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steddieas-shegoes · 1 year

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Request: Hop & Joyce don't really like or trust Steve & he knows it. He can tell by their behavior towards him. Post spring break from Hell, Steve tears into them both after they insinuate that it's his fault for the kids being hurt. Steve YELLING at them in front of the party bc he is injured more grievously than the kids & he once again protected them, to the detriment of himself.

Joyce & Hop are forced to acknowledge that their behavior was cruel. And they have to apologize but Steve doesn't accept their apology straight away.

I am usually such a sucker for Hopper adopting Steve and treating him as his own that this was really difficult. Like, maybe top 5 most difficult things I have ever written. It's kind of short, but I wanted more of the focus to be on people standing up for Steve and Steve standing up for himself than the actual angsty part. My darling, I hope it lives up to expectations! -Mickala ❤️

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“I guess I just don’t understand how Max ended up like this if Steve was supposed to be protecting them all.”

Joyce’s words echoed in Steve’s head.

She was whispering to Hopper in the waiting room, but it was surprisingly quiet, and easy to hear just about anything.

The kids were asleep on the couches, waiting for any news on Max or Eddie, but the nurses told them it could be hours. Hours were a long time to wait when someone was bleeding out and the other someone had multiple broken bones and was unconscious.

Steve felt untethered, his connection to the earth cut the moment he saw what happened to Eddie, pushed into a dangerous orbit when he saw what happened to Max.

“He’s never really let me down like this. Did you hear Dustin say he thinks he was distracted by Eddie?” Hopper asked quietly.

“What did he mean by that?” Joyce paused. “Oh. Do you think so?” Steve couldn’t see their faces, couldn’t see the way they were having a silent conversation within a conversation. “It wouldn’t be the first time Steve let his romantic feelings get in the way of their safety.”

And that really wasn’t fair.

It wasn’t fair because he always put these kids who weren’t even his first whenever he could. It wasn’t fair because it wasn’t his job to be perfect. It wasn’t fair because they were the adults who should have been here to help and they weren’t.

He could feel tears building up, his vision getting just blurry enough that he knew he needed to walk away or he would start actually crying, and he couldn’t let anyone see that.

Especially not Joyce and Hopper.

Apparently, they already thought so little of him, he couldn’t possibly show them that he was struggling now.

“I think we’ll have to have a talk with the kids about trusted adults. They seem to rely on him for a lot and maybe if we just explain to them that Steve can’t handle it-”

“Excuse me, Mr. Hopper?” A nurse, thankfully, interrupted them.

Steve turned to see a young nurse, probably barely older than him, standing in the entranceway to the waiting room.

Hopper walked over to her, actually whispering this time, as if what was being said right now was a secret, but not the way he felt about Steve.

He glanced over at Steve, then nodded to the nurse. He called Joyce over to them, whispered something, then they both looked at Steve.

He hated what was happening. He was used to being a disappointment to adults, but in a silent way. His parents weren’t really ever around long enough to show their disappointment for long. Seeing it now, on the faces of people he respected and wanted to impress, hurt.

Hopper started walking over to him, his face serious.

“They have Max stable. She may not wake up from the coma, but they’re hoping she makes a turn for the better soon. Eddie woke up a few minutes ago while they were trying to stitch him up and he kept yelling for you. He isn’t quite stable yet. He passed back out as they were trying to put him on oxygen.”

“But they’re both alive?”

“For now.”

“Can I see Max?”

“I don’t think that’s a great idea right now. They’re trying to reach her mom, but the phone lines keep going down. I’m standing in as the adult responsible until she can be contacted.”

“So now you want to be the adult responsible? Not any other time when we needed you?” Erica said from behind them.

She’d been asleep with Lucas and El only a minute ago.

“Erica, it’s fine. I’ll just wait with you guys.”

“No, Steve, it’s not fine.” Erica put her hands on her hips, scowled up at Hopper and Joyce, who had just joined them. “Steve looks out for us every day. Even when the world isn’t trying to end. He drives us to school or from school or to the arcade, he pays for our food at the diner all the time, probably spends all his paychecks on us. And where are the parents? They don’t even know where we are most of the time.”

“But-” Joyce started to interrupt until Erica held up her hand.

“You left your kids to fly to Russia when you knew something weird was going on. You could have died, and then what? You know who would have stepped in? Steve. Because that’s what he does for us. Do you know one of his worst concussions was because he was protecting Lucas and Max from Billy? You know he drove Max everywhere she needed to go all year because she didn’t wanna be around anyone else? How about the fact that without him, we wouldn’t have even been able to get Eddie back here? But sure, blame him for this. It totally makes sense to point the finger at the one person who has protected us over and over again.”

Steve was crying.

The other kids were starting to wake up from her voice getting louder as she spoke, and it didn’t take long for them to realize what was happening.

El and Dustin surrounded Steve, cuddling into his sides to comfort him. He needed it, and he was always willing to accept love from the kids. They so rarely gave it, not because they didn’t love him, but because they were at that age where they didn’t want to.

These kids were his in almost every way that mattered, and he was just grateful that they weren’t hesitating when he needed them most.

“You kids could have died. Steve should have never allowed most of this to happen. He’s the adult, and he let you all go into this without even considering you could die.”

“You think we were just gonna sit around and wait for the adults to handle it? When have we ever done that?” Dustin asked incredulously.

“It’s what you should have done. Steve knows that.”

“Mr. Harrington?” A different nurse was standing in the doorway now, older, definitely less nervous.

“Yes?” Steve responded, wiping his tears away quickly.

“Mr. Munson is in a recovery room. He’s woken up a few times for a minute and each time he’s asked for you. Are you family?”

He was pretty certain hospital policy meant only family could go back, especially during natural disasters, so he lied.

“Yes, he’s my cousin. I can’t reach anyone else yet.”

The nurse smiled, though she probably didn’t quite believe him.

“Right this way, then.”

Dustin tugged on his arm.

“Can I come with you?”

“Sorry,” Steve shook his head. “Not yet. Let me check on him, and I’ll come right back out for you.”

“See? This is what I meant about letting his feelings get in the way! What if we weren’t here? Would you just leave the kids to sit out here alone?”

This time, El spoke up.

“Steve is always putting us first. He can put himself first sometimes. That is allowed.”

Steve wanted to hug her again, but the nurse looked like she was going to walk away, and if he didn’t follow her, he wouldn’t see Eddie.

“Go see him, we’ll be here,” Lucas said from next to Erica.

He nodded at them all, giving them a smile before he followed the nurse without looking back at Hopper or Joyce.

Eddie was asleep when they entered the room, so the nurse whispered to him at the door.

“He’s on a lot of morphine, and he’s still receiving a blood transfusion. He may wake up off and on, but he probably won’t make much sense until they lower the dose. Just be here for him,” she smiled before leaving the room.

Steve turned to Eddie and couldn’t hold back more tears.

He’d let him down. He’d let all of them down.

He was supposed to be the hero, despite the jokes about it all, they all knew he was.

But not this time.

Eddie almost died. Max almost died.

He could feel the bat bite on his stomach burning and itching, like it was already getting infected, but he ignored it.

He could wait.

He sat down on the side of the bed, slowly so he wouldn’t wake Eddie up.

But Eddie’s eyes fluttered open once, then twice, then a third time before they managed to stay open enough to see Steve.

“Stevie?” His voice rasped out, a small smile hidden under his oxygen mask. “You’re here.”

“I’m here, Eds.”

He had to be strong, but his brain was so focused on everything he’d done wrong and if he’d just been faster or got out of the vines quicker, Eddie probably wouldn’t be here and Max would be awake and-

“Stop.”

“Hm? Stop what?”

“Bein’ mean.”

Steve’s brows furrowed. He hadn’t even said anything else, had he? Was he so exhausted that he was actually talking without realizing it now?

“I’m not even saying anything.”

Maybe it was Eddie hearing things. He knew morphine was pretty intense.

“To yourself.”

“What?”

“Bein’ mean to yourself. In your head.”

“I-”

“‘S okay. Me too sometimes. Just gotta stop.”

Steve couldn’t help but smile at the way Eddie’s eyes kept drooping closed as he spoke. He would probably fall back asleep any second.

“I’ll be nice. You get some sleep.”

“You rest?”

“Not yet. Maybe later.”

Steve couldn’t really rest until he knew everyone was home, safe, and sleeping off some of the worst of their injuries.

“Yes yet.”

Steve snorted. Eddie was so high. He knew it was better than whatever pain he would feel when they eased him off of everything, but hopefully he wouldn’t remember all this.

“Sleep,” Eddie said, his hand managing to find Steve’s and tugging weakly on it.

“I can’t sleep here, Eds. This is your bed.”

“Our bed.”

Steve’s cheeks were hot, he knew if he touched them, they’d feel like fire. Eddie just had that way of completely rendering Steve speechless. He’d done it so many times over the last couple of days, Steve lost count.

“I’ll stay right here until your uncle gets here, okay?”

“And after?”

It probably wasn’t smart. It would look weird for him to stay in general, but he also had to get the kids home, try to patch himself up at home, maybe shower before he did some rounds and made sure everyone was taken care of.

“I have to take care of the kids.”

“But they have parents.”

“Yeah, well.”

They were interrupted by a knock on the door.

Hopper walked in, face as serious as Steve had ever seen it.

“I was able to contact your uncle, Eddie. You can go now, Steve.”

But Eddie gripped his hand harder, frowning at Hopper. He seemed more awake all of a sudden, but with the way his eyes kept trying to close, Steve could see it was a challenge.

“I want him here.”

“Eds, it’s fine. He’s not too happy with me right now, so-”

“What? Why? You helped save the world.”

Eddie was looking between Steve and Hopper like an answer would suddenly make itself known, but Hopper was just staring at Eddie, and Steve was just staring at his feet.

He didn’t want to get Eddie involved in this. He just wanted to pretend it never happened, maybe try to look Hopper in the eye again someday, and apologize to Joyce for not keeping the kids as safe as he could have.

But Eddie apparently took the “no running” thing very seriously now.

“Steve? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. Just. I kinda let them down, didn’t keep everyone safe.”

Steve shrugged it off, but he knew he wasn’t very convincing, or really even shrugging it off. He still felt the ache of disappointing people in his chest.

“Hold the fuck up. You’re serious?”

Eddie sounded as outraged as someone high on morphine could. His voice was barely distorted by the oxygen mask on his face, and his eyes were nearly at their normal size.

Steve couldn’t look at either of them.

“Steve is trusted by all these parents to keep their kids out of danger, and he brought them headfirst into it. It just made Joyce and I wonder how often they were doing stupid things,” Hopper explained, though he didn’t even sound convinced he believed his own words.

Joyce was walking in just as Eddie was about to speak.

“Steve, I think you should bring Dustin home. Claudia is going to get worried.”

He didn’t need to look up to know that Eddie was glaring at Joyce and Hopper.

“Let me get this straight. Steve provides free rides, and babysitting services, and meals, and fun for your kids damn near every day. He protects them during this shit every time it happens, literally puts his body on the line to keep them alive. Tried to somehow keep them as safe as possible when it seemed like the world was ending this time, did keep them alive, and you’re still finding reasons to blame him?”

They both had the decency to at least look like they regretted it.

But they still didn’t say anything.

“Fuck this. I’m not gonna pretend to know everything about your little Upside Down Club, but I’m in it now. None of us wanna be here, but we are. Steve’s been doing his best for years, since he was a kid, and all you can do is complain that your sweet angels aren’t completely unscathed? This is a team effort, you know that. They volunteered. Steve would have had to lock them in a prison cell for them not to help.”

Steve looked up at Eddie, watched as he started to lose the fire that had overtaken him temporarily, his eyes dulling as the morphine dripped into his veins and flushed through his system.

“Best damn babysitter…” Eddie mumbled as his eyes fell closed.

Steve watched him for a moment, waiting to see if he suddenly woke up again. When he didn’t, he stood up slowly, didn’t want to risk him feeling the bed move, and made his way to the door.

But something hurt in his chest, something he knew wouldn’t go away unless he said something.

He turned to see Hopper and Joyce staring at each other, having a silent conversation.

“I’m used to disappointing people. I’ve been disappointing my parents my whole life. Disappointed friends, Nancy, bosses. But I have never let those kids down. I do my best with them. I try to be there for them the way I wish someone had been there for me. I make sure they’re kids because life handed them a shitty card or whatever and they deserve to still be kids. You can be mad at me if you want, but I know I did my best. They know I did my best.”

He didn’t wait for a response, didn’t want to hear them say anything else about how wrong his decisions were.

But Joyce stopped him from leaving the room, hand on his arm.

“Steve, wait. Honey, I’m sorry. I think…I think we got caught up in the moment and just needed someone to blame.”

“You do the best you can. We know you do a lot for them.”

It was nice to hear, but he couldn’t get over the uncomfortable itch in the back of his head that he deserved more than that.

“Thanks, but I don’t think I can accept the apology right now.” And then the anger really set in. It came over him so fast, he could feel his hands shaking. “A lot of things are out of our control. We all wanna blame someone for this stuff, but it just boils down to the same people over and over. Max is in a coma because of Henry Creel, not me. Eddie is in the hospital because of demon bats, not me. Eleven and Will are connected to the Upside Down because of the government, not me. I’m just trying to be whatever they need, and that’s better than I can say for either of you at this point.” Steve left this time, Joyce dropping her hand from his arm halfway through his loud speech.

Okay, he was yelling.

But Eddie slept through it, and it felt good to get all of that out.

He made his way to the waiting room, hoping everyone would still be there so he could check in.

Everything felt too fresh, too much like Vecna could show back up and take any of them at any moment.

But the waiting room was empty, not even Dustin remained.

Steve did his best not to panic. Their parents had all been contacted, so they most likely had just been picked up and brought home.

“They’ve all been picked up, sugar,” an older nurse said from the front desk.

“Oh. Thanks.”

“They left you a note, though.”

He recognized her as the woman who had been here the whole night, handling phone calls and people walking in like she’d been doing this for decades. Maybe she had been.

He walked over and grabbed it from her, giving her a small smile in thanks.

He walked outside before he opened it, not sure why he was suddenly nervous.

But as he read, he felt tears in his eyes for what felt like the hundredth time that night.

Steve- Go home and sleep. We’ll be okay for a day while you rest. You don’t ever do that. We don’t agree with Joyce and Hopper, and we hope you know you’re the best damn babysitter ever. Love, Dustin, Lucas, Erica, El, Will, Mike, and Max (if she could)

He folded up the note, put it in his pocket, and walked to his car.

He ignored the blood in the backseat, rolled his windows down to ignore the stench of iron.

Knew he would be spending most of his day tomorrow trying to clean the stains out, but figured it would be a good mindless task.

He thought about Eddie, about how quick he was to defend him. About how he’d gripped his hand like it was a lifeline.

It felt that way to Steve.

He hadn’t let Eddie down. He’d saved Eddie.

If he didn’t do anything else right, he’d done that, and nothing Joyce or Hopper said could take that away.

#steddie #steve harrington #eddie munson #stranger things #joyce byers #jim hopper #ficlet #request #some angst but a positive ending #with some cute drugged up eddie #and some overprotective gremlins

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ladykailitha · 2 months

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The Harrington Pattern Part 13

This is it guys, the chapter of this fic. I have had an absolute blast writing and even more so reading all the comments and tags.

This last chapter is dedicated to all those who wanted the moms to bring Steve into their fold. This was also chance for Steve to rip on the haters without fear of his parents ire.

Thank you so much for all the love and support for this little story.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12

****

Claudia was waiting at the Byers’ front door when Eddie pulled up in his van and Steve hopped out.

“Eddie!” she cried happily. “I didn’t know you were coming!”

“Hey, Mrs. H,” Eddie said with a wave. “I’m just dropping Stevie off. We’re hanging out later.”

“That was sweet of you, dear,” Claudia cooed.

Steve in the meantime was pulling things out of the backseat of the van. Eddie looked over at him.

“You need help, darlin’?” he asked over his shoulder.

Steve shook his head. “I’ve got it. Thank you, though.” In lower voice he muttered, “I love you and I’ll see you later.”

Eddie gave Steve’s forearm a squeeze and then waved at Claudia. He backed out of the driveway and was soon gone from sight.

“We’ve got all sorts of surprises for you today, Steve,” she said gleefully clapping her hands together.”

Steve grinned at her. “Mrs. Peterson here yet?”

Claudia shook her head. “She’s always at least fifteen minutes late. Something we were banking on actually.”

Steve cocked his head to the side. “What do you mean?”

But Claudia just ushered him inside. He set his stuff down and then handed her a tray.

“I made blondies,” he said, “I hope you ladies like them.”

She peeled back the foil and gasped. “Steve they look amazing!”

Joyce came out of the kitchen wiping her hands. “What looks amazing?” she asked peering over Claudia’s shoulder. She, too, gasped when she saw them. “Steve, you didn’t!”

Steve grinned. “Your sons always eat the ones I send home with them before they even get home, so I figured you’d appreciate these.”

She kissed his cheek. “You are a dear.”

Claudia laid them out on table next to all the other treats.

On the coffee table were a bunch of things under a large sheet with clowns on it.

“The three of us,” Karen began, “wanted to do something extra special for you after hearing what fun our children had at the Fair because you made sure they did. So we each contributed something toward your love of sewing.”

She lifted the sheet. Underneath was a beautiful sewing kit in navy blue, a light green Singer sewing machine that looked older than he was, and a stack of old patterns.

Steve’s lip wobbled as he raised his hand to his mouth in shock.

“You didn’t have to do this, ladies,” he whispered.

“The sewing kit is from me,” Karen continued. “It’s a beginner’s kit, but it has fabric scissors, a seam ripper, bobbins for your thread and different kinds of needles.”

Steve sat down and pulled it onto his lap. He opened it and as he lifted the lid, the top tray pulled back revealing the tray beneath. “Thank you.”

“The sewing machine,” Claudia said proudly, “is the first one I ever owned. When I got married I got a new one and I’ve been using that ever since. But this ol’ girl has a lot of love and life left in her, and I want you to have her.”

Steve looked up at her, tears forming in his eyes. “Aren’t you worried that I’ll break it? Or that my parents will find it and destroy it?”

Claudia knelt in front of him. “It’s gonna be kept at my house until you get a place of your own. You’re there all the time to see Dusty anyway, no one is going to notice that you’re there to sew now, too.”

“Plus,” Joyce said with a grin. “It’s a Singer. They’re a little hard to break. They’re one of the best machines and it will probably outlast your children. So don’t worry about it, okay?”

Steve nodded, his lip quivering. Claudia kissed his forehead and stood back up.

“The patterns are from me,” Joyce said. “Whenever I would have a little extra money I would pick up a pattern or two at the drug store and bring it home. I picked a handful that I thought you’d like since you’re primarily making costumes. And if those work for you, next week I’ll bring another handful you might like.”

Tears started flowing down his cheeks. “Thank you. All of you. This is best gift I’ve ever gotten.”

“Oh honey,” Joyce said softly and suddenly Steve was being hugged on all sides by the moms.

They stayed like that until there was a knock on the door.

“That must be Olive,” Claudia said with a sigh. “I bet she brought those brownies that are totally store bought even though she insists it her grandmother’s recipe.”

Steve snickered. “My mom used to do that. I don’t think she fooled anyone either.”

Joyce grinned over her shoulder as she went to go answer the door. “Olive, dear! We were just getting started.”

“Oh?” the bright voice on the other side of the door cooed. “You’re usually in the full swing of things by now.”

Steve bristled. That meant she knew she was late and was doing it intentionally. He hated people like that. Acting like the rest of them were peasants meant to be waiting on her.

“Steve was just showing us the costumes he made for the kids for the Fair over the weekend,” Karen said sweetly as Steve hurried to get the things he brought to show off out.

Olive stepped into the house with a sneer. “I think it’s so sweet you’re indulging the boy, but I doubt he can hold a candle to Claudia’s years of experience.”

Wow, Steve thought. Not only did she insult him, but she insinuated Claudia was old. What was with this old bag?

Claudia smirked. “It’s true that I’ve been doing it for longer, but Steve has a real talent for it. Come see.”

Olive walked into the front room and Steve was struck by how much she reminded him of his mother. She had perfectly curled hair with not a single strand out of place. Her clothes were fitted and showed off her figure. Her makeup was flawless.

In short, Steve hated her on sight.

Joyce handed her the shirt he had made for underneath his tunic. It was flawless but understated.

Olive took the shirt and scoffed. “You couldn’t have done this, Harrington, you shouldn’t lie to your betters.”

Steve was already seeing red. “I guess I’ll just have to prove it to you then.”

Joyce clapped her hands together. “All right, let’s get started. Steve, you can eat as much as you want, but just make sure to keep it away from other people’s projects.”

Steve smiled at her sweetly. “Of course!”

He knew that what she was really saying was that Olive Peterson might try something.

He sat in the armchair away from her and she glared at him.

“Is it all right if I work on my project first before you teach me how to use the sewing machine?” he asked just as she was taking a drink of punch.

Olive was forced to turn away and cough into her hand to avoid spraying everyone with the lemonade that Claudia had made.

Karen’s smile was feral. “I don’t see why that would be a problem, right, Claudia?”

“Of course not, Steve,” she replied warmly. “Just let me know when you want to learn and I’ll come over and help you.”

Steve nodded. He pulled out the materials that Eddie suggested he bring and got to work.

Eddie really liked that Steve’s bags had a lining because it protected the dice better, so Steve had brought along some materials he could use for that as well.

About halfway through his first bag, Joyce called out.

“Steve? What’s that pattern you’re putting on the bag?”

Steve’s eyes lit up. “It’s my signature! I embroider it on everything I do to make sure people can’t pass it off as their own.” He handed the bag over to her.

“Oh!” she cried in excitement. “This is the design you put on Will and El’s costumes when you did their alterations, right?”

Steve nodded. “I hope you don’t mind. I know you made the clothes, but I thought it was a cute way to tie the two together like they were twins.”

“It was perfect,” Joyce said. “El still hasn’t stopped talking about how pretty your design made the dress.”

Steve blushed as he took the pouch back from her.

“I was talking to someone at the Renaissance Fair,” he said shyly, “and she wanted me make them clothes and things that she would sell for me. She even told me to make business cards in case someone wanted to commission me directly.”

“Oh Steve!” Karen cried. “That’s wonderful!” She clapped her hands together and tilted her head. “I have to admit I’m a little jealous. That pattern is beautiful. I would love a handkerchief with that on it.”

Steve straightened up. “Yeah?”

Karen nodded.

“What color would you like?” he asked excitedly.

Karen tried to protest but he wouldn’t let her. In fact he managed to convince all but Olive to let him make them one for them.

It did, unfortunately take him to the end of the two hours, but he was excited to come next week.

“I’ll even host it at my place!” he said with a grin.

Olive sputtered. “Well I won’t be there if it’s at this young man’s house. That’s so inappropriate.”

The three other ladies looked at each other and then shrugged.

“Your loss,” Karen said dryly.

Olive stormed out of the house vowing that as long as Steve was part of the group she would never come back.

“Well that is a relief,” Joyce said, “I’m not the kind to speak ill of anyone, but we really got quite the upgrade!”

Karen clapped her hands. “Indeed. I can’t wait for next week. I’ve got a new project I’m starting and I found the best recipe for a chocolate mousse that I’ve been dying to try out.”

