#dang it I missed the opportunity to make a dad joke- | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

latte-fairytaekwoon · 3 years

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𝑫𝒂𝒅! 𝑨𝒕𝒆𝒆𝒛: 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 𝑩𝒂𝒃𝒚 𝑾𝒐𝒏'𝒕 𝑺𝒕𝒐𝒑 𝑪𝒓𝒚𝒊𝒏𝒈

❥𝓚𝓲𝓶 𝓗𝓸𝓷𝓰𝓳𝓸𝓸𝓷𝓰

"What is it? You wanna come out of confinement?"

Hongjoong picked up his baby son and held him for a few seconds.

"I know. You must be bored to death in that thing."

Hongjoong was surprised when he started crying even harder than before. He gently rocked the boy in his arms.

"Are you hungry? Want me to get your bottle?"

Hongjoong quickly dashed into the kitchen and grabbed the bottle. He tried feeding it to him, but the baby swatted the bottle away with such force, it ended up spilling all over the floor. Hongjoong groaned in frustration as he tried to calm the crying baby down.

"Y/N.......please get here already..." He whined, a small pout on his face.

Sighing he went back inside the living room and put the baby back in his play pen, which of course made him whine and wriggle more. Hongjoong went over to the piano on the corner. It was the last idea he had so he began playing a soft lullaby on the piano. As soon as the baby heard the first notes, his crying ceased and instead he made low guttural sounds as he began calming down from his crying fit.

Hongjoong kept playing 2 more songs until he looked over and saw that his son was already fast asleep. He finished the last song and walked over to see his son sleeping like a little angel, a fond smile on his face.

"Who would have thought you loved music just like me?"

❥𝓟𝓪𝓻𝓴 𝓢𝓮𝓸𝓷𝓰𝓱𝔀𝓪

You were whining at this point.

"Sweetheart please! Just eat the food."

Your baby daughter once again refused to open her mouth as you placed the spoonful of puree in front of her. With a loud squeal she slapped it out of your hand, tossing the spoon and the mushy content onto the table in front of you both. You let out a groan as your hands clutched your head, feeling like you were about to break down like her at any minute.

As if on cue, Seonghwa came in and immediately rushed over to the kitchen when he heard your daughter's crying.

"What's wrong?" He asked as he scanned her all over.

"I don't know! She won't eat her food and I'm just tired at this point!" You didn't mean to come off so angry, but you were beyond frustrated.

Seonghwa understood and simply helped you up. He gave your nose a tender kiss and hugged you briefly.

"Here. Let me try."

He took the space you previously occupied and looked at your daughter. He smiled at her and began doing cutesy signs at her, varying from hearts to bunny ears. Once he began using his aegyo voice, the baby began calming down, now only sniffling softly. Seeing an opportunity, Seonghwa picked up the spoon and scooping up more puree, he successfully managed to get her to start eating.

"Seriously?!" You were indignated but Seonghwa chuckled.

"I told you she would be daddy's girl."

❥𝓙𝓮𝓸𝓷𝓰 𝓨𝓾𝓷𝓱𝓸

Although his son was crying on the top of his lungs for several minutes now, Yunho still had a smile plastered on his face.

"There there. Calm down kiddo. Mommy will be here soon."

That answer didn't seem to satisfy the infant, who only began crying harder, making Yunho pout.

"Well dang, do you really miss her that much?"

Taking a peek out the window and seeing that it was not cloudy, Yunho picked up the baby bag and grabbed his keys. Making sure to lock the door, he carried his son all the way into the car and strapped him into the baby seat in the back. As soon as Yunho started the car, the baby stopped screaming, although he kept spilling out tears. Once they were further on in the road, he stopped crying and his eyes struggled to keep open. Yunho looked at him from the rearview mirror and chuckled.

"Maybe that documentary I watched was correct. Babies do fall asleep in car rides."

Yunho decided to turn on the radio for a little while, which only helped to make the baby fully fall asleep in no time. Even after he had parked in front of the office building, the baby still stayed asleep. When you came out, Yunho immediately got out of the car and opened the back door.

"Did you get here early?" You asked.

Yunho sighed softly before getting the sleeping baby out.

"Well if I didn't, he would have continued crying his eyes out from missing you too much."

He carefully handed you the baby, who squirmed around before opening his eyes. The instant he saw you, his eyes lit up and he stretched his arms out to touch your face, making you giggle at how adorable your baby was.

"Mommy missed you too." You kissed his tiny nose.

Yunho frowned.

"I missed you too. Where's my kiss?"

❥𝓚𝓪𝓷𝓰 𝓨𝓮𝓸𝓼𝓪𝓷𝓰

You were both woken up when your baby daughter started crying.

"Yeosang." You called out.

"Mmmm?" He mumbled.

"It's your turn." You said.

He merely let out an inaudible groan.

"I took care of her yesterday. It's your turn."

Realizing he was right, you got up and went over to the adjoining room to yours. Picking up your daughter, first you made sure her diaper didn't need changing. Then you held her up to your chest, thinking she was hungry. But it was none of them since she kept crying and crying. You gently rocked her in your arms, even singing a soft lullaby to her, but she just began wailing even harder.

"Yeosang!" You cried out.

Huffing softly, he sat up and made his way to the nursery with slow, tired steps.

"Ok give me her. Let's see what's wrong."

He cooed at her softly and as soon as the little girl was in her father's arms and heard his voice, she immediately stopped crying.

"That was easy." He smiled proudly.

He tried setting her back down on her crib, but just as soon as she felt his hands off her, her crying resumed, this time harder than before.

"Ok! That's not going to work."

Picking her up again, once more she stopped crying and instead nestled herself in Yeosang's embrace. You both looked at each other in disbelief. Yeosang couldn't help but snort.

"She loves me better than you."

Not in the mood or headspace for his jokes, you lifted your hand up to hit him but immediately put it down.

"Let's just go back to sleep."

You both crawled back into bed, Yeosang being a little more careful as he adjusted himself so the baby could properly sleep in his arms.

"This better not become a daily thing." You said as you closed your eyes.

Not missing the opportunity even in his exhausted state, Yeosang teased:

"If you don't like it, you could always sleep on the couch."

❥𝓒𝓱𝓸𝓲 𝓢𝓪𝓷

San waved the rattle in front of the crying baby's face.

"Look! It makes noise! Don't you wanna play with it?"

The baby only smacked it with his hand, making San step back.

"Well damn son, a simple no would have sufficed."

Not about to give up, he picked up a cat headband and placed it on his hand before shamelessly doing aegyo in front of his son.

"Would you please stop crying for your dad? It makes him sad to see you cry."

When the baby continued crying, San began to whine loudly.

"What's wrong?! Speak to me! What do you want?! What will it take for you to stop crying?!"

Unable to take anymore noise, Byeol woke up and sauntered over to where all the commotion was. Her tiny paw latched onto San's pant leg as she began meowing at him.

"Not now Byeol. I'll feed you once I calm him down."

San was busy making funny faces to hopefully get his son to laugh that he didn't realize Byeol had climbed into a play pen until she jumped right next to the crying baby.

"Whoah! What the- Byeol! Get out of there immediately!"

The feline however ignored him and began rubbing her body against the baby, her soft purring and silky fur proving in aiding to help the baby calm down. The baby wrapped its tiny arms around her neck and Byeol didn't mind when he began cuddling her like one of his plushies, instead placing a paw on his tiny hand to keep him from squeezing too hard. San was stunned though as he watched them slowly drift off to sleep in each other's arms.

"You mean a cat knows how to take better care of my own son than me?"

❥𝓢𝓸𝓷𝓰 𝓜𝓲𝓷𝓰𝓲

Mingi was on the verge of breaking down.

"I've fed you, I've changed your diaper and even made a fool of myself by doing aegyo, what more do you want from me?!"

Mingi poked his bottom lip out as he held his crying daughter up, trying to figure out what was wrong with him. He then gasped.

"Oh my god! What if you're sick?!"

Mingi quickly rushed over to the bathroom to look for the thermometer. He let out a scream when he couldn't find it that only served to agitate the baby more, causing her to start crying harder.

You quickly ran towards the sound of the crying once you came back from work.

"What did you do?!" You yelled causing Mingi to whimper.

"I swear I did nothing! She just won't stop crying! I didn't mean to break our baby!"

You sighed and quickly took the baby from him. Noticing how the baby kept shaking her head and her hands were flying in all directions, you guessed something was bothering her. You took a chance and opted for taking off the beanie she was wearing. Once your daughter felt the beanie taken off, she stopped screaming, although now she just sniffed slightly.

"Oh my poor baby. Was your hat too tight on that not so tiny head of yours?"

Mingi was stunned that a stupid article of clothing was the whole reason for the ordeal to drag on. You gently placed kisses on the top of your daughter's head, trying to soothe her pain. Then you turned your attention to Mingi who had a look of disappointment and sadness in his eyes.

"Hey come on now. It's a learning process. She is our first child after all." You reminded him.

Mingi nodded and accepted when you handed the baby over to him so you could go get changed and wash up. Mingi began making funny faces at his daughter, who immediately began squealing and giggling at him.

"That's what I like to see. A happy babygirl who loves her daddy so much."

❥𝓙𝓾𝓷𝓰 𝓦𝓸𝓸𝔂𝓸𝓾𝓷𝓰

Wooyoung grunted as he once again went back to the living room to go attend to his son who was in his baby blue jumperoo.

"Ok what now?" Wooyoung asked the crying infant.

Contrary to what most people expected, Wooyoung's son definitely cried a lot, but he never screamed or full on wailed. He mostly just whimpered or let out tiny sobs whenever he was upset. Wooyoung sighed.

"Buddy, I know you can't actually talk, but I need you to help me out here."

Wooyoung spun and shook some of the toys surrounding the jumperoo in an effort to make his son stop crying, but it didn't work. The little boy just kept looking up at his father with teary eyes and pouty lips.

"Don't give me those sad eyes, please! What is it you want?"

Wooyoung leaned his face in, looking straight in his son's eyes. Stretching his arms out, the baby began making grabby hands towards Wooyoung's face.

"Ohh....I get it now."

Wooyoung immediately picked up the baby and held him. Placing a kiss on his head, he went back to the kitchen to check on the food. Although he had trouble maneuvering himself while holding a baby, he nonetheless managed to make sure the food didn't burn or turn out gross.

"No, unfortunately you can't eat some of my delicious food yet." Wooyoung said when his son pointed to the pot on the stove.

Wooyoung decided to have a tiny conversation with his son as he finished cooking, of course the baby didn't reply or made any sign that he was actually listening to him. The only sound he made was a tiny squeak when he saw you come in, making Wooyoung turn to see you.

"Welcome home Mrs. Jung. Care to join us this evening for supper?"

❥𝓒𝓱𝓸𝓲 𝓙𝓸𝓷𝓰𝓱𝓸

Jongho came in the house, surprised to see that you were still awake.

"Baby? What are you doing up?"

When you turned to him and he saw the weeping baby in your hands, he let out a soft 'oh.'

"How long has she been crying?" He asked.

"10 minutes. I don't know what to do. She's fed, changed and she simply won't go to bed."

Noticing how you looked exhausted, Jongho took the girl from your care.

"Go to bed honey. I'll take care of her."

Jongho gently rocked her in his arms, shushing her slightly before opting for a new method. He began singing a lullaby to her, his sweet honey voice helping her relax and cease her crying. Slowly, her eyes began to shut and open before eventually drifting off to sleep. Carefully, Jongho placed her inside her crib, tucking her under her pink blanket. He chuckled before poking her nose.

"Good night my little princess."

He went inside your room and noticed that you too were fast asleep. Going over to your side, he kissed your forehead.

"And good night my beautiful queen."

Gifs not mine. Credit goes to their respective owners.

#ateez #ateez reactions #ateez imagines #ateez scenarios #ateez fluff #ateez dad au #dad!au #dad!ateez #ateez hongjoong #ateez seonghwa #ateez yunho #ateez yeosang #ateez san #ateez mingi #ateez wooyoung #ateez jongho

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hikarinon · 4 years

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a Rainy Prom Night ☾

Miya Atsumu’s POV x reader

Atsumu’s POV

Who in the world would’ve thought a stuck-up person like me would ever get the opportunity to go to prom with someone. and by someone i mean y/n. especially someone like y/n.

but surprise surprise, here i am, in a tux, cold hands, holding freshly picked cerulean blue myosotis flowers, waiting for her to come down the stairs.

my anxiousness suddenly overwhelmed with elatement when i see her coming down, with a flowy 70′s sabrina white chiffon dress, that stopped right up her knees. i’ve seen better dresses in my entire life, so how the fuck is she able to pull off such a simple dress and make it look so....angelic.

“ ....wow ...“, is all i am able to say right now.

“you’re not so bad yourself, ravishing boyfie. you actually look prettier than me, especially while holding such beautiful flowers” she giggled, then i gave her the flowers, “ thank you, Atsumu.”

“i’d buy a whole garden for you, but that should wait till we get hitched” i joked....wait, actually im not joking . we gave our farewells to her parents, and with single a pat on my back from her dad, we’re off to prom.

we have arrived. the prom already started half an hour ago, so they’re already with their songs and all. honestly, i couldn’t care less about this whole prom, the only peeps i greeted were my teammates. we had a few drinks and now i miss y/n.

right now she is goofing off on the dance floor with her friends. at least now i know why she chose a dress that was easy to move in. I figured that it was time for us to spend the remaining evening together, so i went to her and took her by the waist,

“hey, im stealing you now. let’s go outside” i said to her, while bowing to her friends. “take me away, romeo~!” y/n said, making it obvious that she drank a few drinks beforehand.

out on the balcony, we’re finally alone. “At last” i said. “having fun babe?” i asked her while holding her tightly by the waist, and her arms around my neck. “a pleasant night, yes. but i have yet to dance with my handsome boyfriend though.” she said, her eyes glimmered by the moonlight . suddenly on that very second, it rained. it was raining cats and dogs. then i heard a song coming from indoors, it’s a song that we are very too familiar with.

they’re playing the one and only “Come On Eileen!”

♪ instrumentals ♪

“OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD, THIS IS MY GOOFING OFF SONG” ‘any song is your goofing off song’, i almost said out loud, but y/n looked way too cute. i glanced at the pouring rain, then suddenly a crazy idea passed through my mind *smirk*

♪ Come on, eileen come on, eileen poor old Johnny Ray ,sounded sad upon the radio ♪

i knelt before her, offering my hand, “my lady, will you do the me the great, great honor of accepting my offer to goof off together in the rain-?” i looked up and she wasn’t there. she was already out on the fields in the rain, already dancing, “BWAHAHAHA what are you waiting for??? come on out here already!!” she shouted.

‘God, i love her’

♪ but he moved a million hearts in mono, our mothers cried, sang along, who’d blame them ♪

Its 11:00 pm, we’re dancing like crazy people, only the two of us, in the rain, soaking wet. we’re dancing off like there is not a single thing in this world that can stop us. it’s cold and wet, but I've never felt such bliss before.

♪ you're grown (so grown up) So grown (so grown up) Now I must say more than ever (Come on, Eileen) ♪

then suddenly, i can’t hear anything. My mind is blank. next thing i knew i’m hoisting her up, her legs are straddled around my waist, her left hand is hugging my wet hair, her right hand is cupping my cheek, and she’s smiling down at me with her beautiful, beautiful smile , ‘dang it, she’s gorgeous ’.

then i whisper to her, hoping my words would go in through her ears, right into her heart. Hoping she would understand just how special she is. Special to me.

♪ Too ra loo ra too ra loo rye aye & we can sing just like our fathers ♪

“ hey y/n, you know what?” i said with my signature smile.

“*giggles* what~?” she giggled, while I kissed her forehead,

“you are downright the best thing that has ever happened to me.”

♪ Come on, Eileen, oh I swear (what he means) ,At this moment, you mean everything ~

You in that dress, my thoughts I confess Verge on dirty Ah, come on, Eileen ♪

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shigarakis-fifth-hand · 4 years

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Hi! Can i have a fantasy scenario with Mirio as castle worker who has a crush on the princess?

Sooooo cute!! Please send more x readers, I love them!!

Mirio x Reader; The Last Day

Warnings: attempted rape, arranged marriage, cursing, drug-use, kissing

Mirio moved the box from the front yard to the main square, unloading a bunch of lights. “Mirio! Whatcha doing?” He looked up to see a blue-haired girl approaching him. It was Nejire, the other castle worker. She smiled at the tall, blonde boy in front of her.

“Unloading the lights for the princess’s thing tonight. I’m working the entire night.” Mirio complained, setting all the lights on the pavement.

“I’m excited! The princess wants me to do her makeup! I’m so excited!” Nejire cheered, beginning to hang up the lights.

“I’m not, I’m going to be apart of the courtyard security. Tamaki is going to be the princess’s main security officer. He gets to dress up and walk around with her...” Mirio daydreamed, looking off at the clouds in the sky.

“Awww, is someone jelly? I know you like her Miri, there’s no use denying it. It’ll only drive you even crazier than you already are.” She winked at her friend, before looking around at all the lights hung up from tree-to-tree in the main courtyard.

“How can I be jealous? There’s nothing to be jealous of. She is going to marry the prince of the West kingdom, and there’s nothing anybody can do about it. Nejire giggled, smiling at her friend. “No, the king said if she falls in love beforehand she can decide not to marry him. It’s just because it’s tradition to have a marriage plan by 18.”

Mirio sighed, thinking deeply about how tonight would be the princess’s last night as a single woman. After tonight, she would be forced to marry the jerk of a prince near the West side of the country who she loved for some reason.

“Stop filling my head with dreams Nejire. You know it’d be impossible. I’m a worker, she’s the princess. She’s royalty, I’m dirt poor. She’s... probably the most beautiful girl in the kingdom, I’m just me.”

He shunned Nejire, turning his back on her as we walked into the hall, carrying the empty box. He tried to ignore the feeling in his chest, but he was too sad. He was going to lose the only girl he had ever had feelings for, and why? Because her own royalty had kept her from ever exchanging a word to him.

“Togata!” Mirio turned to see Iida, the second-in-command of the princess’s personal security walking after him. “What is it?” He asked as Tenya turned to him. “General Tamaki has become extremely sick. Nothing deadly, just something he ate. I’m afraid he won’t be able to be the princess’s personal security guard.”

Mirio looked at him questioningly, nodding in response. “Okay, what do you need from me?” Mirio asked as Iida smiled, lifting his head up happily.

“Well, I’d fill in but on such short notice, I’d then need someone to fill in my place. Tamaki mentioned that you were working on security tonight for the main square. Surely you’ll be able to handle working as her personal security guard?” Iida smiled as Mirio was about to turn it down when Nejire ran up behind them.

“Wow! We were just talking about this Mirio! Iida, you have found the right man for the job! Right Mirio?! Isn’t this the perfect opportunity to prove yourself?”

Iida smiled, unaware of Nejire’s tone of sarcasm. “Lovely. Well then, if you’ll come with me. I think it’s only appropriate for you to come to get fitted. You have your tux, now if you’ll come with me I believe you need to meet Your Royal Highness since the party is only in an hour and a half.” Iida gestured for Mirio to follow him, walking down the hallway, up to two flights of stairs, and into the grand hallway.

The princess. Mirio was going to meet the princess.

The grand hallway was where the princess’s room was, where the library was, the designer room where the royal family clothing was handled, and then the grand balcony.

Mirio had only been up here a few times, coming to mop the floors or deliver something to the designer room. “Ahh, here you go. Make yourself comfortable, I’ll send her in.” Iida left Mirio in her bedroom, leaving to go get the princess.

Looking around, Mirio was astonished. It was nothing as he would imagine her room being like. The room to his right was just a large window with a window seat for looking out, and her bed was very large. But she had lots of books, paintings, and a full-size mirror to the left of the bed. There was a desk on the wall opposite the bed, with pictures of her and her friends.

There was no jewelry, or expensive perfumes or makeup. In fact, she seemed fairly normal.

Mirio reached in to grab the photo, seeing the princess smiling with her brother, her sweet brother who had gone missing two years ago.

