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#and also a chance to edit this stupid thing before i submit it

anastacialove · 6 months

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Fuck CurseForge!

Yes this will be a Rant, feel free to ignore.✌

A few months ago I went ahead and made a creator account on Curseforge, Figured I could branch out and get more/new traffic from my content. After figuring out how to actually post there and what their template and rules were I attempted to post up the Horse ranch recolors. For those of you unfamiliar with how posting your content on their works, its about the same as posting here on tumblr but with an extra step. Moderators have to look it over and approve it before it goes live for the public. Ok cool, thats fine and understandable, cant have people posting illegal or crazy stuff so I respect the added precaution and process.

But what I don't fucking respect or appreciate is how god damn hard the gate keeping, time wasting, and stupidity is!! The first post i tried to do, they said i was missing some things in the description, ok fine i made the changes they asked for. Then on the same post they said something else was wrong or missing: Long story short, they asked me to do this process for the SAME post 4 different times, instead of telling me everything that was wrong the first time around! Ultimately after submitting a ticket and speaking with support they went ahead and green lite the post a few DAYS later after realizing i did in fact do everything that was asked. This was my first post and experience with the site so after my initial anger calmed down I chose to give it a second chance. The next 3 posts i made there went smoothly, i did everything by the book and there were no issues. Until Sept. 29th, when i tried to post the doors and windows recolors from horse ranch. The moderation messege told me i needed to specify in the description if the "assets were apart of the pack," if they were created by Maxis, you can not reupload them without edits due to copyrights ". <----

This post was literally no different from the other previous 4 fucking recolor posts I did prior to this one. LITERALLY NOTHING DIFFERENT! So between Sept 29th till today Oct. 26th I attempted to once again do exactly as they asked and stated in both the description and the very fking obvious title of the post which was "Horse Ranch Doors & Windows". I did not copy and paste any original files from the game and try to reupload it "without edits" or whatever the fuck they tried to accuse me of or couldnt fucking clearly see for themselves via the god damn preview pictures I also provided. Guys, when I do my recolor posts across multiple platforms, I'm quite literally posting the same pics of the objects and providing the same information about whats in the file and so on. I do nothing different. THIS was nothing different from the others!! I once again contacted fucking support about the issue and stated the same thing! I took an object or fucking "asset" from the game> recolored or "altered" it and am trying to post. But for whatever reason bitches have their head up their ass and cant see theres nothing wrong or different with this particular recolor versus the other 4 recolor posts!

So long story short. I tried and tried, and I'm out of patience with these brain dead bot moderators over on Curse-go fuck urself-Forge. Fuck CurseForge, Fuck the Moderators, Fuck the Support Team, and Fuck my uploads there. Burn in Hell.

To everyone else that sees this that also uses that site, If you havent had this kind of problems with them yet, its only a matter of time. And if you HAVE had issues like this with CurseForge, Stop using the site and find CC elsewhere or from the creators other sources.

#curseforge #fuck you #rant

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ticholasnesla · 4 months

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Nimona (2023), friends.

First of all thank u to the people who made these great gifs!!! This is presumptuous of me but i truly hope u dont mind me featuring them! This is the first of - hopefully many - years of my Media Gifventure for the Holiday Season of 2023. I will go into more details if i need. So.

🥺

man of the hour. Man of the Year. Gold Star. 🌟

Gif use Disclaimer, I hope me making this post with these gifs isnt overstepping 🙂‍↕️💛 people who upload gifs, which, 9/10 times, they made themselves, are one of the most supportive vertebrae communities of Tumblr. 🫡👏👏 bravo chudovyy splendid чудовий mykola please tell me what i should remove and i will remove.

Above all else, Thank u.

anyways here's3 something i hope is going to be fun. Last chance. Gif heavy, flash warning excessive emojis, stupid shite and a dog.

🐕 . . . 🤎

nimona beat my ass yall. It beat my family's ass yall.

That's a Ss²+Gold ranked film if ever i saw one. Congrats Neæs@tflix - Nimona, and congrats ND Stevenson.

Ss²+Gold means Soupsoup Squared PLUS Gold which MEANS

+4 of thees bad boys!!!!!!!!

Enjoy!

i stop talking about strictly Nimona Heere.

so with that all said and done...i was Thinking... part 2?

disclaimer pls read the 👎 RULES. Trans rights human rights. Protect trans kids. Pronouns for your Hostess this evening are she/he/they. this isnt a nft thing so dont talk to me about that. and im not writing free reviews or reading your book. I just wanna award movies and webtoons and webcomics without putting any real artistic effort in (except when i WANT to put real artistic effort in) and also feature some great indie/non indie stuff In a (hopefully) positive light 🔮 shit i might even do requests. Or sketches. Imagine. 🐙

PROCEED 👎to RULES and engage in critical thought and problem soliving before sending me asks.💢

That being said, keep it PG. All asks are good asks and i will develop an FAQ if need be!

Rules 👎 down dere keep scrolling and reading. Thx. But first

Do u wanna submit something to be considered for a Soup GoldTM? Submit your favourite,

Webcomic

Youtube channel

Trending topic

Webtoon

youtube series

Manga

Anime

Plot twists

Lesser known artists

Indie artists

Podcasts

Heartbreaks /no actual bummers pls.

Memes etc etceteree

that kept you warm this 2023! And for my immediate needs, Happened in 2023. For this thing, i will only accept submissions til new yrs day. Is that peechy?

👎👎Ok finally rules for real. Proceed to pig 🐷 for tldr

Keep it pg🦉

K.I.S.S - keep it simple, Saoirse🦆

Stay in your Lane 🫎🦍🐏🪿

Dont message strangers on the internet if you're under 18.🔴And if you do KEEP your age out of their inbox. 🪺🐣🐊

Adult media is fine but i want to keep it Prime Time 🦐🐚 🪸🪼🐠🚦🐬

66I know i might be typing like a fucking bunyak but i wanna have FUN and talk about FUN STUFF my past 3 years has been ROUGH, BAYBEE. I miss my parents, Tails. I miss them a lot. /not a joke.

💐🦋🕊🐝🦂🦈🐄🐓🦤🦀🦀🦅🪱🥀🦽🏥🏥🏥🏥🏥🏥🫀🌎☀️🌜🪐🌬🌪🌦🌈☔️🔥☃️🎅🏡🎆🪻🌷💐🫀🐦‍⬛🚜👨‍🌾💚🤟💒💊🌋🏞🎡🛝🚛🚚🛻🚲

I am but flesh n blood n bone.

Please keep in mind i will only do what i have the jnj marbles for, but i will dedicate a lot of my downtime to this and i really want to have a good experience so um if u know a friend, or maybe want to tag cool accounts to maybe look over here yoo hoo hi there hello and do u wannaaa 🐕🐕🐕

Click that rebwog pwease 🥺 pppwease. Ding that like button smash that like button Uw0

This only works on Good Will so dont Play with my heart. We want to have fun.

I do have a DO NOT PASS GO list in my head but i wont reveal whats on it til i come across it ya? 🦩

Thank y for reading the rules. Now.

Me vs you the reader

Proceed to pig for tldr🐷

The Soup Golds and other Soups utilize a vector of Grandma's Soup from Lengend of Zelda Wind Waker that i edited with my phone. I do not claim to own this graphic and am just fucking around.

Submissions that dont pass my sneefing test are welcome and valuable! Incoming bee gif:

🐝

love rubbin my dusty little fingers in new Things and readings. So they will be rewarded either with Unseen, Uninterested, or Unwatchable badges, and might be featured as (dis)/honorable mentions! More nuance on that if the need arises. 🦄🔮👀

🐷Asks are open / pending! Feel free to Lurk/ask questions. Dont be rude or ELSE..u get The PIG 🐷🐷

✋️HYYYYYY

🤘🪑YAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!🐖🐖🐖🐖💨💨💨💨💨💨💨💥⚰️🪦🐽🍄

.. and then the Anon is going off. i dont want to have to do that. 🫠

🐗Let's keep it Frosty🐗

🐖💨💨💨💨Inbox closes Boxing Day! Get ur submissions in Today and get some fun ?

Write a letter and leave me a cookie pls. Im not asking for money i just wanna spend some quality time with u as we ____ 2024.

Here is the dog btw and she's a rottweiler mix.. She's sitting on my foots here and has curly furs all a on her butt. She was a foster fail and is living her best cushy life last i heard about her. I wanna see her again. 🖤🤎🧡🖤🤎🧡

The end. Play Sims 4 but try not to spend money on it. EA's starting to offer free packs that u can download for Free. Console and PC as far as i understand.

Love u. Be back soon.

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poettrista · 2 months

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Radioactive Baking Uncensored

It's fucking weird and only gets stranger the more I think about it. Not only do I have two published poetry collections (and a third one that I'm currently working on editing, formatting and getting ready to submit for publication) but my shit is finally starting to sell.

At this point, I don't think the strangeness will ever actually wear off. It's stupid and I know it's fucking stupid to keep going "holy fuck," but I kind of can't help it; it's not gloating or bragging by any means, it's seriously weird as hell.

I have finally updated the cover for "Aeternitas," so it's not available until my publisher accepts what I replaced their default black cover with; I think the new cover will fit it far better. The version with the black cover can be considered "limited edition" or some shit, since hopefully there won't be too many out there with the original cover design.

I'm going to attempt to crack a new collection out once a month, or once every other month, until writers' block slaps me in the face or some shit like that. I don't know how well that will end up working out, but an attempt will be made, for better or worse, until I've got at least a couple more collections out there.

I completely realize that being in an extremely small niche means that what I'm doing is basically gambling and there's always a very large chance that things won't go according to plan, but I've never been one to plan much of anything in the first place, that way I am always ready for anything that life throws my way.

I should -probably- stop reposting memes and random shit here, that way this looks far more credible and interesting; just stick to thoughts and poetry.

I should also work on cranking that bio out someday, but I still can't get any further than "I was born." Seriously, every time I think about working on that thing, it's like I become the least interesting person alive; like magic, I have absolutely no interests or hobbies to speak of, I've never done anything worth mentioning and the most risky thing I've ever done is being born, apparently.

Or I write a bunch of time-wasting, half-comical bullshit that does not and never will matter for any reason; things such as: "I like to believe I'm marginally more tolerable than the nuclear apocalypse, even if I'm far less interesting than a cybernetic donkey. My next poetry collection will be completed before the heat death of the known universe."

Yeah, I can't include things like that. So, I'll revisit the thought one more time at some point in the near future. No, I won't "clean up" the way I write; I write how I talk and think, so if it offends people, I'll live with it.

#random thoughts #indie poet #thinking out loud #thinking #rambles #oh well #ramblings #not art

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everlarkficexchange · 3 years

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The Principal

Prompt 37: Forbidden romance AU: Katniss is the school principal. Peeta is a new teacher fresh out of college. Age!gap Everlark. Smut happens. [submitted by @mrspeetamellark]

Author: JHsgf82

Rating: M (may go up for the next part)

Word Count: 5,336

Author Note: Edit by @mrspeetamellark. Thank you! Quote is by L.M. Montgomery from Anne of Green Gables. Okay, so I preface this with, I’m not a smut writer. I’m branching out into this territory, but I’m still quite inexperienced, so go easy on me. Due to lack of time, the smut scene is pretty short, but I plan to write a much more extended one, several, actually, in the next part (s). I hope you enjoy it!

Trigger Warning: Age gap/age difference, Older!Katniss. Both adults.

Katniss strode down the familiar halls of D12 to her office, her father’s old, brown, leather satchel slung across her shoulder and a single muffin in hand, which she’d bought from this nearby bakery she’d decided to try out. She wore a black boatneck tank beneath a long, ribbed green cardigan (left unbuttoned), black dress pants, and belt.

At 30, Katniss was the youngest principal in the history of D12 and one of only two female principals. Her female predecessor, two principals ago, Ms. Lucy Gray Baird had been an inspiration to all, and though Katniss never met her, she felt her influence everyday. For one, her eye always caught Principal Gray Baird’s picture on the wall‒her dark, curly hair pulled up in a bun, makeup on her face, and smiling. And two, she’d heard Lucy Gray Baird could sing like a bird and likewise led students to frequently place in All-District (or higher) choral competitions as Katniss had done when she was a teacher.

But Katniss didn’t participate in those things anymore. And as for Ms. Gray Baird, well, some said she was alive, but no one knew exactly where she’d flown off to after she retired. Whether she was off somewhere living peacefully, or dead, strangely, Katniss felt as though her spirit roamed these hallways‒and Katniss was not a supernatural or superstitious kind of person.

Two years ago, Katniss was offered the principal position. It was a great honor, and although she hated leaving her teaching position, she couldn’t decline it. Since she’d become principal, Katniss had implemented some good changes, so she thought, and she truly hoped her father would be proud of her.

Katniss prided herself on being authoritative, firm but fair, and decisive. She trusted her gut instincts when making decisions in work and in her personal life, and normally, she made good ones. Last night, however, was not the best decision of her life, and she’d already caught some heat for it this morning. But, to quote one of her favorite authors: ‘[Today] is a new day with no mistakes in it…yet.’

Once settled into her office, Katniss brought up her email and her schedule. She was to meet with the new teacher in only ten minutes. It didn’t leave her much time; she could either quickly send out a few emails that needed to be sent and scarf down her muffin or save the muffin for after the meeting and deal with the hunger gnawing at her insides.

Fortunately, Katniss was something of an expert on hunger‒not life-threatening hunger, but she knew what it was like to do without and forego her urges. Again, not last night. Last night seemed to be the exception to all rules pertaining to Katniss Everdeen. What she had experienced last night was similar to what she was feeling now, albeit entirely different‒last night’s hunger had nothing to do with food.

With a sigh, Katniss dug into her temples. This was neither the time nor place to be thinking about last night’s escapade, but she couldn’t seem to help it. As her hang‒headache wore off, more details kept coming back to her, and she felt herself reclining back in her chair a moment. There was nothing wrong with a little daydreaming, a quick fantasy, although work was not the best place for it; but perhaps, it would sustain her throughout the day. Resist. She squeezed her eyes shut, commanding her hippocampus to shut down its function, gripped the arms of her chair, and leaned forward resolutely.

As she attempted once more to focus on her work, that other type of hunger, actual hunger, pricked at her, urging her to take a big bite of the muffin.

Great. In a matter of seconds, she’d thought about the very two things she’d vowed not to‒the muffin and last night.

Satisfy it.

At least the former.

Hoping to satiate her stomach, Katniss reached out with pinched forefinger and thumb, thinking she’d just tear a little off the top, but then…no. She didn’t trust her urges lately, even if last night had been incredible. She needed to learn, or re-learn, how to control them, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant. So, she ignored the muffin. This would be an exercise in self-control.

She returned to the e-mails.

Not long after, her assistant chimed in over the phone’s intercom, “Miss Everdeen, Mr. Mellark is here.”

Pressing the button, she talked into the speaker, “Thank you. Send him in.”

When the broad, blond man stepped through the doorway of her office, Katniss felt all the blood drain from her body. Her eyes widened, and her mouth, all of a sudden drier than cotton, dropped open. Realization dawned on his face, too, his pale eyebrows shooting up and his body going stiff. Much like hers. Katniss felt as though she had a ramrod stuck up the back of her shirt for as straight as she was sitting up.

Oh no, not him.

But it was him, the man from last night, the man she took home with her after a chance encounter at a bar. In a flash, those memories her brain had been sorting out, which she’d so deliberately been trying to subdue, came rushing back at her, assaulting her. And the night’s events unfurled before her eyes in a montage of flirty conversation, sexy looks, sensual touches, lingering kisses, and...sex, incredible sex.

Katniss felt pinpricks stabbing her all throughout her chest; she could barely breathe. Inhaling and exhaling, slow and steady, she placed a hand over her rapidly beating heart, urging it to calm down, as if that would do a thing; then, she fumbled for the water bottle in her bag. She located it and took a quick swig, kind of wishing it was alcohol‒although, look at the mess that got her in…

“Are you alright?” he gently asked. She glanced back up at him.

On second look, yeah, it was definitely him, the very same blond man she’d had in her bed less than 3 hours ago. What was his name…? It started with a P…something to do with bread… Shit. She couldn’t even remember his name!

But it was even worse than that. Not only did she sleep with a man who was now her employee, but he was six years younger than her!

Oh God, was this going to be her legacy now? Screwing the younger teachers? She could just imagine the whispers and the looks she’d get, what the parents and her colleagues would say if they found out…

As for him, he didn’t seem wholly un-phased, although he looked calmer than her. He was just standing there watching her, his cheeks slightly ruddy and his hands tucked sheepishly into his pockets.

“F-fine,” she choked out. But she wasn’t. This situation was anything but fine. And what kept reverberating in her head was: ‘How could I have been so stupid?’ It was stupid enough to get intimately involved with a guy she just met, one much too young for her, while intoxicated, but for him to be a teacher at her school…! Okay, so she didn’t know that then.

Pushing aside her ignorance over who he was…but yes, there was that. She really should have known. Upon recollection, he’d said he was a teacher; he’d even told her that tomorrow was his first day and he had an early morning meeting with the principal of his new school‒there were only a few schools in this area… She should have pieced it together, or at least, been more cognizant of the warning signs.

Why had she done it? Well, all she could really say was that she’d wanted to lose herself last night. And it had been nice, more than nice. Last night, she’d realized how starved she’d been for human affection. For touch. Closeness. Had it really been so long? Or, maybe it was his specific touch she’d been craving? No, that was foolish. What kind of useless drivel was her mind formulating now? This is what she was reduced to when she was hungry.

But how could she have even entertained the notion in the first place? How did it even begin? Oh yeah, she remembered now…she’d been in a shitty mood, had a bit too much to drink, and he was hot.

Thinking back, Katniss recalled their eyes locking across the bar, and she’d done a double-take, then a triple-take, then a slow observation up and down his body, what wasn’t blocked by the bar, anyway. She’d planned on leaving it at that, as a look-but-no-touch kind of scenario, because this guy was clearly younger than her, and frankly, she just wasn’t in the mood. Or, so she thought. But he had other plans…

Katniss watched him stand from his seat, take his drink and napkin, and approach her. She swallowed down the lump in her throat at the enticing sight of his lower half which had been previously hidden from sight.

“Is this seat taken?” he asked. Polite or cliché line, whichever the case, she didn’t have any fight left in her today, so she merely shrugged. He was good-looking, and he smelled nice, like a masculine aftershave (a rain-soaked wood perhaps) and strangely, also like cinnamon and dill.

‘Okay, this is fine, so long as he isn’t a talker…'

He was a talker.

But Katniss rather enjoyed the velvety sound of his voice, and he seemed nice enough. He was clearly working subtle flirtations in, and though she appreciated the ego boost, it was best to cut it off before he put in too much effort.

She was direct, so she went with a blunt tack.

Katniss sighed, exaggerating her annoyance with him. “Go away, little boy. Go home to your mother. I’m sure it’s way past your bedtime.“ This young guy was hot and obviously interested, which was flattering, but she was in such a shitty mood that she didn’t even care if he thought her a bitch.

"Ouch.” He grimaced yet seemed undeterred. Boldly resting his hand on her arm and leaning in to where his lips barely brushed the shell of her ear, he whispered, "I promise there’s nothing little about me."

Katniss couldn’t help it; she burst out laughing. "Really? Is that the line you’re choosing to go with?”

Still, he didn’t seem discouraged. “I admit it’s not my wittiest remark, but I get better with time." He shot her a little wink.

Cheeky kid.

"How old are you?” she asked.

“24."

"I was right, just a child.”

“Last time I checked, the age of legal adulthood was 18."

Katniss scoffed. "What are you, a lawyer?" Not her wittiest remark, either.

"No, a teacher.”

Huh. Small world.

If only she knew then how very small, indeed…

“So, how old are you?” He rested his chin on his knuckle, making him look even more boyish. She couldn’t deny he was cute.

“You’re not supposed to ask a lady that,” scoffed she.

"Alright, then how about I guess?" She rolled her eyes as he went off in his head. "Mmm…27?”

“You’re sweet, junior.”

“Thanks, but I prefer ’Peeta.’" He stuck out his hand, and reluctantly, she offered hers.

"Katniss.”

“Katniss,” he repeated, tasting her name on his lips like it was a fine wine or something.

This guy was good. He’d kept her talking and gotten her to introduce herself. He hung onto her hand, placing his other atop their clasped ones, trapping hers there.

“Well, Katniss, so you’re older than me." He shrugged. "You look young, and it doesn’t really matter to me, anyway."

"Why not?”

“Because you’re beautiful. I’d know; I have an eye for beauty." He flashed her a perfect smile. "Why don’t you let me buy you a drink? It seems like you’ve had a rough day, and I could use one, too. No harm in having one together, right?”

She eyed him suspiciously.

“Look, I’m not planning on getting sloshed; I’m just a little nervous about my first day of work tomorrow, so I could use a little something. Keep me company? I promise you’ll barely have to put up with me at all.”

Smiling faintly, Katniss nodded.

Yes, he was very good. Persuasive. Incredibly persuasive. He’d persuade her of a whole lot more that night…

Even knowing where it was inevitably leading, they’d taken their time at the bar, chatting about a little bit of everything but nothing really. Peeta (that was his name) kept touching her in a manner that was just enough to get her engines revving but not enough to make her uncomfortable.

And Katniss had thought, why not? Why not give herself a little treat? She made it sound like she’d gone for an ice cream at Dairy Queen rather than dragged a young, hot guy she just met home, but at the time, it hadn’t mattered. She’d impulsively decided to live a little, for once.

And he was good, so very good.

They’d barely made it in the door before they were tearing at each other’s clothing, lips roaming, bodies pressed up against each other. They’d slammed into a couple of surfaces before he picked her up and she wrapped her legs around his waist. He’d carried her off to her bedroom, which took her a moment to remember where it was. He’d covered her body with his, propping himself up slightly, and she’d ground her hips up and into him while he teased her center and tasted her tongue, then her breasts, then moved lower.

He’d eaten her out, and after, he’d pressed her up against her headboard; she’d had to grip it tight and hold on for the ride as he swiftly entered her from behind. Then, when he was ready, he’d flipped her over onto the bed and slipped inside her again, lacing his hands with hers and thrusting strong and steady until she reached completion a third time.

By the end of the night, they were sweaty and spent, and she was a little hoarse.

But she recalled how it wasn’t all fast and rough. He’d also been tender with her, brushing the hair out of her face, peppering her face with little kisses, and whispering sweet nothings into her ear while he spooned her.

But all that fun was over. Now, it had come back to bite her in the ass.

First off, Katniss had woken feeling disoriented, and a bit sore. When she remembered (the gist of) what had happened, she’d been mortified, but at least the mystery guy with the odd name had had enough sense to be gone when she got up.

Good, she’d thought. Saved her the embarrassing conversation of having to kick him out.

At the time, it had seemed like a better idea to go to her place than his. He would know where she lived, yes, but if he tried to murder or harass her, that’s where her neighbor came in.

Her cranky old neighbor, Haymitch, was a cop, when he wasn’t drunk, that is. Katniss imagined him to be like one of those rogue cops in the movies and TV series, who wasn’t afraid to pop a cap into someone who deserved it when the criminal justice system failed. And for some strange reason, he’d taken a shining to her. Most of the time they mutually despised one another, but occasionally, it was as if he flipped a switch and decided to be pleasant, and he could even be protective of her. He’d hollered and acted crazy once to get rid of a guy for her, even pulled his badge on another crazy boyfriend. And if all that didn’t work, at least she had a weapon under her bed.

Speaking of crotchety, old Haymitch Abernathy, she’d passed him in the hall while he was stumbling out of his door for this morning’s paper, and he’d accosted her…

“Ya really shouldn’t be dragging strange men home from bars, sweetheart. S’not safe.”

“Didn’t know you cared, Haymitch,” she said dryly, folding her arms. Although, she did. He was a textbook type, putting on a tough façade, acting as if he didn’t care about anything or anyone when actually he cared a lot.

“Sure,” he shrugged, “you’re like the daughter I never had‒and never wanted.” He added the last part with a slight curl of the lips.

“Gee, thanks, Haymitch.”

“No problem.” He scratched the back of his head and cleared his throat. “So, I take it this one was okay?”

Katniss rolled her eyes. “Yeah, he was okay.” More than okay… “He even left without me having to tell him to.” She tapped her fingers against her arm.

“Ah, a smart one. However, I do have a complaint. Y’all made quite the racket last night!”

“Haymitch, god!” Katniss groaned. She pressed her fingers into her temple. They did; they really did‒she was surprised they hadn’t broken her bed‒and she was trying hard not to smile about it. Not in front of Haymitch. “Please, please do not talk like an overprotective parent one minute then comment on my sex life the next.”

“Then keep it down, why don’t ya?!”

God. Well, now he knew about her one-night stand. Oh well. Not like he’d say anything to anyone, and he was the least of her worries.

Back to the matter, and the man, at hand.

Peeta Mellark, the new teacher, stood in the middle of her office as if he didn’t dare come closer without permission. He was dressed in an orange and white striped button-down dress shirt tucked into navy pants, and he wore a navy tie. His ashy blond hair was gelled and slightly coiffed.

He looked good.

He’d looked good last night, too, more casual, dressed in a slightly form-fitting baby blue Henley and jeans, and his hair had fallen in waves across his forehead. Last night, he’d been cute and hot and fun; today, he was handsome and distinguished, and he’d suddenly aged five years. Katniss couldn’t decide which look she liked better on him. Both were attractive in their own right…but no, she absolutely should not be focusing on his looks right now, or ever.

Composing herself, she finally beckoned for him. “Mr. Mellark. Have a seat.”

He sat down, threaded his fingers together, and gave her a tentative smile.

Well, he certainly was much less confident today. Not that she could blame him; she was rather a jumble herself. She supposed she’d better address the elephant in the room.

She sucked in a breath and swallowed the lump in her throat before proceeding.

“Sorry, I, uh, didn’t realize it was you. I couldn’t remember your name at first.”

Good one, Katniss.

“Ouch.” He gave a little chuckle. “Well, I remember everything about you, Katniss. Like, you have one sister; your favorite color is green; you love to get out into nature and go hunting, and you’re obsessed with hot chocolate and love to dip your bread in it.”

Well, they had covered some informational ground last night, hadn’t they?

His sexy grin returned, and just like that, the ice was broken, and he was the same cheeky, charming, albeit slightly smart-mouthed man she remembered from last night.

“Are you trying to be romantic or piss me off?” she blurted out.

“Neither. Just saying…”

“By the way, you should address me as Ms. Everdeen or Principal Everdeen. And we’re in a meeting.”

“Excuse my informality, Ms. Everdeen,” he stressed her name. How was it he could sound both contrite and like a smart ass at the same time? “I suppose it is much more appropriate if I call you that here.”

What was he inferring? That he might address her differently elsewhere? That they might actually associate with one another outside of school ever again? Their night together had been fun, amazing, really, but that was over. Even if she wanted to see him again, it was now forbidden…

Damn it all if thinking of it as ‘forbidden’ wasn’t getting her all hot and bothered. She squeezed her legs beneath her desk, digging her nails into the arms of her chair to ground herself.

She inhaled and slowly exhaled. “Yes, it is. Thank you, Peet-Mr. Mellark.”

Katniss still couldn’t understand what in hell was the matter with her. And how had she not put two and two together last night? She supposed it was because she hadn’t been on the hiring committee when he was hired; she’d only seen him as Mr. Mellark on paper. And they’d only exchanged first names last night.

Plus, she’d been stupid and horny.

“By the way, how’d you sleep, Ms. Everdeen?” Peeta gave her that sassy little smirk of his.

She scowled at him. “Never you mind how I slept.”

Peeta chuckled.

He was on dangerous ground. If he kept laughing at her, he was gonna get his cute, tight little ass fired. But then again, she couldn’t really do that. She had no legitimate reason to fire him. Sexual harassment, maybe, but she certainly couldn’t not claim that without coming clean about what happened between them.

“You know, I wanted to greet you properly this morning, but I had to get going. So sorry to just leave a note.”

Yes, she recalled his note. It was…a little sappy for her taste, but sweet.

Katniss sighed and rubbed the back of her neck. All of a sudden, her shoulders felt tenser than ever and that small twinge from before had become a gigantic pain.

“Did you injure yourself?” He wasn’t laughing or smiling this time; he seemed genuinely concerned.

“No,” she snipped. She had, but she wasn’t going to admit it to him. She certainly wasn’t going to tell this young, twenty-something that she’d pulled a muscle having sex with him. How humiliating that would be. Granted, it was probably made worse from sleeping on it the way she did, but the initial pull came from the sex. It made her feel much older than she was, and he seemed just fine. Bodies truly didn’t seem to function the same in the thirties as in the twenties; it was like an invisible line was crossed. “It’s nothing,” she told him. “Just a crick.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.” He paused. “You know, there’s a remedy for that.”

“Oh yeah?” She eyed him suspiciously, waiting for the inevitable pick-up line‒an offer to massage it for her or something. And dammit, she was getting turned on again!

“Heat,” said Peeta.

Oh. She internally berated herself for her lusty thoughts. What was worse was that now she couldn’t get the image of him massaging her out of her head.

“There is also massage, of course.” He flashed her that brilliant smile of his.

Damn mind reader!

With a sigh, Katniss drummed her fingers several times on her desk. Okay, this would be fine. It was over and done with, and they could begin a new, professional relationship‒so long as he got it through his head that this wasn’t fun and games.

“Okay, let’s get something straight, Mr. Mellark. This can’t happen.”

“What can’t?”

“This.” She motioned between them. “You…and me, whatever. Not again.”

“Oh, so we are going to talk about it,” said Peeta, crossing one leg over the other.

“I think we need to. Because this…I don’t know…this flirtatious talk and those smiles of yours can’t continue.”

“I can’t smile at you?” Peeta’s brow furrowed, and he placed a hand on his chest.

“Not like that, no.”

“I was just being friendly, Miss Everdeen.”

“No, you weren’t. You know what you were doing; you…nevermind.” She placed both hands on her temples and rubbed. Once she’d dug in really good, she covered her face with one hand, dropping the other to her desk. Suddenly, she felt his large, warm hand cover hers.

When she looked up, Peeta was leaning forward. Her gaze flickered between his bright blue eyes and his hand covering hers.

“I’m sorry to cause you stress. I promise I won’t make things difficult for you.”

“Thank you.” Katniss’s words came out with a gust of breath. “I appreciate that, Mr. Mellark. Thank you for being mature about this.”

“Uh, yeah, no problem.” Peeta removed his hand and used it to scratch the stubble on his chin. She couldn’t help drifting back to the way that stubble had felt against her inner thighs…

“I mean, what happened was a complete coincidence,” he continued. “No reason it should affect our positions here.” He dropped his hands to his lap and folded them.

“Right. So, then…” She perused his file. Thank God she was a speed-reader because she hadn’t had the opportunity to learn about him in a professional capacity, as she should have been doing, last night. “I see you have your Master’s in Elementary Education. And hm, seems you come highly recommended.”

Peeta’s hand had raised to partially cover his mouth, and she thought she caught the slight upturn of his lip. Was he laughing at her struggle to keep her composure, or…She swore if it was because she’d said ‘come’ she was going to reach across her desk and slap him, consequences be damned! He said he would be professional!

But really, what did she expect? He was young and most likely, immature, and she had just banged him last night. He probably wasn’t taking her seriously right now, at all.

“What?” she snipped.

“Nothing.”

Peeta was eyeing her muffin now. Did he really have such a short attention span? How did he ever make it through school, let alone become a teacher?

“I hope you enjoy the muffin,” he commented.

“Thanks.” What a strange segue.

“You know, I was going to make you breakfast this morning, but since it was your place, I didn’t want to overstep my bounds by rummaging around in your kitchen.”

How thoughtful. But overstep his bounds? Well, they were both so far out of bounds last night that the boundaries weren’t even visible.

“Plus, I had to leave early for this meeting with you, which I didn’t know was with you, since you never gave me your last name last night, and I was only told I would be meeting with Principal Everdeen.” He gave a sardonic little laugh. “What are the odds?”

“Glad you find this so damn funny, Mr. Mellark.”

“Not funny ha-ha, just kind of ironic. Not great literature-ironic or anything, but interesting.”

Katniss huffed. “Mr. Mellark,” she chided.

