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luci-in-trenchcoats · 3 years

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If I Fell For You (Part 14) - Keep Close

Summary: The Ackles have the Padalecki’s over for dinner and let it slip that they’re engaged. Things seem to be going well but the anniversary of the accident is coming up and the reader comes up with the Ackles taking their first vacation together as a means of distracting Jensen as well reconnecting with Ray...

Masterlist

Pairing: Jensen x nanny!reader

Word Count: 4,800ish

Warnings: language, mention of sex, mention of a dead parent/spouse, anxiety

A/N: Please enjoy and let me know what you think!

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“I’m stuffed,” said Jensen that night, the kids running around playing soccer in the yard after dinner.

“I need that chicken recipe,” said Jared.

“I’ll write it down for you guys,” you said, sitting back in your chair. “You can do it with breast too if you like that better.”

“I want exactly this like, everyday from now on,” said Jared. Gen rolled her eyes and Jensen pulled out his phone. “Want me to take a pic?”

“I don’t need your freakishly long arms just yet,” chuckled Jensen. He turned around and took one of the four of you at the table before handing off his phone. “Mind getting one of us?”

“Your mom harassing you for engagement photos already?” asked Gen.

“By the time we were leaving they were both asking for photos and being obnoxious. Better than they were though,” said Jensen, smiling beside you. Jared took a few more and handed the phone back.

“I still can’t believe your parents would act like that,” said Gen. “I mean obviously I’m super happy it got fixed but that’s so unlike them.”

“They made a mistake is all,” you said with a smile. “I don’t know about you guys but I’m going to finish this beer in the pool.”

“I think I’ll join you,” said Jared. He stood up and had a look on his face you caught too late. Before you knew it he had you picked up and was jogging over to the deep end and jumping in with you.

“Jared!” you said when you popped up. He giggled and swam off to the shallow end. “After I helped pick up the plates ya big lug.”

“We got it,” said Jensen, carrying over two beer cans and handing them to you. “We’ll join you guys in a few.”

About ten minutes later Jensen was leaning against the side of the pool in his bright red swim trunks, handing you the other half of his cookie cake piece.

“So any big plans for the wedding?” asked Jared, sat on the pool steps with Gen.

“I have a thought,” you said, turning to Jensen. “I haven’t discussed it with Jensen yet.”

“Vegas. Shotgun wedding,” he laughed. You shook your head and he grinned. “You’re thinking the farm, aren’t you.”

“What do you think? It could be outdoor or indoor, whatever it needs to be depending on the weather.”

“I’d love that,” he said, giving you a squeeze. “That’d be perfect for us.”

“You own a farm?” asked Jared.

“Yeah, ten minutes from the brewery.”

“Dudes. You can open bar with your own beer. Oh and dibs on being a groomsmen.”

“Like that wasn’t gonna happen,” said Jensen.

“I don’t know on that,” you said. Jared’s face fell and you shook your head. “Sorry. I didn’t mean that you wouldn’t be one. Of course you would. I just don’t have a lot of close girlfriends. I think it’d be weird if Jensen had a ton and…”

“I don’t think it’s weird,” said Gen. “We didn’t have an even number at our wedding.”

“We got time to figure that stuff out,” said Jensen, holding your waist. You finished the last bite of cookie and hummed.

“So you two having a kid?” asked Jared. Gen whacked his chest and he shrugged.

“Jesus, Jare. Don’t ask that.”

“They’re our best friends and godparents to our children...although I guess Y/N didn’t know that she inherited that until now but come on, I know you’re wondering too.”

“Shut up,” said Gen, crossing her arms. “Obviously if they decide, they’ll tell us when it happens.”

“Yeah, I think there’ll be at least one,” you laughed. Gen lit up and turned to Jared.

“Last time they said they were having a baby guess what we did? I can’t handle no more babies,” said Jared.

“Can you even get that thing up anymore?” teased Jensen, sipping on his beer.

“You’re one to talk, old man.”

“That shit still works just fine.”

“Just fine?” shot back Jared.

“Oh my God. You’re both good at sex. Y/N be grateful you’ve missed this same conversation over and over for the past sixteen odd years,” said Gen.

“I’m still taller,” said Jared with a smirk.

“I can last longer,” said Jensen with one of his own. They narrowed their eyes at one another and Jared stood up.

“Go wrestle on the grass,” groaned Gen. They both huffed and got out of the pool before starting to playfully wrestle. “See, what you may not realize yet is you have another child right there.”

“Yeah but he’s hot,” you said, Gen laughing while you sat beside her. “Do you guys really talk about sex with each other?”

“Yes and no. The boys are you know, boys. They’d combust if they didn’t tease each other. I wouldn’t say there’s like, intimate details or anything ever shared. They’re both pretty private about that sort of thing. Dee and I would talk but more so say we had fun the night before. Shit we probably talked about sex toys more than anything.”

You stopped mid sip of your beer and she laughed.

“When your guy is thousands of miles away for that long out of the year, you gotta get off on your own. You get pretty good at phone sex too. You’re lucky. Jensen won’t be staying away so long ever again he said.”

“No, no. But uh...before Jensen I’d had the same boyfriend forever and he was as vanilla as could be. We didn’t do that stuff really together.”

“I can text you some links to stuff. It’s not like you have to go in some scary store or anything. It’s discrete and I think a small vibe would be great to start with. You can use it during sex or foreplay or whatever. Just you know, have fun.”

“Jensen and I kinda got busted by the cops a week or so back for...activities in the backseat,” you said. She started to laugh and you groaned. “Thankfully it was his friend that caught us so he let us off the hook but...it was kinda fun.”

“Good,” she said, sighing as Jensen pinned Jared down. “Hey so yeah about that wedding thing. Jared had two more groomsmen than I had girls. It doesn’t have to be matchy, matchy, you know?”

“I know. I don’t know if…” you trailed off. “I lost my friend group when I broke it off with my last boyfriend. We’d been together for over ten years and I kept turning down his proposals and they didn’t like that. I have some nanny friends but not a lot and no one I’m really close to. I don’t know if I’d even get more than five people to come for me. Everyone else is his family and friends and I didn’t think about that until just now. I mean what would they think, seeing that? I don’t know if I even want anyone there now.”

“I think what they’d see is someone they care about marrying someone he loves. Just because we’re Jensen’s friends doesn’t mean we’re not your friends too. I know we’re still getting to know each other but we’ll be as close as those two eventually. Ruthie was texting me and we’re having a girls night the next convention in Dallas. You literally have a built in crew ready to go from the show, the girls and the guys. You are so coming with me to the next night I have with my local girlfriends and you got our family. You even got Dee’s parents. You have more than you know, sweetie.”

“I never had a best friend growing up except for my mom. Until Jensen,” you said. “I’ve never really been good at the friend thing.”

“Were you bullied in school?” she asked quietly.

“Don’t tell anyone besides Jared but my dad wasn’t a good person. He hurt me and so I was afraid of getting in trouble so I didn’t talk to other kids all that much until I got old enough to understand what he was doing was wrong and that’s how I ended up being adopted.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Can’t do anything about it now. But I can have it not control my life too. I’ve been pretty good since I was nine in that department. My mom dying sucked and things have been up and down but I like where I am now. This is easily the happiest I’ve ever been in my life.”

“Jens’s not perfect.”

“I know. But he’s good enough. He gave me a certain confidence to live my life, like really live it.”

“He’s alright,” she smiled. “You know I have an idea about this bridesmaids thing you might like.”

“You?”

“Oh I would for sure but I meant more so I know two little girls that wouldn’t mind. Maybe there’s a boy too,” she said.

“I’m gonna need you to be my wedding planner at this rate,” you said.

“Job accepted,” she said. “I say we go farmhouse modern style.”

“Gen. I got engaged like two weeks ago. We have time,” you said. “We don’t even have a date.”

“At the very least can we go dress shopping?” she asked.

“I’m going to regret this,” you sighed as Jensen stepped back in the water.

“Get yourself a stronger man, Padalecki. That one is weak,” he said. Jared followed him right after and went to tackle him when Gen caught his arm.

“Boys, not in the water,” she said.

“Chicken?” asked Jensen.

“Losers pick up the tab for when we go out this weekend for dinner. Deal?” asked Jared.

“Well in that case, you’re on.”

Two Weeks Later

“Jensen,” you said, carding your fingers through his hair while he absentmindedly burnt some eggs. “You okay babe?”

“Yeah. We ought to pack up the kids, get on the road soon if we’re gonna hit the beach.”

“I’m gonna drive, okay?” you asked. He nodded and you got out the eggs again, making up a new batch. “Do you want to talk to Ray?”

“Why?” he asked quietly, leaning back against the counter.

“Anniversaries of traumatic events can be triggering,” you said. “My mom died two days ago. Well, you know what I mean.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?” he asked.

“Because it doesn’t trigger me anymore. But it did and this is the first time...the first one is the roughest.”

“Yeah,” he said. “I ought to talk to him.”

“Eat your breakfast. I’ll give him a call and get the kids ready while you guys talk, okay?” you said.

“Thank you,” he said. You kissed his cheek and hugged him before you went upstairs for your phone. It rang a few times but Ray finally answered, noise in the background.

“Y/N. Everything alright?” he asked.

“Hey. Yeah. We’re...we’re pretty good. Today’s the first anniversary of Jensen’s-”

“Ah. I understand.”

“Listen, I know it’s a Sunday and you don’t work the weekends but would you mind talking to him for a few minutes? We’re going down to Galveston for the week in a bit but he’s off this morning.”

“I’d talk to him even if he wasn’t your fiance but especially because of that. You know we’re actually down here ourselves for a few days. Just got down yesterday. If you guys are around...maybe we could get together for that swim.”

“I’d like that. You okay?” you asked.

“I always get a little down on the day but Sarah understands. You understand.”

“Yeah. I’m gonna put Jensen on and um, maybe we can meet at Arillo’s for dinner?”

“We got a reservation there ourselves tonight. How many in your crew? Five? I’ll call and ask for an update.”

“Yeah there’s five of us. Um, Ray?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m sorry for being so horrible as a teenager after mom. You loved her as much as I did.”

“Thank you but you don’t have to apologize for that. You got too much pain in your life. I’m glad you found the good stuff too.”

“Are Geroge and Taylor there?” you asked.

“Yeah kids are here. Taylor’s got some internship but she does it online half the day and George is some research assistant thing for one of his professors but same kinda deal. We leave them to work in the morning while Sarah and I have some fun. Want me to let them know you’re coming?”

“Probably a good idea. Not sure how they’ll react,” you said, Jensen poking his head into the bedroom. “Here’s Jensen.”

“Okay, sweetie. We’ll see you guys soon.”

You handed the phone to Jensen and finished up packing while he sat on the bed. You tried to leave him be but couldn’t help listening in.

“Yeah I’m anxious...I don’t want her to drive down today...you know why...I guess...probably...I don’t want to be freaking out for three hours in the car...because it’s today...I know...I know...so I have to suck it up...I don’t want to have a panic attack in the car with the kids...no I haven’t...I’m scared I will though...yeah...I understand...dude that sounds so stupid...that’s not medically anything...no I don’t have my doctorate...I don’t wanna ask her...I said I don’t want to, not that I wouldn’t...I know...I will...maybe I’ll try that too...yeah, Y/N said the first year is the roughest too...I’ll let her be in charge until we get down to the beach today. I think I’ll feel better after the car...yeah I kinda figured out what she was doing planning a trip on today of all days...I need it...really? Yeah, I’m looking forward to meeting up down there too...thanks Ray.”

You finished with your suitcase and had his open for him when he walked into the closet. He swallowed and handed your phone back.

“All good?” you asked.

“Ray thought it might be a good idea if I had something of yours with me on the way down, to keep on me since I’m...anxious this morning about being in a car.”

“Something of mine…” you said, looking at your side of the closet. “Why don’t you pack up and I’ll get you something before the road, okay?”

He nodded and twenty minutes and about three bathroom trips later the SUV was packed up. You hopped behind the wheel, Jensen tapping the arm rest from the passenger seat.

“Here,” you said, reaching into your pocket, pulling out a bracelet. It was fabric, the kind made from craft string, white, rusty orange and a light tan color mixed together.

“I’ve never seen this,” he said as he held it between his fingers.

“I got it on vacation with mom and Ray. Last one we went on,” you said, tying it around his wrist. “You have it.”

He stared at you as you turned the engine on, watching you backout.

“This is too important for me to take,” he said quietly.

“It’s fabric. I want you to have it, okay?” you said, pulling onto the street and closing the gate. He nodded and you turned the radio on low. “Coffee run?”

“Yeah. Coffee sounds good right about now.”

You were only about fifteen or so minutes away from the beach house you’d rented. The kids were either taking naps in the backseats or watching a movie on the ipad. You risked a glance at Jensen, his fingers absently toying with the bracelet while he looked out the window, the radio on low.

“How you doing big guy?” you asked as you pulled off to the exit ramp.

“Pretty good now,” he said softly.

“Mind navigating for me?” you asked. He hummed and picked up your phone from where it sat in the console the past few hours. About twenty minutes or so you were stretching outside of the car, Jensen opening the front door of the house with the code you’d been given. The kids climbed out and were good about each taking their own backpacks while you and Jensen gathered up the rest.

“Come here,” he said, leaving the bags by his feet and kissing you against the side of the car. You grinned and he picked you up in a big squeezing hug. “I love you.”

“I know,” you said. He set you down and kissed you again. “You seem like yourself again.”

“I needed that push, get over that fear. But now, I can enjoy my day with my girl and my kiddos and apparently we are having dinner with Ray and his family tonight?” he asked.

“If that’s alright,” you said.

“One hundred percent,” he said, Arrow jumping up and down nearby. “Honey, go use the bathroom in the house if you have to go.”

“No I’m excited!” she said. “Can we go play on the beach? Pretty please?”

“Hm, give daddy fifteen minutes and then we can go?” he asked. She turned to you and grinned.

“We’ll go really soon sweetie. I promise.”

“Hey guys,” said Jensen an hour later, the five of you down on the beach and mostly watching them build a sandcastle together. “Y/N and I want to tell you something.”

“Is it that you guys are getting married?” asked JJ, patting some sand with her shovel. You glanced at Jensen and he shrugged. “You were talking to Aunt Gen and Uncle Jared about it last night, right?”

“Well, yes we were,” said Jensen. “I suppose we were a little louder than we thought. But yes, Y/N and I have decided to get married. We’re not sure when exactly but in the next year I can say.”

“So we have a mom again?” asked Arrow, fixing her corner of the castle that kept caving in.

“Well you guys are kinda lucky. You’ll get two moms,” he said. “How’s that sound?”

“We missed mom’s day,” she said with a sigh. “Right?”

“We’ll catch it next year, promise,” said Jensen. “Do you guys have any questions or anything you want to say?”

“Do we call you mom now?” asked JJ.

“You guys call me whatever you want,” you said.

“Can we call you mom?” she asked. You nodded and she went back to playing in the sand.

“Anything else guys?” asked Jensen.

“Can I get a giraffe?” asked Zeppelin while he figured out how much water to add to the sand to get it to stick together.

“No sweetie. They wouldn’t fit at our house,” said Jensen.

“Darn it,” he said.

“I can tell you’re all so invested in this topic,” chuckled Jensen.

“Oh! Can my flower girl dress be purple?” asked JJ.

“Your dress can be whatever color you want it to be,” you said.

“Awesome,” she said. “Or black and purple. With lightning stripes.”

“Ah, I knew the classic rock would finally pay off,” said Jensen.

“Maybe Daddy’s suit can be black and white stripes, like a tiger,” you said.

“Like a White Snake music video more like it,” he laughed. “We’ll figure all that stuff out. We wanted to make sure you guys knew was all and if you have any questions or were nervous or anything you know you can ask either one of us.”

“Mom makes you happy again. Of course you gotta marry her!” said Arrow. “Oh and get her a pony. Girls like that.”

“Would you care for a pony, sweetheart?” asked Jensen as he shook his head.

“Are we talking mustang kind of pony?” you asked.

“That’s my girl,” he said, wrapping an arm over your shoulders, kissing your cheek. “Let dad get a picture of you guys. We’re on vacation after all.”

Five Hours Later

“Jensen,” you said, changing into a light summer top and a pair of denim shorts after your shower. He was standing by his suitcase undressed, trailing his finger over his scar. “Honey?”

“A year ago was the worst day of my life and today was a really great one. I get to meet Ray more and even Sarah and the kids who all sound great and...I’m really happy I’m still here to see all this.”

“Me too,” you said, wrapping your arms around him. “Wear your red underwear.”

“Is that a request?”

“I like how you look when you take it off,” you said, gently smacking his ass as you went to go fix your hair.

“I am so grateful I found you,” he said to himself. You smiled and brushed your teeth quickly before checking yourself over and taking a selfie. You sat up on the counter and opened instagram, still silently grateful you’d always had it on private. There was nothing bad on it but Jensen and Jared had tagged you before and all of the comments always seemed to be negative.

“How do I look?” asked Jensen, walking in wearing a short sleeve navy button down and his red underwear.

“So sexy,” you giggled, Jensen digging through his other bag and finding his khaki shorts.

“Can I get away with sneakers and a backwards baseball cap at this restaurant?” he asked.

“Totally. We always eat outside. It’s near the pier,” you said, putting up your post.

“Taking more pictures I can show off of you again?” he asked, grabbing your brush and getting some control of his damp hair back.

“Nobody even sees my instagram hardly,” you said.

“You know the internet knows we’re dating, right.”

“I’m pretty sure your fans still aren’t okay with that fact, even if they know.”

“Oh you’re mistaking the nutjobs for actual fans. The real ones, those guys are cool and nice. I actually got a lot of care packages and things from them last year. Still do. They really are good people. Those other ones that leave nasty comments? Fuck them. That shit don’t bother me anymore.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying family and friends know. Can I show off the woman I love to the world?” You wrapped your legs around his waist and pulled him in front of you, his head cocking.

“Yeah,” you said. “Better late than never.”

“Okay,” he said. “For now though, I’m looking forward to this dinner.”

“I hope it goes well. It’s George and Taylor I’m more worried about. They were kids when I decided to stop coming around. I only knew them maybe two years, if even that. I know they were upset.”

“Give them some credit. Ray raised them too after all.”

“I’m all set!” said Zeppelin, walking into the bathroom with his paw patrol shirt and nothing else on.

“At least I was gonna wear underwear,” chuckled Jensen. “Little dude. Get some undies on and shorts in the next two minutes or else…” he trailed off as he came in and hugged Jensen’s leg.

“I love you, daddy,” he said.

“I love you.”

“Can we get a giraffe now?” he asked. Jensen rolled his eyes and you released him.

“Let’s go finish getting you dressed, buddy.”

“So you guys were Sarah’s fosters?” asked Jensen towards the end of dinner, all three kids passed out asleep in the stroller or on the bench besides you while you picked at your shared dessert. Neither George or Taylor had said much aside from introducing themselves.