“Woah, hi.” He looked up, startled, to see the princess leaning on the doorway. “Oh, hello. Um, I’m General Togata.” He tried to not sweat nervously, but it wasn’t working. “Well you’re definitely not Tamaki, and you already know who I am. Also, let’s go off the first-name basis. Call me Y/n, I’ll call you Mirio.” Mirio’s eyes widened.

“How did you know my name?” He asked as the princess smiled, giggling. “Tamaki told me, don’t freak out on me.” She joked, smiling as she walked in front of her mirror.

Mirio couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed with her presence as she walked past him. She was prettier in person since he had only seen her from afar. She was funny too like she couldn’t stop joking with sarcasm... and Mirio loved it. S

he was so bubbly, it was like she had never felt sad in her life.

“So, you’re my new security guard? Do you even know how to do that?” She joked, sitting on the window seat and looking out as Mirio stood there, near her door. “You’re wearing pajamas a half hour before your party. Do you know how to princess?” He asked as she giggled turning towards him and patting her hand on the seat next to her.

“I like you. Come sit.” She smiled as Mirio nervously sat next to her.

“Oh, and please don’t mention that party. That dress on the bed has been taunting me all day. I have hair, and makeup, and then that itchy thing, and then I have to go over what to say to the prince. Gross. Have you ever had to rehearse lines for your own birthday party? No.” She was still smiling as she complained, gesturing to the dress on her bed.

It was bright red and went to right above her knees.

“I think it looks good.” Mirio stood to look at it, noticing how short it was. He didn’t like that part. “Then you wear them. You’ll look better than I will. Do you know how itchy those things are? Gosh, I’d rather wear a porcupine that that.” She smiled, picking it up and twisting it.

“At least you’ll have a distraction with the party. Your birthday only comes once a year, and tonight is your 18th birthday. You’ll be an adult, or whatever they say.” The princess’s expression fell, staring at the dress.

“My birthdays are the worst. Every year I have to dance around with that jerk, laugh at all my dad’s friend’s jokes, and by the end of the night I’m just left in an itchy dress.” A single tear fell from her face as Mirio got up, trying to comfort her.

“No, I’m okay. I’m just upset about this whole marriage thing. I’m being punished for not falling in love by being forced to marry the most disgusting, most perverted, most horrible guy my age! I’ve been dreading this birthday since I can remember.” She sank into Mirio’s tight hug, liking the warm feeling.

“So, you don’t like him? The media says you’re head over heels with him.” The princess burst out laughing, still tearing up.

“I hate him with a fiery, burning passion, but it’s tradition so my opinion doesn’t matter. He’s tried to kiss me since we were ten. I’m just worried that one day it won’t be just a kiss, ya know? I’m just saying, please don’t leave my side and stay extra close when he’s near. I feel safe around you and I don’t trust that guy one bit.”

Mirio nodded blushing as he let go of the hug as one of the princess’s maid walked in. “Oh dear, you need to get ready! The prince is here and he’s asking for you. Do come, we need to get you ready. If you’ll excuse us, young man?” She asked as Mirio nodded, walking out of the room.

“Just please wait outside Mirio. Thank you.” Mirio nodded, blushing as he closed the door behind him, stepping to the side to wait.

“There you are, come on! We have to get you ready!” A designer from the other room began to pull Mirio in as he protested. “No, the princess told me to wait for her!” The designer didn’t care, pulling him in.

“The princess doesn’t make the rules, we need her security guard to be formally dressed and that’s that. You will see her once the party starts, she’s only going to get ready and meet the prince.” Mirio’s eyes widened as the designers dressed him.

The prince.

She wanted me to wait outside so I wouldn’t leave her side, so she would feel safe. Dang, it. And now she would come outside and I won’t be there. She’ll have to go see the prince by herself! Damn.

After what felt like hours, Mirio was finally sent to go see the princess. Walking down the hall, he had a bad feeling in his chest.

“W-where is the princess?” He asked one of the chefs walking around. “She went to the main square with the prince.” He pointed outside, walking away. Immediately Mirio ran outside to see Y/n and the Westward prince sitting down at a table, talking.

“And then when I did my modeling campaign, she came and talked to me again! Goodness, she talked so much. I’m glad you’re the quiet type, or else I’d have to tell you to shut up every second of the day.” He laughed at his own joke, drinking water as he talked. As Mirio approached them, he made eye contact with her. He could see he was holding her hand, but she wasn’t holding his.

The conversation appeared to be just him talking. “God, all those girls down in Barcelona were all over me. I had to tell them I was a married man of course, but dang, you sure are lucky I had my morals or else we’d have a problem.” The princess stood up, staring at Mirio.

“Um, Monoma, I have to handle something with my security officer. Be right back.” She swiped her hand from Monoma’s grip, walking over and grabbing Mirio’s hand before speed-walking off into the hallway.

She led him through the main entrance, and then outside the door to the front courtyard before he pulled him into a hug. “God, I always forget how bad he is. Please, please help me tonight. Just get me through tonight, and I’ll owe you anything.” Mirio’s ears perked up at anything before settling down his dirty mind.

The princess was a friend if that, nothing more.

“What do you want me to do?” Mirio asked nervously, realizing how tight she was holding on to him. “Just... just hold me for now. Please. I need you right now.” She buried her face in his chest as he held her close, not realizing someone was watching them.

The two spent the next fifteen minutes walking around the palace, trying to avoid the hundreds of people who were coming for the party. Along the way, Mirio had learned that Y/n loved books, was allergic to dogs and had never felt romantic feelings for anyone before.

“Ya see, I know there’s someone out there for me. At least, I hope there is. Who knows though? Maybe I’m a human being incapable of feeling love for someone else.” Mirio bumped his shoulder into her, smiling.

“I don’t think that. You’re too kind to everyone, and we know any guy wants to be with you. Obviously, Mr. Hot-Shot does. You’re able to make friends too easily, you just haven’t met the right person yet.” The princess smiled at his assurance.

“What about you? I’ve seen you hang out with Nejire, the blue-haired girl on my makeup team. She’s mentioned you once or twice.” Mirio blushed at the thought of the princess talking about him with Nejire.

“Don’t worry though, she didn’t tell me all of your darkest secrets. Just the ones I can get you arrested for.” She stuck her tongue out as Mirio smiled back. He couldn’t believe what was happening. In hours, he had built a relationship with this gorgeous, funny girl.

She was perfect.

“And what would that be?” Mirio played along as the two stopped, a wind picking up and blowing her hair back. “Well, I remember years ago she said you had a great crush on me. But that couldn’t possibly be true, right?” She smirked as Mirio’s face turned a cherry red color.

“Y-Y/n. I... I can’t deny it, but I can’t admit that I may... possibly...” As Mirio stuttered, the Princess got on her tiptoes, leaning in to kiss him. Mirio did the same, awaiting to kiss her just as a yell could be heard from inside the castle. It was the king.

“You... Y- We need to go inside, it’s probably about to start.” As Mirio began to walk away, the princess grabbed his hand, pulling him closer as she kissed his cheek sweetly. “Don’t leave my side Miri.” She whispered into his ear, sending chills down his back as the two made their way inside.

Immediately the hallway was filled with commotion as they were immediately met with loud yells and greetings.

“Ahh, princess! Happy birthday! Dear, you look lovely! Happy birthday, dear!” The hallway was filled with overwhelming voices, startling Mirio as they walked through. The princess didn’t even flinch though. This was her life daily.

As she walked through, Mirio followed her closely as she shook hands, waved, and kissed a few cheeks of the queens and other princesses who were nearby.

That was, until Monoma’s mother, the queen of the Westward kingdom, jumped in front of Mirio. “Darlings! The photographer needs a photo!” She exclaimed as Monoma jumped out of nowhere, scooping his arm across Y/n as the two smiled at the camera.

Mirio couldn’t help but notice Monoma’s hand getting too low before the camera went away.

“There you are Y/n. Once you ran off with your guard, I thought I lost you there. Here, I got this for you.” He handed her a glass of champagne before gesturing her outside to the center square. Mirio quickly followed behind, hot on their trails before they sat down.

“Ahh Mirio, sit here.” She patted the seat to her right, Monoma sitting on her left.

“So, I see you’re not with Tamaki. Such a shame, I liked him best.” Monoma rudely exclaimed, not acknowledging Mirio’s presence. “Ahh, don’t be silly. Tamaki isn’t dead, he just wasn’t feeling well. And Mirio has been a great help, he’s really helped me prepare for this whole thing.” Mirio smiled at her defending him.

“I don’t know, I just feel like it’s unprofessional for a security guard to kiss their client. But that’s just me. Now if you’ll excuse me, my father promised me he’d take some photos of me in this dapper suit.” With that, he got up and left the square, leaving the two sitting there awkwardly.

“That... that won’t get you in trouble right?” Mirio asked as she turned to him, her expression soft. “No, of course not. I’m not technically his fiance until the stroke of midnight.” With that thought, her eyes widened before she grabbed her glass and chugged the entire thing.

“Dance with me Miri.” She grabbed his hand and stood up before he stopped her. “What? Don’t be silly, I’m on guard as your personal security officer. I shouldn’t be dancing.” Mirio refused as she smiled. “Oh please, the only thing more personal than dancing is if you were kissing me. How much more protective can that be? Plus every guy in the room is wearing the exact thing you are, and you look better than all of them. Dance with me pretty boy.” She smiled, trying to pull him up as he still refused.

“Mirio.” She murmured seriously, changing her tone.

“Once tonight is gone, I’m going to belong to that man. Who stalks me out windows and puts his hands where they shouldn’t belong. Tonight is the last night I can kiss whoever, and dance with whoever I want. It’s a silly dance to you, but to me, it’s my last night as my own person. Please don’t make me spend it sitting around.” She whispered, her voice weak and sad.

As if her true emotions were coming out, her bubbly self melted away. “Fine then, but just one.” As Mirio stood up, her face lit up and her eyes glittered more than ever before. True happiness.

She led him to the dance floor where they began. Mirio was rusty at first, but he eventually got it. It was just formal dancing around the circle, but it allowed them to talk with the music playing loudly so nobody could hear them.

“Mirio, I want to talk about the kiss.” Y/n whispered, blushing as Mirio’s eyes widened. She was full of surprises, wasn’t she? “W-what about it?” He asked, trying to avoid eye contact as they spun around and around. “I... I want to do it again. Please.” Mirio was quick to shake his head. “What? Here? Listen Y/n, don’t act like I’m the love of your life just because you’re desperate to escape this relationship. As much as I’d love it if you loved me for real, you can’t toy with my emotions like this.”

Y/n was quick to back away, tears falling down her face before she fell to her knees. “Y/n!” Mirio exclaimed, reaching down to help her before she pushed him away. “No Mirio, I’m okay. I just... don’t feel so good all of a sudden. And no, don’t follow me.” She insisted, running out into the hallway out of his sight.

Immediately Mirio sat down at the table, waiting for her to return for a few minutes.

That’s when minutes turned into twenty minutes, and then soon half an hour. Worryingly, Mirio found the queen to ask her the whereabouts of her daughter. “Oh, I saw her in the hallway. She was very tired and drowsy so Monoma was helping her to her room. Such a fine boy.” Mirio nodded, before getting a flashback.

“I’m just worried that one day it won’t be just a kiss, ya know? I’m just saying, please don’t leave my side and stay extra close when he’s near. I feel safe around you and I don’t trust that guy one bit.”

Immediately Mirio ran upstairs and to the other side of the castle, bolting to your room to find the door closed and locked. Mirio slammed his body against it, yelling as loud as he could. “Y/n?! Y/n! Monoma, you son of a bitch! Open this door now!” He yelled before slamming his body into the door so much it opened.

His eyes widened at the view in front of him. Monoma was on top of you, holding you down by your wrists when you were just in your panties and bra, your hair messy and mascara marks on your cheeks from you crying.

“Get off of her!” He yelled, pushing Monoma off of you and into your mirror. Monoma grabbed Mirio, slamming him into the mirror to where glass cut his forehead. “Stop! Don’t hurt him!” You yelled, standing far away, scared for Mirio’s safety. You were terrified of the guys in front of you, fighting when blood was dripping down both of them.

Monoma slammed his body into Mirio, knocking him to the ground and giving several punches to his head. Mirio’s vision began to get blurry, thinking about the party happening far away.

All Mirio could think about was how you had been screaming constantly, yet nobody could hear you from the other side of the castle while Monoma stripped you of your innocence.

As Monoma punched Mirio, nearly killing him, Y/n jumped in. She threw a punch to his head and pushed him off the taller blond. “You bitch! You always screw everything up! Now, how about a teenage pregnancy?! Surely that will blow away any romance you have with the joke on the floor over there!” Monoma smacked Y/n, throwing her against the wall. “

You can’t do anything right!” He yelled, throwing punch after punch at her before grabbing her throat.

“I’m going to end this!” He exclaimed, lifting her off the ground by just her throat, causing her to stop breathing. “Monoma... please stop.” She whimpered, clawing at Monoma’s hand around her neck as her eyes began to drift to the back of her head.

That’s when Mirio got up, grabbed the vase of flowers, and threw it against Monoma’s head, knocking him out cold and sending him to the ground. He ran to Y/n’s side, tears falling down his cheeks as he helped her up. “It’s okay, you’re safe.” As Y/n began to breathe again, she wrapped her hands around Mirio’s neck tightly, hugging him as he pulled her close.

His worries didn’t care if she was partly naked, at least she was alive.

“He drugged me Miri.” She whispered tears falling down her cheek as he nodded. “I know.” He whispered, petting her hair before she stepped back. “I think I’m in love with you Mirio.” She whispered, and this time, he nodded back in response. “I’ve been in love with you my entire life.” Slowly, the two kissed sweetly, it becoming more passionate as the minutes passed.

“Come on, let’s go get the nurses. I’m sure they’ll will want to fix us up.” She sadly smiled before limping to the phone next to her bed. “I request my parents, a nurse, and Monoma’s parents. There’s an emergency.”

The next moments were a blur. All of the royal parents fled into the room, gasping at the scene in front of them. Immediately Monoma, Y/n, and Mirio were taken to the medical room to be treated.

Many interviews took place, discussing everything that had happened that night. Many good things came of that night. The Westward kingdom apologized and sent their son off to a military camp, and Y/n became a free girl.

Also... Mirio and Y/n became a couple, enjoying each other’s company and not worrying about marriage. They enjoyed going to the library together to read, walking around the castle, and painting. Mirio was quickly excused from all castle work, and Nejire became head of Y/n’s makeup and hair. Tamaki was quick to confess that he had never been sick, and had planned everything with Nejire ahead of time.

After that, Y/n and Mirio finally found happiness. Mirio was able to be with the love of his life, and Y/n proved to herself that she could find love in the strangest of ways.

Hope you like it! I went overboard and wrote too much :) Oops!

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missmalice202 · 4 years

Text

Designing Your Melody: Chapter 06 - Cherry

Chapter 01 - Chapter 05

“DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE!!!” Marinette screamed into her headset as she tapped the buttons on her controller as fast as her fingers would let her.

“Dang, girl. Leave some for the rest of us.” Alya’s chuckle filtered though her headphones over the sound of gunfire. Her orange mecha that had been built for speed and precision performed a deadly dance as she picked off the few stragglers that Ladybug’s mecha had left behind. “You’re out for blood tonight, aren’t ya? Tough week?”

‘Tough’ didn’t begin to cover how frenzied the last week had been for Marinette. After hemming and embroidering and sewing THOUSANDS OF FREAKING SEQUINS, Jagged Stone’s new ensemble was finally finished. Why she had agreed to undertake such a herculean task at the last minute, she had no idea. Well, that’s not entirely true. She knew exactly why she accepted the job: she loved Jagged Stone and she loved a challenge.

Still, the fact that she was stressed out and sleep deprived remained. However, she was still too jittery from the numerous cups of coffee she’d sucked down over the past few days to go to sleep yet, so she figured she’d meet up with her clanmates and play for a little while until she finally came down from her caffeine high.

“Rena, I haven’t slept in 36 hours, I’ve stabbed myself a dozens of times sewing on all those stupid sequins that I thought would be such a good idea to add to his design, and I’ve had enough coffee over the past week that Papa could probably use my blood to make some of his famous tiramisu, so even though I’m freaking exhausted, there’s no way I can fall asleep just yet. I need something to relax me, so here I am..”

“Seriously, dude,” Nino added, “When you told us what you were doing, I thought you’d finally fallen off the deep end. I mean, you’ve got to be crazy to try to design and sew a photoshoot ready outfit for one of the biggest rock and roll stars in the world in just a week!” His avatar, a bright green design with black goggles covering the cockpit, threw up a translucent energy shield over his clanmates that glowed with an ethereal green light, easily blocking the incoming attack of an enemy captain.

“Hey!” Marinette yelled at her friend as she rushed toward the mini-boss, swords flashing as her cherry red mecha closed the distance and she engaged with the enemy. “You make it sound like you didn’t think I could do it.”

“It’s not that, my lady,” soothed Adrien, aka Chat Noir. “We all had faith that you’d get the job done purrfectly.” His onyx mecha landed next to Ladybug, his staff whirling, performing a perfectly choreographed combo attack with his partner in battle. “Fur real, we were just concerned that purrhaps you had kitten off more than you could chew and ended up burning yourself out.”

She closed her eyes for a moment to collect herself. She could literally hear how smug Chat Noir was through her headphones. “For the sake of what little sanity I have left after this week, please don’t start with the cat puns, Chat.”

“Why, I’m feline a little offended here, bugaboo,” he teased. “I’m just saying that there’s no one else who clawed pull what you did off.”

“That last one was a bit of a stretch, kitty.” She should just ignore him, she knew that. You’d think she would have learned by now that when she responded to his bad jokes and ridiculous puns, he layed it on even thicker, just to annoy her. “Seriously though, I didn’t have much of a choice! You should have seen what the stylist wanted Jagged to wear. It was just,” she shuddered just thinking about it, “terrible.”

Rena asked, “How bad? Come on, girl, gimme some details!”

“Ugh, it makes me sick just thinking about it. Imagine Jagged Stone, wearing a powder blue, see-through lace romper..” Her three friends howled with laughter at the mental image she conjured, so she continued to describe the nightmare she had seen in full detail. “Just picture it: THE Jagged Stone, clad in skintight lace booty shorts, white fishnet stockings, and silver glitter loafers. They wanted to stuff him into a silver speedo underneath that ridiculous romper. That’s all! Nothing but a silver speedo and translucent baby blue lace!” she snorted with laughter as she remembered how utterly uncomfortable the poor singer had been when he showed her what the record label wanted him to wear for his promotional photo shoot. “Oh my god, it was awful! I wish I could unsee that sight, but it’s now burned into my memory to haunt me until the day I die. I couldn’t very well say no to his pleading after I saw that abomination.”

“Ladybug,” Chat Noir tried to calm down enough to talk, but he was obviously having a hard time since he had let his guard down and had been killed in the battle. He used his respawn time to finally compose himself enough to continue. “As a life long Jagged Stone fan, you have my eternal gratitude for sparing the public from that visual crime against humanity.” He dissolved into another fit of giggles, causing a chain reaction among their friends once again and distracting them from the battle currently underway.

“I know.” Marinette took a deep breath. “And here I thought that they couldn’t possibly come up with a worse marketing strategy after that whole “perfume ad album cover” debacle. Yeah, I was wrong. This was much, MUCH worse,” she scoffed.

They all laughed hysterically for a few more minutes before they were able to calm themselves enough to carry on their conversation.

“By the way, milady, are you going to be participating in Fashion Week next month?” Chat asked.

“Yes,” she replied. “I’ve finally garnered enough of a reputation as a legitimate designer for my collection to be allowed to participate in the newcomer designer showcase on the last day. I’ve got my collection finalized, so all I need to do is sit down at my machine and make the pieces.” Her fingers flew over the buttons of her controller, sowing a path of destruction in her avatar’s wake onscreen as a new wave of enemies arrived to back up their leader. “Now that I’m done with the Jagged Stone’s request, I’ve got the time to work on my showcase designs.” With a final flourish, she and Chat Noir defeated the enemy captain, leaving Rena Rouge and Carapace to deal with the reinforcements.

