heeseung looked around at the number of glasses on the kitchen counter.
He sighed as he imagined that the owner of that house would have an extremely difficult time cleaning up, but his thoughts were soon cut loose by the sound of laughter that flooded the room. His body went still and his eyes widened at the sight of your standing in front of the kitchen door.
"Hey, Heeseung, you look like you've seen a haunting" you waved at him, smiling briefly and then turning your eyes back to the Park siblings.
"He just heard something" Sunghoon added.
Not knowing what it was, you didn't bother asking him and just walked into the kitchen where the three of them were still standing.
"What's going on?" you asked.
"Yeji's already drunk, so let's go home."
"But she's celebrating," you pouted "It's not every day you get an A in Professor Choi's class."
"The worst professor at that university" Yeji picked up a glass to raise and pretend to toast, then put it back on the counter.
"But you've had enough, so I think you'd better go home" he looked at his sister and then at you "Has Jake taken Konon yet?"
"They just got home, Jay told me as soon as I came into the kitchen" you looked around for something to drink "And you two, what are you doing here?"
Sunghoon had gone after Yeji before he left and Heeseung had been in charge of looking for you, so the two of them could take you home safe and sound. But he didn't want to say that out loud.
"We came after you two," Sunghoon replied.
"Okay, let's go" Yeji whined "I won't be able to finish my drink anyway."
"Not even if we just have one more beer? It'll be quick and—"
"Nope" Heeseung stood in front of you when you threatened to approach the fridge. Looking up thanks to his height, this was the closest he had come to you since you two met.
It might have been the effect of the drink or the moment itself, but he looked glistening and that had – strangely – made your heart flutter.
Blame the drink, blame the drink, please.
"Come on Y/n, these two dullards don't know what fun is" Yeji pushed past Heeseung, ignoring his protests as she grabbed you by the arm and pulled you out of the kitchen.
"That's it man, a few more moves and you two would be kissing in this kitchen" Sunghoon held Heeseung by the shoulders without missing an opportunity to tease him.
He acted on instinct to stand in front of you so that you wouldn't advance into the kitchen, right? He also ignored the distance between the two of you because he miscalculated his steps and Sunghoon was right to say how close you and Heeseung were. But those thoughts had to be pushed aside as quickly as possible.
And that happened when Jay's voice echoed in Heeseung's ears, standing next to his friend's car.
"Can you take Y/n home?" he asked. Heeseung didn't want to show his shock, but the orbs almost popping out in the expression that caught him off guard made Jay laugh right away "I've had a few drinks and I certainly won't be able to drive."
"But—"
"Take her and come back for me" Jay handed Heeseung the keys to his car.
"Why don't you just go along? I can drop you home later."
"Because I'm not finished here yet" Jay's lips protruded forward in a pout, he took a few steps away from Heeseung, nodding and smiling at his friend "And I don't want to witness anything pornographic in my car. Unless I'm the one doing it," he shouted the last part and Heeseung turned sharply in the direction you were with the Park siblings. 
He would have given anything at that moment for you to be so drunk that you hadn't heard any of the shit Jay had said so far.
"Where's Jongseong going?" Yeji asked when he saw the boy disappearing among some people in the garden of the house.
"He said he didn't finish whatever it is in there" Heeseung sighed "Come on Y/n, I'll take you home."
None of you missed the mischievous giggle that escaped from Yeji, soon to be joined by Sunghoon. Heeseung knew very well about his friend, but why did his little sister even seem to be complicit?
"Do you know where I live?" you asked so naturally that Heeseung had forgotten how serious you were whenever you were around him.
"No, but you can tell me while we go in Jay's car," he said, and you just agreed and let him guide you to the vehicle. Neither of you cared what the Park siblings said as you and Heeseung walked to Jay's car. He showed himself to be a tremendous gentleman by opening the door for you and checking that everything was okay until you buckled your seatbelt so he could close the door and turn the car around.
"Can we go?" he asked and you nodded, giving Heeseung the coordinates so he could get to your house.
For Heeseung, the silence was necessary while he reorganized his thoughts because, for the first time, he was in a place alone with you. That had never happened since the two of you met.
Now for you, the silence was agonizing because it made you think and observe. To think about how hard you'd tried to get away from that man next to you and to observe how well he drove. His hands firmly gripping the leather of the steering wheel, his long fingers drumming now and then when they stopped at a traffic light or how agile his hand was at holding the gearshift. You also found yourself swallowing when his hand accidentally hit your leg when changing gears. He wasn't doing it on purpose, you knew that, but it was inevitable not to smile quickly.
"We're here" he was the first to break the silence, indicating that he had followed your coordinates very well, and now the two of you were parked inside Jay's car and in front of your apartment complex.
You looked out of the window, a sigh escaping your lips as you looked back at the boy in the car sitting next to you.
"Thanks, Heeseung" you said sincerely, opening a smile when his eyes met yours. Heeseung smiled too, but he didn't look so happy about it. He seemed... Annoyed?
"Can I ask you something, Y/n?" he said just like that, not even bothering to respond to your thanks. But you didn't mind either, after all, your sobriety was starting to kick in, but even so, your alcohol-addled body made you more curious than usual.
"Anything," you said.
It took him a while to formulate that question, pondering whether he should really ask it or just let it go and get on with his life as if it didn't affect him. But it certainly did. Heeseung knew why he had dreamt it, he had to ask.
"Why haven't you ever smiled at me?" might seem like a silly question from the outside, or even sad if the person was as sentimental as Heeseung.
At first, your eyebrows drew together in surprise. But then everything relaxed and you unbuckled your belt to turn around and face the boy.
"What do you mean?"
Heeseung repeated your gesture a few seconds later, unbuckling his belt and turning to face you too.
"I mean, ever since we met you've never smiled at anything I've done," he shrugged, trying to sound firm in his words, not wanting to waver or show how ridiculous it might seem "Surely Yeji has already let it slip that I'm the clown of the group and, I don't know, you're the only person who's never given me a single smile."
"Does that bother you?"
No. He should answer, to appear tougher.
"Yes, a little" Heeseung didn't want to follow his thoughts, he wanted to act on the emotion of the moment "I thought you didn't like me or, at worst, thought I was so dull that you begged the girls to get away every time we met in a group."
He was being so honest with you, opening up so genuinely that you felt a little bad. Maybe your way of acting on everything you'd heard hadn't been nice, you might have been a bit extreme with it.
"I'm sorry" was all you managed to say, without knowing exactly why you were apologizing. Whether it was for your reaction or for never getting to Heeseung and wanting to get to know him.
"Why?" he asked.
You didn't want him to ask, so you wouldn't have to explain yourself, you'd get out of the car and drive away. But Heeseung's sparkling eyes seemed to call out to you every second, guiding you to him as if you belonged there, staring at him as the words came freely out of his mouth.
"We have a group of friends at college and certainly Yeji's brother and his friends are sometimes a topic," your gaze quickly shifted to the window behind Heeseung. Anything being more interesting than his eyes paying attention to you right now "I once commented that... Well..."
"Say, it's okay," he tried to encourage you and you looked back at him, could blame it on the drink if something got out of hand, and would say the next day that you didn't remember anything you were saying. Even though by then your sobriety had reached more than half of your body.
"I told I thought you were very handsome" you nibbled your lower lip and continued, not even giving Heeseung time to process the information "A friend of ours said that you were not only handsome but funny, but that was a danger."
"What? Why?" he tried to shake off the tingling feeling in his chest and his cheeks heating up at the confession. So you thought he was handsome from the start.
"Have you ever heard of the theory of the funny boy being a danger?" you crossed your arms and snorted when Heeseung denied it with a nod "He'll make you laugh so much, you'll laugh. Laugh and laugh until you're naked in his bed."
It was his turn to laugh, hiding his face with his hands and messing up his hair.
"Shut up, don't laugh," you groaned in frustration, uncrossing your arms and trying to push his hand away from your face. The contact was electrifying, even if it only lasted a few seconds. Heeseung uncovered his face and looked at you.
"So Yeji's friend said that about me, and you believed it?" Heeseung wanted to sound confident as he raised an eyebrow, even though, if he had to get out of that car, his legs would be as soft as jelly.
"Well..." a few seconds passed and you sighed, "I avoided contact so I wouldn't have to believe it. I don't know, preserve myself as much as possible since you seem to be well known at the university."
"So you didn't want to smile at me because you thought you'd end up in my bed?" Heeseung leaned forward a little, looking a little defiant. You leaned forward too, your hands resting on your lap.
"You make all the girls smile, what difference would it make if I smiled at you?"
Don't be so honest, Heeseung thought to himself, but it was already done when he launched into it.
"Maybe because your smile is beautiful and when that happened on sushi night, I ended up dreaming for a long time."
"What? Did you dream about my smile?" you almost shouted in the car.
"Too many questions for one night, don't you think?" Heeseung pretended to shake himself, looking for the car keys that he hadn't even taken out of the ignition. Turning on the air conditioning might be a good idea since neither of you made any mention of leaving.
"Too many confessions for one night" you leaned back in your seat.
"I think we're going to need a few more nights for you to tell me more" he also leaned back in his seat, but his head remained turned in your direction.
"Are you asking me out on a date?"
"Would you?" he asked back, a stupid – but extremely beautiful – smile adorning his lips as he said again, "I want to prove that friend of yours completely wrong."
"I'd love that, then" to his surprise, asking you out had been completely light-hearted. He didn't feel like throwing up or running away, or even saying something silly, stuttering... Nothing. Heeseung was just himself as he watched you bend down to him and brush your lips against the corner of his.
From the way Heeseung's head was tilted, giving indications that he wasn't going to move, you purposely kissed him on the corner of the lips, pulling away before he made any risky moves.
"I'm waiting for a message from you so we can make an appointment, mr. funny guy."
You winked at him, watching as the tip of Heeseung's tongue traced the exact spot where your lips touched the corner of his. The smile never left him as he watched you open the door, wave, and close it to leave.
A smile had never left Lee Heeseung like that.
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© ikeuverse, 2024. do not copy, translate or steal my stories.
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munson-blurbs · 5 months
Note
Can I request something with Eddie x reader in a long term relationship. They didn’t meet until their mid to late 20s. maybe they are out to dinner one time with his old highschool buddies and she hears them joke about how eddie always wanted to fuck a cheer leader. she gets the bright idea to buy a cheer leader out fit with a tiny skirt and pom poms and wears it for him one day
Oh, now this is what I'm talking about. Written with the gorgeous queen of fluffy smut, @corroded-hellfire 💚
Warnings: smut (18+ only, minors DNI), oral (m! receiving), unprotected p in v, Reader wears a cheerleading uniform, mention of Eddie's crush on Chrissy
WC: 1.8k
Divider credit to @saradika
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It’s not the first time you’ve met any of the guys from your boyfriend’s old Hellfire gang. It is the first time that you’ve been around them as a group, though. They’re much louder in a pack—not necessarily trying to shout, just be heard over the guy who is telling a story next to them. 
The guys are funny though and you’re enjoying getting a glimpse of what High School Eddie was like from those who got to experience it first hand. It wasn’t terribly long ago that they were all in high school together; you’re all only in your twenties. But Eddie seems to groan every time there’s a reminder that the youngest guys in the group can legally drink now. 
“So tell me more about this hellion during his younger years,” you say with a laugh, draping an arm over his denim-clad shoulders. “Because he claims to have been a total badass, but he’s such a teddy bear.” To emphasize your point, you smack a wet kiss to his cheek. 
Eddie blushes but doesn’t wipe it off; instead, he tilts your chin till you’re facing him and kisses you until the group throws wadded-up paper napkins at you both. 
“This guy was definitely not a teddy bear,” Lucas says. “I asked him to postpone one Hellfire meeting so I could play in the championship basketball game, and he put me on probation!”
You look at Eddie, slack-jawed. “Eds!” you chastise him teasingly. 
“It was the last campaign of the year!” Eddie rebuts. “Actions have consequences, Sinclair.”
Lucas rolls his eyes and takes a sip of his drink, using his free hand to flip off his friend. 
Dustin cackles at the exchange. “Yeah, he was pretty much an asshole to everyone.” His voice is mischievous as he waggles his eyebrows and adds, “except Chrissy Cunningham.”
“Ooh,” you mimic Dustin’s playful tone. “And who is Chrissy Cunningham?”
“Head cheerleader, cute and blonde, super sweet to, like, everybody,” Mike pipes up.
Eddie gets flustered, not because Chrissy was brought up, but he thinks hearing about his crush on her might upset or annoy you. He sputters over his words, which just riles him up even more. 
“I don’t think we need to, uh, talk about that,” Eddie says, shaking his head.
“Why? What happened?” you ask with a frown. It was no secret between you and Eddie that neither of you were popular in high school and had crushes that went unrequited. But Eddie never told you about anything particularly bad happening between him and a cheerleader.
“What?” Eddie asks before realizing what you mean. “Oh, no! Nothing happened. We spoke maybe a handful of times ever. I just didn’t think this would be something you would want to hear about…”
Eddie brow pinches in worry but you just laugh and wave a dismissive hand.
“Eddie, come on. Who wouldn’t have a crush on the sweet, pretty cheerleader? I mean, I had a thing for my school’s star basketball player back in the day. You know that.”
Lucas laughs. “You definitely would’ve hated the star basketball player at our school.”
“Kid was a total douche,” Jeff adds. “Made these obnoxious, over-the-top speeches that had everybody rolling their eyes.”
“So, like Eddie, but athletic,” Gareth chimes in, putting his hands up in surrender when Eddie shoots him a look and then breaks into a grin. 
The waiter brings out a chocolate cake, loudly singing Happy Birthday to Eddie, which promptly puts a stop to their bickering and taunting. The guys lock in on the dessert, serving Eddie the first slice before turning into barbarians over the second. 
You finally manage to snag a slice among the chaos, but your mind is elsewhere. If Eddie was as into cheerleaders like his friends claim, you might be able to finagle one last birthday surprise.
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A week passes from the dinner-turned-impromptu-Hellfire-meeting. Eddie saunters through the door, tossing his keys on the counter. 
“Babe? You home?” His hair is kept in a low bun; it’s easier to work on cars with it out of his face. 
“In the bedroom!” you call back from behind a half-closed door. 
Eddie kicks his boots off in the general direction of the welcome mat. “How was your day, sweetheart?” he asks as he walks down the hallway towards your room. “Mine was pretty good. I just—holy shit.” He comes to a halt in the doorway, jaw dropping open as he stares at you. 
You lounge on the bed waiting for him, a green and white cheerleading uniform on. There wasn’t one with some yellow on it as well like Hawkins High’s had when you’d gone looking, but you didn’t think your boyfriend would mind. 
He stands frozen and it makes you let out a small giggle before trying to regain the seductive air you’d been going for. 
“Wh…What’s all this?” he manages, caught completely off-guard by your outfit of choice. 
“Just your own personal cheerleader,” you say nonchalantly, crooking your finger and beckoning him over. “Wanna see my pom-poms?”
His grin nearly splits his face in two. “Yeah—wait, do you mean, like, actual ones, or…” he trails off and shakes his head. “Ah, fuck it.” He grabs you and pulls you onto his lap. 
“So, do I get to see a cheer?” he asks with a smirk. “A little, ‘two-four-six-eight, who do we appreciate?’”
You kiss his neck and murmur, “kinda figured my mouth would be busy somewhere else.” Your lips down the pale expanse of bis torso and you unbuckle his belt. 
Eddie groans and leans back against the headboard, eagerly watching you. He lifts his hips enough so you can slide his pants and boxers all the way off and toss them aside. 
You make sure to keep your gaze locked on his as you start to stroke him, using his pre-cum to lubricate your palm. “Tell me what you need, baby.”
He inhales sharply, trying to remain focused. “Need you to suck me off.”
You get on your knees in front of him so he can see down your uniform top, and he twitches against your lips. Flattening your tongue against the base of his shaft, you lick up to the head and wrap your lips around the tip before slowly taking him into your warm, wet mouth. 
“Fuuuuuck,” Eddie breathes out, throwing his head back and exposing his Adam’s apple. “Thassit, just like that.”
The tang of pre-cum is salty on your tongue, and you lap it up gratefully. Your fingers dig into the flesh of his ass as you pull him towards you, your nose grazing his pubic hair. 
“So good, goddamn, honey,” he mumbles, more gibberish than logic, “take me so well. Givin’ me the best fuckin’ head of my life.”
You’re more than happy to continue this, cheeks hollowed and tongue swirling around the sensitive tip, eagerly anticipating his cum down your throat. 
Eddie has other plans. 
He begrudgingly steps back, his throbbing cock thwacking against his stomach. If he pulls out of a blowjob, it usually means—
“Bend over, princess.”
You do as he says, palms pressed into the mattress. He quickly flips up your skirt, exposing your bare ass. 
Eddie laughs triumphantly. “Oh, fuck yes.” He taps the head of his length against it before pushing down on your back, giving him a better view of your pussy. “Mine,” he growls in your ear. 
The moan that tumbles out of your lips from his words only increases tenfold when he pushes inside of you. It makes Eddie smirk in satisfaction as his hands grip your hips beneath the pleats of the skirt. His eyes slip closed as he loses himself in the feeling of you around his cock. 
You whine as Eddie bottoms out, fingers grasping at the blanket below you. “God, Eddie, yes.”
Eddie’s thrusts gain momentum and he pulls your hips back against him for every one, never missing a beat. “Shit, you’re so fucking good for me. Your pussy’s so goddamn tight, fuck.” 
“Mhm, uh-huh.” The drag of his cock against your walls leaves you speechless, only able to whine, no coherent thoughts in your head. 
“My cheerleader feels good, huh? Aw, baby,” he coos, “so good you can’t even talk, yeah?”
Even if you had the capability to answer, you wouldn’t have time before Eddie pulls out of you for the second time today and flips you onto your back. Your legs fall open for him immediately in this new position and he wastes no time pushing back into you. 
He leans over your body, slipping his hands up the top half of your uniform. “Most beautiful cheerleader I ever fuckin’ saw,” he purrs as his hands grope your chest.
Your legs wrap around his body, only pulling him deeper inside of you. “So good,” you slur, eyes half-lidded. You feel your orgasm crash over you, waves of pleasure rippling through your body. 
Eddie’s hands slip out of your top and run down your arms until he laces his fingers with yours. He lifts your hands over your head, keeping a tight grip on you as his hips pick up the pace. Now that you came, he can take what he needs. 
“So tight,” he mumbles, breathing heavily. You can tell that he’s close. “Gonna cum all over this pretty little uniform of yours, ‘kay?”
You can only nod, and he leans in and kisses you one last time before pulling out and painting you in his release. Sticky warmth coats the exposed strip of flesh between the top and skirt, some of it staining the uniform’s fabric. He moans out your name as he jerks the last of his spend out of his cock.
“Holy shit,” he exhales, drinking in the sight of you in your cheerleader outfit and covered in his cum. His sexy cheerleader wearing his cum. The thought has him almost up for another round already. 
He leans over to the nightstand and reaches for a tissue to clean you up, but you wave him off. Your hand catches his wrist and you softly run your fingertips up to his elbow.
“Leave it,” you tell him with a smirk. “I want it to stain.” You’ll wake up in the morning to it dried on the uniform, a reminder of tonight.
“Goddamn, baby.” Eddie lets out a breathy chuckle and flops down next to you, completely exhausted. “I was not expecting this, but I’m certainly not complaining.” 
“Well,” you say, a teasing lilt in your voice. You push up onto one elbow, and gaze at him knowingly. His hair is a mess, his chest is rising and falling rapidly. He looks wrecked, and it’s a beautiful sight. “You’d better drink some Gatorade, babe. Because this is only halftime.”
--
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sprinkler-ashes · 9 months
Text
the great war // aaron hotchner x reader
aaron hotchner x fem!reader
words: 5.5k
description: in which aaron hotchner thinks you’re hot-headed. inspired by the great war by taylor swift.
warnings: angst w/ a happy ending, one (1) steamy car makeout, cursing, typical cm violence depictions
a/n: long time no see, and i’m sorry about that. to make a long story short, summer was very awful on me; i had a breakup and am now back in school + drowning in work. I love this fic so much; it’s probably my favorite i’ve ever written and i hope you love it too <3 also!!! if you have a request for a fic to a song, please send it my way! taylor swift is my go-to, but i am open to any song request <3
you drew up some good faith treaties
i drew curtains closed, drank my poison all alone
you said i have to trust more freely
but diesel is desire, you were playin' with fire
You should have known better than to date someone you worked with. No, actually, you should have known better than to date, of all people, your boss.
Date was a loose term.