“Same time next week, ladies?” Steve asked.

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Claudia agreed.

Then there came a loud honk.

Steve looked out the window and smiled. “Looks like my ride is here.”

He gather up his stuff, including the patterns and sewing kit and walked out to Eddie’s van.

He slid into the front seat.

“You have fun today, sweetheart?” Eddie asked, pulling out of the driveway.

“Yeah,” Steve said looking fondly at the house. “This has been the best weekend ever.”

Eddie grinned. “Well, it’s about to get even better, just wait to you see what I have planned for us today.”

Steve smiled as Eddie regaled him with his plans and nodded along.

Life was really looking up. He had a platonic soulmate, good friends, an amazing boyfriend, a hobby he enjoyed and could make real money from, and now a group of people to share that hobby with each week.

And to think it all started with a flier about the Renaissance Fair coming back to Hawkins.

“I can’t wait,” he breathed once Eddie was done.

Eddie smiled that sweet smile at always turned Steve’s insides to mush.

Yeah, Steve could honestly say that he was happy.

****

Tag List: @mira-jadeamethyst @rozzieroos @itsall-taken @redfreckledwolf @emly03

@spectrum-spectre @estrellami-1 @zerokrox-blog @carlyv @gregre369

@a-little-unsteddie @chaosgremlinmunson @messrs-weasley @chaoticlovingdreamer @maya-custodios-dionach

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@dauntlessdiva @vampire-eddie-brain-rot @lololol-1234 @nightmareglitter @cryptid-system

#my writing #stranger things #steddie #ladykailtiha writes #steve is a history nerd

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from-the-clouds · 1 year

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texas sun - joel miller x f!reader - vol. 1

series masterlist | series playlist | writing masterlist |

summary: When you let your new neighbor’s daughter inside to call her father from your landline, you never expect to be dealing with the fallout twenty years later. Series will take place before and after the outbreak, and is partially inspired by this request. Slow-burn(ish), eventual smut. pairing: pre-outbreak!joel miller x f!reader words: 6.4k chapter warnings: mentions of/encounters with a drunk person, references to absent parents, i imply that both reader (and joel) like pineapple on pizza. a/n: i need to get my shit together and make a proper masterlist/post for this series but i'm absolute garbage with photoshop/making collages so that is a project for another day!! for now, i wanted to get this first part out to ya'll. i watched a playthrough of the game too so ill be including some references to that throughout the series. this will be some hallmark-movie ass romance so strap in!! this chapter was super fun to write and i loved writing for reader and sarah, give it a read and let me know what you think!

-March 7, 2003-

“Excuse me? Ma’am? Excuse me?”

The voice behind you is so timid you don’t hear it right away, especially not when your phone is pressed to your ear with your shoulder as you sort through the mail, your coworker droning on and on…

“Ma’am?”

It’s a little more forceful this time, a little closer too, and that’s when it finally gets your attention. Turning around on your heel, you find a young girl standing behind you, one hand hooked in the strap of her backpack that hangs off of one thin shoulder, the other worrying about the butterfly pendant of the necklace she’s wearing.

You recognize her immediately as one of your neighbors, the girl from across the street whose name you didn’t know yet, because you only moved in about two months ago. You’d met the man who you assumed was her father – Joe? Or was it Joel?, you couldn’t remember – the first day you’d moved in, but there had been so much going on that you were too flustered to be engaged.

It’s a Friday, but apparently that doesn’t keep you safe from work calls after you leave the office, because you’re getting an earful of a whole lot of hot air, so much so that you’re probably unintentionally frowning at the girl in front of you while you try to follow the conversation.

“....I think you’re right, but they’re not going to budge unless we sweeten the deal somehow-”

“Can I call you back?” you blurt, ultimately thankful for the interruption. You don’t even wait for his response before you click off your blackberry, sighing, looking up. “Hi, yeah, sorry. Can I help you?”

“Uhm, I’m Sarah…..Miller….I live across the street?” her voice goes up slightly at the end of the sentence, like she’s unsure, even as she points to the home behind her, a two-story place that’s considerably bigger than your own, but maybe a little older. “I uhm…I locked myself out and I was wondering if I could use your phone…to call my dad at work? Please?”

“Oh, yeah,” you say. “That’s fine. Just uh..follow me I guess.”

Tucking the stack of mail in your hand under your arm, you wave her after you, your kitten heels clicking on the hard pavement of your driveway.

“Be careful here,” you warn her as you step over the middle step to your front porch that has rotted, and gives easily under any amount of weight. You’d learned about it the hard way, last week, and still had the bruise on your leg to show for it.

Your front door is open, and Sarah pauses to take off her shoes when you do, a pair of beat-up white Converse that have been doodled on in Sharpie.

“Here, phone’s right there,” you lead her into the kitchen and point to the landline. “Can I get you anything to drink?”

“Uhm, could I just get some water…please?” She stands rigidly in your kitchen, rocking back and forth on her heels.

“Of course,” you reach into the cabinet. Once the glass is filled and placed in front of her, you retreat to your front living area to give her some privacy while she makes the call, sitting on the couch and scrolling through unanswered emails on your blackberry. Sarah mumbles indiscreetly, until you hear her call out again.

“Uhm…ma’am…I’m sorry, Miss…uh-what’s your last name?”

“Oh,” you sit up, giving her your first instead.

“Okay….Uh, my dad wants to talk to you…could you-”

“Sure,” you stand, stepping back into the kitchen, and accepting the receiver from the girl.

“Hello?”

“Hey, this is Joel Miller,” you’re greeted with a low, gruff drawl. “You’re the new neighbor, I believe introduced myself a while back”

“Joel,” you repeat. It’s Joel. Joel, Joel, Joel, you force yourself to remember. Joel and Sarah Miller. “Yes, we met very briefly.”

“And it sounds like you met Sarah.”

“Yeah.”

On the other end of the line, you hear him hesitate, let out a long sigh. “Look, I hate to put you out, but she lost her key to the house, and she tells me the Adlers aren’t home. Do you think she could stay at your place until I’m able to get off work in a couple hours? I know it’s a big ask, but-”

“Of course she can,” you cut him off, peering over your shoulder at Sarah, who’s staring up at you expectantly with wide, terrified eyes.

“Really?”

“Yeah, it’s no big deal.”

“She’s probably got homework so I’ll make sure she stays quiet and out of your way. I’m so sorry, she should know better than this. It’s the second time this month this has happened, I keep tellin’ her-”

“Like I said, it’s not a big deal,” you cut him off, unintentionally, before wondering if it was rude you didn’t let him finish. It’s the native New Yorker in you, always in a rush and uninterested in drawn-out excuses. It’s an unfortunate instinct you’ve been trying to train yourself out of, particularly now that you’re living in the southwest. You soften your tone. “She can stay as long as she needs to, seriously. I don’t have anything planned.”

“Okay,” the voice on the other end sounds relieved. “Thank you. Thank you so much. I should be home by nine, I’ll call if anything changes. Thanks so much.”

“Of course, we’ll be fine. See you soon.” You hang up.

Sarah is still behind you when you turn around, clutching the glass of water she’s got in both hands like a vice. “You can stay here until your dad gets home,” you tell her.

“Did….did he sound mad?”

“Maybe a little stressed,” you’re honest. “But….not mad. I also don’t know him, so…”

“I bet he’ll be mad. This is the second time I’ve locked myself out this month because I forgot my key, and I already got lectured once that last time because he had to leave work early.”

“You made a mistake, people forget things…” you shrug. “I’m sure he’ll get over it.”

Her shoulders relax slightly, and she looks around like it’s the first time she’s actually registered where she’s at. “You have a nice house. It’s cozy.”

“Thanks,” you put your hands on your hips and look around too. “I’m still settling in, so not everything’s unpacked, but I could give you a tour if you’d like?”

“Yes ma’am.”

Ma’am. That tickles you. The address is still not something you’re used to hearing, even though you’ve only been in Austin a few years. “You can just call me by my first name, you know? Ma’am makes me feel old.”

“Really?” she grins, following you down the hall. “I can’t wait to be old.”

“You’ll feel differently someday,” you answer. “But…I guess it’s not so bad.”

Compared to the house you grew up in, your new house is nothing special, but it’s yours, and you couldn’t be prouder that you’d bought it all on your own. It’s a three-bedroom ranch, and you’d converted one of the rooms into an office for yourself. There’s a kitchen, living room, and den. But your favorite part is your large, screened in back porch that overlooks your yard. Now that it’s getting closer to summer, you sit outside in the mornings with a cup of tea and read the newspaper, listen to the birds.

“Can I do my homework at your kitchen table?” Sarah asks once you’re finished showing her around.

“Make yourself comfortable wherever,” you answer. “I could probably stand to get a little work done myself.”

Sarah sits at your dining room table, spreads out her books, and works quietly while you answer some emails and look over some contracts. You’ve got a big meeting Monday with a potential client, and a giant stack of term sheets to go through, but if you could manage to get some of it done tonight it might actually help you down the line. As much as possible, you try to avoid doing too much work outside of your office’s standard hours, but sometimes, it’s inevitable.

The subject Sarah has homework in is algebra, which renders you useless. Even when you have to do any accounting at work, you’re used to having a calculator nearby. It’d been awhile since you spent time with anyone as young as she was – in sixth grade, she told you – and it was starting to serve as a confirmation of your own dysfunctional childhood, because her carefree, sweet nature was so drastically different from anything you remembered feeling.

After about an hour, Sarah slowly starts to close her notebooks, zipping her pencils back up in plastic pouches. You look up from making revisions on a contract, the smell of blue ink heavy in the air around you. “I’m done,” she announces. “Could I sit on your couch and read?”

“Of course,” you answer. “Give me five and I’ll join you.”

It doesn’t take long for you to find a good stopping point, and you pack up your messenger bag, and join Sarah in the living room. “So…I’m starting to get hungry,” you tell her. “Are you?”

Sarah nods sheepishly.

“I could order us something,” you said. “What do you like?”

You aren’t much of a chef, though you can generally figure your way out around any recipe. However, cooking for one is notoriously tedious. If you had multiple mouths to feed, maybe you’d be tempted to hone your skills in the kitchen a little more. Most nights you usually treated yourself to a depressing, hastily thrown together salad, scrambled eggs, or a PB&J. Tonight, you had actually been planning to take yourself out to dinner – there’s a cute little French bistro down the street and you were hoping to treat yourself to a cocktail and a nice meal while you read.

Sarah closes her book, contemplating. “Could we….get a pizza?”

You think about it. “Sure, yeah. Pepperoni…cheese?”

“Can we get….one of both?” she tests.

“Yeah, we can do both,” You smile. “I bet your dad will be hungry, too, he can have some if he wants.”

“Maybe…he likes pineapple on his,” Sarah wrinkles her nose.

“He has good taste. I do too.”

“Gross.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll keep them separate,” you call over your shoulder as you retreat to the kitchen.

Once the pizza is ordered, you return to your living room and curl up on the opposite side of the couch from Sarah, who is engrossed back in her book. “They told me about 30 minutes. What are you reading?”

“To Kill A Mockingbird,” she says, showing you the cover.

“That was one of my favorites growing up.”

“I have to read it for school…but it’s pretty good so far.”

Your phone pings with another email, and you glance at it quickly.

“Is that work?” she asks.

You nod. “Yeah. It still finds you, even when you leave.”

“What do you do?”

“I’m a lawyer.”

“No way!” Sarah perks up. “Like on the tv shows? That’s so cool.”

You snort, shaking your head. “No, not exactly. I’m a corporate lawyer so it’s not as fun, actually, it’s just a lot of paperwork and meetings…”

“So…you don’t like it, then?”

“It’s….” you think about it. “....Fine.” Did you like your job? It wasn’t really something you thought about in that way, you’d always seen it as a means to an end. “I went to law school because my dad wanted me to…he wanted me to work for him someday. And…that didn’t pan out so…yeah. But you know…it pays well, and….”

“You get to wear cool outfits,” she gestures to you.

“Yeah, I guess I do. Although the heels do get a little uncomfortable.”

Sarah’s eyes shift behind you for a second to the hallway leading to your bedroom, then widen excitedly. “You have a cat?”

You turn around to see what she’s looking at, the white and gray ball of fluff that you’d found underneath a dumpster one late night in college.

“Yeah, that’s Martini.”

“Martini,” she giggles, and the cat approaches her cautiously. He’s notoriously shy and quiet, and not even particularly cuddly, but he likes to sleep at the foot of your bed and will sit next to you on the couch if you stay still for long enough.

The cat sniffs Sarah’s outstretched hand, then presses his face into Sarah’s palm so she can scratch him under his chin, his favorite spot. “He’s not usually a fan of strangers, he must like you.”

“I love animals,” she says. “My dad won’t let me get a pet because he says he’ll end up taking care of it.”

You chuckle. “Cats are pretty easy…at least, he is.”

Martini allows himself about twenty seconds worth of affection before he darts out of the room and heads to his food bowl.

“I’m gonna go change out of my work clothes, I’ll be right back,” you push yourself off the couch and walk down the hallway. Any other night and you probably would’ve been in pajamas awhile ago but that’s probably not acceptable, so you settle for jeans and a sweater, which is much more comfortable than the dress and tights you had been in before.

The pizza arrives and after you tip the driver, set it on your kitchen island and pull some plates out of your cupboard. You and Sarah are both long settled with full plates when you speak again.

“Wow….I forgot how good pizza is…” you say, staring at the half eaten piece in your hand.

“You don’t eat pizza?”

“Usually only when I’m drunk,” you say, then immediately realize you’re talking to an eleven year old. “Oops, I…probably shouldn’t be telling you that.”

She giggles. “It’s okay.”

“So, it’s just you and your dad across the street?” you ask. “Does your mom live with you?”

The second the question registers, you immediately regret asking. Sarah shrinks before you, her face dropping, shaking her head. “No I…I don’t really have a mom.”

“I’m sorry,” you say, softly. You just assumed she existed although you’d never seen her, and you feel guilty, racking your brain for something that might help make her feel better. “I understand, my mom wasn’t really around growing up.”

“She wasn’t?” Sarah asked, looking up.

You shake your head. “My parents got divorced when I was young, my dad took us, and she moved across the country, so….I didn’t see much of her.”

“My mom… she left when I was a baby.”

“I’m sorry.” You say again, staring at the girl in front of you.

For a moment, looking at her, you see yourself, and you wonder how a parent can wake up one day and choose to ignore someone that’s one half of themselves. Someone they made. If they really understood what that might do to a person’s psyche, growing up thinking that they weren’t wanted. You had always told yourself that your mother, your parents must have not understood, because if they did, and they still chose to do it…

“Are you married?” Sarah asks, and you’re snapped out of your train of thought.

Taking a bite of pizza, you shake your head no.

“So you live here alone?”

You nod, chewing.

“Do you like it?”

You nod, swallow. “It’s better than having a roommate, or living in the city.”

Standing up, you walk towards the fridge for a can of sparkling water. It hisses while you open it, and you lean over the counter while Sarah continues to drill you. “Do you ever get….scared? Like at night?”

“No….not really. I have locks. And this is a safe neighborhood. And uh, I may or may not have a nightlight still.”

Sarah giggles. “Me too.”

There’s a sturdy knock on your screen door, which you’d left open to let in the cool spring breeze, and you notice Sarah’s eyes widen. “I bet that’s my dad.”

As if he heard her, and maybe he did, the guest calls out. “It’s Joel!” It’s the same voice from over the phone, but much clearer.

“Come in,” you answer.

The screen door creaks open, the sound of boots shuffling inside. “Sarah?” It’s the same voice from the phone. Joel steps into the warm light of the kitchen.

When you first met it had been from a distance, you were carrying boxes and he was loading something into the back of his truck. It’s clear you hadn’t gotten a good enough look at him, wouldn’t have forgotten his name, because fuck, he’s kind of gorgeous…tan skin, dark wavy hair, and a sharp jawline covered in stubble. In the archway to your kitchen he looks huge, taller than you remembered.

“Hi Dad,” Sarah says. “Miss-“

You cut her off simply by saying your first name. “Nice to meet you…again.”

“It’s nice to meet you, too, and thank you so much for keeping an eye on her. We’ll get out of your ha-”

“We got you pizza,” Sarah pipes up, looking at him. You can tell that she’s trying to stall. Or at least, trying to offer him something that might soften the inevitable lecture she’s going to get. It’s a smart play, and definitely not something you would’ve been above trying at her age.

Joel looks at the three pizza boxes spread across your countertop. “You didn’t have to feed her, really, like I said, she should’ve known better,” he turns to look at her pointedly.

“I had to eat anyway. Please, help yourself. There’s a ton of leftovers,” You really did not want cold pizza in your fridge, because it’d be too tempting to eat as a late night snack or even breakfast on your way out the door in the mornings.

Reluctantly, he looks at you before taking a plate. “Thank you,” he turns to his daughter while he opens one of the boxes. “Did you get your homework done?”

Sarah nods. “And I got ahead on my reading for English.”

“That’s good.”

Joel turns back to you, settles in a chair with the plate of food in front of him at the island. You do the same. “I’m sorry I haven’t had the time to come over and properly introduce myself. Sarah too.”

You shrug. “I’m the new neighbor, that’s probably my responsibility anyways. It’s been kind of hectic settling in.”

“Where’d you move from?”

“Well, I’ve been in Austin for the past few years, but originally I’m from Manhattan.”

Joel nods. “Why Texas?”

It’s far away from my insane family, you think, and then settle on something else. “Work.”

Sarah is staring at her plate and tearing a piece of crust into tiny pieces. Joel eyes the slice of pizza he’s just taken a bite of.

“Pineapple?” he looks over at Sarah. “Are you tryin’ to bribe me so you don’t get in trouble?”

“It’s my favorite, too,” you offer, then wink at Sarah when Joel isn’t looking. She tilts her head down, her hair hiding the grin on her face from her father.

A buzzing sound cuts through the room before Joel can answer, and he digs in his pocket to fish out his cell phone. “Hold on, I gotta take this.”

When he steps out of the room, you begin to clear the empty boxes and plates off your kitchen island and bring them over to the sink. Sarah brings her plate over as well, stands next to you at the sink while you rinse them off and load them in the dishwasher.

“Thank you for dinner,” she says.

“Of course,” you answer.

“I just really hope he’s not disappointed with me.”

Placing your hand between her shoulder blades, you give her an encouraging pat. “I don’t think he is….” you hear Joel on the phone in the other room, his voice rising in volume. “....and honestly….it sounds like he might have bigger fish to fry…”

“Tommy…are you fucking kidding me? Again? How many times is this gonna happen? Okay…fine. fine. I’ll be there soon, but you can’t keep doing this shit.”

Sarah grimaces, and you both turn back to the sink sheepishly when you hear Joel’s footsteps returning. She bumps you with her elbow while you clear your throat.

You’re sure there’s still a residual smile on your face when you turn around to face Joel, who has his hands on his hips. “Alright, Sarah, we gotta get going.”

“Is everything okay with Uncle Tommy?”

“No, I’ve gotta pick him up at the police station.”

“Did he drink too much again?”

“Sarah!” Joel exclaims. “Please, it’s gettin’ late and you’ve got a soccer game tomorrow, you need to get to bed.”

You’re biting your lower lip so hard to keep from laughing you almost taste blood. It’s not funny, definitely not funny to Joel, who you can tell is having a rough night, but it’s objectively funny as an outsider, watching all their familial drama being put on blast by his daughter who doesn’t quite have a filter yet, and is first and foremost trying to protect herself from getting into trouble.

“She’s a lawyer, I bet she could help Tommy,” Sarah looks over at you. “Couldn’t you?”

Joel frowns. “That’s not how that works-”

“What’d they bring him in for?” you ask.

Joel runs a hand through his hair. “Public intoxication. Are you really a lawyer?”

“Well…I’m a corporate lawyer so that wouldn’t really be my specialty. But uh…I’ve definitely been able to talk my friends out of that kind of thing before.”

“But this is not the first time,” Joel says. “It’s probably useless.”

“Didn’t you say you can’t afford to keep-”

“Sarah, enough.” Joel’s voice is as stern as you’ve heard it, and he digs into his pocket, producing a keychain. “Go home and get ready for bed. I’ll be home in a minute.”

Sarah sighs, defeated. “Okay.”

Joel stands dead still while she shuffles to the door, cramming her feet in her shoes with her backpack slung over her shoulder.

By this point in the evening, you’d usually be curled up on your couch by the fireplace with your latest knitting project, moderately stoned, watching bad reality television and sipping sleepytime herbal tea. But your night has already gone drastically different from your expectation. Why stop now? “If you wanted…I could try to help.”

Joel shakes his head, looks at the floor. “I can’t ask that of you.”

“You didn’t ask,” you shrug. “I offered.”

He looks up, a soft smile breaks across his face, revealing a row of straight, sparkling teeth, the corners of his eyes crinkling. It’s the first sincere smile you’ve ever seen from him, and your knees feel a little weak at the sight of it. You think you might offer him anything just to see it again. “It’d be a huge favor. But….I’d appreciate it.”

“Alright well…” you look around, push yourself off the countertop. “I probably should change before we go. I don’t think I’ll be taken seriously in this.”

He chuckles. “Yeah, I need to make sure Sarah gets to bed alright, how ‘bout you meet me on my porch in ten?”

“I’ll be there.”

“Thanks again,” he raps his knuckles on the counter twice before retreating, and you stay in place until you hear the screen door close behind him.

─── ･｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

“I feel like you’re meeting us all at a very chaotic time….I promise, things aren’t usually like this.”

Joel’s not sure why he feels the need to clarify this to you on the drive to the police station. In fact, he might be saying it more to convince himself, because he thinks ever since Sarah’s mom ran off, things have never not been chaotic.

In some ways, he’s glad it happened. It was a doomed relationship from the start, they’d both been far too young to understand the consequences of their actions, so it was probably for the better that she was no longer around. But he was caught in a constant state of feeling like he could never quite get a handle on things.

Joel glances over at you in the passenger's seat of his truck. He decides that you look a little out of place there, dressed in a black pantsuit, a messenger bag tucked between your heel-clad feet. He can’t remember the last time there was an adult woman in his car. Three months, maybe? It had been a date, a third date, and subsequently, a last date. But right now the context is different.

Your head is tilted towards the open window, the breeze casting stray pieces of your hair around as the radio cuts in and out of an old Eagles song and then to static, and then back into music again. He needs to get his damned stereo fixed but unfortunately it hasn’t exactly been high on his priority list. His gaze travels down the slope of your neck, where your skin dips into the collar of your silky blue blouse, then back to your profile, your lips moving as you mouth the words to the song, but don’t sing.

I get this feelin' I may know you

As a lover and a friend

You stop when his words register, turning to look at him, and he averts his eyes back to the road. “No offense or anything….” you say. “But compared to the family I grew up in….this is all pretty tame.”

Joel ponders that for a moment, notices the way your eyes are narrowed, the corners of your lips quirking. “What, you got a problematic little brother, too? A precocious eleven-year-old?”

“No kids,” you answer. He didn’t think so. “But I do have a problematic older brother. And the stress he’s caused has definitely taken years off my life.”

At least you seem like you understand.

He’s shocked you’re in this car with him, that after entertaining his daughter all night, you’d offered to help him out with this Tommy mess. Though, he assumes you’re doing it out of guilt because Sarah made it sound like he was broke.