“Guys,” said Ray, nudging Taylor. “I’m sorry for our children’s rudeness. I was afraid of this.”

“Shut up,” they both said, Sarah sighing.

“The kids were both big fans of Supernatural. They grew up watching it with me. It was something we bonded over at first in fact,” she said.

“Oh,” said Jensen, a smirk forming on his face. “Sam or Dean girls? George come on buddy, it’s okay.”

“This isn’t happening,” said Taylor, her eyes squeezed shut.

“So you guys don’t want to hear about the movie, gotcha,” he said, both of them snapping their heads up.

“He really is a dork,” you said.

“Movie?” asked George.

“Someday. You can count on it,” said Jensen. “Maybe I’ll go easy on you guys and ask what mom was?”

“You boys are a little young for my tastes but honestly the guy who played John was very attractive,” she said.

“Even I’d hit that,” said Ray, Sarah laughing to herself.

“You can see Ray wins his ladies over with his charm,” you said, glancing at Taylor and George. “Like you guys could literally ask anything you ever wanted about the show and get an unfiltered answer if you want.”

“Did you really keep the car?” asked George. Jensen nodded and held up his finger.

“When we’re back in town, you guys come over and you can take a spin in it,” he said.

“Okay, he’s cool with me,” said George. You cocked your head and he smiled. “That was the car from the show I always told you about.”

“Oh. I thought you were talking about batman or something,” you said, pursing your lips. “Sorry I wasn’t…”

“You always sucked at pretending to be happy,” said Taylor. You looked down and nodded. “We get it. You had to do your own thing.”

“Don’t hate me for leaving?”

“Maybe when we were little,” she said. “But we’re older and we get that you probably felt like a fifth wheel.”

“Yeah. A lot really,” you said. “It worked out though.”

“She’s a Dean girl by the way,” said Ray, cracking up as Taylor whacked his arm.

“Dad! Oh my God no I’m not! I like Sam!” she said.

“Want to talk to him?” grinned Jensen. Her face went red and you heard a quiet chuckle at the table. “You’re right, we’ll save that for in person.”

“You basically are marrying Dean Winchester without like, the trauma,” she said. Jensen tensed up but kept a smile on his face. You knew Ray caught it when he gave him a simple nod.

“Trauma’s not inherently bad,” said Ray. “Everyone at this table has gone through some.”

“I know, dad,” she said quietly. She looked at George and he nodded. “Our parents were in a house fire. So were we. I was five and Georgie was four.”

“She carried him out and went next door for help,” you said.

“I was in a car accident last year,” said Jensen. You turned your head. It wasn’t public knowledge that he was in the car. He’d flat out told you that aside from family and a few friends, no one besides you knew. “I almost died. My wife did but for other reasons. You can still have trauma and a really good life.”

“Very good point, Jensen,” said Ray. “You two rugrats wouldn’t be around if mom and I had moped around in our misery forever.”

“Was he always such a sap?” asked George.

“From the day I met him,” you said, Jensen grabbing your hand under the table. “Would you mind watching the kids for a second?”

“Not at all,” he said. You excused yourself and brought Jensen along with you, walking out to the beach area, the breeze cool but light.

“You alright?”

“Yeah. I can talk about it now. I went from having the worst year of my life to one of the best. Nothing bad’s gonna happen for saying what really happened. I want to let all that shit go and have the rest of that really good life I was talking about.”

“For someone who keeps a lot inside I sure have noticed a difference in you the past few weeks.”

“To quote both of the loves of my life, I gotta let that shit out more regularly,” he said. You smiled and wrapped your arms over his shoulders, giving him a kiss.

“You know that’s what we call growth, babe.”

“I very easily could have gone the opposite way this year.”

“But you didn’t, cause you tried even though it sucks sometimes. I love you but I extra love happy you and you’re definitely a happier guy now than when I met you.”

“So are you, honey,” he said. “Must make a pretty good team or something.”

“Oh yeah, maybe that’s it.”

“We should honestly get like, married or something, you know?” he teased.

“First I have to know though, are you willing to do cookie cake for a wedding cake?”

“I’m willing to make that sacrifice,” he said. “The real questions is, are you willing to deal with the eventual dad bod that will happen as a result?”

“I love this bod, but I don’t love you for this bod,” you said.

“Thank you for today,” he said softly.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” you said. He grinned and kissed your cheek, hugging you tightly. “What are best friends for?”

“Everything?”

“Hell yeah they are Ackles.”

_______

A/N: Read Part 15 here!

#spn #supernatural #jensen ackles #jensen ackles x reader #jensen series #jensen x reader #rpf #rpf series #jensen ackles fanfic #supernatural fanfic #spn fanfic

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xgummibearx · 3 years

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Hit with a quirk! Hawkes X (F) Reader

(Been taking my time to write here and there, thank you so much for your patience and allowing me to take a short break from this series! For context since I haven't updated in a while; the pro heroes awere hit with a quirk that turned them into children and the reader is UA's adolescent quirk development specialist. she works with children regularly and has been called to help monitor the heroes until the quirk wears off. Hint: all of the fics I am writing for this series connect. Enjoy!)

(X)= your name

warnings: none

(I've never written or even read anything for Hawkes or Endeavor before but!...I'll try! I'm actually going to be loosely basing Keigo as a kid off my own little brother, I feel he would have been similar lol)

"Hey man lighten up, you're a walking lava lamp! that shouldn't be hard for ya big guy." Hawkes was hovering at Endeavour's eye level, wearing a smirk as he crossed his arms. Endeavour growled, glaring at the stubborn bird brained hero. "Hey what can I say it was a good burn." He added with a snicker. Endeavor swatted at Hawkes as if he were nothing more than a pesky mosquito. His phone was ringing.

"Silence!" He snapped, "The agency is calling." He answered gruffly; "what is the meaning of this? I am working on a case!"

"About that sir!" A voice nervously responded, "we were just informed that Eraserhead and Present Mic disappeared while in pursuit of a lead? Regarding that villain you were pursuing..." Endeavor growled;

"Do I look like a street patroller?! Just get a hold of Fatgum; tell him, and stop wasting my time we're professionals!" He grumbled under his breath; "since when did we come to a time where pro heroes needed babysitters?" His receptionist quietly explained;

"That's the problem sir...Fatgum as well as his intern were the first ones on the scene; but...they disappeared as well, and never made a report." Endeavor froze; what was this? The league? All for One? He narrowed his eyes.

"I see...the situation is alot more serious than I thought, thank you for notifying me. Ensure that the rest of our units continue as normal but have them on standby if things get out of hand."

"yes sir..." Endeavor hung up.

"Come on Hawkes..." He grumbled. "We have work to do."

---

Hawkes was flying high above the air, they were nearing Aizawa and Hizashi's last known location when he heard a loud shout. Keigo stopped, doing a double take. "HEY!" He looked down to see what looked like a group of kids being chased by some wierd looking guy in a purple cloak.

"Pick on someone your own size you psycho!" He shouted, swooping down and kicking the assailant square in the chest. He was knocked back into some garbage cans, making one of the boys cheer.

"Good hit mister!" Hawkes turned with a grin.

"Thanks, don't you worry I'll make sure you get home..." He froze, his eyes wide as he got a good look at the kids. One of the boys was chubby, wih a familiar wide grin. "...Fatgum?..." The kid with shaggy black hair that looked an awful lot like Aizawa suddenly screamed, pointing over Hawkes shoulder.

"HEY LOOK OUT!" The villain suddenly appearing and grabbing Keigo, not to mention Aizawa's shout startled poor Hizashi and he screamed loudly; bringing Keigo and the villain to their knees. In fear, the boy quickly turned and ran.

"Hey, wait!" Keigo tried to stand but the figure in the purple cloak hovered overhead with his boot planted on Hawke's back.

"Come on!" Taishiro quickly lead the others away after Hizashi, "we have to help him!" Hawkes couldnt move as he reached towards the kids.

"Dammit wait!" He froze as he felt a hand on his head.

"Nice try hero!" The last thing Hawkes saw was a cloud of smoke.

---

Keigo was aching all over when he opened his eyes, his tiny body picked up like a ragdoll as the villain lifted him by the scruff of his shirt. The rest of the events were a blur, a huge man that looked like a walking roman candle burst in and punched the villain but as he was picked up, the second that Keigo had touched the man's arm he too was surrounded by smoke.

The next thing Keigo knew, he was sitting in a waiting room with a group of other kids. All of them tired, one kid with particularly shaggy black hair was passed out on the tile floor snoring loudly.

---

"We made arrangements for Taishiro and Hizashi already; do you think you could handle Takami?" (X) shrugged.

"Sure, but if he gives me shit when this thing wears off I'm blaming you!" She chuckled, shaking her head. Nezu laughed, walking alongside her to the waiting room.

"Takami?..." (X) called, glancing around the waiting room. Her eyes fell on a kid with small bright red wings wearing a familiar dazed look. Nezu walked Keigo over, explaining that she was going to look after him for a couple days. The small eight year old boy looked right up at (X) with a deadpan expression.

"So I'm staying with that old lady?" (X) narrowed her eyes, even as a child he had a sharp tongue.

"Keep that up and I'll make you take a bath when we get back home." The boy immediately shut his mouth, remaining quiet until they got home. Keigo was very unimpressed upon arrival as he found himself coaxed into getting a bath anyway. Afterwards as he lay in bed with a sweater that was much too big for him however, even he had to admit he felt much better.

---

"I want chicken nuggets!" The boy declared, his feet on the table and his pitiful wings proudly outstretched. (X) rolled her eyes, he had come barreling into her room at 6am begging to be fed. "I'M STARVING!" He had insisted. She glared at him.

"No." Keigo scrunched his face up and crossed his as he crossed his arms.

"Yes!" He snapped.

"I said no." (X) sighed.

"Well...I said yes!" She smirked.

"That doesn't change anything! You can't have chicken nuggets for breakfast, you're not supposed to have your feet on the table so get them off, and get some manners while you're at it.." (X) grumbled, standing up to the sound of the coffee pot announcing a fresh brew of the nectar of the gods. (X) sipped her coffee slowly, mostly black but with a tiny dash of creme.

"I wanna try some!" Keigo hopped off the table, bouncing at her feet.

"Definitely not, now I am going to wash my face and then I'll make us some eggs okay?" Keigo nodded.

"Okay, eggs are good..." He watched (X) leave then slowly turned to the coffee pot.

(X) returned to find an empty mug left on the ground, a half empty coffee pot and Keigo laughing uncontrollably in the next room. She gasped, he was hanging upside down from the ceiling fan. "KEIGO!?" (X) shouted, running to detatch him. As she got closer Keigo's feathers got caught on the pull switch of the fan and before they knew it he was spinning uncontrollably, was flung off through the air against a wall.

The rest of the morning was no better, he was running around nonstop, even flying indoors and sending things sailing. The school owed her a new set of dishes to put it simply.

Eventually (X) admitted defeat, taking Keigo to the nearby park to blow off some steam. "This kid is going to be the death of me..." (X) moaned, leaning back as exhaustion washed over her. She found herself dozing off, her eyes growing heavy snd before she knew it (X) was asleep. It like it had only been seconds when she was woken to the sound of thunder. There was a very light drizzle but it would definitely get heavier.

Everyone else in the park had left, Keigo was standing on the bench beside her. He was attempting to use his tiny wings as an umbrella. "You look tired...can we go home?" (X) smiled, laughing softly.

"Well aren't you sweet. Okay."

Warm clothes, hot bowls of beef stew, and plenty of cartoons made for the perfect evening. By the end of their third film they had both fallen asleep on the couch, the tiny boy curled up beside (X) with her arms sleepily wrapped around him.

---

It was still the middle of the night when Keigo woke and was back to normal. It was unexpected, considering him suddenly being full size left him with no room on the couch and he loudly crashed to thw floor.

"mm...Takami?..." (X) mumbled, sitting up slowly. She looked at the floor to see Keigo, staring back up her. He could feel his face burning, the memories of the day flooding in.

"uhm...for what it's worth?...I don't actually think you're an old lady..." He mumbled slowly.

(X) smirked, shaking your head. "Come here you idiot..." Keigo curled back up on the couch with her. "So, you're not going to give me shit?" Keigo chuckled, she could feel his voice vibrate as he slowly pulled her into an embrace. His nose and mouth softly nuzzled into the top of her head.

"Maybe I'll wait a couple days first." (X) giggled, her face pressed into his chest.

"Maybe we should go on a coffee date."

Keigo laughed, "oh fuck off!"

#wing hero hawks #hawks x reader #keigo x y/n #mha #bnha #my hero academia #x reader #bnha fanfiction #cute #wholesome #bnha fluff

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troped-fanfic-challenge · 3 years

Text

TROPED: JATP MASTER LIST

And for our encore, the Master List of all 53 (fifty-three!?) fanfics written for our FIRST Julie and the Phantoms TROPED event!! It was such a treat for us to see how a new fandom took on our prompts! We, here at TROPED, love it when our authors push the limits of what a trope can be, and this fandom kept us on our toes, and we loved every word! We hope you enjoy these trope bending, phantastic fics as much as we did!

New rockstar writers joined us for the first time for this event, which is the coolest thing for us! We love getting to see how different fandoms interpret our prompts and how you see these stories through the lens of different characters. We learned a lot about how to run an event this round, with new voices helping us to make TROPED better, which was so exciting. We came out of this event with new ideas, and we’re pumped for what’s next! We hope you’ll join us again soon ;)!

*Some summaries have been edited for length. Tumblr has a max post length. Who knew!

ROUND 1: ANGST FICS

The Tropes:

Character discovers they’re not human

Coffee Shop AU

Poorly Timed Confession

Character A catches Character B crying

————

the sky was gray and white and (cloudy) (Rated T) [Alex x Willie] by @screamin-amuseum

Summary: “I’ve got you,” Willie’s whispering over and over, panic creeping into his voice. “Alex, I’ve got you, okay? Come on, baby, come on, it’s okay, I’ve got you, you’re gonna be okay, I love you–”

Alex spits out what feels like a clot of blood and gives Willie a tired grin, probably looking completely insane.

“That’s pretty gay of you,” he says, just as his vision clouds over and he passes out.

Honey, You’re Familiar (Like My Mirror Years Ago) (Rated T) [Julie x Luke] by nik_knows_nothing

Summary: Luke works at a coffee shop, which is normal, quietly pines after his coworker, which is normal, and also occasionally steals people’s faces without really meaning to.

It’s probably that last part that moves him pretty solidly out of the “normal” territory.

But that’s fine, that’s totally cool.

He’s handling it super well.

You Can’t Value People Less Than a Good, Hot Cup of Bean Juice (It Just Seems Rude) (Rated T) [Julie x Luke] by nik_knows_nothing

Summary: Julie gets a job at a coffee stand in the middle of nowhere.

It’ll help to pass the time, if nothing else.

And if there’s a cute guy who works the shift after her and sometimes leaves her ridiculously endearing messages on an ancient tape recorder?

Well, that’s just a bonus.

honest to god I’ll break your heart, tear you to pieces and rip you apart (Rated T) [Julie x Luke] by @tonightthestarsalign

Summary: the siren!Julie AU no one asked for

new instincts (Rated T) [Luke x Reggie] by @comeonpeters

Summary: Reggie is fine with being the only human member of his band, Julie and the Phantoms (tell your friends!), just like he’s fine with being the only single member. It doesn’t make him feel lonely, and he’s only picking up more shifts at the coffee shop because he needs more money, not because he’s avoiding being alone. And picking up more shifts at the coffee shop is making the work easier! He’s only a little confused by the fact that he can now touch the espresso machine mid shift without burning himself… must be all of the experience.

you look like you’ve just seen a monster (is that what i look like to you?) (Rated T) [Bobby x Alex x Luke x Reggie] by @aroacethetic-shitpost

Summary: it’s angsty tiefling bobby time, folks!

We Are Monsters, We Are Proud (Rated G) [Flynn x Carrie, Julie x Luke] by @americanhoney913

Summary: Carrie finds herself at a college like no other in search of her dad and some answers. Julie’s not feeling good and maybe staring at roses wasn’t the best idea.

Monster College/Coffeeshop AU

sending forth their beautiful voice, and my heart was fain to listen (Rated G) [Julie x Carrie] by @madeline-kahn

Summary: Months after the death of her mom, Julie prepares to sing again and makes an upsetting discovery.

rise from the ashes (Rated M) [Alex x Willie] by @willexxmercer

Summary: At a time when everything was going wrong for Alex, the one bright spot in his life was the charming barista at the coffee shop he frequented. At least, it was the bright spot until everything went up in flames. All he could do was hope that they could rise from the ashes and figure things out together.

Siren’s Song (Rated T) [Ray x Rose] by hufflebibin

Summary: The Scopuli was never meant to be a permanent arrangement. Rose had taken the job straight out of school just looking to make a little extra money before the tour kicked off.

That was four years ago.

After a string of bad luck befalls Rose and the Petal Pushers, she can’t help but wonder if she is the problem. Or is there something more sinister at play?

Yellow (Rated T) [Julie & Reggie] by @tmp-jatp

Summary: Reggie just wanted to get some new guitar strings. A shapeshifter!Reggie au

Angels Like You (Rated T) [Luke x Reggie] by @sunsetcurveofficial

Summary: Reggie is having a bit of a weird day. It gets worse when he figures out that it’s because he died in his sleep and has somehow been walking around as a ghost without realising it. Meeting Luke helps. Luke says he’s a fellow ghost, and there is something about him that Reggie just feels drawn to. Falling for him is the easiest thing Reggie has ever done, but Luke is a little more than he lets on, and it turns out that their story actually started long before Reggie thought it did.

look into my eyes (it’s where my demons hide) (Rated T) [Flynn x Carrie] by @fanfics-she-wrote

Summary: Hiding out from demons was never a desirable nightmare. Of course, Carrie would much prefer a run-for-my-life nightmare than actually running for her life. Having Flynn around is a very welcome soothing balm, though.

Bring All The Monsters Out To Play, Let All The Red Erase The Grey (Rated T) [Bobby & Reggie] by @kennysbirthday

Summary: Mythologicals, Reggie realised, were kind of like queer people. Sometimes your Token Human friend turns around one day and admits that actually, there was something they were suppressing all along, and they hadn’t realised.

–

Reggie’s final exam has been pushed forward at the most inconvenient time. Bobby is sick, Alex is missing, and now he needs to help a selkie get their ‘Happily-Ever-After’ in order to scrape a passing grade. Oh, and if his boss catches him handing out more free coffee, he’s gonna get fired.

————

ROUND 2: FLUFF FICS

The Tropes:

Exes

Time Loop AU

Camp Counselors

Prank Wars

————

Okay, Campers, Rise and Shine! (Rated T) [Julie x Luke] by nik_knows_nothing

Summary: The Groundhog Day meets Gravity Falls meets Summer Camp meets The Author’s Own Distaste For Prank Wars AU that no one asked for. Ever. At all.