The gathered the mission rewards and traveled back to their base.

“Hey, Ladybug,” Rena began, “have you selected the models you’d like to walk in your show? I’m sure Kitty Noir over here would be more than happy to help you out if you need.”

While Alya understood that Adrien and Marinette would probably only be “just good friends”, once a shipper, always a shipper. Over the years, she still created opportunities for her two friends to be alone together in the hopes that something would spark between them and her OTP ship could set sail. Was it wrong to ship your friends? She didn’t think so. Nino disapproved of her antics at times, but she just couldn’t help it. She wanted her friends to be happy and in her mind, they were made for each other.

Marinette had tried convincing her friend that she was more than happy with the relationship she had with the handsome, blond model. She was more at ease with him now and he could be himself around her, even if that did include his utterly atrocious sense of humor. Seriously, the guy’s obsession with puns was borderline unhealthy.

“I’d love to wear your designs again, My Lady,” he purred.

“Won’t you be busy walking in your father’s show?”

“The Agreste show is on the first day. I’ll have plenty of free time after that. All you’ll have to do is get me some of your dad’s famous macaroons as payment.”

She was ecstatic. Having a famous model like Adrien Agreste would bring people flocking to her show, even if it was to see him, not her designs. But since he’d be the one wearing her clothes, it’d be like killing two birds with one stone. “You have a deal!” she squealed.

His chuckle echoed in her ears. “Honestly, I’m getting the better end of the deal. Don’t underestimate the power your family’s bakery has.”

“Awesome,” Alya cheered. “You’ve got your male model. Do you need a female model too or have you found one already?”

“Actually, I texted Juleka Couffaine and asked her if she’d be interested and she said that she’d do it,” she said. “I haven’t really spoken to her since high school since we kind of lost touch with each other, but I’ve seen some of the ads she’s sone and I think she’d be a good fit for the theme of my collection. She’s out of the country at the moment on a job, but she should be back sometime next week, so until then I can get started on what you’ll be wearing, Kitty.”

“Sounds good, Bugga-boo. I can’t wait to see what you’ve come up with. Your designs are always so pawsome. I can’t wait to wear them for you on the catwalk.”

She shook her head once more at his antics. “I’ll give you the last one, since that’s a legitimate pun.” Alya and Nino’s laughter rang in her ears as they laughed at their friends’ banter.

“You know, we were wondering if you’d be online tonight, Ladybug, since you’ve been MIA all week.” Alya said. “The others were asking about you since they hadn’t heard from you, but I told them you’d be on when you were done with your work.” There was a brief silence before she teased, “Viperion was especially worried about you. He said how you guys had done some grinding the other night wondered where you had disappeared to since you’re usually on every night..”

The idea of Viperion worrying about her caused warmth to blossom in her chest. To be honest, she had missed the calming effect his presence had on her. “Speaking of which, where is he? Did he say he was going to be playing tonight?”

Nino told her that he had spoken to him earlier in the day and that he would probably be on much later, if at all because he would be working late on a project that he had to completely redo.

A little disappointed that she wouldn’t get to play with her online friend, Marinette decided to call it a night and logged out, finally ready to get some much needed sleep.

Chapter 07

*Sorry for the delay on posting. This chapter is just kind of a transition chapter, so unfortunately, not much is going on, but I really wanted cat puns and mental images of hard rockers in blue lace rompers hahaha. Next chapter will pick up and our sweet boi will get some screen time. I might even stop torturing him and throw him a bone ;D Until next time, Lovelies XOXO*

#lukanette #lukanette february #mlvalentines2k20 #luka couffaine #marinette dupain cheng #lukanette fic #ml fanfic

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miraculouscontent · 5 years

Note

Lmao wanna share your thoughts on the episode

*SLAMS HAND ON DESK*

YES

(As with “Gamer 2.0″, I’m not going to talk about the fact that this episode is out-of-order because I don’t think that’s fair to the episode itself.)

“Party Crasher” is honestly one of those episodes and, in a way, feels like a few past episodes in its weirdness.

And it, unfortunately, has a lot of problems. Plot problems, characters problems, pacing problems… it’s like a multiple tier serving tray of issues.

Soooo, let’s get into them.

[Squandering Squads]

Honestly didn’t think I’d be talking about this again so soon, yet here we are.

I never liked the idea of the “girl squad.” Don’t like thinking about it, don’t like talking about it, and don’t like when it appears in episodes. It’s not that I can’t see Marinette, Alya, Rose, Juleka, Alix, and Mylene as good friends, but they just kind of “appeared” as a close-knit group with no explanation.

Alix in “Timebreaker”, for example. That banner could’ve been requested by anyone, and despite Alix describing Marinette as “one of the chicks I hang out with”, we never actually see why they’re friends or how they became friends. All we really know is that she’s part of the “girl squad” and that she’s in Marinette’s art club. This claim that Alix is presumably friends with Marinette is a line that’s easy to miss and that would make one go “wait, what? when?” when it’s heard. Marinette does go after Alix in “Timebreaker”, but she goes after everyone. She’s a caring person, so it’s in her nature.

Speaking of Marinette going after people to comfort them, there’s also Mylene in “Horrificator”, but Mylene doesn’t seem to have any sort of relationship to Marinette. She leaves Marinette alone when Marinette goes to find her, but that could just as easily be because Marinette showed care in looking for her, so Horrificator decided to leave her be (much like how she had a fondness for Ivan since he comforted her). “The Mime” also doesn’t explicitly say that they’re friends, as Mylene’s father needed an emergency fix on his hat and Mylene could’ve just rushed to Marinette because she’s the expert in this matter. It and “Timebreaker” just seemed like cases where most of the class were vague acquaintances but know that Marinette is the person to go to for certain issues.

Marinette and Juleka actually interact by the end of “Reflekta”, so her being friends with Rose and Juleka makes at least a little more sense (I’d imagine that a friend of Juleka’s is a friend of Rose’s), but even then, the whole girl squad just being able to get along and be friends because they’re girls and they’re friendly I guess just bores me. At the very least, maybe they could have some of the girls not get along with each other, but also not mind working together for Marinette (I could see Juleka and Alya not getting along, for example).

It’s too easy and far too convenient that all the girls (excluding Chloe and Sabrina) happen to get along perfectly without even a single boy added to the mix. I mean, both “Dark Cupid” and “Animan” had Marinette interacting with Kim (Kim even goes directly to Marinette’s house to hide in the latter episode), so why can’t they have a friendship?

The reason I bring this up is because we now have the “boy squad”, which may very well be even worse than the girl squad.

When have any of these boys (excluding Nino of course) interacted with Adrien in any meaningful way? Ivan, Kim, and Max have all had more interactions with Marinette than Adrien, and they haven’t interacted much with Nino either, excluding background details (like Nino being there for Kitty Section, which Ivan is a part of, in “Captain Hardrock”).

Not only that, but this episode seems to forget the fact that Kim bullied Ivan (or was at least messing with/mocking him) all the way back at the start of the series (”Origins”), yet we’re just expected to accept that they’re friends now and maybe patched that little detail up off-screen? I mean, I don’t consider Kim to be a bully, but I certainly don’t consider him to be friends with Ivan either.

And just to complete the boy squad, Nathaniel and Marc also make excuses and show up later because of course they do. Can’t miss that other boy in the class or it wouldn’t be a complete set, now would it?

I just… I hate this idea of separating the genders. It’s one thing if it’s a special occasion, like a “boys issue” that only the boys feel they should handle (or perhaps Ivan and/or Nino want to get something for their girlfriend and are desperate for another’s opinion, but are afraid to ask one of the girls because they’re afraid that the girl will accidentally blurt it out to the girlfriend in question), but all they’re doing is setting up a party for Adrien!

And speaking of which…

[Party Foolhardy]

I have so many questions about the set-up and logic behind this party.

So many.

Let’s start with the fact that the boys are blatantly and self-admittedly ditching the girls to do this party. The girls are out doing hard labor and the boys ditched them to set up a party for Adrien. Heck, Max even points out that the girls are 100% certain to be disappointed if they know they’re doing this, and Nino later stresses that their afternoon is going to be ruined if Marinette catches them!

He’s openly admitting to the fact that they’re doing something horrible to the girls! I’d expect that kind of bluntness from Chloe, not Nino!

Now, given that, I put most of the blame on Nino for this, because he’s the planner of this situation and even prepared excuses for why each boy couldn’t make it to the tree planting. Ivan also makes it clear that he wasn’t aware of the time frame they were doing it in (Kim backs this up too, simply having forgotten the date), so yeah, Nino’s the mastermind.

But, ultimately, they all chose to continue doing this. Ivan, Kim, and Max, however unsure they seemed at these excuses, all dove into this plan “for Adrien”, which is so hard for me to be invested in when they hardly know Adrien. Also, none of them stopped Nino from taking their phones and hanging up on Marinette, nor did they disagree when Nino tried to make this party about being “only boys.”

And I have to ask why. Why does it have to be only for boys if Nino was already pretending like the girl squad was doing their own thing and couldn’t make it (meaning that he must’ve had multiple reasons for doing this)? The whole point of this party is that they wanted Adrien to have a good time because Adrien doesn’t get to very often.

Exactly what is gender-exclusive about that? Like, Nino sees an opportunity to throw a little party for Adrien and he apparently goes, “WELP BETTER MAKE SURE IT’S A MAN’S PARTY”?

And I could understand if more parties were able to be planned, but Nino knows how horrible Adrien’s schedule can be! Gabriel has a habit of canceling Adrien’s personal plans for no reason and also dislikes anyone coming with Adrien to his house, not just girls. There’s no guarantee that they’ll get another chance like this!

Shouldn’t the idea here be “the more, the merrier”? Wouldn’t Adrien be happier with all of his supposed friends showing up and not just the guys?

Also, y’know, no girls allowed, but a bunch of grown men hanging out at a party for teenage boys isn’t even remotely weird, right? Who cares if they’re basically total strangers!

(Wait–Fred??? Is that Mylene’s dad??? …I know he’s just there to fill in the background but DUDE, YOUR DAUGHTER’S BOYFRIEND IS IN THE ROOM WHILE SHE’S OUT TAKING CARE OF PLANTS.)

And there was no reason for the party to interfere with the planting that the girls were doing unless Nino did it specifically to ensure that they were excluded and would be busy. Gabriel was gone for the whole weekend, so this party could’ve been done at any other time during then.

Even if Nino’s plan was to bribe Gorilla again with more figures on another day of the weekend, it’s ridiculous that he had to lie about it.

And to his girlfriend, no less! This entire season has continuously stressed how much Alya and Nino are dating (to the point where they asked Marinette more than once to babysit so they could go out together), and then this episode not only has them completely ignore that fact, but it doesn’t even make Alya–the supposed journalist who would naturally be suspicious of Nino not wanting to spend time with her for once in their dang relationship–question why all of the guys have an excuse that they texted at the same time? It’s not out-of-character for Marinette to investigate the matter, but seriously, Alya? You’re not even going to look into it?

(They could’ve at least made a joke about Nino trying to include Alya as “one of the guys” and have the others call him out for his hypocrisy.)

And regardless of his apology, Nino feeling bad about it by the end is practically irrelevant. He should’ve felt bad in the first place.

Like, how convenient is it that Nino only feels bad after they were caught red-handed and the party is already over?

It’s almost as if his initial lack of regret was for the sake of the plot and its comedy instead of being a damaging character trait to be corrected.

The show also completely skips over the detail of this boys-only party. Nino doesn’t feel bad about throwing this party; he just feels bad for lying about it.

So, leaving the girl squad to do hard labor so they can throw a party that could’ve been thrown at any other time during the weekend is okay as long as he tells the truth? I… okay?????

…This episode–this show, really–seems to have a thing towards lies and just lying in general. We’ve had multiple past episodes where a big deal has been made about lying, and the fact that a character lied usually overrides what caused the lie in the first place, causing the overridden thing to be ignored completely (hi, “Weredad”).

But of course, it doesn’t just come down to that alone because, no matter what, Marinette always seems to take more heat for it than she deserves.

When Nino left with the other boys, that was six less people who were working on the plants (Nino, Ivan, Kim, Max, Nathaniel, and Marc; plus Markov technically as a seventh). This meant that they doubled the work for everyone else.

Marinette leaving was only one less person, and she only left because she knew that something was up with the boys.

(and, y’know, she’d actually helped for a while before she left)

But the boys barely question Nino on the whole party thing. Oh, sure, they’re unsure at first, but they go along with it pretty easily.

What does Marinette get? Tikki, who is unable to let this situation go.

As usual, Tikki is freaking out about Marinette’s “lies” without looking at any of the possible context.

Like, okay, first, she’s upset that Marinette lied her way out of planting with the girls to investigate the boys’ lies (Tikki’s freak out is before Marinette explains this, but the point is that Tikki doesn’t even wait to hear Marinette’s reason).

Second, Tikki is upset when Marinette wants to be a part of Adrien’s party, and then freaks out again when Marinette suggests telling a half-truth to get in.

What Tikki fails to realize is that Marinette is trapped right now, and Tikki doesn’t bother to offer any sort of helpful advice on what they should do about it (as usual).

Looking at this from Marinette’s perspective, Marinette has realized that the boys have lied to the girls, and they’re also throwing a party without the girls even knowing about it.

In the process of confirming this, Marinette has taken a train ride in order to get to Adrien’s house. Getting back on another train to return to the girls without doing anything there now seems like a waste.

I’ve talked about this before, but Marinette has had no luck with spending time with Adrien. Now, she has a chance right in front of her.

And what else is she supposed to do? Like, sure, Tikki, let’s just have Marinette go back to Mylene and the others, then proceed to tell Mylene to her face, “By the way, I know that your boyfriend is lying to you and so were all the other boys.”

That would not go over well. Marinette has confirmed her suspicions, but the problem then lies in what she’s supposed to do about it. Even the boys know that the girls will be upset if they find out about this party and, if they’re not upset about the party, they’ll be upset by the boys lying.

(Also, we confirmed in “Chameleon” that not telling anyone about someone’s lying is totally okay as long as you can confide in someone about it, and Tikki would probably fit in that category, so why should Marinette do anything, right?)

Ideally, if it were me, then yes, I’d want the truth to come out. I’d still try to get into the party, but only to try and convince the guys to admit their own wrongdoing before I do it for them.

But I see Marinette’s thought process. She came all the way here in an extremely awkward situation. Alya would certainly stir up a fuss if she heard about what was going on, Mylene would be shocked, Alix would be livid, and Marinette would miss her moment to spend time with Adrien.

In a vacuum, yes, I’d be annoyed at what Marinette’s doing, but after all the episodes with Marinette’s failed attempts… yeah, I can at least see it. She’s desperate.

(Also, she was one of the girls who was lied to, thus and may feel like she deserves something for it.)

Not to mention… she’s probably a little miffed too? Here’s this party for Adrien, and Marinette is supposed to be his friend, yet she’s not even invited?

Then, she has to watch as other boys and also adult men get let in. When she’d tried to call the boys earlier, she’d been hung up on.

If this plot was taking itself seriously, that kind of thing would be hurtful. Nino was there for “Glaciator” when Marinette was depressed over Adrien, and now a free chance to hang out with Adrien was right there and she wasn’t offered it?

(Keep in mind that Marinette is presumably watching from afar and never sees other girls get turned away from entering. In the episode, the only girl that shows up is Marinette (Chloe doesn’t ring the bell and is only searching for her father and butler), so she could very easily presume that it’s not about girls, but about her, just because she has no evidence that other girls would get denied entry.)

That’s not even taking Marinette’s anxiety-driven freak-outs into account. It’s honestly impressive that she remained in “detective Marinette mode” instead of breaking down and imagining another one of her insane scenarios.

“T-tikki, what if they hate me? Wait, what if ADRIEN hates me?! That’s it, isn’t it?”

“Marinette, I’m sure that–”

“They didn’t answer because Adrien doesn’t want me there! That’s why I’m not allowed in! They’re having a ‘mock Marinette’ party where they make a list of all the embarrassing things I’ve ever done! They’re probably in there, laughing at me, and then they’re going to invite more and more people in just to tell them all about how laughable I am!”

“They wouldn’t do that.”

[some random guy proceeds to approach the front gate and is let in without any issue]

“…M-marinette–”

“[Marinette literally breaking into hysterics]”

Also, how in the world is Tikki not upset by what the guys have done? Marinette just proved that they lied and all Tikki cares about is what Marinette did.

“Guitar Villain” Tikki that actually got frustrated with Chloe was one of the best Tikki and I’ll stand by that.

But I guess the reason the narrative comes up with there is that Nino and Marinette apparently did the exact same thing, so they’re “equal.”

They’re not. Not even close.

Nino lied about a party that the girls very easily could’ve been a part of (Marinette even points out by the end of the episode that they might still have time to get back to tree planting, so yes, everyone could’ve gone to this party and then just done the tree planting afterward), then put steps in place to ensure that the girls didn’t get in even if they did stumble upon the mansion.

All Marinette wanted to do was figure out why they were lying, then got put in an awkward situation while also feeling a desire to be with Adrien at a party. She didn’t pull herself and six (possibly seven) other people out of an obligation that she’d agreed to.

Then, just adding to these false comparisons, Nino and Marinette also imply that what they did was okay because they were “only doing it for Adrien.”

No. No, they were not.

Marinette wanted to figure out why they were lying. She confirmed that it was about Adrien later. Her actions weren’t exactly right, but she is far better than Nino here.

Nino did not do it for Adrien. I simply do not believe that he was doing it for Adrien. Nino made that clear when Adrien was wondering why Marinette couldn’t come to the party and all Nino could come up with is that she was already spending time with the girls.

Y’know, some real quality time, straining their backs over plants and everything.

And I just wanna stop here for a moment to point out how this is going to affect Adrien, because this is freaking important.

I know I salt a lot about Adrien, but let’s consider his actions in this episode versus how much worse they can get with this set-up in mind.

At the very beginning of the episode, it’s established that Wayhem wants to hang out with Adrien. This is the same day as this party, yet even as people are pouring into Adrien’s room, the idea of calling Wayhem and telling him to come over doesn’t even occur to him.

He also volunteers a disguised Marinette into dancing with a bunch of other guys despite the fact that Marinette didn’t even remotely consent to it, but that’s not relevant to my point; I’m just salty about it.

Now, think about what Nino is doing. He knows that there’s no reason to make this a boys-only party. In fact, when Adrien questions him, Nino gets increasingly shifty-eyed, and eventually just goes straight to changing the topic.

I’ve complained about Adrien’s lack of friendship skills in the past. He claims to want friends, yet he doesn’t spend time with them and hardly even tries to. Friends often have to go to him to make it happen, despite how much more convenient it would be for Adrien to lay out his schedule and try to fit in free time with them himself.

And now there’s this? Nino’s garbage explanation as to why Marinette can’t come to the party despite being their friend? Him avoiding any conversation on the matter because (presumably) he’ll have to admit to Adrien that he and the other boys ditched the tree planting to do this party for him?

This will only further Adrien’s confusion on the concept of friendship. Adrien basically states right in the episode that he doesn’t understand, so it’s practically canon.

So, yeah, if Nino was really doing what Adrien wanted and kept Adrien in mind, he would’ve known before even entering the mansion that Adrien would’ve liked for all of his friends to be there. There was also the possibility that Adrien would’ve felt as if the girls had a problem with him since they “happened to be busy” with their own thing while Nino was planning a party for him, which Adrien would’ve assumed that they knew about.

By the way, Adrien is clearly bothered and covering his ears when the music is too loud, which Nino ignores and insists that it’s fine; that’s a good metaphor for what I just mentioned.

Ninos Before Bros, am I right?

(And by the way, not suggesting that this is canon, but if any of this happened to be due to Marinette–because not only is the timing of the party suspicious, but just the avoidance of Marinette in general despite their behavior very clearly throwing her off if she called all of them–and the fact that her crush might’ve meant that Nino himself would’ve had less time with Adrien, then Nino should’ve at least had the decency to say it to Marinette’s face.)