“You know for the record, I actually have the money to bail him out.”

“I figured.”

“Then why’d you come?”

You shrug. “I don’t know. My life has been pretty boring lately. I can’t remember the last time I did something exciting on a Friday night.”

“This is exciting to you?”

“It’s objectively exciting,” you sound assured. “Maybe more exciting than being the person who got arrested for public intoxication.”

Despite the stress of the evening, he can’t help but laugh.

“And whether you’re broke or not, bailing someone out of jail is no joke. If you can at least try to talk your way out of it, you might as well.”

Joel can’t argue with your logic.

“What is it you do again?” you ask, eyeing the protective glasses he has in the cup holder of his front seat. There are nails stuck between the rubber grooves of the mat beneath the seats, a pair of thick gloves resting on the dashboard.

“I’m a carpenter.”

“Makes sense,” you answer. “So you’re handy?”

“You could say that,” Joel lifts the can of flat, warm seltzer from his lunch break to his mouth, just to take a sip.

“That’s hot,” you say, and he nearly chokes when he hears it. Are you….flirting? Though, you can’t be, because when he looks over at you, you’re staring at the road, face neutral.

“What makes you say that?”

“I don’t know, I don’t make the rules of what’s hot and what isn’t….it’s just a fact. Everyone knows that.”

“Do they?”

“Uh-huh,” you respond. “I mean, I wish I was handy. I’m pretty much a lost cause in that department.”

“If it paid the bills, you’d figure it out.”

“If it paid the bills, I can tell you, I would not be living in our neighborhood.”

Joel puts his blinker on, preparing to pull into the police station. “You probably still could, it’s not that nice of a neighborhood.”

“Shut up,” you snort, rolling your eyes. “But in all seriousness, it is peaceful. It’s quiet.”

“See, but you still didn’t say nice.”

“It is nice. I like it.”

When he parks the car, you straighten up, unbuckling the seatbelt and exiting without a word. On the opposite side of the truck, he observes how you rebutton the front of your blazer, smooth down its lapels and shift your shoulders back before turning to him.

“You ready?” you ask.

He nods.

“After you.”

─── ･｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

When Joel spots you again, Tommy is walking a few paces behind you. You turn your head over one shoulder, smirking at whatever he’s saying. From where Joel is sitting in the lobby, he can just make out the soft curve of your hips, the tops of your thighs over the barrier that separates him from all the desks of the officers and staff at the station. You’ve got an easy, relaxed gait and you give Joel a wink when he catches you staring.

He can tell it’s just meant to be celebratory thing, since both you and Tommy seem to be in good spirits, but he likes the sight of it anyways, the idea that you’re both in on some secret that no one else is.

Joel stands to greet you and his brother to get the download, but as he approaches, your group is intercepted by one of the cops that had been hanging around reception.

“Miller,” he says lowly to Tommy. “This better be the last time I see you in here.”

When Tommy doesn’t answer right away, you pipe up.

“I assure you my client will be on his best behavior.”

The cop turns to you for a minute, turns back to Tommy, contemplating. “You’re lucky you have a good lawyer…” he says. “Although I’m still not convinced you’re really paying someone to get you out of a public intoxication charge.”

“I-” Tommy opens his mouth but you cut him off.

“Alleged…intoxication,” you interject, stone-faced.

“He can hardly walk straight.”

You purse your lips. “But….you never did a sobriety test, so, would it hold up in court?” you grimace. “If I had to guess….probably not.”

The cop narrows his eyes at you. “Don’t push it, princess.”

Despite the infantilizing nickname, You respond with a polite smile. “Thanks again, officer. Have a nice evening.”

“Mhm,” he murmurs before backing away.

You turn to Joel, your smile fading, and Tommy cuts in. “We should get the fuck out of here before he changes his mind.”

“That’s it? You’re free?” Joel asks.

Tommy nods.

“Tommy’s right, we should definitely leave.”

It’s a mad scramble, the three of you settling back into Joel’s truck, and if he was feeling a little less angsty about the way the whole evening had gone, he might’ve even peeled out of the parking lot for dramatic effect. But at this point, his patience is wearing thin.

He’s back on the main drag, en route to Tommy’s place, with you on the passenger’s side, and his brother in the back, leaning forward with his elbows resting on your seats when his brother speaks up.

“Holy….shit!” Tommy turns to you. “That was fucking awesome, are you kidding me? Joel, where the fuck did you find her?”

He’s still drunk, words slurring together, and he shakes both of your shoulders ferociously. You actually giggle — the sound of it is fucking adorable and Joel wishes that these are not the circumstances for hearing such a noise. He rather it be because of something he said, but he knows Tommy has always been more charming, even when drunk

“She’s my neighbor, Tommy.”

“No way! How come I’ve never seen you around before?” Tommy asks, and Joel can’t stop himself from rolling his eyes.

“I’m kind of new to the area,” you answer.

“Dammit, oh my god, Joel, I wish you coulda seen it.”

Joel looks over at you, and is thankful that he catches your eye. “What’d you say?”

“Never underestimate your negotiating power when the cop you’re talking to’s shift ended over an hour ago, and he doesn’t want to fill out any more paperwork.” You cross your arms, look over your shoulder at Tommy, who is leaning back against the seat with his head in his hands, laughing, before looking back at Joel. “I told you, I have experience.”

“Oh my god,” Tommy pokes his head back between you. “How’d he even get you to come down here? What’d he have to do, offer to paint your house or somethin’?”

“It’s a long story.”

“Sarah got locked out again,” Joel explained. “And I was over at her place when you called. She’s a corporate lawyer.”

“Ah, that makes sense. You know, Joel’s always liked the smart ones,” Tommy starts, and Joel has to contain the urge to slam on the brakes and send his brother face first into the back of his headrest. Unfortunately, he can’t do that with you in the car. “Too bad he’s dumb as a box of rocks.”

“Okay, watch yourself!” Joel snaps, and he’s only halfway kidding. “You got off easy, but you’re on fuckin’ thin ice, and I’m still pissed that I’m spending my night bailing you out again.”

Tommy doesn’t even catch on to Joel’s irritation – or maybe he does, and has just decided that he’s going to be the Annoying Younger Sibling and see how far he can push it. “Don’t let him fool you, okay?” Tommy continues, and you’ve angled yourself towards him, amused. “It’s not always him lookin’ after me. Before he had Sarah, he was crazy.”

“Alright, alright that’s enough, Tommy.” Joel shoots daggers towards his brother in the rearview mirror, and he watches Tommy’s smile falter, finally deciding to back down.

“Is that true, Joel, were you really crazy?” you ask after Tommy grows quiet, tilting your head. “I can’t see it.”

“Well we’ve all have our moments, right?” he says sheepishly.

“We do,” you agree, and then it’s finally silent.

Joel is thankful to see Tommy’s driveway straight in front of him, and his car lurches up the curb. “Alright, alright, this is your last stop,” he says to his brother. “You’ll get in okay?”

Tommy takes a deep breath, settling himself after all his bravado and sinking back against his seat. “I’ll be fine. I’ll see you tomorrow morning at Sarah’s game.” He slinks out of the truck and slams the door behind him.

Normally, Joel would’ve chewed him out after something like this, but he knows being hungover tomorrow at a middle school soccer game, sandwiched between screaming parents and the ear-splitting whistles of the referees will be punishment enough.

“I’ll see you then.” He watches his brother stumble up the steps to his home, unlock the door, and give a wave before disappearing inside.

Joel’s left alone with you. “Should we get you home, now?”

“Yeah, we should.”

Joel puts the car in reverse, puts one of his arms over the back of the bench seat to look for cars behind him, and catches you staring. You don’t even seem embarrassed that he notices, either, you just shift your gaze away to outside the window.

He feels a little self-conscious about the first impression he’s probably made, which is a feeling he’s not used to…caring about what people think.

“Sorry about him, he’s….a good guy but a real piece of work.”

You giggle. “Like I said, I have a brother, too.”

It’s been awhile since he’s interacted with anyone outside of Sarah, Tommy, and his coworkers, and his day was exhausting. He wants to ask more questions, see if he can hold some kind of conversation, but words fail him, so you spend the short drive on the way back home mostly in silence. You’re so quiet that by the time he pulls into your driveway, he thinks you might be asleep. If you were, he doesn’t even get the chance to wake you, because you immediately sit up straight once the truck has come to a halt.

“Thanks for everything tonight,” he says.

“You’re welcome, it was no problem,” you get out of the car, sling your bag over your shoulders, and close the door. “Have a good night.”

Joel’s listening to the retreating click of your heels up the driveway when he rolls down his window all the way to speak again. It’s clear you’re tired, your shoulders are slouched, and he feels incredibly guilty. You worked all day and then had to put up with his entire crazy family.

“Hey,” he says. “How much do I owe you for the pizza?”

You turn around, still stepping backwards. “Nothing.”

“Look, you’ve done too much for me tonight to say that,” he says. “I’m startin’ to feel bad.”

You stop in your tracks then, the smirk on your face fading a little bit as you slowly step forward to where he leans out the truck window. It’s only a few feet, but you’re much closer now than you’ve been to him all night, and there must be jasmine in your perfume. It smells expensive, he thinks, as your hands lift to rest on the door next to his elbow. “You shouldn’t feel bad,” you say softly, voice low.

God, you’re fucking beautiful, he realizes, basked in the glow of the moon, a smile creeping along the edges of your lips. Of course, he knew you were attractive, had definitely registered it at some point before – maybe when he’d walked in on you and Sarah giggling in the kitchen. He was just too busy being worried to even notice until now.

This isn’t a date, but you’re so close he could kiss you, kind of wants to just to see what would happen, but he doesn’t. You’re his new neighbor, and if he’s reading this wrong, he doesn’t want to be reminded of the mistake everyday, first thing in the morning when you’re picking up your newspaper at the end of your driveway and he’s leaving for work.

“But uh…if it would make you feel better…one of the steps on my front porch is rotted. Maybe you could come over sometime and fix it? That a fair trade?”

Joel nods, and you stick out your hand. “It’s a deal,” he says, ignoring the jolt of energy he feels when your palms press together, like you’re a kid wearing a hand buzzer, trying to shock him.

“Great,” you step away. He’s about to put the car in reverse when you speak again.

“Oh, and Joel?” you ask, he looks back at you. Before you speak again, your eyes shift to the ground, like you’re mustering up the courage to ask him something, and when they return to his again, your expression is somber. “Go easy on Sarah….she’s a good kid.”

Joel nods, understanding.

“I know.”

volume ii

taglist: @yaskna @venomous-ko @lomljigg

#joel miller x reader #joel miller #joel miller x f!reader #joel miller imagine #joel miller series #the last of us #the last of us fanfiction #pedro pascal #tlou hbo #tlou fanfic #tlou series #texas sun

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eywamygoddesswrites · 1 year

Note

Hiii, how are you??

If its okay with you i would like to resquest a platonic yandere of either the Sully's or tonowari family(whichever you prefer) when their youngest child (reader) comes home injuries because of some bullies

How would they react??

(if you can't do it or don't feel comfortable its completely fine)

— 𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓷 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝔂𝓸𝓾𝓷𝓰𝓮𝓼𝓽 𝓰𝓮𝓽𝓼 𝓱𝓾𝓻𝓽 — (sully family, tonowari family x platonic!reader) | separate

requested: yes

pairing: sully familly x gn!reader, tonowari family x gn!reader

tags: platonic, yandere, youngest sibling, youngest child, just a doting family

warnings: lowercase intended, mentions of torture but not elaborated, injuries

a/n: characters are aged up! hi there! i'm doing very well, thank you very much. i just came back from class and i got a few more ask after this so i'm very inspired in making and answering them. hope you enjoy this!

word count: 946

+ gif not mine. ctto.

sully family:

being the youngest in the sully family has its perks. having 5 protective older siblings i’m adding spider ‘cause i can is fun! y/n has friends to play with them, someone who looks after them when their parents aren’t available, and their life is never boring

but when they came home crying, their knees scraped and bleeding after being pushed by their bullies during the kid’s nursery (i imagine there’s a nursery class that is just the na’vi kids interacting for early socialization in the clan)

their knees hurt, and their elbow also scraped due to the impact of the push, just crying that so, so, and so pushed them during nursery

neytiri was fuming, to say the least. no one messes with her baby. no one

jake was trying to calm his mate, reminding her that those are just kids and they mess up from time to time. it’s the parents you should get mad at because they didn’t raise their kids right

neytiri would then blame the kids’ parents for raising rotten kids that bullied her youngest and would threaten the parents if their kids bully her baby again

jake, on the other hand, would threaten the livelihood of the parents. would hold their family’s place in the clan above their heads and wouldn’t hesitate to banish them. to hell if they get killed by the animals that lurked in the dark

kiri was cleaning up y/n’s booboos while neteyam held his baby sibling

lo’ak plans on tripping said kids by holding his foot out and acting like he didn’t do anything (petty but hey, it’s a small way to get back at the kids)

spider would distract y/n by talling them stories that happened back in the lab. they loved hearing all the sciency human stuff and hearing them from spider was fun and he would probably join lo’ak on the pettiness

tuk was quickly weaving some bracelets to help her baby sibling calm down. she will do anything and everything to help her only baby sibling out

if said bullies had older siblings that are learning to be a warrior or a tsahik, neteyam and kiri would sabotage them. neteyam would destroy the weapons that the siblings had created for the training while kiri would add herbs and slimes that messes up the medicine the siblings would create mo’at gets disappointed at the bullies’ siblings for messing up their works

but, if we say that y/n is younger than lo’ak by a year (around 13) and took tuk’s place as the youngest, that’s another story

jake and neytiri would be the last to know that they’re being bullied by other na’vi’s because y/n begged their siblings to not tell their parents

neteyam and lo’ak would beat those bullies up to a pulp. they didn’t care if their dad would tell them off afterward. what matters is that they don’t get to harm their siblings ever again

kiri would destroy their image if said bullies were training to be a tsahik. she would tell mo’at a lot of things that would slowly hurt their character then, later on, would be told off and not be thought by mo’at

spider would join neteyam and lo’ak at one point but then again, he’s small while teen na’vi’s were hella tall so he becomes neteyam and lo’ak’s hypeman

overall: the sully family wouldn’t mind beating a few na’vi’s up when protecting their youngest. sully’s stick together!

tonowari family:

y/n is the kid that didn’t have to do much to impress the family. they could just breathe and tonowari would throw a whole feast to celebrate it

ronal is a very doting mother. although a warrior and seen as a very serious tsahik, she would smile whenever she sees her youngest. also very protective. like, super duper protective that no one besides their family can interact with their youngest. if you do, she’d wave your head up on her spear and set it as a reminder to the rest that if you do mess with her youngest, you’ll be next

tonowari is much more doting than ronal but if the softer version. instead of being violent like his mate, he would rather let nature do the violence. why get the blood on your fingers when pandora can do the work? he didn’t want to hold his baby with the blood of their bullies

ao’nung is no different from their mother. but instead of giving the easier end, he would rather beat them up and keep them alive just to prolong to torture. torture = honoring his sibling’s existence

tsireya is the most normal of the bunch. but if she hears that her sibling is messed with, just knows the whole family is coming for their head. she would be with her sibling and distracting them while the family ‘talks’ with said bullies

so when one-day y/n comes home severely injured by her bullies, all hell broke loose

the parents of said bullies were held off by other metkayina’s while they watched ao’nung, rotxo, and a few other of their friends beat up the bullies

ronal was held back by tonowari because if he didn’t, ronal would’ve hurt the parents of the bullies or worse

tonowari eventually forcefully removed the family that tormented his youngest child because if he gives them a chance, his child might get hurt again and he’s not taking that risk

tsireya was tending y/n’s wounds and reassuring them that the bullies won’t hurt them again because their parents will send them away

tdrl: you hurt tonowari and ronal’s youngest, and you leave severely beaten up

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rendezvouz-fling · 1 year

Text

Astro Observations #2

• I see Sagittarius venuses barely getting into relationships, they tend to get a lot more people just crushing on them trying to ask them out then actually being relationships. These people love hard too.

• Capricorn moon & Aquarius moon 🤝 bonding over emotionally/physically distant mothers.

• Fire mars 🤝 irritable explosions every 5 minutes.

• I’ve also noticed how Scorpio suns tend to rely on their friendships. Expecting their friends to be as genuine as them then being disappointed when their ‘friends’ aren’t there for them like they are.

• Having same element moons is very common with siblings but I’d say this applies to cousins too. E.g. I’m a 9H Aquarius moon and my younger cousins are mostly air moons while my older cousins are mostly fire moons.

• They say the sign in your 4th house is one of your parents’ big 3 signs and that is so true! My 4H is Virgo and my mom’s moon is in Virgo.

• I noticed a lot of great Wattpad writers that I read books from are Virgo suns with Leo mercuries. • What is it with Gemini risings and smirking at everything? • Scorpio risings are so cute!!

• Pluto-Ascendant people tend to have powerful presences especially if they’re shy! Oh and they have good stage presence too!

• I’ve noticed Scorpio risings tend to be attracted to Gemini risings’ playful personalities!

• Taurus risings are so charming! • Aquarius risings are so chill!

• Virgo risings are literally my other half <3

• 10H suns tend to hear a lot of “I’ve never told anyone this but…” from other people even people they’ve just met. • Aries suns with Aries mercuries are so fiesty & energetic! I love that combo lol.

• Aries suns are literally the only people that exude their placements. I feel like it’s easy to tell wether they have earth placements or water placements, etc…

• Gemini risings are always doing something. Wether that’s multitasking or just bouncing their leg when they’re sat down. Very nervous energy for no reason.

• Earth suns with Air moons are just flat out chaotic!

• I love Water suns with Fire moons, they’re so impulsive and funny without trying. And definitely not the type to get too emotional. But you just know if they’re happy or not depending on the energy levels lol. They tend to wear their hearts on their sleeves.

• Fire suns with Water moons tend to be head strong but overly emotional. Unless they don’t have water risings. They’re also very affectionate and caring. • I swear Capricorn mars are some of the most genuine people ever. They’ll make sure their siblings are doing good and if not they’ll try to help wether that be financially or etc.. They’re the types that wanna put their siblings/closest friends onto the best stuff and they work hard to achieve their goals.

• Nahh because my sister’s a Taurus mars and she literally used to say she wanted to marry a burger when we were like 10.💀😂 Then when we’d eat pizza she’d be like ‘Please don’t tell burger I cheated on him with Pizza’. 😭😭😭

• If you have your luminaries (sun/moon) at 18 & 22 degree you’ve gotta be one of the strongest people emotionally and you’re probably very logical despite your placements.

• Composite charts are soo important because I ran one on me & my youngest sister since we’d never really gotten along and tell me why we have a sag stellium?💀

• Leo rising in composite is literally my favorite rising! Me and my best friend of 6 years have this placement and the rumors are true.🌚

• Taurus placements in composite are really not about that area being sensual. It’s more about keeping things at common ground. Say if you have Taurus moon, it’s about balance between your emotional natures and yes it can be pretty chill. Taurus Mercury—if it’s at Aries degree (1, 13, 25) it won’t even matter because you WILL argue, a LOT. Just like Aries Mercury in composite. • Aries venus in composite is probably my fav! Everything is so genuine and playful. Literally that couple that is always teasing each other or their friends are teasing them about the other! And the emotions just flow open and freely.

• Earth moons in composite literally indicate relationships/friendships that grow with time or just go slowly. They’re also very satisfying if you don’t have a fire sun.

• Pisces moon in composite is so sweet! You both express your emotions, are affectionate towards the other and the union is rather calm. You might also share artistic interests and care for the other deeply. Even if you aren’t the most emotional people.

• Capricorn mars are so passionate and sensual, I’m genuinely tired of people just thinking they’re ‘boring’ especially in composite. Because they’ll make sure you’re enjoying yourself during the act and they’ll know just how to please you. 10/10<3

• Check your Venus persona chart if you feel like you don’t resonate quite well with your venus placement. E.g. my venus is in Pisces in the 10th House at 12 degree and while I do identify with that I’ve also kinda felt like an Aries venus at times. Well it turns out my moon in my venus pc is in Aries! • Capricorn mars can be so vindictive if underdeveloped! They’ll literally plot lol. • If you feel like you can’t really identify with a certain placement, check their persona charts. It’ll definitely help!

• This is just a theory I’ve come up with, but your favourite singer’s big 3 might be in your big 3/6 of your singer persona chart. E.g. my fav singers are Michael Jackson, Prince & Bobby DeBarge. And my big 3 in my singer pc are Gemini sun (Prince’s sun), Sagittarius moon (Bobby’s moon) & Virgo rising (Michael’s sun).

#astro community #astro placements #astro observations #astro posts #astroblr #venus persona chart #persona chart #rendezvous-fling

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steddieasitgoes · 1 year

Text

It’s Mother’s Day 1973 and Steve’s mom isn’t home.

Instead of spending the day with her only son, she’s left to follow her husband on his latest business trip. Steve doesn’t remember where she’s going, just that she promised to bring him back a snow globe for his collection. The one that sits on the highest shelf the bookcase in his room — collecting dust.

He’s been pawned off to his nanny again. Poor Ms. Anderson who has put her own middle-aged life on hold to raise a kid whose not hers. Steve’s not stupid. He knows his parents pay her well to take care of him, but he still wishes she’d tell them off. At least, put up a fight, so she didn’t have to spend all her weekends with him.

Usually the duo stay cooped up in the Harrington’s House. Ms. Anderson will cook him a nice meal and they’ll spend the afternoon playing games or watching movies. She’ll fall asleep early in the movie and Steve will disappear to play with his toys or snoop through his parents things to try to figure out where they’ve gone this time.

Today’s different though.

It’s Mother’s Day, after all.

Today, Ms. Anderson has taken him to Roane Hill Cemetery. She lets him hold a massive bouquet of pink carnations as she gathers a picnic blanket and basket from the back of her car.

“What are we doing here?” Steve asks, struggling to keep pace with Ms. Andersons determined steps.

“Visiting my mom.”

“But isn’t she…” Steve doesn’t finish the sentence.

“Yeah,” she says, spreading out the blanket next to a small gravestone. “But just because someone’s gone doesn’t mean they’re out of our lives. Coming here makes me feel connected to her.”

Steve doesn’t understand that.

How can Ms. Anderson feel connected to her dead mom if she can’t even look at her? He doesn’t even feel connected to his own mom when she’s in the same room as him.

Maybe it’s a girl thing, he thinks.

Steve sits down quietly, after that. Ms. Anderson clearly needs this visit and Steve’s not going to interfere with her plans. Not when said plans get him out of the house for the first time in a week. So he sits and listens to Ms. Anderson talk to the headstone. Watches as she digs out a small flower pot in the ground to place the flowers in.

It’s only when she ducks her head in a prayer that Steve decides to explore.

“Don’t go too far,” she warns. “And be mindful of others!”

The cemetery is full of older people. Some sit on blankets like Ms. Anderson with gorgeous flowers and picnic baskets full of food, ready to spend hours with their departed mothers. Others, stay for a few minutes. Set down flowers and tap headstones before ducking their heads while retreating to their cars.

There’s laughter and tears and Steve doesn’t know how to feel about all of it, except lonely.

He wishes there was someone his age around here.