Starting To Forget (Just What Summer Ever Meant To You) (Not Rated) [Flynn x Carrie] by bi_magic

Summary: Last summer didn’t end on a positive note for Carrie Wilson - she and her girlfriend broke up on the last night of camp, and she’s been miserable since. But it seems that the universe is intent on having her fix that this summer. Even if that means she has to live through the same day over and over and over again until she does.

Creative B.S. Was No More, Was No Less (Look Around, You’re Gonna Miss What You Found) (Rated T) [Alex x Luke, Flynn x Reggie] by @americanhoney913

Summary: Alex and Luke go undercover on a mission to a summer camp in order to find a talisman that could endanger the camp and all the kids. While there, they bond with the kids and make peace with the fact that they broke up.

While Alex and Luke are away, Flynn accidentally fucks with time.

bitch but like romantically (Rated T) [Flynn x Carrie] by @screamin-amuseum

Summary: or: flynn gets stuck in a time loop. {for troped jatp round 2}

down by the bay (Rated T) [Alex x Willie] by @sunsetcurbed

Summary: Over time, Camp Phantom has simply become known as a selective summer camp: one that took only the kids that Caleb saw promise in. And Caleb wasn’t exactly lying. He really did take only the ones he saw promise in, he simply looked for different traits than others might.

For example, say, hypothetically, a boy who could see the future. Or, hypothetically, a girl who could interact with ghosts. Or, hypothetically, a boy who could summon objects to him with a simple thought. Or, and this is completely hypothetical mind you, a boy who could manipulate time.

Those might be some traits that Caleb saw promise in. Just, like, as examples.

Time will tell (But only if you do it right) (Rated T) [Flynn x Carrie] by @malecacidd

Summary: Carrie had been acting a little off for a week or so, but Flynn was pretty much known for seeing something in nothing, and that was probably what they were doing then. If something was going on, Carrie would tell her eventually.

Who knew all it took was a little bit of miscommunication to mess up time itself?

and so it begins (Rated T) [Bobby x Reggie] by @comeonpeters

Summary: It’s the first day of their second week at Camp Carolling (they’re spending an entire month, and they’re getting paid to be there!) when Reggie gets a little lost in the woods. During this misadventure into the woods, he finds an egg shaped rock, an inhabited cabin that may or may not be riddled with signs, and something that might be magic. He probably doesn’t get paid enough to discover magic.

or, when they were thirteen years old, four boys met at camp carolling and eventually became a band that almost became something legendary. now, all four boys are coming back as counselors, three boys in one band and one boy in his own solo act.

so begins the reunion, though it doesn’t go how any of them imagine.

Porcupine Day (Rated T) [Bobby x Ray x Rose] by @wr0temyway0ut

Summary: It’s been fifteen years since Trevor broke up with Ray and Rose and they’re… not fine, but managing. But when Trevor to adds insult to injury and buys the camp across the lake from the one they once owned together, the two camps become locked in a bitter rivalry. With neither side willing to set aside their pride and work out their issues, the universe decides to settle their fates itself.

Day After Day (After Day After Day) (Rated T) [Alex x Willie] by hufflebibin

Summary: When Alex met Willie just after their senior year of high school, they spent a wonderful three months dating before their relationship ended in a blaze of glory. Now, four years later, they meet again as counselors at a summer camp. The only problem? Alex keeps reliving their first day together. The day that Luke had declared “Prank Day.”

This is not how Alex pictured his summer going.

clocks move faster (it’s all we’re after) (Rated G) [Julie x Luke] by @willexxmercer

Summary: Julie likes it when her friends are happy, so when she realizes she’s stuck in a time loop, she uses her knowledge to make sure everything works out for everyone… except she conveniently forgets to factor herself (and Luke) into the mix.

Touch of Magic (Not Rated) [Alex x Luke] by @williexmercer

Summary: When everything stands in Luke and Alex’s way of getting to be with the people they love, they have to repeat the day over and over until they can get the happily ever after that they want.

the play’s the thing (that goes wrong) (Rated T) [Alex x Willie] by @madeline-kahn

Summary: Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow creeps in this petty pace from day to day for Macbeth, but not so for Alex and the production of Hamlet that he is directing and starring in. And while he’s stuck repeating the day of the performance over and over, mishaps of all kinds befall the cast.

anything, anything (for another run with you) (Rated T) [Alex x Willie] by @aroacethetic-shitpost

Summary: the camp counselor/exes/prank war/time loop fic of your dreams (unless you read all of the other troped round 2 fics lmao)

there’s a glorious sunrise, dappled with the flickers of light (Rated T) [Julie x Luke] by @tonightthestarsalign

Summary: ex-best friends Luke and Julie, working as camp counselors at rivaling camps, find themselves stuck in a time loop

the daughter of apollo (Rated T) [Julie x Luke] by @the-most-beautiful-broom

Summary: the JATP x Camp Half Blood AU that nobody asked for

maybe the world isn’t ending (maybe it’s been postponed) (Rated G) [Julie x Luke] by @tmp-jatp

Summary: It’s the last day of camp and Julie has one more prank planned for Luke. He just doesn’t know what it is.

Here We Go Again (Rated T) [Julie x Luke] by @kybee1497

Summary: Julie blinked as she stared at the place Euterpe had disappeared. What did that even mean? What journey? Old places and lost faces? What was she talking about? But before she could dwell on the questions swirling around in her mind, the sky full of stars began to move, shifting in place and descending until they were all around her. Julie felt her feet leave the ground as she rose up and up. One star in particular was burning brighter than the others, growing bigger in front of her.

It grew and grew, until the light was blinding and Julie had to throw a hand up against the harsh light. She closed her eyes as the light surrounded her and then she was falling. Falling down, down, down.

————

ROUND 3: CANONVERSE FICS

The Tropes:

Secret Places

Neighbors

First Kiss

Time Jump

————

Just say you won’t let go (Rated G) [Julie/Luke] by @fanfics-she-wrote

Summary: Hey, Julie

You're the heart and soul 'round here, it's plain to see

in which Julie has a second chance with her boys, and then a third

we will fight to shine together (bright forever) (Rated G) [Bright Lighting Guy/Rob from the Orpheum] by @screamin-amuseum

Summary: the rob/bright lighting guy fic literally nobody asked for but i wrote anyways. enjoy gays, bring ur tissues

what happened when (Rated G) [Alex/Luke] by @janaikam

Summary: Before Julie and the Phantoms, before the guys became ghosts, before Sunset Curve – they were Luke and Alex. Not 5 feet apart cause they’re totally gay.

who cares if one more light goes out? (in a sky of a million stars) (Rated T) [Ray/Rose] by @tonightthestarsalign

Summary: The first and the last time Ray ever kissed Rose.

we can forget the world (just you and me) (Rated T) [Alex/Willie] by @sunsetcurbed

Summary: “This was the first place I ever came out to someone,” Alex says, spinning around and taking in the tree house.

together we can take on the world (Rated G) [Alex/Reggie] by @comeonpeters

Summary: Alex Mercer meets Reggie Peters on October 8, 1983, which means that two days have passed since Reggie’s sixth birthday, because Reggie is a Libra according to the magazines that his mom reads when she gets Reggie to paint her toenails. He’s also just moved to Los Angeles, California from his hometown of Gatlinburg, Tennessee, a small town in the mountains, and he’s told Alex Mercer about all of this in the three minutes that they’ve known each other, and he might be the loudest, most obnoxious boy that Alex has ever met, and he absolutely has to be Alex’s new best friend.

The Peters family moves in down the street from the Mercers in 1983, and so begins the rest of their lives.

Long Live (Can I start another life with you?) (Rated T) [Julie/Luke] by @smolfangirl

Summary: It’s all too much for one day: first a muffin, then more heartbeats. Julie just needs some time to think. If Luke runs after her to sit by her side so she doesn’t lose it, she won’t complain.

Except afterwards, he starts acting weird. Very weird. And months later, she’s tired of letting him keep his distance.

She can’t do this. Not right now. Not today.

She jumps back on her feet.

The excited grin falls from Luke’s face. She doesn’t try to catch it.

“I – I think this is too much. I need some time. Alone. Sorry.”

Then she runs. She runs past the calloused fingers reaching out to her. Past Reggie and the door, past carved pumpkins on porches and Cornelia Street.

She just runs.

Roses (Rated G) [Emily & Luke, Alex/Luke] by @americanhoney913

Summary: It becomes a sacred place she shares with her son. Mitch is usually off at work from dawn until six o’clock, but Emily’s working from home for now. She works as a florist’s shop right outside the neighborhood. So she brings home seeds and little flowers and other cuts from the store; she and Luke will spend hours out in the dirt, planting seeds and making mud pies and Luke will babble about whatever happened in daycare and make up stories about the different flowers.

Somewhere Only We Know (Rated T) [Nick/Carrie] by hufflebibin

Summary: A journey through Nick Danforth-Evan’s life as experienced in the safety of his backyard hide away.

The Itty Bitty Details (Rated T) [Alex/Willie] by @williexmercer & @futurearchaeologyprof

Summary: 5 times Willie knew Alex and one where Alex knew Willie

you’re the only one who makes me (my wildflower) (Rated T) [Bobby/Reggie] by @willexxmercer

Summary: The tree was Reggie’s safe space, and Bobby was his safe person. He could escape all his troubles there, except for one nagging thought - did he have feelings for his best friend?

Dying complicated things.

because i’ve known you so long, i know every cadence and what they mean (Rated G) [Alex & Julie, Julie/Luke] by @tmp-jatp

Summary: the Juke 5+1 fic from Alex’s POV.

Someday (I’ll See You Again) (Rated T) [Alex/Willie] by @kybee1497

Summary: They’re wrong. Alex, you are not a failure. You’re incredible. You’re smart. You’re funny, and the best friend I could ask for. You’re a wicked talented drummer and you have a beautiful voice. And more important than all of that, is that you’re you, Alex. And the you you are is wonderful, and lovable and perfect. If your parents can’t see that, that’s their own fault. But I swear, Alex. If you’re afraid of them, I need you to tell me. You have to be safe.” Willie’s voice had gone desperate by the end. Alex deserved to know how freaking amazing he was and the fact that his parents didn’t bother to tell him, and actively worked to tear him down instead, was infuriating.

But Willie also worried about him. He’d worried about Alex since the first time he heard Mr. Mercer shouting through the window, a worry that never really went away. Not with the way Alex automatically straightened up when his parents were mentioned, as if he could hear his dad lecturing him about appearances from miles away. Not with the way Alex looked when he was with them, perfectly pieced together and falling apart at the seams, eyes distant and shoulders tense. Willie was pretty sure he had worrying about Alex etched in his bones by this point.

The Energy Never Dies (Rated T) [Gen Fic] by @americanhoney913

Summary: Four moments across time in the loft of the Molina’s garage.

————

ROUND 4: FINAL!

Theme: Author’s Choice

Tropes:

Royalty AU

Soulmate AU

“Long Story Short…”

Author’s Choice

———

Look, Steal From the Rich. Do It. (Rated T) [Julie/Luke] by nik_knows_nothing

Summary: A Julie and the Phantoms Star Wars AU that kind of looks into the ramifications of soul marks in a turbulent society, but mostly just focuses on the gang infiltrating a fancy Core World party.

take my heart (and take my hand) (Rated T) [Alex/Willie] by @sunsetcurbed

Summary: The stranger smiles. “I’m Willie,” he greets.

“Alex,” Alex nods back.

“Sir,” Willie says pointedly, and smirks up at him as he bows exaggeratedly.

“The word sir is coming out of your mouth directed at me, but I don’t feel like you just addressed me as a sir at all. And please, call me Alex.”

“My apologies,” Willie hums, straightening back up. And then, pointedly, he lowers himself back into the same bow and makes deliberate eye contact with Alex. “Sir.”

Alex blinks. “You’re not going to call me Alex, are you?”

“Absolutely not, Sir.”

the princess and the lord (Rated T) [Julie/Luke] by @the-most-beautiful-broom

Summary: a JATP x Princess Diaries 2 AU

Diamond in the Rough (Rated G) [Julie/Luke] by @tmp-jatp

Summary: The JATP Aladdin AU

Okay, So You’re Interrupting the Political Guy Again, So Think About That (Rated T) [Julie/Luke] by nik_knows_nothing

Summary: Julie and the Phantoms meets The Goblin Emperor meets a soulmate AU meets the author’s stunning lack of what I assume is basic knowledge on how monarchies work.

i had the time of my life, fighting dragons with you (Rated T) [Julie/Luke] by @tonightthestarsalign

Summary: luke gets hired by some noble to bring back the princess that was kidnapped by a dragon

born to be yours (Rated G) [Alex/Willie] by @willexxmercer

Summary: “Hello. It feels strange, resorting to notes like this, but I couldn’t think of any other way. I know you’re here, somewhere. At the ball. I’ve tried to find you for the past few nights. My parents always told me never to believe in looped days and soulmates, but I think this just proves that they were wrong.

My name is Willie. I don’t know how to find you, but sometimes I feel like I’m drawn to you. Like I can just sense you nearby. I don’t know if you’ll find this, but if you do, I’ll try to wait for you on the balcony.

Until we meet.”

our best days are yet unknown (Rated T) [Alex/Reggie/Willie] by @aroacethetic-shitpost

Summary: When Prince Alexander of Sacuria meets his fiance, Prince William of Coterra, he’s astonished to discover that he recognizes his daemon. He recognizes it as one of the other shapes that his own daemon is able to take… as his soulmate. The only problem? Alex already has a soulmate: Reggie Peters, his childhood best friend. What should he do about finally meeting his second soulmate?

Panic and run away? Yeah, sure.

Little does he know he’s about to have a bigger problem than that…

————

Please take the time to read of all these incredible fics! Leave the authors some kudos/comments! They worked so hard this whole event. Thanks so much!

Just as a reminder, our non-anon collection is always open and we are always so excited to receive any submissions! The TROPED: JATP official collection has been CLOSED but if any of our prompts inspire you, please share your fics with us in our non-anon collection! Simple put ‘TROPED_Non_Anonymous’ where it asks for the collection name, and be sure to put what round you are writing for in your notes so we can be sure to tag it appropriately when we share! Also, just as a note, fics submitted to the non-anon collection do not have to follow the word limit and do not require the same strict adherence to the tropes, though we do ask that you comply with our other rules regarding no rape, incest, negativity, and things like that! Happy writing!

TROPED JATP AO3 Collection: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/TROPED_JATP_1

TROPED Non-Anon AO3 Collection: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/TROPED_Non_Anonymous

#troped: jatp #jatp fanfiction #troped: masterlist #julie and the phantoms #long post

39 notes · View notes

bangchanstudio · 4 years

Text

Never Have I Ever | Changbin (2/?)

pairing: seo changbin x fem! reader

genre: university au, awkward friends to ? something more?, smut, mild angst, dom!changbin tendencies?, oral (giving)

tw: sex..ish

word count: 4.6k

ch.one // ch.three

synopsis: you couldn’t for the life of you remember what the fuck happened at the party that made Changbin avoid you like the plague. your friends clearly succeed in their quest to get you drunk, but now you’re left wondering what happened after you went into that room with Changbin. It bothered you so much that you ended up at his door step in the middle of the night looking for clarity, instead you found yourself in other shit.

note: again, i don’t know what the fuck i’m doing, but i hope you like it! I’m going to start a taglist for this, if you want to be added let me know in the tags or send me a message!

“What the hell was that?” No one would look at you.

Seungmin was sipping on his iced peach tea looking rather interested in his nails, Jinnie was clearing his throat and touching up his face in his little compact mirror, Felix was playing god knows what on his phone and Jisung was just straight up staring at the ceiling.

“Hello?” You said, snapping your fingers in everyone’s face. “Is no one going to answer?”

Seungmin looked at Jinnie, who in turn looked at Felix who just shrugged before saying, “She’ll find out eventually.”

“What will she find out eventually? That my friends are all backstabbing assholes? Well, she already knows that!” You massaged your temple remembering the events of the night before. Never have I ever, admitting your secrets, sitting on Changbin’s lap, and then worse: getting locked in the bedroom with him watching explicit videos before being allowed freedom. There was something else… but your mind was too fuzzy to remember exactly what.

Frustrated you reached for your phone that was face down on the cafe table, mumbling about how unfair all of this was.

Jisung sighed before wrapping his arms around your shoulders, snuggling his cheek to yours, “Don’t be upset, (Y/N). We were just trying to have a little fun.”

Out of all of your friends, the one you couldn’t ever be mad at was Jisung. There was just something about him that made you want to protect him, he was funny and sweet. He was always the first one to notice when you were upset and made it his personal life goal to make you smile. While, you had never been mad at him before, you were pretty close to being mad at him now.

“Fun at the expense of my sanity?” You pouted accepting Ji’s hug and snuggled into the crook of his neck. Your eyes locked on Hyunjin’s who was seated across from you, his beautiful chocolate brown eyes that looked lighter today. They were loud and calculating. You could tell he was, for once, thinking of what he should say.

“Yes, because your sanity is exactly what I plan on destroying.” He smirked his mean girl smile before excusing himself for his next class.

One by one everyone left until it was just you and your laptop. There was an empty word document pulled up on half the screen and the other half was displaying the most recent chapter of Freaking Romance webtoon. Studying wasn’t your strong suit and neither was focusing on a single task for more than a few minutes at a time.

“What an asshole,” You mumbled to your screen, clicking your pen ferociously.

“Oi,” Chan greeted before dumping a textbook on the table startling you and causing the pen you were beating to fall to the floor.

Reaching over to grab it another hand beat you to it. You looked up and came face to face with Changbin.

“Shit,” you said. You tried sitting up straight too quickly and bumped heads with him on the way up, “I’m so sorry.”

Idiot! Why are you being so jumpy? You scolded yourself, rubbing the top of your head that clashed with Changbin’s. Your cheeks turned red as the memory of you sitting on his lap last night came rushing back. The way his eyebrow raised when you drank to kissing a girl, the way his eyes fixated on yours as you drank to “Never have I ever thought of someone else while having sex”, the way his hands clenched in his jacket pockets up on the rooftop, to following him into the bedroom to watch p*rn, to… what else happened? Your memory was still too fuzzy to recall anything other than his back as you followed him into the bedroom. The feeling of a memory being just out of reach annoyed you.

“I just came to give this back,” Chan said placing the book he borrowed next to your laptop. It was Hermann Hesse’s “Demian”, you let Chan borrow it at the start of summer, you honestly thought he had lost it or threw it away.

“It took you six months to read one book? I thought you threw it away or something.” You laughed, flipping through your old book remembering when you had read it for the very first time. Now, it smelled like Chan’s room. “Anyways, what happened last night? I don’t remember much just waking up on the couch, but no one was home.”

Under normal circumstances and to normal friend groups that might not have been the weirdest thing, but to your friends that was abnormal. Everyone knew the passcode to your apartment and you often found one or multiple of the guys there unexpectedly. When you had your get togethers everyone stayed over, always, at least until noon the following day or whenever you had classes. This morning was the first time you woke up after a party to an empty place.