“I know I’m supposed to address you by your title, but you can call me Peeta if you want.”

“No, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Well, then I suppose suggesting a rain check on breakfast would be a bad idea?”

“Yes, it definitely would.”

Peeta nodded. “Well, at least you have the muffin. Do me a favor and tell me how you like it.”

“Alright…" She sighed. How odd. Then again, Peeta didn’t seem like the typical guy. He’d made a lot of…quirky remarks last night. “But let me remind you, this is a professional meeting.”

“Of course.”

Before she could go on, Peeta interrupted.

“But you have to admit, it is a bit ironic, isn’t it?”

Katniss folded her arms on her desk and dropped her head to rest on them a moment. “Peeta…,” she began in a warning tone when she raised her head.

“You’re not at all glad to see me?”

“No, Peeta. Sorry, but I’m not.” At least, not here she wasn’t. “This is horrible. It’s not ironic, and it’s not fate, unless you count it as a cruel joke of the universe, if you believe in that sort of thing.”

At the look on his face, she huffed in exasperation. “How can you not be as mortified as I am? It’s worse for me, but how do you feel knowing you fucked your boss the night before your first day of work?”

“Well, I’m not ashamed like you are, and I can brush it off.” Apparently, he couldn’t. “Two people met in a bar; they liked each other; they hooked up; it’s no big deal.”

“Maybe not for you. But can’t you see how this changes our whole dynamic?”

“Only if we let it.”

Katniss sighed. He made a good point. Perhaps he was wiser and more mature than she gave him credit for, even if he wasn’t acting it right now. Maybe if she started treating him more like a colleague and a man rather than a kid. She certainly saw him as all man last night.

“Alright.” Peeta casually folded his hands in his lap. “What is it you’re concerned with?”

“I don’t want anyone to know we know each other, let alone that we had a…physical involvement.”

“Fair enough.” Peeta nodded.

“And you’re to always address me by my title, not my first name, and definitely not by any of those little pet names you were spouting last night.”

Peeta laughed. “You didn’t like them, huh? I guess it was a little much; I just get…chatty when I’m turned on.”

Katniss rolled her eyes.

“Sorry.” He cleared his throat. “Anything else?”

“I also want you to know that what happened last night…that’s not me, or something that I normally do. Ever.”

Peeta nodded. “I didn’t figure you for the type. And neither am I, if I’m being honest.”

Katniss pressed her lips together.

“So, may I ask–and I’m not fishing for a compliment here, but‒what was different about last night?” he asked.

“Well,” Katniss heaved a sigh. “I was in a crappy mood last night, a really, really crappy mood. I don’t want to get into it; it’s personal, so let’s just leave it at that.” She thinned her lips “I was upset; then there was the alcohol, and you were…” There. It was more than that, of course, but she wasn’t going to stoke his ego further, nor add to the inappropriateness of the situation by saying how attracted she was (still is) to him. Not like it would come as a surprise, given her enthusiasm last night. “Nice to me.”

Again, Peeta nodded. “I see. Well…” He raised his broad shoulders and paused as if he didn’t know what to say next. “I hope I made your night better.”

Katniss couldn’t help it; she snorted. “Um,” she picked at her nail, grinning slightly. “You did. You…definitely did.” She looked up then, the smile falling away. “But I meant it when I said we should be professional, so I think this should be the very last this topic is ever brought up.”

"Anything else?"

"No, I don’t think so."

“Okay, then, let me see if I have this straight. You are Ms. Everdeen or Principal Everdeen to me, and I am Mr. Mellark to you. We’ve never met before today, but we have a mutual respect for one another and a purely professional working relationship.”

“Right. Very good.”

“Well, I do have a very high IQ. It’s in my file, you know.”

Again, she rolled her eyes.

“I think we have an understanding.” Peeta reached out to shake her hand, and when she touched it, she felt that same bolt of electricity she felt last night. “And I promise to be completely respectful and professional from here on out.”

#JHsgf82 #mrspeetamellark #prompt 37 #Springtime Edition 2021 #submission

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echo-three-one · 3 years

Text

Good Day!

As I told earlier, I finished my Soap x Reader Fic and yeah here it is.

I suck at titles and that shows.

Midnight Coffee Rush

John MacTavish x Female Reader

Warnings : Smut. Read at your own Risk or whatever.

Cross-posting to AO3 later 😳

THUD!

You softly slam your head on the desk as you stare blankly at the blinking cursor on your laptop. An article is due next week and you haven't really started on anything yet. Your editor keeps on calling you earlier today on how she can't work on last minute submissions. You assured her that yours won't need that much editing and she trusts you with that, but still, a deadlines a deadline.

Scanning your empty apartment room for ideas, you decide it's best if you take this ordeal outside and look for open places to work on. Coincidentally, the local café "John's brew" happens to open for 24 hours starting today. You feel uneasy at the name of the shop but that won't stop you from your goals today.

After a chilly midnight walk across the streets of your city, you finally make it to the shop, it looks like it can compete with the local Starbucks as its outer layout gives off the same vibe.

You push open the glass doors and the bell chimes from above you, this made the barista at the counter turn his head and greet you with a friendly smile. "Welcome to John's Brew!"

You stand just across the counter as you look up to view what the store has to offer while the barista waits patiently for your order. You order some fancy named coffee, wanting to try out why it has a star next to it's name as the barista, who now you know goes by the name "Gary" based on his name tag, explains that it's their best selling and unique blend coffee. He then passionately tells you how the coffee you chose is created by the owner of the shop and judging by the tone of his voice, he's excited for you to try it for the first time.

"Thanks Gary, here's my card." you reach out for your card and he cheerfully accepts it.

"What name should this go by, Ms. L/N?" he asks readying his marker.

"Just Y/N." you say. Gary raises his eyebrows in confusion.

"Sorry, I'm sure I heard that name somewhere." he dismisses his thoughts and writes your name on the cup.

"We'll you're a barista, I'm sure you've heard a lot of names in your line of work." you jokingly reply. It made him laugh as he gives your card back and you make your way to the corner of the room.

The music is soothing and the ambience is more than enough to keep you going, you pull out your laptop as you start typing ideas for your article.

Gary took the liberty of delivering you your drink saying "You looked very focused" and "There isn't that much customers anyway" and you smiled at the service he's done. He stays for a while insisting that he wants to witness your initial reaction as soon as you taste the coffee. So you slowly blow off the heat and took your first sip.

Your eyebrows raised and your cheeks blushed as the warm beverage tickles your tastebuds a wave of nostalgia brings shivers down your spine.

***

"So, what do you think of this?" A shirtless man with a signature mohawk and scar on his left eye approaches you just as you get up of bed. You remember smiling at the view, his deep blue eyes pierce through yours as he excitedly offers a cup of coffee he claims to mix himself.

"Mmm! This tastes, well... something even I can't describe! It's good? delicious? heavenly maybe?" You giggle as he inches closer to you crawling up the bed and reaching on your face for a kiss, blindly reaching for the cup and putting in on the bedside table.

"Not even the words from your thesaurus can't describe?" He whispers as he pulls the kiss away, eyebrows wiggling. Your heart melts at the sight of him.

"I'll tell you the perfect word when I find it." You giggle as you reach for his face and pull him to yours, as he softly crashes his body on you, rolling around the bed.

***

"Maam?" Gary taps your shoulder and you immediately flinch and turn to him.

"I'm sorry." you laugh nervously.

"It felt like you had a good time going on with that drink. We're having a contest as to which word best describes it. If you want to submit your word, I'll leave this pen and sticky note on your table." he cheerfully explains as the door chimes, making him rush back to his counter.

Shit. You thought to yourself. Of course it had to taste the same, even the name of the shop checks out. Your heart starts to thump louder and louder as you put the pieces together, you convince yourself it's just the coffee, but then again the evidences never lie. John's Brew, that exact taste, no word yet to describe it.

You flinched as you turn to the heavy door slam to your left, just by the counter. A man, walks out of it wearing a very fit long sleeve tucked into business pants, you assume it's the manager. Then again, you see him scratching his head, which happens to have a rather unique haircut. A mohawk. Holy Shit.

***

'Congratulations Ms. Y/N L/N! You have been accepted on the writer program. Please report tomorrow for your orientation.'

The text read just as you wake up. Your face lit up in excitement as you squealed like a kid. Your life would change for the better.

A very wet John MacTavish popped out of the bathroom, his face was full of worry as he quickly wrapped himself with a towel.

"What's wrong?! Something out to get ya?" He asked, a bar of soap on is arms ready to throw to the intruder.

"I just got accepted!" you squealed excitedly at him, hugged him thight not minding how wet he was. He slowly wrapped his arms around you and you felt that you're the only one excited about this news.

"Congrats. But what about your life here? What about me?" he muttered, his facial expressions dropped.

"I'm sure we'll work it out? It isn't that far, right?"

"I'm sure we'll work it out"

"Not now John, I have articles due."

"I'm too exhausted for today, John"

"I'm sorry. I fell asleep."

***

The loud growl of your stomach shocked you back to reality. Come to think of it, it's already 2 in the morning and you're almost through with your article. A muffin won't be that much of a distraction. You turn to the counter and see John catering to a lady on a bright red dress. She probably came from a club and now trying to sober up with a coffee. You pretend to type on your keyboard but secretly view the event from the corner of your eye. They are laughing and he escorted her as she is walking tipsily to the sofa. They exchange some words you barely make out and can't help but feel rage bubbling inside you. But then again, you don't have the slightest audacity to do so. You slowly ignored him while focusing on your job. You left his messages on read and calls on voicemail. You feel guilt rushing through you. Out of impulsive emotions, you quickly decide to finish the article home as you grab your laptop and coffee and rush to the exit.

"Ma'am! You left your sticky note." John's voice echoes across the shop. This made the few notable customers look at the both of us in curiosity.

You slowly turn back to him leaning on the counter, his elbows resting on the counter looking at you, he knows what he's up to. You remember telling him to stop flexing his biceps in front of you in public. It's kind of an inside joke for the two of you and he seems to remember it all too well.

"Your word. For the contest." he points out to the bulletin board of sticky notes on the other side of the hall.

"I... can't think of anything yet..." you stammer as you exit the door, walking as fast as you can away from him.

"Y/N, wait!" he quickly grabs your arm. You almost expect that he'd do this even after all those times.

"John I-" you quicky turn to him, hot tears start forming on your eyes as he pulls you close to his warm embrace.

"Yeah. You've been very busy... I know." He mutters as you sniffle on his chest, smelling his musk that never changed even after all these months.

"Congratulations on your most recent award, you know. Article of the month, and the month before that and that one time you wrote about the wildlife in Africa..." he trails off while rubbing your back as more tears fell from your eyes. He'd been watching your career grow, even after all this time. It somehow feels you don't deserve him. And you believe you really don't.

Pulling away, you looked at him with a smile.

"I'm sorry..." you croak.

"Why are you sorry, Y/N? You met someone else out there?" he asks. Then again, you both didn't really have a proper conclusion to your relationship. You initially felt like you were slowly drifting away from each other as your careers grew, but here he is, having the same sparkle in his eyes as when you last saw each other.

"No... but, it's been very long and I have been ignoring you... breaking my promi-" He suddenly pulls you close and kisses your lips, you deny him at first but you slowly grip his arms and let him have access to your mouth.

Longing is the only feeling you both feel right now as you slowly kiss back and respond to his mouth. His kiss gives you assurance that even after all this time he yearns for you to come back, his assurance that you did what you had to do to get where you are now even at the cost of completely shutting him out. But of course you weren't, you also long for him every single day, but life has to keep going, and you believed that he'd found someone else after all those times. But this moment made you feel wrong about him, and it's now your chance to get things right between the two of you.

"You know, I always assumed you're still my girlfriend." he smirks. He is true though, there was neither a formal nor informal break up effort on both sides, just indifference due to many reasons.

"Well, I assumed you looked for someone else... and I'm to shy to ask how things have been..." you croak, trying not to cry again. You realize your stupidity once more, but he wipes off your tear with his thumb and lifts your chin up to look at him.

"You still owe me a word, you know." he jokes as he walks you back to the cafe, arm wrapped around your shoulder. As soon as you both enter the door, Gary greets his boss while mopping the floor.

"You were right boss, she is pretty!" The barista smiles and gives John a thumbs up to which he replies,

"Guess I'll be back in my office doing paperwork, Gary. You take charge here okay?"

"Yes, Captain!" he jokingly salutes and continues his work.

"You done with that article?" he asks, a tone of concern in his voice.

"Almost.." you reply shyly. You still can't digest everything that happened so far, but your heart keeps on thumping and your mind's been trying to scream something to you.

"You know, I could use some company while I do some paperwork..." the trails off, the tone in his voice shifted into something you felt excited about. Something along those words mixed with that accent sends flutters across your insides.

"If you'd want me to..." you reply as he opens his office door letting you in. It was a small office a sofa just beside the door, two chairs infront of a large office desk filled with scattered papers, ledgers and journals. He quickly folds his laptop and puts it in his bag as you take off your coat, admiring the view. Plaques, certificates and awards plaster across the walls, along with pictures of his staff calendar schedules and some other things scribbled across the whiteboard. He offers his hand and you give him your coat, only to be pinned to the door.

"God, I missed you so fucking much." He breathes as you stare at his cold blue eyes blazing with desire, you know full well where this is going and you have no objections. You wished for this to happen as soon as your plane touched the city.

Unable to form any words, you quickly pucker your lips, signaling him to move closer and kiss you. Now that you're both alone, his kisses felt much more intimate, needier and his tongue explored every possible area he could. You hear the door lock itself and his hand slowly caresses your ass through the tight jeans you're wearing, pressing himself so you could feel the tension growing beneath his slacks. You slowly slide your hand through it and earned yourself a chuckle from him, as he moves his lips below your ear and around your neck, hearing each smack of his lip and sniff of his nose.

You let out a soft moan as you feel overwhelmed on what he does to your body, you couldn't focus on what's going on, your hands rubbing his hard crotch, his hands softly caressing your ass or his mouth doing wonders around your neck. He continues to do this until your pants and whines become erratic and fast and stops just at the right time for you to catch your breath.

You open your eyes to him, who seems to be enjoying your reunion, a sexy smirk across his face. You let out a smile whist still panting, and he seems to like what he sees, letting a soft chuckle.

"I remember that look on you. You're up to something.." He recalls as you push him to the sofa to his side, straddling on his crotch as you unbutton his long sleeves.

He grunts as soon as he plops on the sofa and groans as soon as you slowly wiggle your ass on top of him. You could clearly see the building frustration in his face as well as in his jeans.

You quickly undone seven buttons as he quickly tosses it somewhere and viewed his muscular physique as you sit on him. He became hairier and you find it very sexy, trailing your hand down his body, all while staring at him as seductive as you can. He smiles at the gesture as you slowly unbutton your shirt, never breaking eye contact, until he can't resist anymore and got up from the sofa. He lifts you down and you stand on the floor as he works your way to slide off your jeans. He quickly buried his face on your pussy as soon as he sees it and devours it like a hungry wolf. He never dissappoints as the feeling made you shudder, grabbing onto what's left of his hair in excitement. This goes on up until you softly pull his head out and move to unbuckle his belt, sliding his slacks all the way down as his cock springs free as soon as you take his boxers off.

You stare at him as you slowly jerk your hand around his cock, his eyes almost in a trance, as you teasingly kiss the tip, which was slowly oozing of precum. He grabs your hair and tucks it behind your ear as you slowly swallow his cock, giving him a blowjob that you've always imagined of giving him when you meet again. You're tongue slowly swirling around his length, feeling every vein and skin around it. You countinued mixing it up with your hand and mouth until he groans in anticipation and pulls you out of him.

He slowly gets up and shoves all his paperwork away from his desk and carries you to it, spreading your legs as he slowly pushes his tip on your opening.

You whimper at the first entrance, it felt different than usual, maybe because it's been quite a while since you to have done it, but that didn't stop the both of you from continuing. His eyes mesmerize you as he slowly picks up his rhythm, you can see his chest muscles bounce as he thrusts himself deep in you. He slowly rubs the upper area of your pussy as he thrusts, giving you a sensation that makes you wanna scream in pleasure. But given the circumstances, you only let out small gasps and whimpers. However, his grunts and moans are also getting louder, so you decide to let loose and follow his volume.

"Fuck." You whimper as he continues his fast pace as evidenced by the loud slapping noises. He quickly flips you to the desk and continues to fuck you from behind. Each thrust felt like the desk is inching closer to the wall, you didn't protest as you loved the sensation, how your walls clench as his warm cock slides in and out of you. You feel his motions change and you know full well what that means, you moan softly signaling him thay you're also almost there as he makes his final thrusts and shoots his warm load inside you, feeling the rush of his cum drip as he pulls his cock out.

He pulls you up and reaches for a kiss, a long yet intimate one as you both use the language of kiss to assure that you'll still be the same way no matter how distant it may be.

"See you after my shift?" he murmurs as he puts on his clothes, now all wrinkly and messy.

"Yes." you smile reaching for another kiss.

After preparing to go home, you quickly grab a pen and wrote the word you describe the drink, plaster it on the board and make your way out of the café.

#horRAYfic #codmw #Soap x Reader #john soap mactavish

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kumoriyami-xiuzhen · 3 years

Text

Hakuoki SSL Store Bonus Drama CD 《Their Youth~ Student Council Helper Episode～》

....Why are people subscribing to me on youtube? like i get that people subscribe for the otome stuff i translate and subtitle (which i only really do so that i can have a copy of it for myself), but i don’t really think that people should be subscribing if they expect more Gokushufudou content since I don’t have anything else that I can or want to translate for that series....

anyway, this is my translation of the 薄桜鬼SSL -sweet school life- いまじんWEBショップ特典ドラマCD「彼らの青春～生徒会助っ人編～」 drama. I was only able to obtain the audio for this from a certain site that doesn’t allow for sharing... so I am unable to put anything else out for this... unless someone shares the audio and an image with the cd and their username or w/e on it (alternatively, if it shows up on bilibili or something then i’ll be able to use that), though I will edit it when i make my own subtitles for this. lol. sorry but not sorry?

anyway, enjoy~ image used is from suruga-ya.

Hakuoki SSL Store Bonus Drama CD 《Their Youth~ Student Council Helper Episode～》

Translation by KumoriYami

Yamzaki: The private school, Hakuo Gakuen. The school we attend, based on the school principal, Kondou-sensei's, intentions, we adhere to his educational policy of "becoming warriors with indomitable spirit", not just while learning and when participating in club activities, but while also working harder for the community, or so it should be.... but there are always exceptions to everything in the world.

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Hakuoki SSL Store Bonus Drama CD 《Their Youth~ Student Council Helper Episode～》

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(knocks)

Yamazaki: Excuse me, is Hijikata-sensei here?

Hijilata: Oh? It's Yamazaki. What is it?

Yamazaki: Sanan-sensei asked me to bring these materials over to you.

Hijikata: So it was like that. Thanks. By the way, Yamazaki....... Do you have a moment right now?

Yamazaki. yes. I'm not doing anything right now.

Hijikata: In that case, sorry...... can you go to the student council to do something? Today Amagiri and Shiranui both happened to take the take the day off today, and there apparently is insufficient manpower on hand.

Yamazaki: The student council.......is it......?

Hijikata: Uh, the average person would react like that... I've already asked several people before asking you, and as soon as they heard "student council," they immediately ran away.

Yamazaki: I can sympathize with those students. because I am not really good at dealing with the student council president.

Hijikata: When it comes to that guy, I believe that if you searched the entire world, that you wouldn't find many people good at dealing with him. Nothing can be done though, I'll go help this time...

Yamazaki: Wha...!? How can Hijikata-sensei personally attend to this matter! In that case, I'll go help the student council!

Hijikata: Can you? To be frank, this is a chore.

Yamazaki: A gentleman's word is his bond!

Hijikata: Then I'll leave it to you.... But if something goes wrong, you need to immediately report to me.

Yamazaki: Yes! I'll be going to the student council room now!

(Yamazaki leaves)

Hijikata; Yamazaki is too straightforward... I hope he doesn't overdo it...

(student council room)

Yamazaki: (knocks on door) Excuse me. I'm the second year, Yamazaki. Hijikata-sensei entrusted me to help you.

Kazama: By Hijikata? Che, he's meddling into other people's business/can't mind his own business. He most likely coaxed you into helping, but whatever the case, if you think you can help, I will provide you this opportunity.

Yamazaki: (Obviously he's in the position of receiving a favour, but why he so overbearing/arrogant?!)

Kazama: Did you say something?

Yamazaki: I didn't say anything! Returning to the topic/Anyway, what can I help you with?

Kazama: here, put these clothes on first.

Yamazaki:...What's with this collar and Japanese-style school uniform?! Our school's official uniform is a suit/Western-style clothes.

Kazama: This uniform is of the same style as Amagiri's uniform. Although it's only temporary, you'll need it to wear this is you are to complete the student council's work [gave up rewording all of this].

Yamazaki: Even so! Modifying the uniform goes against the school rules...

Kazama: Hey! As student council president, I am saying that there are no problems! I am the school rules!

Yamazaki: (How did such a person become the Student Council president?)

Kazama: Good, now that you understand, hurry up and change clothes in the dressing room, then get to work.

Yamazaki: ( No other choice but to resign myself.... [tl uses an idiom that can mean "submit to hte will of the heavens," "resign (oneself to fate)," or to "leave it to luck"]) Understood!

(door opens)

Hijikata: Oi, Kazama! you there?

Kazama: It turns out it was Hijikata. What brings you here? If you want to leave please turn right and head straight.

Hijikata: Someone just came in, why are you already trying to chase them away! I was just worried about Yamazaki, so I came to check on him.

Kazama: Yes. Then if you're done, hurry up and leave.

Hijikata: You bastard.... Anyway, where is Yamazaki?! I don't see him...

(door opens)

Yamazaki: Kazama-senpai, excuse me. I've finished changing clothes...

Hijikata:……Yamazaki?!

Kazama: Hrm. As expected, people rely on clothes [clothes do make the man? or clothes bring out a person? can't exactly think of an equivalent right now tho]. Such an appearance is barely passable.

Hijikata: Wait a moment! What's with that strange uniform?!

Kazama: This is a custom-made uniform made for the student council. Since he's helping the student council, isn't it common sense to dress like this?

Hijikata: What common sense! That clearly violates the school rules...

Yamzaki: It's fine, Hijikata-sensei...

Hijikata: Nn?

Yamazaki: I'll think of this as a a work uniform! Anyway, Kazama-senpai, about the content of that work...

Kazama: Che, don't tell me that you aren't able to do unless you receive orders from me? It's such a waste that you are unable to understand your superior's mind, and require someone to explain everything to you so that you can act.

Yamazaki:...!!

Hijikata: I'm afraid that if you searched the entire world, the only person who would be able to understand your mind, would be Amagiri?!

Kazama: No choice then. I shall mercifully/gracefully provide instructions to those that are stupid. There will be a meeting to pay for club activities/budget meeting for all of the clubs tomorrow. However, only a handful of reports have been submitted, and what has been isn't sufficient to be used as materials/ a reference to approve of the clubs' expenses. In other words, you should go investigate for me to see if all of the club activities are actually being held.

Yamazaki: Understood! Which clubs [tl is for "department] do I need to investigate?

Kazama: Needless to say, it's all the clubs within Hakuo Gakuen. The deadline is today.

Hijikata: Don't be so forceful [ridiculous!]!! Have you even thought about how many clubs there are at this school?!

Kazama: Amagiri and Shiranui would complete this within an hour, which this trivial matter cannot be considered a problem. If this can't be done, I won't force it. This only proves to me that you do not have a good eye for talent from the help you recommended to me, Hijikata [gave up rewording after 8 times].

Yamazaki:...I understand. I will certainly be able to investigate all of the clubs today!

Kazama: When the moment comes, don't go back on your word. This is a list of all the clubs at Hakuo Gakuen.

Yamazaki: The total number of clubs at Hakuo Gakuen is... 108?!

----------

(footsteps)

HIjikata: Ah... it's been a while since Yamazaki darted out of the student council room... Is he really okay? I hope he didn't get involved in anything strange...

Yamazaki: L-Let go of me! I, I hate this sort of thing!!

Hijikata: Nn?

Yamazaki: Even if you say that you can't understand the specifics of this club without personally trying it, I don't want to do this...!!! Let go of me!!!

Hijikata; That voice just now.... Yamazaki? (runs over) Oi! Yamazaki!

---------

(bouncing sound [haven't listened to this drama in a while so this might not be accurate, tho the tl does say bouncing])

???: Ah....... Hijikata-sensei......

Hijikata: Oi! What's with this huge stuffed animal?!

Yamazaki: It's me! Yamazaki!

Hijikata: A-ah..... nn, nn.... I, I can hear your voice..... but, but what I hear doesn't sound like the Yamazaki I recognize...!

Yamazaki: That's because of this [i think?]! I am the genuine Yamazaki! I'm just wearing this costume! Ah... sorry to trouble you, but can you please help me pull the back zipper down?

Hijikata: Ye-Yeah...

Yamazaki: Hah... finally escaped from that...!

Hijikata: You... why were you dressed like that?!

Yamazaki: Because.... when I went to the costume club, their members said they just finished these clothes, and that I had to try it on....

Hijikata:....Those animal overalls are part of a costume?

Yamazaki: No matter what happens, I never want to come back to the costume club!! But... normally I wouldn't have such a chance, and after seeing it with my own eyes, I now know that there are many clubs at our school.

Hijikata: That's because when Kondou-san was thinking about club establishment, he said to respect the individuality of the students. As long as the activities' content and purpose are clearly stated, provided that they aren't bad, and if the number of club members reaches a certain level, any club can be established.

Yamazaki: I think, by using the costume club as an example, there are actually quite a lot of informal clubs...

Hijikata: It seems that it will be necessary to re-examine those clubs in the future.... Anyway, which club are you going to next?

Yamazaki: The mountaineering club. Judging from the club's name, the content of the activities should be straightforward. To be honest, I feel relieved.

Hijikata: No, that club...

Yamazaki: Then, I'll be going there as fast as I can. I'll be taking my leave first!

(Yamazaki leaves)

Hijikata: Eh... I remember they were supposed to go climbing today.... Going back to their activities, isn't mountaineering difficult [tl for mountaineering can be interpreted as "climbing," "to climb a mountain," and "mountaineering."]?!

------------------

Yamazaki: (All sorts of problems kept on occurring after that during the inspection. The drama club was infected with an influenza virus [no idea how else to reword that right now], and all of their members were sick so I was unable to investigate their activities in detail; I wasted time at the kendo club because of Okita-kun's pranks; the mime club didn't speak during their activities, which resulted in even the most basic communication not being achievable... Will it really be possible for me to inspect all of the clubs today?)

-------------

(knocking)

Hijikata: Oi, Kazama! I'm coming in.

Kazama: Hijikata. It's really rude for someone to enter without being given my permission.

Hijikata: Didn't I knock and say greetings in advance? It's almost the end of the school day, is Yamazaki back yet?

Kazama: Not yet. I thought he was a bit capable, but I apparently underestimated him.

Hijikata: I believe in him. Although he has a tendency to overdo things and often fails to get the key points, once he makes up his mind, he will surely be able to complete any task.

Kazama: Hrm~ that's the same as someone else/you're two peas in a pod. That being the case, let's bet.

Hijikata: I'm not interested in betting with students. But if we were betting, I'd bet that Yamazaki will be able to accomplish his task.

Kazama: Then I will bet that he did everything in vain/will be useless.

HIjikata: I won't feel sorry for you if you lose.

Kazama: Hmph. Don't steal my words. Look at the time, the school bell will be ringing soon.

(Running then a door opens)

Yamazaki: (gasping) Inspections on the club activities... it's all done.... hah....

Hijikata: That's great! Well done, Yamazaki!

Kazama: Che......

Yamazaki: Hu..... Thank..... you..... (collapses)

Hijikata: Oi oi!! Are you okay?!

Yamazaki: I..... I'm..... fine......

Kazama: Really, I'm blaming you for messing up all of the materials.... Nn?

Hijikata: What are those documents?

Kazama: They seem to be reports on the club activities.

Hijikata: Ha?! Didn't Yamazaki write the reports for that?!

Kazama: Nn. These are all...

Hijiikata:....Oi! That can't be....!!

Kazama: It looks like Amagiri wrote yesterday. But he actually tossed them into the piles of documents of here, which resulted in no one knowing that he had written such reports.

Yamazaki: What.....!!

Hijikata: That......!!

Kazama: Hmph. It looks like I won, Hijikata. All his efforts turned out to be worthless.

Yamazaki: Ho-How is that possible...!!

Hijikata: You're not feeling even the slightest bit guilty, are you even even speaking as a human?! This is all your student council's fault!!

Kazama: Hmph. Go and complain to Amagiri.

Hijikata: You need to take responsibility for the lack of supervision! Besides, what the hell were you doing when Yamazaki was running around everywhere complete that task?! If you were doing a good job, you should have been able to notice this!!

Kazama: Of course I'm working. My job is to complete the ambitious project called "Writing down all of My Wife's 100's Strengths/Virtues/Good Qualities"! These forms took me a week to complete and it is a magnificent written masterpiece!

Hijikata: You bastard... you were doing something this stupid while Yamazaki was struggling!

Kazama: What are you barking about? What's more important than this?

Yamazaki: I tore it up to show you————!! [im guessing this is more "i pushed myself" or "I'm going to tear that up." probably the latter]

Kazama: Nn? What do you think? Do you want to look at it? Although your efforts were futile, I will mercifully/graciously acknowledge your actions. Alright, I'll lett you look. But you have have to treat it carefully.

Yamazaki: I'm blaming this for what happened—!!! (tears up Kazama's documents)

Kazama: Stop that! My week of hard work! Hi-Hijikata! Why are you grabbing me?!

Hijikata: You reap what you sow! Obediently accept reality!!

Kazama: My priceless masterpiece———!!!

~END~

got ME:LE working last weekend... and omg it’s like a walk down memory lane lol. finished the first game though im going to have to do an insanity playthrough for the achievement later.

#hakuoki #hakuouki #hakuoki ssl #hakuoki drama cd #hakuoki drama translation #Yamazaki Susumu #Hijikata Toshizou #Kazama Chikage

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sugarcomatosed · 3 years

Note

i love your stories so much!! and was wondering if you can give some writing tips perhaps? 🥺👉🏻👈🏻

Breaking this up into sections for you + putting it under a cut cause I went overboard. 😅

General Writing Tips

These work for both academic and creative writing.

Make an outline.

It doesn't have to be a formal one, but having at least a general idea of the scenes you want to include is helpful. If I know my fic is going to be a longer one (like Don't Hesitate was and my current WIP is), I break down the larger story beats i want to hit on a piece of paper or my iPad.

It's good to know what you're planning to do, in a any piece I usually have a single specific scene I want to do and depending on what it is, I might either just do the scene I want to or turn into something longer.

Draft, draft, draft.

I cannot stress the importance of going through and reviewing your work. This is a big part of any sort of writing.

Your first idea isn't always your best idea. As you work on a piece you might find your original idea is holding you back, focus shifts! Don't be afraid to let your work change as you go. It's not always easy to let go of your original idea but if you find it's not working, you have to let it change. Sections will need to be rewritten, things have to be readjusted to fit with later sections. Reread for clarity while you're drafting and look to see if this makes sense to you, or reads well to you. If you can't follow it and you wrote it, chances are your reader can't either. Did you use the same phrase again and again? Find and search it on your doc to double check.

Sometimes you have to cut things you really like because they just don't contribute to the fic anymore. Save those bits and use them somewhere else!In a lot of my longer pieces I will write a paragraph, realize that's not where it should go and cut/paste it into another part of the doc because the pacing/scene doesn't make sense where I had it originally, but it works somewhere else.

If you're stuck, skip around, come back and then stitch the bits you have written together.

Don't Focus on a Word Count

This might be controversial, but I'm of the opinion just because something is longer does not make it better. Some works are short, and that's okay! I very rarely try to aim for a specific count of words unless it's for a prompt exchange or a personal challenge. I write till I feel the piece is done. Some stories require more words, some require less.

Don't Hesitate is a great example of this again, because all I wanted to do was a bittersweet first kiss fic, but jumping write into the kiss wouldn't get the full effect I wanted. Meanwhile, with Old Habits all I wanted to do was write dumb comedic kisses, we didn't need a 2k preamble.