Steve ventures deeper into the cemetery, where the trees are taller and fuller. Older, Steve thinks. It’s through a small clearing that he spots a boy about his age sitting in front of a headstone. An older man stands behind him, a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

He’s too far away to know for sure, but he’s pretty sure the boy is talking to the headstone. Head tilted forward, shoulders hiccuping up and down like the boy is crying. Steve wonders who he could be visiting. Certainly not his mom, right? He’s much too young to not have a mom — Steve should know.

He watches as the little boy leans forward and kisses the headstone and Steve realizes it must be.

Steve must make a sound, a gasp or a small cry because the boy and the older man’s head whip around in his direction. He’s still too far away to hear, but he can tell the man is telling the boy something. Whispering in his ear before nodding his head in Steve’s direction.

He should leave. Ms. Anderson is probably done with her prayer now and she’ll be worried if he’s not back soon, but he can’t leave. Not when he spots the little boy trudging through the tall grass towards him.

“Are you lost?” the boy asks.

Steve shakes his head.

“What are you doing all the way out here then?”

Steve shrugs. “Was that… were you talking to your mom?”

“Yeah,” Eddie nods, looking over his shoulder. “Uncle Wayne says it’s good to come talk to her ‘cause she gets lonely too. Are you here for your mom?”

“Oh no,” Steve says. “My mom is, well she’s not here but—”

“Do you want to help me?” Eddie asks, before Steve can finish it. “Wayne wants me to go find a yellow flower in the field over there. It’s so big I could use some help.”

“Sure!” Steve says, happy to finally have someone his age to talk to. “But why yellow?”

“It’s my mom’s favorite color!” Eddie smiles. “She said, she always felt like the sun was touching her when she wore it. It was her happy color.”

Years later, when Steve and Eddie have reconnected and they’re going through Steve’s closet to find items to donate, Eddie will ask Steve why he has so many yellow sweaters.

“It makes me feel like the sun, warm and happy,” Steve says, smiling softly. “I used to wrap myself in yellow whenever my parents left me home alone.”

And it’s then and only then do the two of them realize they met long before they crossed paths in the halls of Hawkins High and even longer before portals to hell-like dimensions open.

#this is dumb but the idea kept nagging me #steddie #steddie ficlet #steve harrington #eddie munson #steve harrington ficlet #eddie munson ficlet #stranger things ficlet #cw parental death #cw death #dani writes

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anonymous-dentist · 6 months

Text

I love how Foolish always puts his daughter’s feelings first, because his first response to hearing that Leo doesn’t trust or necessarily even like the new eggs was, “Should we kill Empanada, then?”

Up to this point, most of the new parents have constantly been reassuring their kids that everyone loves them, that the older eggs might just be shy, that their other parents will show up and immediately love them. (Of course, the exception is Roier, who doesn’t trust Pepito at all but who has found himself caring about Pepito anyway.)

Meanwhile, several of the older members are telling their eggs to go be friends with the new eggs, don’t be mean, etc.

This is, in fact, a mistake that is going to bite everybody in the ass. Setting the new eggs up with expectations that everybody loves them is setting them up to be crushed when an egg like Tallulah or Leo doesn’t want to be friends. There’s a solid chance that Sunny or Pepito or Empanada will be destroyed when their absentee parents (Quackity, Mariana, Charlie, and Jaiden in particular) show up and may not want to be their parents.

What a lot of people don’t understand about the new and old eggs is that the new eggs aren’t like. Family to the old eggs. All the eggs up through Pomme came from the adoption center and supposedly had the same dragon mother. These new eggs? Nobody knows where they came from, they have clashing stories about their lives before Quesadilla Island. They’re complete strangers.

Sure, Pepito and Richarlyson are siblings, but that’s because they share a common parent in both Roier and Quackity (and Cellbit by technicality.) Everybody else? These new eggs are total unknowns that they really just don’t know they can trust.

Most of the eggs have been pretty chill with the new ones, but others like Leo and Tallulah. Aren’t. And, realistically, why should they be? They don’t know these other kids. And their respective parents trying to get them to be friendly with each other is just getting the og eggs hurt by having their feelings be ignored by their parents and it’s getting the new eggs hurt by forcing them to personally experience someone being forced to deal with them and clearly not being happy about it.

That’s why I appreciate Foolish and Phil’s parenting. They’ve decided that their child’s feelings come first, so it’s fine if Tallulah and Leo don’t want to hang out with these new kids on the block.

I have literally nothing about the new parents who are doing their best, but you can see a difference in parenting between Roier, who has been up there with Bad as the eggs’ primary babysitter since day one of the og egg event, and the newer players. Roier, for all his many MANY faults, isn’t setting Pepito up for failure by telling Pepito that his other parents are going to show up and adore him. For better or for worse, he’s being realistic and setting Pepito’s expectations low, and he’s still giving Pepito a family in himself and Richarlyson despite his own emotions and problems. He lets Pepito make friends, like Dapper and now Richarlyson, on his own without pushing him (too much, but it was mostly Cellbit’s Ghost telling Richarlyson to get along with Pepito), and now Pepito is somehow the only newer egg to not feel really super fucking depressed over the other eggs not liking him. (He’s still super upset about his other parents, but he’s more or less accepted this life while saying he’ll wait for his other parents to arrive, and we all know that at least Rivers and Cellbit will like him.)

TLDR; Setting these kids up with the expectation that everybody loves/will love them is setting them up for failure and depression, and making the older eggs socialize with them will Not help matters any. Foolish and Roier and Phil’s parenting choices regarding this are probably actually helping make the kids happier in the long run because not everybody needs to be friends, and that’s fine

#does this make sense?#I’ve been trying to figure out how to verbalize this for a few days

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hisnamesdylan · 2 months

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Lockwood/Kipps rivalry analysis:

In the show and the books Kipps mentions something along the lines of how “everyone leaves him in the end”. In the books we get the added note of Lucy hearing something in his tone that she “couldn’t quite understand” or something like that. As well as in the show Kipps’ comment about Lockwood in that “big empty house”.

I think they were close as kids, but given that he was closer in age to Jessica he was probably closer with her. Maybe they were dating. Regardless, I bet Kipps was on good terms with all the Lockwood’s. Anthony Lockwood probably even looked up to him. He might have even wanted to join Fittes because of him.

So (spoilers), when Jessica died although he was older, Kipps was still a kid himself. Again, if Jessica and Kipps were dating, I doubt they broke up. Not that I know what it’s like, but not being in a relationship anymore, not because of anything you or the other person decided, but because one of them died, well, I’m sure that sucks.

Basically in his grief I don’t think Kipps knew how to handle everything. Especially his anger. So he took his misplaced anger and directed it on Lockwood. Kind of messed up, but people are like that sometimes.

As for Lockwood I’m sure he didn’t know how to handle it either. What could he do?

But I’m sure what makes it hurt even more is that after losing his parents and now his sister what would probably have been good for him is having someone to talk to. Or check up on him.

That could have been Kipps. They both lost someone, but grief isn’t fair. And if Kipps was there for Lockwood, who would be there for Kipps? They could lean on each other for support, but given the age difference it would be on Kipps to be the strong one. But that didn’t happen. And the way they both handled it probably made them hurt more.

I imagine that over time, Lockwood started to feel angry towards Kipps too. That he felt like death took his family from him, but Kipps just left.

So when Kipps shows up in the library and says “everyone leaves him in the end.” I think that if Lockwood was a different type of angry he could’ve said “what? Like you?” Cause he was the only one who actually left. Everyone else died.

I think over time they worked through it on their own and maybe they have yet to have a proper conversation about it, but I think they’re doing better with room for growth.

I also think their rivalry has nothing to do with Lockwood poking Kipps in the butt with a rapier.

#lockwood and co #save lockwood and co #anthony lockwood #quill kipps #book analysis #show analysis #saw a post that made me think of this #jessica lockwood #lockwood & co #spoilers

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spacebarbarianweird · 6 months

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“one who moves among hearts” being a possible translation of Astarion’s name is brutal.

If we take this translation as intentionally chosen opposed to real world names where meaning is usually not thought of beyond cultural background. like being named “Michael” because it means “gift from god” (one translation) vs. the name was just in the Bible so it was used

If his parent CHOSE “Astarion” with that intent, they probably meant it as “we want you to be somebody who experiences so much love in your life”

But another interpretation of the phrase “one who moves among hearts” could be somebody who plays with people’s emotions. The heartbreaker.

Which is what Cazador forced him to be. Cazador sent him and the other spawn to catch prey, and unless the most recent patch removed it, there’s basically a Kama Sutra in the room Astarion says he brought victims to. Meaning the seduction ploy was, more likely than not, Cazador’s idea.

Also “tar/taér” being the equivalent of a diminutive and common for an elf’s childhood/first name, something they use until they reach 100 when they get to pick their own and are seen as a full adult in elven society… you think Astarion had to specifically avoid elves?

By a multi species society’s standard he’d be treated as an adult, but an elf hears that diminutive and they’re 100+? They’d probably recoil like when somebody in their 20s realizes a teenager is flirting with them.

Like, could they go with Astarion? Yes, but it would probably get the same sort of side eye as like a 24yr getting with an 18yr. It’s technically okay, but it’s so close to Not Okay that people keep an eye out.

Do you think after endgame that’s something he thinks about? He’s been “Astarion” for twice as long as he should’ve, but it’s also something from his life that Cazador couldn’t take away. He doesn’t remember what he looks like, he doesn’t remember his own eye color.

We don’t know what his relationship with his family was like before, he doesn’t mention them. Which I take to mean he was a transplant to Baldur’s Gate. Maybe he had a good relationship with them but they didn’t live at the Gate, maybe he didn’t and moved to get away. Either way, his name is one of the last and most tangible things from before Cazador that I think he’d have a hard time picking a new one, if he wants to at all.

That's a very interesting point! Thank you for sharing! I actually think Astarion isn't a baby name. Elven baby names are short: Arya, Bryn, Del, Eryn. Tav sounds like an Elven baby name as well. Meanwhile adult Elven names sound like that: Ivellios, Laucian, Quarion, Soveliss etc. Astarion is definetely an adult name in form. Why did he have it though, since he was a child according to Elven standarts?

I have two theories 1) People know the difference between baby Elven names and adult Elven names. So, Astarion just chose an adult name prematurily upon starting his career. I think a lot of Elves start using adult names early in life to look older. Plus they definetely fantasize about what names they are going to take once they hit 100 years. 2) This is a weird theory, but bear with me. There are almost no Elves in Baldur's Gate. Especially, Elven nobility. But there is plenty of Half-Elves. Almost everyone with pointy ears is a person with mixed ancestry. Also, Elves are very delicate and short. Astarion doesn't look like one. He has a human male body structure and if it wasn't for his ears, no one would think he is a pure Half-Elf.

Now let's remember the lessons on genetics, especially Mendelian inheritance. If you have the whole population of Half-Elves (mixed descendants of Elves and Humans), you can get children who inherit only one combination of ancestral features. Two Half-Elves will probably conceive a Half-Elven child but there is a chance the kid inherit Human features from both parents or ... Elven features, getting the same set of genes from Elven grandparents.

So, what if Astarion is like that? He was born in Baldur or its area to the Half-Elven family. Despite being a High Elf, he still has some Human features (ambitions and the body type). And because his folks had little to no idea what Elven society looks like, they gave him an Elven name not knowing it's an adult one. And that would explain why Astarion doesn't have a family to come back to. Half-Elfs live up to 200 years. His parents are dead, people he grew up with are dead. And he is just this "stray" High Elf who wo't be accepted by Elves because he is descendants to Humand and Half-Elves.

#bg3 astarion #astarion name meaning #astarion #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 #astarion bg3 #astarion headcanon #astarion headcanons

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kidstemplatte · 8 months

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Terzo becoming a dad of twin girls!! Pweaaase? 🥰

dad! terzo w/ twin daughters

(implications of female reader)

this was so fun to write! thank you, anon! 🥺i hope you enjoy and it didn’t disappoint! <3

he absolutely cries when he finds out you two are having twins.

he’s so nervous. worried he won’t be a good father. these babies haven’t even been born yet and they’ve become his whole world.

you have to eat more during a twin pregnancy. this man FEEDS YOU.

i feel like he can cook. he’s always making you the best (italian) food, making sure you’re eating enough.

he does so much research he ends up knowing things YOU didn’t know.

he’s always nose deep into some parenting book or staying up in the late hours of the night reading articles.

soon he has mastered the art of carrying two babies at once.

he is such a funny dad. so funny. will do ANYTHING to make his girls laugh.

they love playing dress up!

except he’s the one being dressed up.💀

he makes an absolute show of it. he loves hearing his daughters laugh and he’ll do anything to make it happen.

“you know, you kind of rock a tutu.” you say, walking in during one of their makeovers.

to save time getting ready in the mornings, he learns how to do their hair, and before you know it, he’s a BEAST at it and can braid hair in a matter of seconds.

god forbid they get a hold of his face paint.

he leaves them alone for ONE moment. ONE minute. he comes back. they are both covered in black and white paint.

“ay, nononononono, not before school!!”

the girls want to be ghoulettes for halloween. every year.

“girls, what about something else? we can get you any costume you want. anything in the world.”

“ghoulettes.” they’d say in unison.

he spoils them rotten, buys them endless toys, matching stuffed animals, dolls… but in the process, falls in love with a specific brand:

i don’t even know how i came up with this, but i feel like terzo would love monster high dolls.

he’s in the store… mindlessly walking through the toy aisle. vet barbie, pilot barbie, pool party barbie, doctor barbie...

when all of a sudden, he lays eyes on something new. something exciting.

a “monster high” doll.

now that’s cool.

probably keeps two in his office, each of his girls’ favorite characters.

i lowkey feel like he enjoys some of the shows they watch. i can see him rocking with my little pony.

he loves playing with the girls. he loves their imagination.

gets VERY invested in the barbie storylines they come up with. does high pitched voices when he’s acting out the girl dolls and it makes the twins laugh until they’re rolling on the ground.

he also keeps all the drawings they make him, every single one. they’re also on display in his office.

he knows what it feels like to feel unequal to his siblings so he is very careful to make sure they both get the same amount of love and attention. ❤️

if they fight as they get older, he doesn’t get involved. he knows girls are scary when they’re mad. he lets you handle that. 💀

very invested in the school gossip when they get to that age. when he picks them up from school he’s always eager to know what happened.

protective. VERY anti-boy.

“wait, you said… DATING?” he says when the girls mention a new couple one day.

“yeah dad, we’re in 7th grade now.”

“yeah, dad.”

“NO BOYS! not now, not ever. they are stupid and ugly and think about nothing but themselves.” (he knows this because he was one💀)

(you know the scene from the movie “coco” where the grandma says “no music” over and over again? yeah, replace “music” with “boys”. same energy.)

teaches them about girl power from an early age.

of course, their mother leads the conversation, but he’s so dedicated to help these girls understand their worth. that they can be anything they want.

he already considered himself a feminist before having his daughters, but after having them, he is THE #1 feminist.

when they start talking about crushes, you have to explain to terzo that it’s normal and bound to happen one day.

he just loves his girls so much, he doesn’t want them to grow up🥲

but, uh…

god forbid any boy breaks one of their hearts.

oh, he is not above pulling the satan card on a 13 year old boy.

but you know, one quick google search of “emeritus” will do the trick. any boy will be sure to understand why messing with either of terzo’s girls is a death wish.🥰

___________________________________

i hope you enjoyed and this brought some light to your day!!! honestly i’m a little obsessed😭 hope you’re doing well!! remember you’re loved!!!❤️❤️❤️

#ghost band #the band ghost #papa emeritus #papa emeritus iii #terzo #ghost #papa emeritus x reader #papa terzo #terzo x reader #papa emeritus iii x reader #dad!terzo #terzo headcanons #ghost headcanons

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ryuichirou · 6 months

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I been wondering what would it be like for the cast to be parents? I seen how Idia and Azul will likely be terrible ones and I am curious for the rest. (Except for Lilia for obvious reasons)

Anon! Sorry for the late reply. The day has come for me to share with you my nrc-as-parents headcanons lol I’ve mentioned this theme a little bit in one of the previous replies about Azul and Idia a while ago, and I’ll reiterate: we usually don’t really love the scenarios than involve characters becoming parents, and because of that I probably ended up talking about how bad of a parent all of them are lol But I tried to make it as fair as possible.

Actually, some of them turned out to be not so shitty ones! Which is quite surprising, not gonna lie.

Alright, so…

Riddle – such an anxious parent. One would assume that he would try not to mess his kid up as badly as his mom messed him up, but it’s Riddle we’re talking about; he’s still super dependant on tutorials and rulebooks, and whether he wants to acknowledge and avoid his parents’ mistakes or not, he’ll end up overthinking it and messing up massively. I guess it all depends on his partner, but he’d need a lot of help. He’s going to copy his mother until somebody stops him, although at some times he would think “I was actually very upset when my mother did that, I should stop”, but he wouldn’t be able to catch or even see all these moments, especially on his own.

Trey – “oh he is the perfect dad!” I hear the crowd saying. “NO!!!” I’m yelling back at the crowd. Of course, he is super caring and empathetic and has experience with children. And looking at some of the other…. Uh… contestants… of course, Trey is one of the best. But he is also an enabler that spoils his kids rotten. He’s way too doting. He’s strict about their dental hygiene! But other than that? Nah.

Cater – god I don’t think Cater would ever want a kid. I think he would think that unless he has a perfect and stable life with a house and no need to move anytime soon, it’d be too irresponsible to get a kid. But even then, he would be so focused on not messing up his kid (and he would only have one because siblings sucks) that he would probably make things worse lol He would also probably try to make everything seems perfect and his kid really wouldn’t appreciate it when they get older.

Ace – he’s the dad that doesn’t pay child support and visits them like once or twice every other week. I know I judge him based on his younger self, but I don’t feel like this guy is getting mature or responsible anytime soon. He’s the type of parent that always looks hella confused about what to do with a kid, especially when they’re too young/too old to appreciate his sick magic tricks. He’s not heartless, he just doesn’t get it and gets frustrated because of that and doesn’t want to continue trying.

Deuce – he would try to do his best. He would actually be quite a nice parent, but that doesn’t mean that he won’t make mistakes or get frustrated. He’ll mess up A LOT; he’s just very good at learning from his mistakes and knows how important it is to have a good parent. And his mom would help out a lot.

Leona – distant, lazy, always salty at someone for some reason. The type of dad who could technically brag about his kid to someone, but when the kid is there he just sits on a couch and watches tv in silence. He gets inspired to teach his kid how to throw a ball from time to time, but he’s also the type of a dad to miss the perfect timing for this kind of bonding and end up with a teenager who doesn’t want to hang out with him. Wow that went dark lol

Ruggie – on the one hand, he also has a lot of experience with taking care of children. On the other hand, his kid would know how to pickpocket at the age of 2. Just in case. His kid would love him a lot, but he’s definitely not the most conventional dad one could have. He’d also never have a child without any sort of financial stability because he doesn’t want his child to be raised up in the streets.

Jack – oh come on, he would be such a good father that it’s actually boring, NEXT!!!

Azul – Riddle’s mom 2.0. I’m sorry, this is the hill I’m going to die on. Yes, Azul was loved by his family and surrounded by nothing but support and care, but he’s also a psychotic control-freak that truly believes that he was too spoiled and that his parents should have been MORE STRICT WITH HIM!!! So in his head, the best thing he could do is to make sure that his kid knows magic by the age of 3, knows how to work with contracts by the age of 5, learns how to play an instrument, does sports, knows how to cook, has perfect pronunciation and vocabulary, and oh of course the kid also needs to have a hobby because if they don’t have anything they’re passionate about they’ll never succeed in life! Azul is overbearing lol but he is also probably overly protective of his kid. He’d also yell at his mom for spoiling her grandchildren lol but his mom would make a great counterbalance for his attitude with her being sweet, so it’s not that bad for a child...

Floyd – HE DOESN’T NEED A KID. PLEASE. HE AND JADE BOTH WOULD PIT TWO NEWBORNS AGAISNT EACH OTHER AND GO “FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT”. But if we’re being honest, I just think he’s too volatile to be a proper parent. The possibility that he’d get bored and just ditch this whole parenting thing altogether is too high lol

Jade – If we don’t go the “baby wrestling” scenario, he’s… confusing. He might be a wonderful dad who is surprisingly perfect at parenting and smiles at you with his “what, you thought I would be bad at it? too bad” smile. As if he’s doing it to spite everyone. As if he’s plotting something. But I can also picture him leaving his kid in a forest just to see if he would find his way home.

Kalim – Oh he’s the most doting dad ever. His kid would have everything they want, he’ll shower them with love, kisses, songs, tasty food, gifts, snacks, cool outfits. He would photograph everything and have tons of videos on his phone. He would talk about his kids all the time. He would be so obnoxious and insufferable, Jamil would actually ask him to PLEASE consider not spending half of their funds on his child’s birthday gift? You’ll literally go broke please stop PLEASE.

Jamil – he’s also probably the one not to have a kid for a very long time because of having too many irons in the fire. But he’d be an okay parent. His biggest problem would be the fact that he’s busy. His kid would probably be super mature from a very young age though. And learn how to cuss from Jamil. Jamil didn’t mean to teach them that, but oh fuck. But also I think he would somehow end up making some of the same mistakes his parents made with him. He’s way too focused on Kalim to notice that he pushes his kid away a lot hoping that they’ll “understand” because they’re “smart”.

Vil – he would be a solid one! He’s also super focused on his kid learning a bunch of stuff from a very young age, but he is much more mature and empathetic than Azul is about it. Still, he’s quite strict, but he’s also super doting when he has his soft moments. But sometimes he still takes his own perfectionism too far. He’s the one to read a lot of the books about parenting and try to be as prepared for it as possible. But mistakes are unavoidable so let’s hope that the great Vil Schoenheit shows his excellence at everything he does yet again.

Rook – oh the weirdo. He has his strong points, and a lot of them: he’s super supportive, super loving, he helps out a lot, and he would actually provide a good balance if the second parent is Vil for example. At the same time, it’s impossible to have a “normal childhood” when your dad is Rook, because he’ll teach you how to hunt, how to survive in the woods, how to hide your presence from a tiger. His kids will watch him snap a deer’s neck at the age of like 2. So yeah, on the one hand he would be that parent who yells in excitement at his kid’s elementary school play, but he’ll also give the most ruthless critique to them afterwards. He’ll show his kid the beauty of nature, but he’ll also leave them in the woods for a week to survive alone. Don’t worry, he believes in them~ (his kid and Jade’s kid would stumble upon each other in the same woods and become friends lol)

Epel – he’s too much of a baby… I can’t even picture him having a kid. What kind of a teen mom?.. He’s going to be too focused on this whole cute/manly stuff, this never ends well lol

Idia – the awkward and avoiding parent that kind of wants to hang out with the kid but also wants nothing to do with them. He doesn’t know how to act around them and it’s painfully obvious. So he might miss the moment to actually bond with them just like Leona, but on the other hand, if the other parent is Azul, Idia could be “the fun parent”: the type that you can eat ice-cream with and play videogames for hours. But when the videogaming and ice-cream eating hours are over, he’ll just stop communicating with the kid again and hide somewhere. He doesn’t like being a parent much; he’d prefer to be “a cool uncle” of sorts. The one that only comes to visit twice a year…

Ortho – an actual cool uncle lol I also can’t picture Ortho as a dad. He’d be a collection of all the dad tropes from the tv. He would have so much fun! Not sure of the kid would have fun though. But Ortho would!