“Oh, we just-“ Chan started before being interrupted by Changbin dragging him away by his backpack. You weren’t sure, since his cap was hiding his face like usual, but you could have sworn his face was… red.

“Sorry (Y/N) we’re late for something and I gotta steal this guy.” Changbin shouted before rushing out the door, Chan practically fell over in the process.

Well, that was weird.

—

Changbin was avoiding you, again. This time you knew for sure he was avoiding you. It had been 2 weeks since your get together and anytime he so much as spotted you within a 20-foot radius he would turn on his heels and disappear. No matter how hard you pushed for someone to tell you something, no one budged. Everyone insisted that you both went into the room, watched one video and that was the end of that. If that were true then why was Changbin avoiding you like the plague?

Was he really that freaked out over watching some vanilla p*rn?

“(Y/N), can I ask you something?” Chan was cooking breakfast in the kitchen while you finished citing your sources for Lit.

“Mm?”

“You know Changbin likes you, right?”

Your fingers stopped typing, eyes snapping over to Chan from the table, “He what?”

Chan came around placing a small plate of eggs and toast in front of you before taking a seat. “Changbin likes you.”

Maybe smoking really was bad for you after all. “I’m sorry, what did you say? I thought I heard you say that Changbin likes me.”

A nervous laughed left your lips as you sipped at your morning coffee. The warmth soothing your building nerves.

Chan was giving you that look again. The one where he lets you see the honesty in his eyes and on his face. He was really handsome, like really handsome. Even though you started out having a crush on him, that quickly faded into pure platonic love for him after the first few months of being friends. He was too kind and pure for you after all. Chan was good; you doubted you were. No matter how much you searched his face, his eyes, his lips for a twitch or some kind of giveaway that he was lying, anything.

There was nothing.  He was telling the truth.

“Seo Changbin, likes you.” Chan said, emphasizing every single word as if to get it through your thick skull.

You squeezed your eyes shut, shaking your head, “If that were true, then why is he avoiding me?” You didn’t mean to sound so annoyed, especially when it wasn’t even Chan whom you were annoyed with, you couldn’t help it. Part of you felt like this whole party had been a set up just to embarrass you.

Chan raked his hands through his hair in mild annoyance, but he usually wasn’t one to get annoyed in the first place so any time he displayed any type of annoyance it made you flinch. “I don’t know, (Y/N), why don’t you just ask him?”

That was a lie.

The blinking of the line where you left off typing was your only source of distraction. You didn’t want to look up. Why am I like this?, you thought, just talk to Changbin. Stop making things awkward.

—

It was late probably close to midnight. Your whole day was spent contemplating Chan’s words, flipping them around and upside down. Picking them apart and putting them back together to form “Changbin likes you.” Before you realized what you were doing you found yourself outside of Changbin’s apartment. He transferred a week into the semester which is why he wasn’t placed with one of the guys.

“Can I help you?” You jumped as a tall guy appeared seemingly out of nowhere. He had a backpack slung over his shoulder and textbooks in the other.

“Oh, s-sorry, I was just looking for a friend.” You stuttered waving to the door.

“Does this friend have a name?”

“Changbin.”

The guy nodded telling you to follow him inside the apartment. He said something about it not being wise to leave a girl out in the cold. After you stepped into the warm apartment you were grateful. Your thoughts had consumed you to the point of not even grabbing a jacket when you left your place. He said his name was Sam and that he was going to be gone that night, so to feel free to stay over. You blushed and told him he was mistaking the situation. Sam seemed nice enough.

He called out for Changbin as he walked into his room.

“I’m in the shower!” You heard Changbin call out.

“There’s someone here to see you!” Sam called back.

“Be out in a sec!”

Sam gave you kind smile, “Make yourself at home, I just came to get change of clothes.”

He was in and out of his room in seconds, leaving you alone in the quiet apartment, the only sound coming from the shower. Changbin had music playing in the bathroom and you sat nervously on the couch, scolding yourself for coming here in the first place.

It’s not like you planned to confess your feelings for him. Maybe you just wanted things to go back to the way they were, back to those long afternoons in your high school hideout where everyone laughed and cried together. Where you fought and made up. Where you did homework and tried cheap drugs together. Back to when you didn’t fear holding onto Changbin, in that dark forest, because you trusted him with your life.

The click of the bathroom door opening broke through your thoughts.

“Oh, it’s you.” Changbin was shirtless, with only joggers and a towel wrapped around his shoulders. You tried to avert your gaze as fast as possible, biting your lip to keep yourself from squealing, your face flushed. How could he be so hot? His arms looked bigger than Chan’s now, and his chest could no undoubtedly be dubbed the eighth wonder of the world. “What are you doing here?”

“I just… came to see you.” Great response. There was no way you could stay here, “Maybe I should come back later, I didn’t realize it was this late. Honestly, I’m not even sure how I ended up here…”  “No, it’s okay. You can stay.” Changbin said stepping closer before realizing he was still half naked. He lifted his towel from around his shoulders to dry his hair, “Wait here, I’m just going to grab a shirt.”

When he came back he offered you a glass of water, apologizing for not having anything better like tea or coffee.

“It was my roommates turn to do the grocery shopping but he’s pre-med and forgets shit easily.” He said from the opposite side of the couch.

You sat cross legged facing him from your side. Just being this close to him gave you those annoying butterflies in your tummy. Changbin mindlessly flipped through the channels of the TV before deciding on a horror movie.

“So… why are you really here?” You were expecting the question from the moment you stepped foot into the apartment, but still hadn’t worked out a decent answer. Changbin turned to face you straight on for the first time that night.

His face was unreadable, the way it usually was. Damp hair, dark eyes, fresh skin.

“I came to ask… if I did something wrong at the party?” The surprise was clear on his face, he wasn’t expecting that. “I don’t really remember anything after we walked into the room other than what we were suppose to do. And well, I feel like you’ve sort of been avoiding me since then. I know we don’t really talk anymore, but it just seemed like you were actively avoiding me these days… I just thought maybe there was a reason.. ?”

Changbin searched your face before looking down and smirking. “You really don’t remember anything? Like.. at all?”

You shook your head, the worry in your chest building. What if you said something pervy or worse, tried to seduce him? The thought made you visibly shake.

“Nope, nothing.”

He shrugged, “We watched porn. You chose. It was a pretty good video. After that I left and you stayed.”

Something still felt off, there was still something missing. While, you didn’t know Changbin’s tells as well as you did Chan’s, you still felt as if he was holding something back, “Really? That’s what Seungmin told me but I just feel like there’s something missing.”

You squinted, and spaced out before bring the glass of water up to your teeth and tapping it slightly against them.

The only memories that seemed to comeback were feelings of heat and something grabbing your jaw…

“Oh my fuck!” You shouted as a blood curling scream echoed from the movie scaring you half way to death. The mostly full glass of water you just had was now empty in your lap, your white t-shirt and jeans soaked. “Shit, I’m so sorry.”

Changbin laughed as he got up and helped you, taking the glass off of your lap and placing it on the side table.

“Why are you apologizing to me? You’re the one who’s drenched. Come here, I’ll let you borrow some clothes.” You followed Changbin into his room. It was painted a dark grey and decorated with the basics: a bed, desk, recording equipment — of course — and a laptop. There was something else on his desk that caught your attention.

It was your high school Photo ID card, senior year.

“You still have this?” You asked smiling and turning to show him the card. It was customary for friends to trade Photo ID cards at the end of school years, usually middle schoolers and high schoolers did so. There was no particular reason why you gave yours to Changbin other than the fact that he was the first one to ask you for it. Jisung pouted for days afterwards, but you reminded him he had your junior year ID card. He still didn’t give it up easily.

Changbin’s cheeks turned a light pink, “Oh, yeah. It’s cute.”

“Didn’t really take you for the sentimental type.” You mumbled bitterly before placing the card back on his desk.

“What is that suppose to mean?” There was hurt in his voice.

When did he step closer?

“I just figured you weren’t that sentimental…” You trailed off distracting yourself with looking around his room, anywhere but at him. “You didn’t seem to care.”

The words slipped out before you could swallow them. You squeezed your eyes shut, exhaling. “Maybe I should just go. Coming here was a bad idea.”

You tried brushing past him but he caught your wrist with a tight grip. He didn’t pull you back, but he didn’t let you go either.

“I’m sorry… for leaving.”

Your eyes widened in shock.

The truth was, it wasn’t all his parents fault. He could have stayed if he wanted to, but he didn’t. You didn’t find that out until later though, one night when Jinnie was too drunk for his own good and was scolding you for not trying to move on. He called it the worst break up to never exist. Whatever that was suppose to mean. There was no hiding your true feelings from your friends, they all knew you were in love with Changbin, even if you were too stubborn to admit it to yourself. It was stupid, you were nothing to Changbin, he didn’t have a reason to stay in the first place.

“The truth is, I was scared of falling in love with you… so I ran away.” His grip tightened around your wrist, you wondered if maybe he’d cut your circulation.

His words made your heart sink.

“Am I really that terrible, that you’d rather leave than want me?” Your voice was small, the tears you were trying so desperately to keep at bay were blurring your vision. Your fists were clenched tight, you could feel your nails leaving moon marks on your palms.

“I was scared of hurting you, (Y/N). That’s why. There are things about me that you don’t know, things I’ve never shared with anyone. Things I’ve done that I’m not proud of. Things that could have hurt you, things that could have put you in danger. Not only you but everyone else too.” His voice was so full of pain, all you wanted to do was take it away.

You turned to face him, he was breathing a little heavier, and his voice was shaking. In that moment it was as if you were scared teenagers again.

“You didn’t have to push us away like that, Changbin. We could have helped you, we could have come up with a plan or—“ You weren’t sure what he meant by putting you all in danger but you knew if you were all together, there was nothing that could stop you. “Why didn’t you let us in?”

The tears spilled over, running down your cheeks, your voice was weak. You covered your mouth with your freehand closing your eyes trying to center yourself again, trying desperately to get a hold of yourself. There was nothing worse than letting people see you cry.

“I didn’t realize..” Changbin didn’t finish his sentence, instead he pulled you to his chest wrapping his arms around your waist and burying his face in the crook of your neck, “I’m so sorry for hurting you.”

He was warm.. he always was. You could feel his heartbeat racing, and his breathing hitch as if he was trying to hold back his feelings too.

You hid your face in his chest, sobs escaping your lips, fists clenched on the hem of his t-shirt. Minutes passed; it felt like hours. Neither of you spoke a word, instead the room was echoed with your small sniffles. The sound of Changbin’s heartbeat returned to normal after awhile and you felt like you could sleep for days after that long cry.

“Sorry for crying,” It took you a minute to find your voice, “I think I’m going crazy.”

Changbin brushed your hair to the side, “Stop apologizing. It’s okay. I’m the one who is sorry.”

You looked up at him, still with his arms around you. His eyes were soft and mesmerizing, they reminded you of home. His lips were also pretty and plump, you wanted so desperately to feel them against your own. Just once…

Before you could stop yourself you reached on your tip-toes to meet Changbin’s lips. They were softer than you imagined, like silk or cream. He tensed under your touch before you felt him relax and close his eyes. His hands at the small of your back pushed your body closer to his, your still wet t-shirt making you shiver.

Or was it his touch that made you tremble?

You brought your hands up to his hair, fluffy and soft from being air dried. What started out as a sweet and small kiss soon turned into a deeper and hungrier affair. Your were starting to moan slightly into his mouth when he pulled back.

“I didn’t realize this is what kissing you would feel like.” He breathed, pupils dilated, his breathing was shallow. “Can we keep doing this?”

You nodded pulling him back into your lips, teeth teasing his bottom lip, you felt him smile. Changbin walked you both backwards before finding the edge of his mattress and sitting on it, back to the headboard.

The wet of your clothes was making you shake so you unzipped your pants and pulled them down, kicking them to the side. There was a tshirt folded up on Changbin’s night stand that you grabbed pulling it over your head and on top of your wet one. Then you pulled your arms into your wet one taking it off without revealing yourself to him any more than you already had.

“Nice trick,” Changbin laughed as you discard the wet t-shirt. His fit you big like a mini dress, you felt cute in it brushing your hair behind your ear. “Come here.”

He grabbed your hand, pulling you onto his lap. His body was warm and strong. You felt shy straddling him and couldn’t help burying your face in his shoulder and squealing.

“What are we doing?” You whined making Changbin laugh, the vibrations of his chest running through your hands.

“Whatever you want, baby.” He chimed.

You straighten immediately, “Baby? Since when am I baby?”

“Ever since you made your way onto my lap.” He was so cocky, it turned you on.

His lips crashed on yours with more fever than before, his hands gripping your cold thighs before making their way up and squeezing your ass. He moaned at the feeling of his hands on your skin, the sound was sweet and filled your ears with pleasure. His tongue teased your lips before you granted him access to meet yours, teasing him with your tongue before letting him dominate. You giggled at the sensation, making him laugh too.

“What?” He asked his voice getting lower and raspier, you could hear the smirk in it. “Do you like it when I win?”

“Maybe.” You confessed. You weren’t exactly a full dom, but for Changbin all you wanted was to be a sub. You laid your head on his shoulder, catching your breath. He grabbed your jaw forcing you look him in the eyes.

“What do you want me to do, baby?” His fingers were rough against the skin of your jaw, your eyes wide at the motion. His eyes were so dark, so lusty, so hungry for you. “If you tell me to stop—.”

You shook your head viciously, “No, it’s okay. I wa—“ You stopped yourself from sounding so desperate, what the hell was wrong with you.

“What do you want, baby, come on.. don’t be shy.” Fuck, his voice was so sexy saying those words.

You closed your eyes trying to control your lust.

Bad move. Changbin squeezed your jaw harder with his hand. “Look at me when I talk to you.”

Look at me when I talk to you.

Suddenly, your memory came rushing back from the night of the party. You remembered watching the video, getting hot. Changbin saying how pretty your lips would look around his cock. The way he slipped his fingers in your mouth and your tongue wrapping around them. The way he held your jaw in place as he threatened to dominate you.

How badly you wanted to taste him.

You opened your eyes with new hunger pouring out of them.

“Didn’t you say something about wanting to see my pretty lips around your cock back at the party?” You asked knowingly. Changbin looked at you in shock, his jaw opening before composing himself.

“Did my hand bring back your memory?” He asked cooly.

You nodded biting your lip. “Do you want me show you?”

His bulge had been growing since the moment he saw you in your wet white t-shirt.

“I’ll take whatever you give.” Changbin said making himself comfortable against his pillows.

You moved off of his lap and wasted no time in pushing his joggers and boxers down his thighs, exposing his hard, warm cock. You tried hiding the surprise on your face but nothing got past Changbin.

“What? Like what you see?” He asked raising an eyebrow.

“It’s nice.” You admitted before taking him in your hand, testing the waters. He was bigger than you thought, thicker and longer. You were confident in your skills at sucking someone off but you actually wondered if you could even take all of him in your mouth.

Guess there was only one way to find out.

“Fuck, baby that feels so good.” Changbin hummed, his hand taking a fistful of your hair trying to guide you. He definitely did not fit in your mouth, but what didn’t fit was compensated by your hands. You hollowed your cheeks, always mindful of your teeth. Your tongue swirled around the tip before taking as much of him in as you could. You looked up to find Changbin watching you, making eye contacted just made you wet your panties even more so than they already were. His hips bucked into your mouth making you gag. The sensation causing Changbin to throw his head back, releasing a string of curses under his breath and mentions of how pretty you looked.

You took him out of your mouth with a pop to take a breath, but kept the pace with your hands.

“Do my lips look as pretty as you imagined?” You asked, innocently batting your eyelashes. The move was slutty but it made you feel sexy.

“So much better than I could have imagined.” He groaned in pleasure as you took him in again, deep, gagging, “Fuck, you really are good at this.”

“Mmm.” You mused, the vibrations making him buck his hips into your mouth again.

You could taste his sweet precum start to spill out the sides of your mouth, and your jaw started to ache but that didn’t stop you from sucking and licking his length. You could tell he was getting close to his peak by the way his breathing started to shallow out, the way his hips seemed to buck more frequently. His moans coming faster and louder.

Before he could break, he yanked you off of him by your hair, the pain rushing through you.

“Fuck! Changbin, what the hell was that for?” You shouted rubbing your scalp.   “I was about to spill in your mouth,” He said as if he was doing you a favor.

“You could have just said so!”

“Shh!!” Changbin said covering your mouth with the hand that was previously tied up in your hair. You squinted your eyes at him, but then you heard the front door click and footsteps approaching Changbin’s open door.

“Hey Changbin, sorry for stopping by so late but could you do me a fav— holy shit!” Chan shouted covering his eyes and turning around. “Shit I— I’m so sorry!”

It would have been easy to hid what you were doing if it wasn’t for your face being so close to Changbin’s lap still and his dick hanging out.

“Chan, what the fuck!” You shouted throwing a pillow at him.

“What?! How was I suppose to know you were here?” He asked defensively, flinching from the pillow but still facing the opposite direction.

“Get out!”

“Yeah sorry, oh my god. I’m leaving, fuck this. You guys are crazy. You avoid each other like the plague one minute then I walk in on this.” Chan muttered to himself all the way to the front door.

You and Changbin stared at each other processing what the hell just happened. Well, what the hell just happened in it’s entirety.

“What the fuck..” Changbin said, cracking in to a smile first and laughing.

“What the fuck.” You echoed laughing harder, still in shock of your best friend walking in on you sucking a guy off.

But not just any guy,

You just sucked off Seo Changbin.

#seo changbin #changbin #skz #stray kids #changbin x reader #stray kids x reader #stray kids scenarios #changbin scenarios #seo changbin scenarios #skz scenarios #changbin smut #changbin imagines #seo changbin smut #skz smut #skz hard #nhie2 #nhie #myfic

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oh-my-may · 3 years

Text

Sugar, spice and everything nice ✵ Osamu Miya x reader

making christmas cookies with Osamu! ft. an Atsumu appearance at the end!

pairing: Miya Osamu x gender neutral reader

warnings: very mild swearing? (also this was not proof read so forgive any mistake you might come across)

genre: fluffy fluff

word count: 2.7k

Day 1 of my december/christmas event! I won’t be posting the works in chronological order/ the way they are on the list and rather in the order I like best. Decided to post this one first because I recently also made cookies and it really got me in the christmas mood :) Have fun!

Also sorry that this was not posted on the 1st as I was planning on, but I was really struggling with uni and time management lately, but I wrote this on one afternoon and I am kinda proud!

Your eyes slowly traced over the scenery in front of you: baking ingredients neatly plastered all over the counter, the packages even sorted from biggest to smallest, starting with the flour and ending with eggs. In front there stood a bunch of bowls, all of the same kind and just in different sizes, all of them stacked together. The work space of the kitchen had been cleaned and the light bouncing of the counter almost blinded you if you looked at it for too long. And of course, in front of all the counters, dressed in a candy cane coloured apron and messy hair stood Osamu, who was going over all the ingredients for what felt like the fifth time, making sure nothing was missing. Every now and then he looked up to give you a small smile before he returned to the task at hand.