Get Someone You Trust to Edit

My go to editor for the past six years or so is one of my good friends. She has edited everything from college papers to my fics for me before I post them to read for clarity, find any funky phrases or misspelled words I missed, and I do the same for her when she asks! A fresh set of eyes makes a world of a difference. Find someone to trade fics with or ask a friend! They might have good suggestions you never thought of, or be able to tell what you were going for when you don't even know yourself.

I also rely on my friends a lot to brainstorm and talk my ideas out before I start because it helps me think and figure out what I need. It's super common for me to text someone and say "im gonna spitball at you, that okay?" and then spend twenty minutes chatting through my ideas.

Have Reference Material

For my 13sar fics, I regularly go back and review/screenshot videos of the dialogue to make sure I am staying consistent with story events, character nuance and small details. You don't have to go crazy, but it is really helpful to have your source material to go back to and check yourself against. In non creative writing I always had a pile of papers highlighted with my own notes on the margins.

Take Breaks/Pace Yourself

Know your own limits, and if you are working and working on something and it's not coming out leave it alone and come back to it. I'm really bad at this personally because when I get an idea in my head I want to see it through but sometimes you gotta step back! It's not healthy to keep working on things and overwork yourself. Stretch, get up go for a walk.

Write What You Want to Write

Don't focus on what people want to read. Focus on what you like. Find a topic, a scene, anything that you are passionate about and the rest will follow. The only time I write fic for other people is when I am writing for a friend. Even prompt requests I only take open ended ones, if I am not interested in writing it it's not gonna happen. I know it's super hard and I get really anxious sometimes about letting people down now, or worrying people won't like something but then I step back and remind myself this is a hobby and I'm doing it for fun.

Play to Your Strengths

You shouldn't try to write like me, you should try to write like yourself. Find what skills you have and use them to your advantage!

I can't give you a step by step list to write like me, because nobody in the world has my background! We're all unique. Everything I've listed so far I know because I'm not a beginner anymore! I'm in my twenties and have come from a strong academic writing background.

I took on an intensive course load in high school, and then went onto college for a sociology degree. I very rarely had test based finals and at the end of each semester would have five 10-15 page papers to submit. Straight up some of my skills come from having read and studied the works of anthropologist Clifford Geertz. I am not saying you should read anthropology/sociology texts. Unless you like that sort of thing lol

I also have 6+ years of theater experience (acting & directing), I use this all the time for my writing. When I think about a scene, I think about how I would work through it as an actor, how the character would move, and how would things read to an audience. The GOTE ("Goal, Obstacle, Tactics, and Expectation") method of acting by Robert Cohen is really useful hear if you want a more technical breakdown of what I mean by that.

This leads to a lot of what we called "business" in acting, doing small tiny things while you talk or move around on stage to give the sense you're a real human. I don't have to think or try on these sort of things because they're in my skill set already!

Things I do Personally

As in, these are not transferable skills this is just the stuff I do while working on projects.

Find a Vibe™️

I come into any fic with usually a goal I want to hit, a line of dialogue or something I want to capture. Just like, the general idea of a feeling a song even if the lyrics don't match up. Make a mood-board, a playlist, just find something you wanna do. It's less about the actual words on the page and what you're aiming to do.

Look to things that inspire you

Don't Hesitate got written because I wanted to write a fic that captured the same vibe as a scene in Macross Frontier, where two characters have a bittersweet kiss before the final battle and that scene still has me fucked up six years after watching it.

My current WIP is doing the same thing but with the song All I've Ever Known from Hadestown. Two characters working through loneliness, the sudden feeling of falling in love and the frustration that feeling can bring on sometime.

I don't plagiarize them word for word, but these are scenes that inspire me! I also patchwork quilt ideas together. Using Don't Hesitate again, I also ended up pulling from a bunch of shoujo anime, Toradora, Sailor Moon, Yona of the Dawn, Princess Tutu...specific scenes I enjoy to blend and create something new.

Goof Off While You Write

I name my documents stupid things, I write dumb placeholder dialogue or vague sentiments like "insert better word here", I make memes when I'm struggling and roast myself and my predictable tastes.

I spent twenty minutes texting a friend Juro's name with different letters spelt out and then the "fuck your chickenstrips" vine saying it was Juro during destruction. Just have fun with it!

Listen to J-POP On Loop for Hours at a Time

i am not kidding I do this all the time. Perfume, AKB48, anime idol osts, Sailor Moon's OPs/ED, vocaloid songs. I like technopop and Japanese is good because it usually doesn't distract my brain since I only know random phrases, but still know what the meaning og the song is.

I love music, it helps me vibe out.

Thank you so much for enjoying my work ;o;

I hope this is useful to you in some way! I'm so sorry it's so long winded but I am overly thorough and love to teach people ;w;

#sugar speaks #sugar writes #okay to reblog

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reaperlight · 3 years

Note

Do you have any lawryght headcanons?

@greenpactbosmer Thanks for the ask!

Headcanons... ooh boy, well...

(Oh and I saw you had another ask there too but I think I may have misunderstood the prompt/what was being asked? In any case I should probablt edit the paragraphs of brain vomit that came out of that but until then here's more paragraphs of brain vomit, uh... sorry 😔)

Anyway...

Headcanons for lawryght can vary greatly from fic verse to fic verse but let's see curtent HC generally...

These three getting together in a canon-like universe...

The RyukxLight will either be established relationship or at the very least Ryuk is more helpful to Light and his plans than in canon to the point Light feels secure enough in his position so he can give L a chance and not feel like he has to kill him immediately so a relationship could actually develop between Light and L beyond "oh no, he's hot... I still have to kill him." (Also expect Light to be even more arrogant and insufferable because he thinks he's immortal and has the power of deathgod and anime on his side.)

Ryuk and Light getting together: And then they were roommates (oh my they were roommates) and there was only one bed--Shinigami don't really need to sleep but Light doesn't know that and the bed is comfy so Ryuk doesn't fell the need to tell him.

They are both extremely bored. Ryuk is absolutely fascinated with this human--he may not be on Light's side (or so he claims) but the entertainment value is beyond his wildest dreams. He is smitten, even if he doesn't admit it. If Light is curious about something hell try at least once... Or Light may be trying to get free Shinigami eyes out of him and they catch feelings.

L enters the picture... Ryuk doesn't mind sharing 1. Hes immortal and bored and... two interesting humans! This is so cool! 2. Shinigami don't have the same ideas about monogamy. 3. Headcanons about Ryuk vary depending on if rule 36 valid up to this point in the ficverse. (I.e. Chad!Ryuk vs. Virgin!Ryuk)

L and Ryuk--L is very disturbed to learn that his case actually has a supernatural component and is more leery of Ryuk than of Light at first. This lasts for all of the moment it takes to remember that Light is Kira and Ryuk is afraid of tennis balls.

After 5 minutes of soul searching, L can admit to himself he has a thing for monsters--both internal and external.

Assuming they are all alive and this takes place in early canon this shippable version of L is probably more interested in having fun then bringing Kira to justice. Either that or he has become disillusioned with the status quo or hurt and and wants revenge to the point that he's willing to entertain Light's way of doing things.

If its post series, maybe Ryuk is bored so goes looking for Light in Mu and ends up pulling both Light and L out of Mu because their souls are intertwined and once restored as humans or Shinigami or something shippable in the afterlife then it's just learning to rely on each other as they forge a new arrangement in the Shinigami realm.

Top/bottom it's not assigned seating Regardless of bedroom positions or what arrangement they have out of the bedroom Light is the dom/one in charge of this arrangement in bed... but subs L and Ryuk unionize and gang up on him. Light is a dom in bed but not always a top. L as a sub but not always bottom. Ryuk as a service top or power bottom. Ryuk doesn't really feel pain like humans do and will go with whatever he and his partners find interesting.

Contrary to rumor Light and L aren't always fighting over who gets to top. Fighting is for chess matches, clashes of ideology, and the last chocolate eclaire--not the bedroom. Consent, safe words, and mutual respect are all very important.

(The safe word is vegetables)

Light is very dom. In every relationship before or since. Except there's Ryuk, looming over him. Making him feel kinda excited and confused and then theres that stupid sexy voice of his... But ryuk is the exception. (But he might let L fuck him if he asks nicely and submits to Kira's reign.)

When they sleep together Ryuk likes to keep them both wrapped in his wings. He likes being the little spoon sometimes though...

L gets Ryuk addicted to apple desserts.

Light frequently ends up cleaning up after the other two. Ryuk helps when he remembers but typically L is a brat.

Light: How can you stand to live like this?

Ryuk: I was formed in a dustbowl.

Light: Yes, it shows.

L [throwing candy wrappers on the ground]: Why are you doing that, that's what Watari is for?

Others who might potentially join the polycule under the right set of circumstances: B, Mikami, Aiber, Matsuda...

Some very noncanon AU ideas...

Superhero aus (current wips)

Winning and ruling the world(s) au (current wips)

Light gets in trouble (of either a mundane or supernatural variety) and Ryuk goes to L to ask for his help because he's the only human he can think of who would be clever enough to help Light and because of supernatural restrictions Ryuk can't save Light by himself. L is annoyed to have his fun ruined by having it confirmed that Light is Kira in this way, pissed that Light could get himself into a situation like this, and also pissed at himself that Ryuk doesn't even need to threaten him to want to risk everything to save him. After they save Light, L decides there's no point in continuing the kira case because it no longer interests him. He returns INTERPOLs money and after Light recovers from his ordeal the three go on vacation looking for something interesting but less hazardous than their previous ordeal. L becomes fascinated with the supernatural and wants to go ghost and cryptid hunting, seeking out ancient mysteries and Ryuk has plenty of leads in that. Light is still more interested in becoming god of the new world but "fine, if you guys insist..." (he doesn't want to admit he's having fun too). They drive around in L's pink crepe van huntjng ghosts, solving mysteries. Light occasionally writes the names of murderous jerks and people who are assholes to L thst they meet along the way while Ryuk laughs and L scowls in a mildly disapproving way but never really discourages him.

Au inverting the dynamics so its established relationship of lawlight first and then Ryuk joins the polycule: AU where Light and L are the same age and are childhood friends and when Light finds the Death Note they become Kira together. Ryuk is fascinated by them both and slowburn they realize their feelings for each other.

Or... Human!Ryuk and mundane college AU Ryuk is in a metal band and is probably studying art and helps rival law students Ligtt and L to chill... at least until Ryuk gets in trouble for drug possession and then Light and L compete to be his better defense counsel.

Monster AU werewolf or vampire au that's canon adjacent--Ryuk bites Light, Light goes on to monster better than Ryuk does then Light bites L, the monster hunter who falls for him...

7. Haunted house au

8. The quarantine au--Light is annoyed because now killing as Kira feels rather pointless. L is annoyed because this is boring. Ryuk is having a blast because they're playing with him a whole lot more. If L and Light doesn't just use the L screen, Ryuk is always in the background, having floating, juggling apples photobomb the zoom calls.

And suddenly Ryuk is important.

Ryuk runs errand for them because he has no danger of catching the plague. They play video games, watch movies, bitch at each other, and get into pointless arguments over stupid things.

Also L makes them custom masks modeled after Ryuk's fangs just because.

Other ideas:

Wammys house and lawryght

Option 1: Wammy's house tooth rotting fluff, adopting all the orphans

Option 2: Wammy's house evil, B was right. It's really just about being raised as a weapon. It's like the stormtrooper program for genius orphans that may not have actually been orphans before the institute took an interest in them.

Option 3: Wammy's house complicated. The institute really is trying to do better, is the best place for the kids and while not perfect its closest thing to home/family they have.

Lawryght and Morality

These 3 can be awful enablers of each other's worst qualities. Then again...

Light: Huh, Ryuk thinks we're going too far. Maybe we should rethink this.

L [already has the prisoner tied up and being forced to listen to polka music on repeat]: But where's the fun in that?

Finding a home together

With Kira and a Shinigami as his boyfriend L feels secure enough to do more normal things he's been denied all his life.

With Ryuks help, Light finds the names of all of L's major enemies and gets to writing in the Death Note.

Light: Be mad if you want. I'm not sorry.

L tries to be mad, and fails. He can't help but feel relieved that they're gone.

He might even entertain the thought of having a permanent address.

He still enjoys traveling though.

Also L gets a kitten

The cat loves chasing Ryuk's feathers.

The cat likes Light's lap the best because Light went out of his way not to look at the cat.

....

Ah, that was probably way too long. But thanks for letting me ramble! 😆

#death note #lawryght #detectivedeathgods #light yagami #ryuk #l lawliet #headcanons #headcanon #fanfic #fanfiction #comedy #crack fic #dn crack #crack treated seriously #lawlight #ryght #terraito #deathgods #death note au

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kinglazrus · 4 years

Text

Love Me, Don’t Hug Me

Phic phight 2020

Submitted by @sailor-toni: Danny hates being touched. Paulina loves to show her affections. How will the two of them make this relationship work.

Summary: When it comes to Danny Fenton, Paulina is sure about three things: he's almost always injured, he's pretty damn mysterious for a loser, and he has this annoying habit of getting stuck in Paulina's mind. Oh, and she just might, maybe, possibly have a crush on him.

Edit: I’ve been informed this phic is too powerful for tumblr and keeps crashing the app. Here are the links to [FFN] and [AO3]

Word count: 23499

Paulina was used to boys she barely knew coming up to her and asking her out. At first, she enjoyed the attention. Constantly being told how pretty she was, getting gifts, and trinkets, and praises showered upon her. Everyone said she must have liked it, so she did.

Sometimes, it really was nice, when the boys were sincere. She teased them, and smiled at them, and led them along like lost puppies. They made her feel good.

The other boys didn't. Every day, the came to her. At lunch, at the mall, on her way home from school. They pulled her out of conversations, took her away from her friends, distracted her from whatever she actually cared about. She got everything from arrogant smirks to smarmy grins, masks of undeserved bravado. She didn't give them an inch, saying no every time.

But they were persistent. They pestered and prodded, pestering her with pick-up lines and pet names, as if all they had to do was say pretty one more time and she would finally change her mind. She still said no, and their sweet words would turn bitter.

"Fine, bitch," they would hiss, their adoring gazes turning to seething glares.

Paulina saw no difference between either stare. Whether it was full of love or hate, any unwanted gaze made her skin crawl. She knew, unabashedly, that she was pretty. Being pretty made her feel good. But their stares made her feel ugly.

Most boys gave up after the second no. Most.

Paulina stared resolutely ahead as the senior leaned against the table, chin in his hand, giving her a flirtatious grin. Usually, only boys in her grade or the next grade up asked her out. Having a senior's attention made her feel strange. Flattered, but also uncomfortable. The fact that he wouldn't take the hint set her on edge.

"Come on, babe, just give me a chance," he said, sliding onto the bench next to her.

Paulina shuffled down, closer to Star.

"Just say yes to the guy and he'll leave." Dash didn't even look up. He and Kwan were too busy flicking a piece of pizza crust back and forth, trying to break through each other's defence.

Contrary to Dash, Kwan's eyes lifted every few seconds in a nervous glance before dipping back down. Every time he looked up, Paulina thought he was going to say something. Every time he didn't, she felt like crying, or hitting him. She wasn't sure which.

"I'm sorry, I don't like older guys," Paulina said. She refused to let her voice shake, and hated that she needed to steady it at all. This should have been no different from any other boy she had to brush off this year, but he just wouldn't give up.

"Oh, yeah? You don't really know until you try."

Dash's words echoed in Paulina's head. Maybe he was right. If she said yes, the senior would go away. How bad could one date be? He was eighteen. He should know how to treat a girl. He was practically an adult, which meant he must be right. Right?

The senior's hand slid off the table, inching toward Paulina's thigh.

Before he could touch her, Star slipped an arm around Paulina's waist and pulled her back. Leaning too far over, the senior fell forward with a yelp, palm smacking against the floor as he tried to catch himself. A scruffy shoe immediately came down on his fingers.

Paulina blinked at the familiar red sneaker. Looking up, she found Fenton, scrawny, limp Fenton, standing on the senior's hand with a pissed off expression that looked so foreign on his face, but somehow fit it so well.

"Hey, that's not cool. She said no," Danny said. The senior jerked, trying to pull his hand out from under Danny's foot, but Danny didn't budge.

"What the hell. Get off me, man," the senior said. "This ain't your problem."

"You're making it my problem," Danny said. At the same time, Paulina shouted, "It is his problem!"

Both boys glanced at her, equally confused. Danny looked bewildered, like he hadn't expected to be addressed at all. The senior's eyes jumped between Paulina and Danny, uncertainty and then understanding filling his gaze.

"I can't go out with you because I have a date with Danny." Paulina grabbed Danny's hand and yanked him close, dragging him off the senior's hand. Danny stiffened, but Paulina ignored it in favour of making sweet eyes at him. "Isn't that right?"

"Uh... yes?" Danny said. Paulina nodded at him. "Yeah! Yeah. It's not cool to steal someone else's girl." He grimaced at his own words, shooting Paulina an apologetic glance.

She shrugged. She didn't like it when guys talked about girls like they owned them, but she would forgive Danny for this one slight.

"Okay, geez. You didn't have to make such a big deal about it." The senior stood, rubbing his sore fingers, and left without much fuss after that. Although he did shoot Paulina one last predatory look.

Paulina did her best to brush it off. The thought of his eyes on her made her feel gross. As soon as she got home, she was going to take a long shower. Remembering she still had Danny's wrist in her hand, she let go, wincing at the fading imprints her fingers left behind. She hadn't realized she grabbed him that hard.

"Sit down, Fenton," Star said.

Danny started. That startled look, like he didn't expect anyone to talk to him, crossed his face again. "What?"

"Sit. Down." Taking her arm from Paulina's waist, Star lightly smacked Danny's back and motioned to the now empty space on the bench.

Paulina frowned at Star, raising her eyebrows in a silent question. Star ignored her, giving Danny another insistent slap. He glanced over his shoulder, back toward his friends, shrugged helplessly, and sat down.

"Why am I still here?" he asked.

"Because that creep didn't leave the cafeteria." Star jerked her chin towards the senior, who was taking his seat a few tables down from them. "If you leave, he might figure out Paulie was lying, and come back. This is a one-time deal, got it?"

Danny nodded. "Got it."

"You okay, Paulie?"

Self-conscious, Paulina wrapped her arms around her exposed midriff. After a moment, she nodded, squeezing Star's hand. "Yeah, I'm okay. It's not like it's a first time that's happened." She waved dismissively.

"Paulina..." Kwan wrung his hands, worrying his lip. "I'm sorry. That guy, Keith, he's a friend of my brother's. And I've known him since I was little, you know? He's not a bad guy. But I should have said something."

Paulina's anger toward him waned. "Yeah, I get it. It's still not okay, though."

Dash scoffed and leaned forward. "You guys are being stupid. You should have just said yes. Probably broke his heart or something."

Danny sneered, rising to meet Dash in the middle of the table. "You know that from experience?"

"Shut up, Fenton."

"Exactly how many times did you ask my sister out even though she kept saying no?" Danny started counting off on his fingers. "Let's see, the football game, homecoming, the winter formal, yesterday."

Dash grabbed Danny's shirt and got up in his face. "What do you care, dweeb?"

"I care because you're creeping on my sister." Danny's hand hovered over Dash's wrist.

"Let it go, Dash," Paulina snapped, smacking the boys' hands. "You look like idiots."

Dash glared at her, but listened, dropping Danny's collar and sitting back with a huff. In an instant, Danny seemed to lose whatever boldness made him stand up to Dash, and he laughed nervously. Fixing his collar, he leaned back.

Paulina gave him an appraising look. They had gone to school together for years, but he never stood out to her. When they hit high school, he gave her the same heart-eyed stare all the boys did, like she was a pretty thing to be won. She intended to write him off after that. She never meant to pay attention to him, for any reason. But when he asked her to homecoming, and she saw how jealous that made Sam, Paulina couldn’t resist.

She was so tired of Sam being such a hypocrite, acting like she was so good all the time, as if she never did anything wrong. In Paulina's opinion, Sam needed to get over herself. And she deserved every bit of riling up Paulina could give her.

Homecoming night itself didn't have a strong place in Paulina's mind, most of it passing in a hazy blur. Still, something happened that night, something that changed Danny. He stopped looking at her like a trophy. He didn't stop staring at her completely, but there a new layer to his gaze after that. A sort of understanding, like he was the first person—outside Paulina's friends—to realize there was more to her than a pretty face.

He should have faded to the back of her mind. Don’t get Paulina wrong, he maybe have been better than the creeps that dogged after her, but he was still a loser. And yet, in spite of herself, she sometimes found herself staring back when Danny wasn't looking, although she never understood why.

"You know, you're alright, Fenton," Paulina said, surprising herself with her sincerity.

Danny gaped at her, mouth dropping open, eyes widening. The innocent surprise was kind of cute.

"Thanks, I guess?" he said.

"You're welcome." Paulina turned to her lunch, cafeteria pizza that had long since gone cold, and ate in peace.

—

Paulina was sore all over. Cheerleading practice had ended an hour ago, but every Tuesday she stayed on the field a little longer and got some extra exercise. Doing lunges, push-ups, and laps around the field, she liked to keep her arms and legs strong. Cheerleading required a lot of strength and control, and she had to stay in shape.

Some weeks, Star joined her, but that day she had to go home right after practice, leaving Paulina on her own. She may have gone overboard, hanging around almost half an hour longer than usual. It was easy to get lost in thought while she exercised.

Gathering her backpack from the bleachers, she wondered if she should change before going home. She definitely needed a shower. But, checking the time on her phone, she knew the gym, and therefore the changerooms, would be locked up by now. Resigned to walking home in her uniform, she headed toward the front of the school.

Just as she reached the sidewalk, the front doors burst open. Danny came trudging out, backpack dangling in his hand, sweater tied around his waist.

Paulina watched him. Two hours was a long time to hang around after school. He must have had double detention, a punishment often reserved for students who skipped class. Paulina hesitated for a moment before jogging over.

"Danny!" she called, waving.

Danny spun toward her. He made that adorable startled face again, this time with a soft blush creeping across his cheeks as he noticed her skirt and crop top. His eyes snapped up to her face and stayed there.

"Hey, Paulina. What's up?" He lifted a hand to scratch his chin, drawing Paulina's attention to a dark bruise blooming across his jaw. It hadn't been there yesterday at lunch, or even that morning when she saw him in English. Three thin scratches stretched over the bruise, cutting across his chin. She wondered what caused them.

Danny's nail caught on one of the scabs and he winced, quickly lowering his hand, tucking it into his pocket. He always seemed to be injured in some little way. A bruise here, a scratch there. Paulina remembered him limping down the hall on more than one occasion. An uncomfortable curiosity settled in her gut, a sort of sick fascination. She wanted to know what was hurting him so much.

"Uh, Paulina?" Danny reached out.

Paulina, startled, jerked away. Her cheeks burned as she realized she had been gawking at him. She quickly asked, "Are you doing anything right now?"

"No," he answered slowly, giving her a wary look. "Why?"

"I owe you a burger, for yesterday. I never actually thanked you for helping me."

"You want to thank me?" Danny frowned.

Paulina pursed her lips in annoyance. Was it really so hard to believe? Sure, she wasn't always the nicest to him, but she didn't actively antagonize him either.

Danny squinted at her, leaning forward. "Is that you, Kitty?"

Paulina bristled. "What did you just call me!"

"Sorry!" Danny scrambled back, hands raised in defence. "I didn't mean– I wasn't– there's just this ghost that likes to mess with me, okay? And she may have... overshadowed you... once..."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"It doesn't matter. Burgers?"

Paulina thought it did matter, very much, but she was willing to put it aside for now. Giving Danny a stern look, letting him know she wouldn't soon forget what he had said, she waved for him to come along and headed toward the Nasty Burger.

Silence followed them. Danny trailed a couple paces behind her, head down, so quiet that she had to glance back every few steps to make sure he was still following. The air between them felt fragile, as if whatever peace they had attained in this moment would shatter under the weight of a whisper.

Paulina, used to Star's constant chatter, detested the feeling. The next time she glanced over her shoulder, she fixed Danny with an exasperated stare. "You know, you don't have to walk behind me." She slowed her pace.

Danny's cheeks flushed again. Scurrying forward, he fell into step beside her, lengthening his stride to match Paulina's longer gait. He opened his mouth a few times, but ultimately didn't say anything, resigning himself to staring at the sidewalk.

It was obvious neither of them enjoyed the lack of conversation, feeling too awkward without it, but neither one was willing to say the first word. Paulina found a stubborn urge rising within her. If they were going to play this game, then she was determined to win. They sent each other calculating glances, measuring each other up. Paulina searched for a sign of the boy that had come to her rescue yesterday. A confident twist in his lips, a glint in his eye, anything hidden behind the nervous façade. She found nothing.

A skittering noise interrupted her thoughts. Looking down, she saw a pebble leaping down the sidewalk ahead of them. It rolled to a stop in the middle of Danny's path. When they neared it, he kicked it, sending it jumping forward again. On the third kick, it hit a crack in the sidewalk and skipped across the concrete, stopping in front of Paulina.

Before she could think about it, she hopped forward and knocked the pebble back toward Danny. He looked up, surprised, and smiled at her. Tentative, he kicked the pebble back.

Paulina didn't mind the silence so much after that. Their little game persisted—both games—all the way to the Nasty Burger as they passed the pebble back and forth, neither one uttering a word. Paulina found herself grinning as Danny booted the pebble, forcing her to sprint after it or else let it tumble off the edge of the sidewalk.

Catching it just in time, she kicked it as hard as she could. The pebble careened off the sidewalk, pinged off the metal pole of the Nasty Burger sign, and disappeared into the unkempt grass.

"Oh," Danny said, sounding as disappointed as Paulina felt.

"Yeah." Paulina searched the grass for a moment, desperately hoping to find the pebble. For a moment, she had been filled with a childish sort of joy, the same delight she felt as a little girl playing in mud puddles with her cousins. Nowadays, she preferred to stay clean and pretty, but there was something intoxicating about the untamed glee one could only get from simple games, like punting a pebble down a sidewalk.

Thinking of games, Paulina quickly backtracked. "I win." She turned a victorious grin toward Danny.

"What? No! You lost the rock. That means you lose," Danny said.

"I got the best kick; I think that means I win. But I wasn't talking about that. You spoke first."

Danny stared at her, eyes narrowing, then blowing wide as he realized what she meant. "No fair! I didn't realize that was a game, that means you can't win," he insisted.

"Oh, sure you didn't." Paulina tossed her hair over her shoulder and airily said, "You're just a sore loser." She sauntered toward Nasty Burger's front doors.

"No way. I'm actually very good at losing, you've seen me in gym class," Danny said. He jogged ahead, overtaking her, and held the door open. "Besides, I think losing the rock makes you the loser."

"Best kick!" Paulina sing-songed, ignoring Danny's excuses. He grumbled all the way up to the counter, but didn't try to defend himself again.

Ignoring the leer of the acne-riddled teen behind the counter, who had asked Paulina out on no less than four separate occasions, she nudged Danny's arm. "What do you want? I'm paying."

"You really don't need to," Danny said, already reaching for his wallet.

Paulina rounded on Danny. "Listen, Fenton. I don't like owing people. You helped me out, now let me say thanks."

Danny peered down at his wallet, eyeing the crumpled three dollars stuffed inside, and sighed. "Okay, fine. I'll just have a Meaty Melt and a Coke."

As Paulina went up to order, Danny hovered at her shoulder. She didn't pay much attention to him, too focused on ignoring the cashier's stares, but halfway through the exchange she caught Danny glaring over her shoulder. The cashier wilted and kept his eyes down after that.

"I hope you're not expecting another burger for that," Paulina said while they searched for a table.

Danny, balancing their tray on one hand, holding his soda in the other, blinked at her. "What? Why would I?"

"Huh." Paulina squinted at him. "You really don't expect anything, do you?"

"No? I actually didn't think you'd notice." His hand holding the soda jerked upward, his drink splashing against the lid.

Paulina burst out laughing as Danny flinched in surprise. "Did you– did you forget you were holding that?" she asked between giggles. Recognizing Danny's nervous habit, she assumed he had been going to rub his neck. He settled for taking a long sip of his soda instead, his face as red as his shoes.

They chose a table with a view of the road, better shaded than the booths overlooking the parking lot, which were bathed in sunlight. Danny set the tray down in front of Paulina, taking his burger for himself, leaving her sliders and fries.

Neither of them said anything for a few minutes as they started eating, things quickly turning awkward again. It was as if they suddenly remembered who they were and who they were with. Paulina and Danny, popular and loser. Their kind didn't interact much unless rude words were involved. Which was, frankly, stupid. Paulina frowned at that enlightening thought.

Determined not to let the silence persist, Paulina paused after finished her first slider and asked, "What class did you skip today?"

"What makes you think I skipped?" Danny asked.

"Double detention."

"Falluca gives double detention for anything."

"Falluca had a sub today." Paulina's lips curled into a devious grin. "I guess that tells me what class you skipped."

Danny's cheeks coloured. He seriously needed to stop doing that; it was too cute when he blushed.

"I can't believe you skipped science to get in a fight," she said casually. Picking at her fries, she carefully watched Danny's reaction. His shoulders tensed and his soda cup crinkled in his hand. He wouldn't meet her gaze, instead ducking his head and self-consciously rubbing his chin against his shoulder, as if he could wipe away the bruise.

He laughed. "Pretty bad luck, right?"

"Bad luck that you've gotten in at least one fight every week since the start of the year?" Paulina's eyebrow arched.

"What makes you say that?"

"Please, I'm not blind." I also watch you as much as you watch me, she added silently. Paulina hesitated, wondering if she should push on. That same sickly fascination from before reared its head and she couldn't help but ask, "Who hurt you?"

Danny stiffened. He met Paulina's stare, eyes wide, and stuttered, "I'm not– not one's... Look, it isn't–" He broke off and practically lunged for his soda. Staring out the window, he took a long drink, cheeks caving in, until nothing but air came up his straw. His eyes darted about, thoughts flickering across his face faster than Paulina could interpret them. He kept sucking up air until his face turned red and he let the straw go with a gasp.

Watching him crush the cup, Paulina thought he looked seconds away from bolting. She could feel his leg bouncing under the table. Taking pity on him, she reached out and grabbed his hand. Danny flinched back violently, slamming back against his seat, cradling the hand she touched against his chest. Their eyes met and, for a long, uncomfortable moment, they stared at each other in shock.

"Thanks for the burger," Danny said.

Paulina, too stunned to stop him, could only gape as Danny slid out of his seat, slapped his three dollars down on the table—which barely covered half his food—and bolted.

—

The next day at school, Paulina shoved Danny's three dollars into his locker door, tucking it behind his cheap lock. She hopped the bills didn't fall out before Danny found them. Or, worse, she hoped no one else saw the money and stole it. The easy solution would be to give him the money directly, but she thought that was a bad idea.

Paulina felt guilty. It was such a strange and foreign emotion, oozing through her. She didn't like it. Never before had she felt guilty for something, at least not this kind of guilt. Feeling bad for stealing her cousin's favourite doll when they were eight years old wasn't the same thing. She only felt bad then because she got caught.

Now, though, she wished she could pluck her words from Danny's memory. The stricken look he had given her after she touched his hand seized her heart. He looked at her like she had betrayed his trust, which was ridiculous because she was Paulina and he was Danny. There wasn't any trust between them to break. Besides, wouldn't anyone have done what Paulina did? It was only natural to ask after things you were curious about.

Except, of course, when those things pertained to someone you know being hurt by someone they knew on a daily basis. Paulina had done a lot of thinking over the last twelve hours and came to that conclusion. If Danny just liked getting in fights, surely more people would know about it? Some girls were into that kind of tough delinquent type. Contrary to Danny's sweeter nature, he did fit the mold quite well in certain ways. Messy hair, sharp eyes, always sporting a bruise and rough knuckles.

Paulina faltered, pressing her hand against Danny's locker door. Rough knuckles? They did look kind of bloody sometimes. Self-defence, maybe. Unless Paulina's original assumption was right and he did get in fights, and just didn't tell people about them.