Lilia – oh we all know how good of a father he is. The best one.

Silver – a very sweet and empathetic one, caring and protective; his main downfall is the fact that his own childhood was so messed up that he doesn’t really know how to care for kids. Of course he wouldn’t just drown a kid in milk like his own dad did, but he also wouldn’t automatically assume that it probably isn’t safe to just let his kid play with a sword on their own. Something among the lines.

Sebek – absolutely obnoxious. Sometimes he’s surprisingly good… because his childhood wasn’t as bad as Silver’s, so he knows better. He’s also the one to read a lot of books and hope that he won’t make any mistakes. But he’ll make mistakes, get frustrated and angry, and make even more mistakes. And then he’ll sing an ode to Malleus instead of a regular lullaby because the young one needs to learn what’s important from the very first days of their life!!!!!!111 Silver and he need each other to balance shit out lol

Malleus – he would try, but I don’t trust him to try hard enough lol he would be invested and loving at first, but he would also get moments when he would just leave a kid and go on a stroll. It would probably take some time for him to learn that he probably shouldn’t do this. Hey he went through the same thing, right? Was it fair then? Why isn’t it fair now? (besides, Silver also turned out alright!) Not everything is about you, Malleus…

#replies #headcanons

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thatgoblin · 8 months

Text

~::~ Summary: After a drunken night with a man name John, Reader finds herself in a position they had never thought they would be in. ~::~ Fem!Reader, 1st POV.

[WARNINGS: Brief pelvic exam, swearing, grief, sibling death, family issues, vague speak of abortion, cursing, unplanned pregnancy, vague-ish descriptions of drunk sex]

::AN-This is just part one of the series, I'll go through the whole pregnancy and maybe after. Enjoy!::

Tequila was always responsible for my mistakes. I should have kept my promise of never having more than one shot, but that quickly went out the window when I bumped into him. He was tall and handsome and smelled of scotch and tobacco. I was pretty sure I complimented his mutton chops and that’s how it started. A few beers and more than a couple of shots later, I was pressed against his door as we kissed like drunk college students during Rush Week. Eventually we made it into his house with giggles and drunk stumbling, at least getting to his bed before the main event.

I was going to have beard burn by the end, but that wasn’t important. What was important was that I was half undressed as the man ate me out like he’d been starving for it. While I don’t remember every single detail, the broad strokes of the night were there, I knew I had had a good time at least. It probably wasn’t the olympic level of sex I thought it was at the time, it was still pretty good. The next morning, he made me coffee, told me his name was John and if I ever wanted to have another fun night again to give him a call.

“So, why haven’t you called him?” My friend Jesse asked as we sat at a table in a cafe, once I'd finished telling him about John. I had called him and asked for some adult talk because holy shit did I need it.

“Because I honestly forgot, but now I really do need to call him buuuut I lost his number,” I said.

“Oh no, did you get the clap?” He asked, shirking away.

“Worse,” I groaned, leaning back in my seat.

“Ew, herpes?” He asked, scrunching his face up.

“Even worse,” I said, putting a hand to my belly. “A lot more noticeable than herpes in the next few months.”

“Oh. . . Oh shit,” he said, raising his brows. “I mean, are you sure it’s his?”

“I’ve only slept with one person in the last four months thanks to my ex, so yeah, I’m sure it’s John’s,” I grumbled. I knew that would be everyone's question, probably even John's, but it still didn't feel great to hear.

“Sorry, just checking,” he said, holding up his hands. “So what are you going to do?”

“I don’t know. It’s. . . It’s still early and it’s not like he HAS to know as I’m not sure I want to keep it,” I said, poking my sponge cake with a fork. “I don’t even want kids. I never planned on it, not even with Paul and he was my longest relationship.”

“Oh Paul,” Jesse said wistfully. “It’s all his fault that this happened. If he hadn’t cheated on you so many times, then you wouldn’t have been looking for a rebound.”

“Well the tequila didn’t help either,” I snorted. “Doesn’t make a difference. I’ve still got to make a decision and it’s getting close to the deadline for the permanent one.”

“Have you gone to a doctor yet?” Jesse asked.

“Yeah, right after I took the pee test at home. I wanted to make sure so I didn’t panic over nothing,” I said. “They said I’m about 7 weeks along. I didn’t want to do any tests other than the blood lab, and since I could give them the date of my last encounter, they were able to figure it out from there.”

“Man, that’s wild. Have you told anyone else? Your family?”

“Absolutely the fuck not,” I choked out as I sat up. “They will never know if I can help it. No matter the outcome, they are not in my life for a reason.”

“Because they’re fucking psychotic?”

“Because they’re fucking psychotic. Damn right,” I huffed. It had been so long since I’d had any contact with my family. My parents were still back in Inverness for all I knew and my older brother was somewhere with the military. Last I had heard was that he’d made it to Sergeant in SAS and that was because I had run into an old friend from school. It had felt so sad to find out through gossip essentially. Someone I had been so close to growing up was now a complete stranger.

“So, if you keep it, can I be the Daddy?” Jesse asked with a grin.

“Jesse, you can barely keep your rabbit alive, I’m not letting you parent my fake plants let alone anything that comes out of me,” I groaned, shifting to sit up.

“Hey, Sassafras is doing amazing and he’s even getting a brother soon. Don’t be bad mouthing my babies,” Jesse pouted.

“Sorry, sorry,” I said, rubbing my face. “I shouldn’t be taking the stress out on you. That’s not fair and I’m sorry.”

“Those hormones are messing you up, BAD,” he said.

“Yeah, they are. I don’t get sick at least, but the mood swings are giving even ME whiplash." I was silent for a moment, contemplating the possibility of telling John. The good, the bad, and the more than likely to happen heart break if I made an attempt to have something outside of our one night stand.

Paul had done a number on me. We’d been together since secondary school on and off, but the last four years we had become so close and in tune with each other. We could tell when the other needed something without saying anything and were genuinely happy where we were. I had been at least. It turns out he’d been fucking some hen from his work the entire time and had gotten her pregnant. When that happened, a switch had flipped and I didn’t know the man anymore. He moved out when I had gone to work one day, leaving me in a lurch with rent and a place that I had so many happy memories with him in.

"Maybe it’s better if I just don’t tell him,” I said softly, shaking my head. “I mean, we could be really bad together. All I know is that he’s in the military and is never around. If I wanna raise anything, I want my partner to be there with me and I already hate being alone. I’d probably lose my mind if it was just me and it on our own. Besides, he probably doesn’t want something like this. Otherwise he’d have it by now.” The man was good looking, funny, and with a military career, he could have married someone and had kids with them by now.

“True, but what if you guys work really well together?”

I went quiet, trying not to let a fantasy of me and John form. Paul proved that it doesn’t matter how long you were with someone or how close you got, they will still break your heart when you least expect it and act like it was nothing.

“Don’t let him ruin your future, Boo,” Jesse said, reaching over to take my hand. “He’s taken enough from you. There’s no reason to let him have more.”

“I know,” I said softly, squeezing his hand. “I just wish I knew what to do. If someone could tell me for sure if me and John would work out or not, that would be amazing.”

“Well, I’m sorry that I left my crystal ball at home,” he said, letting go. “But maybe give it a try. At least you can say you gave it a go.”

“Yeah, but I have to find the guy first and I don’t remember his number or where he lives,” I said.

“Well, how about putting that detective brain of yours to work? You watch all those crime dramas, why not use it in real life?” He asked.

“Because this is real life and not DCI Banks,” I said, giving him a pointed look.

“Just retrace your steps. Do you remember the bar you met him at? Maybe he’s a regular,” Jesse said, rolling his eyes.

“True. That’s actually a really good idea,” I said, tapping my chin in thought. “I mostly remember what he looks like too. Well more than mostly, I could probably pick him out in a lineup. He was really good looking.”

“Oh yeah, that’s definitely going to help you find him. Just ask the bartender for the really good looking guy,” Jesse snickered.

“Shush. Well, it seems that the, uh, Shit, what do I call it?” I asked.

“Are you asking me what to call the fetus inside you?” Jesse asked, raising his brows.

“Yeah.”

“Just call it Bug. You know? Or even Bean. It’s like, what, the size of a grape?”

“Little smaller. I think the internet said it was the size of a blueberry.”

“That would be cute, but it also sounds like a safeword,” Jesse snickered.

“English people do really like beans,” I said. “Let’s go with Bean.”

“You’re English too!” Jesse cackled.

“No I’m not! I’m Scottish! There’s a difference!” I cried, throwing a napkin at his face that he easily caught. “Fucking American with your Mountain Man accent telling me I’m English. My Last name is MacTavish, that’s not fucking English.”

“I’m Appalachin, Darlin’. I’m not just any Mountain Man,” Jesse grinned.

“I’ll be sending you back by punting you over the ocean if you don’t knock it the fuck off,” I hissed.

“The mood swings are going to be killer with you,” Jesse snickered.

“Don’t,” I sighed. “Just don’t. But it seems I'm keeping the Bean after all."

“Good luck. I mean it. Being a single parent ain’t easy, but you’re not on your own with this. Even without John, okay?” He said, reaching over to squeeze my hand again.

A few days after my lunch with Jesse, I was at the bar that I had originally found John at. It was packed for a Thursday night and the thick smell of alcohol was making me nauseous. Getting to the bar, I flagged down the bartender in hopes they would know him.

“What can I get ya, Love?” He asked, leaning in so he could hear me.

“I’m actually looking for someone,” I said, climbing up to kneel in the seat so I could lean over the bar. “I don’t know if he’s a regular or not, but I figured I’d try.”

“Sure, what’s his name?”

“John. I don’t have a last name, but he’s tall and built, has dark sandy hair with a mutton chops beard. I think he’s in the military,” I said.

“Oh yeah! John Price! He and his men are regulars,” the bartender nodded. “Just saw him a few days ago actually. What do you want him for?”

“Well, I’ve got something for him that he left when I last saw him and I only got his first name and haven’t been able to find him,” I said. “You wouldn’t happen to know where I could find him other than here, could you?”

“Sorry, I only know him from here. Maybe if you come back tomorrow he might be here. He usually shows up a bit earlier than this,” the man said with a shrug. I nodded and thanked him, giving him a few quid for the help. I decided that I could hang around and see if he still shows up that night while I dug around to see what I could find on social media.

Getting a Shirly Temple, I grabbed a corner seat and spent about an hour trying to find him online, but the man was a ghost. Nothing. No Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, not even a LinkedIn. What was I supposed to do? Give my number to the bartender and hope he remembered to give it to John? That is if he would. He’d probably just toss it. There was no way I was leaving my number on a board in hopes he’d see it. That was how I would end up on a true crime Youtube channel.

About to call it a night and escape the bar that was building a headache in the base of my skull, I shot a text to Jesse to let him know I tried the bar and at least got a last name. As I turned to put my phone in my purse, the chair opposite of me was pulled out. Looking up, I couldn’t believe my dumb luck.

“Heard you were looking for me,” John said with a chuckle. His deep, gravelly voice was just like I remembered it as he was grunting in my ear while he-

“Yes, I am,” I said with a nervous laugh. “I, uh, know that it’s been a while since we last saw one another and I planned to call you, but I lost your number.”

“You know you don’t have to make up a story if you want to have a pint with me,” he said, a soft smile peeked from under his whiskers.

“Oh, no, I really lost your number,” I said, straightening up in my chair. “I also have the memory of a goldfish, so when I realized I had lost it, it was too late. But you’re here now.”

“That I am,” he said, nodding with a hum. Almost getting completely lost in his shining blue eyes, I quickly gave him my full name.

It was very clear as to why I had started to flirt with him in the first place. The way he looked at me, making me feel like he knew exactly what he wanted and it was me.

“It’s nice to get a full name, after almost two months,” he said. “It’s lovely to meet you, I’m John Price.” He held out his hand for me to shake and damn it, I was melting into his touch. His hand was warm and rough, but firm. “So, were you seeking me out for an introduction or maybe I could buy you a drink?”

“Uh, I was actually looking for you because. . . Well. . .” It felt like the words were getting stuck in my throat, trying to choke me to make me leave and pretend nothing happened.

“You want another go where we’re a bit more sober and able to have more fun?” John offered with a wink as he leaned forward to sip his beer he’d brought over with him.

“I’m pregnant,” I blurted out. He furrowed his brow, staring at me.

“Congratulations?” He asked slowly.

“That’s why I was looking for you,” I said with a heavy sigh. “I’m pregnant and about 7 weeks along. If you do the math. . .”

“I see,” he said, nodding. Sitting back in his chair, he fiddled with a coaster, staying quiet for a moment. I didn’t want to push it or scare him, so I was patient. “And you’re sure it’s mine?”

I had prepared myself for that question, made sure it wouldn’t bother me by asking myself that same thing over and over, but hearing his tone and seeing that flash of doubt on his face made me want to hide in shame. I didn’t shame people for how many people they had slept with and while I didn’t have sex with strangers, it felt like suddenly I was this ‘loose’ person that was trying to get every single dick they could and use the system to get free stuff. The next nine months were going to be hell on my body, but sure, I only did it for free stuff and to control a man I had met ONCE.

“You’re the only person I’ve slept with in the last four months. So, yeah. I’m very sure,” I said, feeling my chest start to tighten. Anxiety began to twist my stomach like I was wringing my hands under the table. “I don’t want anything,” I added, nearly choking on my own spit. “I mean, I don’t want you to feel like you owe me or the Bean anything. I just wanted you to know, so if you did want to participate at all, you could. If you don’t want to, that’s fine. Again, I just thought that you had a right to know.”

“That did go through my mind,” John said with hesitation. “I know you said you don’t want anything, but it wouldn’t feel right if I didn’t help out at all. A support check at least.”

“That. . . That’s up to you. I’m not going to take you to court over it. I figured if you ever want a relationship with the Bean, then we can work something out. I’ll keep you updated on anything you want to know or I can just leave you alone,” I said. That part was hard. I didn’t want to be a single mum and I didn’t want to be alone, but I also didn’t know John. How many relationships went sour because two people had a kid and chose to stay together instead of separate because they thought it would be better for the kid? Too many.

“I think I’d like to know,” he said, looking up from the coaster to me. “I’d like to be involved as much as I can be.”

“Okay,” I said, twisting my napkin more. “Okay, we can do that. Um, I have a doctor’s appointment next week. If you want, you can come. It’s just a general check up.”

“Yeah, I can do that. Just let me know the time and place. Do you want to meet there or I can pick you up?” He offered, that look coming back again. John knew what he wanted, but I couldn’t tell if it was me or the Bean. That wasn’t something I thought I would need to worry about. Would he think I wasn’t fit to be a parent by myself? Did he have family that could raise the Bean and think it would be better if they did? The prospect of being betrayed to have the Bean taken away was suddenly very real and terrifying.

“We can meet there. Here’s my number, so you can keep it and I can’t lose it again,” I said, sliding my phone over to show him my number. He added my number to his phone before adding his to mine then sliding it back to me. “I’ll go ahead and send you the details. Um, okay, I just realized how, well, how silly this sounds, especially after me giving you my information, but I just thought of it. You aren’t a crazed serial killer, are you?”

John let out a bark of a laugh, his shoulders shaking as he chuckled. “No, no. Nothing like that. I’m just a captain in SAS.”

“That’s what it was,” I groaned. “I knew it was military, but I couldn’t remember exactly what it was.”

“To be fair, I didn’t exactly tell you,” he said, leaning forward again, much more relaxed by my ice breaker question. “So what is it that you do?”

“I’m a restaurant manager for an Italian place on the south side of town. Ciao Bella.”

“I’ve heard of the place. Always good things. I haven’t eaten there before, but now I might,” John said.

“It’s a pretty good place. I recommend it and not just because I work there.”

The longer we talked, the more comfortable I felt with him. I still wasn't sure if he wanted me or the Bean, but it was starting to look like both of us. When I was ready to go home, he offered to drive me home and when I declined, not for lack of him trying, he walked me out to hail me a taxi. There was a bit of awkwardness at the good night part. Did we kiss? Did we high five or wave? In the end, I gave him a one armed side hug that he happily returned.

Once I was in the taxi and down the street, my phone buzzed with a message.

'I forgot to ask, but why do you call the baby The Bean?' I snorted and shook my head.

'Because you English really like beans and that's the size of it right now.'

'You're English too.'

'No, I'm Scottish! There's a difference!'

'You’re right. Out of curiosity, are you related to or know a Johnny MacTavish?'

Fuck.

'Is he from Inverness, Scotland?'

'Yes. You know him?'

I had screwed up. I had seriously screwed up. I couldn't bring myself to answer him, not even when he called once I got home. It had been almost a decade and I still couldn't bear to think of him. He was supposed to be the good one. He was supposed to help me and comfort me and instead he abandoned me. If John knew him then I couldn't be around John. I couldn’t put myself or the Bean through what I had gone through the last time I’d seen him.

Once inside my flat and my door locked, I turned off my phone so I didn't have to listen to it buzz with calls and messages. How could I explain to him even the very basics to begin with? I couldn't without giving away every dirty, dark detail of why I cut him out of my life to begin with.

Laying in bed as I felt sick, I couldn't help but think that I made a mistake. I never should have looked for John and I never should have told him. It could have been dealt with quietly and quickly and I wouldn't be so attached to it. Wrapping my arms around my belly, I started to cry. Why did I try and do the ‘right thing’ for myself? It never worked out, it wouldn’t be any different from Paul. He’d find out and he’d either leave or take the Bean or worse, would make me believe he was a good person till I truly needed him and it turned out to be a lie the whole time.

When I had ghosted John, I don’t know why I thought he’d just disappear. Why would he, after finding out I’m pregnant with his Bean, not do anything to track me down and make sure I wasn’t dead in the gutter or smuggled to another counter? While I had no information to go off of to find him other than a bar, he had plenty for me. Between my phone number, my place of work, all the information on my social media, and the doctor’s appointment that I had given the details to, I was somehow surprised to find him waiting for me at the front of the clinic the day of my appointment. It had been almost a full week since I’d seen him and had been ignoring his calls and texts in hopes he’d either talk to Johnny and find out why it was better that way or would just give up.

“Ah, shit,” I groaned under my breath, seeing him sitting on a bench as I walked down the street from my bus stop. John had already spotted me before I could try and go another way in, giving a wave as he stood up to meet me.

“Do you want to talk about why you pulled a Houdini on me before or after the appointment?” He asked, meeting me halfway.

“Afterwards. I haven’t eaten today and I don’t have the energy to explain everything in great detail like you’ll want it to be,” I said with a sigh.

“Why haven’t you eaten?” John asked, frowning a bit.

“I woke up late after pulling a double shift. Turns out when you’re pregnant you get tired much more easily and if you stop moving, you do fall asleep no matter where you are,” I said, rubbing my tired eyes. There were dark circles under my eyes for sure and I probably looked like I had rolled out of bed after a week of doing nothing. My clothes were wrinkled, my trainers dirty, and my hair unwashed for the last week. John meanwhile looked put together and had done everything on his to-do list for the next month in six hours.

“Alright, yeah. We’ll go for food after this and we can talk,” he said with a nod. Turning, he opened the door for me, letting me lead the way to the receptionist. After checking in, we found a pair of seats together in the corner. As I looked around, I felt more shame creeping up. It was a government run clinic, which meant people who weren’t well off were there and that meant stereotypes. The mum with two kids screaming while pregnant with a third, one who didn’t look older than 15 with her own mother, and one who looked like she had nicotine patches on her arms as she bounced her leg and scowled at the room. It was what I could afford as I didn’t have private insurance and John didn’t seem the type to have been in a place like that before. At least in the UK.

I began to worry if he was silently judging me, reconsidering everything about me because we were there and not some posh doctor’s office with pleasant music playing softly while pretty people with white, toothy smiles were all around.

“Ms. MacTavish,” a nurse said from the door to the exam rooms. Standing up, John and I followed. She took my vitals and weighed me before taking us to a small room.

“Do you want me to hold anything?” He asked softly, minding how the room made our regular voices sound like we were shouting.

“Oh, yes, thanks,” I said, handing my purse and jacket. I hopped onto the exam table as he held my things, moving his chair closer to the head of the table instead of at my feet. At least he was being polite. We waited a bit in silence, but it was actually comfortable. It was odd, given most people would be talking about anything and everything to avoid the fact that I was about to have to take my pants off and have someone else stick their fingers inside my fanny.

The doctor came in after a bit, knocking then coming in without an answer from me. She immediately went to wash her hands before looking over my chart, not looking at me yet. “Okay, Ms. McTavis, you are here for a regular pregnancy check up, and is this the father of the child?” She asked, misspeaking my name. The woman looked like she was either going to ask for a manager or call the police on someone for being too loud two houses down.

“Yes, this is John,” I said, not even bothering to correct her. I probably wouldn’t see her next time, so it didn’t matter.

“And how long have you two been sexually active together?” She asked, continuing to read over my chart and make notes.

“Um, just once,” I said, earning a raised brow from her. “We had a one night stand. What does that have to do with the visit?”

“Ah, are you sure he’s the father?” She asked, looking down at my chart to write a few things and ignoring my question.

“Yep, the only person I’ve slept with in four months.” This was a nightmare. It was one thing to go through this with just myself, but having John there to see and hear the questions was humiliating. If we had been married or a committed couple, it would be different, but because we weren’t, I was the irresponsible one.

“All it takes is just once with no condom or pill and here you are. Alright, go ahead and take your trousers and pants off and we’ll do a quick pelvic exam.” Instead of leaving the room, she drew a curtain around me after handing me a gown. I just tried to keep any signs of embarrassment to a minimum so we could get through this.

“I can hold those for you, Love,” John said softly, once I was changed. He was standing up with his eyes down, but holding out his hand for me to give him my clothes.

“Thanks,” I said in a near whisper, handing him my things before getting back on the table to put my feet in the stirrups. Letting out a breath, the curtain was drawn back and the doctor scooted in on her rolly stool with gloves on and ready to go. “Lube’s a bit cold,” she said, smearing it a bit before pushing in a finger then two. It felt so uncomfortable and hurt slightly, making me even more embarrassed that John was there to see it. She had to adjust my legs, spreading them wider and higher, making it harder on my body as she did the exam.

This was completely different from him having his head buried between my legs or him seeing me completely naked on top of him. Part of me began to wonder if I was just stupid for offering to have him at appointments with this happening. I had probably scared him off for good. Parents who wanted kids, who were trying for them, this wouldn’t bother them. We had an accident and this was forcing us to be much more intimate in an alien way.

“I need you to stay there for a moment, I forgot to grab something from the supplies,” the doctor said, pulling the curtain so I wouldn’t flash anyone when the door opened. When it closed, I tried to keep my sigh quiet, but again, those fucking rooms made a whisper sound like borderline yelling. The quiet fell over us once more, but this time, John stood up to move his chair closer. Sitting back down, he was right next to the table. He reached up and took my hand in a loose hold, giving it a quick kiss as we waited. If I wasn’t so anxious or ready to throw up, I would have cried at his sweetness.