After a few minutes you had enough and sighed dramatically, leaning over the counter as you stood opposite of him. “Samu, do you really think this is the way to do this?” The man in question looked up at you in confusion, the expression and widened eyes suddenly making him look several years younger. “Why would it not be? I’m just making sure everything is in order.” You bit your lip as a smile made its way to your lips. You finally moved and made your way around the counter, your fingers brushing along the border of the kitchen counter. “Look, I don’t know about you, but to me making Christmas cookies was always more of a messy experience, which in no way is to be seen as negative.” You slowly took his hands, which still hovered over the ingredients, and pulled him closer to you. “What I really like about you is that compared to your brother you like things neatly organized and ordered, but maybe put that aside for today, mh? For me.” He analysed your face critically for just a split second before he sighed and looked away. The way you looked up at him with your big eyes have always had a strong effect on him. “Alright”, he sighed and raised one of his hands to brush over your hair. “Then you’re the boss for today.”

You face brightened up immediately and you clapped your hands in an excited manner as you moved past him to play some festive music and he could only watch in delight, seeing as this made you so happy. He helped you put on an apron and then obliged to your commands as you researched your favourite recipes and slowly got to work.

Frankly, his preparations made the whole process a lot easier and faster in the beginning, as you just had to mix all the ingredients together. Everything was still in order and neatly organized during the first round, you had big fun rolling out the dough and deciding which shapes to cut out of the dough in front of you. You two bickered over the decisions, Osamu insisting on making the cookies look “elegant” with a bunch of fancy decorations like almonds, walnuts, even pistachios and expensive chocolate. You smiled at him as he explained his ideas but then slowly put your hands on his broad shoulders and got on your tip toes, before leaning in and cutting his words off with a soft kiss. You felt Osamu tense up and relax under your grip as his hands followed your hands from his shoulders down your extended arms to your waist, pulling you closer. But you leaned away too soon, tipping the tip of your finger against his lower lip. “You could have just told me to shut up, y’know” he mumbled and you grinned, shaking your head. “We both know that that is not the truth, ‘Samu.” Osamu looked not especially pleased as you clearly compared him to his brother, as they were both the same when it came to this. You giggled and turned away, trying to slip out of his grip. When he didn’t let you, you pouted and reached for the first thing near you – which, unfortunately, was the package of flour. You took a hand full of the white substance and threw it right at him in defence, not thinking twice. Poor Osamu got blinded by the white mist and struggled to breath for a few moments, coughing in some of the powder. “Oh my god” was the only expression the could leave your lips repeatedly as you took in the scene and watched your boyfriend struggle and dance around weirdly in an attempt to get rid of the haze in the air, waddling his arms around. You really wanted to help but all you could do was laugh more intensely with every second that passed.

Eventually, the flour disappeared and all that was left of it was a small film of it on the kitchen counter and the floor. And, of course, Osamu as well. His silver hair was now coated in white chunks of flour and you could see some smudges of it on his face and apron. He considered you throroughly for a while, his eyes scanning your figure from top to bottom, before he also grabbed the flour and you gasped, putting your hands up in defence. “WAIT! PEACE! I want peace! I’m sorry!”

Osamu stopped in his tracks, watched you for another five seconds and then sighed and slapped the flour on the counter. “Fine, then. We should continue on with the cookie baking or we won’t be finished until tomorrow morning. But this isn’t forgotten. I will take my revenge.” You nodded, trying to take his words seriously, but you couldn’t help but let a few wheezes escape your mouth in the process. “You’re right, we should continue.” You got closer to him again only hesitantly, until he took your wrist and pulled you next to him with an annoyed look, but you knew better. Just as much as you, he enjoyed these little games and playful times in your relationship and you smiled at him as you both resumed work on the cookies.

This time however, after the first trays landed in the oven, the dough preparation was messier, as you needed to focus on many things at once. Making sure you got the measurements right, cleaning up the used bowls and other materials and checking on the cookies in the oven. You got a bit more experimental with the cookies this time, adding more spices or other ingredients to create new textures for the dough. You didn’t speak much this time around, rather you enjoyed each other’s company, the festive smell lingering in the room with you and the bright melodies echoing from the walls, finding their way right into your souls. Sometimes Osamu would playfully bump into you as you were cutting out the cookies, and when you looked at him he had already gotten back to work, yet there was a mischievous smile lingering on his lips.

When you were finished cutting out the cookies, you were ready to put in the remaining trays into the oven, but Osamu halted you, putting another figure made up of dough on the tray you were holding. “What’s that?” “A cookie.” “It has a weird shape.” “It’s not finished just yet. Stop judging my work now and focus on not burning your fingers babe.” You rolled your eyes but took his comment with a smile, considering his thoughtful figure scanning the recipes after you were done with your task. There was still flour on his features, but for whatever reason it made him even more charming, as the soft yellow and red lightning from the Christmas decorations illuminated him. Some of the lights were reflected in his dark grey eyes, making it seem like there were tiny stars dancing in them. He looked up suddenly when he noticed your figure not moving, a questioning look in his eyes. But they grew a lot softer and formed into a smile when he took in your features and walked up to you, lacing both of his big hands on either side of your face, squishing the soft skin of your cheeks. “You’re so adorable, sweetheart.” He cooed and moved his nose against yours. Your breath hitched as you finally realized what he had meant. Even though it was already warm in the room, you had still managed to blush wildly at the sight of your boyfriend, your face heating up unnaturally in the process. A chaste kiss is left on the tip of your nose, before Osamu takes his hands off your face and places them on yours instead, intertwining your fingers. “Let’s wait until the last cookies are finished, yes?” He mumbles just above your ear, warm breath brushing along your hair, causing your to shiver. A consenting hum left your vocal folds as you leaned into his large figure, his heartbeat right under your ear beating at a slow and steady rhythm. Before you knew it your bodies were moving slowly, feet brushing over the tiles on the floor along to the soft beat of Cold December Night now flowing through the speakers. There was something incredibly reassuring about the weight of his head on top of yours, his cheek brushing over your hair and his hands on your waist and back trailing nonsense patterns on the fabric of your sweater and yet you felt it right through your skin. During the last chorus of the song your felt Osamus hand wander up from your waist, along your neck to your face, his fingers holding up your face to him, his thumb trailing over your bottom lip before pulling you in for a kiss, starting up slow but slowly pressing you towards the counter, your hips pushing against the edge of it. Your hearts beat sped up with every time Osamus lips captured yours, every single time a bit more passionate than the last. You tasted the sweetness of his mouth, asserting that you certainly where not the only one to try some bits of the raw dough, smiling at this realization. But then something cold and weird hit your face, something with a structure you couldn’t determine right away. Your eyes suddenly opened in shock, staring at your grinning boyfriends face through a soft haze of white. It took you a whole second to realize what had just happened “SAMU!” you screamed in horror, his unstoppable laughter ringing in your ears. You sighed in frustration and angrily moved your hands to your face to brush away the chunks of flour that surely found its place on your cheeks and even forehead. Osamu took a second to look at you, before he returned to laughing wildly. You blew away some hair that was messily hanging in your face, letting the situation wash over you and watching as your boyfriend enjoyed his victory. You couldn’t really be mad at him, you had it coming after that situation earlier today. So there was nothing left to do for you other than sit it out.

After Osamu had finally calmed down, he got closer to you again, his hand hovering over your head. “You look like a vampire, sweetheart.” You just glared at him and he chuckled, sighing. “Alright Dracula, the cookies should be done soon, come on.” He dragged you to the oven, where you prepared the different chocolates to dip in and decorate the cookies with, as well as all the sprinkles and icing. When everything was done, you hurriedly decorated all the baked goods. Trying to make special patterns on the cookies turned out to be a lot harder than you both thought and sure enough one time Osamu got distracted and upset, so he just pressed his in chocolate covered finger to your nose, but you ducked away the second he tried to lick it off. “That’s nasty, keep that kinda behaviour out of the kitchen, Miya.” “But you liked it just a few minutes ago.” He whispered sheepishly and grinned, earning an elbow hit from you. You will sure as hell not sacrifice hundreds of cookies for his horniness, that was for sure. After several such attempts and only two clap backs from your side, he finally gave up and resumed to decorating the cookies. He even got every much into it, which surprised you somehow. He kept on giggling to himself, but he wouldn’t let you see what he was doing. “Not until it’s finished and dried!” he insisted, so you went back to decorating the rest of the cookies.

When you were finished with all the cookies, the first ones you had worked on had already dried and you tried to steal looks at Osamus work. “What were you giggling about earlier, huh? What’s so funny about decorating cookies?” He looked at you almost a bit offended. “Isn’t Christmas supposed to be a holly jolly time? Am I not allowed to be happy and smile?” You sighed and playfully smacked his arm, but he turned away before you could do it a second time. “Fine, take a look. I really tried my best… With some.” He added the last part in a quieter but amused tone as you considered his cookies. You finally recognized the shapes, he had taken many of the human/ man formed cookies to decorate. Grunts escaped your lips as you looked at what could only resemble Osamus team mates, considering the colour of their clothes and hair. Everything else somehow… Didn’t look as recognizable. “What happened to their faces.” “I lived out my inner fantasy – punching a volleyball in everyone’s face. This is what I imagine it to look like.” You couldn’t hold the laughter anymore as your eyes kept on flying over the tray and got stuck on a collection of cookies that all portrayed the same person. “Is that your brother?” you laugh loudly, looking at all the cursed faces on the cookies. Osamu nodded proudly. “Looking as good as never before.”

After your laughter has faded out into a long sigh, your eyes landed on the last cookie that Osamu made, considering it carefully. “Is that-“ “That’s us, babe.” Osamu states proudly and lifts the cookie up so you can look at it better. “I hope I don’t offend you with this, but it’s just really hard capturing your real beauty on a damn cookie. You look nowhere near as bad as your dough twin-“ You cut him off with a quick kiss. “Shut up, it’s perfect. I wouldn’t have been able to do any better.” You giggle against his lips before he pulls you in for another kiss like the one before, this time you could just hope he didn’t have any ulterior motive of pressing baking ingredients in your face. But of course this time you were interrupted as well.

“Eww, don’t you two know that the kitchen is a commonly used space in this house? Would you please mind NOT spreading your hormones across every surface in this damn house?” Atsumu enters the house in that exact moment, the sight in front of him not exactly being the first thing he expected OR wanted to see. When you both turn to look at him he drops his bag, his expression changing to something between confusion and disgust. “What the hell happened with you? Are you not supposed to cover the cookies with chocolate and not other people?” When neither of you answer he just grunts and sloppily moves past you to investigate the products of your work. Osamu rolls his eyes at his twin and you grin, the anticipation building up. You could only imagine what Atsumu’s reaction to his cookie-selfs would be like, but the reality was so much better.

“YA! SAMU! What the hell is this? Ya think this is funny or what?” Atsumus angrily picks up one cookie of himself and points it at his brother like someone would with a sword, however it was not frightening at all. Osamu turns quickly to wink at you, before he answers his brother “I don’t know what your problem is, this looks better than you ever have or will.”

~ Cue them bickering and fighting in the kitchen and you kinda have to intervene before someone gets hurt because this is a KITCHEN and you don’t want to imagine what this could end like with all the knives around and such~

THE END

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teacupfulofstarshine · 4 years

Text

when you look at me with those eyes (i’m speechless)

summary: virgil finally manages to ask out the pretty enby in his class, just in time for his father's epic gala event. sadly, neither of them would know fashion if it bit them in the ass. luckily, they both have friends to help them out.

(OR: almost 3k words of analogical being useless fluffy gays)

wordcount: 2934

ships: romantic analogical, background romantic roceit, background queerplatonic intruality, background romantic remile

cw: cursing

read it on ao3!!

“So, uh, wh - what do you say?”

Logan looks up from their desk, homework long forgotten. Their left hand is stretched out to cover the little doodle they’d been doing of the back of Virgil’s head, and now Virgil himself is standing in front of them, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly and looking anywhere except at Logan. He’s still wearing that patchwork purple plaid hoodie, and for some reason the only thing Logan can think of is that it’s definitely a violation of their school uniform.

Virgil’s eyes skitter back to their face, skipping from their shoulder to their chest to their neck to their cheek. Their eyes meet for a moment, Virgil’s illuminated by the afternoon sunshine pouring in, and Logan forgets how to breathe. Virgil’s pink face gets even pinker, and his eyes settle on a point fixed above Logan’s shoulder.

“Are you just gonna stare at me?” he snaps. “If you’re gonna reject me, just -”

“No!” Logan blurts. Virgil’s shoulders jump up to his ears, and Logan stands so fast their chair falls over behind them. “I - I mean - I’m not rejecting you, I - um - yes! Yes, I - I’d love to! That is to say - I - uh -”

Virgil laughs a little, reaching out and tucking a stray curl of Logan’s hair behind their ear. They hadn’t even noticed that wisps had started escaping their high ponytail, but Virgil just smiles at them. “Cool,” he says.

“Yes,” Logan breathes. “It - it is, objectively, quite ‘cool’.”

“The event’s on Saturday night.” Virgil’s fingers tuck their hair behind their ear, gently tracing down the curve of their neck and sliding up to touch their jaw. “Pick you up around six PM or so?”

Logan swallows, and they’re sure Virgil can hear it but he gives no indication if he did. “That - that sounds optimal.” They cringe inwardly - optimal? What the hell? - but Virgil just laughs and slides his hand up to cup their cheek.

“You keep busting out all those smart-person words and I’m gonna have to kiss you before I buy you dinner, and that’s not very nice of me.” His hand drops from Logan’s face, and it takes all their willpower not to scream for him to put it back. He gently picks up their hand, lifting it to his bitten-raw lips and gently pressing a kiss to the back. “That’ll have to hold you over until then.”

He turns and saunters away, and Logan grips the edge of their desk. They almost sit down on the chair they’d knocked over, catching themselves at the last second. Looking around the empty classroom, they catch sight of themselves reflected in the windows. They’d opted for a mixture of the uniforms today, wearing the boys’ shirt, vest, and tie over the girls’ skirt, knee-high stockings, and shoes. Their hair is tightly tied back with a plain hair tie, no ribbon, only one curl out of place where Virgil had tucked it behind their ear.

They don’t typically dress themselves for much other than school (uniform), work (uniform), or home (casual clothing). They have no idea what they should wear for a date. Their phone buzzes on the desk, and they snatch it up quickly, flipping it open to see a message from Virgil.

(They’d forgotten he had their number, from that project they did together last month.)

You have: One! New message!

FROM: Virgil

hey, forgot to tell u - this gala is like, a bfd for my dads’ company, so dress up! like its prom or smthn, or a wedding

Logan exhales, gathering up their school things and shoving them into their bag with an uncharacteristic haphazardness. This is going to require . . . outside intervention.

(Meanwhile, a few doors down, Virgil slams the door to his own classroom, shoves his face into his hands, and lets out the quietest feral screech he can manage. Derek, seated on the teacher’s desk with Roman pulled up between his legs, raises a single eyebrow.

“Is that a screech of success or a screech of failure, Virgil?”)

*~*~*~*~*

“What does one wear on a ‘fancy date’? I have never been to a wedding or a prom, let alone a gala! I do not own anything fancy!” Logan paces around their bedroom, hair hanging loose around their shoulders. Patton is on his back, hanging upside-down off of their bed and flipping through some sort of guitar catalog. Remus is curled up in Logan’s desk chair with some sort of slime in his hand. “Remus, if you get slime on my belongings I will end you.”

Remus grins, looking deranged, and Logan resists the childish urge to throw something at him.

“Don’t sweat it, Lo-Lo!” Patton says. “I’ve got a ton of pretty clothes in my room, you can borrow something from me! We’re still the same size, right?”

“I assume so,” Logan says, “but what if I do not look right in your clothing? Our styles are vastly different, I would not wish to present a false impression of myself to him, I -”

“You worry too much!” Remus says. “Virge asked you out even though you’re a workaholic disaster who wouldn’t know the meaning of ‘relax’ if it bit him in the -”

“Remus!” Patton scolds, throwing one of Logan’s decorative constellation pillows at him. Remus bats it away with his foot.

“Please do not throw things around,” Logan says tiredly. “Particularly my things.”

“Sorry, Lo!” Remus does not apologize, but he does put the slime he’s been playing with back into its little plastic container.

“Well, actually,” Patton says, flipping over onto his tummy, “it just so happens that I’ve been waiting for exactly this moment.” Logan looks at their twin in confusion. “I knew that eventually, there was gonna come a day where you would look at somebody and want to go on a date with them, whether it be a simple movie or a fancy date like this one, and you were gonna call me in here - didn’t know Remus would be here too, but he’s not unwelcome -”

“Thank you?”

“- and you’d pace around and panic and go, ‘Patton! I don’t have anything optimal for this date, and our personal styles are so vastly different! What ever is there to be done?’” Patton flings one hand dramatically across his forehead like a Victorian woman fainting onto a couch. Logan raises one eyebrow.

“So! I came up with the perfect solution! I’ve been secretly acquiring outfits for you! Stuff that you could wear for a variety of situations that you wouldn’t ever think of! We can mix and match to find something you like! Oh, and I also have a ton of unopened hypoallergenic makeup in a box in my closet!”

Logan stares at him, blinking and trying to process everything Patton’s just told them. “You . .. you really did all that, for . . . for me?”

“Yeah, of course I did! You’re my twin, Lo. I love you.” Patton smiles, bright and open and honest, and Logan blinks again, and suddenly their cheeks are wet.

“Are you fucking crying because Patton is a considerate brother?!” Remus cackles. Logan whirls around, hiding their face and wiping at it frantically. “Oh my god, you are, I fucking called it, Roman owes me twenty bucks!”

“You bet on this?” Patton asks, disapproving. Logan laughs a little, turning around to hug their twin. They can’t quite bring themselves to care about Remus’s gambling right now.

*~*~*~*~*

“Why are you bitching?” Roman asks, pulling Derek’s hand up to his face. He’d forgotten his saline solution at his own house, so he’s wearing his old red glasses, bangs pulled up in a shitty unicorn-horn ponytail as he squints at Derek’s nails. Derek holds a book up with his free hand. “You managed to get them to go out with you, didn’t you?”

“Yeah, but I was awkward as fuck about it, Roman!” Virgil complains. He considers throwing something at Roman, or shoving a pillow over his face and screaming (again), but the deep indigo-purple polish on their fingernails is still drying. “I touched their hair, they probably think I’m a fucking creep!”

“As someone with that exact reputation,” Derek says, “I highly doubt they would have agreed to accompany you on a date if they shared your sentiments about yourself.”

“Yeah, but -”

“Lighten up a little, man,” Roman says, carefully stroking the yellow brush over Derek’s index nail. “You’re totally fucking with the vibe of the chill session.”