The mental image of Danny being in some secret fight club made Paulina giggle. Danny was just a wisp. A gentle breeze could knock him over. Then again, the senior hadn't been able to make Danny budge. And when he stared Dash down, telling him off for hitting on his sister, he hadn't been fazed.

Paulina's amused smile fell into a frown. Apparently, Danny was a bigger mystery than she had first thought.

Someone tapped Paulina's shoulder. "Hey. You better not be messing with Danny's locker."

Scowling, she turned to glare at Sam Manson. "Excuse me?"

"Don't play dumb, although I know you love to. What are you doing to Danny's locker?" Sam asked.

"You should work on being less hostile, maybe more people will ask you out that way," Paulina said, enjoying the way Sam bristled. Using her long nails, Paulina pinched the edges of the bills she had stuffed into the door and pulled them out. "Here." She held them out to Sam. "I was giving Danny his money back. It fell out of his wallet at the Nasty Burger last night."

Sam didn't move.

"Oh, just take them already." Paulina grabbed Sam's hand, shoving the bills into her palm.

"You were with Danny last night?" Sam asked. Her tone, wary and belligerent all at once, gave Paulina pause.

"You didn't know," she said with dawning realization. Her smile returned, this time with a devilish twist, elated at this golden opportunity. "Danny and I went on a date yesterday."

Sam narrowed her eyes, fist curling around Danny's money. Paulina could hear her gritting her teeth. "You really expect me to believe that?"

"You think I care? Just don't forget to give him his money." Paulina left Sam with a teasing wave, savouring the enraged expression she got in response.

—

Danny knew all of Sam's tells when it came to anger. She stomped and shouted when she was frustrated. Ranted when she was fuelled by righteous indignation. Got in your face when irrationally pissed off. But when she was mad, truly, rightfully mad about something beyond her control, she turned cold.

As soon as Lancer gave the word that today's history class would be a work period, Sam rose from her desk, near the front of the room thanks to alphabetical order, and strode toward Danny and Tucker seated at the back. Her expression was subdued. Danny and Tucker shared a worried glance as she approached.

"Uh, what's up?" Danny asked when she stopped by their desks. He flinched away when Sam shoved something in his face. Staring cross-eyed at her fist, he frown at the dollar bills she held.

"Paulina said you dropped these last night," Sam said.

Danny's frown twitched. "She did?" Danny plucked the bills out of Sam's hand. "But I didn't drop them. I was paying her back."

Smoothing the bills out on the corner of his desk, he inspected them, searching for any telltale sign they were his three dollars. After staring at the money for a fully ten seconds he realized how ridiculous that was. They were just dollar bills. Unless he somehow had the serial numbers for his money memorized, there was no way he could tell them apart. A second after that, he realized how even more ridiculous it was for him to check in the first place. It didn't matter if they were the same bills, what mattered was that Paulina had evidently decided to give them back.

"Anything you want to tell us about last night?" Sam said, leaning back against Tucker's desk and crossing her arms.

Danny tucked the money into his pocket before answering. "Not really? Paulina thanked me for helping her out at lunch. Sorry again that I kind of ditched you guys."

"Nah, man, you're good. You were being all heroic." Tucker's grin carried a knowing glint that Danny didn't think belonged there, because whatever Tucker thought he knew, he was definitely wrong. "I bet you could get a date out of that."

"No," Danny said.

"Yes," Sam hissed.

"What?"

"You were on a date with Paulina last night."

"You went on a date with Paulina?" Tucker's shout drew their classmates' eyes.

Stretching over the aisle, Danny slapped his hands against Tucker's mouth. "Dude, chill! I didn't go on a date with Paulina."

"That's not what she said," Sam interrupted. She pulled Danny and Tucker apart, and glared at their nearby classmates, who were still staring. "Don't you all have better stuff to do?"

"Excellent statement, Ms. Manson," Lancer droned from the front of the room. Sitting behind his desk, he gave Sam a stern look over the top of his book. "I'm sure I told all of you to use this time and work on your social movement essays. That includes you, Ms. Manson."

"Sorry, Mr. Lancer," Sam said, barely sounding sorry at all. She pointed at Danny, silently letting him know they would continue this conversation later, and returned to her seat to do her work. Around them, their classmates did the same. At least, they pretended to. Danny could hear them whispering.

"Okay, but really. Did you go on a date with Paulina? A real one? No ghosts?" Tucker asked.

Danny dropped his forehead to his desk with a thunk, wrapping his arms over his head, and groaned. "It wasn't a date."

—

Five hours later and three classrooms over, Paulina turned to Dash and said, "Yeah, it was totally a date." The art teacher shot her a dirty look for talking, but didn't make a move to stop her. Paulina rolled her eyes and tapped her pencil against her sketchbook.

"I bet he got Manson to do some voodoo shit with you to make it happen," Dash said. He hadn't even opened his sketchbook yet. Instead of starting their newest project, he was more determined to bug Paulina about the rumors he heard over lunch hour.

Apparently, Manson couldn't keep her mouth shut and had spilled the lie Paulina fed her. The rumour didn't bother her so much. Paulina was used to people whispering things about her; that happened when you were popular. She was content to brush it all off, until Dash started getting on her case.

"No voodoo. I asked him out," she said. Her plan, once she first heard the rumour, was to ignore it until it went away. Eventually people would come to their senses and realized there was no way someone as pretty and popular as her would ever go out with Danny, no matter how cute he was. Once they did, they would move on to other more interesting bits of gossip.

But then Dash opened his stupid mouth. "A loser like Fenton?" he had said. "Knew it was a lie the moment I heard it. You're one of us. We wouldn't let you go out with him. You wouldn’t let us down like that."

Who was Dash to say who Paulina could and couldn't date? That venomous jab, and every arrogant, poison word he'd spoken since made Paulina seethe. Dash wasn't better than her. He would hit on anything that moved. He hit on her sometimes, and he definitely wasn't one of the sweet, endearing boys Paulina liked to string along.

As soon as she heard those haughty, conceited words spilling out of Dash's mouth, Paulina was determined to let Dash down so far that he'd be six feet underground. Screw Dash Baxter, and screw anyone who tried to tell Paulina what she could and couldn't do.

Dash wrinkled his nose. "Ew. Why would you go out with him again?"

"Maybe I enjoyed myself at the dance, you don't know," Paulina said flippantly. Granted, not even she knew if she enjoyed herself, but chances were Dash wouldn't know either.

"Dance? What? I'm not talking about the dance."

Paulina only gave herself a second to be confused. She blinked at Dash, furrowing her brow, then shook her head and started inspecting her fingernails, the perfect image of disinterest. "Whatever. I'm done with this conversation."

She turned back to her drawing. So far, all she had was a vague skeleton of a figure, featureless and unidentifiable, but she knew exactly who it was. It annoyed her how much Danny lingered in her thoughts when she didn't want him to.

Thinking about Danny dragged Dash's offhand comment back to the forefront of her mind. She had no evidence, but she couldn't shake the idea that what he said was related to that Kitty ghost, something Paulina had completely forgot to ask Danny about last night.

She tried to push that aside for now and focus on her art, but her hand shook too much. She flipped to a fresh page and pressed her pencil down, hard, drawing a thick dark line. Over and over she wounded the page with ugly black scars until she finally managed to draw one without trembling. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes.

Danny owed her an explanation.

—

As soon as the bell rang, Paulina was out of her seat. She walked briskly, hurrying down the hall, stuffing her sketchbook into her backpack along the way. Danny's locker was her destination, in the hopes that she could catch him before he left school. She didn't know if he was one of those students who kept everything in his backpack or routinely stopped between classes to switch out his books. She hoped he was the former.

He wasn't there when she arrived, so she leaned against the locker next to his, arms crossed. If he didn't show up, it wouldn't matter that much. They had English first period tomorrow, and she could always talk to him then, but she preferred to have this conversation sooner rather than later.

Five minutes passed, long enough for the first round of buses to leave the school, and Danny didn't show up. Paulina felt jilted, which wasn't fair to Danny, because he didn't know she wanted to talk to him, but that didn't stop her from feeling it. Getting stood up sucked, whether it was intentional or not.

Paulina closed her eyes and grumbled under her breath. It looked like the conversation would have to wait until tomorrow. She pushed off Danny's locker, turning in the direction of her own, and opened her eyes. Danny stood right behind her. Paulina shrieked. She leapt back, heart racing, and glared at him. "Who does that?!"

"Uh, sorry." Danny scratched the back of his neck. "I was looking for you, but I thought you left already since you weren't by your locker."

Paulina huffed. "Well, it's about time you got here. Next time, don't make me wait so long?"

"Next time?" Danny shook his head. "Whatever, that's, I'll worry about that later. Listen–"

Paulina raised a hand to cut him off. "No, you listen. I don't wait around for people, okay?"

"Paulina–"

"I could have left whenever I wanted."

"If you just–"

"But I'm not letting you off that easy because–"

"We need to talk," they said at the same time. They stilled, staring at each other. Slowly, Danny's face turned red, but it wasn't the innocent blush Paulina found so endearing. His cheeks puffed and mirth danced in his eyes. He slapped a hand over his mouth, muffled giggles slipping between his fingers.

"Stop laughing," Paulina said.

Danny shook his head.

"It's not funny!" Paulina stomped her foot.

Danny lost it. Peals of laughter echoed down the slowly emptying hall. The sound was pure and unrestrained, a sweet laugh. Paulina refused to let herself be dragged into it, but she couldn't help the smile that came to her face.

"I mean, okay. It wasn't that funny. But you throwing a tantrum? That's hilarious," Danny said.

"I did not!" Paulina gasped, offended

"Sorry for laughing," Danny said, but he was still grinning. "But you're a lot nicer to be around when you're like that."

"When I'm throwing a tantrum? Which I wasn't."

"No, when you act your age," he explained.

Paulina thought that was rich coming from someone who liked to play juvenile pranks. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Danny sighed, shaking his head as if it was such a damn shame Paulina wouldn't stoop to his level of childish antics. "Paulina, we're fourteen. You shouldn't be acting like you're already in college or something. Being in high school doesn't mean being grown up. I know you probably think it's stupid, but once you get older, and you actually have to deal with... with all kinds of stuff. Bad stuff. You'll wish you hadn't grown up so fast."

Paulina didn't like the way Danny's voice grew quite. His eyes were distant, looking through her like she was nothing but a pane of glass, seeing something that was far beyond her comprehension. Her gaze fell to his chin and the ugly bruise painting his skin. Unable to help herself, she reached out, brushing her fingers along the thin scratches, wondering if they would scar.

Danny's hand shot up, catching her wrist in a crushing grip. Light returned to his eyes as he broke out of his reverie. A flicker of emotion, too fast for Paulina to decipher, flashed across his face when he saw his hand closed around her wrist. He hastily let her go, shuffling back a few steps, and averted his eyes.

"Sorry. I don't like being touched like that. Unexpectedly, I mean. Or at all, really." Danny rubbed his cheek. To Paulina, it looked like he was wiping away the feel of her hand on his skin. He continued, "We really do need to talk."

Remembering why she went looking for Danny in the first place, Paulina nodded. "Yeah, we do. You need to tell me about Kitty."

"Whoa, wait. First, you need to tell me why everyone thinks we went on a date," Danny said.

"No way, I asked first."

"Okay, fair. But I bet you want your answer a lot more than I want mine." Danny's cheerful tone had returned, an impish grin replacing his disappointed frown.

Paulina's eyebrow twitched. How could someone turn from jubilant to pensive to infuriatingly annoying in such a short span of time? It looked exhausting. Simply being around him was exhausting. Paulina's face was warm and her heart hadn't stopped pounding. She felt like she had just finished her post-cheerleading exercises.

No, that couldn't be right. Paulina felt refreshed and energized after working out. She liked that feeling. She didn't like this. Right?

"Does this mean I win?" Danny's words ragged her out of her thoughts.

"No! You don't get your answer until I get mine!" They were at a stalemate, but Paulina had complete confidence in her stubborn nature. She always got what she wanted. Danny, grin set, eyebrow arched, looked ready to fight her on this. Until he shivered. His hand flew to his mouth and his eyes widened.

"Okay, fine, but not here. I'll text you where to meet me," he said.

"Why not here?" Paulina glanced over her shoulder down the hall. It was empty now. She had probably missed her bus, but her house was only a forty minute walk away. More importantly, it meant they were alone. "You don't even have my nu–"

Paulina cut off mid-sentence when she looked forward again. Danny was already gone.

—

Danny's stitches itched. Flexing his fingers, he resisted the urge to scratch his arm. It was just a small cut on the inside of his elbow. Jazz fixed him up in six stitches. In a few days, she would take them out, leaving his arm good as new. Or almost as good. Too bad for Danny, accelerated healing did not equal regeneration and he would probably have a scar.

Damn Box Ghost. That fact hurt Danny more than the injury did, even if his stitches pulled and stung every time he bent his arm. He had no idea how the Box Ghost managed to get his grubby little hands on a box cutter, but it was a hell of a lot more effective than cardboard. Hopefully, Boxy wouldn't go bragging to every ghost in the Zone about his "victory" over Danny. Danny could heal his body a lot faster than he could heal his pride.

His phone, resting on the café table, buzzed. Checking the notification, he saw it was just a reminder about the health quiz tomorrow. Which he had completely forgotten about.

"Damn it." Danny dropped his head onto the table, making the cups and plate shake. The iced coffee he had bought for Paulina sloshed over the rim of the glass, splashing onto the table. It wasn't so iced now, more watered down. Paulina was supposed to meet him twenty minutes ago.

Lifting his head, he sipped despondently at his milkshake, gnawing on the straw. Maybe this was a bad idea. Paulina didn't need to know about Kitty, and she definitely didn't need to waste her time hanging around Danny.

He touched his cheek, thinking about how soft Paulina's fingers had been on his bruise. The unwanted touch had his skin crawling at the time. Even now, just the thought of it made him uncomfortable, but that wasn't Paulina's fault. When nearly everyone who touched you ended up hurting you, you started to hate physical contact all together. Even Sam and Tucker, who Danny trusted and loved, could set him on edge if he didn't see the contact coming.

A sharp knock on the window beside him drew his attention. His straw fell out of his mouth when he saw Paulina. She had braided her hair loosely over her shoulder and donned an unbuttoned shirt over her crop top. Instead of her regular flats, she wore scuffed sneakers. The most striking difference, however, was her lack of makeup. Even in gym class, when everyone was sweating from exertion, he had never seen Paulina in anything but pristine makeup.

She had freckles. Not the modest smattering across her nose and cheeks like Danny had, but all over. A galaxy of dots painting constellations across her face. She had a mole, too. A small brown spot on her lip. Danny hadn't realized you could have moles on your lips. If it weren't so dark, he might have thought it was another freckle.

Paulina waved. Danny waved back. His eyes trailed after her as she entered the café, the bell over the door jingling quietly. She took her seat across from him, sinking into the plush chair, the exact reason why Danny had chosen this cafe.

"Is this for me?" Paulina asked, pointing to the iced coffee.

Danny stopped staring at her long enough to nod. "And this." He pushed the small dessert plate in the middle of the table toward her. An apple fritter dusted in powdered sugar sat on it. The few crumbs scattered beside it were the only sign of the second fritter, which Danny had consumed in a nervous fit once Paulina was five minutes late.

"What for?" she asked.

"Paying you back for the burger." Danny grinned. "You can't give this back to me. And if you don't eat it, then I guess it's just wasted."

Paulina's eyes narrowed. "Not bad, Fenton. Not bad." She took a bite of the fritter and surveyed the café.

It was an out of the way place, tucked behind a bookshop, and had to be entered around the back. Danny first found the place last month when he saved the owners, a retired couple, from one of Technus' schemes. It was small, cozy, had big armchairs and soft lighting, and served the best pastries in Amity Park.

"It took my dad a while to find this place, even with the address," Paulina said.

"Oh, your dad?" Danny remembered her dad. Big, burly, intimidating. He wasn't as tall as Danny's dad but, with arms as thick as his, was nothing to scoff at. Danny glanced around, half-expecting the man to leap out from one of the tables.

"He went to the bookstore," Paulina said.

"Good to know. Hey, I hope you don't mind me asking, but why the change in appearance?" He gestured vaguely toward his face.

Paulina finished her fritter, dusting the sugar off her fingers, and played with her braid. "You think I wear makeup all the time?"

"No, but I've just never seen you without it."

"So what?"

"So, you, uh, I've just never seen you without any." Danny stared down at his milkshake, feeling his cheeks heat up. "I like your freckles."

Paulina didn't answer. Worried he'd made her mad, he glanced up. Danny's eyes widened when he found her blushing. Paulina got a lot of compliments from a lot of boys and she always reacted with a coy smile, unless the guy was bothering her. He'd never seen her blush.

"Just tell me about Kitty," she said, clutching her iced coffee.

Danny decided to just get it over with. "She overshadowed you during spring break, but I didn't know she was overshadowing you and I thought she was just you, and so did everyone else, and we kind of dated for a few weeks, until I realized you weren't yourself and I stopped Kitty and you didn't remember anything the next day, but you seemed fine and you went on without saying anything, so I didn't mention it."

He sucked in a deep, wheezing breath and downed the rest of his milkshake in one gulp, licking whipped cream off his upper lip after he set the glass down.

Paulina stared at him, frozen.

"Ah, wait, did I say I stopped her? I meant Danny Phantom did. Yeah. The ghost boy. Not me," Danny said.

Paulina still didn't respond. She looked... Danny didn't know how she looked. Confused? Upset? Mad? She didn't say anything, didn't even blink. The seconds dragged on and Danny's worry grew.

"Paulina?" She didn't answer. Danny grabbed his hair. "I can't believe I broke Paulina Sanchez."

Paulina started. "You didn't break me!" She reached out, poised to slap his hands, but stopped at the last second. Her hand hovered for a moment, then went back to holding her drink. "We dated—for a couple weeks—and I have no memory of it."

"It was almost three weeks, actually," Danny said.

"That's not helping!"

"Right! Sorry!"

Paulina hunched over, curling an arm over her head, her eyes wide. Her parted lips moved slightly. Danny wondered if she was mouthing along with the thoughts running through her head. If so, it was oddly cute. If not... still cute.

"I think," she said after a long silence. "I think I sort of remember. Those weeks didn't disappear, but I can barely remember anything with you from them."

"Ghosts can do that when they overshadow you for a long time. Usually, the memories will just be gone, or sort of hazy. But if they stay in one person long enough, they can manipulate what you remember," Danny explained. Kitty had assured him Paulina would only lose her memories of Danny. It was oddly considerate of her, but he chose not to question it.

"You didn't tell me."

Deciding honesty was best, Danny nodded. "No, I didn't."

"What is wrong with you!" Paulina slammed her hands on the table, rattling the dishes.

Danny recoiled. "I didn't think–"

"No, you didn't! A ghost... a ghost possessed me. For three weeks. You were the only one who knew, and you didn't tell me?" Tears glistened in Paulina's eyes. Her lips curled. The soft, sweet blush from before was long gone, replaced by a face red with anger.

"They call it overshadowing," Danny corrected. He didn't know what else to say.

"I don't care what it's called! She violated me, and you didn't think I had a right to know? She could have done anything to me!" Paulina hugged herself, going pale. Shaking her head, she stood up. "I can't be around you right now."

Danny reached out, but there was nothing he could do to stop her as she stormed out of the café. He sank low in his seat, but it was nowhere near as low as he felt.

"You really screwed up, Fenton," Danny whispered.

—

Paulina avoided Danny for the rest of the week. The rumour about her and Danny dating died out without too much fuss. Dash texted Paulina a smug grin and a self-satisfied "Knew you wouldn't do it!" and everything went back to the way it was supposed to be. She hung out with her friends, went to cheerleading practice, did her homework. On the weekend, she and Star went to an old film screening at the theatre.

This was her life, as it had always been, back to normal. So why did it feel like she was missing something?

Paulina went for a walk in the park, just before sunset. Tomorrow was Monday. It had been a lot easier to ignore Danny over the weekend, when they weren't forced into the same room for classes. But it still felt hard.

She picked her way across the wet grass, drops of water clinging to her sneakers. It had stopped raining over an our ago, but the grey sky and chill air remained. Finding a bench by the duck pond, she sat down, crossing her legs on the damp wood. Her dad didn't like her being out alone so close to dark, but she needed to think somewhere no one would disturb her.

Paulina had never had a crush before. In middle school, whenever any of the other girls asked if she had one, she always pointed to whichever boy showed the least interest in her, even though she felt nothing special around them. But Danny made her feel giddy. He pulled out a childish side of her that she hadn’t realized she missed. She wanted to spend time with him, play more immature games with him, hold his hand. If that wasn't a crush, she didn't know what was.

But he had to go and ruin it by keeping something so personal from her.

"Boys are stupid," Paulina declared to the open air.

A sudden chill came over her and an echoing voice spoke. "Do dead boys count? Because I like to think I'm pretty smart."

Paulina managed not to shout in surprise, but she did flinch as Danny Phantom appeared in front of her.

"Sorry, didn't mean to startle you," he said. He floated on his stomach, chin propped on his hand, hovering a respectful distance away. "I saw you sitting alone and thought I'd let you know it's almost night. Ghosts get more active right around now. It'd be safer for you to head home."

Paulina pursed her lips. Danny had said Phantom helped free her from Kitty's clutches. "Why didn't you tell me I had been possessed?"

"It's called overshadowing, actually," Phantom said.

"Ugh, you Dannys are all alike." Standing up, she marched away.

Phantom rushed to catch up with her, flying around to block her path. "Hey, no, wait. I'm sorry. Let me fly you home."

Paulina lifted her chin and looked away. "No, thank you." She walked around him and started for the park entrance.

"Okay, that's fair. But at least let me fly with you? It really is dangerous."

Paulina stopped. Glancing back at Phantom, she gave him a critical look. Something about the way he said that was familiar, but she couldn't figure out what.

"Please?" he said.

"Fine." She kept walking, watching Phantom out of the corner of her eye. He floated a couple feet away, knees bent as if he was kneeling, and easily keeping pace. It was bizarre to watch, like a poorly edited video where a frozen character got dragged across the screen in lieu of actual movement.

"I'm sorry," Phantom said.

Paulina's eyes jumped forward, her shoulders stiffening as she tried to act casual. "For what?"

"The Kitty thing. Fenton's sorry, too. He talked to me about it."

"Did he now?"

"Yeah. It was... it was my idea not to tell you. Getting overshadowed isn't fun. And you were right, it is a violation. It's taking over someone's body. Taking control of them. It's not right. I only do it if I absolutely have to."

"But you still do it."

"Yeah..." Phantom at least had the mind to look ashamed of that fact. When they reached the street, he drifted closer. Paulina considered stepping away, putting that distance between them again, but he looked sincere, and she wanted to hear what he had to say. She nodded, motioning for him to continue.

"I just thought you would be happier not knowing. Kitty didn't do anything bad with you. Actually, she kind of had your personality down. No one else noticed there was something wrong."

That didn't make Paulina feel better.

"It was a dumb decision, and both Fenton and I were idiots for going along with it." Phantom's grin turned wry. "I guess you were right. Boys are stupid."

Paulina huffed, standing a little straighter. "Of course I was."

"Fenton wants to talk to you."

"Then he can tell me that himself." Paulina paused. "Wait." Reaching out, she touched Phantom's shoulder to stop him.

Phantom swerved away from her hand, turning upside-down to get out of reach. His eyes widened, a green blush rising in his cheeks. "Um. Instincts. From fighting and stuff. Sorry."

"It's fine," she said, taking her hand back. "Be honest with me. Did Danny put you up to this?"

"Uh..." Phantom laughed weakly. "Which one's better?"

Paulina didn't bother answering that question.

"He asked me to talk to you, yeah." Phantom rubbed the back of his neck. "He wanted to give you your space, and he thought you might appreciate me talking to you more. You know, because of your crush."

"What makes you think I have a crush on you?"

Phantom drifted in front of her, legs and arms crossed, hair hanging down. "You don't?"

Paulina could see why Phantom, or anyone, would think that. She had never bothered hiding her infatuation before. But, long ago, she realized that what she felt was admiration, not love.

"You're cute, for a dead boy," she said.

"I'm gonna be honest; I can't decide if I should be offended or not," Phantom said. His grin was strikingly familiar.

Paulina stared at him, contemplative, and smirked when Phantom rubbed the back of his neck. "It it's any consolation, I just realized you remind me a lot of the boy I like."

Phantom finally flipped back around, feet touching the ground, and leaned forward. "Really?"

"Yeah. Who knows, if you were still alive, you might have had a chance."

Phantom laughed. The echo in his voice made it deeper than Danny's, but it had the same charm. It was the kind of laugh that warmed the air and begged anyone within earshot to join in. Paulina indulged herself with a few soft giggles.

"Thanks for breaking my heart," Phantom said.

"Any time."

—

Monday morning, Danny arrived at school twenty minutes earlier than usual, which meant there were only ten minutes before the bell. He planted himself by the door and waited there, lurking in the shadow of the entryway.

"You look like a creep," Tucker said. He had his nose to his phone and hadn't looked up the whole time Danny had been there.

"Shut up, you don't know that," Danny said.

"No." Sam, seated on the cement wall, leaned forward and flicked Danny's bangs. "But I do. Stop being so edgy."

"I'm not being edgy! I'm waiting for a girl!"

"Okay, Mr. Brooding."

"I'm not," Danny said, brooding.

Paulina hadn't arrived at school yet. As soon as Danny got there, he flew all throughout the halls, invisible, searching for her. Anxious he might miss her, he refused to move from his spot by the door until either the bell rang, or Paulina showed up, whichever came first. He really hoped Paulina came first. If the bell rang before she arrived, if he missed his chance to talk to her now, all his confidence would wither away.

"You're being ridiculous," Sam said.

"You don't know what I'm thinking," Danny said.

"Your face is so easy to read."

"Why do you care, anyway?" Danny spun around and glared at her. "You hate Paulina, right? You looked pretty damn mad at me when you only thought we went out."

"Danny–"

"I don't want to hear it, Sam. Just go inside. I can wait on my own." Turning his back on her, he crossed his arms and went back to watching the sidewalk.

Sam clenched her jaw. "Fine," she ground out, hopping off the wall. Shoving past Danny, she headed inside.

"Dude. That was kind of harsh," Tucker said.

Danny pressed his lips together, refusing to budge. Sam didn't have any business getting annoyed at him for liking a Paulina. He could like whoever he wanted. If Sam didn't agree, that was her problem.

"Good luck, man. I hope it goes well." Tucker clapped Danny on the shoulder, exaggerating the gesture so there was lots of warning before he made contact.

"Thanks," Danny muttered. Once Tucker disappeared through the doors, Danny moved to the top step, sitting down with his arms draped over his knees. None of his peers spared him a single glance as they headed inside. For once, it was oddly calming, settling his nerves. No one would be around to see him make a fool of himself in front of the prettiest girl in school. Again.

Hopefully, this time, his pants will at least stay on.

Two minutes before the bell, Paulina finally appeared. A navy car pulled up to the curb outside the school, Paulina climbing out of the passenger door with her pink backpack over her shoulders. Danny stood and waved as the car pulled away, catching her eye. Paulina's steps faltered, and she didn't smile or wave back, but she kept walking forward, only stopping once she was on the step below him.

"I'm sorry," Danny said.

"I know." Paulina shuffled her feet, grip tightening around the straps of her backpack. "Phantom talked to me."

Danny bit his lip, trying to fight back the heat rising in his cheeks as he remembered yesterday's conversation. Learning that Paulina liked him was the last thing he expected to get out of that talk. At least he believed she liked him. Maybe he misunderstood. In fact, he probably did. Why would Paulina like him of all people? Fenton had nothing on Phantom. That was his main goal in human form, to differentiate himself from his ghost half as much as possible.

Oh, god, this was a horrible idea. He should just go inside and forget about his crush.

"The bell is gonna go in, like, less than a minute. Is there a reason you're making me stand out here?" Paulina asked. Thankfully, she sounded more amused than annoyed, but she had a point. Danny didn’t want to be late on the first day he got to school on time in months.

"Will you go out with me?" he asked. "Or at least on a date. I mean, everybody already thought we dated, so I might as well get one date out of it."

A second later, he realized how bad that sounded and rushed to correct himself. "I mean! That's not why I want to go out with you! I was trying to be funny. Sorry, that was stupid. I really like you, Paulina. You're pretty, and you're a lot smarter than people think, and I really like being around you."

He couldn't bear to look up, choosing instead to stare down at his sneakers while wringing his hands. Paulina's smaller, smoother hand edged into his vision. She didn't touch him—something he was thankful for—but flicked her finger up, silently asking him to raise his head. He did.

Paulina smiled, bittersweet, and said, "No."

Danny's heart cracked.

"I like you, Danny, but I don't really know you. It's not bad, it just means I'm not ready to date you right now," Paulina said.

"That hasn't stopped you from going out with guys before." Danny regretted the words as soon as they were out of his mouth.

Paulina's eyes widened, her lips falling open. She ground her teeth, face screwing up as she leaned away from him. For a moment, he thought she was going to hit him, but she did something much worse than that. Paulina burst into tears.

"I take it back. I hate you, Danny!" she shouted, shoving him aside. Danny stumbled into the concrete rail as she stormed past him. It was just like last time, but so much worse. Why did he keep screwing things up?

Danny shook his head, pushing off the wall. This time, he wouldn’t just let her go.

"Paulina, wait!" Lurching forward, he grabbed her wrist just as she opened the door, pulling her back before she could go through. The sharp call of the warning bell rang out, but it was soon silenced as the door swung shut, leaving Danny and Paulina in silence.

"I'm sorry. That was stupid. I don't know why I said it," Danny said. He squeezed her hand. "Please don't go."

Paulina's gaze dipped to their clasped hands. Could she see the growing panic in Danny's eyes? Already, a crawling sensation was spreading up his hand. He wanted to let go. He needed to let go. But he refused to do it until he knew Paulina would hear him out.

"Why should I listen to you?" she asked.

"Because I'm an idiot. I really don't know why I said that. Well, maybe I do." Danny let her hand go. When she didn't immediately leave, he kept going. " It just... it took a lot of guts for me to ask you out, and of course that doesn’t mean you have to say yes. But you said it yourself; you like me too. Isn't the whole point of dating to get to know the person?"

"How many dates do you think I've been on?"

"Uh..." Thrown by the questioned, Danny floundered, trying to come up with a number. "At least ten."

Paulina's eyes narrowed. "Let me guess, one for homecoming, the others for when I was possessed? Or overshadowed, whatever it's called."

"Yeah."

"Well, that's nine more dates then I ever remember being on." Paulina crossed her arms, glaring down at Danny. Now that they were on even footing, she was taller than him by an inch. "It looks like you don't know me that well either. You judged me because of how much I'm flirted with. I don't want to date someone who would do something like that without hearing my side of things first. No matter how much I like them."

Ashamed, Danny lowered his head. Paulina was right. He took what he saw and made a snap judgement about her without even asking her about it. He thought he was better than that, better than those guys who trailed after her. But he wasn't. He was just bad in a different way.

"You're right," he said quietly, hugging himself. "I'm sorry. That wasn't fair. Do you at least... could we hang out as friends, then?"

Finally, she graced him with a genuine smile.

—

Danny slunk into history class three minutes after the bell, shooting Lancer a weak grin. All he got was a head shake and a resigned smile in return, which meant Lancer was in a good mood that day. Taking his seat, Danny stuffed his backpack under his seat and settled in as Lancer started talking about the essays they drafted last week.

"So," Tucker whispered. "How'd it go?"

Danny sank down in his seat, leaning toward Tucker without looking too obvious, and whispered back, "It went okay, I think. I kind of made her cry, but then I made it better?"

"Dude. That's not how to ask out a girl."

"Shut up, I know! She didn’t say yes, anyway."

"Oh. Bummer."

Lancer started down the aisles, handing everyone's essay drafts back, which they had submitted for editing. Danny and Tucker fell silent as he passed by. Lancer handed Danny his essay while smiling approvingly. Danny's eyes widened. He glanced down at his paper, excitement filling him, and had to hold back a cry of victory when he saw his tentative grade. A solid B! If he played this right, he could get his first A in months. Today may have had a rocky start, but it was turning out pretty good.

Lancer finished handing out the essays and went to stand at the front of the classroom. He clapped his hands together. "Please get together into groups for peer editing. Your final drafts are due in three days, so use your time wisely."