Once the doctor came back, she finished her exam and said everything looked good and she’d see me in four weeks. After finishing her job, she closed the door behind her after letting me know to take my time if I needed to and just leave the door open when I left. John stood up, letting go of my hand, to grab some paper towels for me. I quietly thanked him as I cleaned up myself before taking my clothes back to dress. When I was done, he took my hand in his and walked me out of there.

Outside, I felt better, but only so much. The close interior of the clinic and the chemical smell from disinfectants were not longer trying to smother me along with my embarrassment at least. Now I had to explain everything to John and expect him to be okay with it after making him sit through that?

“If you’d like, I could get you on my health plan and you could go see a different doctor,” he offered as we kept walking. I wasn’t really paying attention to the direction as my hunger was starting to overshadow everything else, my hands getting a bit shaky had him stopping us. He looked over my face as he held both my hands, silently taking stock of where I was at. “Let’s get some food in you before we talk about anything else, yeah?”

“Please,” I said, nearly bursting into tears. Goddamn hormones. Putting his arm around me, he led us to his car to drive us to the nearest restaurant.

After we were inside and food was ordered, delivered, then devoured, that was when he started to talk again.

“I meant it earlier,” John said, using a napkin to wipe his face clean of crumbs. “I can put you on my health plan and you’ll be able to go to a different place.”

“I appreciate it, but this is fine,” I said, tearing up pieces of bread to sop up any juices left from my meal. “It would be a mess to change providers and this is the easiest place to get to from my place by bus.”

“You know you can ask me to take you to your appointments. It’s not a problem,” he said, looking over my plate that I practically licked clean. “Want anything else to eat? My treat.”

“I feel like a broken record a bit, but it’s fine. I’m good,” I said, fibbing a bit. Ordering a small portion didn’t exactly work in my favor, but I didn’t feel comfortable relying on him much more than I already had allowed myself to. “As for my appointments, you won’t be able to take me all the time and when I hit 28 weeks I go every other week, then at 36 weeks it’s once a week. It’s a lot to ask of you and I can do it on my own. I promise, I’m an adult.”

“Even adults need help from time to time, besides, I said I wanted to be involved,” he said. When the waitress came around to ask if we wanted anything else, John turned to look at me and waited patiently. The waitress seemed to understand what he was waiting for as she turned to look at me with a sweet smile.

“I’ll have a burger and fries. Adult portions, well done,” I said after a few seconds of panic deliberating. The man seemed unable to stop himself from trying to take care of me as much as possible. That should have been a sign to me that he was a good person and would do anything for me and the Bean. He probably did that to a lot of people around him as well. The waitress took my order with a nod then was off.

“Now, about the health plan,” John said, picking up his mug of coffee. I could see the slight smile he was hiding behind it and wanted to slap it out of his hands. Ugh. He was going to drive me insane with being so nice and helpful.

“As long as I don’t have to marry you or move in with you to be on it,” I said with resignation.

“Done,” he said. “I’ll get you the paperwork for you to fill out and that’ll be that.”

“Sounds good,” I said.

A quiet fell over us as he stared at me and I refused to look at him. I knew what he wanted and until he asked, and even then, I wasn’t going to offer it up.

“So,” he said, setting his mug down to lean against the table on his elbows.

“So,” I said, picking up my fork to swing a bit in my fingers as I leaned back in my chair.

“You’re Johnny MacTavish’s little sister?”

“Depends on who you ask,” I said with a shrug.

“If I were asking you?”

“Then I would say that I don’t have any siblings or immediate family.”

“And if I asked him?” I looked at his words. John was watching me, every movement, every small twitch or tell. The man was waiting for me to lie or to tell him the truth.

“Then he’d tell you he had two younger sisters. One is deceased and the other is one that he and his parents don’t talk to or see,” I said, shifting in my chair. “You didn’t tell him, did you? About me or us or the Bean?”

“No,” John said, shaking his head. “I thought you two might be estranged partners at first, but I did my own digging.”

“Yeah? What’d you find out?” I pulled my legs up in the chair to sit criss cross, unable to keep his gaze for too long.

“I found out you went to secondary school as Johnny was starting the military and your sister was working at a local shop. Once you graduated, you went a bit wild, I would say. Partying and such. Then your sister died in a drunk driving accident and you disappeared for a bit,” he said. “But I’m still not getting the answer as to why you ran when I mentioned Johnny.”

“That is because he and I don’t speak. I haven’t spoken to him or my parents in almost a decade. Basically since our sister died,” I said, keeping my gaze on the paper straw cover that I was folding. John was quiet, letting me get the words out on my own time. “I had been at a party that night and had been drinking. So, I called Saoirse to come pick me up. All my friends were pretty pissed at the time, so I thought I was doing the right thing, you know? Not leaving with the drunk people and getting a sober driver.” I swallowed hard, feeling my chest tighten as I tried not to let the images of that not conjure up in my head. I didn’t even get to know what happened fully till my cousin Mike told me and that was nearly two days later.

He and my other cousin Seamus were the only family I still considered to be family. They were military like Johnny, special forces in SAS, but they were older. Mike was nearly 60 and Seamus was pushing mid 40s, but they had always been kind to me and never treated me differently. Especially Mike. He’d send presents for Christmas and my birthday, things I actually wanted while my parents would give me the bland socks or clothes that I hated. He still did when he could. All he had were his brother Paulie left as his parents were gone with no spouse or kids of his own. Mike got me through the grieving, but he never spoke up like Saoirse did.

“She was on her way there when one of the guys that was at the party left, and he hit my sister when he was trying to race someone else that was drunk. When my parents found out where I had been and why she had been there, they blamed me for her death. Johnny wasn’t around much because he was off doing military stuff, so the only story he got was from them. I never got to explain to him what happened or find out what our parents told him. He wouldn’t look at me even at the funeral when the family was gathered together. I ended up drunk halfway through and left. No one followed me aside from my cousin Mike. He let me stay with him till I could get my own place. My parents didn’t try to find me or talk to me, neither did Johnny.”

“I’m so sorry, Love,” he said softly, reaching over to take my hand that was starting to pick at my cuticles. “That must have been. . . That’s so hard.”

“Yeah,” I said with a snort, trying not to focus on it too much and have a melt down before I got my food. “Johnny never reached out to see if what they said was true, just trusted them despite the bullshit they always pulled with me. I have no clue what I did to them, but my parents always treated me differently. It wasn’t outright abuse, but I know they never did like me, let alone love me. Saoirse always stood up for me, whenever they gave me a hard time, she’d call them out on it. Johnny didn’t get to see much of it because he was always busy and he always believed our parents. They had never done anything wrong to him, so how could they be so bad?”

“Have you tried reaching out to him? Try explaining anything to him?” John asked, rubbing my palm.

“I did once, but he acted like I was. . . Like I was some druggie asking for help to get their next fix. It was maybe six years ago. I saw him in passing in Glasgow. He said I needed to get help and stop asking for money, before I even said anything. Johnny told me that I was an adult and couldn’t live off of mum and dad forever. Apparently our parents had been telling him that I was constantly asking for money for beer or drugs or whatever and he didn’t question it. We used to be really close, you know? Right before he turned 16 and tried to join the military, we’d always be around one another. Him and me and Saoirse. I don’t know what changed, but once he was gone, he wasn’t my brother anymore. Just a stranger who didn’t have time or want for me.”

Just as it was getting too much to talk about, my food arrived. While I didn’t have that much of an appetite after explaining myself, even leaving a lot out, I still needed to eat. John didn’t ask any more questions as I ate, though I’m sure he had some. Finished with my food in just a few minutes, I let my meal settle before asking my own question.

“So, how do you know Johnny?” I asked, knowing it was something that we would have to work with instead of around.

“He and I are on the same deployment team, specialized task force if you will,” John said. “We work together and see each other almost daily when we’re not deployed.”

“So this is something that he will find out about,” I said, nodding as anxiety made my stomach roll.

“I know you two aren’t on good terms, but I can’t hide this from him. I also didn’t know how. . . Sensitive it was,” he said. “I can tell him myself or we can tell him together, but he has to know.”

“Which means my parents will find out as well,” I said, feeling like I was losing any sense of control I had over the situation. It was quickly going into a very upsetting and unwelcome direction.

“Possibly,” John said. “I know that this is asking a lot from you, from carrying the baby to having to speak with family you cut out of your life, but I want to make this work. I want to be there for our child and you.”

“You’re right this is asking a lot,” I said, nodding as I stood up. “I can’t do this John. I’m not even sorry, but I am being asked to do so much, no I’m being told to do so much. I know you want to be in Bean’s life, but I am sacrificing everything and you get to just waltz in like the hero with the medical plan and the money and the car to take me places. I’m not-I can’t. No, it’s not happening,” I said, walking out. John cursed before following me out.

“Love, just wait,” he said, grabbing my arm.

“No! You wait!” I snarled as I turned on him, yanking my arm away. “I am expected to give up everything and sacrifice my sense of safety and self worth for you! Not Bean, but you! Because you work with my brother who I haven’t seen in years and because you want me to go to the nice medical practice and you want me to do this and that and I don’t want to! I don’t have to! So just leave me alone and forget I ever found you again. I’ve been on my own long enough that I can take care of myself and Bean without you.”

“You don’t have to though,” John said. He was frustrated, scrubbing his face as he looked around to see people staring at us because of my outburst. “Just-”

“No, no justs!” I cried. “I want to be left alone. Don’t call me, don’t follow me, don’t message me, nothing!”

He looked so heart broken, so desperate to help, but didn’t know how to handle being denied. Part of me wanted to just break down into tears and hug him, plead for him to never leave me, but I knew. . . I fucking knew that this was a pipe dream. Anything he and I could ever be or have was a fantasy. As soon as Johnny or my parents found out, they’d poison John against me. Help him take the Bean if they wanted to.

I stared hard at him for a few moments before turning to walk away. I was miles from my place, but I didn’t care. The walk would help me get rid of these feelings and wants and pointless dreams. It should have been clear from the start that I wasn’t going to have a house with a yard and a bright red door with a shining white archway. No 2.5 kids with someone I loved and an old dog or cat we found while dating. I saw who I was at the clinic. The mum with two kids screaming, a third on the way while trying to handle it all on their own. That was my future.

Days passed and John kept his distance. I didn’t attempt to contact him and he did the same. After a while it felt normal again aside from getting sick at the slightest strong smell. I hadn’t escaped the dreaded ‘morning’ sickness after all. Work was hard, but I got through it, even if it meant leaving when the food began to be cooked and coming in early. Hitting 10 weeks felt like it took forever. The mood swings were still awful and my breasts were tender and swollen. I was getting a more noticeable bump too. It was easy to hide, but standing in front of a mirror in my underwear showed that there was indeed a Bean growing inside me.

The worst part was my blood pressure. Somehow I had very low blood pressure despite the stress I was under. Low enough that if I was still for too long I would start to pass out. A quick clinic visit had me upping my salt intake and water. It wasn’t bad if I was at home, I could just sit in the floor till the feeling passed. I hadn’t experienced it outside of the house, yet.

Mid week 11, I finally went to the store instead of eating out. I wasn’t feeling great, but I was doing what I could. Pushing the trolly up the bread aisle, I was looking for the one type of bread I knew I could stomach when fate decided that it was time for things to come to a head.

As I was reaching for the bread, standing as tall as I could on my tippy toes, a hand reached up and grabbed it.

“Here you go,” a familiar voice said. I turned to look at the person with wide eyes, both of us having a moment of disbelief.

“Hey, Soap, don’t forget the-”

Son of a fucking bitch.

“Oh,” John said as he saw me and Johnny staring at one another. “Everything alright?”

“Yeah,” Johnny said, never taking his eyes off me. “Just helping this nice lady get some bread.”

I never had a hair trigger to cry before, but the moment he said that instead of saying he knew me, it broke me. Bursting into tears, I couldn’t even leave. I was sobbing so hard.

“Soap,” John said with a growl. I tried to brush his hands away, to try and get some space, but John wasn’t letting me leave.

“Do you know her, Cap?” Johnny asked, sounding anything but pleased.

“Easy, Love,” John said softly, pulling me close and stroking my hair. It shouldn’t have made me melt into him so easily, I should have tried harder to leave, but I was just so damn tired.

“Price?” Johnny said, getting gruff.

“I know who she is, Soap,” John said. “I know who you are to her. We can do this here or we can do this in private, Sergeant.” His tone left no argument or even a choice. The three of us left the store empty handed. John had me tucked under his arm the whole time we walked to a nearby house. It was just a few blocks from mine and when Johnny pulled out his keys to open the front door, I began to sob all over again. He had been so close this whole time and we never once ran into each other. It meant we either had very bad luck or he knew where I was the whole time and never said a thing.

John offered soft words of comfort and reassurance as he guided me to a sofa. Sitting me down, he looked off to the side and told someone to bring him a cool wash cloth and to make tea.

“I’m not fucking English, I don’t drink tea,” I croaked between sniffling sobs.

“Yeah, but I am and so is the Bean,” John said, giving me a smile that made his cheeks round and his eyes crease. It was the same one he’d given me that first night we met.

He had been sitting at the bar, nursing a scotch when I came up wild and loud, climbing onto a stool so I could kneel on it to be able to lean onto the bar so the bartender could hear my order. I glanced at him and flashed a smile and a wave. ‘Hi!’ I said, giving him my name. ‘Do you like tequila?’

‘Hi, I’m John and I do like tequila.’

‘It’s grand to meet you, John! Have a shot with me!’

“Who’s Bean?” A voice asked, bringing us out of our small daze. Looking up, there stood a man with dark eyes and a curious look.

“Gaz,” John said, clearing his throat. “Not the time.” The man nodded, handing him the wash cloth that he turned to wipe my face. Letting him clean me up, I was able to calm down and at least stop crying. The headache that came after didn’t help at all. I couldn’t take any medication for it either, so I only had a bag of frozen peas that Gaz had grabbed at John’s request to help soothe the pounding behind my eyes.

“Seems we’ve calmed down enough that we can talk,” John said as Johnny joined us, standing in the doorway, leaning against it with his arms crossed and his face sour. “There’s no good way to say this, so I might as well just say it. Johnny, your sister and I had a one night stand and now she’s pregnant.”

“Bullshit,” Johnny scoffed.

“Sergeant,” John growled in a warning.

“She’s not pregnant,” Johnny said, not backing down. “You two may have fucked, but she’s not pregnant. She’s just trying to get money out of you.”

“I went to a fucking doctor’s visit with her. She is pregnant and she’s been trying to avoid me and push away any help I offer her because you and your parents seem to have it out for her,” John snarled, standing up. “Now, I don’t know what your parents told you, but your sister has done everything in her power to make sure I’m not in my child’s life because you and them treat her like a plague rat. She has not once asked for a damn penny, let alone any large sum you’ve made up in your head.”

“You don’t even know if it’s yours!” Johnny cried out, pushing off from the doorframe.

“I’m the only one she’s been with, you fucking muppet! You’d know that if you’d talk to her like a decent person, let alone a decent brother!” John snapped, getting in his face. “I have been trying to do everything I can to make sure I have a relationship with my child, at least, because it is impossible to get close to her after everything you lot put her through! I gave you the benefit of the doubt even. That you were just fed lies so much that nothing else made sense! No, this is willful ignorance now and I won’t stand for it. Your sister has been alone needlessly for years. Be a fucking man and own up to your mistakes.”

The room was deathly quiet as the two men stood there, seething as they stared each other down.

“You know shit ain’t been addin’ up, Johnny,” a low, gruff voice said. A man with a skull balaclava stood off to the side as he watched everything. Had he been there the whole time? “It hasn’t been for a long time.” Johnny turned away from John to look at the man then to me. His snarl faded as he kept our gazes locked before walking away. “I got him, you take care of yours, Price,” the man said, calmly walking after my brother. John nodded, letting out a breath he’d been holding.

“I. . . I’m sorry, Love,” he said softly, taking a seat next to me, his head hanging as he stared at his hands. “I know you didn’t want any of this and I’ll take you home if you want me to.”

“John,” I said, reaching over and taking his calloused hand in mine. “Thank you.” He looked from our hands to my face, his brows relaxing a bit from the worried scrunch they’d been stuck in.

“You’re welcome,” he said softly, leaning in to kiss my cheek.

“I think maybe we should try things differently,” I said, bumping his head with mine.

“Yeah?” He hummed, pulling me close to rest against his chest.

“Dating. We should date. Start there and work our way up,” I said, nuzzling against his chest. He was wearing a soft cable knit sweater and I wanted to climb inside it with him.

“I think that’s a good idea,” he said, his voice rumbling deep in his chest as he put both arms around me.

“I also need the insurance papers again. . . I lost them,” I said, tucking my head under his, happy in the warm and safe spot I’d made.

“Of course,” John said, chuckling.

“Also. . . That was really hot, you standing up for me. I don’t think I’d ever been so turned on before,” I said, hiding my smirk.

“Brat,” he snorted. “Do you want to go home?”

“Can you come with me and stay?” I asked, pulling away to look up at him.

“Wild dogs couldn’t keep me away,” John smiled, leaning down to kiss me.

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Taglist: @birdstoprey @sebbytheraccoon @pricescigar @alwaysshallow

#captain john price #captain price #captain price/reader #captain john price/reader #cod mw2 #cod mwii #cod x reader #johnny soap mactavish #johnny soap mctavish x reader #mctavish reader #kyle gaz garrick #simon ghost riley

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skulls-soul · 10 months

Text

Luigi being parental gives me life it’s just so cute so here’s some ideas that I think Luigi would do

I don’t know if you guys have seen that Tumblr post about how the Kooplings would make baby alligator noises but I want you to know that I have 100% adopted that head cannon cause it is too cute not to

So imagine with me Luigi and Junior are in the library because Luigi was there hanging out and Junior decided to join him since he had nothing else to do

Everything is fine and dandy but then suddenly luigi hears a loud slam and then Junior crying out Luigi of course very quickly makes his way towards Junior asking him what’s wrong

Junior Merli points at a book that seems to be quite a hefty size and then points at a shelf that is just out of Junior‘s reach Luigi immediately puts the puzzle of the pieces together

Poor Junior was just merely trying to get a book, but it ended up falling on his head instead. Luigi will ask Junior if he could take a look while gently moving Junior‘s hand away from the top of his head where he assumes the wound is. after checking to see if it’s bleeding and realizing that it isn’t logically there’s nothing that Luigi can do to relieve the physical pain but that doesn’t stop Luigi from saying a small nursery rhyme

“pain pain go away don’t come back another day” while saying this Luigi will rub the top of Junior‘s head and then very dramatically act out a motion of throwing something away. that something being the pain after that Luigi will then blow on the wound

Once Junior stops giggling Luigi asks if he feels any better Junior simply nods in response

I imagine that Junior would then tell his siblings and his dad about what Luigi did saying that “he magicked my Ouchi away ” this ultimately leads to Bowser going to Luigi by the end of the day asking if he knows any magic

Luigi would say that no he doesn’t why do you ask once Luigi finds out that Junior was the one who told his dad that he knows healing magic he simply laughs saying that no that’s just an old nursery rhyme that my aunt used to do for me and Mario whenever we got a couple of cuts and bumps.

(bowser of course thinks that’s absolutely adorable but would probably keep that to himself) also another thing that would happen is that juniors siblings will probably still think that Luigi can actually do magic and would go to him for small wounds like scratches or bumps and Luigi would do the same thing that he did for Junior although he now carries a small first aid kit with him wherever he goes just in case it needs a little bit more than his Italian touch

Also I imagine one day Bowser would have the same thing happen to him in where something falls on his head and The kooplings Witnessing this Would immediately drag bowser to Luigi asking Luigi to do his magic

And Luigi without hesitation because he’s done this so many times before only merely asking what happened before he continues to quietly say the nursery rhyme in the little Toon that it comes in and blows on the spot where the pain is

It’s only once Luigi was done with the whole ritual in where he realizes what he’s doing and once the realization hits he’ll very quickly take his hand away from the top of Bowser’s head looking away blushing like the tomatoes he uses when he makes him and Mario pasta

by some miracle he manages to say “feel better?“

Bowser just stares at Luigi while his brain is currently trying to process all that is happening

Now depending on whether or not Bowser and Luigi are thing(aka in a relationship) is what happens next

if they’re not a thing Bowser is probably going to be like oh my goodness that was absolutely adorable I mean not adorable what am I saying this is Mario’s brother I’m talking about he can’t be adorable I won’t allow it?!?

Following those Train of thoughts he’ll then look away and notice that his kids are patiently waiting for an answer the younger ones have a worried look while the older ones have a Knowing smirk bowser then says that he’s doing better and as quietly as he could possibly go he’ll mumble a thank you to Luigi and if Luigi wasn’t paying attention he would’ve missed it thankfully though, he was.

Luigi will when Bury his face deeper into the book he was reading earlier (before the kids dragged bowser over) not wanting to look at bowser when he says it’s no problem.

IF THEY ARE A THING bowser would definitely take this opportunity to flirt he would look at Junior saying you know what son I think you’re right then he’ll look back at Luigi to say it seems green bean does know some magic this would cause Luigi to bury himself in the book he’s reading waving a hand at Bowser telling him to stop your being silly I don’t know any magic

With either of these options it could lead up to the same results and that’s a couple of weeks later Luigi would be in the kitchen cooking for the youngest kooplings junior, Larry, Morton and wendy a small snack .

The kids were merely just roughhousing when one of them bumped into a counter causing something to fall and hit Luigi‘s head he didn’t think nothing of it merely just running away the pain saying in Italian how “that’s gonna bruise”

He looked at the kids and noticed that they were all looking at him really worried he very quickly lifted his hands up saying that he was all right but that seem to only make things worse because in doing so a small triple of blood went down his face the kids all start to panic and start to cry/chirp? Luigi tried his best to calm the kids down but to no avail

Bowser hearing several of his kids calling for him he very quickly makes his way to where the noises are.

he passed through the doors asking “what’s wrong?!? what happened?!?” when he noticed all the kids surrounding Luigi

Junior looked at Bowser and pointed up at Luigi saying that they’re sorry and they didn’t mean to. It was only once Bowser looked at Luigi that he noticed a small triple of blood. it was nothing too serious just a bump with a tiny cut

Bowser sighs relieved that the kids were ok bowser makes his way towards the kids picking up Junior saying I’m sure you didn’t mean to and I’m sure Greanie knows that too you’re not gonna get in trouble so don’t worry about it, all of you.

Bowser assumed that the kids were crying because they were afraid of getting in trouble but when they all shake their heads Bowser just tilted his in confusion. that was when Wendy muscled out between sobs “but he’s still hurt and that they don’t know how to heal him”

An idea sparks in Bowser‘s head and he places a hand on Luigi‘s head rubbing it gently saying the same thing that Luigi has done over and over again for him and his kids “pain pain go away don’t come back another day” finishing it off by gently blowing where the wound is

There feel any better? Bowser would ask Luigi and Luigi in return will shyly look at the kids not wanting to look up at Bowser and say “Yep much better”

(Note: so y’all remember that post I made in where to celebrate getting like I shit ton of subs I asked y’all to pick a number for 1 to something well…. this is draft Number 3…..so sorry it took so long to (the person who picked the number sorry I forgot who it was and looking back will take some time so until the this will be here) I hope your happy with what ya got

#luigi #luigi nintendo #bowuigi #bowser #bowigi #bowser x luigi #bowser and luigi #luigi x bowser #bowser nintendo #king koopa #luigi and bowser #mama luigi #bowser junior #bowser jr #koopalings

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monrohakay · 3 months

Note

I would love to see hear more about your headcannon about nico

Have a good day

Oh my goodness, I could go on forever about him and what I imagine his backstory to be. I’m so sorry for how long this will be, but you’ve unleashed a can of worms and I thank you for that! So here we go!