[Abrasive Tone]

The tone in this episode is baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad. Like, really bad, and the pacing doesn’t do it any favors either.

I’m not going to list out the scenes and their timeframes, because the main problem ultimately comes from the tone, but I’ll just say this for the pacing: by the time Party Crasher finally shows up to crash the party, there are less than seven minutes left in the episode.

Now, this is perfectly acceptable for some episodes that have a lot of character going on. After all, not every episode has to be about the villain-of-the-day (in fact, I’d encourage the occasional episode that may feature the heroes/Hawk Moth but not have a villain-of-the-day at all).

But this episode has nothing! Aside from Gabriel confirming some stuff for us, there’s nothing here that warrants such a long waiting time for the villain-of-the-day to come in.

And the Gabriel scenes don’t even belong here! The episode is constantly switching back and forth between “party where the audience doesn’t know whether to laugh or feel uncomfortable” and “by the way, EMILIE ALMOST DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIED.”

Yikes.

The scenes are so jarring. There’s no time to breathe because the episode doesn’t know what to do with itself. It’s so confused about itself that it can’t even give focus to Wayhem, who becomes the villain-of-the-day, and worse, Kim, who GETS HIS MIRACULOUS IN THIS EPISODE.

Other temporary heroes also make appearances in this episode, and that’s equally pathetic. Luka is just there and hardly gets a single line, whereas Max is slightly better off but doesn’t stand out much before he gets his miraculous again (he hacks into Gabriel’s system, which is impressive, but none of this relates back to what he does as a hero). Nino gets to become Carapace again too, but that just gives me vague “Syren” vibes of “let’s reward the guy who is the worst offender in this episode”, y’know?

It’s not that I can’t see why Fu picked them, because I can (Carapace to help protect the cat miraculous from being taken, Pegase to teleport and thus avoid Party Crasher’s predictions, and Viperion to cover for potential errors), but they have little to no time to work with! The three of them regaining a miraculous and Kim getting his miraculous happen in the last, what, five minutes?

So… yeah, it was really clear where the episode’s priorities were, and it wasn’t anywhere good.

More on Kim and him getting his miraculous thought, I know I was upset at what the boys did in this episode, but I legitimately feel bad for Kim. He’s one of my more favorite classmates (and now has one of my favorite transformation sequences because oh my gosh, what a dork), but even disregarding any bias, he just doesn’t get the screentime he deserves for his miraculous debut episode. “Syren” did better for his character and actually was able to balance that with their villain-of-the-day!

And speaking of “Syren” actually, Kim was also one of the few people who actually talked about being a hero and how he wanted to be one, yet we don’t even get to see him give the miraculous back and properly react to being a hero. I mean, I’d presume that Fu would tell Ladybug who Roi Singe is, but did Kim even know that he’d have to give the miraculous back? Was he just happy that he got to save everyone? I don’t know because they didn’t show it!

Heck, “Syren” had him admitting that he can be a doofus sometimes, so the episode could’ve easily played off of that, showing Kim that what he may see as his less appealing traits (as people often laugh at him for them) actually benefit him when he’s given a miraculous.

It’s not that I can’t see why Fu would want to pick Kim. I mean, Kim did have a nice little speech about saving people and also laid down a metaphor, which I’m 90% sure Fu is weak for. It’s just a shame that the episode doesn’t give Kim much time before getting his miraculous.

But apparently, all those Gabriel scenes were so crucial to this party (if they wanted to do the “Emilie is in danger” scene, then the episode needed to be less comedic and feel more like there’s a constant tension of the party-goers getting caught somehow) and it was so important to put all this other plot in about how the girls get needlessly left out while Marinette goes detective-mode and then tries to get into the party.

…Now, all that said, I actually felt like this episode could’ve been saved if they’d removed the Gabriel scenes and the subplot about the boys skipping out on tree planting.

Like, okay, here me out. This episode is dumb and I’ll never deny that. Almost every decision made is questionable and the pacing is atrocious.

But!

But but but…

For once–JUST THIS ONCE–I’m going to give the writers some semblance of slack for a few of their choices. I talk a lot about the writers and the terrible decisions they make, but I’ll be completely honest here…

I do not think that some of their decisions are meant to be taken seriously. I legitimately believe that at least the party half of this episode (excluding everything Marinette does outside of her disguise; speaking of which, WASTED opportunity to see Marinette put her creative skills to use in disguising herself as a boy, just sayin’) was meant to be another “Mr. Pigeon” or “Christmaster.”

I mean, let’s look at what this episode does outside of its more “””””serious“”””” details:

- Nino and the others bribe Gorilla with action figures so he lets them in, and there is no explanation as to how they got this information that Gorilla not only collects them, but is also missing specific ones (that they have) from his collection.

- I’m positive that this part wasn’t supposed to be funny, but the way the sad music just kicks in as “Adrien Angst” ruins the cheery mood made me snort

- When Nino blows on the rainbow-colored record, it sheds tiny rainbow confetti and sparkles instead of dust.

- Gabriel wears some sort of butterfly-collecting gear that makes him look ridiculous.

- Roger comes to stop the boys from playing their music too loud, then gets distracted by their foosball table. This leads to multiple adult men coming by for literally no reason just to join the party. Gorilla lets all of them in despite Nino having never instructed him to do so.

- Both Mayor Bourgeois and Butler Jean show up with their faces covered in make-up; they also never remove it. The principal, similarly, shows up in his Dark Owl costume (which I just presume he wears all the time when he’s not working and occasionally when he is working).

- Marinette: Aren’t you supposed to be careful and keep the miraculouses safe from Hawk Moth? | Fu: *confidently pats a cooler that contains the Miracle Box along with SODA AND ICE, WHICH IS NOW BEING KEPT IN THE HOUSE OF HAWK MOTH*

- Gabriel searches for negative emotions and is upset that there dares to be joy in his house.

- The villain-of-the-day is Wayhem, the guy who freaking took on Gorizilla with a perfume bottle while screaming “ADRIEN, THE FRAGRANCE”; his akumatized form looks exactly as ridiculous as you’d think.

- Fu’s expression of “god I hate my job” as Chat ignores the reality that Fu lays down, preferring to charge headfirst into battle.

- Xuppu and Kim

- Kim transforming in a bathing suit, having been completely missed by Party Crasher because he was busy swimming in Adrien’s bathtub.

- Also Kim

- Especially Kim

- “Actual Monkey” Kim

- Kim literally saves Ladybug and Chat from getting their miraculouses taken away by throwing a squeaky rubber banana at Party Crasher.

- The method to beating the villain-of-the-day is to play a knock-off of YMCA and dance as ridiculously unpredictably as possible so that they can’t be out-predicted

So… YEAH, THIS EPISODE IS DEFINITELY SOMETHING.

Now, of course, I will never excuse the “boy/girl squad” thing nor the actual set-up for the party, but the Gabriel scenes would’ve been fine in a more serious episode and, while it doesn’t save it, the episode becomes much better when it actually remembers that it’s supposed to be fun.

Like… yeah, the Fu thing would still be annoying because, ultimately, if this is Kim’s miraculous debut episode, it’s “canon” and thus “important” by default. The episode can’t be a one-off with that detail, but Kim also does best with silliness, so this is a great episode for him to debut in.

But, if this episode had actually been given more time by cutting out this “boys-girls” nonsense and trimming the Gabriel scenes to save the angstier parts for another episode, then it would’ve easily had room to give Kim the screen time he deserved, allow Fu more reason to be at the party (he could’ve seen Party Crasher on television considering HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE CELEBRATING AT THE MANSION THAT NO ONE EVER CELEBRATES AT SO WHY WOULDN’T SOMEONE BE DOCUMENTING IT; alternatively, Marinette could’ve foreseen that they’d need help and texted him), and let the episode just be the fun random mess that it’s supposed to be.

I think that’s why I’m particularly salty about this one. I mean, anyone who’s been following me for a while knows that I adore occasional campy cheesy random fun, since “Mr. Pigeon” is one of my favorite episodes of Season 1 for that reason.

And I see that this episode clearly wanted to do that, but it only did it halfway. It’s so busy being bogged down by tonal whiplash and scenes that were never necessary that it doesn’t get to embrace the sheer hilarity that it could’ve had.

*sigh* …It’s a shame.

#((Is it just me or do the characters do the ''Christmaster'' eyes in this episode a few times?))#((Where they get the highlights? It looks really good when it happens but it's sadly infrequent.))#category: salt #category: critique #((There's technically positivity in here but lol does it really warrant putting a tag in.))#category: long post #word count: over 5000 #episode: Party Crasher #other: ask and answer #((Don't hate me but I didn't notice ''the skin thing'' in this episode.))#((Like... I thought something was off but I thought it might be the change in color with the hair and bodysuit???))#((Is this like ''Syren'' where the model normally doesn't have the skin like that but the animators just somehow did a bad or something???)

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babycoulson · 5 years

Text

Naiveté

Note at the end of the chapter this time.

“This could have been a traumatic experience for Dr. Hall. He may not be the same when you find him,” Phil warned the two of you over the comms. “(Y/N) will talk him down. We don't want your personality to set him on edge, Ward.”

“Great time for humor, sir,” he replied blandly. “My people skills are the least of our problems if Skye can't get us in.”

With one last tug, your raft was safely on the beach, tucked behind a rock.

“You still don’t have any faith in her,” you called Ward out. “How do you expect to be able to bond with her in a way that helps you to train her if you refuse to believe that she can do anything?”

“She’s gotta earn my trust, too,” he replied stiffly.

“That’s not what being a teacher is about. You know that, right?” you asked seriously. “In a teaching situation, you have to trust your student for them to trust you. If they break your trust, then that’s that, but you can’t start out without a little blind trust.”

“You suggest that I trust someone who could betray us at any moment?” He glared at you as you walked up the path to Quinn’s property.

You returned a glare with equal force. “No, I suggest that you trust your student.”

He said nothing, just sighed and shook his head as if he were dealing with an unreasonable toddler.

You kept your anger at his ineptitude down and instead promised yourself that you’d kick his butt sparring later. “When I was in middle school, I had a lot of trouble with math,” you stated.

“You’re not special.”

“Oh, you’re certainly not wrong. I hated math, just like every kid across the world is conditioned to. Something kind of miraculous happened in high school, though. I suddenly got really good at math, and I was pretty stoked honestly. The numbers and letters and Greek alphabet started making sense out of nowhere.”

“Lucky you.”

“Do you know why I got so good at math?”

“If it’s not crucial to our success here, I don’t think it really matters, does it?”

“It may not be crucial to the success of this mission, but it will be in any future missions where you have to put your trust in Skye.”

“You talk like there will be future missions.”

“Yes, because I trust her to do her part!” you exclaimed angrily. “Math started making sense because I wanted it to make sense. I couldn’t learn it until I wanted to, get it? You won’t be able to trust her until you want to.”

“I do want to trust her!”

“No, you don’t.”

“Oh, well, excuse me, Miss Goody-Two-Shoes, but trust doesn’t come so easily to all of us.”

“Just like math.”

He didn’t have a response, but that may have partially been because you rounded a corner on the trail to see a bright yellow warning sign. In an English translation below the warning in Maltese, the sign read, “Do not cross / Lethal radiation.”

Eyeing the sign and the seemingly clear trail ahead of you, you picked up a handful of dirt and tossed it forward. With a buzzing noise straight out of a video game, the laser grid glowed bright yellow and ate the destroyed the dirt. You and Ward exchanged a concerned glance.

“Next patrol any minute now,” he said.

“Skye's offline,” May reported urgently. “Repeat, we've lost audio and vitals.”

“No,” you murmured.

Ward gave you an exasperated look with a hint of “I told you so” and said, “Abort is not an option, but if she's compromising--”

“She's still our only way in to get to Dr. Hall,” your father interrupted him over the comms.

“And we're their only way out,” Ward accepted.

The sounds of soldiers’ feet crunching on the sandy trail preceded the “Beach is all clear. Let's move up the ridge.”

You retreated quickly behind a large bush, pulling Ward with you.

“Do you understand the plan or do I have to explain it to you?” you whispered.

“What do you think?” he spat quietly.

“I don’t know! I guess I just feel the need to treat you like you treat me.”

“I don’t treat you like a little kid.”

“I never said you did.”

“But you said you’re treating me the way I treat--” he all but gasped as he realized his error-- “oh my g--”

“You could have pled the fifth, man, but you decided to self-incriminate instead.”

“Listen here, you little--”

“Change of plans. You stay in the bush, and I’ll take care of the problem, understood?”

“No, we are a team and we make decisions--”

You stepped out from your hiding place as the guards became even with your position off the trail. The first guard in line raised his gun quickly as he heard the leaves of the bushes rustling as you made your appearance. You forced his arms down and punched him across his face, knocking him to the ground. The second guard tried to hit you, but you turned around just in time to catch his arm and twist it in just the wrong way and use his immobility to strike him as well. You caught the third guard with a sharp elbow to the face and a strong push down the hill, which sent him tumbling.

The first guard stood up and attempted to hit you, but you grabbed his arm and flipped him over your shoulder. He didn’t get up after that.

“Dang, a little rusty, I guess,” you sniffed, picking up the first guard’s gun and disarming it in a second. “Hey, speaking of rusty, how long does it take you to disarm a gun, Dad?” you asked, touching the ear your comm was in.

“I will have to find out,” he responded.

Ward looked at the three men and said, his teeth gritted, “I have to admit that wasn’t bad.”

“Not bad?” you chuckled. “Not exactly the words I’d pick. It wasn’t good, either. I haven’t really fought in a while and it shows.”

He kept looking at the fallen men and scratched the back of his neck. “Rusty,” he muttered, shaking his head.

“Hey, clock's ticking, guys,” you reminded the team back at the Bus. “Where's Skye?”

“We still don’t know,” Fitz worried. “She may have abandoned ship.”

“It wouldn’t surprise me,” Simmons agreed sullenly. “Quinn’s got a lot to offer.”

“Hey, so do we,” you argued. “I know you all think that she’s using us, but I can tell that she’s sincere about wanting to be with us.”

“You’re naive is what you are,” Ward growled.

“Maybe I am!” you yelled, frustrated with the baseless dislike that he’d had for you since you’d met. “I’m also significantly better at making friends than you are.”

“We’re in!” May exclaimed.

“She’s done it!” Jemma followed excitedly.

You crossed your arms and gave Ward a smug look. “Freaking told you,” you gloated.

“Fitz, you’re up,” May told the scientist.

“Oh, mother of all things,” he mumbled to himself. “Move, move, move!”

“We have a man down,” a voice came loudly from one of the soldiers' walkie talkies. “Hostiles on the east ridge!”

Your eyes widened and it was Ward’s turn to try to pull you into the bushes as gunfire came from more soldiers downhill. The bullets disintegrated when they hit the laser grid behind you.

“We need a reset here, Fitz!” you called.

“Fitz!” your father pushed.

“Fitz!” you repeated, pulling your gun from its holster as you looked for a target to shoot.

“Saying his name repeatedly does not increase productivity!” Simmons stressed.

“Okay, go!” Fitz said.

The grid dropped and you dashed across the border, but Ward stood still, firing back at the enemy.

“Or maybe it does,” she resigned, impressed with her friend’s speed.

“System rebooting in two, one, now!”

Ward dove over the border just as Fitz said “now.”

“Cutting it close for no reason,” you teased him, helping him to his feet. “Love that.”

He paid you no mind, instead starting to jog down the path to Quinn’s estate. He seemed pretty set on not speaking to you, so you obliged him.

When the mansion came into view, you told Ward, “I'll look for Dr. Hall down in the lab.”

“I'll get Skye,” Ward said.

You split up at the swimming pool. Remembering the basics on where you had to go, you headed towards the mansion.

“Remind me where to go next?” you requested of your father.

“You’re heading in the right direction,” he assured you. “There’ll be a door coming up in about twenty feet.”

“It’s so nice having an audial Marauder’s Map,” you joked.

“I know just as well as you do that you’d get lost without me.”

“I will certainly not deny that,” you chuckled. “Found the door, now what?”

“Head down the stairs on the left until you get to a door that looks like it belongs in front of a lab.”

“Shouldn’t be too hard to spot.” You hurried down the stairs until a door that looked like it very much belonged in front of a lab came into your view. “Found it,” you said.

You opened the door and entered quickly upon seeing Dr. Hall.

“Dr. Hall,” you called to him, quickly approaching him before introducing yourself, “Agent Coulson. We have an exit strategy.”

“SHIELD?” he asked.

“Yes, sir,” you confirmed, walking back towards the door. “Let's get you out of here.”

“I'm sorry, Miss Coulson. I'm right where I'm supposed to be,” he said.

You froze, looking at him with your eyebrows raised. “I'll be honest, our strategy did not take into consideration you saying that.”

“I’m sure it didn’t,” he said, shaking his head and smiling.

You moved to stand in between Dr. Hall’s control table and what you assumed to be the gravitonium. It was huge, at least twelve feet across. The surface was silvery and undulating like it was in turbulent zero-gravity.

“Look, I don't know what Quinn is promising you, but--”

“An opportunity,” Hall interrupted you earnestly.

You looked at the gravitonium as it began to solidify under the electric currents of the ring spinning around it. “We can't let Quinn have control of this, sir, it's too dangerous.”

“We can't let anyone have control of this,” he agreed passionately. “That's why I'm here.” To bury it at the bottom of the ocean, with him.” He pressed more buttons on the control table and the spinning rings gathered more and more speed.

“(Y/N),” May grabbed your attention, “The leak came from--”

“Dr. Hall. Yeah, I'm kinda getting that,” you replied, staring at the gravitonium.

“All the petitions, embargoes in the world couldn't stop Ian,” Hall explained. “He grows more powerful every day. And then I get word he's found this.”

Another wave of electricity from the rings zapped the gravitonium and it visibly solidified, releasing a shockwave that nearly knocked you off your feet.

“I'm sorry, Miss Coulson. I had to make a choice.” He made one more adjustment on the control board and the insides of every cupboard in the lab spilled out.

You responded nervously, “Something tells me that wasn't the "off" button!”

One last shockwave jerked you violently to the left side of the room where you slammed into a metal filing cabinet.

So bad news.

My family is canceling Netflix at the end of April because of rising prices. Unfortunately, this means that I won't have access to Agents of SHIELD anymore. I'm going to try to get one more chapter out before the end of the month, but I'm starting a new semester of college, so I don't know if that'll be possible.

So yes. I'll be going on hiatus for an indeterminate amount of time.

Here's a face reveal to cheer you up?

#dad phil coulson #dad agent coulson #Agent Coulson #agents of shield #marvel's agents of SHIELD #agents of SHIELD season 1 #agents of shield x reader #(Y/N) coulson #Daisy Johnson #melinda may #leo fitz #fitz simmons #jemma simmons #grant ward

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starryknight09 · 5 years

Text

Whatever It Takes Ch. 10/?

Summary: Peter’s struggling to cope after the loss of Mr. Stark. Everyone keeps telling him it’ll get better and that he needs to move on, but Peter doesn’t want to. He can’t envision a life without his mentor. So when an idea comes to him, he doesn’t hesitate, no matter how crazy it is. He’s going to get Mr. Stark back.

“What exactly are we going to do?” Ned asked.

“Whatever it takes.” Peter answered.

Read on AO3.

________________________________________________________

“Petey.” Someone whispered and a second later a hand tapped at his face. “Wake up Petey.”

Peter groaned and tried to roll away. He was still so tired. He didn’t want to get up.

“Petey.” The voice whined, and he was awake enough at this point to recognize it as Morgan’s.

Dang. There was no way he was going to get to keep sleeping now that she wanted his attention.

A second later the bed shook as she jumped up on it.

“Wake up.” She shook his shoulder forcefully and complained. “You’ve been sleeping for forever.”

He turned onto his back and peeked an eye open at her.

“Forever huh? What time is it?” He croaked, the words scratched the back of his throat and his head pounded.