You weren’t really sure when the lines between co-workers blurred into friendship and when friendship blossomed into early morning coffee dates and late evenings in the office together doing paperwork, and even later nights spent at dinner tables being hours deep into conversation. You knew it hadn’t happened out of nowhere. This thing between the two of you had been building up for years – years of pining.
There was a voice in the back of your head telling you that it was all too good to be true, but you pushed it back as far as you could. Besides, the two of you hadn’t even called it dating, but it sure did feel like it.
But it hadn’t felt like that in a really long time.
Aaron had put a stop to whatever was going on four months ago. He had given you some bullshit excuse that he was your boss, it was wrong of him to be doing whatever the two of you were doing with his subordinate — blah, blah – but you had stopped listening when your heart became so heavy you thought it was going to physically weigh you down.
You had been through breakups before, even some serious ones, but nothing had ever felt like this. 
You tried to stop him, but he was also a man who had made his mind up; it was impossible to get through to him that you didn’t want to end it.
So you went back to work acting like nothing had happened. And it was about to be the death of you.
However, you were a professional. It’s not like the team even knew about you and Aaron. You acted the same as always when you were at work. No one suspected anything because no one knew what you were going through.
You didn’t talk to Aaron unless you had to. Truthfully, you hadn’t spoken to him for anything that wasn’t work-related since he basically dumped you on a random Wednesday evening for reasons you couldn’t fathom, but that didn’t mean you didn’t try.
In the beginning, you tried reaching out. You called, you texted him a couple of times, and you had even been so desperate one night that you sent him an email. Each time, you were met with rejection, and him saying something along the lines that both of you should just forget about everything.
So you did by cutting all contact. You thought to yourself, I’ll show him, but it really did nothing. If it bothered him, he never showed it.
It seemed like nothing bothered him until now. A whole whopping four months later.
“Not only did you blow our cover, but you walked into a hostage situation with no weapon to defend yourself; you didn’t even strap a vest on. You are lucky that no one died or was seriously injured.” Aaron wasn’t yelling – he was actually just slightly an octave below yelling – but it sure as hell sounded like he was screaming because his voice had never been like this towards you.
You frowned, not liking the way he was calling you out in front of everyone – in front of a group of people that you greatly admired and respected. “What else was I supposed to do, Hotch? If I hadn’t gone in there, that woman would have died. I was trying to save her life.”
“Save her life?” he asked incredulously. “From the moment you burst through those doors, you put her in even more danger than she was already in. Not only could she have died, but you also could have.”
“Why are you giving me so much shit over this?” you asked, throwing your hands up in anger, not paying attention to the awkward glances your team was giving each other. “I’m not the only one who's done this, and I won’t be the last. I don’t care to risk my life trying to save someone else. I’m sorry that I blew everyone’s cover, but I won’t apologize for saving her.”
Aaron shook his head, his demeanor that was normally unreadable was completely gone. “You’re on probation, effectively immediately-”
“What? I, Hotch-”
“You will not physically assist in any cases for the next two weeks. You will still travel to cases, but you will work directly from the police department. You will not be allowed to go in the field.”
He kept talking, his mouth moving a mile a minute listing off all the things you were allowed to do and what you couldn’t do, but you couldn’t focus on anything he was saying. You were so tempted to slap your boss across the face and if it wouldn’t have technically been workplace harassment, you probably would have.
“Hotch, we’ve all made mistakes,” Derek Morgan said. “No one ended up hurt tonight. With all due respect, I think a two week probation is a little harsh.”
You wanted to thank Derek for sticking up for you, but you couldn’t form words at that moment. Your feet were on the move faster than you could even think as they took you to the SUV that you’d arrived in, not wanting to hear Aaron talk to Derek about you. All you wanted to do was get on the jet, leave the small Arkansas town you were in, get back to Quantico, and try to stop thinking about Aaron Hotchner.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t as easy as you liked to think.
You rode back to the hotel with Emily and JJ, who had let you sit in the front seat, and didn’t dare look either of them in the eye. Emily tried to make small talk to lighten the mood, but you could barely even think about anything other than your probation and the way that Aaron had talked to you in front of everyone. She eventually took the hint, and the three of you rode back to the hotel in silence.
You finally turned to Emily once the SUV came to a stop. “Do you know if we’re leaving tonight or in the morning?” Normally, if you finished a case late, you always preferred to spend the night in the hotel in order to get some rest, but there was nothing you wanted more than to just go home now.
“Uh, tonight,” Emily said with a grimace. “Sorry, I know you usually hate leaving immediately after.”
You shook your head. “Not this time. I don’t think I’ve ever wanted to go home more than I do right now.”
Emily eyed you up and down, taking in your slumped, exhausted body. Her eyes flickered up to the mirror, catching JJ’s eye who was giving an equally worried look. “Do you want to talk-”
“Not right now, Emily,” you interrupted. “I’m going to pack my stuff up. Can you send me a text when it’s time to go?”
Emily looked like she wanted to say more, but she didn’t, sensing you obviously didn’t want to talk about it right now. “Yeah, I’ll let you know.”
“Thanks,” you mumbled. “See you guys soon.” With that, you were out of the SUV before either of them could unbuckle their seatbelts and on your way to the entrance of the hotel you were staying in along with the rest of the team.
Typically, you shared a room with someone, but luckily for you, it was your turn to get your own this time, which you couldn’t have been more thankful for when you swiped your keycard and finally got to be alone for a minute.
You knew that Emily meant well. She had been one of your closest friends since you had joined the team. You felt a tinge of guilt at how closed off you had been to her in the car when she was just trying to make sure you were okay. However, you really weren’t okay, and you really didn’t want Emily to know the full extent of what was going on.
After hastily packing your things and grabbing a quick shower, you received a text from Emily that it was time to go. On your way down to the lobby to meet her, it was finally setting in that you were, quite literally, exhausted. You’d been awake since before daylight and a quick glance at the time shining on your phone reminded you that you had been awake for nearly seventeen hours.
You rode with Emily, JJ, and Rossi to board the jet, but ended up napping the entire short duration of the drive. Truthfully, you hadn’t even realized you’d fallen asleep until Rossi had nudged you awake.
When you were finally in the air, you allowed yourself to catch a glance at your infuriating boss who was still, as usual, in his suit with his tie and jacket discarded, writing in a file.
Probably writing me up, you bitterly thought to yourself. You knew you had done a not-very-smart thing, but by the time you figured out that the original plan the team came up with wasn’t going to work, it was too late. If you hadn’t darted through the door and startled the unsub, the poor woman who was taken hostage was going to meet a very similar fate that four other women faced.
You could admit that it was a rash, last minute decision, but you didn’t regret it. You saved a woman’s life and helped capture an awful man who would have never stopped if not caught. It felt like Aaron was punishing you for something that wasn’t the decision you made tonight. Two weeks on probation felt a little extreme to you.
Twenty minutes into the flight, Derek, Rossi, and JJ were already asleep while Emily looked like she was close to following. Spencer was nursing what you thought was his second coffee in the short time on the jet, a pair of headphones in as he watched something on the tablet he had propped up.
That left only you and Aaron sitting in silence.
This had been a particularly hard case that had to be solved in under seventy-two hours in order to prevent any more victims since you, with the help of Spencer, figured out that the unsub operated on stalking and kidnapping his victims on a specific schedule. Hardly anyone had gotten much sleep in an attempt to solve the case as soon as possible – hence why nearly everyone was asleep.
Aaron finally spoke after nearly fifty minutes into the flight from his seat in front of you after Emily and Spencer had finally drifted off, though you weren’t sure how Spencer was even sleeping considering he had downed two coffees. “You should get some rest.”
“Don’t worry about me,” you said bitterly, keeping your eyes straight ahead. “I’ll be getting lots of rest in the next two weeks considering I can’t really do anything else on probation, so thanks, but I’m good.” The words were tumbling out before you could even comprehend what you’d said. In a normal situation, you’d be worried that speaking to your boss like that would result in its own consequences but considering you were already on probation, what was the harm?
He said nothing.
It was nine days into what felt like the most excruciatingly long probation known to man, and you still had five more days to go.
You had just gotten back from a case in Maine where you, unfortunately, barely got to do anything other than help out at the police station. In addition, you had to finish several online modules assigned to you by Strauss on safety in the field, which was, in your opinion, ridiculous considering you had been at the BAU for a good amount of time – long enough to know all about safety in the field.
“I think I’ve gone past the point of exhaustion,” Emily said as you came off the elevator as she stifled a yawn. “Is that a real thing?”
“Yes, my beautiful friend who I am so happy to see. That means you need to get home and rest.”
Penelope Garcia was there to greet you at the elevator, a warm smile lighting up her face as she gave Emily a hug then turned to you. “How are you doing?”
“I’ll be fine in five days when this stupid probation is over,” you told Penelope, watching her give you a sympathetic smile.
“I’m heading out, but you have my number if you need me,” she told you with a comforting pat to your arm. “Goodnight ladies.”
Penelope was on the elevator to leave as you and Emily, after waving off Penelope, filed off to your desks to pack up to go back to your apartments.
“Got a hot date tonight?” Emily asked jokingly.
You laughed and shook your head. “Haven’t had a hot date in a long time. What about you?”
It was true. The last date you had been on was four months ago with the man who also happened to be your boss and who also happened to be your number one enemy right now.
“Just with Sergio.”
You and Emily were already on your way out to leave for the night officially until you stopped in your tracks when you reached the elevator. “Ugh, I just realized I left my phone charger at my desk. You can go on without me.”
“You sure? I don’t mind waiting,” she said as she stepped into the elevator.
You nodded. “Go on; it’s late. Have a good night, Emily.”
A huff left your mouth as you turned back on your heel to walk back to your desk. Your hands grasped the charger laying under several files that you (probably) needed to look at, but tonight was not the night for that.
However, you realized it was definitely not your night at all when you tried to turn your car on, only to be met with a sound of spluttering.
“Not tonight,” you groaned, repeatedly trying to turn your key to start the engine, but the car never started, much to your luck. “Are you serious right now?”
Your car was by no means brand new, but it was a good car and not often did it give you problems. Except for tonight. Or in other words, the one night you desperately wanted to go home, take a shower, and go to bed.
You weren’t really sure of your options. You could probably call Emily. She couldn’t have gotten too far down the road. Maybe she could give you a ride since her apartment was on the way to your place. Another option was calling an Uber, but –
Your car door opening knocked you out of your train of thought. Your brain immediately went into fight-or-flight, and you chose fight as your hands instinctively reached for the pepper spray on your key ring.
“Hey! It’s just me.”
It was Aaron with his hands outstretched into a surrender position, his suit jacket hanging from the crease where his arm bent. “Why are you sitting in the parking lot in the dark with your car unlocked? Do you know how easy it would be for someone to-”
“Come up and kidnap me? Yeah, I learned all about it in my online safety training this past week as if I didn’t already know,” you sassed with an eye roll. “I think my battery is dead. I usually keep jumper cables in here, but I cleaned my car out last week and must have taken them out. I’m probably going to have to call an Uber.”
You didn’t know why you were telling him all of this. The small voice in the back of your head knew why, but you weren’t willingly to actively think about it. You had enough on your plate right now.
“I’ll give you a ride home.”
“Like hell you will,” you told him.
“You do know I’m your boss, and you technically can’t speak to me like that?”
“You won’t fire me. You'll just put me on probation.”
He paused, his eyes closing momentarily before opening them again and going back to his stoic demeanor as usual. “Let me drive you home, so I will know that you got home safely. Please.”
You wanted to say no, but it was late and getting a ride home from Aaron meant that you didn’t have to bother Emily or lose money on an Uber. The only thing you’d be losing, in your opinion, was what little dignity you had left when it came to Aaron.
It’s just a ride home, you told yourself in your head.
“Fine.” You had admitted defeat. “Give me a second.”
He turned his back to you and started to walk away from your car. When you knew for sure he couldn’t see you, you positioned the rearview mirror so you could see yourself in it. Before you could stop yourself, you attempted to fix your hair as nicely as possible and then took a moment to stop what you were doing. You scoffed at yourself and shook your head.
“What is wrong with me?” You asked yourself aloud. “He doesn’t care. Neither do you.”
However, after you grabbed your things, you did sneak one more look in the mirror before getting out of your car and locking it. You were glad when you took another look to see Aaron not looking in your direction. 
 You made your way over to Aaron’s signature parking spot, the same one he parked in every morning, and met him there, his hands typing something out on his phone until he noticed your presence.
Without missing a beat, he opened the passenger door for you. You wanted to tell your heart to stop when that familiar flutter came back like it used to all those months ago. You opened your mouth, but he stopped you before you could say anything.
“No need for a remark. I’m just opening the door for you.”
“I was going to say thanks.”
A ghost of a smile danced across his face as he shut the door. It was so quick if you weren’t paying attention then you wouldn’t have seen it.
Your eyes adjusted to the interior of Aaron’s car, déjà vu hitting you from the first time you were ever in his car. But you forced those thoughts back down with a grimace and a reminder of how that ended the first time.
With one hand gripping the wheel and the other holding onto the back of your seat as his torso turned, eyes watching behind as he backed out, you thought you were going to throw up. Not because you were sick, but because Aaron was so damn attractive in doing the simplest things like backing up a car.
“You can turn on the radio if you want,” Aaron told you. “Your cord is still in here.”
You bit your lip, eyes locking onto the green cord still plugged in. “I’ve been looking for that everywhere. I had to buy a new one for my car.”
Back when you were frequently with Aaron, and he was typically the designated driver when you went places, you often complained about the lack of music in his car. He only listened to whatever was on the radio. He had no CDs nor did he have an AUX cord, claiming something about never being in his personal car long enough to deal with music in it.
After that day, you put your AUX cord in his car the next time you were in it and controlled the music, often giving him a performance to your favorite songs in the car as he drove. Aaron never complained like a lot of guys would. Instead, he would watch you belt a heartbreak ballad with an amused smile.
But that was months ago. And things were much different now.
“I would’ve given it back to you, but it’s slipped my mind. Feel free to take it with you.”
The happy memories that the AUX cord brought back were pushed to the back of your head again at his words. He told you to take it because there was no point in it anymore. You two were done.
You didn’t plug the cord into your phone. You didn’t play a song. You sat in the terrible silence, wishing it wasn’t silent like before, but it was silent, and Aaron was acting like nothing was wrong. 
Another awkward moment passed as he kept driving, the route to where you lived engraved as he had driven there many times. Aaron didn’t have to ask you where you lived because he knew. He knew from all the late nights he dropped you back off. The thought of all the previous times you’d been on this exact same drive under different circumstances made your head hurt.
“Why did you put me on probation?” The words slipped out before you could stop them.
“You know why I put you on probation. You comprised the safety of yourself, the team, and-”
“I compromised the safety of myself, the team, and the victim, yes, I know, but you put me on a two week probation when I can name off countless times that others on the team have done worse and didn’t get put on a two-week probation,” you argued back. “I know I messed up, but at the end of the day, it feels like you’re punishing me for something.”
He nodded, his eyes staying trained on the road. “I am punishing you for something, and that something is compromising-”
“I swear if you say compromise one more time-”
“Compromising your safety and the safety of others.”
You didn't say anything. Your arms were crossed as you looked out the window and into the dark as objects moved past you, reaching closer to your destination.
Aaron spoke your name, but you didn’t want to look at him.
“What?”
“Look at me,” he said as the car came to a stop at a redlight.
You reluctantly looked over, not prepared to see him already looking at you. You swallowed, trying to keep your gaze on him.
“I’d rather you be angry with me than even thinking about the possibility of you getting hurt.”
You couldn’t speak even if you wanted to because he kept going.
“When I saw you run into that warehouse, it was one of the only times in my life that I have been so scared that I couldn’t think straight. I put you on probation because you did something reckless. All of us outside thought we lost you when we heard the gunshots. I know you and a few others thought probation was too harsh, but it’s important for you to know that if you’re going to storm a hostage situation, you have to communicate with us. The team cannot lose you,” Aaron told you, his eyes never leaving yours. “I can’t lose you. Understood?”
You were pretty sure that at this point your voice was gone. You simply nodded.
The light turned green, and Aaron started driving again, his eyes finally breaking contact. “Finish out your probation next week and then put it behind you.”
There were no more words spoken. It was silent. You didn’t know how to respond to anything he had just said to you.
Except you did have one question. You weren’t even sure if you wanted the answer to it.
“If you can’t lose me,” you started, fiddling with the sleeve of your top, “then why did you end things?”
“It was for the best,” Aaron said, breaking your heart all over again. “I’m your boss-”
“You being my boss didn’t seem to be a problem when your mouth was on mine every time you dropped me off from dinner.”
He didn’t seem to have an answer for that. You sat smugly in your seat waiting for him to say something.
“You want the truth?”
“I’ve only been asking you for the truth for four months now,” you shot back.
“I fell in love with you.”
Aaron said it so casually that you had to do a double take, your mouth slightly opening. Out of all the things he could’ve said, you did not in a million years think that would be it. Your heart was pounding, and there was a moment where you thought that you had imagined him saying that he fell in love with you, but he really did say it.
He continued. “I thought it was best to end what was going on between us because things would’ve only escalated, and I didn’t want people to think negatively about you. You’re a strong woman in a male-dominated field. You’ve worked hard to get to where you are. You should be taken seriously and unfortunately, going out with your boss doesn’t look good on paper. I hurt you, and I’m truly sorry for that.”
You hadn’t even realized it when Aaron had finally pulled up to the huge parking lot of your apartment building, which was surprisingly vacant for a Thursday night. The words he’d said were dancing around in your head. You hadn’t done anything wrong. It felt like a weight had been lifted off your shoulders.
Even after everything, all you really wanted was him.
“Aaron,” you said as you turned to him when he put the car in park, “I mean this with all due respect, but that’s not just your decision to make. I should get a say. I wish you had told me because for the last four months I’ve been going crazy with overthinking. That’s why it hurt so much when you put me on probation. I thought you were punishing me for something between us. Please don’t shut me out because I’m in love with you, and quite frankly, I don’t give a shit about what people say about me.”
“But people will talk about you-”
“So?”
“And there’s also Strauss-”
“Who we can deal with. I’m not afraid of Erin Strauss,” you cut him off again.
He raised his eyes before you spoke again. “Okay, maybe I’m slightly afraid of her, but that doesn’t change anything. You don’t choose who you fall in love with. If people want to talk about me for being in love, then let them. I just want to be with you, so please stop trying to protect me. I can handle anything.”
“Okay,” Aaron said after a minute. “Okay. If you want to do this, there is a lot to discuss work-wise.”
“That’s fine. I have a lot of time to discuss things. I’m on probation.” 
Every other time you had brought up your probation, it had been with anger, but this time, there was only a grin on your face. Even though you were still mad about that damn probation, which was another conversation for another time, you figured you might as well make a joke out of it.
Aaron couldn’t keep a straight face. “Yes, you are for five more days. You still have one more module on safety in the field to complete.”
“Screw you,” you said half-jokingly.
“You wish,” he shot right back.
“You’re damn right I do.”
It was as if there was a shift in the air. You’d spent four months without him and in that moment you had decided you never really wanted to go another second without him. There was still a lot to talk about between the two of you, but for now, all you really wanted to do was kiss him.
Even when the two of you were “seeing” each other, or whatever it was, there wasn’t much physical affection. Aaron always kissed you before dropping you off at night, but it was always short, sweet, and simple. Tonight, you didn’t want short, sweet, and simple as your goodbye kiss.
“You should be getting in. It’s late,” he told you, but neither of you made an effort to move. In fact, it felt like you had only gotten closer. You could feel Aaron’s breath fan your face.
You leaned even closer, your face only inches from his. “You gonna tell me goodnight?”
Aaron never replied, only moving to close the small gap between the two of you, his lips pressing against yours in a way that almost felt desperate.
You were the one to take it a step further as your mouth opened wider and one of your hands slid up to rest on his shoulder. Aaron gladly took the hint. His tongue was in your mouth and before you could process it, one hand had moved to cup your face while the other rested on your thigh.
He pulled back for a moment, but only to mess with something under his seat. You gave him a confused look, still breathing heavily. “What are you doing?”
Aaron’s seat had scooted back further to open more room between him and the steering wheel, and you realized what he was doing now. He simply shrugged. “The console is in the way.”
With that, you laughed and maneuvered yourself across the center console that Aaron seemed to hate at the moment. His hands instinctively grabbed your waist in an attempt to help you move over and onto him – literally.
You took in your current situation for a moment. You were straddling Aaron Hotchner in his car in a parking lot. If you had told yourself earlier in the morning that this is where you would be, you would not have believed it.
His lips were back on yours before you could think about anything else, hands still gripping your waist while yours moved to his hair. You were pressed against him, your chest to his, and left no room between the two of you.