Desks screeched as everyone started moving, shoving their seats together to sit by their friends. Tucker, without getting out of his desk, shuffled toward Danny, turning so they were perpendicular. Sam, coming up from the front of the classroom, took the newly vacated desk in front of Danny and turned it around to face his. Slapping her essay down on the table, she dropped into the seat, crossing her arms and legs, and glared at Danny. He glared right back.

"We're gonna hang out as friends first," Danny said to Tucker.

Tucker grinned. "Less of a bummer."

"Not worried I'll get mad if you talk about her in front of me?" Sam asked, her voice cold.

"You can do whatever you want, Sam," Danny said.

Sam's eyes hardened. "Stop being so difficult, Danny! I'm just trying to keep you from getting hurt. You've seen how Paulina is. She likes to toy with people, then toss them away. I told you what she said at homecoming. She was just using you to get back at me."

"Oh, come on, grow up. This isn’t about you. This has nothing to do with you. I like her, she likes me. Just let me be happy, will you?" Danny raised his hand, rising out of his seat. "Mr. Lancer, I'm going to the bathroom."

Without waiting for an answer, he left the room. Ducking into the closest bathroom, he transformed and shot out of the school. There had to be a ghost wreaking havoc somewhere for him to vent his frustration on. Maybe, if he was lucky, he could get the Box Ghost back for injuring him last week. Just as Danny thought, the cut ended up scarring. Thankfully, the one on his face hadn't, healing with barely a trace a few days after he got it.

Danny circled the school thinking. Immediately rushing out of the room had been a little hasty, but he wanted one moment where Sam didn't rag on him for liking Paulina. If Sam was going to act like that any time he mentioned Paulina, he couldn't be around her right now.

The ridiculousness of the situation made him laugh bitterly. He never thought he would fight with Sam about a girl.

—

Sam and Tucker sat in strained silence after Danny left. Tucker, rightfully assuming Danny wouldn't come back any time soon, grabbed Danny's essay and backpack, pulling them over to his desk.

"So..." Tucker said.

Sam snatched up her own essay, busying herself by flipping through it. "I don't want to hear it."

"Are you jealous?"

"Did you not hear anything I said?" Sam asked without looking up.

Tucker rested his chin on his hand, staring at Sam. All three of them had known each other for a long time, although Tucker and Danny had been friends longer. Over the years, they'd had their spats, but that was usually just Tucker and Sam, who had a lot of conflicting opinions. Even then, they limited themselves to heated but still friendly debates. They had never really been mad at each other.

Tucker didn't think their friendship would end over something like this, but he also didn't like that they were fighting. He wanted to supported Danny, and he wanted to understand Sam, too.

"Yeah, I heard you," Tucker nodded, "and I don't actually think you're jealous."

Sam finally put her essay down. "Then why even ask?"

"To see your reaction." Tucker met Sam's glare with a bright smile. "I think whatever your problem is with Paulina, it's got nothing to do with Danny. And it's got nothing to do with principles. You're not the kind of person who would hate other girls just because they like to feel pretty. Especially not with how much you care about your own appearance."

Sam huffed but didn't argue.

"I also think that you and Paulina should work things out. Not for Danny, but for yourself."

Sam pressed her lips together in a firm line, eying Tucker blankly. After a brief pause, she shook her head and sighed. "It truly is a sad day when you're the most mature out of the three of us."

"Wow, rude."

"I'm not making any promises. I've got a right to be mad at Paulina for what she's done. But... I'll think about it. For me, not anybody else."

"That's all I ask. Now give me your essay, we're supposed to be doing group work. Danny can suffer for skipping class when he didn't need to. I'll look at his tonight."

Sam rolled her eyes. Passing her essay over, she grabbed Tucker's, then snatched Danny's off Tucker's desk. "Please. If you touch his essay, I bet his grade will go down."

"I take back all of the advice I just gave you. You don't deserve it. Give it back," Tucker said, holding his hand out and beckoning.

"Too late, I've been thoroughly advised."

"Rude."

—

Paulina prided herself in have a clean record. She got good grades, participated in school activities, and, for the most part, respected the teachers that actually deserved it. But she still ended up in detention with Wednesday afternoon. Paulina found herself alone with Danny in the library after school. Technically, there was a teacher watching over them, but Tetslaff had disappeared into the librarian's office some time ago and hadn't re-emerged. She was certainly the best teacher to get for detention.

Paulina used the chair beside her as a footrest and had her sketchbook balanced on her knees while she worked on her art project. Danny, sitting across from her, hunched over an essay. He sported a black eye and a cut lip, his hair more mussed than usual. The hoodie he wore was too long for him, but still slim.

"Is that your sister's sweater?" Paulina asked. The burgundy fabric paired with teal hoodie strings looked like something Jazz would wear.

Danny's cheeks coloured and he looked up. "Yeah. I borrowed it from her locker this morning."

Paulina giggled.

"Hey, does this count as us hanging out?" he asked, gesturing to the library at large. "I mean, it's detention, but..."

"I don't see why not."

"Cool." Danny lowered his voice, leaned forward, and gruffly asked. "What are you in for?"

"Indecent exposure. My shoulders are criminally offensive." Paulina tugged on the collar of her gym shirt, showing the spaghetti straps of her tank top underneath. "Did you get caught fighting behind the school or something?"

Danny laughed, throwing his head back. "Haven't you heard? I'm a truant, a nonattender. Ishiyama actually used those words."

"Everybody already knows that."

"First of all, ouch. Second of all, yeah. But I skipped English on Monday and I was late for school yesterday and today. Ishiyama's finally threatening me with suspension," Danny said. Essay forgotten, he folded his arms on the table and rested his cheek on the crook of his elbow. "Jazz convinced her not to go through with it, though. Something about how making me miss school won't fix my problem with missing school."

Paulina snorted. Danny burst out laughing, making her squawk with embarrassment. She clapped a hand over her mouth. "You didn't hear that!"

Danny smirked at her. "Pretty sure I did."

"No you didn't!"

"Nah, I think I did. Don't worry, it's cute."

"I swear, if you tell anyone that I snort laughed, I am going to end you, Fenton."

"You wouldn't dare. You like me too much."

"No talking!" Tetslaff's shout cut off their banter. She leaned out of the librarian's office, shooting them a stern glare, and made a zipping motion over her lips. She pointed at her eyes, pointed at them, then disappeared back through the door.

Paulina and Danny glanced at each other. The moment their eyes met, they broke down into muffled laughter, pressing their faces into their arms to try and stay quiet.

"What do you think she's doing in there?" Danny whispered.

"Push-ups. Or squats," Paulina said. "I've seen her doing them in her own office during gym class."

"I think she's got thicker arms than my dad. I'm honestly impressed. Good for her."

The sincerity in Danny's tone made Pauline smile. She always admired strong women. Even if she didn't like Tetslaff sometimes, it was hard not to be impressed by her physique. Buff and burly wasn't Paulina's thing, but anyone who could pull it off had her respect.

They spend the next few minutes working diligently on their homework. Paulina was nearly done with her sketch. If she finished today, she could submit it to her teacher for critique tomorrow. Hopefully getting feedback wouldn't take too long. She wanted to star painting it right away, already deciding to use watercolours.

Tapping her chin with her pencil, she looked away from her sketchbook and watched Danny. His black eye looked like it hurt. Red around his eye, fading to a dark, almost black purple. It was swollen, but not shut. Just enough that it looked like he was squinting.

Paulina hummed. She had a hard time picturing Danny completely free of injuries. Going back to her sketch, she made a slight adjustment.

"What are you drawing?" Danny asked. He pulled himself halfway onto the table, trying to see the sketchbook.

"Hey, no peeking before it's done!" Paulina said, holding the book to her chest.

"So you were gonna show me?"

Paulina bit her lip. "Maybe."

"Can I see it now?"

She glanced down at her sketch, then up at Danny, and down again. After a few seconds of internal debating—which was more for show than anything—she dropped her sketchbook on the table and pushed it across. Danny grabbed it and eagerly took in the drawing. Paulina wanted to hide her face as his eyes widened and his mouth fell open.

The project was to draw the future. Paulina knew Dash was going for some sci-fi world with tall, gleaming buildings and flying cars. Star chose an apocalyptic wasteland. Kwan, ever the optimist, wanted to draw a full, green world. They were great ideas, but the project had no set restrictions, so Paulina went a different route.

She drew Danny. At least, how she pictured Danny after high school, after college, when he was grown up. In space, wearing a sleek astronaut suit. She gave him a stronger chin and jawline, to age him, but kept the wondrous grin that radiated innocent delight.

Danny stared at the sketch for a long time, his smile stretching into the same grin, before passing it back. "It's really good."

Paulina, too embarrassed, to speak, nodded in thanks. She hoped he didn't notice the black eye she had added to the drawing moments prior. Eager to move the conversation along, she asked, "What are you working on?"

"History essay. It's due tomorrow, but Lancer let us hand in drafts first, so I'm just editing it now." Danny lifted his essay, showing off the red pen marks all over the page.

"Huh. He's been doing that a lot more," Paulina said. She couldn't pinpoint when it started, but Lancer let students submit drafts in almost all his courses now.

"Yeah. Would have been nice if he did that from the start, but I got lucky. I was really close to failing history before he started doing this. It's pretty great."

"You know what really helps you pass your classes? Stop skipping them and actually do your homework," Paulina deadpanned. She could never hand in an unfinished assignment, much less skip class. How Danny did it without breaking down in a nervous fit, she had no idea.

Danny offered her a strained smile. "Ha, if only." He held her gaze for a few seconds before letting his eyes fall. Ducking his head, he folded his hands over his face. He probably meant to appear occupied with his essay, but his shaky breaths ruined the façade.

Paulina frowned. Stretching across the table, she tapped his hand, a light touch to grab his attention. Danny raised his head slightly and peered at her from behind his intertwined fingers. It was hard to meet his eyes. Something pitiful lurked in his gaze, a shadow of resignation dragging him down. It startled Paulina with its frailty.

A week ago, she never would have imagined finding such a self-deprecating glint in Danny's eyes. Despite how much she watched him, she really didn't know a lot about him, not until he sent that senior, Keith, running. But even after that, she couldn't picture it. She had seen Danny angry, embarrassed, happy, nervous. Not once had it crossed her mind that Danny could be brought so low by such powerful self-doubt.

Even now, seeing it for herself, it felt so off. Like it didn't belong in his eyes, because it didn't. Danny was supposed to be the nervous, smiling boy kicking rocks down the sidewalk.

"Danny... why do you skip school so much?" she asked.

He tensed, nails digging into the back of his hands, and glanced away.

"Is it related to you getting hurt all the time?" Paulina wanted to reach out and touch his cheek, just below the bruise, but held herself back. She didn't want to make Danny uncomfortable.

"Maybe," he whispered. Leaning back, he pulled the hood of Jazz's sweater up, tugging on the strings. As the they tightened, the hood's opening cinched together, squishing Danny's hair flat. "It's not that I don't want to tell you," he continued. "It's just... personal. And I can guarantee it's not anything you think it is."

"Can you?"

"Pinky swear." Danny stretched out, extending his pinky toward her.

Paulina wasn't satisfied, but she'd take. "Pinky swear." Meeting Danny in the middle of the table, she hooked her pinky around his and they shook on it.

—

You | yesterday 4:04 pm hey

Delete This Number | yesterday 6:22 pm ... you still have my number?

You | yesterday 6:22 pm i've been meaning to delete it it took you two hours to say that

Delete This Number | yesterday 6:26 pm Sure. You've been meaning to for almost two years. And some of us aren't attached to our phones.

You | yesterday 6:27 pm that's hilarious coming from you

Delete This Number | yesterday 6:31 pm It's Thursday. Cheerleading practice, duh.

You | yesterday 6:31 pm because i'm gonna remember that

Delete This Number | yesterday 6:31 pm Whatever. What do you want?

You | yesterday 6:57 pm we need to talk

Delete This Number | yesterday 6:58 pm Now who's taking forever?

You | yesterday 6:58 pm shut up i've got better stuff to do but constantly being mad at you is exhausting

Delete This Number | yesterday 6:58 pm Oh, no. Poor you.

You | yesterday 6:59 pm you know what this was a stupid idea whatever i don't care

Delete This Number | yesterday 7:09 pm I'll meet you before school tomorrow.

Sam scowled at her messages, wondering if this really was a good idea. She had spent the rest of Wednesday and most of Thursday considering Tucker's words. In all that time, she couldn't think of a solid argument against his advice. She hated it. But she wasn't stubborn enough to ignore it regardless, so as soon as she got home on Thursday, she gave in and messaged Paulina.

Sam wanted to work it out through text, so they wouldn't have to talk in person. Of course Paulina, being Paulina, had to make it an awkward, horrible, definitely-going-to-go-wrong face-to-face conversation.

"'Before school.' When before school? You couldn't say a damn time?" Sam muttered. She wasn't stupid enough to think the conversation would be short and sweet, but pacing in front of the school a full hour before the first bell made her feel like an idiot. It wouldn't surprise her if Paulina didn't even show. She should have just stayed home.

"This is stupid," she said.

"And yet you're still here."

Sam—who was not startled, merely mildly surprised—whirled around, instinctively raising her arms in defence.

Paulina gave Sam's bony fists an unimpressed stare. "Oh, please."

"I could take you."

"You're not worth the time." Paulina made a show of checking her nails, humming in disinterest. "If all you wanted was to threaten me, then I'll be going now." She turned toward the school, walking up the sidewalk.

Sam squeezed her eyes shut, clenching her fists. Before she could lose her nerve, she shouted, "Why did you stand me up?"

The sound of Paulina's footsteps stopped. Opening one eye to peek out, Sam saw Paulina frozen a few steps away from her. She was curled inward, fingers clenched around the fabric of her skirt. She took a deep breath, shoulders rising. As she let it out, she straightened up, raising her head and pushing her shoulders back, hands relaxing at her sides. By the time Paulina turned around to face Sam, she was perfectly composed.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Paulina said.

Sam gritted her teeth. Taking a step forward, she jabbed at Paulina. "You. Stood. Me. Up. In middle school."

"Sorry, not ringing any bells," Paulina said flippantly.

"The summer Danny and Tucker went to that stupid boys camp." Sam made a dismissive gesture.

"Nope."

"Damn it, Paulina! I'm trying to have a real conversation with you here! I'm tired. I'm tired of hating you. And I am so, so tired of being heartbroken when I don't even like you anymore!" Sam scrubbed her eyes. Stupid body crying without her permission. The last thing she wanted to do in front of Paulina now was cry. "I don't even know why I'm trying."

"Why are you always like this?" Paulina shouted. Her voice was thick and watery. Looking up, Sam saw she was crying, too. Fat tears rolled down her cheeks, smudging her makeup. "Why couldn't you just pretend it never happened?"

"Because I liked you!"

Paulina marched forward and grabbed Sam's wrist. "You want me to say it? Fine! I tricked you. I mislead you. I got pretty and loved and suddenly I was obligated to love everybody back. But you were supposed to be different!"

Sam ripped her hand out of Paulina's grip. "I was different!"

"Why? Because you were a girl? Newsflash, you weren't the only girl who liked me."

"Oh, poor miss popular. Thirteen years old and already boys and girls were throwing themselves at your feet. What a sad, woeful existence for you, huh?"

Paulina screamed wordlessly. Her hands shook. She turned, stomping up the path, then pivoted and came right back. "You know that's not what it was like. I told you. I told you so much."

"You told me you liked me!"

"And I lied!" Paulina bellowed.

They stood almost nose to nose, shoulders heaving, red-faced as they panted. Sam was suddenly very annoyed that Paulina had screamed first. Right now, screaming was all she wanted to do, but doing it second felt cheap.

"You, Paulina Sanchez, are a bitch," Sam spat.

"And you're pathetic."

Sam's gaze jumped all over Paulina's face, taking in her streaked mascara, her blush that was thoroughly ruined, her smudged eyeshadow. Sam probably didn't look much different, in that moment.

"I liked you. I really liked you. And you made me think you liked me, too." Sam's voice fell, going quiet at the end. She couldn't stand seeing Paulina's face. Paulina wasn't allowed to look heartbroken, not after what she did.

"That whole summer, you made me feel special." Sam struggled to keep her voice steady. "And it's so stupid, right? We were thirteen. We're barely older than that now. All of this will probably seem so stupid when we're older. Hell, it already does, considering the kind of stuff I've been through. But that doesn't stop it from hurting."

"You never told Danny or Tucker." The fight had gone out of Paulina's voice.

"No, I didn't. I didn't want to be another Sanchez reject." Sam spat the words bitterly. "But it didn't matter if they knew or not. You and I, we knew." She hugged herself. Being exposed like this was her worst nightmare. She wanted to go back to being the strong, loud, and proud Manson girl she always was. Not this heartbroken shell of someone she used to be. "Do you remember what we were supposed to do?"

Paulina worried her lip and said nothing.

"The beach. I liked it best at night, when the sand was cold and the ocean was back, and you told me you wanted to see it. I had to beg my mom to let me go out on my own so late. I waited for you for three hours." It had been the coldest, loneliest three hours in Sam's life at that point. By now, that top spot belonged to the hours waiting for Danny as he fought Pariah Dark. It made being stood up seem so trivial, but that didn't make it hurt any less.

Sam squeezed her phone. "Do you remember what your text said?"

Paulina's gaze dropped to the sidewalk. That was all the answer Sam needed.

"You said you were tired." Sam laughed. It sounded bitter and fragile, even to her ears. "You said you were tired of me following you around everywhere, and you said you didn't have time for a friend like me."

"Oh."

"Which brings me back to my original question. Why did you do it?"

Shame poured from Paulina, but it didn't fill Sam with the righteous vindication she always thought it would. It just made her sad. They could have been friends. If Paulina had just been honest with her from the start, Sam would have understood. Instead, they wasted two years hating each other, leaving their old wounds to fester and spoil, letting foolish mistakes ruin what could have been a great bond.

"I don't know," Paulina said.

"That's not a real answer."

"Like hell it isn't! I don't know, okay? I don't know why I did it. I wasn't sure how I felt about boys, I didn't even know I was allowed to like girls, and it was just too much. You were too much." Paulina toyed with her fingers, intertwining them and twisting them, an unusual display of nerves. "You were so certain about yourself, and I wasn't certain about anything. I just couldn't handle it, and the only solution I saw was to pretend it all never happened and move on."

"I want to call you a coward," Sam said. Paulina didn't protest, which was telling enough. It would be easy. Four simple words: you are a coward. But she couldn't do it. "You were a kid. And I was a kid. And we're still kids. I can't... I can't be mad at you for that. It still hurts, but I get it."

"You sound a lot like Danny, you know."

"Really?" Sam tipped her chin up. "How so?"

"He said something like that. Well, not really. But he said I was acting too grown up when I shouldn't be." Paulina wiped her face with the heel of her palm. It did nothing to improve her appearance, only smudging her makeup more.

"It's so annoying when he's right, isn't it?" Sam smiled.

Paulina smiled back. She laughed and nodded, the last few tears falling from her eyes. Hearing her laugh, Sam felt a weight lift off her. A great aching burden she had been carrying for two years suddenly disappeared, beaten back by that simple sound. She didn't like Paulina anymore, not like that, but Sam had always missed her.

She checked the time on her phone. "The first bus should get here in a couple minutes. Come on, you're a mess, and I've got some face wipes in my locker."

"Not like you look any better," Paulina pointed out.

"Maybe not. But I feel better," Sam said.

"Yeah. So do I."

They walked up the sidewalk, a yawning space between them, but it would close in time. Sam could feel it.

—

Paulina had only been to the Manson household a handful of times during the summer she and Sam almost dated. It was just as grand as she remembered. The Mansons were rich and extravagant and they liked to show it. Sam's understated style made it so easy to forget she came from money. Lots and lots of money.

"And she has a bowling alley!" Tucker said. For the past ten minutes, he had been regaling Paulina with the wonders of the house.

They sat in the plush armchairs of the Manson's basement theatre, the blank TV ahead of them. Sam and Danny were upstairs waiting for the pizza to arrive, leaving them alone. Paulina wasn't sure how she felt about that. Out of the trio of close-knit friends, Tucker was the only one she had never spent any one-on-one time with. He reminded her of Dash in too many ways, hitting on any girl within his sight.

Really, it was only the one similarity, but for Paulina, it was bad enough that she didn't like Tucker all that much. At least he had the brains to stop pursuing a girl the moment she said no. And, it seemed, he no longer had any interest in her.

"I wouldn't be surprised if there were a few secret passages in this place. It's just that big," Tucker said.

"There are," Paulina said.

"Really?" Tucker leapt up, bracing himself on the armrest, bouncing on his knees as he grinned at her. "Wait." His smile fell and his eyes narrowed. "How would you know?"

"Sam and I had a forbidden romance in middle school that ended up breaking her heart and ruining our potential friendship forever," Paulina said.

Tucker's eyes widened. He burst out laughing. "That's a good one!"

"Isn't it?" Paulina smiled.

"But really. You guys are square or whatever?" Tucker asked. "I was really surprised when Sam suggested we all hang out."

Paulina's first instinct was to snap that it wasn't any of his business. She resisted the urge, just barely, and instead said, "We're getting there."

It was shockingly easy to stop hating Sam, although maybe that shouldn't have been surprising. The only reason she hated Sam in the first place was because Sam hated her. And Sam didn't hate her anymore, never had. It was the strangest, most liberating feeling. She couldn't believe it had been that easy. Sort of easy. The crying hadn't been fun.

"Cool." Tucker's expression turned serious "Danny's my best friend, you know. He really likes you. If you do something that hurts him, and I mean really hurts him, I can mess you up."

"You have a D in gym class."

"But I've got an A in hacking."

"That's not a class."

"Stop ruining my threat! I'm trying to be intimidating, damn it!"

"I know, and I don't want to hurt Danny. But you should remember that sometimes people can hurt each other without meaning to. The only thing you can do then is make up or move on," Paulina said.

Tucker groaned. "Ugh, you're too mature, stop it."

Perhaps Tucker wasn't as bad as Paulina thought he was.

Loud, clunking steps echoed down the stairs. Sam emerged through the door, her heavy boots pounding on the carpet, holding four plates and four cups. Danny trailed after her, carrying three pizzas boxes in one hand and two large bottles of soda under his other arm.

"Pizza!" Danny announced, hoisting the boxes over his head.

"Do you need help with that?" Paulina asked, eyeing how he balanced the pizzas on the tips of his fingers.

"Nah, I'm good," he said. He set down the pizzas and soda on a nearby table without any hassle. "So, scale of ten, how intimidating was Tucker?"

Paulina glanced at Tucker, who was making an aggressive silencing motion toward Danny. "Oh my god. You totally told them both to go upstairs so you could give me the best friend talk, didn't you?"

"Dude! How could you betray me like that?" Tucker said.

Danny's grin held no remorse. "First, I opened my mouth. And then I said words. Scale of ten?"

"If ten's the best?" Paulina hummed as she thought about her answer. "I'm gonna say three."

"Oh, come on, it was a five at least," Tucker said.

"Hey, I gave you an extra two for the hacking thing. That's at least a valid threat."

"It was gonna be one?"

Paulina ignored Tucker's lamenting wail. Getting up, she joined Danny at the table, helping him set out the pizza boxes, flipping up the lid of each one. Meat lovers, ham and pineapple, and a veggie pizza with no cheese.

"What's with this one?" Paulina asked, pointing to the last pizza.

"It's vegan," Danny explained. "For Sam. Every Saturday we order our favourite pizzas and watch bad movies."

"And who's favourite is the pineapple?"

"I think you know."

"Gross."

"It's an underrated topping! Try it, maybe you'll like it." Danny grabbed a slice and held it out.

"Ew, no thank you," Paulina said.

"Come on." Danny leaned forward, slowly bringing the slice closer to her face.

Paulina laughed, shaking her head. "No, Danny, stop!"

"Hey, lovebirds!" Sam shouted.

"We're not– oh wait. Ha. Wrong person" Danny grinned sheepishly while everyone chuckled at his expense. "Yeah, Sam?"

"Help me with the chairs?"

"Sure." Danny stuffed the pizza slice in his mouth, leaving half of it dangling out as he jogged over to the chairs.

Hovering by the tables, she marvelled at Danny, wondering why on Earth she liked him in the first place. The pizza slices in his mouth slapped against his chin, grease dripping down the crust as he bounced around Sam and Tucker. It wasn't the most attractive image, but Paulina smiled at it anyway.

Danny, making slow progress, bumped the armchairs along with his hip, putting in the absolute minimal amount of effort.

"Danny, can you hurry up?" Sam huffed, hand on her hip.

Danny flopped onto the chair he had been pushing, legs draped over the armrest. "How about no?"

Sam reached out, fingers poised to flick Danny in the forehead. But, to Paulina's surprise, all she did was flick Danny's fringe. Danny responded by swatting in the general vicinity of her hand, missing by miles.

Paulina cocked her head and watched closer.

Tucker leaned over the back of the armchair, feet in the air, balancing on his gut. He wiggled his fingers over Danny, the universal threat for an impending tickle, but in the end, he just plucked at Danny's shirt in a mildly annoying manner.

"Okay, okay, I'll do it!" Danny rolled off the armchair, landing on his hands with his face inches from the floor. He popped right back to his feet and started pushing the chair again, this time with exaggerated effort. He huffed and puffed, and made his arms tremble as his feet slipped on the carpet.

Sam and Tucker stood back and rolled their eyes.

"Wouldn't it go faster if we all helped?" Paulina asked.

Danny didn't respond, too busy pushing the second armchair closer to the first one, but Sam and Tucker shared a look. A thousand words passed between them in that second, at least that's what it looked like to Paulina. Their mouth's twitched, shoulders lifted, eyebrows quirked. Small, silent gestures that meant to little to Paulina but so much to them.

"The armchairs have built in speakers and a bunch of other stuff. It makes them really heavy," Tucker explained.

"Isn't that more of a reason for us to help?" Paulina asked.

"Uh..."

"Danny's really particular about where we put the chairs. He likes the setup to be just right. Right, Tuck?" Sam said, turning a sickly sweet smile on him.

Tucker nodded vigorously. "Yeah! Yeah. Danny knows exactly where to put the chairs for optimal viewing."

Paulina didn't believe it for a second, but she let it drop anyway. Once Danny finished with the chairs, he dragged a couch that had been leaning against the back wall forward. He lined it up beside the chairs then jumped over the back, landing in the middle. Finally, he finished devouring the pizza slice he held in his mouth. Quite a few of the pineapples had fallen off by that point, littering the floor.

Danny bounced in his seat. "Okay, let's go!"

"Pizza and soda," Sam said as she walked toward Paulina.

Danny scrambled up from the couch and bounded over. "Right."

Everyone grabbed their pizza—Paulina took a slice of each—and their soda and got settled in. Sam and Tucker took the armchairs while Danny and Paulina sat on the couch, close but not quite touching.

"Okay, let's go," Danny said with a grin.

"Yeah, let's go," Tucker echoed.

"This is gonna be so bad."

"So bad."

"I can't believe they made a live-action adaptation for Doomed."

"I'm going to die."

"Come on, Sam, press play!"

"Yeah, Sam. Come on!"

"Maybe if you shut up, I will!" Sam pounced on Tucker, lunging across the space between the two chairs, and shoved him over. Snatching up a pillow from the floor, she tossed it back over her shoulder, hitting Danny in the face. Paulina ducked as the pillow hit him and flipped away, soaring over her head and landing with a soft whump.

Sam was already back in her seat and reaching for the remote by the time Paulina rose up. Paulina scrutinized the small gap between the couch and Sam's armchair, and the more sizeable distance between Sam and Tucker's chairs.

"Huh," she said.

"What?" Danny asked, glancing her way.

"Nothing, it's just..." Paulina trailed off, gaze drifting to the pillow on the floor. "It's nothing. I hope this movie is as bad as you say it is."

Danny beamed. "I hope it's worse."

The opening credits hadn't even finished before Tucker went to grab more pizza. On his way back, he snuck up on Sam, slapping his hands over her eyes. She squawked and smacked his chest in response. The next time Tucker got up, to refill his soda minutes after he'd refilled his plate, he snuck up on Danny. Although Paulina could hardly call it sneaking.

"Danny," Tucker whispered ominously from behind them. He struck the couch right beside Danny's ear, although Danny didn't even flinch, and draped himself over the back.

"Hey, hey, hey. Danny. Hey, Danny," Tucker said.

Danny rolled his eyes and looked over.

Tucker brought his arm around, swinging it wide and slow, and poked Danny in the cheek. "Boop." He grinned like an idiot. Heaving himself off the couch, he quickly scampered back to his seat and went back to watching the movie.

Paulina, on the other hand, watched Danny. He rubbed his cheek where Tucker had touched him, a soft smile on his face. Her eyes dipped to the space between them on the couch, mere centimeters. When his bumped his knee against hers, her eyes snapped back up to his face.

"You sure it's nothing?" Danny asked.

Paulina blanked. It took her a moment to remember what he was referring to, but when she did, she smiled reassuringly. "Yeah, it really is."

Danny shrugged. "Okay." He turned his attention back to the movie.

Paulina tried to do the same, but for the first half, she found herself observing Danny and his friends more. Sam and Tucker were playful and physical with each other, hitting shoulders, poking and prodding, invading each other's personal space at every whim. How they interacted with Danny was completely different. There was hardly any contact, at least not skin to skin. They would throw pillows at him, ruffle his hair, and pluck at his clothes, but not much beyond that.

If they did touch him, they telegraphed their movements to be as visible as possible, as if they were warning him. Paulina, a physically affectionate person herself, silently took note of all this as the evening wore on.

—

Sunday afternoon, the sun beat down from a cloudy sky, a cool breeze raising goosebumps along Paulina's arms. It was her favourite kind of day, when the clouds were light and wispy, casting meagre shadows that made the heat bearable. She loved to paint in her backyard on days like this. She loved it even more when her friends joined her.

"So, are you dating him or not?" Kwan asked.

Sprawled out on his stomach, he picked a dandelion from the pile before him, weaving it into the crown he was making.

Paulina took a moment to finish her brush stroke, adding the famed Fenton Works insignia to the front of Danny's spacesuit in her drawing. "Not yet," she answered.

"Oh, okay."

Star, laying down beside Kwan, rolled onto her back and rested her head on Paulina's thigh. "I can't believe Tucker got to do the best friend speech first. He stole my thunder."

"Trust me, he didn't steal anyone's thunder," Paulina said.

Dash yawned. "I just don't get why you're wasting your time with him." He flicked through the book he was supposed to be reading for English, scanning the page but hardly taking in a single word.

Paulina dropped her watercolour brush into her jar of water and glared at Dash. "Because I like him. He's nice, and funny, and cute. And you need to stop being such an ass to him all the time."

"What? I'm not an ass!" Dash dropped his book. It landed facedown, pages folding against the grass.

Star made a disgruntled noise in the back of her throat. Reaching out, she grabbed the book and smoothed the pages out. "You're totally an ass."

"Am not!"

"When was the last time you went a day without punching someone?"

"Shut up, that doesn't make me an ass!"

"It does," Star and Paulina chorused.

Dash grumbled under his breath. "Whatever. I don't care. You're the one who's wasting your time."

Paulina paused, giving Dash a considering look. They had been friends for a long time, just as long as Danny, Sam, and Tucker had been. Hanging out with Danny and his friends yesterday, Paulina realized something. Her friendship with Dash was severely lacking. Nowadays, they bickered more than they got along. Suddenly, Paulina understood the frustration Sam showed during their argument. She, too, was tired. Tired of Dash being, well, Dash.

"Maybe I am," she said. Kwan and Star gave her matching looks of surprise. "But if I'm wasting my time with anyone, it's you, Dash."

"Hey, whoa, wait. What?" Dash's eyes widened. "What are you talking about?"

Paulina put her painting aside, gently setting it down on the wooden deck behind her, next to her watercolour set. "I think it's really obvious what I'm talking about." She crossed her legs, resting her hands on her knees. "You're mean, Dash."

Dash sputtered. "So what? So are you."

"Yeah, you're right. But I don't want to be anymore."

"So you'd rather be a loser instead of popular?"