“Late.” Morgan answered. “Mommy and Daddy sent me to bed.”

“Then why aren’t you in bed?”

“Because I couldn’t sleep.”

“Why not?”

“Everyone’s downstairs.”

“Who’s everyone?”

“Daddy’s friends.”

Peter frowned.

“The Vengers.” She clarified.

“The A-vengers.” He corrected.

“That’s what I said.”

Peter blew out a short puff of air through his nose as the corners of his mouth turned up.

“That’s not the only reason I couldn’t sleep.” Morgan confessed, nibbling on her bottom lip. A bad habit she’d acquired after Tony had died, and one Peter always felt he couldn’t chastise her for since he did the same thing himself.

“Ok. Why else?” He used his thumb to pop her lip free. He could guess why she couldn’t sleep. She had to be wound up with all the excitement of having her dad back. He wouldn’t be able to sleep either if he wasn’t feeling so rough.

“I wanted to talk to you.” Morgan said, not the reason he expected.

Peter smiled. That was kind of sweet.

Morgan crawled closer to him until she was practically sitting on top of him.

“Mommy said you brought daddy back home.”

“I did.” He nodded.

She smiled brightly at him. “Can I tell you a secret?”

“Always.”

She leaned in and whispered, “You’re the best big brother ever.”

“Yeah?” He smiled, heart warming like it only ever did around Morgan.

“Yeah.” She nodded.

“What about now?” His hands darted out to playfully tickle her sides.

She burst into giggles and flopped onto the bed, writhing at the tickle torture.

“N-no Petey!” She slapped at his hands.

He kept tickling.

“Petey stop.” She giggled melodically, the sound soothing something in him that he didn’t know needed soothing.

“Please.” She begged through the laughter.

“Ok.” He relented. “Since you asked so politely.”

She stuck her tongue out at him and took the opportunity to make her escape. She slid off the bed and out of his reach.

“Will you come downstairs with me?” She asked hopefully.

“I thought you were supposed to be sleeping.” Peter raised an eyebrow at her.

“I am, but if you come with me maybe they’ll let me stay.” She explained, overly bright for a just turned five year old.

He considered it. He didn’t think he had the energy to deal with all the Avengers right now, but he also really wanted to see Tony again. To reassure himself that the man was still here. Still alive.

“Please?” Morgan tried a new tactic and gave him puppy eyes.

That was all it took for Peter to give in.

“Fine.” He sighed and crawled out of bed, running a hand through his hair and hoping he didn’t look as terrible as he felt. “But you owe me little miss.”

Morgan nodded solemnly and then as if a switch flipped, her whole body seemed to thrum with excitement. How could Pepper and Tony have thought this kid was ready to go to sleep?

“Come on.” She insisted as she grabbed his hand and started dragging him toward the stairs.

As they walked down the stairs, Peter caught sight of the Avengers milling about in the living room. He just hoped he wasn’t about to get yelled at by all of the them for what he’d done.

“Well look who it is.” Sam spotted him first as they cleared the last few steps at the bottom of the staircase. “The hero of the day.”

Peter’s face twisted at that. He didn’t consider himself any kind of hero. Everyone turned their attention toward him and Morgan released his hand to run over toward her parents on the couch. They didn’t seem too upset about her still being awake.

“Hey kid.” Clint greeted with a clap against his shoulder. “Heard we have you to thank for the return of the village idiot.”

“Hey!” Tony protested in mock offense as Peter gave the archer a reserved smile.

“Yeah. Good work Peter.” Professor Hulk patted him on the back and sent him flying a couple feet forward. “Sorry.”

“It’s ok.” Peter reassured him.

The rest of the Avengers took their turn saying hello and congratulating him, which was much better than the verbal flogging he’d been expecting. He smiled throughout the good natured ribbing and even let Rhodey thrust a plate full of food into his hands. He nibbled at it as they talked and joked around, managing to eat a little over half of the food on it before giving up and setting the plate on the coffee table.

Once things calmed down and all the Avengers had finally moved onto other rowdy discussions, leaving him alone, Pepper came over and hugged him tightly.

“Thank you Peter.” She whispered into his ear. “Thank you.”

She gave him a peck on the cheek and released him, smiling with a sparkle in her eye for the first time since Tony’s death.

After Pepper let him go, Peter’s feet led him straight to Tony’s side as if led by some kind of invisible string.

“Hey. How are you doing?” Tony asked from where he sat on the couch, Morgan tucked against his side, already fast asleep. Apparently she’d been more tired than she’d seemed.

Peter shrugged. Honestly, he wasn’t sure. Everything seemed better now that Tony was back but physically, he still wasn’t feeling so hot.

“You didn’t eat much.” Tony observed, gesturing to the half eaten plate of food on the coffee table.

Peter shrugged again, not sure what he was supposed to say to that.

Tony eyed him and then patted the empty couch seat on his side that wasn’t already occupied by Morgan. “Come sit.”

Peter didn’t need to be told twice. He plopped down heavily next to Tony. As he settled in, Tony wrapped an arm around him and pulled him even closer into his side. Before, Peter might’ve fought it for appearances sake, but now he gladly gave into it. He rested his head against Tony’s shoulder and let his eyes slip to half mast.

He watched as the Avengers continued their celebration. Their antics brought a mix of amusement and chagrin, but Peter could tell everyone was happy and relieved to have Tony back. They weren’t going to yell at him, or worse, make him send Tony back. Even Dr. Strange seemed oddly content. He hadn’t said much to Peter but the fact that he was there and not talking about how Peter’s actions were going to result in the world ending as they knew it, meant that everything must be mostly ok.

Still, it never hurt to check.

“You’re staying right?” Peter mumbled the question against his mentor’s shoulder.

“Yeah I’m staying kid.” Tony replied with uncharacteristic softness.

“Good.” Peter sighed and let his eyes slide the rest of the way shut.

Everything would be ok now that Tony was here.

The party continued on into the early hours of the morning. Neither Tony nor Pepper had the heart to shut it down any earlier. They were celebrating his resurrection after all.

The alcohol flowed and their antics turned from amusing to ridiculous.

Tony watched it all with a smile on his face from his spot on the couch. He could’ve gotten up to join everyone but that would’ve meant dislodging Peter and Morgan, something he wasn’t apt to do. He’d dreamed of this moment. Not often because it’d always hurt too much to think of what he’d lost, but sometimes a stray wish or thought would pop into his head. And now he had it. Both his kids, safe, and here with him. One in each arm, fast asleep against him.

“You look happy.” Pepper stood in front of him, a wide smile on her face. She’d already snapped a picture of them earlier.

“I am.” He admitted.

“Me too.”

He smiled and looked down at the tops of Morgan’s and Peter’s heads resting on his chest only inches apart.

Over six months had passed. Morgan had turned another year older, and Peter… Tony sighed and tried to peer at Peter’s face. Peter looked haunted in a way he’d never seen him look before.

“I feel like I missed a lot.” Tony said, glancing back up at Pepper who was still looking on in contentment.

“You did.”

“You going tell me about it?” He asked, even though he wasn’t sure how much he really wanted to know.

Pepper stepped closer and ran a hand through his hair. “Not tonight.”

“Hmm.” He closed his eyes at the comfort. “Tomorrow?”

“Maybe not tomorrow either.” She said and he heard something sad in her answer.

He opened his eyes and found hers. He could see his loss had been tough on her, had wounded her deeply in a way she was trying to cover but couldn’t completely hide.

“When?” He asked easily, not pushing. If the answer was never, he’d accept that.

A shadow crossed her eyes as she answered, “Someday.”

“Ok.” He whispered and tried to pour all his feeling of love and affection toward her in his gaze.

She caressed his cheek and leaned in to give him a chaste kiss. In that moment, he felt like the luckiest man alive. He had his two amazing kids settled against him, his wonderful wife right in front of him, and all his friends close by. He was thankful to be alive. This…this was his perfect world. As he’d always envisioned it. As it was always meant to be.

Pepper stood.

“I’m going to head to bed.” She told him and then quirked an eyebrow and asked, “Are you going to join me?”

He grinned like the cheshire cat. “Of course.”

“I’ll take this one,” Pepper said as she leaned down to gather Morgan carefully in her arms and then nodded toward Peter, “if you take that one.”

“Square deal.” Tony agreed, wrestling with Peter’s lanky limbs once Pepper had Morgan free. He managed to maneuver Peter into his arms and stood, being careful to lift with his legs, so he didn’t throw out his back. Peter was light but he wasn’t thatlight.

Pepper was already halfway up the stairs with Morgan, leaving him with the task of kicking out their guests. He snorted. Some things never changed.

He cupped his palm against Peter’s ear and pressed the kid’s head against his chest so the other ear would be as well insulated, hopefully it would be enough to keep him from waking up. In his experience, the kid slept like the dead.

“Hey listen up!” He yelled, drawing everyone’s attention. “It’s time to call it a night. You don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here.”

Everyone gave halfhearted protests, but they gave in easily enough. Luckily, Dr. Strange had stayed and enjoyed a couple drinks himself so he was available to portal everyone back home with relative ease since most of them weren’t in any shape to drive.

“Thanks doc.” Tony thanked once everyone was gone.

“You’re welcome. Would you like some help with him?” The man nodded toward Peter.

“That’d be great.” He said, not too proud to agree. The kid was starting to get heavy in his arms.

Dr. Strange portaled them up to Peter’s room.

“Thanks.” Tony smirked at the doctor. “Don’t be astrangernow.”

Dr. Strange rolled his eyes. “Good night Stark.”

“Good night.”

The man disappeared in a shower of gold.

Tony carefully set Peter down in his bed, but he must not have been quite careful enough.

The kid let out a small groan and his eyes flickered open. “Tony?”

Tony shushed him. It was second nature. Something he did to Morgan all the time. Although now that he thought about it, he’d never done it to Peter.

“Time’sit?” Peter’s word slurred together as he rolled with a sigh into his pillow.

Tony covered him with the blankets as he answered, barely above a whisper, “Bed time. Go back to sleep.”

“No’tired.” Peter murmured and Tony couldn’t help the amused smile that spread across his face. He’d heard identical protests from Morgan her entire life.

“Hmm. You seem pretty tired to me kiddo.” He said, tucking the blankets around Peter’s shoulders.

“Don’wana wake up.” Peter mumbled. “An’ fin’out this wassa dream.”

Tony’s breath hitched. He sat on the bed and rested his hand on the kid’s shoulder.

“It’s not a dream kid.” He said quietly and rubbed Peter’s shoulder. “I promise I’ll be here in the morning.”

Peter hummed, more asleep than awake at this point. Tony wasn’t even sure if he was registering what he was saying. Tony watched as his face slackened.

“I’m here for you now.” Tony whispered, but Peter was already asleep. “I’m here.”

He watched Peter sleep, peaceful and alive, for another couple minutes, eyes unexpectedly filling with tears at the relief of having his kid back. He knew everyone was probably feeling the same way about him, but all hecould seem to think about or focus on was how he had Peter back. He had his kid back. And he wasn’t going to be stupid and hold back anymore. He had a second chance and he wasn’t going to mess it up.

Peter sucked in a sharp breath of air and shot straight up in bed.

A dream. It’d only been a dream. A dream a dream a dream.

A nightmare.

Peter was at the lake house. Tony was alive and safe. He wasn’t lying dead on the ground, hurt beyond saving. That wasn’t his reality anymore.

His short staccato breaths echoed thunderous into the quiet night. He tried to catch them and gain control over himself, tried to slow his breathing, but he couldn’t. He threw the covers back and practically catapulted out of bed. The world spun violently and he collapsed backward to sit on the bed.

He hung his head between his knees, trying to banish the sudden faintness as he tried to garner control over his breaths. Sucking in air deeply through his nose before pausing and releasing it with a huff through his mouth.

“I’m ok. It’s ok. It wasn’t real. It wasn’t real. It wasn’t real. Not anymore. He’s ok. He’s alive. He’s alive. That didn’t happen. It didn’t happen. It didn’t happen. It didn’t happen.” He whispered like a prayer to himself. He clenched his fists so hard he worried his fingernails would draw blood.

He took a deep breath and held it for as long as could before letting it out with a loud gasp.

Ok. It was ok. He was ok.

He needed…a drink of water.

He licked his lips and stood again. The ground tilted but he kept his feet and somehow made it through the door and down to the kitchen.

He grabbed a glass out of the cabinet and filled it with tap water. As he raised it to his lips, he noticed his hand was shaking but not so badly that he couldn’t manage. He drained the entire glass and set it down next to the sink.

He knew he should go back to sleep, but he also knew there was absolutely no chance of that happening.

He stared blankly at his hands, shaking in front of him, before he clenched them into fists and rubbed at his eyes with them. He turned away from the sink and walked silently out the door, making his way down to the dock.

The moon illuminated the way. When he got to the end of the dock, he sat down. He shivered, dressed only in his jeans and long sleeved shirt, but the tremors matched the ones in his hands and that almost made him feel better. Like his entire body was finally in sync and the shaking was only a result of the cold instead of his own fears and anxieties.

He puffed out a breath and it ghosted in the cold air. The last time he’d been out here, at the end of the dock staring out at the water like this, it’d been for Tony’s funeral. He’d watched the wreath with the arc reactor float away in the water. It didn’t look the same now. The lake was frozen. And Tony was back. He wasn’t dead. No matter what his nightmares said.

He scrunched his eyes shut and brought his knees to his chest, squeezing his arms tight around them, curling into a ball, partially for warmth and partially for comfort. He stared up at the sky blanketed in stars. Tony was here with him now, but somewhere in some other alternate realityhe’dcreated, another Peter had lost his own Mr. Stark.

He’d taken Tony away from another Morgan and Pepper, from another entire universe. He could tell himself all day long that if he hadn’t, Tony would’ve ended up dead anyway, but it didn’t change the fact that hewas the one that’d taken him. He might’ve doomed another reality. What did that mean? Did it matter? He could try to tell himself over and over again that it didn’t, but he knew it did.

It was the whole philosophical reasoning behind standing back and allowing a stranger to die if it meant saving three other people versus being the one to actively kill a stranger if it meant saving three other people. In this case, he’d performed the action. He’d taken Mr. Stark instead of allowing events to run their course. It didn’t matter that the end result was still the same for that reality, still a life without Tony, because Peter had caused it this time.

He couldn’t escape the subsequent guilt, and he couldn’t help but wonder if depriving them of the man had doomed their reality. Had Peter caused the death of an entire universe?

Trillions of people, as numerous as the stars, abruptly extinguished, wiped out from existence.

The stars twinkling above suddenly brought him no comfort.

If his actions had destroyed another universe, was there ever any coming back from that?

If he’d know his choice would result in that alternate reality’s destruction, would he still make the same decision again if he had the chance?

He didn’t know.

He shook harder.

But Thanos couldn’thave killed everyone, his mind reasoned, because Peter had been careful to bring the gauntlet forward with Tony. Thanos wouldn’t have been able to snap everyone away, even if he did beat the Avengers. Unless Thanos time traveled again and got a gauntlet from the past and used it, but that would create a different reality again, not the one Peter had created. And if that happened, would it still be Peter’s fault?

His head hurt just thinking about it. Although his head had been hurting before. All night actually. He took stock of himself. Besides his head, his throat ached. Sometime in the night it’d turned from scratchiness to actual pain. He felt…but he couldn’t be… Was he sick? The second he thought it, a body jarring cough broke free and he sniffled.

But he couldn’t get sick. At least he didn’t think he could. He hadn’t been sick since before the bite, unless that’d just been luck instead of a result of his powers. Now that he thought about it, he sure felt sick now. It explained the body aches and the unrelenting fatigue. He supposed it wasn’t surprising given how little he’d been eating and sleeping and taking care of himself lately.

He cleared his throat with another cough and rubbed at his nose. It was as if the act of realizing he was sick instantly made it worse.

“Kid?” Tony’s voice called out softly from behind him.

Peter twisted and watched as his mentor stepped onto the dock and made his way toward him. He didn’t say anything else as he sat down next to him and wrapped an arm around him, pulling him into his side like he had earlier on the couch. Peter wasn’t used to such easy affection coming from Tony yet, but he had to admit it was nice. He decided to enjoy it while it lasted.

“What are you doing out here in the middle of the night?” Tony asked.

Peter shrugged.

“Did you have a bad dream?”

Peter hesitated and then nodded. It was true enough. It wasn’t the sole reason he was out here thinking about his possible hand in the destruction of an entire universe, but it was part of it.

“I get them too.” Tony said. Peter looked over at the man in surprise at the uncharacteristically honest admission, but Tony kept staring straight ahead out across the lake.

Peter’s eyebrows knitted together and he looked back at the ice covered lake. They’d never done this before, talked about serious stuff. Emotional stuff. Not that it was bad, but he wasn’t sure how to go about it, what to say next.

“Is that why you’re up too?” He asked. His voice sounded rough to his own ears.

“Not tonight.” Tony said. “FRIDAY told me you were out here.”

“Oh.” Peter felt kind of bad about that. Tony never got enough sleep as it was. “You didn’t have to come out here you know. I’ll be fine. I’m-I’m fine.”

Tony looked over at him and Peter reflexively met his gaze.

“Are you?” Tony asked somberly.

No. God no. Tony didn’t even know the half of it.

And he couldn’t lie to the man, so he stayed silent, breaking the eye contact.

“Yeah that’s what I thought.” Tony mumbled, rubbing a hand up and down Peter’s shoulder as he shivered. “But that’s all right. It’s going to be all right.”

Even though he had Tony back, had everything he’d wanted, wished for, begged for, he still wasn’t sure if he’d ever be completely all right again. Even with Tony’s return, the Peter from before hadn’t magically reappeared. It seemed like that Peter was gone. The things he’d been through and the last six months had changed him. Forever.

“I watched you die in my arms.” Tony broke the heavy silence with a whisper, and Peter met his gaze again. “Helpless to stop it…because I failed. And I spent the last five years trying to figure out how to live in a world without you.”

Peter’s eyes widened.

“I’m not fine either kid.” Tony finished his confession. “But we’ll figure it out together. Ok?”

Peter sniffed as he nodded.

“Ok.” Tony nodded back. “How about we start by going inside? It’s freezing out here.”

“O-ok.” Peter agreed, teeth chattering.

Tony stood and held out a hand, helping him to his feet. He slung an arm around him and together they walked back into the house. Tony led him up the stairs and into his bedroom.

“You got any PJ’s here?” Tony asked as he sat him down on the bed.

“Yeah.”

“Where?”

“Second drawer of the dresser.” Peter pointed to said piece of furniture.

Tony grabbed a soft grey sleep t-shirt and a pair of navy cotton pajama pants from the drawer and tossed them onto the bed next to him.

“Why don’t you change into these. I guarantee they’ll be more comfortable than what you’re wearing right now.” Tony advised.

“Yeah.” It was true.

“I’ll be right back.” Tony said as he left the room, giving him the privacy to change.

Peter had more than enough time to shed his clothes, pull the soft sleepwear on, and crawl under the covers before Tony returned with a glass of water in hand.

He set it on Peter’s nightstand, smiling when he noticed the photo of the two of them there.

“You swiped my pic kid.” The man joked as he sat down on the bed.

“It’s mine now.” Peter smiled into his pillow.

“I guess we’ll have to take more pictures together then, so I can get a suitable replacement.”

“Or you could always make a copy of this one.”

“I like my idea better.”

“Hm. Me too.”

Tony brushed his hair back off his forehead, something else the man had never done before. A peculiar look crossed his face and he brought his hand back and held his palm flat against Peter’s forehead.

“What?” Peter asked.

“You feel kind of warm.” Tony frowned.

“I’m not warm. I’m cold.” He argued, still shivering even under the covers.

Tony’s frown deepened and he flipped his hand, pressing the back of it against his forehead and then his cheek, the same technique May used when she checked for a fever. It was such a dad move, and Tony did it as if was effortless, second nature. But then Peter remembered Tony wasa dad now. Had been for five years. He probably didn’t even realize or remember that this was unfamiliar behavior for him and Peter.

“I’m fine.” He mumbled and tried to twist away only to cough into his pillow.