“This okay?” He mumbled as his warm hands snaked underneath your shirt, now resting on your bare hips. He pressed a kiss to your jaw while you nodded, a deep breath leaving your mouth. He smiled against your jaw before reattaching his lips again, but this time to your neck.
You couldn’t think of the last time you felt like this. Your body felt like it was literally on fire, and Aaron’s mouth wasn’t doing anything to extinguish that fire – only making it worse.
As much as you loved the hot, open-mouthed kisses to your neck, you cupped his face, guiding him back up to your lips. Your hands slid to tangle in his hair, earning you a throaty sound from him, which only encouraged you further as you smiled against his lips before going back to kissing him.
Aaron pulled back only a few seconds later, both of you breathing heavily in a hot and flustered state. “As much as I’m enjoying this, we probably shouldn’t get too carried away in here.”
“What? Car sex isn’t on your bucket list?” You joked.
He laughed as you leaned into the hand cupping your face. “You deserve better than a car the first time.”
“So what I’m hearing is car sex after the first time?”
Aaron gave you one of his rare grins, and it lit up your entire world. “You are impossible.”
“I’m just kidding,” you said, giving him a peck on the cheek. “I really should be getting in the bed. My boss is making me come in at eight-thirty tomorrow for a meeting.”
“Oh really? He sounds very smart.”
You playfully rolled your eyes and with the help of Aaron, you moved back over to the passenger seat. “I will see you bright and early in the morning.”
“Looking forward to it.”
You gave him one last kiss before gathering your bag and opening the car door. “Goodnight, Aaron.”
“Goodnight,” he told you.
You shut the door and with a smile on your face, waved to him one last time before making your way towards the entrance of your apartment building.
However, before you could get very far, you heard Aaron’s voice calling your name. You turned around to see him with his window down.
“Did I forget something?” You called to him and watched confusedly as he shook his head.
“Your hair looked fine earlier. You didn’t have to fix it just for me.”
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spacedace · 1 year
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I know it was a prompt and u said you werent gonna do anything with it (and you so should) but i love ur two posts on the Queen of Clones Elle/Amnesiac Champion Kon AU (especially Kon's knight design (like ghost tattoos?!?!? so so cool) and Elle's relationship with him). Got anymore headcanons about this au? Who are the other clones you envisioned playing the background characters? Do Kon and Tim actually cuddle in the Only One Bed scenario? Does Elle get a cool princess/queen design(s) since Kon gets a knight one? Does Tim walk into Kon's knight practice and have a "oh no he's hot" moment? Just afagshjdksll this au is so cool please tell me all about it
The thing is, whenever I say "I'm going to put X idea here for someone else to grab since I'm never going to do anything with it" I'm lying. I'm a liar. It's still lives in my brain and is taking over all rational thought. I have at least 85% of a story written in my head when I say that, I just know that I'm never going to sit down and actually write it down lol
I have SO MANY thoughts about this AU, you have no idea what you've done asking me about it haha
(and seriously if anything at all in my ramblings here is of interest to anyone have at it, everything I post should always be considered free game to use as a writing prompt haha)
Like, between Elle getting snatched by the GIW & Kon ending up in custody with the Justice League for a bit, a lot of the clones that weren't involved in the rescue(s) who are out in the wider multiverse come pouring in to check on them and there's this huge impromptu "Congrats on Escaping a Government Agency" party for the two of them.
There are so many clones just everywhere, Tim is overwhelmed by them all (and hasn't actually realized that the whole deal of the place is that everyone there is a clone yet). But he's dealing. He's sticking close to Kon (because he's never letting Kon leave his sight again, especially since he's half convinced that Elle kidnapped & brainwashed Kon into being her loyal servant for evil purposes) and getting introduced to the most diverse group of entities he's ever seen before (humans aren't the only ones who get into cloning).
And then there's an excited whoop as some kid comes flying out of a portal and launches himself at Kon, talking a thousand miles a second, just so happy Kon is back and okay and the boy is so chipper and happy and sweet that it takes Tim a second to realize holy shit is that Damian????
The kid is the Heretic, aged down and growing up again with a fresh slate after getting sent to Elle's Haunt post however he disappeared/died in DC canon (I'm a bit fuzzy on those details). Of course that information takes a bit for Tim to figure out, becuase the kid has no memories at all of being the Heretic or of Damian or Talia or Bruce or fighting his way out of a whale fully grown. As far as he's concerned he's Antonio, Paulina Sanchez' adopted son, and like sure he's somebody's clone but that really doesn't matter to him, he only comes to Elle's haunt to hang out and tag along behind Kon because he thinks Kon is the coolest. (Kon is explaining this to Tim as a bright, cheerful, normal kid version of Damian is sitting on his shoulders. Tim is losing his god damn mind).
And the Only One Bed Thing!! Okay, so like, Kon is Elle's Champion and basically her unofficial Heir. When Elle isn't around he's in charge of her Haunt and looking after all the other clones. And even when she is there he just goes full Big Brother mode on everyone. It doesn't matter if the clones that end up in the Haunt are actually older than him, he's their big brother now.
To that end, clones end up coming to Kon all the time in the middle of the night, unable to sleep because of nightmares and stuff. And Kon is the cuddliest motherfucker. He's all about platonic cuddles to help people sleep. Just about every clone that's ever spent any time at Elle's haunt has ended up curled up in a blanket fort in Kon's room getting cuddled into feeling safe and cared for.
So for Kon? Only One Bed is no issue at all.
Oh all the clones coming over for the party has taken up all the rooms and Elle is "too weak from recovering" for her Haunt to make more? Of course Red Robin can stay in his room! His bed is so comfy and there's more than enough room for both of them (and like, sure, he's kinda panicking a little because he's never cuddled with anyone he's sorta had a tiny bit of a crush on, but he cab be cool! Besides, its hard to fully commit to the crush one Red Robin when Mystery Boy is out there somewhere, oh maybe he can ask Red Robin about him! He seems to know so much about Kon he'll know who Kon is in love with back in his old life!)
Tim, on the other hand, is just fully:
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Over the prospect of having to keep his shit together while sleeping in the same bed as Kon (who sleeps without a shirt, jesus fucking christ, Kon has tattoos now since when did that happen??? why is he somehow more attractive than when he disappeared??? oh god Tim is going to have a fucking heart attack) especially after Kon drops the bomb that the only thing he can remember from before is some guy that Kon was apparently totally in love with??? Like Tim is being thrown wildly between being a Bi Disaster to being totally devistated and back again.
He mostly manages to keep himself together, at least until it's actually time for bed and it turns out that Kon is a cuddler when he sleeps (Kon did warn him! "just shove me off if I end up trying to use you as a pillow it won't wake me up" he said, and Tim thought "well it can't be that bad" he was so fucking wrong) and Tim ends up wrapped up in a cocoon of muscled and tattooed Kryptonian arms with his face smushed into Kon's chest and Kon nuzzling into Tim's hair in his sleep and it's the most comfortable Tim's ever been in his life and Kon purrs in his sleep like how is that even fair??? (I love the Kyrptonian's purr headcanon so much it has to be in here lol)
By the end of the first week Tim's has slept more and better than he has in years. He's genuinely forgotten what it's like to have a normal sleep schedule. Even with all his panicking, Kon sleepily curling up around him and hugging him like a teddy bear just knocks him out. It's insane.
And Elle! I have so many thoughts about Elle in this AU!
I mentioned it in one of my other posts on this AU that Elle gives off Vibes based off her various Epitaphs that she's gained, and I think that she'd kinda push that to the max when it came to Tim for awhile when Kon first shows up with him.
Like, she takes one look at Tim and is like "ah, this is Mystery Boy my amnesiac bestie has been on about forever" while also realizing that Kon has no idea that he's just panic-kidnapped the one person he sorta remembers from his old life. Which is the oppurtunity of so much fun matchmaking chaos. And she loves Kon, she's planning on officially making him her Heir so that he becomes Prince of Clones as well as her Champion, she wants him to be happy.
But also she's protective over him, more even than a lot of the other clones that end up in her Haunt. Kon doesn't remember his old life and he was so badly injured when he ended up in Elle's haunt that Frostbite hadn't been sure he would survive. Add in the fact that Red Robin was clearly with the people that had captured Kon while he and the other clones were getting her out of the GIW facility (and that the Justice League is sort of a government agency in it's own right) and Elle isn't totally sold on Tim.
She goes out of her way to give off extra creepy vibes while around him. Making sure he understands that she's more than strong enough to destroy him if he even thinks about hurting Kon. At least in the early days of Tim being in her haunt. She does, eventually, lighten up - especially when Kon gives her the big eyes and asks her to trust him, that he knows that Red Robin is someone he believes is good and that won't ever hurt him. She's still keeps a close eye on Tim, but does chill out a little after that.
And she does have a Queen Form (and a princess form when she's doing her Crown Princess of the Infinite Realms thing). She has a couple different forms/designs depending on which Epitaph she's invoking (and of course a fun vaguely eldritch shadow form that scares the shit out of Tim haha).
Her Clone Queen design is BIG, not quite massive Eldritch Ghost King Danny big, but definitely big. Like 20-30 feet tall big, so she can pick up and carry/hold all her clone children like little babies (if any clones are from a race/species that's bigger than that her size adjusts so she's always big enough to carry them).
She has a crown made out of mirror shards that float around and move so that it's always changing shape (I've been feeling clones being called "Mirrorborn" in the Infinite Realms since there's kind of a naming convention already with "unborn" and clones could be seen as kind of like reflections in a way. Elle's official title is actually "Queen of the Mirrorborn" though sometimes is called "Mother of Mirrors" that's why Kon's sheild reflects things, since Elle made it for him out of a piece of her crown while naming him her Champion) and wears a dress that also looks like it's covered in mirrors. It's actually very soft and comfortable and it's super common for clones to climb around or curl up in her skirts and sleep in there.
Her dress does turn into armor though if she needs to fight. And while in Clone Queen mode it's actually super easy for her to duplicate herself a bunch of times.
Knight Training!
Once Elle chills out on Tim a little and is fully onboard the matchmaking train with the rest of the clones (all while absolutely none of them tell Kon that Red Robin is obviously his Mystery Boy) she has Fright Knight show up more often to train Kon specifically for the purpose of Tim walking in on shirtless Tim expertly going through sword forms and sparring with various other clones. And of course Tim and Kon have to have a sparring scene, where Tim is so distracted by Kon being so fucking attractive he ends up pinned against a wall with the flat of a sword under his chin and Kon giving him a cheeky wink and then it's on and there's a whole dramatic flirty fight scene as they make their way through half of Elle's Haunt while sword fighting.
Also! Since Elle's entire court is actually there for once, a bunch of different monarchs around the Infinite Realms decide to host a tournament, so Kon gets to do official knight stuff in his best armor. And Tim gets place of honor right next to Elle during all the jousting and fighting stuff so he gets the best view of Kon kicking ass.
Tim (still wearing his mask because even if he's pretty sure that no one here is evil or would use his secret identity against him - or even care that he has one) has been all dressed up in some gorgeous clothes fit for his status as "Companion" to a Queen's Champion/future Heir. Just something absolutely insanely georgous in the colors of his Red Robin suit, with a dramatic but entirely functionless cape and Kon's crest (not Elle's but Kon's) embroidered on it and it's Kon's turn to blue screen at seeing Tim for the first time all dressed up.
And Tim is maybe finally putting together from talking with Kon that he might be Mystery Boy that Kon remembers from before and that Kon is in love with. So just before Kon is going out to joust, Tim - taking Elle's advice that he should give Kon a favor before the tournament for good luck - and wanting it to be more meaningful than just a handkerchief or something, takes his mask of and gives it to Kon as his favor.
And Kon just loses his god damn mind because Mystery Boy and Red Robin are the same person and all he wants to do is kiss Tim stupid but Fright Knight Master of Chivalry is like "nope you gotta win this tournament and bring honor to your beloved and do this whole ridiculous song and dance about it, no kissing, get out there and smash some heads together - and keep your helmet on this time!" and just yeets a disgruntled Kon out into the field before he can do anything.
And of course with all this extra incentive - Fright is serious about that whole "prove your love through combat" thing he's not going to be allowed to even kiss Tim's hand unless he wins and is perfectly chivalous while doing it - Kon wins the Tournament and is given the flower crown he's supposed to give to the most beautiful of all the observers and of course he gives it to Tim and he doesn't care if there's a forty step courting process he's supposed to follow Fright, he's fucking kissing Tim and there's nothing you can do about it!
Literally seconds away from them finally kissing is when the Justice League kick down the door to get Tim back.
The ghosts aren't even the ones that wrecks the Justice League's shit for interuppting, it's just Tim screaming at them about being cock blocks for forty minutes while Kon screams into the void in the background.
(Kon does get his memories back eventually, and he and Tim do finally get that kiss and start dating. But at that point Kon has been named Elle's heir so Fright Knight is even more rediculous about Correct Courting Steps than before because Kon is a Prince now. Elle is just relieved that it turns out that the Justice League nuked the GIW while they were looking for Tim, because they were not okay with them or the Anti-Ecto Laws. Kon is mortified at having what is effectively his adoptive mother constantly popping in to dote on him while in the middle of fights, Elle is having a great time.)
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About Kirbypurrs:
Recently, they made a post talking about a targeted smear campaign against them. As someone who used to be a close friend of theirs, I wanted to share my experiences.
On the surface they're certainly charismatic and easy to talk to, but they've never been able to hold down any relationship deeper than that due to their own faults. In all the time I've known them personally, they've shown to be nothing but an incredibly self-absorbed, toxic, and manipulative person who is unable to accept fault or responsibility for a situation they caused or got wrapped into of their own volition. Time and time again I've given them chances and chances and tried to reach out to them and be understanding and thought the best of them only to be let down by them as a friend and told, actually, I'm the problem, no matter what that situation is. If you try to come up to them about a concern, or tell them you they shouldn't do whatever thing, they will apologize to your face, but in reality, they'll always claim it was a You problem. For example, one time Purrs broke a preestablished rule of our friend group chat. We had that rule written down and put in pins, even. When I told them to stop, they made it out to be me "not letting them speak when something bad happened to them again" and that I was being mean to them by telling them to stop in the first place. This is the kind of person Purrs is. They never apologized about their actions and still think that I wronged them to this day.
Purrs claims that no one has ever come up to them telling them what the issue is. This is BLATANTLY untrue. It is a long, long pattern spanning many years with them that they will avoid confrontation at any costs, even if that confrontation is as simple as a "hey, could you not do this?". They have ghosted people for coming up to them about concerns, and will often dodge around the concern in the first place. Purrs if you're reading this, I have personally tried to reach out to you about concerns only for you to say "I would tell you if I had a problem with you" and then go to the extent of leaving voice chats when I join, softblocking me from your priv, and actively avoiding me wherever I am, without warning or explanation, all for having the audacity to ask you if there was an issue in the first place. And I am not the first person you have done this to, by far. I have personally witnessed you do this to another person not including me, just in the slightly more than a year we were friends. I have spoken to people who were friends with you years before I was friends with you who had the same experience. You have told us stories of how "overbearing" and "clingy" others have been in the past for daring to constantly ask if you had an issue with them due to your poor treatment of them. And despite your claimed "I would tell you if I had a problem with you" attitude, I personally have seen you actively avoid Another two people when they tried to be friendly with you, only for you to shittalk them to absolute hell in our friend group chat about things they could never have known were rubbing you the wrong way, or about things that were, quite frankly, stupid of you to make their fault anyways. Remember that time you got mad at someone because their headcanons were getting more attention than yours? Remember that time you hated someone's guts and ranted about them on multiple occasions in our group chat because you were upset they didn't use tone tags, and then when I said "You should tell them you need tone tags" you got pissed at me instead for not letting you vent? Good times /s
Purrs does not care about fixing problems any problems they cause. They are one of the most hypocritical people I have ever known. If you ever try to act like everything is anything but rainbows and sunshine, they will distance yourself from you and shittalk you behind your back before you even realize. They are the one that will make all these false and exaggerated claims about others. I have witnessed it again and again over situations I was there for, even. Again Purrs, if you are reading this, despite what you think and what you keep telling people, I'm not the reason this supposed smear campaign of yours has come up again. Everyone who speaks ill of you does so because of their own experiences with you. Everyone who I have spoken to about you did not have their opinion changed because of me; those were always their experiences from the start. I just made them realize that this has always been a pattern with you. I'm not going to say that I have never been in the wrong ever, and there are times I genuinely believe you've been unfairly treated and gotten the short end of the stick, but overall in this situation, I know that I am in the right due to the sheer amount of people you've fucked over the exact same way you have me. You are a shitty friend and a shitty person. I cannot express the countless amount of people you have fucked up badly by betraying our trust. It would do everyone well to stay away from you.
To anyone else who has had bad experiences with Purrs, I encourage you to state them on my post. Their behavior has always been a trend, but for the most part, everyone affected has been courteous enough to keep it in the private space. I am done with them playing the victim and I am done with others being hurt by them.
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anna-hawk · 8 months
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You tell me you hate me [Yeah, I bet you do]
Shane Walsh x F!Reader
Summary: You and Shane never got along, yet desperate circumstances make you cross an unexpected line.
Warnings/Tags: Post ZA, Canon typical violence, Enemies to lovers, Near-death experience, Hate sex, Bearded Shane
WC 9,7k // Explicit 🔞
Written for the Beardthal Bash 2023
Read it on AO3
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“No… Absolutely not.” 
You crossed your arms resolutely as you stared Rick down, the man standing across from you at the large table in the Greene dining room. He closed his eyes and rubbed over them as he sighed your name pleadingly. 
“Listen, I know that you don’t like him-”
“Trust me, it’s very much mutual,” you ground out under your breath with your top lip curling up in distaste. 
“So you know I wouldn’t be askin’ you if I had another option,” Rick continued without missing a beat. 
You gave him a surly look before looking down at the large map lying unfolded on the table. Various circles and other notes were scribbled all over it, highlighting spots with existing or possible food, ammunition and fuel supplies, as well as information on walker hordes and so on. 
“Everyone is gone doin’ something else and… I’d go myself if Judith wasn’t-”
“No, you can’t leave her alone,” you cut in, your voice softening at the mention of the baby. “She needs you.” 
You gritted your teeth as you thought. 
Running across the Greene Farm several months earlier with your little group of four friends, you hadn’t expected to find a lasting shelter and people that would quickly become the next best thing to a family. Especially since things had been tense, to say the least, when you’d arrived. Between Rick and Shane, in particular, since the two leaders of the group hadn't always seen eye to eye. Shane had been less than thrilled at the idea of letting you join, while Rick had tried to convince everyone that having more people around to help would be beneficial to everyone in the long run. Hershel Greene had been the one to put a stop to the argument, reminding Shane that he’d decided to open his doors for them just a couple of months earlier and that he’d be doing the same for you. Shane had left the room in a huff, muttering about more mouths to feed. While you’d understood his concerns, his aggressive behavior had your hackles rising instantly and fighting down the urge to snap back. Still, you’d felt beyond relieved to be invited to stay. Shane had ultimately stopped complaining when your group had proven its worth more than once over the following weeks. 
With you personally, it was an entirely different story. You and Shane never managed to get along. After that first day, the man’s attitude had kept rubbing you the wrong way. Simply put, he was an utter asshole, and you’d made sure he was aware of it any chance you got. Whether he liked it or not. Whenever you were in the same room, discussing chores and missions alongside Hershel, Daryl, Rick and Hunter, one from your original group, you’d end up sniping at each other. Whatever the one said or suggested, the other would find something to complain about. It wasn’t like you couldn’t admit that he came up with clever plans or that he was generally good at keeping everyone safe, it was more his snide remarks and the way he tried to mansplain everything. It made you feel like you needed to take him down a peg. 
A few weeks after your arrival, things changed between Rick and Shane on the day you all found out that Lori was pregnant. Rick had almost lost it at the idea of them having a child in this terrible new world, especially after coming so close to losing Carl, as you’d found out a few days after settling in. Yet, while the close call had clearly done something to Rick and Shane’s friendship, maybe triggering their fights because of how they suddenly viewed things, this news changed their relationship again. You didn’t know what had happened between them after they’d found out, but things had gotten better between the two men. While their relationship had slowly been mending, you sometimes felt like Shane was only able to get along with Rick again because he was fighting with you instead. 
Looking at the map now, you checked the distance separating you from the nearest general store that you knew still had food and other goods, like baby formula, among other things. A pang of sadness ran through you at the reminder that little Judith didn’t have her mother anymore. 
“Can’t I just go on my own?” you mumbled, knowing full well that you couldn’t with how far and dangerous the road was. 
“Told ya she wouldn’t like it.” 