"Oh, come on. Are you really this dense, Dash?" Star interjected. She sat up, scooting closer to Paulina. "You think people like you? Sure, you're good at football, and so is Kwan. And Paulina and I are pretty. But no one actually likes us, because all we do is hurt the people who don't like us."

"I'm not ready for this kind of introspection," Kwan whispered.

Dash's face scrunched in confusion. "That doesn't even make sense. If we hurt the people who don't like us, then everyone has to like us. Or else we'll hurt them."

"Kwan," Paulina said.

"Please don't," he said.

"Do you really enjoy bullying people?"

Kwan pursed his lips. He focused on his dandelion crown, touching up a few flowers. Everyone watched him expectantly. After nearly a minute, he caved. "Okay fine, I don't."

Dash had the gall to look shocked, gaping at Kwan in disbelief.

"You're my best friend, Dash, and I didn't want you to stop being my best friend. I didn't want you to be mean either. It's not fun. I mean, sometimes I can get caught up in it, and it sort of feels like fun in the moment, but afterward I just feel awful." Kwan pushed himself up, toying with the crown in his lap. "I wanted to tell you. But I thought you might make fun of me."

"Kwan, I wouldn't–"

"You kicked me out when Paulina dated Danny before."

Dash fell silent.

And Paulina... she hadn't known that. She tried to think back to that week, but the only thing that came to mind were vague recollections of her classes. That memory must have been tied up in her time with Danny, and Kitty removed it. Paulina felt sick.

"That wasn't– I didn't–" Dash floundered. He couldn't defend himself. Nothing he could say to that would turn him into the good guy. "You can't talk to me like I'm the only one who's ever hurt someone! You're not better than me."

"No, we're not," Star said. "But I think..." She looked to Paulina, then Kwan, who both nodded. "We want to be. And we'll leave you behind if we have to."

Paulina would never be more grateful for Star's bluntness. Her bubbly personality and cheerful voice made her hard to argue against. If Paulina had said those things, Dash would rail and brawl against her, but as it stood, he could only stare at Star, at a loss for words.

Star grabbed Kwan's dandelion crown from his hands and stood. She dropped the crown on Kwan's head, breaking him out of his daze. Blinking, he looked up at her, and rose to join her. As they headed inside, Paulina quickly packed up her watercolours, washing her brush and slipping it back into its plastic sleeve, screwing the cap on her jar of water. Careful not to touch the wet painting, she picked up her notebook.

"It's your choice, Dash." She went inside without looking back.

—

Despite everything Danny had been through since becoming a halfa, the strangest week of his life by far was the week Dash did not touch him. No slaps on the back of the head. No body slams in the middle of the hallway. No punches, no kicks, no being stuffed into the closest open locker. Monday to Friday, Dash didn't even look at Danny. It was incredibly disorienting.

"Maybe he's sick," Danny said at lunch.

"No. He doesn't style his hair when he's sick, because it takes too much effort," Star said.

That was another thing that made this week strange. Paulina, Kwan, and Star had joined Danny and his friends for lunch every day. Up until that point, Danny and Paulina hadn't hung out much at school, and they definitely hadn't hung out with all their friends together.

"How do you even know that?" Tucker asked.

Star grinned. "I know everything."

"Dash also complains nonstop about his hair not looking good because he's too tired to style it when he's sick," Kwan said.

"You're no fun, Kwan."

"I try."

"Try harder," Sam said.

Danny grinned at the banter. Of course he did, he loved banter. But more than that, he liked seeing everyone get along. Thinking it made him feel like a grade-schooler who wanted everyone to be friends, but no one could fault him for that. He did want it. At least, he wanted his and Paulina's friends to be friends, and there was nothing wrong with that. Star and Kwan were pretty cool when they weren't being mean.

A heavy finger prodded Danny's shoulder. He arched away from the touch, grimacing, and twisted to face the source. Dash stood behind him, shuffling from foot to foot, hand outstretched.

Danny waited for the impending beating, because surely that's why Dash was there, but nothing happened. After a long, uncomfortable moment, he hesitantly said, "Hi?"

"Hey," Dash's eyes jumped from person to person as he took in everyone seated at the table. Nervously licking his lips, he glanced away, then back at Danny. "I'm not gonna wail on your or anything anymore. Don't expect me to say sorry, though."

"Um." Danny sent Paulina a questioning stare. She looked right back, smiling innocently. Which meant this whole apology-not-apology reeked of her meddling. Not that Danny was going to complain. "Okay. Fine."

"Good." Dash shuffled his feet again. "Can I..." he trailed off.

On the other side of the table, Star and Kwan scooted apart, making room for him. Dash's shoulders slumped in relief. He hurried around the table, taking the open seat across from Danny. The next minute was spent in silence. Awkward, delicate silence.

Kwan nudged Dash, who quietly hissed "What?" under his breath. Kwan jerked his chin toward Danny. Dash shook his head. Star jabbed him in the side and pointed to Paulina, then Danny. It took all of Danny's will not to laugh at Dash's expense.

"Fine." Dash groaned. "Fenton."

"Yes, Dash?" Danny smiled pleasantly.

"You guys should. Come to the game. Tonight. Or whatever," Dash said haltingly.

Danny choked back a laugh.

"Hey, I'm trying to be sincere here!"

"I know. I know, sorry, it's just." He slapped a hand over his mouth, unable to contain his giggles. "I can't believe you're shy."

"Shut up!"

—

Paulina had gone to plenty of football games. She had to, being a cheerleader and all. All night, she and the other girls stood on the sidelines, cheering the boys on, pumping up the crowd. She loved it. However, tonight was the first time she would rather be up in the stands. With Star cheerleading next to her, and Kwan and Dash out on the field, she never had any friends looking down on the game. They were all right in the action with her. But this time, Danny and his friends were here.

They had never bothered to come to games before. She understood that it didn't interest them that much, but now that they were here, she wanted to be with them. She wanted to make sure they enjoyed it as much as she always did.

Excitement fizzled through the air. Classmates and family buzzing with energy, ready to show their spirit. Drinking it all in was one of the best feelings in the world. She wanted Danny to feel the same spark.

Paulina stood on her toes, peering into the stands, trying to find Danny. There were a lot of people at the game tonight, but he said he'd be easy to find. Once, twice, three times she scanned the seats and couldn't find him.

"He's here," Star said, placing a reassuring hand on Paulina's shoulder.

"I don't see him."

Star leaned around Paulina. Her face lit up. "I do," she said. Pushing Paulina's shoulder, she turned her around.

Danny, Tucker, and Sam stood in the shadows just beyond the floodlights. Tucker had an arm around Danny's shoulder. It was the most physical contact Paulina had seen between them over these past few weeks. Sam stood opposite the boys, gesturing wildly, face red. Her hair was falling out of her ponytail, dirt smudged her cheeks, and there was a tear in her sweater.

"Damn, she looks mad," Star said.

"Yeah." Paulina frowned.

Danny threw his arm out, pointing in the general direction of the cheerleaders. Despite being so far away, she could hear his raised voice. It wasn't clear enough to make out the words, but it was loud. The argument came to an end when Sam shook her head, jabbed Danny's shoulder hard enough to make him stumble, and stomped toward the bleachers.

On her way up the steps, Sam looked down and caught Paulina's eye. Paulina didn't bother hiding that she'd been watching. To her surprise, Sam didn't turn her anger toward Paulina. She just sighed and rolled her eyes, shrugging her shoulder in a what can you do gesture.

Paulina raised an eyebrow, tilting her head toward the boys, who still stood in the shadows.

Sam mouthed, "Being idiots."

Paulina couldn't help but laugh. She waved Sam on, turning her focus back to Danny and Tucker. In the time she looked away, Tucker had taken his arm from Danny's shoulder and stepped back. He said a few quiet words, grinned, then followed Sam.

Danny searched the throng of cheerleaders, easily spotting Paulina, and started over.

Paulina's smile quickly fell when she noticed him favouring his right leg. She ran toward him, meeting him halfway. "Danny, what happened?"

"Ah, it's nothing, really," he said, rubbing his leg. "Got caught in a ghost attack on the way here. Sorry we're late."

"Danny, that's not nothing! That could be serious. You're limping."

"Jammed my leg on something. It hurts now, but it'll be fine later."

"You needed Tucker to help you with a jammed leg?" Paulina asked.

"Uh. Yes?"

"Honestly." Paulina shook her head. "I'm glad you're here. But if you do anything stupid, or if I find out you're more hurt than you say you are, I'm gonna drag you back home myself, got it?"

Danny saluted her. "Got it! Have fun cheering. Good luck." Leaning forward, he kissed her on the cheek before she could react. He scampered up the bleachers, crowing with delight. "See you at half-time!"

Paulina touched her cheek, watching him.

"Do you think he knows he just stole your first kiss?" Star asked.

"It was just a cheek kiss, it doesn't count," Paulina said.

"Spoken like someone who hasn't had her first kiss." Star patted her shoulder and walked away.

Paulina trailed after her, calling out protests as they made their way onto the field for their opening cheer. It didn't count. Not as a whole kiss, at least. Half of one. A third. One quarter!

—

As the whistle went for half-time, Paulina hopped to her feet, waving her pom-poms in the air, screaming and cheering. Casper High was winning, eighteen to six. The team was having a good game so far. She high-fived the players as they came off the field, telling each of them "Great work!" When Kwan and Dash approached, she jumped up to give each of them a hug.

Paulina peered over her shoulder, surveying the bleachers. Danny had been sitting near the top of the bleachers last she saw, but he wasn't there now. "You guys are doing great," she said to Kwan and Dash. Turning back, she found them looking at her in amusement. "What?"

"Hurry up and find your boyfriend," Dash said.

"We're not dating yet. I was very particular about that," Paulina said. "But yes. I will go find him." Her friends giggled. She flipped them off as she walked away, skipping toward the bleacher steps. Chances were, Danny had gone to the bathroom and would be right back. She could stand out of the way until then. She only had to wait a minute before a hand closed around her wrist.

"Danny, did you–" Before she could finish turning, she was yanked back. She cried out. A hand slapped over her mouth, silencing her. Something cold touched her neck, sending shivers up her spine. She struggled and kicked as she was pulled behind the bleachers.

"Hey, stop. Don't scream, okay? I just want to talk. Okay? That's it. Just a talk." Paulina recognized the voice. The hands touching her disappeared and she was shoved forward into the chain-link fence. She spun around, pressing her back against the fence, fingers curling around the metal, and stared at Keith. He held a beer bottle loosely in one hand. His face was flushed, eyes glazed, and he swayed in place.

"I've just got one question. Just one, that's it. That's all I want." He took a step forward and stumbled. Paulina flinched away from him as he careened into the fence. "Hold on, wait. Don't go. 'M sorry."

Grabbing Paulina's shoulder, he pulled her back, bracing his other arm above her head so he had her caged in.

"You said... you said you were goin' out with that scrawny kid, right? Short guy, messy hair." He stuck his hand out, trying to mime Danny's height. He went half a foot too short. "That little dude. Little guy. Tiny guy. Kinda freakishly strong though."

"What about him?" Paulina asked.

"I heard some funny things. Very funny. Very... interesting. I heard you're not dating him."

"Don't believe everything you hear." She pushed off the fence, determined to slip around him, but Keith grabbed her shoulder and shoved her back again.

"See, but the thing is, I didn't just hear it from anybody. I heard it from you. Just now."

Paulina swallowed nervously but refused to be cowed. "So what?"

"I'm just kinda heartbroken, you know? I can't believe you'd lie to me. I think you owe me a chance, don't you?" He hunched over her, rank breath warming her face. Paulina tried to turn away from him, but he grabbed her chin and forced her head up. "Just one," he whispered.

A cry of rage snatched Keith's attention away from Paulina. A small body slammed into him, ripping him away. Wind whipped past Paulina's face, throwing hair in her eyes. She scrambled to brush it aside, staring wide-eyed at Danny crouching over Keith.

"Get the hell away from her you fucking creep!" He grabbed Keith's collar, lifting him, and slammed him down into the ground.

Keith coughed and groaned. "Dude, what the hell. It was a damn kiss."

Danny was nearly half Keith's size, and he was definitely half his weight. He had thin arms, messy clothes, bags under his eyes, and youthful fat in his cheeks. But he loomed over Keith, fists curled in Keith's shirt, feet planted on either side of his waist. Danny snarled, animalistic. A strange inhuman rumbling filled the air, one Paulina didn't hear so much as she felt it in her bones. It filled her head and pressed against her skull.

Fear struck Paulina's heart. Not fear of Danny, but fear for Keith and what Danny was going to do to him. A rather vocal part of her cried out that Keith deserved it, and he absolutely would. But Danny didn't deserve whatever hell there would be to pay once all was said and done.

"Danny, let's just go," Paulina pleaded. The rumbling stopped. It made her head feel empty and disoriented, as if the whole world had suddenly gone quiet, even though she could still hear. the revelry beyond the bleachers.

Danny turned his head, inspecting her over his shoulder. "Are you okay?" Opening his fists, he dropped Keith back to the ground, abandoning him in favour of Paulina. "He didn't hurt you, did he?"

"No." Paulina shook her head. "I'm fine." Mostly. A little shaken up. She just wanted to get out of there.

Behind them, Keith groaned. "What the hell." He rolled onto his stomach and pushed himself onto his hands and knees. Head lolling, he searched the ground, locating his beer bottle, which had gone flying from his hand when Danny tackled him. It was smashed, shards of glass littering the grass, beer turning the dirt to mud. "Hey, you." Keith's voice was oddly calm, but his eyes were still dazed, a jarring combination. His gaze settled on Danny. "I'm gonna kill you."

"Run!" Danny shouted. He grabbed Paulina's hand and charged forward. Keith's arm shot out into their path. With the narrow space between the fence and bleachers, there was no way they could dodge around him without ducking into the maze of beams supporting the benches overhead. But Danny didn't stop. And Paulina didn't try to stop him. She trusted him.

"Close your eyes!" Danny called.

She did. A cool sensation washed over her, just for a moment. Unlike the cold beer bottle against her neck, which unsettled her, this feeling calmed her. Liked the chilled arms of a gentle ghost were wrapped around her. It was gone all to soon, accompanied by Danny's shout that she could open her eyes. When she did, they were clear of the bleachers and heading straight for the school.

Eyes widening in surprise, she glanced over her shoulder. Keith was behind them, swerving across the grass as he gave chase. His steps were uneven, but they were also much longer, and he was quickly gaining on them.

Turning back around, she noticed Danny was taking them toward the front doors.

"No, they're locked!" Paulina shouted, tugging Danny back. He faltered, and she took the lead instead, pulling him along the side of the building. "The gym doors!"

Danny squeezed her hand to show he heard.

"Get back here!" Keith bellowed, right behind them now. Reaching out, he grabbed Paulina's long hair.

She screamed in surprise and pain as her head snapped back and she was yanked to a stop.

"Shit, sorry," Keith mumbled. Before he could say anything else, Danny leapt at him, fist cocked, and punched him in the face. Keith went down hard, crying out and clutching his nose.

Danny shook out his fist, rubbing Keith's blood on his blue shorts, and took Paulina's hand again, helping her to her feet. They charged at the gym doors, throwing them open.

"Girls' locker room," Paulina whispered as loudly as she dared. She didn't think Keith would give chase any time soon, but she didn't want to risk it.

"But that's, that's the girl's locker room!" Danny protested.

"And I'm a girl and I'm saying it's fine!" Paulina shoved him toward the entrance, pushing him down the narrow hall until the changeroom opened up on their right. They finally stopped, panting and leaning against each other.

Paulina panted, clutching a stitch in her side. She ran often, but fleeing from a drunk, rabid senior wasn't quite the same as jogging around the football field for a light warmup. Beside her, Danny grimaced and kneaded his right thigh with his knuckles. Paulina opened her mouth to ask about it, then stopped when she realized something important. With Danny's shoulder pressed against hers, this was the most they had ever touched. She tensed, but said nothing, not wanting to break the moment.

To her disappointment, Danny broke it for her. He stepped away, putting some distance between them, and sat down on the closest bench, fingers digging into his thigh as he gripped it tight.

"Let me just check if we're alone," Paulina said.

Danny nodded.

She walked deeper into the room, peering down the rows. A few lockers were open, and some of her fellow cheerleaders' things littered the benches, but there were no girls inside. Stopping at the last row, by her own locker, she softly called out, "It's clear."

"'Kay. Give me a second."

Paulina raised her eyes brows but didn't question it. Danny wasn't as active as her, so he probably had a worse cramp. Although, now that Paulina thought about it, he hadn't seemed too winded. Rather, he had focused more on his leg. Now worried, she started forward, but Danny chose that moment to come around the corner.

He looked bad. Face pale, a sheen of sweat on his forehead, eyes turned down. He braced himself against the side of the lockers and hobbled forward, his limp far more pronounced than before.

Red spots stood out starkly against the pale colour of his shorts. Paulina thought it was Keith's blood for a moment, until she noticed the red streak on his other leg, in line with Danny's knuckles. That was Keith's blood. The rest wasn't. Paulina's breath caught in her throat.

Danny's head jerked up. He froze when he saw her staring. "Oh. You aren't. Sitting down."

"No, I'm not."

"Huh." Danny stood up straighter and took a step forward. The moment he put too much weight on his injured leg, he crumpled to the floor, hunching over.

"Danny!" Paulina darted forward, reaching out to him.

Danny's hand shot out, stopping her. "Don't touch me!" His fingers twitched. Grabbing his hand, he rubbed his palm and looked away. "Sorry. That was rude. It's just... it was too much. Give me a moment."

Lifting himself off the floor, he folded his good leg underneath him and stretched the other out. He gritted his teeth in pain.

Paulina hovered. She wanted to help, but anything she could think of meant touching him. With her limited options, she decided to give Danny his requested moment, sitting down opposite him. Extending her own legs, she bumped her shoes against his, touching without touching.

Danny shot her a weak, thankful grin and tapped her back.

Guilt curled in her gut. She should have sent him home the second she learned he was injured. No doubt that's what Sam was trying to do at the start of the game. But Sam let Danny stay, and she wasn't the kind of person to back down when it really mattered. Tucker hadn't looked worried, either. Did Danny hide how injured he was from them? It seemed to unlike him.

Her thoughts must have been written across her face, because Danny cracked a grin and said, "Note to self: don't run when you have a bad leg."

"Note to self: don't let Danny be an idiot and abstain from medical assistance," Paulina countered.

"Touché. Would you believe me if I said I really am fine? Or I will be. I would have been if it weren't for all the running. Give me a week and I'll be right back to normal."

"Danny, there's blood on your clothes. Not only do I not believe you, but I should probably be calling an ambulance or something." But she didn't reach for her phone. She didn't move to get up. Despite her words, she did believe him. It made no sense. But for the past three weeks, she had seen Danny sporting fresh bruises and cuts that all disappeared in days. For the past year, she had seen him beaten down and battered, and he always bounced back.

"I can't stop you. Literally." Danny tapped his finger against his injured leg. "But I hope you'll trust me."

Paulina rolled her eyes. Crawling forward, she moved to sit beside him, careful to keep some space between them. "Don't be stupid, of course I trust you. I probably shouldn't, but I do."

"It's my wonderful charm. You just can't help it."

"I highly doubt that's it."

"Okay, ouch. That hurts so much worse than my leg."

Paulina flicked Danny's hair. "You're tougher than that." Bringing one leg up, she rested her chin on her knee and grinned. "That was some tackle. It's going to be much harder to convince me you don't waste your time fighting behind the school."

"Well–" Danny scratched his cheek nervously "–not behind the school."

Paulina's eyebrows shot up. "What?"

"You know that secret I wasn't telling you? I kind of fight ghosts," Danny said. He curled his fingers in his pant legs, knuckles going white. "So, yeah. That's what it is."

Paulina had to wait for her brain to catch up to her ears. Danny fought ghosts. Danny fought ghosts. Danny fought. "You really are a Fenton."

"Huh?" Danny reared away, giving her the most comical look, lips pursed, eyebrows furrowed, nose scrunched.

She laughed, throwing her head back. Remembering a second later they were trying to be quiet, she pressed her mouth against her knee, cheeks puffing out. It took a minute to gather herself together, getting enough breath so she could speak without bursting into a fresh round of giggles. "You wouldn't be much of a Fenton if you didn't fight ghosts. I bet your parents are proud."

"Yeah, about that. They don't know, so you can't tell them."

"You haven't told them?"

"Have you seen my parents? They can be a bit overbearing." Paulina opened her mouth to retort, but Danny raised a finger, silencing her. He continued, "Trust me. I know you've seen them around town and everything—they're kind of hard to miss—but you haven't seen how they are when you're really face-to-face."

"I don't know if I like the sound of that," Paulina said.

"They're not bad. And they mean well. But they're really into the whole 'family ghost hunting' thing. I bet they have a matching jumpsuit stored away for me somewhere." Danny's voice strained at the end. A nervous laugh followed the statement, and Paulina was struck with the realization that Danny was a terrible liar. She was about to call him on it when Danny kept going.

"There's a little more to it. Not the parent thing, the fighting ghosts. I don't think I'm ready to tell you that yet, but I didn't want to lie, either. I hope that's okay." Danny ran a hand through his hair, looking up at Paulina with worried eyes.

"Of course it's fine," Paulina said.

He must have been more anxious than Paulina thought, because the moment she spoke, he slumped, relief washing over him. The crease in his brow smoothed out and the slight frown on his lips disappeared.

"You don't have any equipment," Paulina said, switching topics. "How do you fight?"

The grin Danny gave her was the smuggest thing she had ever seen. "I fistfight them."

Paulina gaped. "You do not!"

"I do! I swear! What, you don't think these fists–" he raised his hands into a boxing pose and jabbed the air "–could take out a full-grown ghost?"

"I don't think they could take out a butterfly."

"What about a butterfly ghost?"

"Now that's just sad."

Danny sniggered. Pain still lingered in his eyes, giving them a glassy sheen, but the colour had returned to his cheeks. His smile was wide and infectious.

Paulina knew there was a secret hidden behind that grin, but she didn't mind as much anymore. The meagre time they had spent together over the last three weeks was hardly enough to know each other deeply. But, sitting there together, long after half-time had ended, Paulina decided she didn't need to know every little thing about him.

She knew she liked him, and he liked her. That was enough for now.

—

Danny's weekend plans were simple. Wake up in bed. Stay there. Running from Keith on Friday had torn the hasty stitches Sam patched his thigh with after Skulker's attack. He knew going to the game when he needed to rest was a dumb idea, but he wanted to see Paulina cheer. Besides, none of them could have predicted Keith cornering Paulina behind the bleachers. Danny had completely forgotten about the guy after their first encounter. He wouldn't forget him again any time soon.

Thinking about last night had him gritting his teeth. Finding Paulina had been pure luck. His ghost sense had gone off before the end of the second quarter and he had to check for threats. Thankfully, it was just a couple mindless animal ghosts, but finding them took so long that the quarter was over by the time he got back. He saw Paulina and Keith when he was flying back to Sam and Tucker.

Danny rubbed his thigh. Skulker managed to cut him deep. The wound throbbed and ached, and he itched to scratch at his bandages. It would be a good few days before he could walk without a limp.

Not for the first time, Danny's stomach rumbled. He only woke up a few hours ago and hadn't bothered to go down for breakfast, or lunch. Yesterday, Jazz had been home to bring him snacks throughout the day, but today she was out with friends. It was a tossup between filling his stomach or resting his leg, and he chose to rest.

Until his phone went off with a text notification.

Stretching out of bed, Danny reached for his phone, quickly unlocking it and checking his messages. He had one from Paulina.

Parrot Potassium | today 2:33 pm If you're okay, meet me at NB at four. Let me know!

"That's just not fair," Danny muttered. He and Paulina had plans Monday after school, but he could hardly pass up the opportunity to spend more time with her. Sitting up slowly, he grimaced at the twinge in his leg. It was bearable but still unpleasant. He swung his legs over the edge of the bed and stood up. Slowly, he took a few steps across his room. His leg trembled if he put too much weight on it, but short, quick steps were okay.

Turning back to his phone, he sent Paulina a quick message.

You | today 2:35 pm I'll see you there

—

When Danny arrived at the Nasty Burger, he found Paulina waiting for him with their food already in front of her. She had claimed the same booth they sat in during their first visit. The food was the same, too. He slid onto the bench opposite her, tapping his foot against hers under the table.

She tapped back.

"Look what I found outside." Danny dug into his pocket and pulled out a pebble, dropping it onto the table.

Paulina snorted. "I'm pretty sure that's just a random rock."

"Nah, it's clearly ours. Look, it has my eyes." Danny flicked the pebble toward her.

Paulina scrambled to catch it but missed. It tumbled over the edge of the table and landed in her lap. "I wasn't ready," she protested, tossing the pebble back to Danny.

He caught it against his chest. "Sounds like someone's a sore loser."

"I can't believe you'd say that to a girl."

"I'm an equal opportunity taunter." Danny returned the pebble to his and grabbed his soda, taking a drink. "So, what's the occasion?"

"Occasion?"

"Yeah. We were gonna see each other tomorrow anyway."

Paulina pouted. "I needed a reason?"

"Ah, no, I mean. You– um... you're joking, aren't you?" Danny wilted as Paulina's pout morphed into a satisfied smirk.

"Only by half. I actually didn't think you'd come. How's your leg?"

"A lot better today."

Drumming her fingers on the table, Paulina raised an eyebrow. "Liar." She stole Danny's soda out of his hand and sipped it. "Next time, don't strain yourself for me. And I mean it. That doesn't just mean if you're injured, either. If you're tired, if you have homework, if you're just having a bad day." She folded her hands, brushing her thumb over her knuckles.

Danny curled his fingers, digging his nails into his palms. He knew exactly what she was thinking about. It was so frustrating, hating being touched. His family was rather physical with their affection and he used to be the same, but ever since the accident, ever since he started fighting, he just couldn't stand it. One year was all it took to break the boy who loved to hug his friends and family. He had a feeling it would take much longer to fix.

"Hey," Paulina said softly.

Danny blinked, snapping out of his thoughts, and met her eyes.

"You know it's okay, right?"

"It's stupid," Danny said.

"No, it's not."

"You don't even know why I'm like this.

"Do I have to?"

Danny opened his mouth, then closed it. He thought about their interacts over the past week, ever since movie night at Sam's house. As Danny's hate for contact grew, Sam and Tucker's behaviour around him changed. Both were slow processes that happened at the same time. Sam and Tucker learned about his aversion to touch at the same pace as him. They had time to adjust to it. Paulina didn't. But she had made accommodations for him anyway. Just like that, without knowing the reason, without asking for it, she changed. For him.

Under the table, Paulina knocked her foot against his. "Okay?"

"Yeah." Danny smiled.

"Good. Because there are no pity parties allowed at the Nasty Burger. This is a horrible place to have a part of any kind. Have you seen how greasy everything is?" Paulina took her phone from her pocket and started swiping through it. "And I wanted to show you this. You can see the real thing on Monday, because I have to hand it in, but I couldn't wait."

She slid her phone across the table.

Danny picked it up, taking in the picture on the screen. It was her painting of him, completed. "Hey, you changed it." He couldn't remember exactly what the original sketch looked like, but he was certain he wasn't fighting anyone in the first one. In the drawing, he held his fists up, ready to punch or defend. Across from him floated a strange green creature with too many limbs to be human.

"I had to redo it all yesterday, since I had already started painting it. But I really wanted to add that in," Paulina said.

"Am I fighting a ghost or an alien?"

"An alien ghost."

"Cool." Danny took in the rest of the painting. The watercolours were beautiful, galaxies swirling behind him and the ghost alien. Much to his amusement, Paulina had added Jazz's hoodie over his spacesuit.

"I didn't know sweaters were suitable for the vacuum of space," he said.

"It's the fashion of the future. Burgundy is very in, especially in space," Paulina explain.

Danny's grin stretched wider.

The spacesuit itself resembled a Fenton jumpsuit, at least what little he could see of it did, and his helmet was sleek, with a wide visor. Danny thought he could stare at it forever. Paulina, however, had other plans, and soon snatched her phone back.

Danny made a noise of disappointment, reaching out after her.

"I'll text you the picture," she said.

"Good." Danny paused. "You know, you could have done that from the beginning."

"Maybe, but I wanted to see your face when you saw it." Paulina, eyes on her phone, missed Danny's brilliant smile. He was okay with that, taking a moment to watch her. She didn't have much makeup on today, her freckles on full display. She had forgone her usual purple eyeshadow and move lipstick for more natural tones.

Danny didn't know much about makeup, but he thought Paulina looked beautiful no matter what. In his pocket, his phone buzzed.

"Sent!" Paulina said. She looked up and caught him staring. "What? What is it?"

Danny gave her a lopsided grin. "You're pretty."

Paulina turned crimson. "Shut up, I know."

"Good."

"Eat your burger! It's gonna go cold. And don't even think about paying my back this time."

Danny took a massive bite out of the burger, so big his cheeks puffed out as he chewed, and gave Paulina a tight-lipped smile. After swallowing, he asked, "What if I want to pay you back?"

"You can't." Paulina shook her head. "That's not how dates work."

Danny, on his way in for his second bite, froze. He stared at Paulina, who took another long swig of his soda and smiled back. A glob of sauce fell out of the bottom of his burger and landed on his jeans.

"Damn it." Danny hissed, putting his burger aside, and grabbed a napkin, patting at the stain. As he dabbed, he looked back up. "If this is a date," he smiled widely when he said date, "then shouldn't the guy be paying?"

"We can take turns." Paulina passed Danny her own napkins.

He took them, mumbling a quick thanks, and finished wiping up the stain. Crumpling the napkins, he put them aside and turned all his focus on Paulina. "What about the... thing. You know, the secret I'm still hiding?"

"You don't have to tell me, not if you don't want to. Not right now. You were right before. We're not grown up. Maybe we'll keep dating all through high school. Maybe we'll break up in a month. We don't know." Paulina's words didn't fill Danny with confidence, but he didn't interrupt. "We're barely high schoolers and we like each other. That means we're allowed to have fun. It also means we don't have to tell each other absolutely everything."

"I want to," Danny said in a rush. "I really want to." He meant it. Paulina knowing his secret wouldn't be bad. It would probably be great, actually. But not now."

"Not yet," Paulina said, finishing Danny's thought for him.

He nodded.

Swinging her legs onto her bench, Paulina twisted to lean her back against the window. She rested her elbow on the table, chin balanced on her knuckles, and met his stare. For the first time, Paulina really did look her age, wrapped in a comfortable sweater, smiling like nothing else mattered but right now. Danny wanted to stay in that moment forever.

"We're kids," Paulina said. "We've got all the time in the world."

#phic phight #phic phight 2020 #danny phantom #danny phantom fanfiction #phic #danny fenton/paulina sanchez #pink astronaut #friendship #fluff #romance #lesbian sam #bi paulina #the a-listers are self-aware #tumblroneshots

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thatdarkwitch · 3 years

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In Defence of Winx Club season 5?

Yes, I’m doing this. I went back and rewatched it to reformulate my opinion.

Edit: this is from like six months ago but the fandom is dead so have my unpopular opinion.

So season 5 is actually alright , not great, almost good. The biggest problems with it are what wasn’t done. It could have been better but I still like it. Nostalgia I suppose.

Before I say anything I want to submit a formal complaint about the Magic Dimension’s security.

Plot: The plot is very structured and based on the completion of the quests, which actually works very well, keeping the story moving as the characters try to achieve what they want. In the first half it is the Sirenix quest as well as Tritannus trying to get the power of all of the Selkies and the second half the race to the pillars of the Infinite Ocean. All of the quests actually come to an end and are satisfying regardless of who is victorious. It gives each of the winx a chance to show off their skills and powers and really feel like they earned the power. Although it would have been a thousand times better if they actually made Tritannus threatening. He had promise to be a good villain, with his powers being an unheard of thing and him being just a little unstable while wielding them. However we are never shown the destruction that he has caused to the worlds through their oceans and we’re sort of just supposed to believe he is dangerous. The pillars caused acceptable damage but that was not really his doing. What bothers me the most is that neither he or the Trix ever mention the Infinite Ocean to the winx in the second episode that we saw, then when they talk to Faragonda she immediately suggested Sirenix. A little forced. It would have been better if the stakes were higher in general with the time limit on the quest being shorter instead of them just waiting till it was almost to late. Then there is the trident.... that was some bullshit. I don’t care if Bloom used her special spell, that thing had been taking hits all season and he didn’t even have it when he originally got his powers. I don’t buy it. As for the subplots, they were okay. Sky’s memory thing was annoying but was sometimes kinda cute. The thing with Krystal was stupid and I wish it led to us learning more about Flora’s insecuritys and not just a petty love triangle. I wish they had focused more on Aisha’s grief as well as the fact that her family was being torn apart. They started but didn’t commit. My favourite subplot was always the riff Tritannus caused between the Trix, but seeing that his and Icy’s relationship doesn’t have a tail (sorry) to stand on makes it less important, it also would have been a super easy fix.