“I think you have a fever bud.” Tony argued.

“It’s just a cold. I’ll sleep it off.”

“I didn’t know you could get sick.”

Peter hummed. “Me neither. Guess I can.”

Tony’s lips pursed in concern and Peter closed his eyes.

“Get some rest.” Tony ordered.

“Trying.” Peter mumbled. “You keep…yapping.”

That earned him a chuckle and ruffle of his hair.

“All right you win. You must not be feeling too bad if you can still sass me. I’ll let you sleep, but I’ll be back to check on you in a little bit.”

Peter sighed. “Ok.”

“Let FRIDAY know if you need me for anything and she can get me.”

Peter’s lip twitched. “I know Tony.”

Calling the man by his first name earned him another hair ruffle. “Good night Pete. I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Mmhmm. Night.” He whispered back.

The chirping of the birds pulled him back into the waking world. Somewhere he definitely didn’t want to be. If he thought he’d felt bad last night, it was a hundred times worse now. He was sure there were actual glass shards embedded in his throat and a hammer inside his skull trying to escape. What was worse, his whole body ached in a way he hadn’t felt since before the bite. And he was cold even though the blankets covered him.

He tried to drift back to sleep to escape it, but the discomfort wouldn’t let him. He groaned and rolled onto his back, a cough escaping him and tearing up his throat even worse.

A cool hand pressed against his forehead. It felt heavenly. His eyes flickered open. Tony stood above him, worry plastered on his face.

“Hey kid. You were coughing all night.” Tony said, taking his hand away now that he was awake.

“Sorry.”

Tony shook his head in exasperation. “For what? Being sick?”

“For keeping you up.”

“You didn’t. I was up anyway. Pepper’s turned into a bed hog in the six months I was gone. She kept kicking me.”

Peter snorted a laugh which turned out to be mistake because it turned into a coughing fit.

“You sound rough kid.”

“I’ll admit I’ve been better.” He gave Tony a wry half smile.

“How about we have a lazy day today, just you and me?” Tony asked as he sat down on the bed.

Peter’s brow furrowed. “Where are Morgan and Pepper?”

“Pepper went into the city to start to try to figure out how to handle the release of the news of my miraculous resurrection. And Morgan’s at preschool. She missed me but apparently she didn’t want to miss show and tell day more.”

Peter grinned. “She loves show and tell day.”

“Clearly.” He gave him chagrined look before reaching over to pick something up from the nightstand.

Tony had already run the object over his forehead and down his temple before Peter realized it was a temporal thermometer.

“When’d that get there?” Peter asked as Tony glanced at the number on the readout.

“What? You think I heard you coughing all night and just ignored you? What kind of d-dumb mentor do you take me for?”

Peter frowned at the uncharacteristic stumble over the word dumb.

Tony gave his head a little shake as if clearing it before he continued, “I’ve been in and out all night checking on you.”

“Really? I-I don’t remember that.”

“Because you were asleep.”

“Usually I don’t sleep that deep.”

“Trust me kid. You do. Plus, you’re sick, which probably isn’t helping.” Tony put the thermometer back down on the nightstand.

Peter hummed in agreement, before asking curiously, “How high is it?”

“Your fever?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s been hovering around a tropical 101 degrees. Not brain meltingly high enough for me to wake you from your beauty sleep earlier,” Tony rubbed his hands together, “but now that you’re awake you can finally take some superpowered Tylenol. How’s that sound?”

“Good.” He pulled the blankets tighter as he shivered.

“Hopefully it’ll make you feel better.”

“At this point I don’t think it could make me feel worse.” Peter tried to joke.

Tony snorted a laugh. “That’s the spirit.”

He patted his shoulder and stood. “I’ll be right back.”

By the time Tony came back Peter was already dozing off again but the clunk of something getting set down made him open his eyes.

Tony had placed a tray full of stuff on his nightstand. Definitely way more stuff than Peter thought was warranted.

Tony untwisted the cap of Peter’s pill bottle and dropped a couple in his palm.

“Here.” Tony handed him the pills, which he shoved in his mouth gratefully, along with a glass of water. He needed it to help ease the way of the pills. They were huge. One of the drawbacks of his super metabolism was that he needed a lot more medication than usual humans.

“Thanks.” He croaked, handing the water back once he’d downed the pills. It felt like they’d scraped his throat raw on the way down.

Tony took the glass and set it down on his nightstand within easy reach. Peter expected him to go. Even though Pepper and Morgan weren’t home, he still probably had a lot of stuff to deal with now that he was back from the dead and all, so Peter was surprised when the man didn’t leave. Instead, he walked around to the other side of the bed and sat down on top of the covers, settling with his back against the headboard and his legs straight out, crossed at the ankles.

Peter rolled onto his side to face him as Tony rested a Stark pad Peter hadn’t noticed before on his lap, so the screen was visible to him and Peter.

“What do you want to watch while we wait for those wonder pills to kick in?” Tony asked as if this behavior was completely normal. Sure, they’d been close before but never quite to this degree. He was pretty sure he remembered sneezing in front of Tony a few months before Titan and the man had threatened to quarantine him because he didn’t do germs. Peter had tried to explain it was only from a little dust and he wasn’t sick but his mentor had kept a good distance and side eyed him suspiciously for the rest of the day. And now here Peter was clearly sick as a dog and he was choosing to sit mere feet away from him. It was nice. But weird.

Peter figured he could question it or he could give in and enjoy it. He selfishly chose to do the latter.

“I don’t care.” He didn’t. He was just happy to be there with Tony. “Um how about something I might’ve missed out on the last five years I was gone?”

Tony’s face pinched at the reminder of his temporary death, and Peter felt a stab of regret for bringing it up so flippantly now that he knew how the other man felt.

A few long seconds passed and Peter debated whether or not he should apologize, but then Tony’s eyes crinkled as he flashed him a genuine smile. “I’ve got just the thing.”

He tapped at the screen.

“You missed a few Star Wars movies.” Tony brought one up on the screen, but before he pushed play, he hesitated.

“Or wait…who am I kidding? You’ve been back for six months, there’s no way you haven’t already watched these.” He went to tap out of the movie but stopped when Peter interrupted him.

“Actually um I haven’t—” He had to pause to cough. “I haven’t seen any of them yet.”

“You haven’t?” Tony looked at him like he was some kind of alien. “Mr. Star Wars trivia buff himself? How is that even possible?”

Peter shrugged. The truth was Ned had tried to get him to watch them with him, but Peter had never been in the mood. He’d been waiting to feel better so he’d actually get to enjoy it. He hadn’t wanted memories of seeing them for the first time to be riddled with grief because he knew every time he watched them there after it would be all he’d be able to remember. Memory was fickle that way.

He was hoping Tony would let it go, but when he glanced up at the man, he could see he was clearly waiting for an answer.

“Um I don’t know.” He mumbled, looking down at the movie ready to play on the screen. “It just never felt right.”

“But you want to watch it now?” Tony asked. “Because we don’t have to. We could watch something else.”

“No. I-I want to watch it.” Peter chewed at his lip before looking back up at Tony. “I want to watch it with you.”

Because it felt right now. The memory of watching it for the first time would be coupled with this moment. With Tony. Tony being back and alive. Tony taking care of him. Even though he felt physically terrible, he was happier than he’d been in awhile. He felt safe in a way he hadn’t ever since Tony had died. He hadn’t even realized it until now that he had it back.

Tony’s expression softened and he gave him a small smile. “Your wish is my command.”

Tony pressed play and Peter turned back to the screen, the familiar song and opening credits streaming across the screen.

He almost made it halfway through before he fell asleep.

#my fic

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thelastspeecher · 5 years

Text

The last couple things I’ve written for the Reverse Portal Stanley McGucket AU have been a bit angsty and bleak, so here. Have something in that AU which is very much neither of those things. Stan makes pancakes and pets a bunny! Emily gets stuck in a sousaphone! Emmett swears! All this and more, with none of the angst I usually write for this AU.

Stan flipped the pancake over. While he waited, he glanced down at his prosthetic arm. When Angie had left in the morning, she’d stuck a few notes on it with magnets. He slipped one off and smiled fondly at the message.

“What are you doin’?” a voice asked, startling Stan into dropping the spatula. He stared at his utensil now on the kitchen floor.

“Aw, shit,” Stan muttered.

“Dad, don’t swear. What if it was Emily or Emmett who spooked ya?” Stan turned around.

“Good mornin’, princess,” Stan said to his oldest child, 15-year-old Danny. Danny crossed her arms. “Look, if either of ‘em heard a swear, it’s not that bad. Teachin’ kids swears prepares them for the real world.”

“Uh-huh. Then how come you don’t swear around us all the time?”

“‘Cause the rest of society doesn’t agree with me and I don’t want you kids to get in trouble. Also, yer ma got really stubborn about it when you said your first word.” Danny blinked. “Your ma never told you your first word?”

“Yes, she did. My first word was ‘daddy’.”

“That’s a cute lie. But still a lie.” Stan turned back to the stove and quickly pulled a new spatula out from a nearby drawer. He removed the pancake from the pan, placing it carefully on top of the already large stack on the counter.

“Ma doesn’t lie.”

“She did about yer first word.”

“Then what was my real first word?” Danny prompted. Stan eyed his precocious daughter.

“…I’ll tell ya when you’re older.”

“Dad!”

“Hey, your ma kept it from ya fer a reason.”

“Hmph.” Danny peered over his shoulder. “I’ll go back to my original question, then. What are ya doin’?”

“What does it look like?”

“Makin’ breakfast.”

“That’s what I’m doin’.”

“You don’t need to,” Danny said. “We can fend for ourselves, y’know.”

“I know. I want to. This is my first time takin’ care of the four of ya on my own. I’m gonna make breakfast.”

“But you don’t need-”

“Princess, I’m the parent. You’re the kid. Remember?” Stan said firmly. Danny pursed her lips. “Ya don’t need to take care of me. I’m supposed to take care of you.” Danny looked down at her feet.

“I just-”

“You’ve got too much of your ma in you, is what it is,” Stan said. “That ain’t a bad thing. But you don’t have to act the adult, okay? That’s what I’m here for.”

“…Yeah,” Danny said quietly. Stan kissed the top of her head.

“If you wanna be helpful, go get your siblings. Accordin’ to the millions of notes your ma left me, we’ve got a busy day, so they need to get up.”

-----

“First thing on the list…high school open house,” Stan mumbled, reading one of Angie’s notes as he walked into Gravity Falls High School. He glanced over at Daisy, who was walking alongside him. “Why does your ma bother goin’ to these things?”

“Usually Uncle Lute takes us,” Daisy explained. “It’s so that we can figure out where our classes are before the school year starts. It’s kinda pointless. But Uncle Lute really liked doin’ it.”

“I don’t mind it,” Danny, on the other side of Stan, put in. “I get to catch up on gossip and talk to teachers.”

“Yeah, there are some upsides. I heard we’re getting some new flautists in the band this year. Gotta make sure they’re not good enough for me to worry about,” Daisy said with a grin.

“Smart girl. You gotta size up your enemies,” Stan said, nodding. Daisy giggled. Stan looked around. “Aw, crud, did we lose your brother and sister already?”

“Right here, Dad,” Emily said, appearing seemingly out of thin air. Stan squinted at his daughter.

“What were you up to, squirt?”

“Nothin’.”

“I don’t believe you. Where’s Emmett?”

“He went to the bathroom.”

“Without tellin’ me.” Stan sighed. “Where’s the bathroom?”

“It’s right over there,” Emmett said, joining his sisters and father. Stan stared at him.

“Where’d you come from?”

“The bathroom.”

“Dang kids poppin’ outta nowhere,” Stan muttered.

“Don’t blame us just ‘cause ya don’t know the school’s layout,” Emily said snarkily. Stan ruffled her hair.

“Cool it, kiddo. All right, what ‘re we doin’ first?” Stan asked Danny and Daisy.

“Let’s go to the band room,” Daisy said. Danny shook her head.

“No, I want Dad to meet Mr. Montague. We’re closer to his classroom than the band room anyways.”

“Who’s Mr. Montague?” Stan asked.

“The engineering teacher,” Daisy answered. She shrugged. “He’s all right.”

“He’s great,” Danny said. She grabbed Stan’s arm. “Come on, Dad!”

“Okay, okay, I’m comin’. Don’t pull so hard princess; you’ll yank my arm off.”

“Hey, at least Danny and Uncle Fidds could make you another robot arm,” Emily said cheerfully. She gasped. “Dad! You could have two robot arms!” Stan laughed.

“That does sound pretty great, doesn’t it? But I’m fine with just the one. For now.”

-----

Stan stroked the classroom rabbit that Daisy had shoved into his arms.

“What’s this sucker’s name again?”

“Edison,” Daisy answered.

“Like the lightbulb guy?”

“Yeah. Isn’t he soft?”

“Your sister and uncle mighta made me a dang good arm, but it can’t feel things,” Stan said. He looked down at the rabbit, Edison. “Kinda surprised that Bugs here isn’t scared of my prosthesis.”

“His name is Edison,” Danny said, joining her father and siblings. She turned to the man she had brought with her. “Mr. Montague, this is my dad.”

“Take this thing,” Stan mumbled to Emily, dumping the rabbit in her arms. He held out a hand to Mr. Montague. “Stan Pines. Like Danny said, I’m her dad.”

“I have to admit, I was surprised when Danica told me that she wanted me to meet her father,” Mr. Montague said. “I mean, Dr. McGucket-Pines didn’t seem like she was keen on remarrying.” Stan stared at him.

“…Remarrying?”

“She’s a widower. You didn’t know that?”

“No.”

“Oh. That seems like something she would mention to her new husband.”

“No, buddy, I meant that Angie’s not a widower. I’m Danny’s biological father.” Stan huffed quietly. “You’re definitely not the genetics teacher, if you can’t tell how much she looks like me,” Stan muttered under his breath.

“Dad!” Danny hissed. She cleared her throat. “Mr. Montague, my dad’s been gone for a while, but he came back.”

“…Oh.” Mr. Montague smiled apologetically. “Sorry about that. If you don’t mind me asking, where…?”

“Overseas,” Stan grunted. Mr. Montague’s eyes widened.

“Oh! Oh, I understand. My, uh, my brother-in-law, he was a POW for a few years,” Mr. Montague said. Stan opened his mouth to correct him.

…It’s not worth it.

“Yeah, I was gone a lot longer than I planned,” Stan said. “Missed out on a lot.”

“I’m very sorry to hear that. But thank you for your service.”

“Uh, you’re welcome.”

“Mr. Montague, I wanted you to see my dad’s new arm,” Danny said. “He lost his arm while he was gone, so my Uncle Fidds and I made him a new one.”

“Really? Your uncle is a phenomenal engineer. Mr. Pines, would you mind?” Mr. Montague asked.

“Yeah, sure.” Stan popped off his prosthetic arm and handed it to his daughter’s engineering teacher. “Go nuts.” He looked over at his other children. Emily was laying on the floor, letting the rabbit hop all over her, while Emmett and Daisy watched. “Emily, get up.”

“But Edison likes it.”

“Like I care what the rabbit likes.”

“You let us lie on the floor at home.”

“Yeah. At home. This is a high school. A public high school. I don’t trust a square inch of this place. Get up.”

“Fine,” Emily grumbled. She sat up. “I’m bored.” Stan grinned, seeing the opportunity. Daisy groaned preemptively.

“Hi, bored. I’m dad,” Stan said jovially. Emily moaned and laid down on the floor again. “What? That was a good one.”

“It was a cliché,” Daisy said. “That’s how I knew it was comin’.”

“I’m with Emily,” Emmett said. “I’m bored, too.”

“Dad, don’t you dare,” Daisy said quickly. Stan sighed.

“I won’t. There’s no point in makin’ jokes if you can guess what it’s gonna be, anyways,” Stan grumbled.

“Can we go to the band room?” Emily asked. “I wanna see the instruments.”

“Think you’ll be fine on your own, princess?” Stan asked Danny. Danny nodded. “Okay. When you’re done here, come meet us at the band room. And bring my arm.”

“You got it, Dad!” Danny chirped. She grinned at Emily. “Don’t let Em near the sousaphones.”

“The what?”

“Big tubas,” Daisy said. “Last time she got near one, she fell in.” Emily scoffed and got up from the floor.

“Please. That makes it sound like it was an accident. I climbed in on purpose.”

“Why would you do that?” Emmett asked. Emily shrugged.

“Why not?”

“Gotta admit, sport, her logic’s airtight,” Stan said. Emmett rolled his eyes. “We’ll get outta yer hair, princess. C’mon, kids. Let’s go touch things in the band room.”

“Yes!” Emily cheered, running out of the classroom. There was a crash. “I’m okay!”

-----

Stan yawned as he waited for his kids to pile into the Stanleymobile. Emily and Emmett clambered into the back seat without prompting. Danny and Daisy stood outside, bickering. Stan rolled down the window.

“Girls, what’s the holdup?” he called.

“Daisy says she wants to ride shotgun. But I’m the oldest,” Danny said. Daisy threw up her hands.

“By eleven minutes!”

“Still the oldest,” Danny said snidely.

“Ugh! You can be the worst sometimes, y’know that?” Daisy asked. Stan groaned.

“That’s it. Girls, get in the back.”

“We won’t all fit in the back seat,” Emmett mumbled. Unlike his sisters, who were still full of energy after the open house, he was quiet.

Well. Quieter than usual.

“Your brother’s right,” Stan said, suddenly struck by inspiration. “All four of ya can’t fit in the back. Emmett, come ride up front with me.” Emmett sat up straight, his eyes wide.

“Wait, really?”

“Yep. The girls can all ride in the back.”

“That’s sexist,” Daisy scoffed.

“No, it’s smart,” Stan retorted. “Emmett’s tired. Doesn’t make sense to make him even more worn out. Come on up, sport.”

“On my way.” Emmett clambered over the back of the passenger seat and sat down. He grinned at Stan. “Thanks, Dad.”

“No problem. Danny, Daisy, in the back.”

“Fine,” Danny grumbled, climbing into the back seat next to Emily. Daisy followed suit.

“Everybody buckled?” Stan asked.

“Yes,” came the chorus.

“Good.” Stan started the car. “What does your Uncle Lute usually do after the school open house thing?”

“Uh, he takes us back home,” Emily said slowly.

“Pfft. Like I’d go through all of that bull and not stop somewhere for something on the way back,” Stan muttered, pulling out of the parking lot.

“What do you mean by ‘all that bull’?” Daisy asked.

“Every single one of your teachers assuming I’m your ma’s second husband is the first thing that comes to mind. Second is pullin’ your sister outta that weird tuba.”

“Sousaphone,” Daisy and Emmett said together.

“Whatever,” Stan said. “But those are only two of the many things that happened that make me need some ice cream.”

“Ooh, yes!” Emily shouted, kicking the back of Stan’s seat excitedly. “Let’s get ice cream!”

“Keep kickin’ my chair like that, squirt, and you don’t get any.”

“You got it!” Emily chirped cheerfully. She stopped kicking, but didn’t stifle the grin spread across her face.

“What about you, Emmett?” Stan asked. “Ice cream sound good?”

“Hell, yeah.”

“Emmett!” Danny gasped. “Don’t swear!” Stan laughed.

“Y’know what?” Stan said, ruffling Emmett’s hair. “For that, you get an extra scoop.”

#I've actually had most of this written for a while #I just now sat down and finished it up #honestly having Emmett swear was a stroke of genius #he's quiet and nervous but that boy's got a mouth like a sailor #takes after his dad that way #Reverse Portal Stanley McGucket AU #Stangie Family #Stanley Pines #Danica Pines #Daisy McGucket #Emily Pines #Emmett McGucket #ficlet #my writing #speecher speaks

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dontknockitkid · 5 years

Text

Farewell

You knew this one was coming haha

I never posted anything on social media about baseball being over for me because I didn’t want to accept it, acknowledge it, or over-romanticize the ending of a simple game for me.

But I will, however, write this;

These are my sentiments about a game that had an exceptional part in molding me into the man that I am today. I will never communicate anything like this again, unless it’s in person and verbal and only if someone asks.