Shane stepped through the dining room doors and joined Rick’s side, his eyes on you and a scowl tugging down his lips, the expression almost hidden in his beard. Almost. This winter had proven to be colder than the previous ones, and both Rick and Shane had let their beards grow out. While Rick’s was lighter and less long, Shane’s beard was thick and matched his curly dark hair. 
“Sure, because you like the idea of spending hours alone with me in a car,” you sneered with a roll of your eyes. Shane’s nostrils flared, and his eyes darkened unhappily at the prospect. “Yeah, thought as much,” you scoffed and returned your attention to Rick, who sighed at the two of you but focused on the map, understanding that the matter was settled, and you would go with Shane. 
“‘kay… You’ll need to take the pickup. Hershel said that the generator’s nearly out of fuel, so are a couple of the cars, and that place…” He pointed at the gas station across from the general store. “Still had some of the bigger gas cans the last time we checked it.” 
Picking up the list with the items you were supposed to find off the table, you quickly scanned it and nodded before turning your back on the men. 
“Meet me at the car in an hour,” you told Shane without a backward glance, it was late morning and the quicker you left, the sooner you’d be back and out of each other’s hair.  
His lack of answer was answer enough, so you left the room to get ready for the trip. 
Back in the room you shared with some of the other women, you dressed according to the situation before you headed to the makeshift armory to pick out a couple of guns and knives. 
“Going out too?” 
You turned to find your friend Nicole standing in the doorway, one of her arms in a sling. She’d nearly gotten bit by a walker the previous week and thankfully only came out with a sprained shoulder. 
You nodded briefly and returned your attention to checking the bullets in the magazine and adding a few when you noticed that it wasn’t full. 
“What’s wrong? I’d have thought you’d be happy to get out of here for a bit.”
You huffed out a small laugh through your nose at her remark. She really knew you well. 
“I’m going with Shane,” you said simply, as you turned around, knowing that it would be enough to explain your mood. 
Sure enough, she grimaced. “Oh.” 
It was no secret to anyone how Shane and you felt about each other. But you were actually the odd one. As with most people in the group, except for Dale, since the older man had a penchant for being nosy, and you didn’t enjoy that about him either, Shane actually got along with Nicole rather well. It was the same for her sister Jasmine, and just as much for Hunter. They’d been as angry as you about Shane’s behavior at the start, but they’d all warmed up to the man quickly enough after a while, and it had gone both ways. Jasmine and Shane had even flirted around for a bit, before Hunter had come through and snatched her away, much to Andrea’s relief, who’d seemed to carry a torch for Shane for a while. Objectively speaking, you’d have been interested as well had Shane not been… Shane. While you shared most of your thoughts with Nicole, you certainly hadn’t admitted to finding Shane attractive. Even less about how good the beard looked on him.
“Yep.” You finished with the guns and put them into their holsters at your hips, along with a knife, while the other one went to an ankle. 
“Shit… I’m sorry. I wish I could go and-” she started, fidgeting with the sling at your situation. 
“Hey, no, no.” You gently grabbed her by her good shoulder and clasped the hand of the injured one as you gave her a reassuring smile. “It’s fine, don’t worry, okay?” 
Nicole sighed and nodded. “Maybe… try not to kill each other?” she smiled feebly, as you let go of her, and she watched you walk past her and to the main hall. 
You snorted loudly. “No promises there.” You briefly turned towards her again and gave her a small smile. “See you later.” 
Your last stop was the small box sitting against the entrance door wall, containing all the car keys. Opening it, you grabbed the key ring for the pickup and made your way outside, glad that the weather was sunny even if the temperature was rather crisp. 
Before the whole hour had gone by, Shane joined you at the car, rifle slung over his shoulder as he stalked towards you with a duffle bag in his other hand. 
“Where are the keys?” he barked, putting his stuff in the bed of the pickup except for the rifle. 
You lifted a fist in front of you and opened the palm, letting the keys dangle from the ring sitting around your finger. 
“I’m driving,” you smirked, snapping your hand closed before Shane could get the idea of taking them from you.
“Ah, Christ,” he groused, throwing you a dirty look before heading towards the passenger side and climbing in with the gun. 
Grinning in satisfaction at his reaction, you took your seat behind the wheel and started the car. You drove down the small dirt road that led to the gate and found Dale checking the perimeter. He picked up his pace to reach the gate and opened it for you. The older man grinned at you before he noticed Shane, his smile turning into an apprehensive expression. You opened the window as you rolled up to him. 
“Rick said you’d be heading out but…” he said as he looked through the window, his voice trailing off. You could still hear the ‘I didn’t know it would be with Shane’ part. “You be careful, alright?” 
“Yeah, yeah,” Shane grumbled with a roll of his eyes, while you just gave Dale a tight smile and a nod. 
Nodding in silence, Dale stepped back while you pressed the button to get the window back up and drove through the gate. 
“Meddlin’ ol’ man,” Shane muttered to himself, as he stared out his side of the car. 
You didn’t say anything, agreeing with him for once. 
After driving for a long while in complete silence without meeting any walkers, you turned at an intersection. Shane sat up straighter from the slumped position he'd been in and looked around himself. 
“What are you doin'?” he snapped.
You glanced at him with a raised eyebrow. “Driving to the store?” you replied with a tone that clearly stated ‘duh’. 
“Exactly. You shouldn’t have turned here. See, this is why I should’ve driven cause-”
“Oh, fuck you, Shane,” you bit back. “FYI, if you’d checked the map, you’d know that this is actually a shortcut. Trust me, this’ll save us at least twenty minutes.” 
“Trust you,” he rumbled under his breath, while his eyes kept checking your surroundings. 
You lifted your eyes heavenwards and sighed, mentally preparing yourself for his explanation of why he did, in fact, not trust you at all. To your surprise, though, he didn’t say anything else and only put his chin in his palm, his elbow on the door as he looked ahead. 
As promised, you arrived at the store earlier than through the original route. Since Shane had accepted your decision without too much complaining, you chose to pay him back by not going ‘I told you so’, like you actually wanted to. Instead, you parked at the gas station and slowly got out of the car, your knife in the hand under the one holding the gun. Throwing a quick glance at Shane, he nodded at you in silent understanding as you both moved to the front of the car and then took each one side of the building to inspect it. You came back to the entrance at about the same time, and Shane pushed the glass door open with a little more noise than necessary to lure any potential walkers out. Shane went in first, while you checked your back before following him inside. 
A gurgling sound came from your left. Two walkers slowly stumbled towards you, one in a more advanced state of decay than the other. You and Shane quickly took them out with your knives before you made your way through the couple of aisles to check for any potential items of interest. After several long minutes, in which you did find a few useful things like batteries and the likes, Shane walked up to you with his own large canvas bag in hand. 
“Let’s get this ball rollin’, beautiful, and get the gas,” Shane suggested, as he leaned against the aisle you were inspecting with his shoulder and jerked his chin towards the entrance door. 
“Don’t call me that,” you huffed in annoyance without looking at him as you put one last item in your bag. 
You heard him scoff. “What, you prefer I call you dick or bitch or somethin’?”
Facing him with an exaggerated roll of your eyes, you stared at him with an unimpressed expression. It wasn’t the first time he’d done something like that. Shane was someone who easily used endearments and pet names, and you knew that it sometimes just slipped out, but considering your relationship, it simply didn’t sound right.
“Well, at least it would be more honest, wouldn’t it? But how about just calling me by my actual name?” 
Shane gave you a long look before he shook his head and laughed through his nose. 
“Y’know, just ‘cause you’re a fuckin’ pain in the ass and I could sometimes…” He made a strangling motion that had you actually snorting because that feeling sure did go both ways. “Don’ change the fact that you are.”
“Are what?” you asked suspiciously. 
“Beautiful.” He shrugged and gave you a quick once over. 
Not having expected that reply at all, your eyebrows lifted high on your forehead. You knew, without a doubt, that he was absolutely honest. Shane wasn’t someone for false pleasantries, and especially not with you. 
“Let’s just go get the gas,” you said after a couple of seconds, as you shook your head in bemusement. 
Shane only nodded and followed you outside to find the gas cans and cylinders. He drove the rear of the pickup closer to where they were stocked to make loading the car easier. There were quite a few cans left, and you felt lucky that your group had stumbled upon this little town on your way to the farm, the place recluse enough that it hadn’t been fully raided yet. Once you were done with the gas, you jogged across the road to the general store and repeated the same process as before to make sure that there was no threat. This time the coast was clear, and you separated again, with each taking a piece of the list to search for what you needed. 
You didn’t know how much time went by, but you did take your time filling the four large bags you had with you. The weather could change any day and the less frequently you needed to leave the farm, the better. Meaning that stocking up as much as possible was the way to go. Seeing how Shane meticulously scanned each aisle, he was thinking the same thing. Coming back to the front of the store, you noticed movement out of your peripheral vision and snapped your attention in that direction. Your eyes widened in terror as you took in what was happening outside. 
“Shane,” you hissed urgently, not daring to look away from the large horde that had slowly snuck up on you and was spreading through town. “Shane,” you said more loudly and finally turned to look at him.
The horde was still far enough away that none of the walkers would have been able to hear you, but you weren’t taking any chances. 
“What?” he snapped, only for his eyebrows to lower in confusion as he saw your expression. 
You saw the second he noticed the horde as his eyes looked past you and they widened like yours had. 
“Fuck,” he hissed, while quickly joining you and checking the scene, the two of you crouching down to be out of sight and peaking around the aisle. 
“There’s no way we can reach the car,” you muttered before throwing a glance at Shane, who was still looking outside, but nodded in agreement. 
You watched the front of the horde surround the pickup as it went past the car and continued ahead of the road. 
“They should just walk past us,” Shane said in a low tone, one hand on his rifle anyway, ready to aim. 
You were about to hum in agreement, when there was a commotion at the gas station and several loud crashes came from where the gas cans and cylinders stood. A few cylinders rolled into the direction of the store, and you cursed yourselves for leaving the empty ones standing next to the pickup instead of putting them away. Some of the walkers must have knocked into them as they passed. To your horror, the noise caused the horde to shift its focus, and some of the walkers began turning towards the store. 
“We gotta move,” you gasped out, as neither of you were able to hide quickly enough and you realized that a handful of walkers had seen you. 
To your surprise, Shane shot forward to the entrance, jumping over the register, instead of following you to the back. About to yell at him for his actions, you saw him locking the doors right before a small dozen of walkers crashed against the windows. 
“That’s only gonna buy us a little time,” he panted, as he ran back to you and you both grabbed the bags to hurry to the other side of the store. 
Sure enough, a few seconds later you could hear thudding sounds coming from the front, as well as cracking glass. If the whole horde pressed against the front side, the glass panels would shatter underneath the pressure, and they’d be able to get in. As the noises got louder and louder, you tried to keep a level head to think. There was an exit at the back, but it was locked, and you wouldn’t have the time to pry the door open before the walkers got in. Or the noise of you trying to open it would lure others around to stop you from leaving. Shane seemed to come to the same conclusion as he stared at the door and then at you. 
“The stairwell’s blocked too,” you sighed, as you leaned against an aisle. 
The store had another floor, with private rooms, you guessed, since the door leading to the stairs had a sign with “Private – No entry” on it. Shane nodded in acknowledgement and leaned back across from you. You felt strangely calm at your imminent death. 
“Can’t believe I’m going to kick the bucket with you,” you chuckled, as you breathed out slowly. 
Shane barked out a sharp laugh. “Could’ve been with Dale,” he smirked, knowing that this was one of the few things you agreed on. 
You snorted loudly and nodded. “Mmh, small mercies and all that, I guess. ” 
Shane hummed, while you leaned your head back and looked at the ceiling. And frowned. Some of the styrofoam tiles had fallen off, showing the metal of the air vents, the cabling… And a large hole to one side, revealing parts of the stairs above. It looked like the wall the stairwell was in had collapsed for whatever reason, and the fallen debris had caused the ceiling to break through. With several of the aisles knocked over and the general state of the store, you hadn’t bothered to check where the rubble lying on the floor had come from. 
“Shane,” you breathed, pointing to the hole in the ceiling. 
His eyes followed the direction your finger pointed at, then he turned to get a better view after realizing what you’d seen. 
“Come on,” he said urgently, as the first crashes of glass started. 
Shane jumped on top of the aisle closest to the opening in the ceiling and reached down a hand for you to pass him the bags. The list fell out of one of your bags and fluttered to the ground. About to grasp Shane’s proffered hand to help you up as well, your eyes picked up one word on the list. The item that you’d been about to get right before you’d seen the horde. 
“Be back in a sec,” you yelled, turning tails and running off, ignoring the sounds of the undead as they walked inside. 
“The fuck are you doing?!” Shane bellowed after you.
You skidded to a halt in the desired aisle, coming face to face with a walker who stumbled in our direction. With a well-placed hit of your knife to his head, it fell to the floor, leaving you to pick up what you’d come for. Turning around to run back to Shane, your path was blocked by three walkers this time, and others coming from the right. Cursing, you turned to the left and then right again, ducking the outstretched hands of some other walkers following you into the aisle you’d just walked in. One of them managed to grab the back of your coat, but before you could turn and do anything about it, another one came in from your other side. The sound of a gun shot rang through the whole store as Shane aimed from his spot on the aisle, taking out one walker after the other as they came at you. This allowed you to jerk free of the loose grip of the now dead walker and dash towards the back of the store, jumping over bodies and avoiding the moving ones, one arm still holding on to a tall container.
“Move, move, move!” Shane barked at you, as you ran up to him at full speed. 
You threw him the container, which he quickly put next to him, before you jumped and caught his hand, the momentum helping him pull you up faster. Shane tugged you upright and shot the walker trying to grab your feet as soon as both of his hands were free again. 
“Get the fuck up there!” he yelled over the noise without looking at you. 
Shane had managed to stash the bags in the opening and you did the same with the container before you grabbed onto the bars that used to hold the large, styrofoam squares to lift you through the ceiling. It took some maneuvering since you had to move over the vents to get to the hole in the wall, but it was doable. After another shot rang out, you got into the best position to aim at the growing throng of walkers gathering at Shane's feet, the aisle rattling precariously now. 
“Move!” you shouted, taking out a walker that was tall and getting too close to Shane for comfort. 
Shane looked up and instantly jumped into action, sliding the rifle through the bars to stop it from falling. He smoothly slipped through the ceiling as well and stared down at the groaning and rasping creatures. 
“Can you reach the stairs or not?” he asked with his eyes still downcast. 
Satisfied that he was safe for now, you put your gun away and started moving further over the vents to reach the stairs. You had to push broken cinder blocks to the side, some falling and taking out other styrofoam squares. It took you a couple of minutes, but you finally managed to squeeze through the opening and land on the stairs. Which led to a closed door at the top. 
“Come on.” You stuck your head back through the hole to look down at Shane, the man working to get the bags over the vents and towards you. 
You took the bags from him one at a time and grabbed his arm to pull him through as well. He leveled you a questioning stare, one eyebrow lifted, as he saw the closed door. Shrugging, you both made your way towards the door. You reached for the handle with a glance at Shane, who slung the rifle into position. The door was thankfully unlocked and opened with a long creak to reveal a small apartment. You stood inside the door for several seconds, waiting in case something moved towards you. Shane gave you a quick nod, so you stepped over the threshold and checked the place. It looked surprisingly untouched, as if the owner had left before anything happened, or they left at the beginning. Considering the damage in the stairwell, something must have exploded close by, yet thankfully left the apartment undamaged. 
“We got water,” you announced with incredulous excitement as you reflexively tested the faucets in the bathroom
“And canned food,” Shane chimed in from the small kitchenette that was sitting to the left of the apartment, while a convertible couch took up the right side with a coffee table and a TV set. 
“It’s like a luxury hotel,” you laughed lightly as you ducked your head to drink straight from the faucet. 
You heard Shane chuckle at your comparison and hum in agreement. While he retrieved the bags, you walked to the long window in the living area and looked outside. 
“Think we’re stuck here for a while,” Shane grumbled after he’d joined you, observing the mass of walkers milling around everywhere. 
You nodded with a sigh. If there hadn’t been the incident with the gas cylinders, the horde would have probably walked through town without stopping and you’d have been safe to leave at some point. You would have had to find a different way home, but you would have managed. Now, who knew how long it would take for enough walkers to wander off for you to leave without being at too much of a risk?
“Jackpot,” Shane suddenly exclaimed, having you remove your attention from the window. 
You turned to find him holding a camping stove. It wasn’t the safest object to use indoors, but it was perfect to heat some of the cans Shane had found in the pantry. Despite the cold outside and the sun setting, you opened the window a crack to let some fresh air in and evacuate most of the carbon monoxide those kinds of stoves could produce. Shane nodded approvingly at that and turned it on after getting a couple of cans and plates. You’d found a large amount of canned food downstairs, but chose to leave the contents of the bags for the farm for now. Shane also found a few packs of tall candles and lit enough of them once the sun had gone down completely for you to walk through the place comfortably. You ate in silence while you also heated a large bucket of water before you checked the place for blankets and potential toiletries. While you did that, Shane took the hot water into the bathroom to clean up a bit. He came back wearing his jeans and a thick sweater that he got from the store. Before taking his place in the bathroom, your eyes caught onto his damp hair and beard, and the way the sweater hugged his broad shoulders and trim waist. Looking away and shaking your head, you closed the door while Shane looked through the items you’d both taken and reorganized them in the bags to make them easier to carry. With a pile of blankets in hand and feeling much better after getting to take the day’s filth off and dressing into fresh clothes as well, you found Shane sitting on the couch and staring down at the container you’d run back for. 
“You risked your life for baby formula,” he stated, his voice giving nothing away, the fire of the candle creating flickering lights on his profile. 
“We’re nearly out and Judith still needs it,” you shrugged, busying yourself with unfolding the blankets. 
“Do you ever think before you act?” Shane growled at how you dismissed his words. 
“What?” you ground out, facing him again. You must have heard him wrong, right? 
“What’s the point of pullin’ a stunt like that if it gets you killed?” 
“It didn’t, did it, though?”
“Because I was there to cover your sorry ass.”
You threw your hands in the air and sighed explosively. 
“Ugh, this is why I don’t like teaming up with you. You always complain about things that might have happened.” 
“No, what you don’t like it that I’m the only one remindin’ you that your actions can have fuckin’ consequences for you or even for all of us. You – don't – think. You just do your thing and expect us to go with it.” 
“You’re a fuckin’ hypocrite, Shane. Bossing everyone around and just deciding for everyone what’s best.” You strode up to him and stared him down. 
He rose to his feet and met your hard gaze head on. 
“Yeah, but I let people know before I do somethin’. But that’s what you don’t like, right? You're too good, too clever to bother listenin’ to others, let alone me.”
“Only because you treat me like I’m some fucking idiot little girl. I’ve gone through just as much shit as you before we got to the farm, but you act like I know shit…”
“No, no, no, I don’t treat you like some fuckin’ idiot little girl. If anythin’, I treat you like a fuckin’ idiot, period. Woman or not, I don’t give a shit. You’re a fuckin’ piece of work, is what you are. You’re so fuckin’ hot headed and stubborn, you just always expect whatever I say to be some kinda bullshit.” 
You bared your teeth at him. “Cause you keep underestimating me. No matter what I say or do, you never trust me from the start… Fuck!” you spat, your temper flaring white-hot. “You drive me fucking crazy.”
Shane watched you intently as you ranted at him, his mouth pulling up into a lopsided smirk.
“Yeah… but you wanna know what pisses you off even more about all this?” Shane asked, his voice lowering as he leaned towards you, his head tilting to one side. 
“Oh, please, do enlighten me,” you scoffed with sarcasm dripping all over your words, but didn’t pull your head away. 
“No matter how much you might hate me… you still wanna fuck me.”
“What?!” you choked on your laugh as you stared at him incredulously. What the hell?
“Come on, you don’t think I noticed, but I see the way you look at me.” He lifted an eyebrow with his smirk still in place. 
“And how exactly do I look at you, pray tell?” you snorted, your mouth pulling up in amusement despite yourself. That wasn’t how you had expected the argument to go. 
Shane nodded his head from one side to the other as if he were thinking about his answer. 
“Definitely like you wanna fight me… but preferably in a bed,” he leered, to which you rolled your eyes with another snort. 
“Hm, you sound awfully sure of yourself,” you humored him with a chuckle, resisting the desire to cross your arms, not wanting to look defensive. 
Shane’s eyes slowly roved over your whole body. Then he moved just slightly closer until your faces were only a few inches apart. 
“Well, haven’t heard you denyin’ it even once, have I?” he rumbled in a low voice. 
You held his gaze defiantly but remained silent as your heartbeat picked up speed. 