Characters: It is very clear that everything that stopped this season from being great revolves around Tritannus, he is a horribly underdeveloped character and villain. I really wish they could have gone into his past, since he was clearly neglected by his family. It would have made him a good morally gray villain, since he is also clearly insane and could have given his relationship to Aisha and Nereus some more weight. It also would have been a great leeway for Icy to manipulate him but have her be manipulated as well because of her tendency to trust quickly. I would have liked to see her reasons for being interested in him. Their relationship was toxic and it shouldn’t been any other way but it still could have been interesting. It would have been really cool to bring up the Trix problems with trust, especially after Magical Adventure. After being betrayed by the Ancestral witches, I would have liked to see the Trix reflect on why they trust people so easily and start to move on from that. That’s what I imagined going on behind the scenes and why Darcy and Stormy were wary and then done with trusting others. Icy simply reacted differently and took longer to get out of her old habits. It would have been great to see them start to grow and have the riff between them as they change at different rates. I loved seeing the concern they had for Icy and trying to warn her, before leaving to let her learn for herself. Actually having to admit that she was wrong and learn from it with them still being villains would have been amazing. I also love all the new powers and spells they got in the first half, yeah that was good.

As for the winx, their characters were shown pretty well for the most part. I loved that all of them got a chance to shine and show off their skills and powers more than once throughout the season. I loved how the battle was made personal for both Aisha and Bloom as well as the others having something else weighing them down while they needed to be focused. I wasn’t even mad that Bloom was the one to deliver the final blow because she hadn’t gotten all of the unnecessary spotlight. I liked that most of the things that they learned were resolved after a reasonable struggle not being something that was easy. Some of them could have been fleshed out a little more or could have been replaced with something else. I mentioned Flory already and I also really wish Musa’s conflict wasn’t with Riven, again. They got along well for most of the season except when they needed drama and that was frustrating. I love One to One and I hoped that would be the end of it and they would learn to communicate better. She also never got her Sirenix wish and I’m salty. Stella’s arc with her fashion designs was stupid, she was already an amazing designer and it felt like deliberate regression. The only plus side was seeing moments with her and Brandon. That date with Tecna and Timmy was pointless, they know how to behave that was just dumb. I still wish there was an episode with just them but they could have gotten together and created some awesome thing to help protect the realms because they are a teco power couple.

I love how the lore of the Magic Dimension is expanded and has more layers through the Infinite Ocean and Sirenix. I always love seeing the past before the main story and seeing how Daphne was cursed was really cool. Even if it was a retcon it was one I wasn’t that mad about.

The music was awesome. Not much else to say, it was amazing. One to one, Return to me, Sirenix and Harmonix are all some of my favourite songs of the series. The background music also really stood out to me and just set the scenes really well. The designs are decent. I actually like Sirenix even though it’s very similar on all of them, it still suits them all. Dark Sirenix is better though. Harmonix is pretty but I wish it was more individualized.

Yeah it was fun. I still love it, I just wish it better.

#winx club #winx trix #winx club season 5 #i wrote this a while ago #Winx unpopular opinion

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silverflintdaily · 4 years

Photo

Silverflint Summer Challenge - All the prompts so far!

Challenge details:

Prompts Any kind of prompt is fair game as long as they include Silverflint. OT3 and OT4 ships like Silverflinthamilton are fine too. You can submit as many prompts as you like. All prompts will be anonymous and can be submitted through the form linked below.

Fills You can create any kind of fanwork for this, fic, art, edits, videos etc. Prompts won’t be assigned or claimed so you can make things for multiple prompts and each prompt can have multiple fills.

Schedule Submit prompts and work on fills May 1 through June 22. Posting week is June 23rd to 30th, more details will be posted later.

Submit prompts here:

HTTPS://FORMS.GLE/LMGMVAYUHRAFZCVW6

art above is a commission from @laskapsy

Full list of prompts as of 5/25/20 below.

Ships/characters in bold

Max, Anne, Silver, and Flint They all go to burning man

Silverflint Instagram drama: Silver has crush on Flint, following with each other, Silver shove his love on Flint and Flint's uncomfortable. Flint unfollowed him one day and Silver was devastated and disappeared from Instagram. Flint found out through friends and he must seek him before Silver did something stupid.

Silverflint Truth or dare

Silverflint Canon era, one (or both) accidently calling the other one pet names

Silverflint (+sort of Flinthamilton) Silver asking Flint, while having sex, to tell him about his sex with Thomas (in detail). I think canon era, placed after 310, would be better but it's up to writer.

Silverflinthamilton + ? summer vacation modern au - maybe they go somewhere warm (or not, as Flint burns so easily), maybe they meet some beautiful men there

Silverflint post canon era reunion fic - fighting to kissing. they start out almost trying to kill one another

Silverflint modern au - after a meet rude during the coronavirus lockdown they both can't stop thinking about that handsome idiot they met. One of them tracks the other down online to apologize. how do they spend the endless weeks of shelter in place?

Silverflint canon era - A small happy celebration with just the two of them.

Silverflintmiranda canon era - Miranda survives the shot, convalesces with Silver

Silverflint modern au where either Silver or Flint has an ASMR channel (or they both have) and they secretly love listening to the other. Could be distant pining or enemies to lovers etc.

Silverflint (+Hamilton[s]) tarzan au (you can choose who is on the island and who arrives there). Lord Thomas Hamilton and/or Miranda can also be included.

Silverflintmadi "My name is (Long) John Silver. And I've got a long fucking memory [loss]."

Silverflintmadi canon era. They go on a picnic and it starts to rain. Fluff or otherwise good times would be nice!

Silverflint Flint is a cockslut and hasn't had cock in ages. Silver is happy (and really fucking astonished) to present his for the taking. happens before Silver loses his leg, canon era.

Silverflint Modern au with 'there is only one bed' trope and mutual pining. Silver is Flint's long suffering sassy PA who's been hiding a crush on his boss and friend forever.He has been successful so far. One day he has to accompany Flint on a business trip to let's say Bahamas?! and there was a booking mistake - there were booked into a honeymoon suite. And since there is a summer festival there is no chance to get another room. Things happen!

Silverflint, Silverflinthamilton 7 years after their escape from Savannah plantation, James and Thomas are living a quiet, happily ever after life - money and jewels they grabbed on their way out were enough for decades of comfortable life which they now had. And almost everything was perfect-they had each other, got to know each other again,accepted each others' demons and learned to handle each others' nightmares and guilt. Flint long ago told Thomas about Silver and with time forgave, but didn't forget him. After all Flint's heart was broken on Skeleton Island and both him and Thomas knew deep inside he still loved John Silver. They talked about Silver-about the feelings Flint used to hide, about the pain and forgiveness and about love that didn't had a happy ending. It was fine, discussing it all together, sharing these stories-past is in the past and that chapter of Flint's life will remain there. Until one day the past refused to remain in the past and John Silver showed up on their doorstep, injured, delirious and looking for his own forgiveness.

Silverflint/Silverflinthamilton Post canon S4: John Silver is no longer Long John Silver. Exiled from Madi and Maroon Island, he brought himself to somewhere nearby Savannah and disappeared. James Flint and Thomas Hamilton escaped from plantation, bought house and live happily together. 3 years later, Flint saw John Silver at tavern. But John Silver doesn't remember him. Turns out he lost memories due sickness and always forget who he was everyday. Will Flint able bring John Silver's memory back and reconcile?

Silverflint, Silverflinthamilton Modern AU silverflint - Flint and Thomas are a happily married couple and Silver and Flint are bffs with a long history. But the thing is-Silver has been crushing on Flint forever and his pining is epic. He is also sure he is clever and no one figured it out. Only both Thomas and Flint did a while ago and Flint is determined to make Silver confess his feelings. He has turned Silver's life into a living hell with his seduction techniques and jeans so tight they should be illegal in public. Meanwhile Thomas is having too much fun watching them two and making his own plans for their shared future together.

Silverflint John Silver is 30 year old virgin and has never had a relationship and sex. Max and Jack decided to set him up with date at local bar. John Silver's first date was James Flint, a loner and his last partner left him for indifference opinion. James Flint is working as cattle farmer (?) and their date went well. Except.. they are not rushing to have sex and taking time to know each other. There were lot confusion and miscommunication between them on next date. Will John Silver able to lose his virgin and will James Flint make first step to ask John Silver as his boyfriend? First kiss, first touch, sexting, first sex and hot smut.

Silverflint smut ficlet to go with finnguala's fabulous art

Silverflint post canon - old pirates having a day at the beach

Silverflint Flint is distracted by Silver's big hands.

Silverflint Modern au: Flint found Silver's missing childhood's photo at Silver's grandparent's house. He told Silver about it and gave compliment on him ("you were cute as kid and I noticed how baby earsie you were and your smile was beautiful") and Silver keep blush for non stop teasing. And then sweet, hot summer sex on bed ;)

Silverflinthamilton pornstars au

Silverflinthamilton After reunion. Thomas is trying to seduce Silver with a new, especially tight, pair of trousers.

Silverflint Canon era. S1-S2 After an accident on the Walrus Silver and Flint end up being able to read each others thoughts. How does that end up going for them?

Silverflint + Miranda just some porn where miranda is pegging one of them while the other watches them fall apart. canon or modern era, it doesn't really matter.

Silverflint Two idiots with mutual pining and obliviousness. Others try to help but it may not go so well at first.

Silverflint canon era. After a really great haul the Walrus has a rum soaked celebration. The next morning Silver and Flint wake up together in the captain's bed with no clothes.

Silverflinthamilton After reunion. Silver finally appears on their doorstep, later they are talking over their dinner but something goes wrong and Silver and Flint start to fight. Thomas is trying to calm and separate them but Flint accidentally punches him instead of Silver.

Silverflint Persuasion AU. An unmarried Silver encounters his former love Captain James Flint after he returns from battle.

Silverflint competing reality cooking show contestants

Silverflint Silver and Flint have met before many years ago and even spent the night together. Now for reasons (there was a lot of rum that night, they're both different people, memory loss etc.) neither of them remember. One of them has a nagging feeling when Silver joins the Walrus crew but one of them remembers nothing yet.

Silverflint One of them needs to be restrained and dominated to truly let go. Writer's choice who and what era.

Silverflint Silver threatens to shave his head

Silverflint/Silverflinthamilton (probably?)Post canon S4 and Treasure Island: Captain Flint's ghost decided to haunt John Silver for revenge. However, Long John Silver was disappeared to nowhere. Fast forward for this year, Long John Silver's great great grandson, John Silver bought property in Bristol. One day, he was haunted by ghost Captain Flint. Ghost Captain Flint wants revenge but ended up falling in love sweet, poor John Silver's due social anxiety. Will they make up for loss done by his late ancestor? Happy ending for everyone. All depend on writer's idea!

Silverflint AU Canon divergence during season 4. Madi really dies in episode 7; Thomas Hamilton is not found in Savannah. The war goes on, bolstered by an enraged Silver, fueled by the Urca gold. During this time of violence and grief, Flint and Silver become all each other has left in the world.

Silverflint Sometimes one of them will keep the other on the edge for as long as he can stand. There is lots and lots of begging and pleading. There could be fingering and rimming and toys...

Silverflinthamilton Reunion fic where John finds James and Thomas in their home x nbr of years after s4, then realises he knows Thomas because they spent a month living together in Paris some years before Thomas met James and having a blast. John recognises Thomas who doesn't recognise him until John shows a tattoo/mark placed somewhere there is no misunderstanding of why he recognises that part of him (because he's seen john naked). Develops into threesome or twosome where the last person joins in later.

Silverflint tentacles

SilverFlint / MadiSilverFlintHamilton Post s4 Thomas and Flint are living together after escaping the plantation. Madi and Silver who are still together come to visit them. SilverFlint have palpable sexual/romantic tension and Madi and Thomas conspire to push them together. Afterwards when the tension is resolved Silver and Flint realize it was planned by their significant others all along and invite them into bed and the four of them have some fun

Silverflint When drunk, Flint behaves like Toby Stephens’ Prince John in BBC Robin Hood.

Silverflint (hamilton) Annihilation Au

Silverflint Canon-compliant up til 4.06. When the Spanish attacks Nassau, Silver is the one who is thought to be dead and later revealed to have been captured (instead of Madi). Rogers tries to use to Silver to cause a rift between Madi and Flint, thinking that Madi will trade the treasure for Silver's life while Flint will not. To everyone's surprise, the opposite happens. Madi refuses to trade the treasure while Flint will stop at nothing to get Silver back.

Silverflint firefighter au: silver keeps accidentally triggering the fire alarm while trying to improve his cooking (an actual fire may or may not be involved) and flint is the ridiculously attractive firefighter who has to deal with it

Silverflint vigilante au: they're both vigilantes watching over the same area and have a bit of a rivalry going on until they have to team up to take down a new threat.

Silverflint modern au (amnesia): silver wakes up with amnesia and forgets that he was dating flint before the accident. as far as he remembers, they can't stand each other, and he doesn't understand why flint shows up at the hospital and seems genuinely worried about him. (roles could be reversed--author's choice).

#Silverflint Summer Challenge #Silverflint #prompts #Black Sails #fanworks challenge

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blackfemmecharacterdependency · 4 years

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05. The Rich Kids

AU Grace and Simon story. Takes place in the instance that they never got on the train, but crossed paths and became friends. Generally, these could be standalone, but this one will be sequential for the next chapter whenever I get around to posting it. 3359 Words and I will be making a masterlist when I get a chance. Previous

Simon handled the essay for his scholarship exactly how he thought he might. He was NOT okay, but he got the job done. He started with an introduction about why he wasn’t even sure of why he would be accepted into an institution like this school when his life was so ripe with problems, and honestly admitted that he was telling them all of this “for a girl.” He described the way that he met Grace and how important her friendship and being close to her was to him. He used that as a segway of WHY he needed a close friend, being brutally honest about the things that were happening in his life when they met and the things that he had gone through since. He put heavy emphasis on his relationship with his mother and how HE was now caring for her, even though he could see in her eyes that she didn’t care for him, at all.

He wanted to learn from somewhere that could help him to be great. He felt like a jack of all trades, but in a kingdom of shit. He wondered if he could get away with saying shit. He went back and edited it to censor it, but to make it known that she still meant shit. He ended it out with how he didn’t seriously expect them to pick him, even with his GPA being what it was and him having skills in these areas. “But, I have to be able to let my only friend in a lonely world know that I did what I could to stay beside her. This is my best.”

Whenever he submitted it, he spent the next couple of days holed up in his room. He needed recovery time and worked on setting up a scene for his portfolio. His portfolio was turning into something he really loved. He had written pieces - generally inspired by Grace, some artwork of her in various forms, photos of his best figures and the scenes that he would put them in, and other photos from him trying his hand in photography.

He made money by doing people’s homework assignments, and charged more for special projects. But, everybody in school knew that if you wanted a quality A+ project in a hurry, Sci Fi Si was the guy to go to. He wasn’t even teased as much as he used to be. Emphasis on “as much.” And his former bullies? They were terrified to cross him again… or rather, to cross Grace. Simon kept photos of her and the two of them together as a little reminder for that group and as his daily dosage of serotonin while he was stuck at school all day without access to her.

He still was considered a nerd, had a crappy home life that made intrapersonal relationships difficult and unhealthy, meaning he wasn’t great with people and only knew the right things to say for short periods of time, and he was pretty broody and sarcastic. A lot of people didn’t like that. He definitely talked to most people like they were stupid. (Most people were) and he was pretty unapologetic in his convictions. He was like the poster boy of “If you think you’re better than everyone was a person.” He credited Grace for that, to be honest. Whenever you have somebody like that in your world and they’re not only interested in who you are but they like who you are, the rest of these peasants could suck a toe.

Plus, he was smarter than all of them. He had written several books, though unpublished were absolutely splendid, in his opinion, and not just for his age, but period.

Oh yeah - he was cocky.

That was another thing people hated about him.

But, people didn’t matter to him. He did have a secret soft spot for kids, but the ones in his neighborhood avoided him and he’d even heard the rumors that whenever he was younger he killed his kid sister. It hurt at first. It sent him into a crying rage in which he destroyed everything in his path up until the moment his mother emerged from the bathroom to “smack some sense into him.” He avoided children after that. They made him uncomfortable. He wanted the world to be a safe place for them and wanted to protect them, but he didn’t think he was cut out for stuff like that, so steering clear of them was probably best. Besides, they were just… so weak. They were frail. You had to start toughening them up way too young in order for them to be great and he just couldn’t imagine having to be that for anybody. He couldn’t do it for his sister. If she were stronger, maybe she… He programmed himself not to think about her.

Now Grace, she was great with kids, but she wasn’t super fond of them. Like, yeah, she liked to see their smiling faces and generally was able to make them smile, but she wasn’t in a rush to meet any or have any, despite the fact that her dad made her take a course to learn about sexual reproduction and teen pregnancies before letting her go to school. She was horrified to learn about that entire process, especially considering that it had not once even CROSSED her mind!

She saw two married people who had a child every day and their life was nothing she wanted to work towards and certainly nothing she wanted to accidentally catch herself up in.

If she ever did anything like that… She’d have to go through so much getting to know and getting used to someone and that sounded like way too much work, considering she already knew somebody. She knew Simon and that by itself was a lot. Having a best friend was both everything amazing and very exhausting. Her mother told her that whenever she got ready to get married, to make sure she married her best friend, and her father had quickly interjected and corrected the woman by saying to make sure that she married somebody “equal” to her… She had a feeling from both of their moods that neither of them were that for the other. But, no worries there, because she was NEVER getting married.

She was going to dance FOR FUN, maybe open a dance school, or some kind of school, and read books in her free time and go on adventures with Simon that they currently were too stifled to go on. She was gonna be with her best friend for the rest of her life, but not in the unfortunate situation that she saw in her parents. And she knew that Simon would agree to that, because he said that they were a team.

Simon set up the camera that he wasn’t actually supposed to touch, because it was his fathers and while he was away, Simon wasn’t supposed to go into the garage, but he was away and it would be months before they would see him again. That was what he was doing when he heard the notification on his computer. He presumed it was something that Grace sent him, so he rushed to check, and it wasn’t. It was the Dean… setting up an appointment… because he was accepted… He hurried to get that squared away and then called Grace to let her know.

“Yayyy! Another adventure together! I KNEW you could do it, Simon!” She cheered.

“I couldn’t have done it without your idea,” he said.

He didn’t add, “Even if it ripped my heart out to do it that way,” and she didn’t hear it in his silence; because she replied, “I think you’ve known me long enough to know that I’ve never been wrong, ever in my life, and if I have - It. Didn’t. Happen.” He laughed a little bit. “Look forward to more outstanding quotes on a daily basis, when we’re seeing each other AT SCHOOL!” She was SO excited. She had put together as many acceptable options that fell within the dress code of the uniform but also with a little of her own flair, and she worked on getting her schedule filled. Simon had to do all of that whenever he went in. because he admitted that he didn’t really know what to do and so the administration helped him out with it.

Simon would make the trek to Grace’s every morning and ride to the school with her in the car. Four years after meeting her, he still knew her drivers better than her parents, because they either were never around or he wasn’t over when they were. She still hadn’t seen his mother at all outside of photos and every time she saw his father (a whopping 3 times in the past 4 years), he looked different. A few more tattoos, a little more or less hair on his head or face. It was still just Grace and Simon by the time they got to the academy.

The first week of school was extremely different for both of them for different reasons...

Grace found that people were apparently “naturally drawn” to her, and in an effort to not let them down, she became very popular, very quickly. She made sure that whenever she saw Simon, she made room for him though. She’d call his name and wave him over. He hated groups of people, but she had been surrounded by them since Day 1, so he had to tolerate them.

Sometimes, if he looked like he wasn’t okay, or if they talked about a current issue he was having on the ride over, she’d tell the others, “I’ll have to get with you all later. Today is a Simon day.” It always made him feel good. Warm inside and cozy and a little fluttery… Stuff that he became severely aware of. She caused reactions in him that he hadn’t previously experienced. He always thought that she was pretty and out together nicely and smelled really pleasant, but like, now…

Not just his brain but other parts were starting to respond to those characteristics. And, he became dangerously aware that a lot of the other boys noticed her like that too. Know who didn’t seem aware? About any of it?? Grace.

Whenever the Fall Festival rolled around, she was the girl that everybody wanted to take to the dance, even upperclassmen. She was the girl that the girls wondered about what kind of dress she’d wear. She was the girl that the dance teacher asked if she wanted to open up the dance with a waltz. “I don’t know how to waltz,” she had said. After all of her years of dance, the teacher was stunned. She wanted to teach her before the dance. She said that she had the perfect partner to pair her with. “Oh, no no no no… I only have one person that I would be dance partners with,” she’d said.

Simon wasn’t keen on being dragged into this, BUT it did mean that some other guy wasn’t going to be dancing with her… for now. Who knew WHO would ask her to dance at the actual dance, which he tried to convince her would be boring and that they should skip it.

She would have loved to just go to the pumpkin patch after school, pick a few pumpkins to carve and make treats and cozy up with him for a movie night… but, she had to go to this dance! There was a lot of pressure on her to go and she was fueled by pressure and the stress of letting people down. So, the compromise here was that Simon could skip it if he wanted to, and they’d do the pumpkin patch thing the next day. “Even though I’d much rather you come to the dance with me,” she said, with a pouting face.

And everything inside of him turned into mush. Before he could think, he’d said, “Okay,” and couldn’t take it back, because her entire face lit up and she threw her tender arms around his neck, her soft hair was against his cheek and her body was pressed too close to his. He could inhale the flowers and cupcake scents of her beauty supplies and lip gloss, and everything was warm. Too warm. Hot even. He squirmed out of her arms and said, “Yeah, yeah,” ignoring her confused face about him pulling away. It didn’t last long anyway. She credited his mood to hating stuff like school dances and moved on with life. He overheard her telling people, “Sorry, I’m going with Simon to the dance, but if I get a chance and your date doesn’t mind, I’ll save one dance, just for you.” He actually heard her say that three times before she was too far away for him to hear her anymore.

She was always doing that. Just telling the other kids whatever she thought that they wanted to hear. He figured it was because she couldn’t tell her parents “no” and so she was just used to reflexively saying whatever kept the peace. He was like that once. But now, the last thing he did was care about what either of his parents had to say. He was never home anyway. He was always with Grace, either stashed in her room, or somewhere in town enjoying life and causing mischief. Since school started, she hadn’t been able to get out as much. She would complain about homework, which she hardly had the attention span for and Simon would simply do hers to get it done, but now that she was in school, her parents would set up social arrangements for her and other well to do kids (mostly to rub elbows or have pissing contests with their parents).

But… he had a date with Grace, and his dad was at home on leave, so he didn’t have to worry too much about having to be at home. He did have to worry about formal wear, though. He groaned as he headed for class, taking out his phone to try to see where he might find an affordable formal and how much hustling he’d have to do to obtain it.

One thing that Simon hated about the academy that was different about his last school was that the bullies here were far more sinister and also more protected. If he got into a fight at public school, there might be a suspension and maybe some penalty for disrupting class or something.

If he got into a fight here, the zero tolerance violence policy would get him kicked out… and yet, and yet, and yet… that did not happen with those rich boys whose parents paid for wings of the building, and had statues, or replaced team equipment… the kinds of boys that resented him for being so close to Grace, and let him know that he didn’t belong there, every single day. The kinds of boys with the most powerful commodity in the world - money.

The first week of school, someone had asked him what his father did. He answered honestly, “He’s in the military.”

“Is he high ranking?”

“No. He served for a while, got out, but reenlisted a few years ago.”

“What about your mother?”

He answered less honestly, but close enough, “She’s a housewife.”

“How did they afford to send you here?” Just… right out of the gate, huh?

“I have a scholarship.”

“For which organization?”

“It’s an art scholarship. The Kissington one.”

“Oh.” the ‘Oh’ was enough for him to realize that it wasn’t a good one. But, they added, for good measure, “You’re poor.” And technically… his family wasn’t really POOR. They never were short for the bills, like some of the kids he knew. There was usually food, if he made a trip to the grocer. His mom was able to stay at home, not working, receive medication, and they had a cat. So, he wasn’t rich, at all, but he wouldn’t have considered himself poor, either.

But here, anybody who wasn’t wealthy was poor. Sure, the Laurents could afford their bills, but he was never able to do anything extra if he didn’t find odd jobs. Meanwhile, Grace sometimes couldn’t see him for a few days because her parents were hosting a politician or a royal, or she had to go overseas for a few weeks, or she just really wanted to do a spa day weekend and he simply couldn’t come along because it cost too much.

There was a group of kids that had let him know that they were “on his level.” But, he didn’t spend a lot of time around them, because he was here for Grace and he had Grace, but he was aware that everybody wanted her too. The difference was he was certain that she was just a status symbol to these people, but she was his friend.

The teachers didn’t like him very much either. They seemed to always be suspicious of him and he couldn’t tell if it was his imagination that they weren’t as lineate about objective answers as they were with some of the other kids. He knew that he was smarter than a lot of the kids who did better than him. He KNEW he was. School was less of a hell hole whenever he would worry that he might have to fight for his life. There was something so much more unnerving about fighting something that wasn’t physical, and having the disadvantage, because he simply couldn’t add up to his peers in a lot of these people’s eyes. He knew that he was more evolved than them, but all they could see was money, and he just wasn’t made up of it like these kids.

Whenever they left school, Grace would brag about all of the compliments that she got and go on about how awesome school is and wonder how it was for him. “Are you happy?” he’d ask.

“Yeah!” She’d said.

“School is great. I mean… you’re there. That makes it the best place” She’d look at him for a moment, like she didn’t know if she believed him, her eyes sad and suspicious, but she’d smile and change to subject to something that they both loved. It was true in a way. Whenever she was there, he forgot about his problems and just soaked her in and her followers were even nice to him in those moments. A few of the girls even admitted (or maybe lied) that he was cute. But, they weren’t together the entire time and most of the time, he was miserable. But… if she was happy… I mean, that’s why you came here, Simon, he’d remind himself. Maybe it would simply take a moment for things to become normal.

And a few months later, after he agreed to go to a school dance with her, he knew that whatever their normal was, they weren’t in it… or it had changed. He didn’t know for sure which one, but he knew that at the moment, he wasn’t enjoying it. The snide kids. The sneaky boys. The snobby girls. The suspicious staff. He was becoming increasingly angry, and wasn’t sure if Grace was still enough to quell that. She had so much more going on than him, these days. Maybe, she didn’t need him here at all, and she just didn’t know until now. Maybe the fact that SHE had a lot of money and HE didn’t, made him anxious. He couldn’t catch up, and even though they still had their inside jokes about being “the apex” like when they were kids… he felt like she was the apex, and he would have to work extremely hard to ever truly be powerful. He would have to do more to get and have money. Being intellectually and physically superior didn’t matter if there were enemies in place who could affect your personal trajectory!

This became clearest whenever the Fall Festival came around and he finally was able to actually meet the infamous Mrs. Monroe.

#infinity train #infinity train fanfiction #Nesha Fanfiction #AU Infinity Train #fics #If They Didn't Get on the Train #The Rich Kids

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three-self-shippers · 4 years

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𝒯𝓇𝒶𝒹𝒾𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃𝒶𝓁𝒾𝓈𝓉 // 𝒜𝒾𝓏𝒶𝒩𝑜𝓍

𝓟𝓪𝓲𝓻𝓲𝓷𝓰: Aizawa x Nox / Daqat, Todoroki x Kait (Mentioned), Bakugou x Steph (Mentioned)

Trigger Warnings: Mention of OC’s past, mention of OC’s religion, attachment, cursing (It’s me duh?), semi-trauma, slow-burn, crying, light-symptoms of depression, OC self-deprecation, beginning mentions of OC’s trauma, fanaticism, and a tiny bit of fluff.

**This was set after the TodoKait fic so yesh. Bon appetite!

⇐ ᴘʀᴇᴠɪᴏᴜs - ɴᴇxᴛ ⇒

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Eyes were heavy with sleep and dry like sand as I opened my lids. A familiar bright room is what I came face with, a lounge of some sorts? I was on a grey couch covered with a yellow puffy sleeping bag that belonged to--

“EraserHead!”

I sat up properly, he forfeited his precious sleeping bag for me? Blinking a few times, I couldn’t help but pull the fluffy material up to my nose and smell it though I expected it to be sweaty and disgusting.

“Mmm, what is this stupid scent?” A wooden vintage scent folded in my lungs, bringing me to sniff the material more. It was a strange one indeed, old but fresh at the same time. Something I wouldn’t get tired of at least until I realized the fuck I was doing.

“Shit!” I dropped the sleeping bag off my face as if it was fire. After that, I got from the sofa and noticed my bag on the coffee table. “I fell asleep in the agency, why am I in UA’s teacher’s lounge?” I asked myself loudly , unnoticing the fact someone had come in and unexpectedly providing me an answer.

“I had to lock my place up, so no one would come in. More importantly, I appreciate the damage reports you did. They included no flaws.” A deep voice made me turn, my hands immediately traveled to try to straighten some parts of my suit which got badly wrinkled due to my sleep. “You slept pretty deep, how did you manage to do that with the music you had been listening to?” Aizawa questioned.

“I- I’m sorry. I should’ve not bothered you--” “Don’t apologize, I have last period homeroom in--” The bell rang all of a sudden. Despite the fact it wasn’t an annoying siren, rather a firm tune or melody.

“Now. You can fix yourself some tea and come by 2-A if you feel lonely. Though I doubt that you’d want to talk to kids when you have Midnight and Mic in the teachers’ room.” He assured me before waving off and leaving.

I’m just glad he didn’t notice me weirdly burying my face in his.. Sleeping bag. I went to the bathroom to sort of fix my makeup, glad I carry my tools and products wherever I go, and it comes in handy a lot of times.

The corridors looked like loops as I improved my way around with Aizawa’s infamous sleeping bag, acting like I knew where I was going. Yet I admit that I was lost when I passed by the support lab for the third time. I chewed down on my lips, not noticing the fact I might’ve dug a bit off until I tasted rust on my tongue. Honestly, I hate the fact it’s the end of summer because of this.

“Do you need any he--” “Please.” I cut her off with an awkward smile. While she wrapped things up before leading the way, she introduced herself as Kaitlyn, I recognized her from my past visits here.

“Here it is, class A..” She shyly pointed at the big door, it’d be my first time actually going to the class with students still in it. “I..” Fidgeting with my fingers, it felt awkward to be asking a student for help especially that I’m like this, supposedly an adult. “Can you come in with me? It’s kind of...Weird?” I tried explaining.

“Of course!” Kait opened the smaller normal-sized door and barged in as if it was a simple thing to do. I figured we both had a ‘now or never’ kind of concept. Unironically, it backfired when everyone’s heads turned to us by the door as I tried using the yellow sleeping bag as a hiding spot from the pryful and judgmental eyes.

“That’s Daqat, my sidekick who I told you about just now.” I heard him say as I peeked over, slowly stepping from behind Kait and into the class. “Grant, why are you he--” “I got lost!” I explained to him. “Sorry for cutting you off! But that’s uh-- Basically what happened is..” “No need to explain.” He lazily waved off as I handed him the sleeping bag in a sheepish manner.

I noticed Kait’s eyes were fixated on a certain student in that class, weren’t it to be Endeavor’s kid? Who were I to not know about that common knowledge? But just as he stared back at her with his turquoise and grey eyes, a small smile plastered on his face as I caught a glimpse of them not-so-secretly giving each other small waves from under the table.

“..I guess I’d get going now, sorry for interrupting your class, Sensei!” Kait apologetically bowed after snapping from whatever little moment she had before scurrying off again. I bit down on my lip as I mouthed her a thank you while she went.