Here i present to you, Chris Ramirez, the baseball player.

First and foremost, I feel the need to give the greatest gratitude and praises to God for blessing me through my baseball years without a debilitating injury. I never broke, severely strained, pulled, or tore anything in the 16 years of constant travel, overhead motions, conditioning, or weightlifting. I praise my almighty God for that absolute blessing. With saying that, I’m not talking down to anyone who has had one because I’ve realized how anxious it makes athletes as well as how much it affects their confidence, self-esteem, sense of worth, and identity. I truly feel for those who have been affected by the unforeseen traumas of athletics.

Now, for the tear-jerky portion of my outpouring.

My dad has told me that he wanted to sign me up to play little league baseball when I was younger, but my mom was opposed to the idea because she said it was dangerous and I might get hurt. My dad, being the person that he is, went on to sign me up at South Side Little League in south Oxnard, CA. I make sure to specify SOUTH Oxnard because it was the most rag-tag, blue-collared, league in Oxnard (in my opinion of course). Being in this league for the first couple years of baseball made me the humble, quiet player that I was because we always played (and were crushed) by the surrounding, more wealthier and supported, leagues. The best thing about my younger years (pre-high school), was the traveling. Specifically the long drives I had with my dad. We would drive 3-4 hours and basically spend the weekend together. We would wake up early, go to the nearest McDonald’s, and then head to the sports complex. Those are some of the moments, weekends, and trips that I will cherish the most regarding baseball because they constructed the relationship I came to have with my dad. My dad went to as many games as he could, but the majority of games I either had to hitch a ride with a coach or teammate, and he would show up whenever he was able to. Both my mom and dad have supported and been there for me after every great and terrible game to give their unique feedback (you sucked today but we still love you; keep fighting kid. You have unbelievable potential.) I held on to each and every pre- and post-game talk with my dad because above all else, he was PRESENT. He cared about what I had to say and how I felt about my performance, and he absolutely 100% knew that I cared what he saw or had to say (even though after the tough losses I acted like I didn’t want to hear anything from him at times, but like a young boy, I yearned for my father’s edification and approval). They provided the life and the beautiful days I would never EVER take back, and seeing them smile at me and say they’re proud of me when I didn’t get drafted, had my last start, and graduated college meant the entire world to me.

Now, while I’m talking about my family, I wanted to include a few words for the village that raised me.

These pictures are from my very last season of baseball, but it embodies the support I’ve received from my beautiful family. From fundraisers, to them traveling/camping overnight for several days to see me play (succeed, and sometimes really suck, which often made me really sad), I am forever grateful for their presence. My brothers, Angel and Kevin would often help me forget about a tough loss by providing laughs that turned into happy tears, as well as celebrating with me when I had a great game. Their hugs and affirming, congratulatory presence throughout my life have fueled me to be a respectable sibling. I have always wanted to make them proud of me. I value the photos we have together in our baseball uniforms growing up, as well as the ones we took when they came to visit and watch in Vegas and southern Cali. Even more so than the photos, the moments I was blessed to experience when I hugged them and told them that I loved them after a game or after having not seen them in months, are where my love during those years rests. Te quiero muchisimo mis hermanos. Cousins, Tia’s and Tio’s, family friends, who have housed me on my trips, and let me crash on the couch or guest bedroom for a night or two as I was making my way across the country or back home, I love you. You have no idea how grateful I am for your gracious hospitality. It is and always has been truly heartbreaking as a little kid knowing I wasn’t able to make a baseball trip because of insufficient funds. My parents have done everything that they could to make sure I was able to go to at least a couple trips growing up, and I tear up just thinking about how they made it all possible. I am so thankful for the limited opportunities because it made me appreciate each and every one of them a whole lot more. I love you, mi familia. Near and far, familial and friend.

I couldn’t write something like this without mentioning my coaches. The men (and their wives because if you know anything about coaching, it is a HUGE commitment and sometimes takes a toll on their families. So if any of my coaches’ wives read this, THANK YOU for being patient, kind, and supportive to the men that helped mold me physically, emotionally, and spiritually) that took their time showing me how to simply throw a small object wherever I wanted it to go with controlled aggression, allowed me to spend a good-sized portion of my life having the most fun I’ve had playing a little kid’s game.

I wanted to give a special and heartfelt thank you to my friend, brother in Christ, and former pitching coach Matt Merricks because he (by God’s wondrous grace) developed a form of pitching that incorporated your walk with Christ. Once I was saved by God and my world changed forever, I also became a different type of pitcher, and Matt was there to help refine the explosion of my new heart in Christ. Thank you forever Matt, you helped a young boy understand what it takes to heave a baseball and leave it up to God from there as soon as it left my fingertips, as well as doing the same in life.

To my amazing teammates:

To say you guys have changed my life would be the biggest understatement ever. My boys at Channel Islands and the surrounding high schools who I became so close with, you guys gave me afternoons worth enjoying. You made Oxnard and SoCal a place that tore my heart leaving, but oh so wonderful reflecting back on. If I wrote a small little paragraph for each person or year of baseball, this blog would span a lifetime haha, but I’ll keep it short and to the point.

Channel Islands: Jonny, Isaiah, Matt, Beto, Alfred, Ricky, Manny, Micah, Felipe, Greg, Miles, Anthony, Ray Ray, Leo, Wade, Josh, Stefon, and a few others who were my little tribe in high school: thank you for riding through it all with me. All the high school shenanigans, trouble-making, talks about girls, long days of practice and conditioning, were boosted to absolute nostalgia because of all of you. The memories jam packed at that one school and ball field, are some of my most cherished moments of my upbringing. People always say that you should go to college because those are supposedly the best years of your life, but in all honesty, these years are a definite close Second haha. I can still remember and feel the deep belly laughs at jack in the box, trips to fresh and easy, and countless other get-togethers I will not mention because some of my family might read this eventually hahaha

I love you, and I pray you all are doing well.

Colorado Northwestern:

A small junior college in Rangely, CO was the perfect place for my collegiate baseball career to kick into gear. Why? Because of these guys: Joe, Ricky, Alaska, Mikey, Cado, Nies, Chase, Trevar, Colin, Tanner, Riding, Hoff, Texas, the Woods brothers, Naus, Cory, and several others who brought seriously so much happiness to my days there. At a low point in my life, you guys helped keep me afloat by your jokes, brotherhood, invitations, inclusivity, and acceptance of a new direction I was going in life. You supported me, held me accountable at the late hours of the evenings, and poured into me when I really needed a laugh, friend, or a late night/early morning trip to Vernal or the gas station. The trips we took to the lake, the hikes behind the school, phenomenal bonfires at red rocks, runs up and down Kennedy, when we discovered the “rollercoaster”, and post-game dinners in the caf; dang, I freakin miss that small little school in that small little town.

If you didn’t see your name, don’t take it personally I promise. Even if you were only at that specific school for a couple weeks, you still were part of my experience and growth, and for that I am forever grateful for you all.

Mesa:

Finally, my Mesa family.

Not enough words could describe the absolute excitement and gratitude I had entering a program that was notorious for having a winning record, playing home games at the same stadium the junior college World Series is held, and where a minor league Colorado Rockies affiliate resides. I talked about the anticipation and excitement that was literally almost oozing out of me to every person that would listen, and I want to take a moment here and thank each person that listened to my gripes, groans, and endless soliloquys about a little boy’s dream coming true. You may not have known it at the time, but those moments and conversations built me up (or how us young people say it these days, “it HYPED ME UP”) and encouraged me to live up to the “hype” that I was giving myself haha

Colorado Mesa is where I bore my fruit; the fruit I had worked so endlessly for throughout my life. I was crafted and molded into the pitcher I would come to be my sophomore year at CNCC (and that summer), and CMU is where it all flourished. The grit was there; the motivation was there; the humility; the approach; the passion; the youthful zeal (you’re gonna hear me say that NUMEROUS times throughout my written pieces, so you better get familiar with it because it’s one of my favorite phrases). Everything was already in place, by God’s gracious love, and now it was time to showcase it. Soli Deo Gloria style. Coram Deo style.

Pitching at CMU was everything I’d hoped it would be and so much more. Having the opportunity to pitch in a rotation that included some of the best pitchers in the nation was a dream come true for a little kid from South Oxnard. My friends and roommates making their way over to the stadium on some Saturday or Sunday afternoon would come to be one of my favorite memories of putting on that creme colored jersey and doing what I loved. Now instead of making this a 55 page blog post, I’m just gonna talk about the memories that stand out the most:

I’ll start with the entire 2017 season. The 2017 season came with a ton of extraordinary moments, some of which I’ll go into a bit of detail soon, but it also came with devastating news that would lead to the season’s mantra and future banner of pride, brotherhood, and hardwork. A ball player and dear friend to many named Ryan Teixeira past away from his second battle with cancer. His wake and funeral services in California were unbelievably moving, and I couldn’t help but admire (and absolutely sob) on how unashamed of the gospel his family was at his funeral service. They were bold, broken, vulnerable, but stood firm on the promises of God. It was truly spectacular. May Ryan rest in glory.

I had the best year of baseball in 2017. Although my sophomore year at CNCC was super wonderful, I cannot compare the two as to which one was better than the other because each one was vastly different. At Mesa;

- I experienced a beautiful Friday night fireworks celebration after breaking a school win-streak. The stadium was as full as it ever had been while we were playing in it, and there was this aura of happiness and genuine enjoyment, regardless of wherever you were sitting (even in the visitor section). Fireworks and baseball have always been like peanut butter and jelly, ham and burger, salt and pepper, and tyga and Chris brown. 😂

- I flew for the first time (in a private airplane at that) to play in a regional tournament, as well as a D2 World Series. This playoff experience had me almost in tears thanking God for getting our team and I to that point in order for us to experience and excel in an environment like that. I pitched the BEST two games in my life that season (complete game shut-out against the #1 team in the region at their home field to eliminate them and send us to the championship, and a complete game win against the #1 team in the nation to eliminate them and send us to the semi-finals in the World Series).

Baseball is boring to a lot of people; I’ll admit I even think it’s boring sometimes, but I found an aspect that was worth cherishing the boredom forever. Through this game God gave me memories, friends for a lifetime, extreme frustration and anger, absolute joy and passion, and a love and appreciation for a game played by 4 year olds and 70 year olds. How amazing is that?

God, thank you for these years.

I will miss it forever.

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drippinwalchemy · 6 years

Text

This Thing That I’m Saying

Part 1 of the Either/Or Series

Summary: Simon and his friends have graduated from Creekside and are ready to enjoy their last summer together. Hanging out at Leah's one afternoon, Simon, Bram, Leah and Abby make plans for the rest of their time together.

Pairings: Simon Spier/Bram Greenfeld

Characters: Simon Spier, Bram Greenfeld, Abby Suso, Leah Burke, Nick Eisner

Tags: Fluff, Canon compliant, Gay male character, college, summer, angst, pining.

Words: 2149

Canon Compliant with Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14134404

“I can’t believe you guys talked me into getting my face painted before we took all these” Leah groans.

“Aw, Leah that cat on your cheek is so cute though!” Abby exclaims.

“That’s Totoro,” Leah says, never missing a chance to correct Abby or an opportunity to talk about anime. “He’s like a giant rabbit forest spirit or maybe a small bear? It’s unclear.”

“Thanks for clarifying,” Abby deadpans, “Can’t believe I got a diploma never knowing who Totoro was.”

Graduation was a week ago, and we’re going through pictures from the senior party on Leah’s deck. I guess a couple of years before Alice was in high school some kids had left graduation and gone to a party where there was alcohol and they all drove home drunk. They were in a pretty bad car accident and one of them even died, at least that’s what the rumor was. Ever since, Creekwood has had a mandatory Senior Party right after graduation. All the seniors head to the school which is decked out in Creekwood color balloons, full of food, and set up with events and activities to occupy our time all night. We had gotten our faces painted, then decided it was a good idea to head to the photo booth. It’s pretty lame but we all secretly (OK very openly) had been psyched about it for weeks.

“Not a problem, we still have all summer to knock out that Miyazaki marathon you guys promised me!” Leah says with a smirk.

“Yes! And that Buffy marathon we’ve been talking about FOREVER. I still can’t believe you think I’m Cordelia-” Abby laughs, missing Leah’s purposefully obvious eye roll.

“Hey we talked about this,” Bram interjects, “we’re done making plans for this summer, graduation was a full week ago! Let’s start making some headway on this list of ours.”

“Yaaasss!” Abby howls, “we could really make some progress if Nick would hurry up already! Where is he? It’s not like our coffee order has changed over the last two years.”

Leah and Abby start guessing what was taking Nick so long: he had forgotten the drinks on top of his car again and they flew off as he clipped the corner out of the parking lot, he’d gone home to change out of his work clothes to look nice for Abby, he was at the hospital from burning himself on the cappuccino maker again.

Bram turns to me “You OK? You’ve been quiet since we got here.”

I realized I wasn’t talking as much today but honestly, I'm fine with that. I like listening to my friends talk, soaking up their banter. I woke up after the senior party reliving how much fun we had getting our faces painted, playing giant Jenga, Bram even did a cake walk but the prizes were a bunch of ridiculous pairs of boxers. All the soccer guys won a pair and wore them over their jeans, except Bram of course, he was so modest I think having anyone see him in his underwear even with a full set of clothes on would cause him to disintegrate (‘cept me of course). Since the party though I realized I had taken a back seat with my friends, watching them joke and make all our plans for the summer was something I knew was quickly going to change. After all we’re starting college in August, and aside from Leah and I we’re all scattering, even Bram and I, but I can’t think about that yet, I won’t.

“Yeah, I’m good,” I say, grabbing his hand. “I’m just really happy it’s a Thursday afternoon and I’m somewhere other than Calculus.” God, why did I think Calculus was a good idea, college credit be damned there’s no way it was worth all that grief, although I did get to use the “Mom I need to go to Bram’s for help with Calc” excuse pretty loosely.

“Simon look at this picture of you and Bram!” Abby cooes, holding up her phone. Someone had taken a bunch of the “winners” from the night and posted them to Creeksecrets. On her phone is a picture of Bram and I laughing, me with my head buried in his neck, a hint of the Harry Potter scar I had painted on my forehead peaking out between my hair. Bram got a soccer ball on his cheek, he said it was the boring and obvious choice, I told him it was authentic. I smile and stifle this weird feeling in my chest that maybe words like ‘forever’ don’t mean what they used to.

“Oh my God look at all the hashtags on this!” Leah says grabbing the phone. “#CoupleGoals #Gay #Boyfriends #Spierfeld, you guys this is seriously giving me heartburn it’s so dumb and cute.”

“Aw, I love that picture Babe” Bram says squeezing my hand. We exchange side glances and I know he’s as over it as I am. Ever since we came out Junior year there seemed to of amassed a low key following on the Tumblr of straight girls who had essentially turned us into a meme. At first it was flattering and felt empowering almost, but it quickly became a very high key freaking nightmare. Leah says straight girls fetishize gay guys because we subconsciously remind them of what a heartthrob could look like in the absence of toxic masculinity (Leah started reading a lot of queer books when we came out to be supportive, she’s kind of like my gay guru). Bram has never been one for the spotlight and heck I had gotten so used to being an extra in musicals I never thought I would be at the center of my own story one day, let alone one about love. Dammit there’s that feeling again. Like my heart is beating in my throat and if I speak my friends will get covered in blood. I wonder if Elliott Smith ever wrote a song about this feeling, I doubt it, but I mentally add going through his song book when I get home to the other list of things to do this summer.

Leah senses Bram’s tone. “Look it’s weird for sure, and a lot of these sophomores really should be focusing on studying for the SATs, not fantasizing about you two.”

“Oh wow” Bram says under his breath. I think the idea of anyone but me fantasizing about him makes him nervous, let alone a 16 year old girl.

“But there’s a lot of people who look up to you for legit reasons, people you’ve inspired and people you helped in ways you can’t even fathom, just by being yourselves,” Leah goes on, “that comes with some responsibility so just revel in it while you can.”

Bram’s holding my hand tighter and locks his fingers with mine. I know what he’s saying as soon as he adjusts his hand. Sometimes I can’t believe how special he makes me feel. After prom, we all slept over at Nick’s house in his basement, Bram and I on a pile of blankets underneath his stairs (I may have made a scene to ensure we got the most Harry Potter spot in the basement possible). He fell asleep with his face towards me, his forearms wrapped up in mine. I must’ve stayed up for hours after he drifted off just looking at him, at his perfect knobby fingers and his gentle angled face barely visible in the light of Nick’s VCR clock. How could I be this happy at 18? Who gets to be this blissed out of their mind so early in life? I can’t help but think this means something is coming, I start thinking about the word forever again.

“Yeah guys sorry you’re so dang CUTE!” Abby chimes completely over exaggerated and thank god because this all got way too real way too quickly for how I’m feeling today.

“What gives you NEVER tell me I’m cute!” Nick runs in carrying five iced coffees and his guitar.

Leah and Abby look him up and down. “Definitely went home and changed,” Leah says staring at Nick’s henley.

“Oh you’re not foolin’ anyone with this caught up at work business babe, I smell your body spray from here, what did I tell you about that stuff?” Abby says “You won’t make any friends in Athens wearing that junk”.

“Hey I’m trying to save as much as I can for college and deodorant is expensive!” Nick replies. “Plus I’ve got like 6 flavors left from middle school, this one’s called Beast Mode ”.

“That’s horrifying.” Leah says grabbing her drink.

“Yeah please go shower this is not working for me” Abby says grabbing her coffee and pushing Nick’s face away playfully.

Bram and I both start cracking up as Nick slinks off to shower.

“OK you guys so let’s get to work on this summer then!” Abby says. “What should we do first?”

“Well I was thinking,” Bram says. “We had talked about getting away to the lake, I could ask my Dad maybe about going to his lakehouse next weekend?”

“Bram that’s brilliant!” Leah exclaims. “We should get out of town, I’m so sick of all these grad parties anyways. We get it Taylor Metternich, you’re going to Juilliard, I do not need to eat that information off a fucking cookie.”

“What do you think Si, want to go away next weekend?” Bram asks me. All I can think of is going away with him forever, whatever that means to me now.

“Let’s do it” I say with a smirk.

“What is who doing?” Nick yells from upstairs.

“We’re getting outta Dodge Eisner!” Abby yells back to him. “Make sure you get work off next weekend.”

Nick comes barreling back downstairs. “Yes! I love the lake, dibs top bunk!” Nick says without any hint of irony and Abby rolls her eyes and smiles into her hoodie.

Nick’s grabs his guitar. “Any requests?” He says.

“Play something to cheer Spier up” Leah says. “Where you at today Si?”

I’m a lot of places. I’m here, with my best friends, with my boyfriend. Shady Creek, my home my entire life, soon to be where I grew up. I’m at the end of Summer, I’m at Thanksgiving break when we’ll all be back and I’m even further out than that. I’m thinking about where I was, before I came out, when I met Blue, when I realized he was Bram. I’m everywhere between then and now. Once in physics our teacher said Einstein thought time was a circle and we could theoretically experience all of existence at once in the right dimension. I wonder if Einstein realized that before moving away to college.

“I’m just thinking about how much we still have left to do this summer!” I sigh. “How about some Tegan & Sara?”

“Aw Simon they’re so sad though!” Abby groans.

“That’s the whole point!” I exclaim and Bram starts to laugh cause I swear I’ve had this conversation with him so many times he could write a thesis on it.

“As you wish” says Nick, and he launches into an acoustic Leah’s deck version of Call it Off . Leah grabs Abby’s arm and gives her a side hug, Abby whips out her phone and starts an Instagram story filming Nick, he really is a good singer.

Maybe I would have been something you'd be good at

Maybe you would have been something I'd be good at.