“I’m sure you thought of a couple o’ ways to… settle our disagreements,” Shane continued, grinning knowingly. That smug bastard. 
“Sure,” you shrugged. “But I’m not sure you’d like some of the ideas I had,” you hedged, your tone light but your gaze between cutting and sultry. 
Shane laughed under his breath. 
“Ah, come on, Darlin’. Tell me what got your pussy all wet while thinkin' o’ me?”
Heat slowly spread through your face and body at his crass words and direct approach. 
“Did you think ‘bout ridin’ my face to shut me up?”
You managed to school your expression into being neutrally entertained, since Shane had hit dead center with this one. Hearing him speak your most private fantasies out loud had you breathing faster. You’d thought about riding that stupidly beautiful mouth and nose a few times, for sure, but you weren't going to admit to that. 
“Or maybe you’d be so good at suckin’ my cock with that pretty mouth of yours that I'd stop talkin'.”
Smirking and shaking your head, you inclined your head to one side. “To me, it rather sounds like you thought about it quite a bit.” You’d meant for it to come out as a taunt, but your voice came out more breathy, Shane’s words getting to you. 
Shane drew his tongue over the edge of his upper teeth. “Yeah… Maybe I have,” he replied slowly.
You both stood like that, eyes locked and breathing fast, as if in a sort of stand-off; one waiting for the other to move or say something. To give in. You didn't know how long you stood like that, the anticipation rising until it was practically unbearable. You wanted Shane, you could admit it to yourself, but to him? And what about Shane? Despite what he’d said, did he really—
Then Shane’s eyes fell to your mouth. 
As if that look triggered everything into action, you were suddenly on each other, kissing and biting at each other’s mouths. You wouldn’t be able to know who moved first, but something between you had finally snapped with that one look. Hands fisted in shirts and hair or flew over chests and asses, your bodies in constant movement as every moment of conflict between the two of you poured out in that instant. You each fought for dominance, but neither was willing to give in, and it didn’t really matter anyway. It certainly didn’t matter to you. You only needed more of this. It felt incredibly liberating to push against Shane in that way and have him pushing back with just as much strength; just the feeling of his beard scraping against your mouth and chin had your nerve endings on fire. Both sets of hands simultaneously went to the buttons of each pair of jeans, fingers grappling to get them open as fast as possible before you’d even removed your sweaters. Your lips never stopped their hungry and vicious exploration of each other’s mouths as you both shimmied out of your jeans and underwear before stepping out of them. You took the opportunity of Shane getting a foot caught in one pant leg to push him down on the couch. He’d unfolded it into a bed while you’d been in the bathroom, meaning that he had to brace himself with his hands behind himself so he wouldn’t fall flat on his back. With a smirk, you straddled his lap and crushed your mouth into his again. Shane growled and caught you without missing a beat as he sat up and pulled you further down. His hands squeezed your ass as soon as you could feel his hard dick pressing into your crotch. Slightly rocking your hips and sliding yourself over his length – of course that asshole had to have a dick as big as his ego – your hands went to the bottom of his sweater and pulled it up and off, your lips parting for a brief second. A moment later, Shane did the same with your top. Except not entirely. Instead of pulling it off as you lifted your arms, Shane twisted the fabric around your wrists into a sort of bind, stopping you from freeing your hands. He kept you like that, your hands held behind your head before he tugged them back a bit more, forcing you to arch your back, which pushed your chest out. You were now fully naked and sitting astride Shane, but barely able to move. The various candles around you lit up his face and his wolfish grin right before he bent his head towards your breasts. You groaned as he wrapped his lips around one nipple and sucked on it hard. He bit and sucked, nibbled and pinched at each of them, his free hand playing with the one his mouth wasn’t focused on and drawing moans and small cries out of you. 
As much as you enjoyed his mouth and beard on your breasts, you refused to stay bound and unable to move. While Shane was leaving marks all over your chest, you wiggled and twisted your wrists until you were able to slip one hand free. Obviously, had it been a serious situation, you doubted that you’d have been able to get out of Shane’s hold that easily. Between his distraction and the loose fabric of the sweater, however, you soon had a hand between your legs and on his dick. Shane jerked in your hold, his head lifting to your face while he let go of your other hand. Planting your knees more firmly on the bed and putting your weight forward, you pressed at his shoulders with both hands this time, until he fell onto his back. 
“Got some ideas?” he smirked, his tongue dancing over his top lip. 
“Didn’t you say something about shutting you up?” you asked conversationally, as you pressed a biting kiss to his mouth, before you swiftly moved up his body until your knees were at each side of his head.
The way Shane’s eyes lit up as he caught the meaning of your words had your pulse racing in your chest and heat pooling in your center. He apparently had really thought about this scenario before as well. His arms wrapped around your thighs as you lowered yourself over his face. With parted lips, you looked down as you slid your folds over his lips and up over his nose. That ridiculously gorgeous nose. Maybe broad and faintly crooked, but this combined with the slope of it was what made it perfect for exactly what you were doing. It felt even better than what you’d pictured while getting yourself off. Between the physical stimulation and the view, you weren’t surprised to find his nose and mouth already coated in your juices. 
“You're so much easier to be around when your mouth's busy with something else,” you teased, as you repeated the motion with relish. 
Shane shot you a look that had you bracing yourself for an attack, expecting him to hold you still as he ate you out harshly, but he took you by surprise once again. He did hold you in place, but his tongue oh so slowly slid through your lips, parting them, running around them, teasing your entrance before dragging the tip up to your clit with the faintest of touches. With the addition of his beard that he was rubbing maddeningly over your sensitive skin, this actually drove you wilder than if he’d gone fast and hard. Especially, since his eyes never left yours, him watching you watching him. As he wrapped his lips around your clit and sucked on it with intent for the first time, he stared at you avidly, clearly getting off on the way your mouth opened further on a long cry of pleasure as you flung your head back in bliss. Leaning your head forward again, you fisted a hand in his hair and pulled his head back to rock your hips into his face harder. 
“Fuck yes, there we go, just like that,” you moaned, picking up speed as you rode his face for real this time when two of his fingers pushed inside you. 
The sensations were incredible as you moved up over his mouth and back down onto his thick fingers, the beard meeting them in the middle. But you needed to wipe that smug look off his face anyway, even as you felt the first signs of your release nearing.
“Mmh… I already liked you better with a beard ‘cause I don’t have to see half your stupid face, but this is a much better way to do it. Look how pretty you are now with my pussy hiding your face,” you taunted right after Shane managed to get another long moan out of you.
As expected, Shane glowered at you, which had you grinning in satisfaction. Except that you cried out in part shock and part outrage a few seconds later as Shane pressed the first knuckle of his thumb inside your ass, the finger wet with your essence. 
“You fucking asshole.” You slapped the top of his head, while Shane laughed darkly against your thigh, before he caught your wrist as you came back for more.
“More like your asshole, Darlin’,” he sneered before continuing. “Thought you’d enjoy it with how you always seem to have a stick up your ass.” 
Growling at him, you tugged at the arm he was holding, intending to hit him again, but Shane held strong this time, and instead, he used his shoulders to unsettle you and flip you onto your back next to him. You landed with a gasp and barely had the time to see him slipping between your legs. Since your mouth was still partly open from your hard breathing, it took Shane no effort to press two fingers between your lips and press them against your tongue. 
“Suck,” he ordered, his eyes dark, as he leaned over you, his body pressing yours down. 
You had half a mind to refuse, but it was the fact that you were sure that he was expecting that from you that had you doing as told. The flavor bursting on your tongue had you realizing that those fingers were the ones that had been inside you just a few moments ago. Keeping eye contact, you moaned around Shane’s fingers as you sucked and pulled at them, and felt satisfied by the answering groan you got in return. 
“Fuckin’ Christ,” Shane cried out a second later, as he pulled his fingers back, which you’d just bitten.
You grinned. You never said that you’d do what he wanted all the way. 
Growling and twisting his fingers in your hair, Shane kissed you harshly, his tongue fighting yours as he moved on his knees to shift his hips closer to yours. Feeling him reaching between your legs to guide himself inside you, you suddenly pushed at him. 
“Wait, wait… Not like that,” you breathed quickly. “Condoms. We should,” you trailed off at Shane’s nod of agreement, which you felt glad about because, as much as you hated to break the flow, there was no way that you were taking any chances. 
“Hold on.” Shane got off the couch and quickly rifled through one of the grocery bags. 
You watched him pull out a foil package and tear it open before he fitted the condom over his cock and knelt back between your parted legs. The way he touched you then and stared down at you irritated you. It wasn’t enough. It was too slow, too… You needed more of what was happening before.
You slapped him, the smack resounding in the small apartment. 
“Don’t you dare go soft on me now, Walsh,” you hissed. 
The slap had barely gotten Shane’s face to move, but it had the desired effect. His eyes flashed in warning, which only had you grinning devilishly, before he snarled and one of his hands went to your neck. The fingers curled around your throat, squeezing just that tiny bit that had you gasping in a sharp breath. 
“You never know went to fuckin’ stop,” he rasped viciously. 
Before you could reply, Shane pushed his hips forward and breached your entrance. He slid in with a long thrust, not bothering to give you any time to adjust to the sudden overwhelming feeling of being so full before he was pounding you into the bed. Your fingers scrabbled to get a hold on his shoulders as you screamed, while Shane slid his arms under your knees to pull your legs further apart and fold you almost in two. 
It felt amazing. Shane fucked you with brute force, his hips slapping against your ass, but the way he was staring down at you, focused on your expression, showed that he wasn’t only aiming for his own release. 
“That what you wanted, Sweetheart? Huh? Me fuckin’ that pretty pussy hard?” he whispered roughly against your lips, his beard tickling your skin. 
You took hold of his face and kissed him deeply in reply, moaning into his mouth with his every thrust. 
“Make me scream, Shane,” you half ordered and half begged, your voice low with want. “Do it.” 
With lust sparking inside his eyes, Shane reared back briefly only to throw your legs over his shoulders, and actually fold you in two this time as he picked up his earlier pace. A loud scream escaped you at the first plunge back inside you, followed by another and another. With his hands now free, one of Shane’s hands returned to your throat, the touch sending shivers down your spine as he fucked you without ever missing a beat, his eyes fixed on yours. You came completely undone a few moments later, the sheer force and intensity of Shane’s thrusts throwing you over the edge and into an orgasm that had you crying out as you could only take what Shane was giving you. 
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Shane chanted as you tightened some more around him, his movements losing their rhythm for a moment. “So fuckin’ gorgeous like this, fuck!” 
You had your eyes shut as the wave of bliss ran over you, but you forced them open when you felt Shane start to shudder on top of you. You needed to see him come, just like he had wanted to see you. Meeting his gaze, which never seemed to have left your face, you slid your legs from his shoulders and brought them to his still moving hips, and squeezed. 
Shane came with a long hiss of pleasure, his eyes fighting to stay open as you watched each other. 
You remained unmoving as you panted and stared at each other, Shane braced on top of you with his forearms at your shoulders while your hands held on to his biceps. Now that the heat of the moment had gone, you began to feel how cold it was getting in the room. 
After a few more silent seconds, Shane got up without a word and turned away. Exhaling a small breath at the complete change in mood, you rolled off the bed to vanish into the bathroom, picking up your clothes in passing. You used some of the now tepid water remaining from earlier to clean up and caught a glimpse of your messy and fucked out appearance in the mirror. 
“What now?” you muttered to yourself as you stared at your reflection and dressed quickly. 
You shook your head decisively a second later. No, this didn't change anything. It was just sex, nothing more. It had been good, more than good, but that was it. You weren't suddenly going to get along only because you'd fucked once. Shane had to be thinking the same, of that you were certain. 
Stepping out of the bathroom, you found Shane, fully dressed once more, sitting on the edge of the bed and leaning over his rifle as he checked it on the coffee table by the light of a couple of candles. He'd also made the bed, and you headed for the side closest to the wall. Shane didn't look up, but it didn’t seem like he was trying to avoid you. You felt a certain measure of relief at that. No awkwardness. Good. 
With how soon it got dark in winter, you didn't know how late it was exactly, but you felt suddenly kind of exhausted. You wrapped the covers around yourself to stave off the cold, and turned on your side to face the wall, your eyes staring ahead for a moment before you closed them. 
“For what it’s worth,” Shane started after several minutes of silence. “I do trust you.”
Your eyes opened at that, landing on the wall again as you stayed where you were. 
“It’s just-” he continued, and you snorted this time, turning on your back to find him facing towards you and not the rifle anymore. You raised an eyebrow; of course there was a but. “You tend to let your emotions get the best of you… Like today, you…” he sighed, and you decided to wait him out before biting back. “Listen, I get it, okay? What you did for Judith? You know I’d do anythin’ for her ‘n Carl. But… I quickly realized that, in this world, you gotta make hard decisions in order to survive. Take a step back from your feelings, analyze, and then act… I know you think I’m an asshole about it, but it’s helped us survive through a lot of bad shit, cause people don’ play by the previous rules anymore,” he paused for a second as he stared at you. “But really? Most of all, all I’m askin’ you is that you talk to me before you run off like you did. Askin’ me to cover you or somethin’, y’know? Warn me.”
Rolling onto your side to face Shane, you rose on an elbow and held your head up with one hand. 
“You’re right,” you admitted after a beat of silence. You were aware that you let your emotions dictate a lot of your decisions, and that it wasn’t always a clever thing. As he’d said, in this world, things were different. Especially playing it solo like you’d done earlier. Now that things had calmed down, you knew that you could have died in the store had Shane not been as quick to react has he had. “Next time I’ll give you a heads-up.”
Shane hummed in satisfaction, and you grinned. 
“But,” you intoned, and Shane huffed out a snort. “As much as I get what you mean, sometimes you can’t ignore your gut feeling. When you just know that something’s up, that the split second decision you’ll make is what’s going to mean either life or death. Sometimes you don’t have the time to analyze anything.”
Shane watched you thoughtfully but nodded in agreement. 
“Look at us, agreeing on somethin’,” he chuckled as he put the rifle down next to the bed and got up. 
“Don’t get used to it,” you smirked up at him. “It’s not because we fucked once that we’re not going to fight anymore.” 
Shane barked out a loud laugh. “I wasn’t expectin’ anything less. The opposite would’ve surprised me more.”
Laughing as well, you watched Shane head into the bathroom and fell to your back again, your eyes closing. You briefly woke to the candles being extinguished and the bed dipping as Shane got in, but you only shifted under the covers and rolled to your other side. 
The next time you woke, late morning light was shining through the apartment window. Shane was standing next to it and looking outside. Stretching as you got out of bed, you quickly headed to the bathroom to take care of morning business before you joined Shane. 
“What’s the situation?” you asked as you looked outside as well and found far fewer walkers stumbling around in the parking lot. 
“This side looks okay, but we don’t know how it looks where the car is,” Shane grumbled. “This floor's not that high, but it’s gonna be a bit of a pain to get outta here if we can’t go back the other way.”
Your mouth twisted in thought, and you were about to suggest that you should go check over the vent, when something crackled with static inside your coat that was lying on a nearby chair. Shane and you stared at each other with wide eyes before you launched yourself at the coat, scrambling to find the walkie-talkie you always carried in case you needed to split up. Shane must have switched his off, but you’d completely forgotten that you’d let yours on. And if it wasn’t Shane talking through it, then it was someone from the farm, and they were close by. 
“Hey … or Shane? Do … guys copy? Over. ”
It was Jasmine’s voice. With a relieved glance in Shane’s direction, you finally got the device out and pressed the talk button. 
“Hey, Jas, we’re right here. Over” 
“Oh, thank God. We were so worried when we got home and you hadn’t come back. Where exactly are you? There are a lot of walkers around here. Over. ”
“We ran into a horde and now we’re stuck on the second floor of the store. The main access’s blocked. If you drive to the parking lot at the back of the store, we’ll be able to see you. Over.” You walked back to the window and looked outside. 
“Okay, we’ll be there soon. Over. ”
“Let’s make a rope with the sheets and get the bags down first,” Shane suggested as he opened the window to the cold winter air. 
Nodding, you both quickly put on your shoes and remaining clothes and each took a sheet to knot it with another. You felt the sudden need to laugh at the moment, feeling like you were in a bad movie and trying to escape prison. 
Shane was just done with the makeshift ropes when you heard an engine getting closer and looked through the window to see a blue pickup driving up to the store. You waved at Jasmine, who was accompanied by Hunter. A few walkers came closer as Hunter drove the back of the pickup towards the building, but Jasmine opened her side of the car and used her knife to silently kill them. Hunter jumped out of his side and you saw Jasmine slipping back into the car and into the driver’s seat as her boyfriend lifted himself into the bed of the pickup to receive the first bag of groceries. You made quick work, only stopping a couple of times to get rid of a few more walkers. With the last bag down, Hunter untied the rope so you could get down yourselves. Shane had wrapped the sheets around a long and thick rod of iron that he’d found in the debris in the corridor. It was longer than the width of the window so you could slide down the rope without fearing that it would slip free. Shane let you go first. As Shane had said, the floor wasn’t high and it took little effort to get into the pickup. Shane followed you quickly, and Hunter hit the roof of the car to indicate for Jasmine to drive. She drove towards the other side of the store and towards your own pickup. You jumped out at the side of the gas station and watched Hunter join Jasmine again before they were off and honking to get the walkers’ attention. It worked as intended, and soon enough you were able to run towards your car and climb inside. 
“Did you use the shortcut? Over,” you asked through the walkie-talkie, while Shane put the key in the ignition and started the car. 
“No, we’re driving east for now. You were talking about a horde earlier and I think that’s what we saw on the shortcut so we backtracked. Over,” Hunter explained, as Shane swerved through the walkers to join your two friends and follow behind them. 
“Okay, east it is. See you at home. Over and out.”
It took you an extra hour to get back to the farm, but you made sure that you wouldn’t lead any walkers back with you. Nicole, who was standing on the porch steps and watching you pull up, drew you into a bear hug as soon as you were out of the car. You smiled into the side of her neck as you squeezed her back. 
The rest of your family came out of the large house as well. Judith was sitting on her father’s hip and sucking on a pacifier while Carl came running towards Shane. 
“Hey, baby girl,” Shane cooed, as he approached father and daughter, kissing her tiny head after he’d hugged Carl and ruffled his hair. 
“You guys okay?” Rick asked, scanning the both of you for injuries. 
“Yeah, we’re good, don’t worry,” Shane said, as he walked up the steps and started explaining what had happened to the people following him. 
“And here I thought that you’d finally killed each other,” Nicole said, laughing at her joke as you began walking up the porch steps with her.
You smiled and hummed, faking a serious look. “It was a near miss,” you grinned as you entered the crowded kitchen.
Shane was drinking down a tall glass of water, and your eyes met over the glass. 
“What was a near miss?” Maggie asked from her perch on a stool. 
“Before they left, I was joking about them trying to not kill each other and I thought that they might have failed when they didn’t come back,” Nicole explained with a small chuckle and got an amused snort from everyone. 
“Yeah,” Shane laughed under his breath. “Sure was a near miss.” 
You looked at each other for a second, faces impassive, but you were both clearly thinking about the same thing. Then the moment passed, and Shane continued the story like nothing ever happened.
After all, it had only been a one-time thing…
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puffcap-factory · 2 months
Text
Feelings, Love, and... Misunderstandings? (Heartsteel Yone x Reader)
Heartsteel!Yone x gn!reader; fluff, crack, bits of hurt/comfort plotwise.
When an overthinking reader (co-manager) meets the overthinking producer of the Heartsteel group.
Warnings: 
Alcohol drinking, self-doubt, emotional breakdown. I assume that all Heartsteel members are big enough and legal to drink.
**The story was written in more of a light-hearted tone, but I put the warnings here just in case. 
Words: 4k
Notes: 
Working on (non-angst) Yone’s fic is harder than I thought. But I really like the dynamic of the heartsteel boys, and their presence really helped oomph up the stoic producer of the group. So… here’s another heartsteel fic for you! Again, I did not think too much of the title...
I hope you enjoy! :D
((Update: There's a bonus at the end of the story))
•~•~•~•
"Not joining in, hmm?" 
You jolted up from your seeming trance, the owner of the voice shifting casually closer to your seat. Turning your head, you met Alune's twinkling eyes, mischief dancing within them as she flashed a teasing smile.
“O-oh,” you smiled sheepishly as she gave you a knowing look at you, understanding well where your attention had been. “I’ll join in soon, later.” 
The week had been packed with schedules, and now the group found themselves in an arcade bar at night. You and Alune lounged on a sofa, sipping drinks and soaking in the lively atmosphere. The boys were off in their fun games, laughing and competing at darts and billiards while the latest music filled the air.