Turning back to face Aizawa, I might’ve gotten a glimpse of his guard being left down, though he always seems like a laid-back person who just coincidentally likes the color black. It could be just my overthinking but as if Aizawa was relaxed for a second in the rather bright class.

“Won’t you say something to my class?” Aizawa clicked his tongue at me, which made me shudder at his stern demanding tone, more at his deep raspy voice than anything else.

“Y-Yes! I-- Uh….” Facing the students, I recognized them from passing by them before while doing my legal papers, coming and going at Aizawa’s office where’d help me. “I go by Nox or any nickname you’d want. Hope we’d grow close to work together when you all are full-fledged heroes. Nice to meet you all!” I managed to blurt out at them as I bowed respectively.

I let my hair act like a curtain of sorts as I took my proper standing again, I liked how it dimmed out the unnecessary lighting from my eyes.

That’s until I felt a rough touch on the side of my face as a strand was tucked in, just for me to flinch at the sudden contact and stare back at the noir-colored eyes that had a weird look expressing them. The hair which was tucked in flung back to its original placing as the pink girl squealed from his class.

“Eek! Aizawa Sensei-- What’d you do? What’d you just do?!” The girl with a pink complexion and black eyes with yellow orbs squirmed at the gesture as I didn’t know how to react other than step away from his radius.

“Ashido, be quiet. Unless you want a scolding. As in for you,” The noirette turned to me. “you should be a bit more used to the media and people fawning over by now.” He explained as I got flustered by the comment as it looped in my head with stray thoughts.

Was he one to fawn over me too? Or else why would I get an offer from the most advanced country from one of the best pro heroes that are known to me especially that I wasn’t good? Or how did he even know that I existed here?

“Y-Yes, sir-- EraserHead Senpai..” I stuttered at him, not having a clue which respective pronoun I should use for he was still older than me by a couple years.

“Tch, get a room--” A spiky-haired blond got a smack from a face I recognized as Stephanie’s.

After that, it somehow got more natural as I talked to the students, I wasn’t quite a talkative person. And I’d blame that for the nature of my years growing up but that’s a story for another time.

Now there was a good amount of stuttering and a dash of self-deprecation as I interacted with a certain greenhead known as Midoriya-- Who was asking about my quirk and suchs.

“Class dismissed, know that Daqat’s visits will be more often, perhaps you’d get a chance to spar against her.” By his tone I knew too well it was a time to dread.

After everyone left, Aizawa led me to pick up his stuff from the office, a place I’ve visited quite a couple times already during my stay so far. “You know, you could’ve just left if you wanted. Didn’t have to stay and wait.” A part of the underground hero wanted to finish his sentence: ‘for me.’

Realization settled in as my eyes scanned my shiny suit shoes. “I was too dependent on everyone, living my life alone is really not the thing I was prepared for as I thought I would be. My mind is always fixated whether someone might need a second hand. You’re the only person I know here and the same person I work for, so being around you all the time, ready to help, is part of my job as a sidekick, isn’t it?”

Trying not to leak too much of why perhaps I was like this, despite the feeling of Aizawa’s eyes being engraved into me.

“You’re being too attached, it’s probably not good for your own future. Not that I really mind it..” The hero mumbled the last part, to himself though I caught it. Deciding to not address that fact.

“D-Do you need me to do any edits to the reports that I--” “No, I already submitted them to the station. Let’s get something to eat,” He demanded as he picked his keys and binder from the desk before locking the darkened office. “unless you’re not hungry, which I doubt is true.”

I pressed my lips into a thin line, he’s right, I’ve been feeling as if my stomach has been digesting myself for the past thirty minutes. At the same time I was afraid of what his offering could mean; I’m not really the type to actually get into that world of love out of my fantasies. I don’t necessarily believe it even exists. So this was quite scary to myself, though he is a hero.

“Are you coming?” His voice called out to me, snapping me from zoning out in the middle of the hallway which was lit by the orange rays of the sun setting down.

“I-I don’t…?” I’m definitely going to hate what I was going to say. But I can’t just go out with a guy whether he’s my boss or not, hot or not. I’ve still got my traditions engraved into me. “I can’t eat with you, sorry..”

With that, I walked the other side to the farther set of stairs, opposite of where he was going. I just couldn't do it. All those years I’ve been raised to avoid interacting with people in general and now this happened to be that way with my boss and favorite hero, I don’t want to lose my respect for him. But I also wouldn’t want to burden him with how complicated things were if someone entered my life.

Holding back my tears until I came around my apartment wasn’t an easy task to do, a few escaped while I speed-walked the pavement sidewalks as I felt the pitying looks from strangers around me.

Taking off my suit Jacket which is also my costume and piling it on the sofa as I headed straight to my bedroom, plopping onto the bed and screaming my heart out into the pillow as tears continued to stream out, streaking my makeup and ruining the white pillowcases with makeup.

Nevertheless, I didn’t care, it wasn’t a time to explain my feelings towards him. His students, my parents and even EraserHead himself, they don’t know what I do when I’m not doing work. I’m the weirdest creep and still a traditionalist at that, it’s an odd mix yet that’s exactly why I wouldn’t want to associate with Eraser-- Aizawa at that kind of thing.

How would I face him tonight at work? I still work the night shifts with him, I can’t just not go and still get paid for it. Yet I also can’t find the words or guts to explain to him I don’t date, that my religion or strict parents wouldn’t let that happen. I can’t just date like any other person would, and the idea of it scares me. I still wonder why the hell would he show that side of himself to me? Why would he like someone who’s fucked up and not even from his own culture? From a place he probably knows nothing about and from a culture no one talks about or is really indulged in?

I don’t really remember when exactly, but by the headache I started getting and the fact my eyes refused to tear up anymore due to their dryness, I assumed it’s been three or so hours on my little breakdown. My pillowcase was, in fact, ruined with black streaks and makeup, so I threw the case in the washing machine alongside my other white laundry before making myself some earl grey, fixing up a sandwich, sitting by my desk and opening my laptop.

Some writing should make me feel better, it always does. Not being able to be in love in real life doesn’t mean I can’t dream, right? And that’s my little secret, I’ve got a writing blog for almost ten years now, I was a nerd for heroes. Rather, certain hot ones to be specific. Rather, I wrote specifically for EraserHead ever since he graduated from UA. Hence it was weird that I got to work for him this time around.

The screen lit up with it’s usual differing nature photos before I scanned my fingerprint and was face to face with my own fanart of him. “No one of my family nor friends knows about this.” I mumbled to myself as I opened a tab and typed in my blog URL to be faced with tons of notifications.

I’ll reply to them later, because I need to get some off my chest first. After writing for about thirty minutes straight, I went through my notifications to catch up with what I missed. There was a poll made by one of the bigger blogs. It was a vote on if I should be nominated as EraserHead’s official writer since I’ve written mainly for him and only him. The votes came out since the post was oldish, since four days ago, and the majority agreed on that.

I almost knocked myself out of my chair in disbelief, me? Me who’s basically a stalker? I can’t possibly be, could I? Speed-typing a thank-you post to everyone assigning me to that position before queuing up some of my finished short works for the next few days, I shut my laptop as it was almost time for my shift at eleven. I took a brief shower before slipping on a crispy-clean costume suit from the ones I owned, and taking the train to the agency since I left my car there the day before.

The street lamps were the only thing that showed me the way as I reached the agency, Trying to step quietly as I could into my office to put my things there, yet Aizawa’s voice caught me off guard: “Have you eaten?”

“Yes, I have. You?” I politely asked back, giving off a disarrayed look I didn’t manage to hide in time. EraserHead didn’t answer though. “I’m going ahead, I expect you to be joining me two blocks right of the agency.” As he left off.

(To be continued~)

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@animeboihoe @ayye-ayye @thatfanfictionwriter @trashys-things @stephiecarie @simpgameplays @bakutae @groundzeroagency @justanotherlifeff @almost-correct-bnha-quotes

#aizawa x oc #aizawa shouta #aizanox #bnha aizawa #my hero academia #boku no hero academia #boku no hero #mha aizawa #self ship #self insert

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greennct · 5 years

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chenle in your camera lens

fansite!au, i've had this idea for ages, i thought it was super cute!! let me know what u think, i tried to make it as fluff-y as possible bc chenle is my baby! it’s also bullet pointed bc i wanted to see how it would feel to write in that style & honestly i was literally just trying to write like @warmau bc she’s super talented & i love her im so sorry i had to drag u into this 💞💖💘

edit!! i just posted a part 2 to this fic, which you can find here!

(3.2k words yo what, no triggers apart from chenle making cute meme faces which genuinely actives my soft sad hours)

song rec: notice me by spinn

not to brag, but like,,,, you were pretty famous as far as fansites go

part of it was because you had just been around for so long, taking photos of zhong chenle pretty much since the first day of his debut

and part of it was how talented you were at capturing the boy so authentically

but the main reason nctzens knew/loved/worshipped you, was because of how effortless and pure your interactions were with him

before you had even heard the word kpop, your passion had always been photography

however since you were still in high school, you were broke and unable to really pursue your dream properly

like seriously, apart from one half-broken digital camera you were pretty sure hadn’t been upgraded since 2003, the photography department at your school was pretty much nonexistent. you found yourself getting more and more upset about the fact you weren’t allowed to do what you loved every day

so it really was only a matter of time before you decided to take matters into your own hands

immediately after having spent a ridiculous amount of money on a mediocre, but at least functioning camera, you decided to take it out the next weekend you could, to try and capture some action in the streets of seoul

you were expecting cute photos of couples, candids of children playing, maybe even some views of the city (if you could be bothered to find a rooftop), or anything else that struck your fancy

what you were not expecting, was a world-famous boyband filming some kind of variety show on your local high street

what you certainly did not expect at all, was to suddenly find yourself staring at the cutest boy you had ever seen in your life

there were seven or eight people with cameras already at the scene, furiously clicking away. you sidled up to the closet person you could find, and half-whispered to her, scared of disturbing the lighting speed of her shutter closing, to ask if she knew what the boy with the ash brown hair was called

you were told his name was chenle, & without having to think, you lifted the viewfinder to your eye, and snapped your first photo of him. you still have it today, it’s the first thing that pops up when someone searches your blog, a candid of him laughing at something jisung had said.

every time you look at it, you get this little fuzzy feeling in your stomach, reminded of the very first day that he had caught your eye, by doing something as simple and normal as laughing at a joke

since then, there was no looking back. you steadily made a name for yourself as a chenle fansite, with your amazing photography skills

and sure, your action shots of him dancing were ethereal, and your lack of whitewashing gained you popularity from a lot of fans, but your specialty, the reason everyone flocked to your blog directly after every awards show, was because of your candids of chenle

somehow, you had a knack for knowing exactly when to capture a giggle, pout or shocked reaction to one of the dreamies antics, managing to encapsulate chenille’s bubbly personality within a single frame

people who had met nct dream started referring your photos to international fans, claiming that your photos were the closest thing one could get to actually seeing what chenle was like irl

but even that wasn't the full reason that you became to famous and loved by nctzens

seriously, when the regular/irregular album came out, your inbox was fukk of messages from nctzens begging you to break into sm and reshoot the whole photobook

however, even though you loved taking photos of chenle, the problem was that you were basically his age

you were still in high school, living with your parents, and essentially under their control

having to originally been monitored by your mother every time you went to any kind of nct dream event, you quickly made friends with the other fansites, so that you wouldn’t have to chaperoned, but instead was supervised by people you trusted, who were responsible adults

however, this didn't stop the older photographers from always teasing you, when you had to leave an awards show at 10pm with the rest of the underage members, were slightly late to an interview, because you had to rush from school, or even from time to time when you whipped out your laptop at a schedule, balancing it precariously on your raised knee whilst waiting for chenle, needing to submit an assignment to your teacher within the half hour

it quickly became a joke within the nctzens, the tiny, underage chenle fansite, who everyone loved to baby, with more talent than half of the adult photographers

what's more, you work didn't go under appreciated by the dreamies themselves

((((not to brag or anything,,,, but like,, you had the highest percentage of photos with chenle directly smiling at your lens than pretty much any other fansite))))

he knew that you were the same age as him, and mentioned it from the first fansite you went to. he told you to drop any formalities since you were “friends now,” and always teased you whenever he saw you

one of the ways that chenle would do this, was by always making a silly face before posing properly, sticking out his tongue, crossing his eyes, or doing some other dumb facial expression

he did it to tease you, trying to ruin your photos, as he had always asked why you couldn’t eve seem to take a bad photo of him

of course you had replied that it wasn't your skills that made the photos so pretty, it was him (with an extremely red face lmaoo), & so chenle tried to take that as a challenge

whenever he was sure no one else was looking, he would pull the most horrible faces for you to take photos of, trying to sabotage your photography

and of course you whined to yourself that he still managed to look incredibly endearing even with cross-eyes and some drool dripping off his chin

and you were sure other nctzens would die as much as you did with how sweet he looked in the photos - after all, the candid shots were completely on-brand for you

but somehow you could never bring yourself to upload the photos online, deciding there was something that would make your heart hurt a little bit at allowing other people to see those photos

even though you knew better,,,,, you wanted to pretend his expressions were just for you

of course you had a crush on chenle, it was hard to follow around such an effervescent & cheeky boy for so long without developing at least some kind of feelings for him

& though you felt your heart flip a little every time he complimented your photos, or told you that you looked nice that day,,,

you also weren't delusional. you knew that you didn't have a chance, you were literally just a fansite, & it was chenle’s job to be nice to you

because you were so conscious of coming off as creepy with your pretty obvious crush, you always made sure to completely respect his boundaries

you prided yourself on turning off your flash if you thought the dreamies looked tired, and when you started making enough money from your photos to follow them to different countries, you made sure to take different flights and stay at other hotels, if their details ever got leaked, not wanting to feel like you were stalking them

instead of ever acting on your emotions, you stayed content with the stupid faces he made you, convincing yourself they were just for you, and tried to shove your feelings deep, deep down

& for a while,,,, it worked. you & chenle stayed,, not friends but,, something closer than just a casual fan

he knew your name, he would always wave in your direction when he recognised you, and you would always hide your furious blush behind the camera lens when he sent you the occasional wink or finger heart

& that was enough for you,, until unfortunately, life started getting in the way

college was drawing closer and closer, & you had to start scrambling to put together a portfolio of your photography to apply to schools with

you realised you probably needed some more extracurriculars, so signed up for a copious amount of clubs, started volunteering for extra credit, actually studying for tests, and even hanging out a lot more with your friends, having realised with a shock, that you had limited time left to share with them before you all went to different schools

with all that going on, you barely had time to scroll through your social media accounts when you finally got to bed,

you spent the half an hour before your eyes drooped so low you were forced to turn your phone off scouring furiously through the photos other fansites had taken of chenle, scouring for any photos of the weird faces he made, if he had started doing them for someone else now that you had been away for a while

searching for a sign they weren’t just for you, and you had been delusional for hoping against hope this whole time

funnily enough, you actually ended up receiving the exact opposite of what you feared

upon opening your twitter one night, you discovered you had a lot more mentions than usual, all tagging you in one video

clicking on it, your stomach dropped slightly. it was taken at an award ceremony, previously your favourite time of the year, because it meant you got to see chenle almost every day. now you just felt a pang in your stomach - you couldn’t see chenle at all at the moment

it was a video of him turning to converse during an ad break with a jaemin fansite, one who had taken care of you a lot when you had first started to take photos

he mouthed the name of your fansite, raising his hands in a quizzical manner. you almost dropped your phone. upon calming yourself, and reasoning that of course he knew the name of your fansite, he spoke about it with you all the time, you resumed the video

when she didn’t understand what chenle was trying to communicate to her, he said you name (your felt your heart do a triple flip where is was beating sporadically in your throat), and asked where you had went

she replied “college applications!” and he pouted, suddenly blinded by flash as the fansites around him tried to capture the moment

“tell her to come back soon!” he said, and turned back around

you rewatched the video at least 20 more times to prove to yourself that it wasn’t fake

this sudden recognition and blatant affection that you were shown, was pretty much unheard of, and not only did you know that, but the whole of twitter knew it too

before you could even like the video, your whole account was filled with messages from delusional stans either convinced you were dating and sending well-wishes, or threats to stay away from chenle indefinitely from slightly less sympathetic fans.

to be honest, you didn't know which reaction was worse

after all, though it was certainly blush-inducing, it wasn't anywhere close to a love confession, wasn't everyone overreacting slightly?

you sighed, turning off your phone. right now was an important time of your life. though there was still a significant amount of people telling other to back off, and simply being happy you had received such high praise from chenle, the last thing that you needed was your phone pinging all day with messages from everyone else, demanding some sort of explanation about the video from you, when you knew the exact same amount of information that they did.

the next day, you texted the jaemin fansite to tell her you'd be staying off of social media for a while. you deleted all your apps. you had decided to ride out this ‘scandal’ until you were at least done with your application, and you had to admit, not having the pressure of everyone scrutinising your every move was quite liberating

though the rest of the year was actually a lot of fun, and you ended up spending a lot more time pursuing things you didn't have time to previously, and spending time with friends,,,,

there was always that small ache you felt whoever your friend texted you saying chenle had asked about you again, or seeing a billboard of his face in the city, hearing an nct song playing in a café, reminding you of the lifestyle that had consumed you just months previously,,, that you missed more than anything,,,,,,, the boy you couldn’t stop thinking about,,

you tried to push the feeling down, reasoning that there was no way chenle was as bothered as you were about the separation, & carried on with your life, no matter how awful you felt at times

of course, the school year did have to end at some point, though. after what felt like years, your college decisions came back!!! you were so glad that your hard work had paid off!!!! (of course you got in to your dream school what kind of au would this be if u didn’t lol)

your friends wanted to take you out to celebrate, but you declined politely, knowing exactly where you were going

nct dream had just had a comeback, and your jaemin fansite friend had won you an extra ticket to their fansign “just in case,” since she know you were about to finish your schoolwork

you missed chenle too much to stay away from him much longer, no matter how stupid you knew your feelings were

let me tell you,,,,, the moment you walked into the hall, the tension in the fansign literally hit the roof

you practically ran into your seat, ducking behind your camera lens, trying to capture chenle without actually having to make eye contact with him

everyone was whispering about your sudden return after months of silence on social media,, you caught some people trying to take photos of you sneakily

the dreamies noticed your presence too, of course

haechan caught sight of you first, and nudged chenle, who was standing next to him, pointing him in your direction

the whole room literally squealed at the way chenles entire face lit up at the familiar sight of your camera

& you,,, well you were just glad your face was covered because hOly hECk you were blushing,,, you tried to keep your face hidden, until you had to go up to get him to sign your album

when you left your seat, the whole room collectively held their breath, like im not even kidding, there had been so much speculation over whether or not you had left the fandom over the controversy, so your sudden unexpected return to the fansign was a huge

now of course chenle was the last in the line, so you had to deal with the rest of the dreamies teasing beforehand, while they signed your album. though you were friendly with them, and they knew your name of course,

however whoever you had talked it had always been sweet and innocent,, they had never made you so,,,,,, uncomfortable before

even jeno, the shyest of the lot gave you a knowing smirk when he said “welcome back!”

jisung told you he couldn’t draw a heart, otherwise chenle might get jealous, and mark just gave you a cryptic look.

“chenle’s been pretty worried about you.... don't break his heart.”

you kind of just laughed awkwardly, and moved down the queue to jaemin. there was no way that he was being serious. nct dream were acting weird around you

you tried to quell the nerves in your stomach when you finally faced chenle

“hi!” you managed

“i missed you!!!! don’t ever leave me for so long again!” chenle pouted, skipping the formalities of small talk. you tried not to giggle like a twelve-year-old

“i'm sorry, chenle, i had college-”

“applications!” he finished “how did they go? have you heard? did you get in? you wanted to go to the arts one in daegu, right?”

you blinked, surprised he remembered such a small detail about your life. you could barely remember telling him about it. “um, ye-yeah! i did!”

“woooaaah!” he cheered loudly, “i always knew you were smart!!” taking your hand in his, he waved them together in the air. you could hear gasps and clicks behind you

“this is gonna be all over twitter tomorrow, you know, chenle.” you blushed, gently trying to extract your hand in order to make sure he was comfortable

chenle simply tightened his grip on your intertwined fingers, pulling them closer to his face, as he leaned his head against them. “they seem to like us together, don't they?” he agreed. you let out a little gasp in spite of yourself, cheeks extremely flushed.

“i don't mind...” he continued, “unless you do?”

you shook your head slightly, not trusting yourself to speak. chenle had always been flirty with you, the same way he was flirty with all the other fans he met, but this behaviour was a huge step up from what you had experienced beforehand. your brain started working overtime, putting pieces together at 100 miles an hour

the weird faces, the asking about you, the trivial facts he remembered,, was is possible,,, chenle also-

“miss? your time is up” a manager started trying to hurry you along, as there were already two or three people queuing behind you. “wait!” chenle said, finishing his signature in your album, scribbling furiously

he then looked up at you, offering the pinky finger of his free hand up with a solemn expression

“promise you won't run away again?”

you joined your fingers with his, unable to do anything but nod at his forward behaviour

“you gotta promise!!”

“i promise!” you half whispered

chenle pressed a small, chaste kiss on your fingers

it was so fast that it could've been mistaken for him simply waving your hands together

however you and chenle, with matching blushing faces knew exactly what the gesture had meant

the rest of the afternoon, you tried to ignore how the butterflies in your stomach had suddenly morphed into huge stallions, kicking up all of your emotions all over the place

it certainly didn’t help that he kept looking over at you. winks, hearts, kisses, pouts were all thrown your way

and of course, from time to time, he would go to your side of the auditorium, lean close into your huge camera lens, and make a horribly ugly face

every time he did, you found your heart swelling just a little more, because you knew, you knew

that those faces had always been for you

& when you got home, and read the message chenle had left in your album, a small paragraph simply stating he thought you were “seriously, like ridiculously beautiful,” you knew that he hadn’t written a series of digits underneath his signature for anyone else

you finally understood, that everything had always been just for you

#chenle #zhong chenle #nct dream #nct chenle #nct dream chenle #nct fluff #nct dream fluff #chenle fluff #chenle au #nct dream au #chenle fic #chenle imagine #nct fic #nct imagine #nct dream fic #nct dream imagine #nct dream scenario #writings

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everlarkficexchange · 4 years

Text

Everlark Fic Exchange: Masterlist

Springtime Edition (2020).

The King's Mistress by @eiramrelyat

Prompt 9: Katniss is a commoner and peeta is a cruel king. He wants katniss to be his mistress. How will they fall in love is up to you. [submitted by anonymous]

Stay with Me Just for Now by @booksrockmyface

Prompt 10: katniss and peeta are best friends who were in a friends w benefits arrangement in the past. now the hunger for each other is coming back. [submitted by anonymous]

A Quiet Announcement by @albinokittens300

Prompt 11: in panem au where everlark isn’t reaped and peeta knocks up katniss. [submitted by @sunflowerslyf]

Prompt #12: by @endlessnightlock

Prompt 12: katniss walks out of the fitting room wearing only a bikini to ask her friend if it suits her but it isnt her friend at the other side of the door but peeta. [submitted by anonymous]

When You Were Mine by @pitualba2015

Prompt 20: Peeta is the CEO and katniss is his secretary. They have an affair and katniss gets pregnant but when she tells peeta he doesn’t believe her and accuse her of trying to trap him. What will he do when he realize his mistake and how will he win katniss back. [submitted by anonymous]

Two Households by @everlarkandhistory

Prompt 22: Set in early 20th century. Katniss and Peeta are from two rival families who have been enemies since forever. They have a chance meeting which led to them falling in love. They are completely unaware of their identity. Will their love survive or will their relationship crumble. [submitted by @mysteriouslycraftyreview]

Operation: BREAD (Bring Revenge on Everdeen to Avenge Dad) by @alliswell21

Prompt 23: Rumor: MrEverdeen crossed fence dividing Town and Seam, kidnapped Mrs Everdeen making her his commonlaw wife. Years later, Mellark sons plan to avenge their father by raiding Seam and kidnapping one of Everdeens daughters for one of them to take as a wife! Does Katniss “volunteer,” does she escape, how do the 3 brothers decide what to do with her since they didn’t plan it all out well? [submitted by @567inpanem]

lying in the bed we made (if it wasn't us) by @archersandsunsets

Prompt 26: the night before the Quarter Quell, in the sleepless dark, Katniss and Peeta allow themselves to indulge in the bittersweet dream of a future they’ll never have together (“if it wasn’t us, what would you do?” “I’d want to marry you” “tell me”) [submitted by @rosegardeninwinter]

The Proper Response by @madetofly

Prompt 29: Post-MJ, Growing Together. Peeta is finally showing his affection and love for Katniss as they heal and reconnect. Katniss, being Katniss, seems to act like she doesn’t appreciate this, and is less than enthused. Peeta, taking this like an adult, stops showing her with the affection and tries to show her his love in other ways. Katniss, however, does not appreciate him stopping those things and set out to try and get him to continue it again because she misses it. [submitted by @albinokittens300]

All the World's a Stage by @katnissdoesnotfollowback

Prompt 31: “We never see you two so much as kiss in public but last night we all heard you having sex.” Submitted by Buttercupbadass

Misconceptions by @awkwardeverlark

Prompt 35: No reaping AU. At 19, Katniss considers marrying Gale for practical reasons; the fact she just heard the baker’s son toasted and was assigned a house at the edge of town has nothing to do with it... maybe. What happens next? (was Peeta really married or was it his brother? Does she marry Gale? Does Everlark ever talk? Will Peeta cheat if he’s actually married? Can Katniss admit she loves the Boy with the Bread? Is this forbidden love?) is up to you. [submitted by anonymous]

No One's Gonna Need You More by @ambpersand

Prompt 36: Frustrated and stressed out Single dad!Peeta needs a fuck desperately. His best friend, Katniss, unwittingly offers to help him out. Things get murky with repressed feelings, but one thing’s certain, Peeta can’t keep his hands to himself anymore and Katniss is all too willing to oblige at the drop of a hat, regardless of place, time and her own emotions, as long as he keeps whispering all his sexy, filthy thoughts into her ear. [submitted by anonymous]

Vidua by @darkhorse-javert

Prompt 44: Believing that taking a new young bride every 5 years will keep him youthful, Snow arranges to marry wife #12 from D12. In the hours between the ceremony and the wedding night, he drops dead. 16-yr-old Katniss returns to 12 but now she’s “Widow Snow.” Can she ever be Katniss, district huntress again? With all that $, wedding gifts, etc that were sent on the train with her? [submitted by @567inpanem]

Fortune Favors the Brave by @ambpersand

Prompt 46: Pacific Rim inspired AU with drift compatible Everlark (or not if you’re inspired by angst). I really just want to see more of that aspect of Pacific Rim explored than what they did in the movie and what better way to do it than with Everlark! [submitted by @katnissdoesnotfollowback]

Fate Takes a Break by @ally147writes

Prompt 50: everlark discovering on their date that they've missed each other their whole lives (living in the same city, went to the same high school, going to the same halloween and nye parties, were set up before by different friends but stood each other up, shopping at the same store, etc.) [submitted by @sunflowerslyf]

I Choose You by @wendywobbles

Prompt 51: Katniss E, the Valedictorian of Panem High school, is perfect in all fields of life. And that is the crush of awkward, average in studies, not so popular, never had a girlfriend, often bullied Peeta M. Not only does she have a very popular friend circle but also a handsome, popular boyfriend Gale H. Will she even want to be his friend? Is his crush doomed to fail? Eventual Everlark. [submitted by @white-dandelion-seeds]

The Change by @alliswell21

Prompt 59: Growing up Peeta started loving her. It was a gradual thing that happened throughout his childhood and into his teens. But something changes when he hits puberty. Her scent has heightened, he can spot her from miles away. He gets a bit possessive. But the biggest thing is when his body starts to heat up and even just the thought of you gets him hard for days. He finds out the family secret of his werewolf genes, something his parents thought passed him. How can he go by with his day and be with her without scaring her away by humping her because of his heat. [submitted by @animekpopxx]

By The Moonlight Side by @endlessnightlock

Chapter 2

Prompt 61: Peeta knew better, but he did stupid things when he got drunk. Now he’s caged at the animal shelter in his wolf form. And, omg, Katniss Everdeen let her little sister drag her in to see the dogs?! He knows he shouldn’t, but teen hormones. He just wants to lick her hand. Get a tummy rub. Hump her leg. Sleep on her bed. Omg, they take him home!!!! He needs to let his dad know where he is. Omg. He needs to figure out his bakery shift. “God, don’t let Katniss catch me licking my balls.” [submitted by @567inpanem]

Maybe Tomorrow by @katnissdoesnotfollowback

Prompt 62: one night stand!everlark sleeping together the same night a terrible snowstorm hits the city and everything gets shut down with no way to get home. perhaps a two night stand? [submitted by anonymous]

Genesis by @rosegardeninwinter

Prompt 66: Everlark post apocalypse, katniss and peeta are neighbors and the only two that make it to katniss's father's bunker in time. Over the course of several years the two have grown quite close having no one else, but now provisions are running low. Do they face the unknown outside or stay put, knowing they only have food to last another week? [sent by anonymous]

Sunset on Grass by @alliswell21

Prompt 67: Her parents said that it was just a childhood crush and that she will outgrow it. But why does her heart flutters. When she’s finally old enough to get a job, she immediately gets a part time job to be close to him. Will is pursue her love against people’s negative views because he’s so much older than her. Or go for it and make him fall in love with her. Age Gap Older!Peeta. [submitted by @animekpopxx]

A Taste of Rebellion by @acpoe82

Prompt 68: Dark Coffee Shop AU - Capitol Peeta runs a Coffee/Pastry shop in the poshest part of the Capitol. Near by President Snow’s Mansion. Capitol!Katniss is a frequent customer. Things in the Capitol begin to deteriorate as the rebellion drags on. Are they sympathetic to the rebel cause? [submitted by @oakfarmer12]

You're Not Alone by @sunsetsrmydreams

Prompt 70: Peeta picks up a hitchhiker in the mountains one night, only to find it's his childhood best friend and now escaped convict Katniss Everdeen. In a panic he calls police but after hearing her side of the story comes to believe she didn't actually murder anyone. Everlark on the run. [submitted by anonymous]

Forever and a day... by @thegirlfromoverthepond

Prompt 73: I am a simple woman: I just want Katniss Everdeen content and loved and washed in moonlight I don’t care how you do it. [submitted by @rosegardeninwinter]

The Most Unlikely Serendipity by @albinokittens300

PART 2, PART 3, PART 4

Prompt 75: An in-Panem arranged marriage a/u where Katniss is slightly older than Peeta. [submitted by @endlessnightlock]

Shots Make Me Sing by @sunsetsrmydreams

Prompt 81: Katniss finds her soulmate at her bachelorette party (aka Peeta)(Happy ending please) [submitted by anonymous]

when we’re underneath the lights my heart’s no longer broken by @omercilessmoon

Prompt 92: High school musical au: katniss and peeta as troy and Gabriella. [submitted by anonymous]

December nights in June by @viloula

Prompt 110: AU. Everlark live across from each other in fancy New York (or the like) penthouses. With all those large windows, they see each other daily and know the other's routine and all he/she does, but they've never met. A chance meeting occurs. What will happen? The circumstances of their living arrangements/any backstory and what happens between them is up to you. [submitted by @acpoe82]

High Heels at Midnight by @hutchhitched

Prompt 134: Visual Prompt. To see it go HERE [submitted by @javistg]

must work hard, tolerate cats by @mendontprotectyou

Prompt 140: In Panem AU where Peeta is a Mail Order Husband. As the youngest son of a merchant class Capitol family, he has accepted he will never inherit the family bakery. But when his family contract him to an arranged marriage to further the business he will never own, he escapes by signing up to a programme to relocate and marry a district woman. Why Katniss needs a husband, is up to the author. Everlark endgame :) [submitted by @louezem]

Notes:

Fics organized by prompt number.

Masterlist compiled on May 11, 2020. Subject to change. New works will be added as they’re posted to the @everlarkficexchange.

Looking for updated versions of the multi-chapter fics? Try our AO3 Collection

#springtime edition 2020 #masterlist #our fics

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