It started with me being convinced that if Nico and Kai ever met, they would have a rivalry going on and Levi and Amelia would find it adorable yet slightly annoying cuz they get along so well. And Levi would tell Nico not to annoy his mentor’s partner, but Amelia would just laugh.

We don’t know much about where Nico’s from or his family, except that he’s not out to them even thou he was out to people in his daily life and they can be really critical. So I imagine he grew up in a traditional Korean Italian home (cuz Alex Landi is Korean Italian, and I have person experience with homophobic Italian family members so I’m projecting). He’s a middle child with two brothers. He gives off competitive energy that comes with having siblings, and kinda seems like he’s used to being overlooked and fighting for attention, like a middle child.

His older brother (I’m going to refer to him as Siwon since that’s who I imagine his actor to be) is something his parents deem successful, I’m thinking a lawyer cuz I want Nico to have a totally different career path then him. He was an honours student, always top of his class. He has a beautiful wife (who he met in highschool), a son and a daughter on the way. His life is perfect in his parents eyes. He’s maybe two or three years older than Nico. Nico always felt like he was in his brother’s shadow, but he respected and looked up to him. I feel like their parents would constantly be comparing the two, like “Siwon was valedictorian, are you going to be?” and “Nico was nominated for homecoming king, are you nominated for prom king?”

His younger brother (referred to as Rowoon for the same reason as his older brother) is five or six years younger, and he’s spoiled by their parents. While they’re critical of the older two, the youngest is their pride and joy and they don’t mind him doing whatever he wants because the other two are successful enough. Rowoon loves Nico and idolizes him in almost the same way that Nico did with his older brother. But Nico is much kinder and receptive to it, and he’s always supportive to Rowoon. I think Rowoon would have much more natural talent and smarts, so he doesn’t have to work as hard as the other two and he has a lot less pressure. While the other two were expected to have a 98-100% average in everything, Rowoon’s sitting at like 95% and their parents are still proud of him.

Nico was raised with traditional catholic Italian and Korean views being shoved at him. So when he starts realizing he might like boys, it’s not exactly something he can come out and say or act on while he’s living with his parents. He probably wanted to go into sports, (likely baseball or soccer, but we’ll go with baseball cuz of his job with the mariners) rather then law or med school. He played baseball in highschool, getting scholarships to play for a few varsity teams. Only for his parents to push him to go to law school like Siwon, which he reluctantly agrees, figuring he can go in to sports law.

While Nico is in his last year of highschool, early on in the year, he meets this boy who he has a crush on. And they start seeing each other in secret. Until one night Siwon catches them, probably the cliche making out in Nico’s room when his brother barges in and freaks out. He kicks the boy out and tells Nico he needs to stop seeing him. Nico says he will as long as his brother doesn’t tell their parents and Siwon agrees, saying their parents can never find out. But having Siwon react in such a negative way ruins the image Nico had of him. So he decides he doesn’t want to go to law school, he wants to persue baseball mostly in defiance.

His parents hate that idea, and really push for him to still go to law school. He ignores them and does start to persue baseball in his undergrad, taking one of the scholar ships he was offered. He’s incredibly talented so while they aren’t happy, his parents still support him as long as he continues to be one of the best players on his team and maintains his high grades.

In his first year he gets an injury, something that requires surgery to fix. But the surgery goes wrong, and his career in baseball is over before it could ever really start. Despite pushing himself with physio and working as hard as he can to get back to being able to play, it’s just not possible in the time frame he would need for professional sports. He takes it incredibly hard, and while Rowoon is his major support system, his parents and Siwon treat it like a failure. So Nico decides to go to med school, to become an orthopaedic surgeon and make sure no one else has to go through what he did. His parents are ecstatic about the change, and it’s the first time he feels like they’re actually proud of him.

He quickly catches up, becoming top of his classes. He thrives in university, coming out to his friends and he’s genuinely happy.

But he still feels like he has to hide who he is when he’s at home and he hates it. He never has a boyfriend for long, because then he’d have to deal with bringing them home and coming out. It never mattered cuz he hadn’t met anyone he wanted to be with long term. But it’s still a massive part of his identity that he’s hiding from his parents and Rowoon, still scared they’d react in the same way his Siwon did. And while he would probably come out to his parents and risk it, he doesn’t want to loose Rowoon or put him at odds with their parents, especially while he’s still living with them.

So years later when he meets Levi, he doesn’t want to have to hide who he is in the only place he can be open. He’s hypocritical because he thinks Levi doesn’t have as much to loose as Nico and he sees it as wasted opportunity. And Nico doesn’t want to be that highschool boy his brother kicked out of his room all those years ago. He doesn’t want Levi to be ashamed of him like Nico was of that boy, and he doesn’t want the memories of being ashamed of himself and who he was to come back while Levi discovers his own sexuality.

Nico’s never had someone he cares that much about, never wanted to actually bring someone home to meet his parents or his brothers. But then he falls hard for Levi and suddenly it’s turning serious and he doesn’t know what to do about it. So he’s awkward and hypocritical and a pretty terrible boyfriend at times, but he is trying.

Then he accidentally kills a patient. And Siwon is showing up to make sure legally he doesn’t get in trouble. His parents find out through Siwon, and they seem disappointed which only adds to his pain. And Levi being overbearing while Siwon is in town doesn’t help, because he doesn’t want his brother to find out he has a serious relationship with a man. He’s also not good with emotions, or people seeing him when he’s emotional, which is why he pulls away so much.

And then the pandemic happens and he really misses Levi. He knows he’s not emotionally ready to commit to anyone yet, and they aren’t really good for each other at the time. But he figures if he can have Levi in any way he’s going to take it, cuz the world is a mess and he needs some kind of happiness. When Levi basically gives him the ultimatum of serious relationship or nothing, he chooses serious relationship. Because he doesn’t want to loose Levi, and it’s a huge wake up call that he really does care about someone in a way he never had before.

I think Levi pushing Nico away after he opened up to Levi hurt, really bad. Cuz Nico had never let himself be that vulnerable with another person, and he didn’t know how to cope with that. So he gave Levi the space that he wanted when he went through a similar experience. Not really realizing that Levi needed him to be there and to fight for them, until Levi told him. But even though he’s come so far and started to unravel his closed off, emotionless persona adopted by someone who’s parents didn’t let them be a child, Nico knows he can’t give Levi what he wants, not when he’s still dealing with his own internalized homophobia and inability to be honest with himself and his family. He thinks Levi deserves someone who is ready to be all in, and even though he thought he could be, that’s not him, not yet.

Nico saying his default is numb is really telling that he can’t process his feelings right away, he suppresses them. Which would make sense if he’s grown up with critical parents that expect him to be perfect all the time. He wouldn’t know how to deal with failure or rejection, because he’s never had the luxury of doing any of those things. Even loosing his ability to play baseball professionally wouldn’t have been a failure to him, because it led him to being a surgeon which his parents were much happier about. And I think that reflects in his relationships too, that when there’s any kind of conflict he just shuts down, he goes numb. He either gets overly agreeable or he pulls away from the situation entirely. And I think he started to realize that it’s not a healthy coping mechanism after his talk with Levi in the elevator.

So he jumps at the opportunity to leave and work for the Mariners. It’s a dream job, it’s one of the reason he decided to go to med school in the first place, and it gives him and Levi space to figure themselves out. It lets Levi experience different relationships and find himself, while Nico learns to deal with his emotions and not suppress them. But while he’s there, he finds out he hates it. He doesn’t like having to tell these athletes that their careers are over, he doesn’t like feeling like he failed him when there was nothing he could do. It reminds him of when he was going through the exact same thing. Even if his success rate is the highest it’s ever been, he still doesn’t think he’s good enough. Saving fifty patients doesn’t mean anything if there’s even one he can’t.

And then Rowoon finishes his undergraduate and moves out of their parents house. He goes to visit Nico and they have a long talk about what Rowoon wants to do with his career. He decided a long time ago that he wanted to follow in Nico’s footsteps and go in to medicine. And while he’s visiting, he sees that Nico’s background is still a photo of him and Levi, so Rowoon asks if that’s Nico’s boyfriend. And Nico is shocked because he didn’t know Rowoon knew. They have a heart to heart, and Nico realizes he doesn’t have to hide who he is anymore. Even if his parents aren’t happy with him, he has his little brother’s love and support, which is all that’s ever really mattered to him anyway. And even if he isn’t perfect, there are still people who will love him.

So he leaves his job and goes back to Grey-Sloan, mostly because he preferred it, but also with the hope that he and Levi can at least be friends again. He wins Levi back, and finally introduces him to Rowoon. And to show Levi he really has changed, that he really is committed to their relationship, he invites Levi to his parent’s for Christmas dinner. It goes over horribly, his dad almost kicks them out and only relents to letting them stay when his mother says they can at least finish dinner, as it’s the holidays. It’s worth it to see the look of horror on Siwon’s face when he says Levi is his boyfriend, and the look of admiration Rowoon gives him when he holds Levi’s hand as they say goodbye.

I think Nico coming back this next season will be him saying I was just trying to give you space, but I always loved you and I will always be here for you when you’re ready. It’s kind of a repeat of the last time they got back together, but I’m hoping it’ll stick this time and they can have their happy ending. If nothing else, I just want them to keep his personality somewhat consistent.

I’ll finish with my Kai vs Nico thing that started it all! We never learn where he went to school, or how old he is. We can guess he’s early 30’s when he’s first introduced (I’m assuming he was on track with the norm, so when he’s introduced, he’s in his fellowship and he’d be 30-31). What we know about Kai (thanks to my best friend who has an incredible memory) is they went to John Hopkins a few years after Amelia. E.R. is only a year older then Alex, which I’m taking to mean their characters are a year apart as well. So we’ll say Nico is 31 when he’s introduced, meaning Kai would be 32.

While they wouldn’t have much overlap if Nico went to med school at John Hopkins while Kai was going for their phd, they could have very well done their undergrad at the same university and that’s where I think the rivalry would have started.

Kai is smart as hell, and I have no doubt they would be top of their classes. I think depending on the class it would go back and forth, but I really do think Kai would be beat Nico more often and he would hate that. It’s a healthy rivalry, there’s no actual animosity. I see them both as fun and sarcastic people, so I think they’d have amazing banter. And someone like Kai being smarter then Nico wouldn’t bother him as much, because they just have this aura that makes them impossible to hate? Even thou Nico is really frustrated that someone scored higher on a test, he wouldn’t really be too hard on himself if it’s Kai that beat him.

Because I can see him being really upset with himself the first time it happens, and he swears it will never happen again. So he pushes himself even harder for the next test and he does beat Kai. And then Kai would give the most relaxed non-reaction, would probably even congratulate him, and Nico wouldn’t know how to process that. He’s be so used to Siwon taking any loss so poorly, that someone being almost happy for him beating them is too foreign for him to comprehend. It would be the first step to Nico relaxing a little bit on his perfect persona, and allowing himself to slip. Which sets him up for when we meet him in the show, he’s a lot more chill and easy going, but still guarded.

This is so long omg, I’ll start to wrap it up!

Flash forward to Nico and Levi dating, and Kai and Amelia dating (no they never broke up in my head, they’re happy and will be for the rest of their lives, it’s fine. But even if they did, they found their way back to each other like Nico and Levi). Every time Kai comes to visit Amelia, they bicker with Nico. And no one knows it’s light hearted except the two of them. It would stress Levi out, thinking Nico was fighting with his mentor’s partner. I like the idea of Levi going in to general surgery, so while Amelia isn’t wouldn’t be the head of his department, she will always be a mentor figure to him and someone he respects.

Flash forward again, Rowoon does follow in Nico’s footsteps and comes to Grey-Sloan for his internship. He starts off thinking he’ll go in to ortho like his brother but quickly finds he gravitates more towards neuro. And then Kai comes to work on a project with Amelia, and they pick Rowoon to help them out. And he loves the research aspect of their project. He starts looking into it more and more. And ultimately decides, with the help of Kai, to switch into neuroscience rather then complete his surgical internship.

Nico is of course devastated that his little brother chose to work with Kai over him. But he’s a good older brother and supports everything Rowoon does, even if it means listening to him talk about how amazing Kai and the research they’re doing is for hours.

That’s all I got. Thank you anon for asking about his backstory and thanks to anyone who read this far! I would love to hear your thoughts on his backstory too, or any general greys thoughts you might have!

#greys anatomy #nico kim #levi schmitt #schmico #long post #like incredibly long #too long and i’m sorry #character backstory #nico lives in my head rent free #i could talk about him for days

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raven-at-the-writing-desk · 2 years

Note

Hi! Hope I wasn't bothering you. I have a question for you that might seem odd(?):

How do you think the boys who don't really mention their families relationships with their relatives are like? For example: Does Cater have a good relationship with his sisters and vice versa or nah?

We actually know quite a bit about the TWST boys’ relationships with their family members (with a few exceptions, and with varying degrees of detail). It’s one of the benefits of being ahead in the JP version and having read up on a lot of the characters’ lore, I guess 🤣 So I’m not sure which characters you mean by those who “don’t really mention [what] their family relationships are like”?

I feel bad leaving the question unanswered though, so here’s a rundown of each main TWST boy and their various familial relationships (most of the things here can be easily deduced or is outright confirmed canon across the main story, vignettes, character lines, events, and/or other official TWST media):

***PLEASE NOTE: THERE WILL BE MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD.***

Riddle

Riddle’s mother is a well-known medical healer in their hometown. However, she is also a very strict parent and controlled Riddle’s diet and day-to-day schedule down to the minute, losing her temper at those that would question her rules and parenting. Young Riddle saw his mother as an example to follow, even if her decisions made him unhappy. Modern day Riddle (particularly following the events of episode 1) has recognized how toxic his mother’s parenting methods were. In episode 4, he resolves to confront her about this, but we never get to hear about the outcome. It is to be noted that his demeanor changes when he speaks about his mother--he appears much less sure of himself and adopts a different expression than usual. We can deduce that his present relationship with her is very strained.

Riddle has a father who is also a magical healer, but Riddle’s relationship with his him is largely unknown.

Riddle implies that his parents may have a poor relationship with one another, as he says in one of his Groom-for-a-Day lines that he wishes the Queen of Hearts would share the secret to having a happy marriage with his parents.

Trey

Trey’s a normal guy coming from a normal family that runs a normal bakery. His mother and father run Patisserie Clover, and he helps them with its operation when he’s not busy. (In fact, Trey started playing soccer because his parents thought it would help him be fit for the heavy-lifting duties at the bakery.)

He has one younger sister and a younger brother that he helps his parents look after. It’s said by some of Trey’s underclassmen that he probably got into the habit of taking care of others because he already has the experience caring for his own siblings. Trey confirms that he has to tell his little brother to brush his teeth before bed.

The Clover siblings often bug Trey to make sweets for them. They also love Trey’s hamburger steak, which is prepared with Walrus-brand oyster sauce and a sunny-side egg on top.

Trey’s parents would get upset with him for eating the candied violets they prepare for their cakes. They also got upset with him for trying to eat random flowers and weeds to sate his cravings.

The Clovers send Trey care packages which contain candied violets. He snacks on them while studying.

Cater

Cater doesn’t mention his mom; it’s not clear if she’s gone or if she’s still around and he just doesn’t talk about her.

His father is a banker. Because the bank he works at has branches all over Twisted Wonderland, the Diamond family moves every 1-2 years to accommodate for his job. Cater’s relationship with his father is never further elaborated on in canon.

Cater has two older sisters who are very into the idea of everything they do or own being "cute". From the way he speaks about them, it seems that he thinks they’re annoying to deal with, as they are said to boss Cater around and force him to do things he doesn’t care for (such as eating sweets and dressing up in clothes that they prefer) in their youth.

His mom and sisters used to really enjoy making homemade sweets. They (especially the sisters) would always make Cater eat their desserts by using puppy dog eyes. Because of this, Cater can no longer stomach sweets.

He used to cook simple, light meals for his older sisters.

Cater does mention that his sisters have gotten a little nicer to him over time. He says they don’t have bad intentions and more, recently, have been asking him ahead of time what he would like to do rather than deciding for him.

Ace

The only family member we’ve heard Ace mention significantly is his older brother, who is a graduate of NRC and has told Ace how to kill time on campus (they seem to both be slackers). Trappola-nii is 7 years older than Ace and is employed in the field of entertainment (he also interned for the same company during his fourth year).

The Trappola bros are close with each other, with the older brother pulling pranks on Ace (such as buying a fancy watch with his first paycheck, posing it like a birthday present to Ace, but then going, “oh, it’s actually for myself”, blowing out the candles on Ace's birthday cake, or giving Ace an empty box as a gift and then filling it with candy). They are also on the phone at night with one another often.

It was his older brother that showed Ace how to do magic tricks (Ace learned by watching him) and how to lie effectively. He also loves movies.

Ace's brother appears to be a skilled Magift player (which is, perhaps, in part why Ace was so eager to play the sport in episode 2); Trappola-nii led Heartslabyul for the Magift opening ceremony during his school years, and there is a picture of this near a staff room.

Trappola-nii was happier than even their parents when he learned Ace got into NRC.

Even though they fight sometimes, Ace describes his brother as being light-hearted and easy to get along with. He thinks there are advantages to having an older brother, as he can rely on them for help and for advice. Ace sometimes has long phone calls into the night with his brother.

Ace has mentioned that though his father is not a mage, he is able to do simple card tricks.

His mother has yet to be mentioned in any kind of prominent manner.

His grandmother read the story of The Little Mermaid to him when he was younger. She's also the one who told Ace about the Ghost Camera.

Deuce

Deuce comes from a single parent household in Clock Town (a town in the southern are of the Queendom of Roses). It is not known what happened to his dad, or what Deuce’s relationship with his father was like.

He has a grandma, but we don’t have many details about her or Deuce’s relationship with her.

His mom often takes him to limited time grocery store sales. She tends to buy a lot, so Deuce, as the only man of the household, helps her with the bags and other hard labor.

His mother, Dylla, works as a truck driver for the famous White Rabbit Deliveries, a delivery company in the Queendom of Roses. She and Deuce share a love for vehicles.

Deuce often talks with her over the phone about school and his friends Yuu, Ace, and Grim.

Dylla and Deuce used to not get along during his delinquent phase. Deuce would spend time in public parks to be out of the house and away from confronting her.

Like her son, Dylla can be strong-willed, earnest, and stubborn. When she is pressured by a group of delinquents to pay for their laundry bill, she refuses and says it’s their own carelessness that got cream on their clothes.

He is amicable with his mother and appears to care deeply for her, even when he was still in his delinquent phase. It was in overhearing his mother blame herself for him going down a bad path that drove Deuce to change and set his sights on pursuing the goal of becoming an honors student. Everything he does is really driven by trying to improve himself to make his mother proud, even as early as the main story’s prologue, to events like Wish Upon a Star (in which he cries when his mom calls let Deuce know she’s proud of him).

Mrs. Spade openly talks about the cute clothes Deuce wore as a kid. She mentions that their family doesn’t have much money, so she asked coworkers for hand-me-down bc clothes, which she worked on to provide Deuce with a fancy outfit to wear for a holiday.

She makes omurice for Deuce’s birthday whenever he is home.

She cherishes spending time with her son; the White Rabbit Fest started the year Deuce was born and she’s been going with him every year (until he “grew up”). She misses those times and wishes he would come home more.

Dylla sometimes also took little Deuce into her work office; this was before his delinquent phase in middle school. Her coworkers recognize Deuce because of this (and are also aware of his middle school self and how different he is now, remarking that he has “really become a good boy”).

Deuce’s mom is not that good with operating electronics. This is perhaps part of why Deuce developed the talent of machine maintenance and tinkering (from helping his mom out).

Deuce is infamous in his hometown for causing a lot of trouble to others, including his neighbor. Dylla would constantly apologize for her son, and, in present day, often tells others about Deuce’s achievements and how he has turned over a new leaf. Unfortunately, some townspeople still refuse to believe her.

Of course, Dylla is very proud of how Deuce has earnestly turned over a new leaf.

Because Deuce loves eggs, Dylla has become good at preparing egg dishes. She says she is not as good at cooking anything else.

It's implied that Deuce and his mom have little in terms of free spending money, as he talks about taking advantage of supermarket sales, how little his allowance is, how his mom started gardening to help save on food costs, and how the money he wins in book 5 can really help out his family.

Leona

Farena/Falena is Leona’s older brother by 10 years. Leona’s father is ill, so Farena/Falena, is temporarily assuming the duties of king in his place. We don’t know about Leona’s mother, nor about his relationship with his parents.

Farena/Falena is shown to be supportive of Leona despite Leona’s dour and pessimistic behavior. He sends Leona expensive gifts and insists that Leona can do great things for their country, even if he is not crowned king. In spite of this, Leona does not return Farena/Falena’s love, instead thinking of his elder brother as carefree and not thinking of the Sunset Savanna’s future.

Leona is also annoyed by his nephew and brother’s son, 5-year-old Cheka, who is very eager to play with and learn from him. Cheka sends letters, calls, and even sneaks out to see his uncle, which irritates Leona to no end. He seems to try and avoid Cheka as much as possible, but has no choice but to return home or to take his calls from time to time.

Farena/Falena has a wife, making her Leona’s sister-in-law. Though she is not often mentioned, Leona usually does obey her requests (even if he doesn’t necessarily want to) as he “respects women”, as per the culture of the Sunset Savanna.

Ruggie

Ruggie’s father left “for work” one day and never came back, and it is not certain whether he is alive or not. Meanwhile, his mother “became a star” (she died after giving birth to him).

Ruggie’s legal guardian is his grandmother; they reside together in the slums of the Sunset Savanna. They don’t have a lot in terms of money or belongings, but they get along just fine with one another and do what they can to scrape together money and food to survive. Granny Bucchi is described by Ruggie to be “kind but tough”, scolding the neighborhood kids for misbehaving but also putting forth the effort to save ingredients so she can provide homemade donuts for her grandson on his birthday every year.

Granny Bucchi is great at cooking and taught Ruggie how to do it.

Ruggie sends pictures home to her.

Though Ruggie doesn’t have any siblings, it can be said that he treats the neighborhood kids as his brothers and sisters (even if he refers to them as “brats”). They are all struggling to get by, so he consciously gets leftovers and other tidbits from the cafeteria ghosts to bring home with him on winter break to share with everyone.

Jack

Jack mentions having a mother and father; it is assumed that they get along okay, as he doesn’t mention having any particular qualms with them. He also mentions grandparents.

Wolf beastmen only have one partner for life, and Jack says he suspects he will have a relationship like that similar to his parents and grandparents.

He also has a younger brother and a younger sister. His brother is 11, and his sister is 7. Jack says that he often does winter sports with them, particularly his brother, such as skiing.

When his brother was younger, he’d always used to follow Jack around the house like a puppy. However, now that he’s older, he “started to get really rude” to Jack, though Jack says that the attitude means he can have a healthy sibling rivalry with his brother. It is notable that Jack’s brother is a non-mage.