To your front, Yone and K'sante were engrossed in a game of billiards. You had to admit you have been marveling at the tall, lean, and handsome sight of the man who was gracefully playing the billiard. And, Alune had always been aware of your not-so-secret crush towards the group’s talented producer.
She leaned in closer as she whispered, rather enthusiastically, “Play a game with him, have some fun, try to get under his skin!”
Get under his skin. Right. I’d win a nobel prize for discovering his feelings.
Yone, for all his cool exterior, was just as cool as he looked. Unfortunately, he was particularly hard to read, at least for you. You couldn't tell if his kindness towards you was simply that — kindness — or if there was something more behind it. He was generally polite to everyone, though a bit stricter with Kayn and Ezreal – to no one's surprise. Yone was easygoing and pleasant to talk to, which only added to your curiosity as you tried to decipher his true feelings. 
There were occasions when you found yourselves spending time together, but it was never labeled as a date. It was either due to work duties, given your role as a co-manager, or simply a friendly hangout that happened naturally. Each time, you tried to read between the lines, wondering if there was something more beneath the surface, to no avail. 
"You know what, Alune, you're probably right. First, let's try billia-" You began, standing up with determination, but before you could make your move towards the billiard table, Ezreal appeared, blocking your view.
"Y/n! You owe us a round of darts, remember?" Ezreal exclaimed, slinging an arm around your shoulders and pulling you away from the table, despite your silent protests. 
Great. What a timing, Ezreal.
"Sorry, Alune, I'll be borrowing her for a while," he added with a cheeky grin plastered on his face. "Don't tell me you forgot about the deal, hmm?" Kayn chimed in, raising an eyebrow as he waited in the dart booth.
You had mustered up the courage to take a shot at a round of billiards with Yone, but Ezreal and Kayn were quick to rope you into the dart booth before you could voice any further protests. Alune simply watched with an amused grin, clearly entertained by the turn of events.
You ended up playing a few rounds of darts with Ezreal and Kayn, snacking and sipping on some of their peculiar concoctions of 'potions' they had whipped up on a whim. It was a fun challenge you had agreed to, having lost a dare to them before. When it wasn’t your turn, you couldn't help but throw quick glances towards the billiard table, particularly at Yone, admiring his oh-so-smooth movements. 
You were feeling a bit lighter in the head, the effects of the peculiar potions finally catching up to you. Though clear-minded, you were certainly getting full from the incoming food. As you prepared to take your next throw in the dart game, a brand-new top-chart song began to play in the background, its music video displayed on the monitor above the room.
Ezreal, caught up in the music, started to nod off, vibing with the beat. Meanwhile, Kayn shifted his attention towards the music video, his eyes widening in recognition.
"Ooh, wait, I saw that lady with Yone before!" Kayn exclaimed, pointing at the screen. "Hah, Yone, so that's your type, huh?"
Wait… what?
You quickly glanced at the screen, only to see an incredibly sexy and charming actress starring in the music video.
That’s HIS type?
"Ooh! Right, I saw her talking to you at the bar before," Sett added, joining in on the conversation as Yone sighed dismissively, a small defeated smile appearing on his face.
…AND he’s not even declining? 
You held onto your dart a bit tighter, trying to contain the emotions swirling inside you. There was no way you could compare to her. Despite the mix of sadness and frustration stirring up inside, you maintained a smile onto your face, determined to keep up your appearances.
I might be just overthinking this. Get it together, y/n.
You tried to reassure yourself. But the sound of the atmosphere began to blur and others' conversations turned into a mumbled background noise as your thoughts took over. The insecurities crept in, overshadowing the fun of the night. Was this the effect of the alcohol or was it just me?
"Y/n, y/n!" Ezreal's voice cut through your thoughts as he patted you on the shoulder. "You okay?"
You blinked, snapping back to reality, realizing you had drifted off into your own world. With a forced smile, you nodded at Ezreal, trying to brush off the uneasiness that had settled in your chest. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just got lost in thought for a moment," you grinned at him.
Ezreal studied your face for a second. "Hmm, if you say so..." he trailed off, before leaning in to whisper with a wink, a playful glint in his eyes, "Let's just leave the drinks for Kayn, shall we?"
You couldn't help but let out an amused smile at Ezreal's comment, feeling grateful for his attempt to lighten the mood. Determined to shake off your thoughts, you focused on the dart game, teaming up with Ezreal against Kayn. Together, you managed to make Kayn taste his own creations, and the laughter that followed was pleasant.
After a while, feeling a bit light-headed from the stir of emotions, and Ezreal and Kayn's concoctions, you decided to step away from the dart game for a bit to head to the bar to fetch a water. Taking a seat at the counter, you ordered the much-needed refreshment from the bartender. Leaning on the counter, you rested your chin on your hand, letting your thoughts drift as you waited for your drink.
As you gazed into space, lost in your own thoughts, you suddenly realized that someone had taken a seat next to you on the counter. And to your surprise, it was none other than the handsome producer himself, Yone.
Out of all people-! Him? Now?!
Your eyes widened in surprise as Yone caught you off guard, scrambling to sit up straighter. The bartender had just placed the glass of water in front of you, but you couldn’t just leave now.
"Mind if I join you?" Yone's voice broke the silence, his tone polite and soft.
“No—of course not.” You forced a smile at him, hoping it appeared natural as he smiled back in response.
Oh god, I hope my smile looked all normal.
Yone proceeded to order some Japanese sake from the bartender. When it arrived, you couldn't help but look at the elegant bottle and the sake cup with curiosity.
Just as you were about to ask about the sake, to break the awkwardness that had settled between you, Yone beat you to it. “Everything alright?” he inquired, his gaze gentle as he looked at you. You realized you had been silent for a moment, mentally cursing yourself for the lapse in conversation.
“Uh, yeah, of course, everything’s going well!” you replied, plastering a smile on your face.
Yone gazed at you for a moment, a hint of uncertainty in his eyes. He seemed to sense that something was off, but thankfully, he didn't press further. “If it’s anything about work, you can always talk to me-"
“No, it’s not.” 
Oops. You realized that you had blurted it out too quickly. 
“Oh?” Yone turned to face you, his expression now more attentive. “Do you wanna talk about it?” he asked carefully, his tone low mixed with a bit of concern.
You sighed defeatedly. This man always seemed to be able to read between the lines, and you couldn’t hide it anymore. “So… There’s a guy that I like…” you admitted, taking a sip of your icy water.
Yone’s eyes twinkled in curiosity, his body shifted a bit to face you.
“But he doesn’t seem to feel the same way about me, I don’t know,” you grumbled, frustration beginning to pool inside you, as you held your forehead. 
“Does… he not give you any signs or anything?” Yone asked carefully, his expression filled with genuine care.
“No! You know, he’s insanely hard to read!” You started to rant, your emotions rushing out from beneath you. “And recently, I learned that I might very well just not be his type.”
Yone fell into silence for a moment, sensing your frustration, as he also felt something stir inside him. He wanted to help, to offer some words of comfort, but nothing perfect came to mind.
“…Does he–“ He started to ask, wanting to gather more information before commenting further, but you interrupted him.
“I don’t know anymore, Yone, maybe I should just give up! I don’t know what to do—!” The frustration and sadness bubbled over, and before you knew it, tears were pooling in your eyes.
No, no, no, brain, work more! Am I going to cry now, in front of him?!
Despite your mind still functioning clearly, your emotions won the battle, and you couldn't hold back the tears. You felt a mixture of shame, sadness, and frustration wash over you as you tried to compose yourself in front of Yone.
“Gimme that!” You snatched his sake cup and chugged down its contents, still full. Yone was taken aback by your sudden action, at a loss for words as he watched you. Your tears were now streaming down on your face, you didn’t care anymore if it had smudged your makeup.
“Y/n…” he began, lifting his arms as if to reach out to you, but you quickly reached for his sake bottle to refill the cup you were holding, determined to drown your sorrows in another shot.
“How can I compare to that woman, Yone, tell me!” You didn’t know where and how that came from, but you blurted it out.
“H-huh? Which woman?” Yone's confusion was evident as he tried to follow your train of thought.
“Which woman?? You had lots?!”
You swore your head was in some eco-friendly energy-saving-mode as you couldn’t seem to process the information, making the situation seemed even more hilariously stupid.
“…Y/n, I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He tried to reason with you, his voice soft and concerned. 
But you were just going to leave him there at the counter, tears still streaming down your face, and leave him you did. Without another word, you hurriedly made your way to the bathroom, leaving the poor man on the bar counter all alone. As you stood in front of the mirror, you realized how much of a mess you were. You looked like a metalhead who had just gone through a breakdown, with black streaks trailing down your cheeks.
“Oh no,” you whispered to yourself, feeling a wave of embarrassment wash over you as tears started to well up again. How had it all gone so wrong?
You looked at yourself in the bathroom, breathing in and out slowly, trying to regain your already lost composure. Moments later, Alune entered the bathroom, her expression filled with concern as she looked at you.
“Let’s rest for today, hm? I’ll drive you back,” she offered softly, her tone soothing. You nodded at her. “Don’t worry, I told everyone asking that you were not feeling well,” Alune reassured you, offering a comforting hug.
You found yourself crying again, this time for her considerate gesture. Alune chuckled softly as she patted your back, offering you comfort.
You then fell deep asleep in the car on the way back.
•~•~•~•
The next morning, you woke up feeling the slight hangover from yesterday. You sat up on your bed, trying to piece and remember the memories of whatever chaos had happened last night. Your mind then went through the memory of your interaction between you and Yone, realizing your actions, each one making you cringe with regret and shame. 
I- I’m an idiot!!
You groaned, massaging your temples as if trying to erase the memories. The more you remembered, the more ashamed you felt. You wanted to curl into a ball under your blanket and hide from the world.
You admitted to yourself that you hadn’t consumed that much alcohol at one time before, and last night, the mix of emotions and frustrations had likely been heightened by the booze.
“Yone must hate me now…” you mumbled to yourself, still rubbing your temples in a feeble attempt to alleviate the headache. Now, the problem was clear in your mind: How were you going to face him today? 
The fact that the members had their apartment room just right in front of yours and Alune made the situation even more daunting. You couldn’t simply avoid him forever, especially since you were part of the same team.
You went out of your room to find Alune making pancakes for brunch at the kitchen.
“Morning!” she greeted you cheerfully, despite the late hour.
“…Morning, Alune. Thanks for yesterday, though…” you mumbled, scrubbing your eyes as you yawned, meeting her grinning face, clearly waiting for your recount of the previous night. You realized her expression and groaned inwardly, knowing you'd have to relive the embarrassing story by telling her.
You sighed, grabbing a glass of milk before sitting down. “Okay, so…” you began, recounting the chaotic events of the night before. You explained how you had let your emotions get the best of you, the tears, the rambling, the chugging of sake... It all came tumbling out as you told her about your breakdown in front of Yone.
Alune listened intently, offering considerate and understanding comments throughout your story. When you finally finished, you felt a mix of relief and embarrassment wash over you.
Alune reached out and placed a comforting hand on your shoulder. “Hey, we all have our moments. Don’t beat yourself up over it.”
You nodded, grateful for her understanding. But then her expression shifted to a mischievous grin, and you couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow in curiosity.
“And…” she paused, her grin widening. You looked up at her, wondering what she was about to say.
“You should definitely confront Yone as soon as possible, tell him how you feel” she said plainly, her grin now almost playful.
“What?! That’s the last thing I would do!!” you protested, feeling a wave of panic at the thought of facing Yone after your embarrassing display.
But Alune held your shoulders firmly, her eyes serious. “Believe me, y/n. Trust me on this one.”
•~•~•~•
Throughout the day, you had been clearly avoiding Yone, much to his concern. There were three chances where you two crossed paths, but each time you quickly averted your gaze, trying your best not to interact with him due to your lingering embarrassment. But Yone appeared to have a different thought to himself.
…Did I say something wrong?
His mind was busy replaying the events from yesterday morning, wondering if he had made a misstep towards you. He was trying to connect the dots, trying to understand why you seemed upset with him yesterday.
To be honest, when you admitted to him that you had a crush on another guy, he felt a pang of hurt inside his heart, though he was adept at masking it, maintaining his calm demeanor. But he was genuinely concerned for your well-being. Learning that the guy you liked might be interested in someone else made him feel a sense of disappointment, though he didn’t let it show. He wanted the best for you, and seeing you upset about it only added to his concern.
When you left him alone at the counter, he knew he had to tell Alune about you. Alune was quick into action, helping you up at the bathroom. Later that night, Alune and Yone found a moment to talk in private, much to Yone’s request.
Alune listened intently as Yone recounted the events of the past day and his feelings of confusion and concern about your behavior. He explained how he couldn't shake off the feeling that he had somehow upset you, and how he wished he could make things right. Alune listened with patience, nodding in understanding as Yone spoke. However, he still kept his feelings about you tightly guarded. 
Throughout the day, Yone appeared somewhat… off, lost in his thoughts. Everyone noticed his change of demeanor and seemed to check on him frequently.
“Gee, Yone, are you alright? You look like you stayed up all night,” Ezreal asked him in the afternoon, noting how drained Yone seemed.
“I’m fine,” he answered flatly, his mind elsewhere.
Another time, he found himself behind the wheel of the car with K’sante beside him. “You good, Yone?” K’sante asked, noticing Yone's distant gaze.
“I’m fine,” Yone repeated mechanically. By now, it felt like he was a broken record, constantly reassuring others that he was okay when he really wasn't.
He knew this would get him nowhere, as he felt he desperately needed a clear space. So, as dusk began to settle, Yone decided to retreat to one place where he often found solace: the rooftop. 
•~•~•~•
After contemplating for what felt like an eternity, you decided to practice how you would confront Yone at a place where no one would usually go. The sun was setting, casting a warm glow over the rooftop as you ascended the stairs. You were rehearsing what you would say to him in your head, repeating it a few times as you walked to the spot you had in mind. 
However, when you reached the spot, you were taken aback to find Yone already standing there, overlooking the cityscape.
Crap!! Why is he here!? 
You knew you weren’t good in last-minute study and the exam was just right in front of you now. He seemed to notice your presence, but you couldn't bring yourself to meet his gaze. Reluctantly, you stepped closer to him, maintaining a reasonable distance, and faced the city view in the sunset. The air between you two was heavy with unspoken words, both of you itching to talk but unsure of where to start.
As the silence stretched on, you both seemed to come to the decision to speak at the same time.
“About yesterday…” you both began simultaneously, only to pause when you realized you had spoken at the same time.
“Go ahead,” Yone offered, his voice quiet and careful.
“Uh... you go first…” you replied, feeling the awkwardness settle in like a heavy fog.
Once again, silence enveloped you both, the tension palpable. You felt like screaming as loud as you could, but you knew you couldn’t back down now. You exhaled deeply as you began.
“Yone, I– I’m sorry about yesterday, I was all messed up. The alcohol–, I mean, I was…” you stumbled as the words you had prepared all got jumbled up in your throat. You paused before regaining yourself, and you continued. “But I feel like you need to know something,” you gazed up at him as he turned at you, finally meeting his gaze.
“The guy that I told you about… it was… you…,” you said, your voice barely above a whisper. Heat crept up your cheeks, and you couldn't bring yourself to meet his eyes. Instead, you focused on the ground beneath your feet, feeling a mix of nervousness and vulnerability.
You were about to speak again, but the wind suddenly picked up, blowing your hair into your face and blocking your view of the man in front of you. Before you could move to brush it away, you felt Yone's hand on your cheek, gently tucking the strands behind your ear. His touch was tender and caring, sending a jolt of surprise through you.
As you faced him directly, meeting his gentle gaze, he smiled softly at you. The city lights twinkled around you, casting a romantic glow over the moment.
“Y/n,” he began, his voice barely above a whisper but filled with sincerity, “You don’t know how happy I feel when you told me that I was the guy in your story.” He chuckled softly as the dots finally clicked, “And I also owe you an apology, I believe.”
“H-Huh… so you don’t hate me…right?” you asked, still in disbelief at the turn of events.
Yone chuckled again at your incredulous expression. “I don’t think I would ever… I like you, y/n,” he admitted, the heat rising to his cheeks as he also casted his gaze to the side for a second. “I mean– not just as friends, but...”
Before he could finish his sentence, you moved forwards to press your forehead on his chest, feeling in total relief and joy as he confessed to you.
“I like you too, Yone,” you whispered, your voice filled with happiness and relief. “More than I can put into words.”
Yone held you close, his arms enveloping you in warmth and security. The world seemed to fade away as you both stood there, lost in the moment. It was a moment of pure bliss, in contrast to the chaotic night you had spent the night before. 
As you pulled back slightly to look into his eyes, you could see the tender affection reflected in his gaze. You also noticed the faint pink shades starting to show up on his cheeks, which only made you giggle softly.
He’s also shy, how cute.
“I was getting really concerned about whatever I did yesterday that made you upset,” Yone confessed with a soft laugh. “I’m sorry, I should have been more expressive to show my feelings.”
“O- Oh, don’t apologize. I was definitely overthinking things,” you replied, laughing at the absurdity of it all. “I thought you were into that… super famous sexy lady…who’s on the…” Your voice trailed off as you recalled the memories from yesterday, embarassment creeping over you.
“I met her once at the premiere party, her producer introduced me to her, and we just had a plain talk, nothing more,” Yone explained with an amused smile. 
You grinned back at him, feeling a wave of relief wash over you. “Okay, so I was actually making a fool of myself.”
The tension between you both seemed to dissolve into laughter and shared understanding. It was a moment of pure relief and happiness, knowing that the misunderstandings had been cleared up.
“So, what now?” you asked, still grinning.
Yone took a moment to ponder before replying with a smile, “Well, I was thinking... maybe we could go on a real date this time? Just the two of us.”
Your heart skipped a beat at the suggestion, and you couldn't help but nod eagerly. “I would love that,” you replied, feeling a rush of excitement at the prospect of spending more time with him. 
As the sun set behind the city skyline, painting the sky in hues of orange and pink, you both stood on the rooftop, arms in arms, looking towards the horizon. The city lights twinkled as the sky darkened, and the night breeze began to tingle against your skin. You released from the hug, taking in the beautiful sight.
Just as you were about to turn back, Yone stepped in front of you, offering his hand with a warm smile.
“How about dinner, tonight?”
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Bonus illustration right here
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invisibletoothpasteman · 10 months
Text
Something that is completely unserious but I just need to get off my chest is how people mistake complicated family dynamics as something inherently bad and therefore gravitate towards something completely stripped of any real complexity.
While I know this applies to lots of fandoms, I'm thinking specifically in regards to Batman comics.
With the rise in popularity of comics over the past little while since their decline in popularity in the 2000s there has naturally become an increase in their fandom as well, especially for Batman and the batfam. Don't get me wrong, this is great news. The comic industry NEEDS all the readers it can get and the renaissance of sorts it's been going through really shows hope for the future of comics. And with a growing fandom comes more people introduced to these characters through the fandom itself rather than the source material, which again, is a good thing.
What grinds my gears is how throughout this fandom theres been this whole idea spread that in the comics Bruce Wayne is always a shitty parent, the batfam is hardly a family, that the fanon version of him is what we deserve and is the "superior" version of him.
This fanon version of bruce (and the batfam as a whole) is perfect. He's not perfect in the sense that he's perfectly characterized. He's not perfect in the sense that he never makes mistakes. No, he's perfect in the sense that when he makes a mistake, he can flawlessly atone for it. There's conflict sure, but whenever there is some amazing therapist-approved communication is put right into play, the batfam talks about their feelings, and boom everyone is happy.
The thing is in reality that's just not how things work. Relationships are messy, especially family. Resolving conflict is messy. This is all especially true when you apply it to a family of messed-up vigilantes that go through incredibly stressful, emotional, and just plain crazy things on the daily.
The lack of always perfectly solved conflict is what makes stuff interesting. It allows for nuance in characters and situations that there isn't normally room for if everything is designed to be wrapped up in a sweet little bow.
I feel like a lot of people see the comics solely as batman being shitty and the rest of the batfam not really being a family and just overall poor story choices. While I can't deny that sometimes there are really poor or ooc choices made (such is the nature when so many different creators get to work on the same group of characters) for the most part batman in the comics is portrayed as he should be: well meaning, but far from perfect. The rest of the batfam is similarly flawed. Their relationships with each other are far from perfect but such is the nature of family. It's messy, it's imperfect but going through all of that makes it more compelling.
While I still definitely enjoy the simplified version of the batfam from time to time and am glad so many others do too, I think it's a disservice to say its the better version of them. as much fun as wfa or the like can be, they're not able to portray the same complexity as the stories that have the batfam with their flaws and all. It's still possible to tell heartwarming and fun stories in comics where everyone is heavily flawed and nuanced.