“What do you want me to do?! I told them to dress fancy cause we’re going somewhere nice, like I have any idea how to dress other than ‘crawled out of a dumpster and sewed together some punk band’s leftovers’!”

“Why did you think you invited me?” Roman says haughtily. He’s imitating some YouTube video they’d watched earlier. “I’m the king of style!”

“You’re the king of something,” Virgil mutters.

“No, seriously, I’m gonna help you!” Roman says. “I’m sure you have something that looks half-decent buried in your closet, and I am nothing if not an expert in bringing things out of the closet.” Derek’s cheeks blush faintly pink, but he doesn’t say anything. “And Der here is amazing with makeup -”

“I wouldn’t say experience with stage makeup and covering my port wine stain makes me amazing or anything,” Derek begins.

“Well I would, so shut the fuck up,” Roman says smoothly. Derek rolls his eyes and huffs fondly. “Seriously, Vee, did you really think we were gonna egg you on to ask the pretty nerd out for this long and then leave you high and dry when the time came to deliver the goods?”

Virgil exhales, bringing his hands up to his face to examine his nails. “I think they’re dry . . .”

“Nice! Get over here, once I’m done with Derek’s base color I’m putting sparkles on you.”

“What? Why?”

“Because it’s my house and I get to choose the bonding activity, god damn it.”

*~*~*~*~*

“No.”

“What do you mean, no?” Logan says, pulling their hair up into their traditional high ponytail. “What else am I supposed to do with it? I hate leaving it down, it feels bad on my neck -”

“I know,” Patton says, “but you can’t just put it in the same old ponytail you always do! This is a fancy gala event, you have to be fancy! ”

“What else am I supposed to do with my hair?”

“You will not do anything. I will do your hair,” Patton says firmly. “And by I, I mean Remus, because I’m not good at hair.”

“Remus is not putting his hands, which have been god only knows where, in my clean hair.”

“Rude!” Remus says. “I washed them three times today! You can inspect them if you want, I promise they’re clean!” Logan squints at his hands critically before sighing and settling into the chair in front of Patton’s vanity.

“Very well.”

Remus brushes through their hair and then combs it, carefully working through the knots while doing his best to preserve their natural curl. He separates two small wings and pins them out of the way before pulling the rest of Logan’s long curls into a mid-height ponytail and braiding it with surprisingly delicate fingers. He carefully twists the long braid up into a bun at the nape of Logan’s neck and pins it there with a gleaming silver hairpin tipped with a shining eight-point star with a dark blue jewel set in its center.

Carefully, Remus unpins the locks of hair he’d set aside and braids them as well, weaving them into a crown of braids on Logan’s head and cleverly hiding the ends by pinning them into the braided bun. Finally, he pins back a few stray wispy curls with silver bobby pins that have star-shaped cubic zirconium on the ends. “Take a look!”

Logan has had their eyes closed the entire time, quietly stimming with their hands. They open them slowly, looking in the mirror and tilting their head back and forth to see all of the work Remus has done. “Oh,” they say softly. “I love it, Remus. I look beautiful.”

“You always look beautiful,” Remus says. “I’d ruffle your hair if I hadn’t spent so much time making it look decent.” Logan leans back, gently pressing their cheek against his shoulder. Remus huffs and mutters something about “gross affectionate shit,” but he still lets them do it.

Patton breaks out the makeup after that, spinning the stool around so that Logan can’t see their own face in the mirror. “Alright, Lo! Time to accentuate your pretty face!”

“That was a surprisingly accurate use of the word accentuate.”

Patton just shrugs and grins at them. “I know big words!”

*~*~*~*~*

“You look fine,” Roman says, pulling a strip of fabric around Virgil’s throat and beginning to knot it into a bowtie. Virgil can’t stop himself from looking over himself in the mirror one more time - dark black dress pants, a silver dress shirt, a deep purple vest that matches the polish on his nails, black and purple eyeshadow accompanied by dark red lipstick and sharp cheekbone contour courtesy of Derek. Roman pulls the purple-and-silver striped fabric of his bowtie into the final bow, and he smiles.

“Don’t worry, Virge. I know you’re worried, but you look fine.”

“You don’t look like a vampire at all,” Derek adds. Virgil hisses at him. “That is certainly going to help that image.”

“Seriously,” Roman says, “don’t worry about my stupid boyfriend. Logan agreed to go out with you, and I’m sure they’re going to find you absolutely stunning.”

Virgil rubs the back of his neck, blushing, because he knows that if he touches the hair Derek and Roman had combed and gelled and styled and wrestled with for the past thirty minutes they will collectively murder him without a second thought. Derek smiles, reaching over to pat his shoulder. “It’ll be okay, Vee. Seriously. I know I mock you a lot, but you really do look good. It’s gonna be okay.”

Virgil still feels nervous when he steps out of his car in front of the address Logan had given him. The lights are bright and cheerful, and when he knocks on the front door with his free hand, the door swings open eagerly. “Hello!” the man says cheerily. He’s wearing a pink tie and a brown cardigan, and he looks like Virgil expects Patton to in a few decades. “You must be Virgil!”

“Uh, um, y-yes sir!” Virgil yelps.

“Oh, you look precious! Remy, dearest, Logan’s date is here!”

“Cool, babes,” a voice floats in from the kitchen. “I’ll take over the soup.”

“Come on in! You can call me Emile, Lo is upstairs with Patton and Remus getting ready! Just wait here in the foyer, I’ll go up there and get them!” Emile hurries off up the stairs, and Virgil fidgets nervously with the flowers in his hand.

Patton all but slides down the bannister, grinning. “Are those for Lo?”

“Y - yeah?”

“I’ll go get a vase out of the kitchen so they can put them in water before you two go!” Virgil pulls a single star-shaped lily bloom from the bouquet and spins it between his thumb and middle fingers. Emile comes hurrying down the stairs with a camera, sets himself up at the foot of the stairs, and shouts for Remus.

“Finally,” Logan huffs, and then a door creaks open and shuffled footsteps approach the top of the stairs and then Virgil promptly forgets how to breathe.

They look gorgeous.

They have a crown of braids leading to a braided bun, studded with jewels that gleam like stars and a larger star pinning the bun back. They’re wearing the most beautiful dress Virgil has ever seen; the top is black, high-necked, and form-fitting, with short sleeves that are see-through ruffles of black gauzy material. The sleeves and the bodice are covered in sparkling silver rhinestones that look like stars in the night sky. There’s a silver band wrapped around their waist, and the skirt is made of layers of loose folds of fabric. The front comes down to their knees and the back comes down to their mid-calves, and the pattern is a soft blue-pink-purple galaxy color scheme. They have simple dark blue ballet flats on their feet, and as they get closer, what little breath Virgil had in his lungs is gone.

Someone with experience has clearly done Logan’s makeup. Their eyes are coated in shimmery dark-blue-and-silver eyeshadow, eyes lined with soft smudged pencil and popping out of their face, freckles somehow still visible under the makeup. Their lips are glossy and pink and look so deliciously kissable that Virgil can barely restrain himself.

“You look wonderful,” the vision in front of him says.

“You - I - um - good!” Virgil stammers. Logan blushes, and Virgil thrusts the bouquet at them. “These - for you!”

“Oh!” Logan takes the bouquet and smiles, and Virgil nearly passes out. “They’re beautiful! I -”

“I have a vase for you!” Patton chirps, hurrying in to take the bouquet and plop it into a vase. “I’ll leave it in your room!” Logan smiles, and Virgil reaches up to carefully tuck the lily behind their ear, into the carefully woven braids.

“You look beautiful,” he says honestly. “You’re the most beautiful person I have ever seen in my life.” Logan flushes, smiling.

“It makes sense that you would think that, since you cannot see yourself.”

(Years later, at their wedding, Patton will tearfully and proudly recall how Logan and Virgil had been fifteen minutes late to the gala because Logan’s compliment had caused Virgil to faint from sheer gay joy.)

#starshinewrites #romantic analogical #sympathetic deceit #sympathetic remus #background romantic roceit #background romantic remile #background queerplatonic intruality #ts logan #ts virgil #ts remus #ts deceit #ts patton #ts roman

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meepmoopfanfics · 4 years

Text

you don’t get a win unless you’re playing the game: Daveed Diggs x Reader Chapter 6 Part 2

The familiar sound of Alexander Hamilton blares through your phone speakers waking you from your deep, restful sleep. You reach over to snooze it but are almost too excited to continue rehearsals to even close your eyes again. It’s 7:30am. Monday. It’s finally here. The day you would rehearse for your dream show in front of your dream cast. The sunlight peeks through your window, shining warm, bright light on your cheeks, filling your soul with positive energy for the day. You reach over to your nightstand to flip through your script to make sure you’re able to nail all of the alto harmonies in front of the whole cast today.

You had your rehearsal outfit laid out from the night before. You weren’t one to be this organized or prepared... but for Hamilton?! You were instantly on top of your shit. You pulled on your favorite black Lululemon leggings, a camo sports bra (you’re ready for battle here!), and a cute cropped burgundy shirt from Urban Outfitters. You threw on a white Nike hoodie over top to keep you warm when you weren’t dancing. You giggled at the thought of potentially wearing your copy of Daveed’s signature Purple Oaklandish hoodie to rehearsal that you got as a gag gift from your parents on your last birthday. One day that would have to happen. Would be fangirling at its finest. Maybe you would eventually just burn it so no one saw.

Your subway ride to the Richard Rogers was not as chaotic as usual. The trains were on time and you felt like the universe was finally on your side. You stopped into the coffee shop across the street to grab a large black coffee and a classic bacon, egg, and cheese on an English muffin with avocado to get you going. You were there a little early so you could foam roll and stretch while listening to chill music. You always needed your “me” time to get into your groove before facing the day. You walked into your dressing room and were so happy to see Michelle already there, devouring her favorite Panera bagel, the cinnamon crunch. Mid-bite, she squeals at seeing you.

“Y/N!!! You have me on the edge of my freakin seat here. What in the HELL happened after brunch?”

You giggled and felt the heat come over your face.

“Let me tell you Michelle... it was everything.”

“Was it good?!” Michelle immediately blurted out.

“...yeeeeeeeah...” You said through a smirk.

“WAS HE BIG?!” Michelle yelled.

“SHHHHH” You said to shut her up while snickering.

You both laughed so hard you felt tears coming to your eyes. Thankfully there was no one else in the dressing rooms near you yet so you weren’t that worried.

Until two seconds later when you heard a knock from wall next to you.

Michelle and you screamed and continued to die laughing.

“Laaaaaadieeees!! What’s goin oooon?” Anthony bursts into your dressing room without warning. “What are ya laughin’ about?”

“Nothing, it’s nothing!” You said quickly back, continuing the laughter.

“Oh yeah?! Nothin at all to do with Diggs, right?” Anthony’s signature grin came across his face as his face turned red as he held back laughter. He nudged your arm a couple of times. “I heard the whole thing, Y/N, the walls are paper thin. But it’s chill! It’s chill!” He waved his hands signaling that he would keep a secret and would have your back. Then out of no where he whisper taunts “Diggs is after the bullet! Diggs is after the buuuulleeeeet!!!”

Thankfully Anthony’s actual dressing room was upstairs next to Diggs. Ant was only visiting the PT room to warm up.

“You’re the absolute worst!” You responded.

“Enjoy your breakfast ladies!” Anthony waved goodbye in the silliest way and headed back out.

You and Michelle caught up over your breakfast sandwiches. You showed her the note you wrote on your phone about your hookup, trying not to miss out on any details when telling her. Your attentiveness to details and your photographic memory were so helpful when it came to choreography, but when it came to remembering events, it was both a blessing and a curse. Re-reading it, however, was having you break a sweat more than if you started warming up.

Michelle then filled you in on her evening with Cedric. You knew the two of them were bound to become a thing even though she was hesitant about it. And thankfully you wouldn’t have to worry about Cedric coming on to you in any way.

Time passed and both you and Michelle warmed up together, foam rolled, and got ready to go. You started to get butterflies thinking about dancing for Lin Manuel Miranda. He was having his alternate, Javier, stand in for rehearsals so he could watch from the theater. He was going to see your every move of Act 1. You were proud of yourself for how well you knew the show and felt perfectly comfortable with your castmates.

“Alright good morning everyone!” You heard from the loud speaker that reached all rooms backstage. “You all can make your way to the stage for our first run through of Act 1! Make sure you grab your mic belts and mics from sound. Thank you! Everyone to stage, please, everyone to stage.”

“I can’t believe this is happening.” You said aloud.

You made your way to the stage. Even though you already had seen the set and the majestic view of the theater seats in the Richard Rogers, it still gave you chills every time. The intricate detailing in the set design was something you could stare at for hours and continue to find something new.

You walked out of your comfort zone to stand next to Anthony who was giving Jasmine a shoulder massage. They were so sweet and truly the epitome of what love/healthy relationships should be and look like.

You looked around at everyone chatting to each other in awe. There was Oak making Michelle and Cedric laugh as if they’d been best friends for years, Renee and Philippa giggling and rubbing each others arms to stay warm, and Leslie pacing already in his craft, perfecting every last detail to ensure he still had that Tony winning performance in him.

Stephanie was seated a few rows back to get a good view of the full stage and balcony. Andy, the choreographer, wasn’t there this week since he was working on some other projects, but he would be coming to watch soon. You couldn’t wait to dance for Andy again, your dream choreographer. She sat next to Alex Lacamoire with the “god mic” which she would be shouting out notes and corrections from during the run.

“Check check...” Stephanie said in a low, radio-esque voice. “It’s me, God.”

The entire cast and crew erupted in laughter.

“Just jooooking it's Steph. WHAT’S UP WOLF PAAACKKK?!”

The OBC woo’d, shouted, and clapped.

Then you heard a familiar raspy voice shout, just about an inside voice, “It’s too early SK.”

You looked over to see Daveed looking hella hot with his hair pulled up a-la Lafayette style with his glasses on, scratching the scruff of his freshly trimmed beard.

“It’s too early for shots out the grammy hangovers, Diggs.” Stephanie responded playfully. You hoped one day you’d get to take one out of the grammy.

Daveed looked tired, but so sexy as expected. He was dessed in a Black Oaklandish tank and red sweats, with a black hoodie tied around his waist. You instantly you got a sour feeling in your stomach. You imagined him partying out late with other women, hooking up with them after he threw back a few Belvedere shots with Rafa... wait. Your mind was making up situations that were not even real. Shit... I guess you were starting to like this idiot. You rolled your eyes at yourself and focused back on his bulging biceps to snap out of it.

Gotta pay attention, gotta pay attention. You thought.

“I can guess who he was out late with!!” Anthony softly whispered in your ear. Jasmine instantly hit him on the shoulder giving him a dirty, yet playful look.

“Oh shut it, A.” You whispered back as you elbowed him in the side.

Daveed looked over at you and Ant but had no idea what you both said. His eyes then met yours, sending a heartbeat to your core. He winked at you quickly and smirked. You winked back.

“I see you, Y/N...” Jazzy whispered. “You guys are acting like Ant and I did when we started this shindig.”

“It’s nothing, really.” You said while breaking eye contact, trying to sound chill.

“Y/N... don’t you dare lie to me!” She giggled. You were dumbfounded by her perfectly clear skin.

“Well, we’re just two super flirty people, it’s nothing, well, nothing more than that on his end I don’t think.”

“Girl just be patient. Enjoy it. He really isn’t openly flirty with many people. He sees what he likes and takes it. You’ll see. If anyone knows that, we do.” Jazzy mentioned while pointing at her and A. She then started softly warming up her vocal chords and gave you a pat on your shoulder. She was so sweet and the positive, chill energy she brought into the room was contagious.

“Lets take it from the top y'all!” Stephanie shouted on her mic.

You headed backstage to get ready for opening. You and Daveed started backstage Left together. You approached him and he gently placed his warm hand on your lower back as you passed him.

“Morning, (Y/Nickname). Merde, babygirl.” He said as you walked to your wing.

“Mornin, Lafayette.” You said as you snickered. “Loving the hair.”

He smiled and shook his little poofball on top of his head back at you as you both settled into your spots.

The piano keys pounded the same melody as you heard from your alarm waking up this morning. An unreal moment for you. After Leslie sung his solo, one by one the principals started rapping the words to Alexander Hamilton. It was hard not to mouth them under your breath. It went perfectly. Aaron Burr, Sir went through quickly since you weren’t on stage really. You didn’t get a single note during My Shot. The little moments you had together bantering with Daveed were cute and he “shoved you with love” as the chorus says during rehearsals if you know someone’s in the wrong spot. One after one, you all nailed your dances. You and Cedric nailed your partnering with only one slight mishap with the basket toss lifts in Helpless, since it was your first time using the rehearsal skirts. They were heavy as hell.

Then came time for Stay Alive. Your first moment as the Bullet in front of Lin. You counted and perfectly grabbed the bullet from M4′s rifle causing Stephanie to come on the mic and say “You better work, Y/N!” You smiled as you mimicked the bullet just surpassing Javier’s skull. You respected Javier so much because he took his work so seriously. That’s how you wanted to be known. The quick change into the British army coat was going to be difficult, but you know the dressers backstage were on top of it a and would make sure you’d get to stage on time once the show premiered.

The rest of the run through was a sheer blur of running back stage through the wings, mimicking where your quick changes would be, staring at awe at Daveed as he rapped 19 words in 3 seconds, even while completely hungover, and chugging water bottle after water bottle. This was tough stuff. Non stop was a cardio routine essentially, and pushing Chris as Washington on the moving stairs was way tougher that you thought. You didn’t want to hurt the set so you were extra gentle with it. The way Stephanie responded to the cast was so positive. You all were knockouts. She gave some notes to Michelle about her mother lift, which she corrected and perfected immediately. You were so thankful to be part of such a talented and intelligent cast who were quick on their feet and no nonsense.

“If that were in costume, that would’ve been a near perfect first run for your cast.” Stephanie said.

“EXCEPT I WASN’T IN IT.” Lin said as he snatched the mic. The cast giggled as they plopped onto the stage floor, panting from the run. “My new cinnamon rolls are perfect. PERFECT I tell you. I can feel all of your energy beaming from the stage. I can’t wait to perform with you all. This is truly an honor.”

Everyone clapped together. Just so happy to be performing after such a long time apart. You’ve never felt more proud.

“Now OBC’s... make sure we don’t let our comfortability tinge our performance okay? Remember when the material was fresh and fun? We need to make it fresh and fun for our audiences. Jazz watch the eye contact with Ant, you’re gonna ruin it for the LAM fans if John Laurens looks like he's straight.” Everyone laughed. “Also Daveed, quit milking your side moments with Y/N.”

“I noticed that too...” Steph chimed in in a tone which sounded like she had discovered a secret.

You began to feel embarrassed and covered your face with your hands.

“I was shoving with love!” Daveed shouted, trying to make the situation less awkward. He didn’t look back at you, no recognition, no nothing. Your stomach started to churn with nerves again. Could he not admit he was flirting with you? I guess it was a professional setting, but still sort of upsetting.