Bram plops his feet up on my lap and I squeeze his calves, his cute firm soccer calves already starting to bronze from the week we’ve been out of school. I listen to Nick, to Tegan & Sara and look around and let myself feel what I’m feeling. I look at Abby and Leah, swooning and laughing and exuding the freedom that comes with this golden space between high school and college. I look at Bram, and oh my god it’s like looking at an eclipse, every muscle in my body transfixed on him while my nerves simultaneously burst into flames from how beautiful he is. I let myself be in this moment in my life, for today and for all the days that still remain in this perfect group of humans I get to call my home.

But now we'll never know

I won't be sad, but in case I go there

Everyday, to make myself feel bad

There's a chance that I'll start to wonder if this was the thing to do.

Leah and Abby chime in on the now we’ll never , and I close my eyes and feel the sun speckle my face through the leaves of Leah’s oak tree. I wonder if this happiness, our happiness, is worth the risk of the sadness it keeps at bay. It has to be, I tell myself as I hum the harmony and return to right now.

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biomeberry · 7 years

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My Equator (Patton’s Guide to Fatherhood #1)

Fandom: Thomas Sanders

Pairings: Logan/Patton as a married couple, but this fic is family fluff so it’s not the focus :3

Summary: After getting their first son, Roman. Patton and Logan decide to adopt again. Virgil just wants to write poetry. Oh, and maybe have a family, that'd be nice.

Read it on AO3

Everyone is tagged at the end! If you want me to tag you in future stuff, I’ll put a link to the post at the end!

Patton stares out the window, watching the scenery fade from the familiar suburbs to dull cityscape. Logan squints as the sun hits his face, muttering something about safety, and even quieter, about the moron that just cut him off. Their son, eleven year old Roman, sprawls across the back seat, singing a Broadway song for the umpteenth time. Logan’s eyes flit up to the mirror to study him. “You've been going since this morning. Make sure you stay hydrated.” It's not aggressive so much as it's concerned parenting, so Roman just shrugs. “You said the best way to memorize is repetition.” “Well, don't let your audition get in the way of studying. Did you finish your assignment?” Roman stutters for a second. “Aw, come on! You teach that class! Give me a break.” Patton smiles before intervening. “Alright now. Honey, I'm sure Roman will finish it just fine. And Roman, listen to your father. He’s sometimes right,” “I’m always right!” “And you’ll feel better after you do the assignment. Besides, I'll give you a Patton the back just for the effort!” Both Husband and son groan, momentarily united in their hatred for Patton’s puns. He sometimes jokes that the best part about finally being a father was the opportunity for dad jokes. “Alright, here it is.” St. Joan’s Orphanage. The very place they'd adopted Roman several years ago. Logan slips out of the car, going to the trunk to grab a water. Patton grips his door handle, preparing to get out himself, when Roman suddenly speaks. “Dad?” “Yeah, Pumpkin?” Roman rolls his eyes at the nickname, but his voice is much softer than usual, his boisterous energy seeming to have drained. It's enough for Patton to let go of the door and turn around to face him. “When I get a sibling, you're not going to forget about me,right? I mean obviously,” He flashes a lopsided grin. “I'm unforgettable! But, well…” he trails off and Patton rushes to reassure him, every ounce of paternal instinct kicking in at once. “Of course not kiddo!” He hesitates for a moment. “You want a sibling, don't you?” Roman nods. “Yeah. I just…” His voice is barely above a whisper. “Nobody cared about me for a long time. And...well I don't want to lose you or Pop.” Patton steels himself. I'm not going to cry, that'll embarrass him. Instead he reaches out and gives the boy’s hand a firm squeeze. “Roman Sanders, you are my son and I love you. Nothing is ever going to change that.” Dang it, his voice cracked. Well, hiding emotions has never been his strong point. “I know.” Roman tries to be casual, but there’s a small smile spreading across his face. Patton smiles as well, part relief and part reveling in the knowledge that he's getting good at reading Roman, despite the preteen drama that comes with it. Speaking of which, the now cheerful boy leaps out of the car in an impressively graceful sashay. “Now, let's see who shall be worthy of becoming my knight!” He bounds up the familiar steps, juuust beating Logan to the door. Patton snorts, knowing the mildly competitive nature of both his loved ones. He heads inside himself, making a game of slipping in before the door shuts. It's an automatic door, but entertaining nonetheless. He lets out a sigh as the stifling heat of Florida is replaced with cool, artificial air. St. Joan's defies most orphanage stereotypes. There's no gloomy manor halls or cruel headmistress. Roman has mentioned on multiple occasions that it had been a good place. “But I did sing Hard Knock Life whenever I could.” “Mr. Sanders!” Patton looks up to see the receptionist, their face sporting a huge grin as Roman bounces around them, talking a mile a minute. “Heya Tayln! Long time no see!” He gives them a brief hug. “So I was told you were thinking of adopting again?” Logan nods while Patton beams. “Yup!” “Well, all the kids here are great, as I'm sure you know.” They smile at Roman. “Most of them are playing outside right now, so why don't you go out, see if there's anyone you really connect with? You can talk with one of the adoption agents in about an hour.” Patton places his hand in Logan’s, not missing the way his mouth twitches into a barely-suppressed smile. “That sounds great!” Roman leads them out of the foyer and through the halls until they reach the playground. He then runs off to greet a couple old friends. “I'm going to go this way, if that's alright.” Logan gestures to a group of girls constructing something in the sandpit. “Their structure has potential.” Patton laughs, kissing his husbands cheek. “Yeah, yeah okay. Go become the world's greatest sandbox architect.” Logan rolls his eyes and heads that way. Sometimes he and Roman are so similar it's shocking that they aren't biologically related. All the children look decently happy, which puts Patton at ease. Sad children were the actual worst thing! No one that young deserves to be unhappy. His eyes seem to follow his train of thought. They settle on a stubby willow tree resting on the outskirts of the yard. More accurately, they settle on the figure of a boy hunkered down beneath it, scribbling in a spiral notebook. Without thinking, he heads over to the tree. “Hey there.” The boy startles, apparently not having heard Patton’s approach. He doesn't look up, however. “Hi.” He continues to write (draw?) in the beat-up notebook. After a moment, Patton sits down next to him. Despite the temptation, he doesn't let himself look over the kid’s shoulder. He'd probably find it invasive. “Boy, it's nice and shady over here!” The boy’s eyes dart sideways and regard him with an “are you serious” expression. “Uh, yeah? I guess so.” The sit for another awkward moment. Patton hums the tune Roman has now forced into his brain. “Any reason in particular you aren't playing?” The boy sighs, finally looking up. “I don't want to. I'd rather write. Besides,” he looks back down. “They all think I'm weird anyway.” Patton can feel his heart break a little. “I don't think you're weird.” A snort. “Yeah, well you're an adult and you feel bad for me.” He goes back to writing. “What exactly are you writing, kiddo?” He shrugs. “Poetry, mostly.” He doesn't volunteer anything else. “Oh, my husband loves poetry!” The boy seems genuinely surprised by this. Patton guesses most people around him felt the same way about poetry as they did about him. “Really?” “Yup! Hey, why don't I drag him over here? I bet he'd love to hear what you think.” The other looks suddenly very nervous. “I mean yeah, okay, if you want. But I don't want to bother him, since you're obviously here to adopt.” “Aw, it's not a bother at at all! I bet he’ll think you're a really neat kid, uh,--” he stops, realizing he has no idea what the boy’s name is. “Virgil.” He says quietly. “Some people call me Verge.” He bites his lip awkwardly. “I'm Patton.” He smiles reassuringly. “Let me go get Logan, that's my husband’s name.” He dashes off, grabbing Logan quickly. He feels almost afraid that Virgil will disappear by the time he gets back. But when they return, he's still slumped at the base of the willow, spiral notebook now closed on his lap as he fidgets with his hoodie strings. “Logan, this is Virgil! Virgil, Logan.” “Hi?” “Virgil, like the Roman poet, I presume?” Virgil shrugs. “I guess.” “Speaking of which, Patton tells me you write poetry?” He nods, cautiously. “Yeah, mostly gothic stuff, but I did a couple sonnets for fun. Oh,” he grins a little. “I also have like seven pages of limericks.” Logan smiles back. Two seconds later, they've launched into an epic discussion of well, epics. Patton follows along as best as he can, throwing in an occasional “wow!” or “gosh golly!” But mostly, he leans against the cool, hopefully insect-free bark of the willow and listens. Eventually, he sneaks out to get Roman. The two boys study each other, and for a moment he worries that Roman will get all snarky and then everything will be a mess. But then, Roman cautiously asks if Virgil likes dragons and just like that, they're off on a conversation about mythical beasts and video games. They find out that Virgil is ten, his poetry is in fact impressive, especially for his age, and that he and Logan combined can absolutely roast Patton and Roman with three to four lines of poetry. Eventually, Tayln calls for the Sanders family to return inside to talk. “Bye Verge!” Roman stands up reluctantly. “Later, Princey.” He bids goodbye to Logan as well. “Hey Patton?” He gives a small, sad smile. “Thanks for talking to me. Whichever kid you adopt will be really lucky.” Patton doesn't know what to say, so he just hugs him. Virgil tenses in surprise, but quickly relaxes. “We’re going to be really lucky to have that kid.” He brushes the hair out of Virgil’s eyes. “At least, if he wants to be a member of our family.” Virgil makes a tiny gasping sound then squeezes Patton tighter. “Yeah, I think he'd like that a lot.”

Patton stares out the window, watching the landscape roll away once again. The amount of excited energy in the car makes the air feel like static. As they pull up to St. Joan's, a small figure leaps up from the stairs, lugging a suitcase and a notebook on the verge (heheh) of falling apart. Roman rolls down the window, sticking his entire torso out of it and causing Patton and Logan to exchange concerned looks over the safety of their child. “Hey little bro!” They step out of the car and all pile into a hug around the newest member of their family. He squirms, muttering about being unable to breathe and blushing furiously. All the same, he returns the hug. “All the paperwork has been finalized, which means we're ready to go.” Logan informs them. Roman demonstrates a feat of strength by attempting to Judo flip Virgil’s suitcase into the trunk. Admirably, he succeeds, but not without several additional scratches to their newly washed car. “Come on, get in!” Roman tugs on Virgil’s sleeve, all but dragging him to the door. Patton giggles. “Well, if you were going to change your mind it's too late, Roman has already moved on to the kidnapping phase of our plan.” Virgil snickers, but meets Patton’s eyes seriously all the same. “I wouldn't. Change my mind I mean.” Patton ruffles his hair. “I know. Oh! Before I forget…” He grabs a bag from the trunk. “This is for you. A welcome home gift.” He pulls out a brand new, leather notebook. Virgil’s eyes go wide. “No way! For me.” “Yup! It's all yours!” Virgil dives in for a second hug. “Thank you,” He looks up at Patton and smiles. “Dad.”

“DAAAAAAD” Roman’s shriek comes from down the hall. “Verge stole my sword!” “You were trying to hit me with it!” Comes Virgil’s slightly less shrieky response. Logan lets out a long sigh from his position next to Patton on the couch. “And I'd almost started reading, imagine that.” There's a loud crash from down the hall, followed by scuffling. Logan groans again. “I'll go see.” “Thanks, Love!” Patton calls after him. A moment later there's another crash. “Nicola Tesla!” He gets up, mildly concerned, and heads to Roman’s room. What he finds is Roman, predictably, being held at sword point by his brother, slightly less predictably. Logan is on the floor, appearing to have tripped over some complicated booby trap rigged by Roman. All three of them look guiltily at Patton as he steps in. He takes a moment to fix his “disappointed dad” look on each one of them before his allows himself to crack a smile. Then, he swoops in and wraps his arms around Virgil. “Run, Prince Roman! I'll save you from the rogue knight!” Roman grins and dashes out. “Heyy, no fair!” Virgil complains. “Stop him!” Logan complies, grabbing at one of Roman’s ankles. In retaliation, Roman grabs the ends of Patton’s sweater, and his grip on Virgil sends them both tumbling to the ground. They all end up in a pile on a bean bag, out of breath and giggling. For a reason he can't quite explain, Patton feels emotion welling up. He looks from his husband to his two sons. It's taken a while to build this family, more twists and turns than anyone could have predicted. It was a whole lot of arguments and complications and heart ache. But it was also wonderful, and beautiful. Above all else, it was a family. And that was all Patton could ever ask for.

And there you have it. Tagging the lovely @nyifmet @phantom-opera and @funsizedgremlin ! If you’d like to be tagged in my future fics like or reblog this post over here Thanks for reading, as always, I hope it made you smile!

#thomas sanders #sanders sides #sanders sides fanfiction #my writing #thomas sanders fanfiction #logicality #the title is from a poem btw i don't claim it #i love baby virgil and roman #obviously since i've already written them a lot #dad's guide

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waddlesdpig · 5 years

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TOP COMICBOOK WRITERS OF 2018

The following is a quick write up about my personal favorite writers for 2018, spoilers and bad jokes ahead.

Wow, will you, wow, just look at, wow all that time wow. 2018 came and went like my dad after McDonald’s McRib was back in season! Tragic loss of delicious parents aside, we can’t look ahead to the new year without reviewing what the things that came before!

In this case the Top Comicbook Writers of 2018. I mean you knew this was coming, you read the title. Y-You can read the title right? Oh god all those people with Can’t-Readitis are going to be so lost!

2018 was crazy, but for comic books it was like a good crazy. Kinda like when you eat at a Chinese restaurant and find out they sell pizza, but like actual pizza. And not just in the movies, with Marvel and DC digging deep to revitalize and strengthen their IP’s, we got some of the best comics from the big two in a long while. At the center of this movement has been fresh and exciting writers taking these titles in new directions. So now being the leading authority in basement dwelling blogging hogs, i felt the need to highlight some of my favorite Comic book writers of 2018. First examining those wonderful folks at Marvel Comics.

(Side note, not only am i the world’s greatest blogging hog, i am also a huge flithy casual of the highest order and as such any of my lists for 2018 will not include any indie titles even though there be a great many fantastic non-big two comics.)

MARVEL

DONNY CATES

Whoo boy, i don’t think it’d be a exaggeration to say that Hank Hill’s next door neighbor has had a stellar year comics-wise. Coming out early in the year with the stellar “ Thanos wins” story arc that pushed the big man Grimace himself into new territory in fantastic fashion. Something that would only carry forward with his brand new OC introduced in the run, that being “ Cosmic Ghost Rider.” Which is like the regular Ghost Rider but in SPAAAAAACEEE! Suffice to say he’s a very cool character, with his spin-off title living up to the hype.

These two runs in themselves would be deserved feathers in anyones cap, however with the Marvel Fresh Start initiative, Cates provided what is the crowning achievement of his work this year. This being Venom. Without a doubt since he and superstar artist Ryan Stegman have taken over, the title has become one of the most entertaining books Marvel has been pushing out.

Cates has done a wonderful job of balancing the tone, knowing when to lean into the edge associated with the character and but also not depraving the title of brevity or more light hearted moments. This coupled with the epic reimagining of key aspects of Venom’s backstory and building to climatic moments that i hate are going to be sullied in the next Venom movie ( Dem Chinese audiences enjoying something that mildly annoys me ;-;).

In Venom however we find more than big action, grand stakes, and epic concepts, as Cates has made it a point to consider introspectively Venom and it’s host relationship with each other. At some points wholesome, at others disturbing, but always engaging and because of that it has propelled Venom to a title worthy of standing alone from it’s Spider-Man origins.

CHIP ZDARSKY

I love Spider-Man, you probably love the fashion model dating luckless webhead yourself in one way or another. Whether it’s the original Lee/Ditko comics, the 1980’s animated show, MCU movies, or this guy, one way or another Spidey has found a way to web himself into the hearts of generations of people all over the world. So i can almost guarantee you love Chip Zdarsky and you didn’t even know it. (Think about all those valentines you missed out on sending to the man!)

Chip’s run on Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man didn’t start in 2018, but it ended this year so i’m still counting it. While the first few issues were enjoyable in their own right, for me it wasn’t until Spectacular Spider-Man 6 ( #296 legacy number because Marvel never learned counting in pre-school) that things really started kicking into gear. As readers we are well aquatinted with the quipping more ridiculous side of the menace, but from issue 6 onward Chip makes it his focus to remind us that the Man matters just as much as the Spider.

He portrays Spider-Man as he should be, the everyman hero that anyone can look up too. You still got your jokes and your villains and your good times, but more than ever Chip’s Peter is willing to lift the mask and show that he just that, a man. So many times throughout the title we find Peter allowing himself to be vulnerable, not just to friends and comrades but to those who have sought his end so many times. Giving us a Peter who is a hero, not just through his heroics, but also because he is willing to look for the good in others and not afraid to empathize with those around him. And in that way Chip has given us, in many respects, the Spider-Man we’ve always known and love. And for that he has my thanks.

In addition to what will probably become a fan favorite take on Spider-Man which already warrants use of the “ Spectacular” adjective, Chip also helped bring the Fantastic Four ( or at least The Terrific Two) back into the spotlight with Marvel’s Two-in-One. ( A title name which might excite and immediately disappoint fans of Chip’s earlier work at Image.)

Marvel Two-in-One focuses on the two remaining members of the splintered Fantastic Four, primarily how the main duo deal with assumably losing the rest of their family and just how far both are willing to go to regain them. In this book particularly i feel Chip did a magnificent job exploring the character drama, you can really feel the longing and grief that these two are experiencing, but at the same time manages to balance this with fun reality jumping shenanigans that never overstay they’re welcome. All in all another incredible title that made 2018 an absolutely amazing year for Chip, with 2019 looking to be a another stellar year for him. ( Can’t wait for his run on Red Batman!)

Side note it should be no surprise that my top two Marvel writers for the year had a part in this hot spider on spider strip here.

AL EWING

BOO! Scared you? Probably not ( scary amount of cringe if anything ). Now if you want some real spookums Al Ewing is just the guy for you as 2018 saw the release of The Immortal Hulk, one of if not arguably the best comic of the last year.

The Hulk has always been a mixed bag for me, i love the premise of the character: Quiet on the streets, radioactive green giant in the sheets. There’s an inherit struggle that can make for some compelling story opportunities in the right hands. But that’s just the thin, for me personally i hadn’t read anything that spoke to that idea i have for the character. Don’t get me wrong in the 57 years of the characters existence there have been some pretty good Hulk stories. ( Some of which i’m still getting around to reading)

But none have appealed to me quite like Al Ewing and Joe Benett’s run on the title. The two masterfully has given this tale a fresh start by ironically taking the character back to his roots in the horror genre. The creative duo manage to achieve this through turning Hulk from misunderstood hero to essentially a wandering monster bent on exacting his own sense of justice on the scum of the world. This change in the status quo is excellently executed effectively through the artwork. No longer standing proud in defiance of those who would doubt him for the hero he is, Joe Benett pencils depict the hulking giant now as a grotesque monster lurking in the shadows ready for his next victim.

This would all be for nothing if not for the strong voice Al Ewing has for this title. The Immortal green bean is not scary only because he can snap you in half like a brittle wishbone, but because he instills fear with the scariest thing known to man.. emotional insecurities. (That’s right folks we got a bitter beefed up Dr.Phil serving justice up like it’s a buffet.) Not content to beat you dead, Hulk now tortures those unlucky enough to be his targets by holding up a mirror to the horrors that haunt them. This applies to more than those Hulk seeks to punish, the real genius of The Immortal Hulk isn’t that he is the thing keeping scum up at night, no it’s that he is the never ending nightmare of Bruce Banner. Throughout the run Hulk haunts Banner in showing that they’re only two half’s of the same coin. Leaving Banner and the reader with eerie thoughts that linger on whether the mad beast is right all along.

This is all too say that The Immortal Hulk is pretty dang good, your probably reading it already, if not you should probably read it. ( You know as long as you don’t have can’t-readitis) And if issue 11 is anything to go by 2019 is looking horribly wonderful for Al Ewing and the jolly green giant.

And that’s it, my top three Marvel writers for 2018. In all honesty last year was crazy for Marvel, i’m leaving out so many amazing people making their mark in the comics industry and all things considering here’s hoping we’re in store for even greater things in 2019.

#marvel #comic books #spiderman #venom #immortal hulk #shill_ler's list #McRibs are McMurder

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