That being said really i'm glad people are able to enjoy these characters no matter how they're presented. Goodness knows that everyone should absolutely be indulging in little things in life even if that is ooc batfam. Just consider if you're still new to batman and only familiar with the fandom getting out there and reading some comics because they're pretty great.
(sorry this whole thing was written in a sleep deprived rant state, don't take it too seriously)
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vodika-vibes · 2 months
Note
hello hello!!! I saw your follower celebration and I thought I should join in! Do you do Rebels characters? If so, Ezra Bridger, Aquamarine and fall would be a great combo! (as specially if it includes Ezra’s trauma 😁). If you only do TBB/CW, then instead you could do Hunter, Amaythyst, and winter! Thanks for taking the time to do this (if you do it, that is!) love your writing sm! (btw is SFW only okay? Not a huge fan of smut reader inserts lol)
Comfort
Summary: Ezra has always been prone to nightmares, it’s a jedi thing he often claims. Luckily, he has you to help settle his nerves.
Pairing: Ezra Bridger x Reader
Word Count: 608
Prompt: Aquamarine - Healing Love
Warnings: None
Tagging: @trixie2023 @n0vqni @imabeautifulbutterfly
A/N: I've never written for any Rebels characters before, but that's never stopped me before! So here you go! One Ezra story! This is roughly based around the time that he returns...probably. The timeline is vague. I hope you like it!
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When you wake at 2 am, after a horrifying nightmare that leaves you trembling and your hands sweaty, your immediate instinct is to roll over to check on Ezra. 
And when he’s not there, not sprawled out next to you sleeping peacefully, terror clenches your heart. 
It takes you a moment to remember where you are, and where Ezra might be. It takes you a bit longer to stop your trembling long enough that you’re actually able to roll out of bed to find him. 
You pad through the halls, your feet leading you to the dimly lit training room.
Ezra’s training room.
The comforting hum of a lightsaber reaches your ears as you open the door, and you make sure to stay close to the wall as you enter the room. Not because you’re worried that Ezra will hurt you, but because you don’t want to disturb him.
You move away from the door, and then slide down the wall to sit on the floor and you watch him. 
You’re beginning to think that the original jedi must have been dancers, with the way that the lightsaber forms look. Seeing a group of jedi practicing in unison must have been a sight to behold.
Pity that you’re never going to see it.
“Did I wake you?” Ezra asks as he pauses his movements.
For a split second, you consider telling him the truth, but he’s got dark circles under his eyes and for him to be awake so early means that he had a nightmare too, so instead you smile at him, “I rolled over to steal your warmth and you were gone.”
There’s a soft laugh, “Sorry, beautiful. I needed to move.”
“It’s alright.” You watch him for a moment longer, his arms are shaking, “Have you been training for long?”
“A couple of hours.” He admits, “I had a nightmare.”
“A nightmare or a nightmare?” You ask.
“Just a regular nightmare, not a vision.”
“Hm.” You fall silent for a moment, “Do you wanna talk about it?”
He glances at you, and for a moment, just a moment, there’s something dark and bleak on his face, before it fades away. “I dreamt about you.”
You blink at him, “You had a nightmare about me?”
“A nightmare involving you, rather. I watched you die. Over and over and over and-” He trails off, his grip tightening around his lightsaber.
You push yourself to your feet and walk over to him, reaching up to press your hand against his cheek for just a moment, before you take his free hand in both of yours and press it right over your heart.
“I’m right here. And I’m alive and well.”
He presses the palm of his hand over your heart, and you hear the steady hum of his lightsaber vanish as he turns it off and puts it away so he’s able to press his other hand against your cheek. 
“How is it that you’re always able to make everything bad seem so much smaller?” He asks as he leans in to bump his nose against yours.
“It’s my superpower.” You reply with an easy smile. 
“I love you,” Ezra murmurs, “The idea of losing you-”
You move your hand to press a light finger against his lips, “I love you too.” You move your finger and press a light kiss against his lips, “And I’m not going anywhere. I promise.”
And Ezra releases a soft sigh, before he lays his head on your shoulder, “Can we stay here for a bit? I need to keep you close.”
“Of course. We can stay as long as you need.”
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imdead770 · 5 months
Note
Saw you needed some requests!
How about childhood friends to lovers with Steve! (Randle) I love him so much and I don't think I've ever seen this promt for him thank you!! 💜
Steve Randle x Reader - Childhood Friends
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Authors Note - I've never written anything like this, but here goes nothing. Enjoy.
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• So, Steve's not the smartest, but he knows when he likes someone.
• He knew he liked you ever since you gave him a blue crayon in first grade.
• You two met in elementary school, and somehow you managed to put up with him throughout the years
• Somehow your personalities just clicked
• You two are practically joined at the hip
• Like your friends would ask to meet up and Steve would just be there
" Hey, you wanna go hang out?"
"Yeah, that sounds fu-"
"I'm comin' too!"
"How the fuck did you even get here!?"
• There was one moment when Steve realized he was attracted to you like that
• He always knew he liked you, but there was one moment where he was like "Oh shit, she's hot."
• That's whenever they had a pool party for all the freshmen.
• So he came with most of the gang, you came with your friends
• And whenever he saw you in your bikini, his jaw dropped
• When the fuck did that happen??
• Last time he checked you were in the kiddy pool with floaties on your arms
• Sure you had always been pretty, but holy shit
• The first time you realized you were smitten with him was whenever he came to you after a rumble
• His nose was busted, he had a black eye, he looked like shit.
• But for some reason, that's when it clicked.
• You were just cleaning up the blood when your brain suddenly realized
'holy shit I like this dumbass-'
• Yet neither one of you ever said anything.
• Literally everyone thinks you two would be a great couple
• I mean, it's obvious he's head over heels for you
• Only problem is that neither of you want to ruin this perfect, amazing friendship
• I mean you two have literally done everything together
• You learned to ride a bike together, you learned to read together, all of it.
• You practically share parents at this point.
• So Steve's over here like
"I dunno man, she's way out of my league"
• And you're over here all
"It's not like he likes likes me, he talks to me about all these other girls.."
• Both of your friend groups are trying to slap some sense into the two of you
• Like Steve has literally punched a guy for you??
• And you pulled a clump of hair off a girl's head for him once??
• So why are you both so fucking stupid?? It's right there??
• Eventually someone finally convinced Steve
• Probably Sodapop.
"I'm tellin' ya' Steve, she likes ya'."
"Fine, fine, I'll ask 'er."
• He had to hype himself up for a good week or two.
• Eventually he decided to tell you.
• So here you two were, hanging out and watching some romance movie that he strategically put on
"I thought you hated romance?"
"I dunno, it was in clearance."
• And since Steve is super smart, during a make-out scene he decides
'Yeah, she'd love that.'
• He thinks it's the smoothest thing ever.
"Y'know, we could be kissin' like that right now.."
• He's internally patting himself on the back, damn he was smooth.
• You look at him, thinking he's joking
• I mean you two jokingly flirt all the time, how's this any different
• But he's dead serious.
• As serious as Steve can be, at least.
"You wanna?"
• His jaw dropped right then and there.
• Yeah, he thought it was smooth, but he didn't think it was that smooth.
• He thought you'd slap him or something.
• And before he knows it, you're kissing him.
• Holy shitttttttt
• The only time he was this happy was when his boss brought chocolate cake to his night shift at DX
• You're over here screaming inside
• Because 'holy shit I'm kissing him, holy shit, holy shit-"
• Whenever you both pull away, Steve's smiling like a dumbass
• You're smiling right back at him
"Ya' got a boyfriend?"
• You just snicker, shaking your head
"Ya' want one?"
• The rest is history.
• Whenever he told the gang the story they all just shrugged
"You ain't happy for me or nothin'?"
"I mean yea, we are, but it was kinda obvious"
"We all knew you were gonna get 'er eventually, Steve."
• Once you started dating your relationship basically stayed the same
• Except you make out way more
• And now he can check you out without having to be all discreet
• Sodapop still brags that he's the reason you two are together
"I should be a matchmaker or somethin'.."
"I was gonna tell her without ya', Soda"
"You ain't gotta lie to me, Stevie. This is a safe space."
• All in all, you two are perfect together
• Like I said, somehow you two get along seamlessly.
• That movie you two watched 100% became Steve's favorite movie, by the way.
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tiredtxmblrvet · 3 months
Text
Fic Rec Friday #4
If y'all want more fic rec fridays, check out @mediumgayitalian
Below are 5 fics I've enjoyed this past week/recently.
(guess who learned how to indent on posts!)
oh, what a sin by @rosyredlipstick
https://archiveofourown.org/works/17194697
Summary:
For some reason, Nico thought convincing Fitzwilliam Emerson "Golden Boy" Solace to abandon his hosting duties, blow off his company’s gala entirely, and run off with him into the night would be much harder. Well, that’s what Jason gets for trying to force Nico into attending a party.
We're back with another Rosy fic! This is an awesome one-shot where Will and Nico are both rich little shits and sneak away from their big-shot families. I'd read an entire series of this! The way Nico and Will's chemistry shines in this one-shot is incredible. Plus the family relations of Nico's family is just *chef's kiss*.
talk your talk and go viral (i just need this love spiral) by wrongcaitlyn
https://archiveofourown.org/works/46368430
Summary:
“Keep telling yourself that,” Will says quietly, because even though the door is closed, speaking any louder would seem wrong. “You’re too harsh on yourself. If you wrote songs or something, you’d easily get on the Billboard Hot 100. Dad would help you. I would, too.” “Promote it to your seven followers?” “Yes!” Nico laughs, and then Will is joining him, and they’re closer than before, but it’s nothing unusual. It’s been this way since before stupid feelings and stupid crushes, and Nico would be damned if he let it change just because of that. or a celebrity au ft. childhood friends to lovers, a bit of trauma, and a famous friend group (plus leo).
--
I'm still in the beginning stages of reading this story, but I'm already obsessed with it! The author's writing style is interesting, and I just love a good celebrity AU.
we're not brave, we're not soldiers by Chriscrosswallflower
https://archiveofourown.org/works/39827199
Summary:
The battle of Manhattan was mostly a blood stained blur but Will would never forget the sight of his brother’s body falling along with that bridge. __ Follow along with this set of one shots as Percy and Will navigate the pain and trauma of being child soldiers and grow to form an unlikely friendship. Because I think these two could be great friends and two sides of the same coin, so I decided to put my plot bunnies to paper.
I just really love the way Percy and Will are portrayed in this collection of one-shots. Their trauma and emotions feel so raw and so well-written, and I'm personally a Will and Percy besties truther, so I honestly would have loved this fic anyways. The fact that it's so awesome is a bonus.
The Sum of Our Choices: The Titan's Curse by TheTimeTraveler24
https://archiveofourown.org/works/24637117
Summary:
Maybe it's not always about trying to fix something broken. Maybe it's about starting over and creating something better. A group of special individuals are drawn together for a reason. They might not see it yet, but they are the only ones who have the power to change their destiny. They'll face opposition from the gods along the way and sometimes things won't work out the way they want. But this group is special. Their choices just might be the key to everything. Something is happening. Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, and Thalia Grace are on their way to Westover Hall in response to a distress call from Grover Underwood. At the same time, Magnus Chase is wandering around in the woods. Under strange circumstances, the two groups meet and the course of history will never be the same.
This fic is actually a crossover AU with the Magnus Chase series, so if that's not your cup of tea, feel free to skip. However, this fic is a time travel "fix-it" fic of sorts where the trio are taken from their lives post the Hidden Oracle and have to relieve the events of the The Titan's Curse (and the rest of the series, this series is 800k words!) and I'm still on the first fic, but I am HOOKED already! So I figured I'd rec it here.
three-in-one soap by thelordofshrimp
https://archiveofourown.org/works/52887397
Summary:
Austin glared at his sister. “Will can’t lie, genius. He says that since he became head counselor, any shower that lasts more than three minutes gets interrupted by someone needing his help.” “That’s… crazy.” Nico considered the number of showers he’d taken even in his short time at camp and imagined if even half of them had been interrupted. “It is,” Jerry agreed. “Not like there’s much we can do about it, though.” “You can always do something about it.” Nico sat up. “There has to be something.” “Not unless you can somehow keep the whole camp safe at once.”
--
This is just a cute one-shot where Nico tries to make it so that Will can actually take a shower for once, but shenanigans ensue anyways. It made me smile, so I'm rec'ing it here.
--
Okay that's all! I'll probably keep doing this until I run out of fics to recommend. Have a good friday lovelies!
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sapphic-agent · 25 days
Note
how do you hate Bakugo and not catra. she's way worse than him.
*sigh*
Okay. I had a feeling I was gonna get this question eventually.
And you know what? It's fair. Catra's actions are worse than Bakugou's. If we're going off of morality alone, that would be one thing.
But these are fictional characters. As I've said before, I'm way less concerned with what they did and more interested in how the story handled it.
And don't misunderstand, the way Catra's were handled wasn't perfect. That's why I have complicated feelings about her. If I liked her or found her to be very well written, she would be in the same category as Aang and Rachel.
(I'm not a Catra anti because I looked into the anti Catra tag and found a cesspool. Bad take after bad take in that tag; it's a group I don't particularly want to be associated with. A good way to tell if you're anti any character is to see what their antis are actually saying)
However, there's a big difference in how the SPOP narrative treats Catra as opposed to how the MHA narrative treats Bakugou. Catra is always getting called out. Also, she actually had an abusive guardian, unlike Bakugou who was spoiled rotten. And her behavior has actual consequences. The narrative goes out of its way to say, "Yes Catra has a sad story, but she's still in the wrong."
And unlike with Bakugou who forced his victim to help him develop, Catra took it upon herself to own up to her actions and apologize. She had nothing to gain from helping Glimmer (was way worse for it), but did so because she had looked at her past behavior (of her own accord) and realized on her own how wrong she was. Then made the effort (the actual effort, not just a feeble apology) to fix it.
I really don't hate Catra's redemption. I think it could have been better and I don't think she should have ended up with Adora, but I never thought it was bad. Especially in comparison to Bakugou's. There was genuine effort put into Catra's character that just wasn't there with Bakugou's
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daytaker · 1 month
Text
Tea Time
In which MC and Satan accidentally travel to a pocket dimension simulacrum of the underground labyrinth in the demon lord's castle.
Ship: None (MC & Satan, not MC/Satan) Word Count: 2.6k CW: Choking Set in the Nightbringer timeline.
You can find it on AO3 by clicking here.
(Author's note: Just as a heads-up, this is a very "early on in the game" version of Satan. He is mean. He is violent. He is mean and violent towards MC. I keep the tone light but I figured I should be a bit explicit about what you'll find below the cut.)
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Record scratch. Freeze frame. Perfect.
So...yep. That’s me. I’m the one on the left, running for my life through a torch-lit labyrinthine corridor, being chased by a three-headed devil dog. Now, it might be a cliche, but we’ve already done the record scratch bit, so I might as well go all out:
You’re probably wondering how I found myself in this situation.  
Well! Let me direct your attention to the other individual onscreen. On the right, has black horns, a fur mantle, and murderous intent written all over his face. This charming person is Satan. Yes, that Satan. But also, no, not really that Satan. For this story to make any sense, you’ll have to take my word for it that Satan is, in fact, a skinny blonde kid who looks like he's in his early twenties. 
Suspend your disbelief for me, please.
So what happened was this...
I spilled some tea on a book lying haphazardly on the floor of Satan’s room. It was an accident, of course, but try telling him that. I was bringing him tea in bed because he was griping in the group chat about his headache and I’m a very considerate attendant and friend, when suddenly the whole room shook.
Now, I never did figure out why that happened. Maybe Cerberus was acting up. Maybe someone ate Beel’s custard again. Maybe there was an earthquake! I don’t know if Hell has those, but it might be a possibility. The point is, the room shook, and I shook, and the teacup shook, and the tea inside the teacup shook, and it all poured out onto a book on the floor. I hardly noticed it, since the only drops that didn’t land on the book had scalded my hands, meaning I was a bit distracted, but Satan sure did. I don’t know if that headache of his had been exaggerated or if he was so angry that he didn’t care about the pain, but before I even found a place to put down the teacup and tend to my burns, he was out of bed and in my face.
It was scary. I’ll admit it. Satan scared me. Back in my own time, I’d always had the hardest time feeling like I was “getting to” him out of all the brothers. Even Lucifer had clear enough motives and something resembling a moral code that I felt like I could follow. But Satan was different. Always different. He put me on edge with his cynicism and short temper, and he carried himself with a haughtiness that devolved into irritation whenever he felt someone was doing something stupid.
Still, we’d gotten to a point where things were at least friendly between us, and I sometimes got the feeling that he was trying to play-act the sort of easy friendship I’d formed with Mammon and Levi and the rest. But it never felt…authentic. I appreciated the gestures–book recommendations, shopping trips, things like that. But he was never really comfortable, so I was never really comfortable. I guess, more than anything, I felt sorry for him. 
…It makes me feel like an asshole to admit that to myself.
That’s Satan from my time, though. This Satan… Where do I even begin? Trying to explain would be tedious, so I’ll just continue with the story and let you figure it out yourself. To recap, this was the situation: I’d spilled tea on his book, but the expression on his face made me feel like I’d been caught killing a kitten. Horror. Disgust. Disbelief. But most of all, rage.
His hands were on my throat before I could get a word out. So we’re back to where I was before this little tangent, when I said: Satan scared me. I was scared. Part of me knew that this wasn’t actually going to be how I died. I’ve been assaulted and almost killed by demons too many times to count. Maybe I should have been used to it by now. But the panic that set in when I couldn’t get air to my lungs, and when I looked into his green eyes, clouded over with fury, and when I felt his hot breath on my face, like I was staring down a raging bull–
You don’t get used to that.
My eyes were watering and my chest was burning and I was clawing at his hands, and as darkness swept over us, I thought that maybe I really was going to die like this.
But then, the hands were gone, and I fell onto my knees, sputtering and wheezing as my pulse thundered in my ears. It was only after a few seconds of steady breathing that I realized my hands were touching a cold stone floor. Wiping my eyes, I looked up. I was in a dark hallway lit with only torches, with divergent pathways splitting off in a variety of directions. It was musty, and damp, and my skin felt clammy, but there wasn’t anything new about this place. Not for me, at least.
“What happened?” Satan’s alarm seemed to have overridden his anger for now. He looked up and down the hallway, peeking down a few of the off-branches, before turning to me again. “What did you do?”
I made a weak attempt at answering, but the instant I inhaled to speak, my throat stopped working, and I burst into a frenzy of dry coughs, gripping my burning chest and neck.
Satan tsked and turned away from me uncomfortably, looking the hallway up and down again. Something seemed to catch his eye at the same time that I caught my breath.
“I don’t… know what happened, but…” I wheezed, and Satan cast me a sharp glare over his shoulder. “I know where we are. This… is the labyrinth… under the Demon Lord’s castle.”
There followed a fresh fit of coughing, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t playing it up somewhat at this point. I wanted him to feel bad. I wanted to see some flicker of guilt on his face. The Satan that I knew was at least capable of that.
“Would you stop that?” was all this one said to me. “I have a headache. And I know where we are. I lived here for a year, or did you forget?” He reached down and picked something up from the shadows by the wall. It was the tea-stained book. He turned and held it out for me to see, silently gloating in this evidence that, whatever had happened, the tea fiasco was related, so this whole thing was really my fault.
Satisfied by my silence, he approached the nearest torch and held the book up to the light. "Mysteries of the Demon King's Castle," he read off the cover. "Now equipped with easy-to-use pocket dimensions, giving you a fully immersive experience– dammit !”
He stopped reading and hurled the book down the hallway, out of sight.
“...I didn’t realize pocket dimensions were unlocked with tea,” I muttered sullenly. “Why did you leave a book with transdimensional charms on it lying on the floor?”
I thought it was a sober, reasonable question, but based on what I could see of Satan’s face, he disagreed. As he turned on me, he suddenly seemed taller than I remembered, so much so that he blocked out the torchlight. “Are you saying this is my fault?”
I couldn’t see what kind of face he was making in the dark, and I was glad about that as I backpedaled somewhat. “I’m… I’m just saying there’s fault to go ‘round!”
That didn’t seem to do much to quell his mounting annoyance. I wasn’t entirely sure what he was angry about at this point. The spilled tea? The wet book? The pocket dimension? The suggestion that he might be partially responsible for our current predicament? All I knew was that there was a dark energy stirring around him. It wasn’t out of control yet, but I took note and stepped back.