“Alright let’s take a twenty minute break. New ensemble, we’ll go a little more in depth with minuscule notes and changes. Wolfpack, take a half hour before music brushup with Alex.” Steph turned off the mic and people dispersed into their dressing rooms, the green rooms, or into the audience to grab snacks/ foam roll.

Your Burgundy top was slightly sweat drenched from the hard work you put in. You got back up to your dressing room with Michelle and saw your phone light up with a text.

Diggs: You looked hella good out there, Y/N. Couldn’t take my eyes off of you

Y/N: Thanks, Diggs. You weren’t too shabby yourself ;)”

Diggs: Like I said before, even though I’m not technically the bullet, I still got ammo... and you have a twenty...

Your eyes widened. A quickie? Right now of all times? You couldn't. Not with the professionals in the room.

Diggs: My dressing room in 5?

Well I’ll be damned, Lafayette’s on my side... you sung in your mind.

Y/N: Here? You sure it’ll be okay?

Diggs: I don’t share a room. Only if you’re comfortable, babygirl

You felt a pulse go to your opening when he said that. Also him calling you babygirl drew you over the edge. You also didn’t realize how much of a turn on it would be to potentially hookup in the very place the most respected people who’ve ever worked on Hamilton would be simultaneously working, unfazed at what would soon happen behind Daveed’s dressing room walls.

Y/N: I’m in

You checked yourself out in the mirror without saying a word to Michelle, made sure your flyaways were sprayed back, put some more deodorant on and gave yourself a splash of your fave perfume.

“And where the hell are you in a hurry to go to, missy?” Michelle said as you began to briskly exit out of the dressing room.

“Can’t talk, will update you later. Love ya.” You winked in her direction. Her eyes widened and she started laughing to herself as you closed the door behind you while ferociously typing a new text to get Diggs excited.

Y/N: Your shirt better be off by the time I get to your dressing room.

Diggs: Way ahead of you

Diggs: Can’t wait to hear you struggle not to moan

God damn, Diggs.

Y/N: Oh yeah? How cocky of you to assume you’d make me moan ;)

Diggs: You know I will

Diggs: And I know just how I can muffle them ;)

Fuck.

Your brisk walk turned into a light jog as you became desperate. You climbed the last set of stairs to his dressing room and stood outside of the door that was slightly cracked ajar. Here you were again, with one inch of barrier between you two. You couldn’t wait any longer.

You lightly knocked on the door and waited.

@alexander-hamilhoe

@riiyy

@lonelydance

@braidedchallah

@ohsoverykeri-blog

@roman0ffxnat

@lizzzaaaaaaaaaaa

@i-know-i-can

@vemazing

@ramp-it-up

#daveed x reader #Daveed Diggs x reader #fanfic #Hamilton fanfic #hamiltrash

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snowdice · 3 years

Text

Finding the Time to Study Fic 2 [Day 34]

Here is my starting post for today’s study break stories session. See this post for more details and feel free to send me asks to keep me going! It’s been a lot of fun so far! I will reblog this post with the story as I write them today. I’ll be constantly looking for ideas of times and places for Janus to have missions, so feel free to send in any you can think of at any point!

If you are a new follower or just don’t want all of these posts clogging your dash, please feel free to block the tag “study break stories” as all posts and voting about it will go there. You can still see the finished product of the story even if you are blocking that tag as I will not tag the edited chapters with “study break stories” but with the tag “folds in paper.” See edited chapters below. None edited chapters are under the cut.

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

I also have a playlist on youtube (because Spotify didn’t have one of the songs I wanted). It’s short, and not really for serious listening, but I had fun with it.

Just going to be casually researching today since I finally have my head above water when it comes to school! Yay!

Chapter 13

The room stopped shaking after a moment. “Ow,” Pat said. He seemed a bit stunned but was still moving at least. He carefully maneuvered himself into a seating position. “Ouch. Owie.” He reached up to poke his own nose. “Ow!” Janus slapped his hand away when he got there. A bit of blood was already trickling from his nose and there was a small cut over his eye, but it wasn’t bleeding too much.

Janus pushed him so he was leaning slightly forward and produced a pack of time appropriate tissues from his pocket. He pulled one out of the package and offered it to him.

He took it and pressed it up against his nose to try to stop the bleeding. He seemed mostly alright though Janus imagined he’d have plenty of bruises down the line. The power in the museum flickered and Janus looked up. Now that he was listening, he could hear people panicking in and out of the museum.

“We should probably get off of the stairs,” he suggested.

“Yeah,” Pat agreed. Janus helped him to his feet, and they climbed back up the steps. Janus looked around and found an employees only sign a few feet away. Usually he’d not risk that as it could get him into trouble he didn’t want to be in, but considering the earthquake that had just happened, he could probably play it off as panic.

He ushered Pat into a small room and found a chair and table. He had Pat sit in the chair and pulled out another one of the tissues to dab at the blood coming from the cut over his eyes. “Here,” he said. “Hold that there. I’m going to go see if there are any bandages about.”

Pat took the tissue with the hand not already holding one to his nose. “Thanks,” he said.

Janus nodded and got to his feet. The lights flickered once again but didn’t stay off for now. He didn’t know how long that would last.

He couldn’t see anything that might hold bandages in this room, but there was a second door. “I’ll be right back,” he told Pat, exiting through it.

The lights flickered once more as the door closed behind him and he cursed. When they came back up Janus’s eyes immediately fell on a man. They both froze.

“Remus!” Janus hissed the second their eyes met. “What are you doing here?”

Remus blinked at him for a moment. “Hi. Janus,” he said. “I… come to France for… tea sometimes?”

“There isn’t any tea back here.”

“So, there isn’t…” he said. There was a moment of silence. “Uh, so I actually cannot talk to you right now.”

“What do you mean?” Janus asked. Remus grimaced in a way Janus had never seen from him before. It immediately set off alarm bells in Janus’s head. “Oh my god,” Janus said. “Oh my god. You’re not from the same time as me.”

“Oh, you have no idea,” Remus mumbled.

“Holy shit, you’re looping?!”

“It’s… not looping if I wasn’t here the first time.”

“Remus, we spend more than 12 hours a day together most of the time. The only thing worse than this is if I looped back to this time myself.”

“…Yeah. Anyway, I need to leave now.”

“Please do.”

He turned to go, but then stopped. “Oh, and,” he reached into his pocket and tossed something at Janus. Janus caught it.

It was Band-Aids.

“Oh, shit,” Janus spat at the clear use of foreknowledge. “I hate this. I hate you. I’m going to kill you the next time you see me.”

“Sure, Jan.”

“Go.”

He did, slipping into the next room while Janus took a deep breath and then turned back to the door behind him. He schooled his face before Pat looked up. “I found some Band-Aids.”

Pat nodded and Janus came over to squat next to him.

Janus opened the box and Pat looked down. His eyes lit up with sudden joy so intense that Janus felt like he’d just gotten a punch to the gut. “Kitty Band-Aids!” he exclaimed. Janus bothered to actually look at the design on the container, only to note the cartoon cats on the front. Pat was almost vibrating off his seat. “Look they’re all so cute!” He grabbed the container from him to inspect the different designs printed on the back with glee even as a bit of blood was still trickling from his nose.

Janus took the box back gently and guided the wad of bloody Kleenexes back to his nose.

“Which would you like?” Janus asked.

“Oh, they are all so cute,” Pat cooed. “Um, how about that one!” he pointed. “Or that one! Or that one!”

“Pat you only have one cut.”

“But they’re all so cute!” Pat said, tongue tucking into his cheek. He contemplated the box again. “Let’s do the black one,” he finally settled on.

Janus selected one of the Band-Aids with a black cat wrapped around a pink ball of yarn and staring back at them with wide green eyes. The think looked like it had partaken in one two many doses of catnip, but Janus didn’t mention that.

Instead, he just carefully unstuck the backing from the Band-Aid and motioned for Pat to remove the tissue from his forehead. He smiled at Janus as he drew back.

Janus cleared his throat. “How’s the nose.”

“It’s slowing down,” Pat replied. “Thanks.”

“No problem,” Janus replied. They met eyes for a second before Pat looked away back at the box of Band-Aids.

“Oh,” Pat said. “There’s a grey one. I didn’t notice.” He pointed to it. “I should have used that one.”

“Do you like grey cats?” Janus asked.

“I like all kitties,” he said, “but one of my roommates loves grey cats. He had one when he was a kid and thinks of them as good omens. Seeing one always brightens up his day.”

“A friend of mine has a grey cat,” Janus said. “She’s much more tolerable than him.”

Pat laughed a bit. “Don’t be mean,” he said.

“Oh, he deserves it, don’t worry.” Janus considered him for a moment. “Here,” he said, pulling out one of the Band-Aids with the grey cat on it. It did, actually, look a lot like Diesel Fuel.

“But I don’t…”

Janus just shrugged and stuck it on his cheek where there was no wound. Pat giggled and touched it with a finger. Janus stood back up.

“Can I have another tissue?” Pat asked.

“Sure.” Janus handed a tissue over to him and he crumpled up the bloody ones in his hand.

“I think I’m good to keep going,” Pat said, putting the new tissue under his nose. “The nose will stop soon.”

Pat got out his iPhone and directed him back out of the room. They checked the second floor and didn’t find anything and so went to the third floor. The second they arrived in the room that Pat’s phone was directing them too, Janus knew that it must be right. There was a strange, distorted whirling sound and the entire room was shaking slightly like they were standing next to a railroad track.

“I’m guessing this is it,” Pat said.

Janus nodded and looked over his shoulder at the screen. They both cautiously walked towards where the little dot was on the phone.

“Is that it?” Pat asked, pointing at a small device on the center column in the room. Janus reached forward to flip the switch on it. The whirling stopped and the room settled. Janus’s time piece vibrated as it came back online. They waited for a few moments. “I assumed… time distortions would be more…”

“They are,” Janus said. “This one is artificial.”

“What does that mean?”

“It’s a simulation,” Janus said. “It causes similar symptoms to a time distortion, but it’s not actually fracturing time at all.”

“That’s good, isn’t it?” Pat asked.

“I don’t know,” Janus said. He took the piece of tech of the wall and carefully stored it in his pocket, “but someone’s trying to get our attention.”

Chapter 14

Janus didn’t feel comfortable leaving France 2027 just yet, still weirded out by the strange turn of events. So, he and Pat ended up sticking around for a couple of hours. They looked through the art museum for a bit, but Janus was having trouble focusing on the pieces, and Pat eventually suggested they get some air. Janus agreed considering the museum would close for the night soon anyway.

They wandered around the downtown for a bit. The people seemed to jump back from the strange weather and earthquake that afternoon rather quickly, and there were plenty still about to blend into.

Pat was snapping photos every so often like a tourist which Janus shook his head at but allowed because even with the outdated phone it almost made them blend in even more. It also might stop any questions about Pat’s weird way of speaking French. They could just say he was an overeager tourist who watched too many old movies.

“Ooo!” Pat said. “We should get crepes.”

“Why?”

“You can’t go to France and not eat crepes.”

“I assure you, you can,” Janus said dryly.

Pat shot a pout at him and the next thing he knew he was in a small crepe shop.

For Janus, choosing something was easy. He just ordered the first thing he found on the menu which seemed to be a standard one with ham and eggs. Pat on the other hand seemed to be struggling greatly, and Janus had to gently push him to the side to let some other customers order first.

“What should I get!?” Pat asked. “They all look so good! I could do strawberry preserves or maple syrup or just sugar!”

“Or you could get one that is actually food,” Janus suggested mildly. “I don’t think you need any more sugar judging by how you are acting.”

Pat rolled his eyes. “You sound like Lo.”

Janus made a note of the name ‘Lo’ even though it surely was a nickname.

“But, since you’re insisting, I’ll get something healthy. I’ll have the strawberry one. That’s a fruit!”

“It comes with a cream cheese filling,” Janus pointed out.

“And it’s fruit!”

Janus shook his head and stepped up to the counter. “One ham and cheese and one strawberry preserve, please,” he said to the cashier as he was not allowing Pat to order in French and accidently say something stupid. He forked over some euros.

“You don’t have to pay for me,” Pat protested when he saw that.

Janus glanced back at him. “I was afraid you’d try to pay in francs,” he said dryly.

It looked like Pat was about to stick his tongue out at him, remembered that Janus had criticized him for that earlier, and then just scrunched up his face in displeasure as though that was any less childish.

They waited for their crepes to be finished and then went to eat them outside near a water fountain.

“I can pay you back for the crepe,” Pat said after they sat down. “I do actually have euros.”

Janus waved him off. “It wasn’t that expensive.”

Pat hummed. “Well, in that case. I insist on paying for a wish for you.” Janus raised an eyebrow. “In the fountain!” Pat clarified.

Pat set aside his crepe to dig in his pocket for a couple of coins. “Here!” he said handing one over.

Janus glanced over at the fountain. “No.”

“Oh, come on,” Pat beseeched. “You have to want something. I’ll even throw it in for you, but you have to make a wish first!”

“No.”

“Please!”

Janus sighed. “Fine.” He popped the rest of his crepe in his mouth. “I wish for a crepe,” he said after swallowing.

“You just had a crepe, silly.”

“But I liked it, so I want another one.”

“We can go back and get you another crepe.”

“Ah, but I’m not hungry anymore.”

Pat crossed his arms. “You’re just being difficult on purpose.”

“Not me,” Janus said putting hand over his heart. “I would never do something like that.”

Pat glared at him, but then snatched the coin out of his hand. “Fine!” he said. “One crepe wish coming right up.” He hopped up with the two coins and darted over to the water fountain. Janus turned to watch him go but then happened to catch sight of something out of the corner of his eyes.

Pat’s phone.

He didn’t pause in his movement, completing the turn, but as he watched Pat close his eyes, presumably to focus on his own wish, Janus snuck a hand out and grabbed the phone without looking. He slipped it into his own pocket.

Pat came back over after throwing both coins in the fountain and didn’t even seem to notice that his phone was missing, picking up his crepe to take another bite. Just to make sure, though Janus decided to distract him. “What do you think of your crepe?” Janus asked.

“I like it! It’s sweet, but not too sweet. There was a crepe place across the street from my apartment in college, but they always put a bit too much sugar in the dough, I think. I’d still eat them, but these are much better.”

Janus nodded and kept up the light conversation until Pat was finished.

21088

“Well,” he said then, getting to his feet. “It seems that nothing else is going to happen regarding the time distortion. I should be getting back.”

Pat hummed. “I should too. It’s movie night!”

“I probably should arrest you,” Janus noted.

“In the middle of all of these people?” Pat asked mildly.

“Touché,” Janus said.

Pat gasped and pointed at him. “Pun!” he said. Janus blinked at him. “Because we’re in France! That’s French!”

“…Goodbye Pat,” Janus said, turning to walk away from him.

“Goodbye… wait I still don’t know your name!”

Janus stopped to look back at him for a moment. “Like I said,” he replied. “Elvis.”

“Fine,” Pat said. “Au revoir, mon chéri.”

“You never stop, do you?” Janus asked.

Pat giggled. “Considering I don’t know what you mean, I imagine I’m just getting started.”

Janus actually left then, walking off towards the alley he’d first arrived in. In some ways, the mission had been a bust, but in others it had gone very well.

He felt for the weight of the phone in his pocket before pulling up the display screen on his timepiece to go back to the TPI.

It had gone very well indeed.

Chapter 15

The first thing Janus had done when he’d returned to the TPI was hand over the timebomb to Khalid who sent it to forensics. Within the hour, forensics got back to them that it was the same timebomb as 2999 and that it had never exploded, but simply been diffused. Which meant, blessings on blessings, everyone got to go home that night.

Not that Janus went home, no, he ended up falling asleep on his desk somewhere between 3 and 4am, but at least he wasn’t sharing his space with anyone. He’d been trying to hack the cell phone all night to see if it had anything he could use, but he honestly had no idea what he was doing. All it seemed he could do was play some annoying song over and over again about never giving someone up. At around 2am, he’d finally broken and sent off an email, though, he’d continued to try to mess with it after that.

He got woken up by Lena coming into the office at 7am, and noticed he already had an email response asking when Janus wanted to come in.

“Now?” he sent back.

“…Do you sleep?” was the immediate response. “And yes.”

His wrist buzzed as an appointment in 5 seconds downloaded to his timepiece. He selected the coordinates and landed at Cultural Outreach. The receptionist blinked up at him and then back down at the screen on his desk. “Oh!” he said. “I didn’t see this appointment. I think Professor Eran is in his office.”

He didn’t stand to escort Janus this time, so Janus went ahead and went down the hall to Virgil’s office himself.

He knocked on the door and while he was waiting for Virgil to open it, the infernal contraption once again started to play the same stupid song.

“I didn’t even touch you!” he spat, getting it out and tapping on the screen.

“Jonas Brothers dude again?” Virgil asked causally upon opening the door.

Janus shoved it at him. “Make it stop.”

Virgil took it and fiddled with it for a few moments before it stopped with the song. “Oh my gosh,” he said scrolling through something on the screen.

“What.”

“What maniac sets a custom alarm for every 30-60 minutes for a week that just plays ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’? Oh, and one ‘It’s Not Unusual’ on Saturday. He’s mixing memes at an alarming rate.”

“Can you. Just. Make it not happen. Anymore?”

Virgil smirked at him. “Maybe.” He turned around to go back into his office.

“Virgil,” Janus growled following him in.

Virgil just laughed. “What do you want to know about it?” he asked. “Just a fair warning… the song means he… likely was aware someone would steal it.”

“Of course, he was,” Janus groaned.

“But I’m sure we can still get something out of it.” Virgil started tapping at the screen again. “Okay, let’s see. It’s an iPhone 5, and someone jailbroke it.”

“What does that mean?”

“Tampered with it so they could install non-company approved software,” Virgil explained.

“Well I figured that since he was using Google Maps to track time distortions,” Janus grumbled.

“I think I have something,” Virgil said to himself while digging through his desk. “Ah ha!” He held up some sort of cord. “This will let me hook it up to my integrator.” He slotted the cord into the bottom of the iPhone and then crawled under his desk to fiddle around with some other things. “There we go,” Virgil said popping back up. “It might take a few minutes. Running the program any faster might overheat the phone.”

Janus nodded and sat back to wait. Virgil grabbed the phone and started to play around with it a bit even as it uploaded all of its information to his computer.

“Weird,” Virgil said after a moment.

“What?” Janus asked, sitting up straighter.

“There are exactly two contacts. Fewer than I’d anticipate for a regular phone from the 2010s. More than I would expect from one clearly not being used as a phone.

Virgil glanced to the side, and it must have finished the download because he unhooked it from the computer. “I have a 21st century phone network adapter,” Virgil said. “It transfers call back to whatever date the phone says. Do you want to try calling one?”

“It’s worth a shot,” Janus replied.