As for his sister, she is said to always nag her brothers to include her in their outings. Jack appears to worry for her safety, as he wants to include her and to experience the thrill of gliding down a mountain with her too, but that she doesn’t have the endurance yet at her age. Overall, both of Jack’s younger siblings really look up to him!

Azul

Azul’s mother runs a successful restaurant (which the Tweels visited in middle school). She provided Azul with many of his favorite foods and encouraged him to clean his plate. Azul extols her business acumen and culinary abilities, as now her restaurant is considered the “hottest” in the Coral Sea. He is delighted that they have shared vocations and interests.

His mom spoils him. One example is through food; she provides a lot for him.

We don’t know a lot about Azul’s biological father, only that Mama Ashengrotto met her current husband and Azul’s stepfather over the course of her divorce proceedings. Stepfather Ashengrotto is a lawyer, and Azul describes him as “soft hearted and sincere”, but a master at his craft. Azul picked up some knowledge about laws and contracts from him, and he is someone that Azul greatly admires. Additionally, Azul presents him as someone that his mother is quite happy with.

Another important figure in Azul’s family is his grandmother. He notes that everyone in is family is capable of using magic, with his grandmother being a particularly gifted mage. Like the Sea Witch, Grandma Ashengrotto uses her powers to help their neighbors. From his wording, it seems that Azul is also pleased that his grandma is just as benevolent as he is.

His grandma is strict and scary when she is angry. She wants Azul to grow up to be someone who is strong, independent, and willing to help others. Azul says that he loves his grandma a lot and has a strong bond with her. He attributes who he is today and his stance on compensation to his grandma.

Both of Azul’s (biological) parents are mages.

Azul says his mom got busy with the restaurant after her divorce, so his grandma often looked after him. Grandma Ashengrotto spoiled young Azul with lots of snacks every time he came home from school. He describes her as being too kind (though he learned of her strictness when she started instructing him on magic). Azul used to run away from lessons because of this, but once he started to find success in his magic, he enjoyed the compliments his grandma offered. He ultimately credits his being good at magic to his grandmother.

Jade and Floyd

Jade and Floyd are twins, with “neither being the older one or the younger one”. They have also said that they “chose” each other. This speaks to a popular fan theory which states that Jade and Floyd were the lone survivors (because they worked together) in a large group of Leech siblings that were not able to survive in the harsh environment of the Coral Sea. Jade often enables Floyd to act out (as it brings him a lot of entertainment), and, of the two, Floyd is the one that is concerned about not being treated as though he is “the same” as Jade. They know when to not get in each other’s way, but they do quarrel at times (which doesn’t necessarily mean they hate each other, they generally do, in fact, get long).

... Actually, you know what? I’d recommend just reading this long ass post I wrote about Jade and Floyd’s sibling dynamic, otherwise I’ll ramble here forever and ever.

Jade tells us that their mother contacts them nearly every day and seems to be a worrier. Mama Leech was also said to have taught Jade self-defense as a child, so she appears to be a protective parent as well. Floyd calls their mom “mama”, so some have taken this to mean that he in particular is a mama’s boy.

Papa Leech also taught the twins useful skills like lock picking and how to break out of binds.

Their father is influential in the Coral Sea and puts a strong emphasis on dressing well and how one presents themselves (which is why Floyd seems to take an interest in fashion, particularly shoes). Jade insists that their family business is very “normal”, but it seems very suspicious that their father’s business associates try to give gifts to curry favor with him.

More recently, we learned that Jade and Floyd also live with their grandmother, though not much else is known about her.

Kalim

Kalim’s father is a wealthy merchant. He made his money through innovation and by making use of the waterways in Silk City. Papa Asim always seems to be busy, but he also seems to be a jolly guy. He donated a lot of money to NRC to get Kalim in, as well as to build entirely new parts of the Scarabia dorm (including a storage room to keep the mountains of gold and jewels he sends Kalim), so it’s clear that Papa Asim wants to financially support his family and invest in its future.

Kalim often goes on business trips with his father; additionally, their home(s) is often used to host important guests. He likes seeing people happy at these functions!

Kalim describes his mother as a sweet lady that says nice things about him and rarely gets mad. Before him, his mom was the only one in his family capable of using magic.

Most notably, Kalim says he has roughly about 30-40 younger siblings (he has lost track of how many exactly; it's not clear if they are all from one mother or not), and he is the eldest. He says his siblings are very cute and he likes playing with them. Apparently, they can all play instruments and sometimes put on performances for their parents. Kalim says that he has a soft spot for those younger than him, perhaps because he has so many younger siblings.

Kalim has relatives that are royalty.

One of his cousins owns a tiger.

The previous dorm leader of Scarabia was also an Asim and recommended Kalim to be next in line.

Whenever the family gets together, they throw big, lavish parties and enjoy one another’s company. Kalim believes that it is very important to spend time with one's family.

Kalim's entire family plays a big role in the economy and the politics of Silk City. In fact, they developed a network of canals and first used those to do trade, which allowed the city to flourish. Kalim hopes that he can be as influential and helpful as his ancestors were.

Jamil

Jamil has a mother and a father which we learn about via his episode 4 post-OB flashback. The Viper family has been in servitude to the Asim family for several generations, and it seems that Mama and Papa Viper are very adamant in maintaining this relationship, and keeping Jamil in a place of subservience to Kalim (often reminding Jamil to never surpass or perform better than the young master). Because of this, Jamil is sometimes shown to be frustrated not only with his situation, but with his parents for not being willing to “understand” him.

He also has a 14-year old younger sister named Najma, whom we meet face-to-face in an event where we visit Silk City in the Scalding Sands. Previously, Jamil had mentioned Najma in a few lines, such as saying that his younger sister makes fun of the dishes he cooks and complains they look boring. They bicker with one another a fair bit, with Najma sharing embarrassing stories of Jamil in his youth to his classmates and cheekily eating Jamil’s food, and Jamil being annoyed at her for it and retaliating in reserved, sarcastic way. Still, it does appear that they care for one another, but just don’t act overt about it. For example, Jamil decides to give a VDC ticket to Najma when he could have chosen to not invite her at all, and Najma is happy and curious to learn about her big brother’s NRC friends.

Vil

We don’t know much about Vil’s family other than his father, who is a magicless and a famous actor that goes by the stage name “Eric Venue”. Eric is a very supportive father and encouraged young Vil in his acting endeavors (even when Vil kept being typecasted in exclusively villain roles), calling his son cute and talented.

They are not open with the public about being related, as Vil wants to be known for his own merits rather than for his connection with an already well-established figure in the entertainment industry.

Vil traveled around with his dad for work and he maintains a strong relationship with his father to this day; it seems that Eric keeps up with Vil’s gigs and often dotes on him. For example, his dad makes an active effort to try and make time in his schedule to hang out with his son (eating lunch, shopping, and seeing movies together).

Eric took Vil with him to his shoots since before Vil started elementary school. It was here that Vil's career started, as he was asked by the staff to participate.

Eric is okay with frankness + informalities and can be down-to-earth when he’s not working. He’s eager to meet Vil’s friends!! Eric gives off a very mature and charming aura.

Though they don’t make their status as father and son public, they do sometimes work together in productions. Vil can be stern with Eric, being blunt about his flaws and stubborn when it comes to negotiating professionally (like his father)

They laugh similarly and share a love for fashion, beauty, and health.

Eric does mostly of his own stunts rather than relying on a body double. Vil seems to really admire his father and his work, and someday wishes to join Eric among the ranks of the elites of the entertainment industry. For example, his father’s handprints are in the Legend Plaza and Vil aims for the same. Vil also dreams of being able to play a middle aged father character like Eric has before.

Eric worried about Vil's social life, as Vil was a child actor often absent from school for his work. Because of this, Vil did not have many friends in his childhood and usually spent time home alone with the family maid.

Eric had a period of time in which he was given only minor roles (thanks to a magazine declaring he was "third-rate" and was only successful because of his looks), but he continued to be so successful that he eventually returned to playing the star. He started his own production company and now stands at the top of the entertainment industry.

Eric is humble and declares that he has many faults. One of these faults is he is bad at housework, both cooking and cleaning. They have a maid that often scolds him for this.

Vil and Eric are often so busy they don't spend time living together. However, the little time they do spend in their home is described to be happy. They would take it easy and stay put, as going outside would just attract attention.

Vil and Eric made beauty treatments and supplements together at home for fun. Eric is apparently very knowledgeable about beauty products.

Eric works very hard, doing jobs that should be left to lower ranked staff members of his production company such as presentations. Vil has to remind him to rest and to take breaks sometimes.

Although Eric is a very kind and supportive father, Vil says that he is a "show biz demon" who will accept nothing less than perfection. Vil describes his father as someone with lofty goals and will not accept compromise during negotiations. Furthermore, he is willing to do anything to achieve his goals. If someone makes a mistake, they are taken off the set and told to leave on the spot. Looks like the apple doesn't fall far from the tree...

It appears that Vil inherited magic from his mother's side. However, he does not know who his mom is or where she came from, and he does not express any interest in investigating or learning these details.

Rook

Rook has a mother, a father, and five siblings (two older than him, and three younger than him). He says he used to have pajama parties with his siblings, but presumably they don’t anymore because they’re so busy.

Their family must be significantly influential, as the Hunts own villas all over Twisted Wonderland which are equipped with warp pads (which require special governmental clearance from various countries in order to build and use).

Rook states that it’s difficult to get his family together at the same time and in the same place. These usually occur only once a year, and they can get very lively. From this, we can infer that the Hunt family gets along pretty well.

Epel

Epel has a VERY large family. Neither of his parents are magicians, but his grandma and great grandma are.

He lives in a single house with his parents, grandparents, great grandma, uncle, aunt, and cousin. They all work together and pitch in to raise apples on the family farm.

When his grandma and grandpa fight, they make up with each other by baking an apple pie.

Epel's cousin is younger than him; he gifted his cousin his plushies. It's sometimes hard to relate with his cousin due to the large age gap.

Epel seems to really cherish his family, as he has developed apple carving skills to make blemished apples good to sell again, and worries in the main story about tourism going down and affecting the family business. He also mentions wanting to make a potion to strengthen apple trees, as this would make his grandpa happy.

We meet Epel’s grandma, Marja, when we visit Harveston for a sledding race. She can be very kind and caring, but is also tough, rough around the edges, and competitive. Through Marja, we can get a better sense of why Epel is the way that he is, and how he lovingly engages with those in his family and his hometown.

Epel has relatives that live near Clock Town.

Idia

Idia describes his parents as “[putting] results over the feelings of their son” when they pull him out of school to do blot research. He recalls being raised since he was a child to assume the position of STYX director following his father, granting him very little freedom of his own.

Idia’s grandmother, Aidne, was the previous director of STYX. His father currently occupies that position.

His mother is the current head of technical operations/engineering at STYX. She appears to be very loving and worried for her children. Mrs. Shroud has the ability to hack into her son’s files and devices. She refers to her husband as “papa”, and her presence seems to warm him up.

He gets his moments of hyperfixation and desire to prove others wrong from his mother.

Idia describes both his dad and his grandmother as negative/pessimistic and depressing people to be around. Indeed, his father seems to be stoic and formal.

His father describes Idia, Ortho, and his wife as geniuses, but implies that he himself is a normal person.

The Shrouds are said to be a branch of the even larger and more affluent Jupiter family. However, Idia appears to feel very alienated from the Jupiters, often saying things like he’s “not welcome” and that he “doesn’t belong” with them.

Idia was very close with Ortho, often playing video games with him and talking about all the adventures they’d go on someday. Because of this, his accidental involvement in Ortho’s death weighed particularly heavy on him, and to cope, Idia built an artificial intelligence and installed it in a humanoid robot to simulate “Ortho”. he views Robo!Ortho as nothing more than an AI until episode 6, where he is finally able to confront his trauma, accept Ortho’s death, and recognize Robo!Ortho as his own person and as his “little brother”.

Idia has a very positive view of Ortho, often doing things for his sake or going along with what Ortho asks of him. He is also protective of his little brother, usually encouraging Ortho to stay out of bad situations or worrying for his safety.

Book 7 implies that Idia also acknowledges Phantom!Ortho (ie the now dead Ortho) as his brother as well. Phantom!Ortho seems to care about his brother and wants him to be happy.

(Robo!)Ortho

Being modelled after the original Ortho and programmed to behave as such, Robo!Ortho’s initial personality very much revolved around his older brother and creator, Idia. He looks up to him and thinks that Idia is just the coolest guy around! In fact, he’ll go so far as to threaten to fire a laser at NRC if the other students don’t rescue Idia from a ghost bride for him! Robo!Ortho is also quick to intervene whenever he overhears people talk badly of Idia. It’s very clear that he loves and cares for his older brother a lot!

In episode 6, Robo!Ortho meets with OG!Ortho and they seem to merge into one being. I’m not sure if this counts as a sibling meeting a sibling, or if it’s someone just staring at their own reflection, but it’s something to note. Both Orthos care about Idia and want to help “free” him of the Shroud family’s “curse”, and of the burden of being chained to the Underworld--and they’re willing to go so far as to turn against the whole world to achieve that. If that isn’t a true, brotherly love, then I don’t know what is.

After Idia finally acknowledges Robo!Ortho as his own person, Ortho still maintains his respect and love for his brother, but also insists on developing himself and acting on his own without his brother or his assistance. It’s not that Ortho now “dislikes” Idia more, but that Ortho wants to now focus on creating his own identity. He’s maturing into something defined by his own volition, not someone else’s.

Ortho is accepted as a son by the Shroud parents, most notably the mother (who refers to him as “Or-kun”. Mrs. Shroud is described as “the strongest person” in the family by Ortho.

The original Ortho (for whom robo!Ortho’s memories derive) used to go out a lot to parks, mountains, and rivers with Idia and their parents. When Idia started to shut himself up in his room (following Ortho’s death), they stopped going out as a group—but more recently, he’s been going out with them again.

Malleus

His only living relative is his grandmother (Maleficia), who currently rules the Briar Valley. It seems that they are close, as his grandmother often sends him cards for special occasions, such as his birthday, and tried to make time in her busy schedule as queen to sit down and eat with her then young grandson. She is also said to be very strict in matters of invitation etiquette.

Lilia, though not blood related, is responsible for mentoring Malleus. His comments also seem to be ones that Malleus often takes to heart, as Malleus gets upset when scolded by Lilia.

The queen and Lilia are described as being the ones who taught Malleus that humans feared them, creatures of the night. Malleus also really enjoys being praised and receiving head pats from those two.

Book 7 implies that his mother died fighting invading Silver Owls while his father went missing on a diplomatic mission.

Lilia describes both Malleus's grandmother and mother (the Draconias in general, really) as extremely stubborn people who always have to do things their own way. They never listen to advice, even when it comes from Lilia.

Malleus’s mom, Maleanor, is the princess of Briar Valley and Lilia describes her as tomboyish and “spitfire”, always wishing to do her own thing. He had to accompany her on trips outside the palace. Lilia also says she is strong, yet reckless, selfish, argumentative, and easily angered. She had a lot of the powers Malleus does, such as fire breathing and control over lightning. He has known his princess since they were kids several hundreds of years ago.

According to a voice line from Lilia, Malleus’s father is someone that he regards as his close friend. His name is Raverne, and it seems he is missing but basically considered deceased.

Maleanor is soft and fawning only to her husband.

Raverne is kind and careful, seeming to be more of a diplomat than his wife or Lilia. He and Lilia were described to be very close.

We don’t see Maleanor or Raverne interact with each other, but Maleanor says her husband is handsome. It’s funny to think about her being absolutely smitten with Raverne while she’s raging at everyone else… similar to how she is caring and gentle to her unborn baby while she’s simultaneously shooting lightning at Lilia…

Lilia

He doesn’t have any blood-related relatives that we know of.

Lilia himself is an orphan. He was taken in by Queen Maleficia, Malleus's grandmother, to be a ward.

He trained Silver, Sebek, and Malleus in both combat and survival.

Lilia asked Sebek’s dad for help raising a human child.

Lilia gave up a significant amount of his magic to help Malleus hatch from his egg. Malleus says that since he hatched, Lilia has always been by his side, typically serving as a mentor figure.

Lilia found Silver in the abandoned and thorn-covered Wild Rose castle. The day he found Silver became his birthday, and Lilia granted him a blessing which made Silver’s hair go from blonde to silver.

Silver is his adopted son. There are notable times when Lilia and Silver have butted heads (usually because Lilia acted in an insensitive way). For example, Lilia neglected to tell Silver about his and Malleus’s prank in Endless Halloween Night, which made Silver upset with him, as it put lives on both sides in danger. Lilia also informed Silver that he was adopted in a rather callous way (something like, ”you didn’t notice our ears were different until now?”), which resulted in Silver running away in the middle of a storm. Despite this, their relationship in the present is generally amicable, and it seems that Lilia cares a lot for Silver (especially given that he ran after him in the aforementioned storm to retrieve him, and even nursed him back to health when Silver came down with a fever).

Silver

Silver’s father is the Dawn Knight and his mother is princess Leah, meaning Silver is a prince of “the enemy”. He was cursed to sleep (and didn’t age during this period) for several hundred years to avoid the warring era he was born into, only awakening when he found “true love” (ie Lilia discovered him).

The Dawn Knight is also an orphan; he was taken in by Leah and Heinrick’s father, a sickly king.

Silver was apparently named for his hair color, but we later learn the silver is not natural. Lilia actually named silver after the guiding moonlight, hoping that he could be a light in the darkness.

Silver was adopted by Lilia as an infant. He seems to be very close with his adoptive father and highly respects him (though that doesn’t exempt Silver from getting annoyed with Lilia every now and again), as he mentions in various lines and vignettes that he cherishes his “dear father”, as well as the name that his “dear father” granted him.

Lilia brings Silver lots of souvenirs from his travels. Many of those souvenirs are books.

We learn in episode 7 that Silver is eternally indebted to Lilia; he absolutely wants to be by Lilia’s side until his dying breath and seems to be upset that he, as a human, cannot rival the lifespan or strength of a fae to endure alongside his father.

Silver made an acorn amulet (a symbol of good health and happiness) for Lilia, which Silver has since forgotten about. However, Lilia calls it his most precious treasure.

He’s friends with lots of animals!!

Sebek’s family would look after Silver when Lilia left for extended periods of time. Because of this and Sebek being of a similar age to him, Silver would often play with Sebek in their childhoods.

Sebek

Sebek’s father is a magicless human and a dentist. Sebek regards him as weak and someone who is difficult to understand, as Papa Zigvolt often dotes on his children, offers them candy, and acts impressed when he witnesses them use magic. Though Sebek seems to talk down to his father, he does also have a fondness for him that he won’t admit to (as, when asked who he would pick to be stranded on an island with, Sebek chooses Trey over everyone else. The reason Sebek provides is that Trey reminds him of his father, but he becomes embarrassed when his interviewer comments that he must really love his dad).

Mrs. Zigvolt is much older than Mr. Zigvolt, but she also looks much younger than he does.

Sebek describes his relationship with his dad as "not being bad", but that his dad smiles all the time and that irritates him. Additionally, Sebek is frustrated whenever he has to ask anything of his father.

Sebek’s mother is a powerful Nocturnal Fae and sports a strong bite (which is a trait of their bloodline). She appears to be very headstrong, as she married a magicless human despite significant social pressure against it. Sebek looks up to her and admires her, particularly for her prowess in magic, but does not understand what he sees in her husband.

Sebek's mom met his dad when she went in for a dental appointment at his clinic. She currently works as his dental assistant.

He has a grandpa (presumably on his mother’s side) who is a retired Captain of the Royal Guard. Grandpa Zigvolt (named Baal/Baul/Bal) immigrated to the Briar Valley from the Sunset Savanna. Despite being fae himself and having a disdain for humans in the past, he accepts Sebek (and presumably the other humans or half humans in his family) as they are.

Sebek seems to really like him, as he tells tales of spending time at his grandpa’s lakeside home fishing. (Baul lives next to his daughter and grandchildren.) Apparently, he doesn't approve of it when he sees Sebek eating sweets. Baal bought Sebek lots of books and fostered his love for reading

Sebek's grandfather is said to tell a lot of stories himself. Lilia describes him as "telling the same old stories" for many centuries. It also seems that Sebek has adopted his grandfather's narrow-minded attitude and manner of speaking.

Baul is also described as being stern, but seems very loving. He was proud of Sebek when told about his grandson's success in school and was happy when the Zigvolt siblings made him salmon carpaccio.

Baul initially thinks of Sebek as weak, so he asks Lilia to train him. Still, Baul thinks its important for his grandson to get a good education.

Sebek has an older brother and sister, but not much is known about them. He mentions that they took him to a contest where they use magic to try and match the color of a dress provided. All the Zigvolt siblings were impressed by the competition.

Sebek would often go to the park with his parents and siblings.

Sebek’s older brother also graduated from NRC.

Dire Crowley

No known family members.

Divus Crewel

No known family members.

Mozus Trein

Trein’s wife is deceased. However, they had a very loving relationship and he misses her. dearly. They went on dates in Fleur City/the City of Flowers, which he is embarrassed to talk about to his students.

He has two adult daughters who are all grown up and moved out of the house. They often worry about his health and ask Trein to call them if he ever needs any help.

Lucius is his familiar, but Trein also dotes on him as though Lucius is a beloved pet. He talks about his familiar very lovingly and gets into arguments with Crewel about whether cats and dogs are better.

Sam

No known family members.

Ashton Vargas

No known family members.

Grim

No known family members.

Grim does not remember anything about his past or where he comes from.

It can be said that he likely considers Yuu, Adeuce, and the Ramshackle Ghosts to be his family.

When he finds himself alone in book 6, Grim cries. He also becomes sad upon realizing that Yuu won’t be with him anymore once they return to their world.

Che’nya

He mentions his grandfather on a few occasions. According to Che’nya, his grandfather is a wise but carefree guy who loves to eat and play pranks.

Neige LeBlanche

He lives with the Seven Dwarves and helps them with housework. They seem to be good friends and help to support one another, both in performances and in life in general.

It’s not outright stated that he is an orphan, but the game says that Neige and his friends lived “without adults”.

Rollo Flamme

He had an unnamed little brother; this little brother acquired magic before Rollo did and loved to show magic tricks because it made Rollo smile. A fire spell went out of control and killed the younger Flamme in that blaze. It is implied that Rollo’s UM spawned from this incident.

Rollo’s disdain of magic originated from the loss of his brother.

He is still heavily conflicted about the event, trying to pass the blame onto the world and using that as motivation to rid Twisted Wonderland of magic.

Rollo’s parents are alive and well. They have worried a lot about Rollo ever since his little brother died. They write to him at NBC to check up on him, and Rollo responds to their letters, reassuring them that he is fine.

Fellow Honest & Gidel

No known family members.

Fellow and Gidel are not relates by blood, but Fellow seems to look after and take care of Gidel as though they were brothers.

Fellow is protective of Gidel and warns him to not listen to the NRC students when they ask Gidel if he is interested in getting an education. He wants to prevent his “little bro’s” hopes and dreams from getting crushed like his were.

Gidel follows Fellow’s orders with very little hesitation. There is a degree of trust between them.

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