“...This is stupid,” he finally mumbled. That illusion that he was taller than before had ended, and he was the same stature as always as he walked in the direction he’d tossed the book. “I’ll get us out.”
I stayed where I was, rubbing my sore neck, and stared into the darkness after him. The sound of footsteps slowed. Everything was silent.
Then the sound of footsteps picked up again. Rapidly. Satan was running back in my direction, and chasing him was–
“Cerberus?!” I was running before I had time to think I should be running. “What’s he doing here?!”
“Shut up!” Satan said rather unhelpfully. Then he made a sudden turn, and I nearly tripped over my feet skidding to a stop and running after him. I made a grab for his hand, just to have something to keep us from being separated in the dark, but he hissed like the touch burned him and pulled it free again. 
Now, I was starting to feel pretty angry too.
“Why are we running?” I snapped between pants. “Isn’t that your dog?”
“Lucifer’s,” was his terse reply. “Stop following me. If we split up, at least one of us will live.”
“Are you being serious?” I struggled to keep up my pace while giving him a look of appropriately scathing incredulity.
Satan didn’t appreciate my expression, because he refused to look at me. He kept running, eyes trained forward, gritting his teeth. “I don’t know! I need a minute to think! So shut up!”
Fed up with him, I picked up my pace with the last of my flagging strength and shoved him bodily into a crevice. He was so shocked that for a few seconds, while he was reattaching his jaw to his skull, I was able to take his own advice and assess the situation clearly. No running like a lunatic. No accusatory jabs. Just me and my thoughts… And that was all I needed.
It was incredibly simple. Cerberus was here because Cerberus wasn't really here. This pocket dimension was designed for the book it came with, so it goes to figure that the creatures living in it were little more than illusions.
“How dare you–?”
Satan had recovered his senses and looked ready to lunge at me, so I sidestepped out of the crevice and into the path of the other beast.
“Wind and fire, heed your master’s call!” I shouted. The wind began to whip fiercely around me as the torches blazed. I never got tired of this. It was badass every time. But I didn’t have time to appreciate the theatrics. Cerberus had just rounded a corner and was loping towards me, all three jaws snapping. “Vile illusion! I cast you back into the darkness!”
The wind blew so violently that I could barely keep my balance, and from the sound of a thud and a hissed “damn!” behind me, it seemed like the wind was even less considerate of Satan. But in front of me, the gale seemed to blow the image of Cerberus away. The wind rushed, the torchlight blazed, and in seconds, the creature had vanished completely.
The air settled down and the torches dimmed to their usual brightness. In the absence of the howling wind, every sound was intensified. My heavy breathing. Satan’s heavy breathing. His voice behind me when he rasped, “What…?”
“It wasn’t real,” I answered breathlessly. “Just… an illusion.”
“What…did you do?”
I turned around to face him, only to find him on his knees, fists clenched on his thighs. I wilted somewhat. I hadn’t meant to draw power from him, but he was right there, and the illusion had been so intense…! 
“I…guess I had to borrow some of your power to banish the illusion. It- It wasn’t intentional…” I started to stammer out the best excuse I could pull from my ass, but then he looked up at me. His eyes flashed dangerously, his teeth were bared, and the sound he made was more like a snarl than a voice.
“This is my body! You can’t use it! You can’t, you can’t, you can’t! I’ll kill you!”
As enraged as he was, he was too weak to do much about the situation. I mumbled an apology, taking a step back. Satan kept muttering curses under his breath, head bowed, and before long, I’d pushed his words out of my mind. It wasn’t like this was the first time one of the brothers threatened to kill me, and it wouldn’t be the last.
Fatigued from my own burst of mana output, I shut my eyes, slid down the wall, and sat on the floor, running a hand through my hair as I exhaled. We would be fine now, I reassured myself. Satan would blow off his anger, and we’d figure out some way out of here. Leaving a pocket dimension should be relatively simple. Even if that failed, at the very least, Lucifer or Solomon would figure out how to rescue us. Right… All we had to do was…
......
I didn’t remember falling asleep, but then again, who does? When I woke up a short time later, stiff and sore against the stone wall, I was alone in the hallway.
“Satan?”
My voice echoed in the stone passage, and I reflexively shuddered. How many creepy things have chased me down these halls? Sure, this one wasn’t the real thing, but… what else besides Cerberus might be waiting in the wings?
It took some courage for me to shout louder. “Satan!”
Nothing.
I groaned. Loudly, too, just in case he could hear it. That bastard. My head reeled as I forced myself back to my feet. There was no way he would have just walked off into this maze without me, was there?
…Was there?
A nervous knot was growing in my stomach. “Satan, if you can hear me, you’d better say something!”
“Something.”
The voice came from directly behind me, and I shrieked. It was an ugly shriek, and it was loud, and when I turned around indignantly, I saw Satan. That asshole. He stood watching me with an irritating expression of self-satisfaction, and in his hand, he held the damn book that started all of this in the first place.
“So you’ve decided not to kill me?”
It was a stupid thing to say, and I knew it wouldn’t do anything besides annoy him, but I was embarrassed and I wanted to wipe the smug smirk off his stupid face.
It worked.
“Don’t you ever get tired of asking such irritating questions?” he snapped. “I was going to tell you I’ve found a simple way to get out of this nightmare.” He started thumbing through the pages, which smelled strongly of green tea.
One haphazardly sketched pentagram later, we were both standing in Satan’s room. A quick glance at my D.D.D. confirmed no time had passed during our little excursion to the illusory labyrinth. Thoroughly drained, I sighed and plopped down onto the floor with a bump. Three precariously stacked books proceeded to fall and hit me on the head, one after the other, like this was some sort of Looney Tunes skit.
“Careful!” chided Satan, steadying the stack. “You’ll start an avalanche, and I don’t have the patience to deal with that today! I have a headache.”
As I stood up, he flopped down on his bed, his back facing me. I stared at him for a few long seconds, then sighed. I could no longer repress a smirk.
“Want me to get you some tea?”
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This was something I wrote while I was developing Let's All Be Shadows. It's a little sillier tonally. While I'm finishing Chapter 19, I figured I'd post this here, since I realized I hadn't done that yet.
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e-dubbc11 · 9 months
Text
Anna
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Photos are not mine. They are courtesy of Pinterest/Google.
Pairing: Tattoo Artist Billy Russo x F! Reader
Warnings: All the baby fluff, I don’t even think there are any swear words in this, maybe one. But this is probably one of the fluffiest fics I’ve written.
Word Count: 3k-ish
Summary: Your little girl is now a mobile toddler and so many people just adore her. Anna’s godfather, Frank, is having so much fun being a godfather but she has a favorite babysitter and her name is Shortcake.
A/N: Continuation/Side Story of The Sweetest Pain Series. I knew I wouldn’t be able to stay away from this series for long. Toddlers are so unpredictable and they soak up everything like a sponge so it was fun to write for an active toddler. I’d like to thank @jvanilly for suggesting the other artists keeps snacks at their stations for her visits, I thought that was adorable. And Shortcake is a character created my lovely Lily @munsonownsmyass in her fic Mark Upon Your Skin Give it a read if you haven’t yet!
As always, thank you for reading!  I appreciate it so much and comments, reblogs are welcome and encouraged. Don’t be shy to tell me your favorite part. 💕💕 💕
She was still trying to get the hang of being upright, toddling around on two legs instead of crawling on all fours. Even when she wobbled and fell down, she didn’t get upset or give up. She just got right back up and started walking again, your little miss was a lot like her father in that way.
Billy never gave up or gave in either, he didn’t know the meaning of the word, and he didn’t stop until he got what he wanted. And right now, Billy Russo had everything he had ever wanted. He had a thriving business, he had opened up the other side of the studio so he could bring in more artists and added space to display his artwork.
Always booked out for months in advance, people came from all over to have Billy do their tattoos. He brought their ideas to life and when he was finished, they always left with a smile on their face.
And he finally had something that he had always wanted…a family. Growing up in the group home, Billy would see children come and go. They would get adopted or placed in foster homes but he didn’t. Couples coming in to adopt wanted young children or babies, they never gave Billy a second look so he never knew what it was like to be part of a family until he became part of Frank’s, until he became “Uncle Billy.”
As welcome as they made him feel, something was still missing but he ultimately found those missing pieces. You were one of them, you were someone who understood him, you let him talk when he wanted to, and loved him even with his faults.
He loved you more than anything.
You could see he was scared to death when you told him you were pregnant. He didn’t know anything about parenting. All he knew how to be was Junior and Lisa’s fun uncle Billy. “What do I know about being a dad? I never had one.” Those words broke your heart but you knew he’d love that baby no matter what and you would both learn together.
She was a carbon copy of her father. From her wild dark brown hair to her onyx colored eyes, she melted both of your hearts with her infectious laugh and million dollar smile that was just like Billy’s. And now that she was more mobile, you had to pay extra attention to her so she didn’t get into too much trouble.
The little miss was starting to talk more, put little sentences together too and Billy was excited that she said “da-da” before “mama.” You knew it was easier for a lot of babies to say “da-da” but you just let him have that win because he was just over the moon about it.
And she hadn’t picked up on any yet but you were willing to put money down on her Uncle Frankie teaching her some very “colorful” words sometime in the near future.
Your little girl was constantly surrounded by people who loved her. Frank was always bringing her places with the kids, Maria would watch her one day a week while you and Billy were at work, but Anna’s favorite babysitter was definitely Shortcake.
You were convinced that something happened the day she was born like Shortcake imprinted on her or something crazy like that because your little Anna Raven Russo just adored her. Anna couldn’t quite say “Shortcake” yet so she just called her “Cake.”
One of Anna’s favorite things to do was to try and scare you but she also loved for you to scare her. It was a game she played with Shortcake all the time.
“Baby, why does our child like it when you jump out and scare her? She laughs like a crazy person…watch.” Billy said, hiding behind a door and calling for her.
With a smile on your face, you watched Anna clumsily run over to where Billy was hiding and he jumped out from the dark room. She screamed and then started to laugh.
You and Billy chuckled and he said “See…she’s a little nut.”
“Again Daddy!” Anna yelled.
You just shook your head as you gazed down at her and said “Oh Shortcake plays that game with her. That’s one of the things they like to do with each other is ‘play scared.’”
The day Anna was born, she didn’t have many visitors because she was born in the middle of a snowstorm. Her own father almost missed her birth because of it but aside from Billy’s other employees, the other two people that were there the day she was born were Frank and Shortcake.
It was very hard to tear that baby away from her arms so Frank could hold her, there was just something so special about their relationship from day one and it had blossomed into the sweetest little friendship.
Anna loved visiting Billy at the tattoo studio and even though she obviously couldn’t read what it said, she knew the logo when she saw it. “Daddy…work.”
Firmly planted on your hip, she pointed at the Anvil logo on the window and a wide smile stretched across her face. Excited that she was going to see her other “friends” today, she started impatiently kicking her feet and gently bouncing against your side in anticipation.
Everyone looked up as you opened the door, every single person had a smile on their face as you put the little miss down so she could go say hi to everyone. Her first stop was always her father.
She saw Billy standing behind the counter and she took off running as fast her little legs would let her, he scooped her up in his arms and blew a raspberry on her cheek. Anna let out a high pitched squeal like she did every time Billy did that to her, she loved it.
“And how’s my pretty girl today?” Billy asked.
Anna pointed at you. “Mommy…pretty.” She said.
You let out a little chuckle.
Billy gazed at you like he hadn’t seen you in a week. “Yes, mommy is very pretty…she’s beautiful.” He said with a wink, giving you butterflies in your stomach.
Frank walked in off of the back deck. “Is my goddaughter here?!! Come here, sweetheart.” He said as he squatted down with his arms outstretched.
“Down…Daddy.” She said to Billy.
Billy kissed her on the forehead. “Down daddy, PLEASE.” He said.
Her deep brown eyes, her father’s eyes, looked him over before she said “Peeease!”
Billy set her on the floor and her little legs took her right to Frank. He picked her up and started to “bite” at her neck and she grabbed his nose. “Ow! You got my nose!” He said jokingly with Anna laughing.
“Well to be fair, it is a large target Frankie. Of course she would grab your nose.” Billy said with everyone else getting a good laugh at that one.
You stared intently as big Raven played with little Raven, he had the biggest smile on his face while he played with her and tickled her. Obviously, Frank loved his children but he told you he does sometimes miss when they were babies and he did miss out on a lot of time when they were small because he was deployed so he was really enjoying being Anna’s godfather.
She then toddled around to everyone’s work station, smiling as she waved and said hi to the other artists in the shop that day. They always had snacks and stickers for her, doting on her the entire time she was visiting.
After Anna made the rounds and extorted all of the snacks out of everyone, she ran back over to you. “Up…mommy!” She said with her arms extended over her head.
Tilting your head to the side as you looked down at her, you said. “Up mommy, PLEASE.”
“Up peeeease, mommy!” She said.
You and Billy were doing your best to try and raise a polite human being.
When you picked her up, she turned her hand up toward the ceiling so you knew she was trying to ask you a question and it was adorable. “Cake…mommy?”
“Awwww, Shortcake isn’t here today baby girl.” You said to her.
Anna looked a little disappointed.
“You’ll see her in a couple days. She’s coming to babysit you while Mommy and Daddy go out on a date.” Billy said to her in that soothing voice of his.
Bouncing her on your hip, you smiled at her and asked “Ok?”
Nodding her head and pursing her lips, she said “Ok.”
**********
A couple of days later, while playing with Anna in the living room, you heard a knock at the door. She looked up from her blocks and a smile pulled at the corners of her mouth, stretching all the way across her face.
She knew who was at the door.
“Who’s here, Anna? Let’s go see!” You said excitedly.
“Cake…Mommy!” She yelled.
You shrugged your shoulders. “I dunno, we gotta open the door.”
As soon as the door opened, Anna ran toward Shortcake who was holding a gift bag.
“Anna!! My little bird, I’ve got something for you.” She said.
Shortcake was ALWAYS bringing Anna presents…dinosaur stuffed animals, books, tiny hoodies. And today wasn’t any different as she followed Shortcake over to the couch to open the bag. Anna threw the tissue paper on the floor and pulled out a pair of Converse sneakers, just like the ones Shortcake had on.
“Now we have the same shoes!” She said.
You just sat back and watched Anna pick up one of the sneakers to show you.
“Look, mommy!” She said.
“I see them, baby. Do you like them?” You asked her.
“On…peeeeease.” Said Anna.
“I guess that’s a yes. What do you say?” You asked.
Anna looked up at Shortcake through her long dark lashes and said “taaaank you.”
Billy walked out from the bedroom. “What did you spoil my child with now, Shortcake?” He asked, walking over to you and pulling you flush with his chest.
You always felt so safe in his arms even from the very first time he hugged you. The way he held you tight and gave you that extra squeeze, you knew Billy was the one for you.
He tilted your chin up so you were looking into his eyes, he smiled and leaned down to kiss you. Things were very different now that you had a child but you still made time for each other to go out on “dates.” You were lucky enough to have so many people willing to babysit while you and Billy went out and spent alone time together.
“She bought Anna her first pair of Chuck Taylor’s. Aren’t they adorable?” You said.
He smiled as he watched Shortcake put the shoes on Anna’s feet. “That is really cute. You ready to go, beautiful?” He asked.
You explained to Shortcake that Anna had a nice long nap earlier and she was probably growing again because she was sleeping so much. You left dinner for them both and told them to have fun which you didn’t really need to tell her because they always had fun.
“Ok well you two go out and enjoy yourselves, she’s in good hands.” Said Shortcake.
You and Billy told Anna that you would see her later and to be good for Shortcake.
“Bye Mommy, bye Daddy.”
Billy narrowed his eyes at Anna, then turned to look at you. “Is she kicking us out?” He asked.
“I think she is.” You replied.
The two of you waved goodbye and headed out for dinner.
When you were halfway through with dinner, your phone started buzzing. It was Shortcake.
Your skin immediately pricked with goosebumps with worry, wondering if anything was wrong.
“Hey Shortcake, what’s up? Everything ok?” You asked.
There was a slight pause, everything was quiet for a minute before she answered.
“Uh, yeah…well, I think I know why the little bird has been sleeping a lot lately. After you left she kind of developed a little bit of a fever. She did eat and I gave her a cool bath. Her temperature went down a little but she does have a little bit of congestion so I gave her some Tylenol, and put the humidifier on in her room when I put her to bed.” She said.
“Wow…look at you go. We’ll finish up dinner and come home so you can—“
She interrupted you. “No, no…please stay out. I’m ok with her here, she’s sleeping, she’s fine. Enjoy alone time with each other for a while longer…please?”
You and Billy weren’t the type of parents to freak out over every little sniffle, kids get sick, that’s what they do. You didn’t know if Shortcake ever had to deal with a sick baby before but it sounded like she was a pro at it.
“Are you sure? We really can come home if you want us to, just so you don’t catch her cold.” You said.
“I want you guys to stay out, it really is ok.” She said. “I won’t take no for an answer.”
“Ok, ok. We’ll see you in a little while then. Bye.”
And you hung up.
Billy touched your hand. “Everything ok, sweet girl?” He asked.
You told him everything Shortcake told you.
“Wow, sounds like she’s got everything under control.” He said.
“Our little girl is a tough one, not letting anyone know she’s sick. She’s tough like her dad.” You said leaning across the table to plant a soft kiss on his lips.
His tongue darted out to slowly lick his bottom lip, and tasting the red wine on your lips he replied “And like her mom.”
And he kissed you again.
**********
When you arrived home, Shortcake was having some tea and watching tv.
“Thank you for taking care of her tonight. Just, really and truly thank you, not only for taking care of her but for giving us some needed time with each other.”
Billy leaned over and kissed your temple.
You touched her hand, looked at her and said, “And I think you’re gonna make a really great mom someday.”
Shortcake brushed a tear away from her cheek and smiled. “Thank you.” And she leaned in to give you a hug.
You and Shortcake weren’t always so close. When she first started at the shop, you thought she wanted Billy but it was just a misunderstanding and you quickly moved forward.
It’s a huge deal to trust someone enough to take care of your child but there was no question that Shortcake loved Anna and Anna loved her in return.
“I do have to show you guys something, well two things. The first one is on my phone here…hang on.” She said.
Pulling out her phone, she clicked on a video she took of Anna.
“Anna…little bird…tell mommy and daddy the new word you learned. What’s this on my arm right here?” She asked.
Anna pointed to Shortcake’s arm. “Tattoooooo!”
You and Billy started to laugh.
“And what’s the second thing?” Billy asked.
She motioned for the two of you to walk with her to Anna’s room.
Peering into her crib, you and Billy glanced down to see your little Raven asleep but also clutching her new sneakers tightly to her chest.
“She wanted to wear them to bed so we had to compromise. I figured since they’re brand new, it would be ok.” Said Shortcake. “It’s ok, right?” She asked with an unsure tone to her voice.
“Of course it’s alright. I’m sure you really had to fight her on not wearing them to bed, didn’t you. She’s stubborn, like her father.” You said with a sly smile on your face.
Billy narrowed his eyes at you and then a smile broke out across his face because he couldn’t keep a straight face as he said “I have no idea what you’re talking about, sweet girl…hey Shortcake, you think you can convince Matt to have one of these? Look at how cute she is, huh?” He joked in a whisper.
Even in the dim light of Anna’s room, you could see Shortcake blush and shy away from the two of you in embarrassment.
Elbowing Billy in the stomach, you playfully scolded him. “Don’t embarrass her, Billy.”
Quietly, the three of you tip toed out of Anna’s room. Billy had something he wanted to ask Shortcake and earlier at dinner he asked if it sounded like a good idea. You told him it sounded perfect.
“Shortcake, I wanted to ask you something and you can say no if you want but I was wondering if you could do a tattoo on me for Anna? Since I fired Andy for looking at my wife’s ass too much, he’s definitely not doing it. But I think that just means that maybe you were meant to do it anyway. I want her name and a raven next to it, if you’re up for it.”
Shortcake was practically speechless. Nervously, she stumbled a little over her words when she answered Billy’s question.
“Billy…I really don’t know what to say. To trust me with such an important piece, having to do with your daughter. I—I would love to do that for you.” She replied, her eyes shined with unshed tears.
Snaking your arms around Billy’s waist, his hands held you tightly against him and he moved his hands up and down along your spine causing goosebumps to dance across your skin, and you could feel him relax.
He felt very content.
“Good, thank you. We can talk more about it on Monday.” He said.
On her way out, Shortcake pulled both of you in for a hug. “Thank you both. Little bird is just so special and I—I just love her to death.” She said.
You smiled warmly at her and replied. “And she loves you. Thank you again for tonight.”
Shortcake turned back to look at you and Billy after walking out the door and said with a smile.
“Anytime.”
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