Virgil dug back into his desk for a small device that he plugged into the same port he’d plugged the earlier cord. “Okay, which contact do you want to try first?” he asked. “One has ‘Ro’ with a crown, red heart, and a gold star emoji. The other has “Lo” with a book, blue heart, and Milky Way emoji.”

“He mentioned a Lo,” Janus said. “So, try him first.”

Virgil nodded. “I’ll put it on speaker.” He pressed some buttons before setting the phone on the desk between them.

The phone rang three times before with a bit of a crackle, it was answered. “Salutations,” a voice said, voice sounding a bit scratchy as though he had only just gotten up.

Virgil motioned with his head for Janus to speak. “Are you ‘Lo’?” he asked.

The man hummed. “To some people.”

Janus… didn’t quite know what to say to that, or even what questions he should ask.

“I’m assuming you’re the man that stole my associate’s phone.”

“Your associate?” Janus fished.

The man made an amused hum. “I believe you were calling him ‘Pat’ on your last adventure.” Janus could hear something being placed down on the other end of the phone. Before Janus could respond, he heard what sounded like an old keyboard being typed on. “Now,” Lo said. “I have to admit, I am surprised you were willing to oblige me so thoroughly by plugging the phone into your system. Let’s see…”

The screen on Virgil’s lit up bright blue all of a sudden. “…shit,” said Virgil.

“Well,” Lo said, “it seems you were clever enough not to plug it into the TPI system, which is disappointing, but…”

There was more clicking on the other end. “Hmm, interesting music tastes for the 4000s,” he said.

“I’m an anthropologist,” Virgil spoke up.

“Ah, yes, I can see that,” Lo replied. “Virgil Eran, senior professor at Silver Mountain University, a vetted member of the Cultural Outreach program, and searched the phrase ‘How to eat sushi without making a cultural blunder and making everyone hate you and losing your job because what kind of shit anthropologist doesn’t know how to eat raw fish right’ which you then shortened to ‘How to eat sushi’ and proceeded to search 52 times in the last 48 hours.”

Virgil went a bit scarlet around the ears. “Dude, did you really have to out me like that?” he hissed at the phone.

“My apologies,” Lo responded. “From my personal experience, don’t dip the rice parts in soy sauce, and don’t add too much wasabi. Overall, most people will be understanding of mistakes, and you will certainly not be fired or ostracized for handling food incorrectly. As long as you are not acting intentionally disrespectful, and I image you will not be considering your clear anxiety over whatever outing you are planning to attend, you will be fine.”

“Okay,” Virgil said. “Good point, but counterpoint, what if you’re wrong and everyone hates me forever?”

“Is it the lunch meeting today at 11:30am?” Lo asked, “because I can see that a Professor Boris Laden has attended the event multiple years in a row. Considering he is a philosophy instructor, has no Japanese heritage that I can see, and I have found a photo of last year’s event wherein he has placed his chopsticks vertically in his rice, and he has yet to be fired or ostracized, I would postulate that your fears are unfounded.”

“Yeah but… okay, I really don’t have an argument for that one, except maybe I’m a piece of shit and everyone is looking for a reason to hate me.”

“Considering your many impressive accolades in your field, I would argue that ‘a piece of shit’ is not a good descriptor of you. Not to mention the fact that you are often a highly requested member for different committees in your department and outside of it.”

“Oh, but is that because people like me or because I’m an anxious mess and make sure events go off without a hitch?”

“From experience, disorder with people you enjoy the company of is far more tolerable than order with people you do not. Which explains my current living situation and the lack of finished dishes in my sink. Therefore, I would assume the former.”

22735

“A lot of assumptions,” Virgil commented, but he was smiling slightly.

“Assumptions based on data,” Lo argued back lightly.

“You really came in here, hacked into my computer and smacked my anxiety in the face, huh?”

“Glad to have helped.”

“Y-”

“Are the two of you finished?” Janus interrupted, finally getting sick of the two of them.

“Not nearly,” Lo said. “I have gained access to an entire network of a very large university and will be sorting through the data for a long time.”

“Ugh, right,” Virgil groaned, “and you got access through my integrator.”

“I doubt they’ll be able to trace it back to you if you don’t tell them.”

“Nice try,” Virgil said dryly, “but not likely. I’m telling them about you immediately so they can work to kick you out.”

Lo laughed. “Fair enough, but I’ve already gotten plenty of information at this point. Including the fact that you work with the TPI and scheduled an appointment with an Agent Janus Picani this morning set to start a few minutes before this phone call. So, hello Janus.”

“Bastard,” Janus shot back.

“And goodbye Professor Eran. It was a pleasure.” He hung up.

Virgil sighed and ran his hand through his hair. “This is going to be fun to explain to both of our bosses.”

Arc II What We Do to Each Other

Chapter 16:

As it would turn out, Janus and Virgil did not get in trouble for hooking up the old phone to Virgil’s integrator, mostly because it wasn’t really a mistake on their part. The phone cleared all virus checks that the tech people both from the university and the TPI ran on it. The phone should have been clean and should not have caused an issue.

In fact, they were still trying to pin down the code on the general university server. They could tell that something was mucking about on the system but what or how was a mystery. This also meant that there was no telling what information had been compromised and considering how many things Silver Mountain had its hands in, that was… a bit worrying.

Another worrying thing was there was suddenly more activity of late at the TPI. There were more time distortions popping up every day. Usually they would be few and far in between. There had been 3 total recorded the year before, but over 12 in the last week. Some of them were fake like the one Janus had investigated, but some of them were real. It painted a distressing picture and also was a drain on their resources. Khalid was actually looking to advertise positions to hire new recruits which was something she rarely did as she liked to keep appointments to the TPI in house.

They’d even loosed the number of field agents needed for each mission and Janus and Remus had been splitting up just to get everything done. Today, he and Remus had thankfully only two missions scheduled for the day.

“Are we going together or separate today?” Janus asked Remus.

“Think they’ll burn me at the stake for being a witch if I go alone to either of them?” Remus asked.

“I don’t know. Probably. I think we’re getting a bit late into the 1700s for that in Cuba, but I have no idea about Mesopotamia.”

“Let’s just go together. I did not like almost drowning yesterday because I was the only stranger in town when the weather was going wonky.”

“Surely it isn’t because you opened your mouth. Ever.” Janus said dryly.

“How was I supposed to know he was the local clergyman’s son?”

Janus rolled his eyes. “On second thought,” he said, pushing a button on his desk to choose Cuba as he next mission, and standing up. “I don’t want you coming with me.” Yet, he did not protest when Remus also signed up for the Cuba mission and he waited for him by the office door before going to talk to Rhi.

Rhi was a bit frazzled when which meant quite a bit as she was usually incredibly put together. Remus didn’t even seem inclined to tease her today.

“Okay,” she said once they’d closed the door behind them. She flipped through some documents on her desk. “Picani and Clockson. Camaguey Cuba 1755. Do you know Cuba?”

“Uh,” Janus said. “Yeah?”

“Like you’re reading the things, right? I don’t have to babysit you, right? You got it? The Seven Year War was happening, but it won’t affect you much as it hasn’t really hit Cuba. It’s the middle of the Camaguey Carnival. Everyone will be everywhere and there will be chaos so as long as you don’t really fuck up you should be fine. Um…apparent races.” She looked up at them and studied them each for a moment as thought looking at them for the first time despite having known them for years. “It’ll work. Go to costuming.”

“Shouldn’t we…” Janus said, “sign things?”

“…Yep,” she said, fiddling with her desktop and then sending documents over to their side to sign.

Janus and Remus both did before sending them back.

“Great. Good.” She stood and grabbed some things from behind her. “You can go.” She sat back down as they took their things and Janus noticed a message pop up on her desk. She looked up at Remus looking exhausted. “What?” she asked.

“Just open it,” Remus said.

Rhi tapped it and a photo opened.

“I got her a new mouse toy!” Remus said happily as Rhi looked at the picture of Diesel Fuel attacking a cloth mouse.

“That is… appreciated Agent Clockson,” Rhi said. “Now get out.”

They did, leaving to get their costumes on and checked. Costuming was just as busy and frazzled as Rhi had been and they actually had to wait for decon because there’d been a mix up with the agents leaving before them. They landed in Cuba without issue. Janus could already hear the festival in full swing outside the small building they’d were in. Remy was standing there with a very not time appropriate mug of coffee.

“Sue me,” Remy said when Janus raised an eyebrow at it. “Please just… get in and out without causing trouble. Seriously. I don’t want to have to deal with that on top of everything else.”

“We’ll do our best,” Janus assured.

Remy pulled his sunglasses down to look at him. He looked exhausted. “God please do more than your best.”

Janus nodded tightly. “We’ll be in and out,” he said, already glancing at his timepiece. It had been disguised as a golden bracelet which made it a bit harder to actually use, but wrist watches wouldn’t be invented for more than a century, so they’d have to make do. “The time distortion, if that’s what it is, should be in the middle of town. Let’s go.”

He and Remus exited the building onto the packed city street.

Janus was immediately bombarded with all types of sights, sounds, and smells. There were many colorful articles of clothing and costumes as people went every which way along the street talking to other members of their community, playing instruments, and dancing. There was the sound of people speaking Spanish, still mostly almost pure Castilian Spanish with perhaps a bit of influence from Taino as the Haitian revolution had yet to push the Creole language over to Cuba. People must have been hard at work cooking different dishes for the carnival as many different spices wafted through the air. It was sticky hot considering it was the middle of June in the tropics and Janus was immediately sweating despite the temperature appropriate clothing he’d been outfitted with.

He glanced around their immediate area, just scoping out the crowds. His eyes were immediately drawn to one person near them.

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me,” he said out loud when he saw Pat. Remus looked in the direction Janus was.

Even if Janus didn’t recognize him the moment he laid eyes on him, he probably still would have ended up staring as he was the only person in the area who clearly did not know how to do the dance he was attempting.

Remus snorted and Janus shook his head in secondhand embarrassment. “Well, would you look whose boyfriend’s here,” he said to Janus. Make that firsthand embarrassment. “Has anyone told him the Mambo wasn’t invented until the 1900s and also that’s not how you do it?”

Chapter 17

Pat stopped dancing the moment he saw Janus approaching him, but he still bobbed cheerfully ( and unrhythmically) to the music. “Hi Janus,” he said pleasantly.

“You just have to rub it in, huh?”

There was a flash of confusion across his face, but then he smiled. “Well, I know where in our relationship you are. How was France?”

“You’re a bastard.”

“You stole the phone,” he laughed.

“You stole the bomb,” Janus countered, “and you wanted me to steal the phone. You booby trapped it.”

“No,” Pat correct, putting a finger up. “We have security on my phone because in high school I once forgot it in the school locker room and long story short, the three of us ended up in a lake. So, then Lo made sure I always had some sort of tracker on it. When I started time traveling, he updated it and when I met you we updated it again in case there was ever an opportunity like that. Lo calls it using our weaknesses to our advantage.”

“He’s a bastard too,” Janus growled.

Pat just laughed.

“Is someone talking about me?” Remus asked, stepping over to them. Janus rolled his eyes.

“Oh,” Pat said, blinking at Janus’s partner for a moment. “Remus.” He hesitated slightly. “How are you doing?”

“Me?” Remus asked. “Uh, I’m doing good. A little stressed out with work, but fine.”

“Good,” Pat said with just a little too much heartfulness to it.

“What?” Janus asked, eyes narrowed at Pat. “What is that?”

“What is what?” Pat asked. He met Janus’s eyes briefly and it made panic surge up Janus’s spine because the look Pat was sending him wasn’t one that said he was playing dumb. It was a warning.

Oh, Janus did not like this. That look told Janus Pat had some foreknowledge that he absolutely could not tell Janus about without messing up the timeline spectacularly. This was why this mess the two of them were mixed up in was so bad, but it seemed Janus did not have much of a choice when it came to Pat.

Despite how bad of an idea he knew it was, he still wanted to push, because whatever Pat was hiding could be very, very bad and it had to do with Remus. There were so many reasons Pat could be acting like that around Remus, but the worst ones were definitely the ones on his mind. Death, injury, illness. They were all possible especially in their line of work and especially with how time was being screwed with right now. And Pat knew. He knew exactly what the answer was, and oh did Janus want to push.

Experience knowing what worse things could come out of having foreknowledge made Janus bite his tongue.

“So, what are you two doing here,” Pat asked, and Janus unhappily let him change the subject.

“Oh, like you don’t know,” Janus replied.

“I don’t know,” Pat said innocently.

“There’s another time distortion,” Janus said, “and while you didn’t know what it was the last time I saw you, I’m pretty sure you do now.”

“Oh, I didn’t know there was a time distortion here. I can help you if you like,” he offered sweetly.

“Oh, yeah, sure. Then why are you here?”

“I wanted to see if I could find the Flying Dutchman,” Pat told him.

“And so you went to Camaguey?”

“Uh huh.”

“One of the farthest places from the ocean in Cuba?”

“Is it?”

“I don’t trust you.”

Pat just shrugged. “Well, if you don’t want my help finding the time distortion, I’ll just be on my way then.”

“Wait,” he said when Pat went to turn away. Pat paused. Janus turned to Remus. “Remus, do you think he’s bullshitting me so I let him wander off and do whatever the hell he’s doing, or do you think he’s bullshitting me into letting him come with us.”

“Hmm,” Remus said, looking Pat up and down. Janus could immediately tell he wasn’t going to get any helpful answer. “Well, if we’re going with the how much do I get to see his, admittedly very sexy, ass criteria.” Janus pinched the bridge of his nose. “Letting him leave now means instant gratification and a nice full image when he turns away. However, letting him go with us means many more opportunities to get a glimpse, but they’d probably just be glimpses. So, yeah that’s a tough call.”

“You didn’t even bother to give me an actual hidden suggestion with that bullshit,” Janus groaned. He glanced at Pat only to see him hiding his very red face in his hands. Janus blinked. “Oh,” he said. “You got him, Remus.” Janus was surprised. He’d expected a bit more tenacity for someone with Pat’s personality. Of course, Janus was used to Remus, so that perhaps had some effect. Pat made a muffled distressed sound behind his hands and Janus raised an eyebrow. “You really got him.”

Pat flapped one hand around while still using the other to completely hide his face. “It’s just. His face. Saying that. Is weird.”

Janus could not say that he didn’t feel a slight spark of joy at seeing Pat flustered. After all, Pat’s weapon of choice had often been flirting with Janus in the past. However, he still smacked Remus on the shoulder when it looked like he was about to continue with something likely far more inappropriate. “We are here for a reason,” he reminded. He turned to consider Pat and squinted at him. “You’re coming with us, I’ve decided. I don’t want to let you out of my sights. Don’t,” he said empathically turning to Remus as the man opened his mouth once more.

Pat had mostly recovered, though his cheeks were just a bit pink still. “Yeah,” he said. “I’ll go with you. Where do we start?”

Janus glanced at his timepiece. “It’s not showing up on our trackers yet.”

“It messed with your tracker last time,” Pat pointed out.

“I know,” Janus said. “Which means it could be another fake one or whatever is causing it hasn’t started yet. If things start going wrong, but it still doesn’t show on our radar, it’s almost certainly a fake one, but some of the fake ones haven’t blocked our technology.”

“Here, I can check,” Pat said.

“Please don’t pull out an iPhone,” Janus begged.

Pat stuck out his tongue at him, and then smiled. He reached for the bracelet on his wrist and twisted it back and forth a few times before pressing his palms together. He glanced around them quickly to make sure no one around them was watching and then peeled apart his palms like he was miming reading a book.

“What the fuck is that, and how do I get one?” Remus asked immediately. It was innocuous, whatever it was. If someone from this time caught a glimpse of the display, they’d likely assume it was a trick of the light, but staring right at it, Janus could tell it was a map of the surrounding areas with a softly glowing blue light marking their current location. Janus could see no screen or origin of a hologram. It looked like the image was drawn onto the man’s palms, but as he watched, the image shifted to zoom out.

“There doesn’t seem to be anything major yet,” Pat said wiggling his fingers a bit. The display changed slightly to some sort of colorful overlay Janus did not understand. Pat hummed. “Did you two come from that building recently?” he asked nodding at it.

“Yes,” Janus replied. “How do you know?”

“There’s sometimes a slight temperature change when people time travel,” Pat explained. “I can read it on here.” He tilted his head. “There also seems to be a big enough temperature change in a church a few blocks away that could indicate time travel. Want to check it out?”

“We might as well,” Janus agreed.

“And if it’s nothing, we can get drunk on the communion wine!”

“He’s going to get immediately struck by lightning,” Janus said.

Chapter 18

“If we see anyone,” Janus said as they entered the church. “You keep your mouth shut. Do you understand me? Remus, do you understand me?”

Remus immediately turned to Pat. “You know, I didn’t grow up Catholic,” he said to Pat who looked at him in confusion. “So the first time I ever entered a Catholic church, you can’t blame me for being a little confused about the whole cabinet thing with a wall between them. After all, everyone was singing about glory to god and what not. So I…”

Janus slapped him. “This is why you were almost burned at the stake yesterday.”

“Excuse you,” Remus said, putting his hand over his heart. “I was almost drowned.”

“You were almost drowned?” Pat asked, his voice seeming legitimately distressed.

Remus shrugged a smile on his face that caused a Pavlovian migraine to start up behind Janus’s eyes. “It’s one of the hazards of the jobs, and really it would have all been worth it if I’d actually gotten to drown in that man’s…”

“We’re in a church!” Janus cut him off switching from Spanish to Swahili in the hopes that no random passersby would be able to understand him in this time and place. “Don’t talk about lewd sex things. Don’t talk about sex at all. It’s a Catholic church!��

Remus continued to speak in Spanish with no regard for anything. “But not talking about lewd sex things takes away 3/4ths of my personality,” he pouted.

“More like 9/10th,” Janus grumbled, “and the other 1/10th is just normal stupid.”

“Hey, you shouldn’t be mean,” Pat scolded, in fucking English for some reason, “but Remus, honey, you probably shouldn’t be saying things like that right now.”

“No, no, he has a point,” Remus said switching to English.

“He’s my partner, I have the right to call him stupid,” Janus insisted.

“And I love you too!” Remus said in Greek because he was really, truly, stupid.

Pat looked between the two, but then seemed to accept it, dropping the concerned expression for a slightly amused one. “If you say so.”

“Can I… help you?” A voice asked. All three of them whipped around to see a young boy looking at them and seeming very confused. Which was fair considering that to his ears, they’d just been speaking nonsense.

“We’re here to pray!” Remus claimed, then he turned to wink at Pat and said under his breath in Swahili, “to that ass.” Pat went immediately bright red again, which was doubtlessly Remus’s aim. Janus subtlety stepped on his foot while smiling at the boy.

“Oh,” the boy said. “Okay.” Thankfully, he didn’t seem interested in questioning the random strangers in front of him further. “I’m going to go back to the celebration now.”

Janus smiled at him. “Have fun,” he said. He waited for the boy to leave through the front door before slapping Remus on the back of the head.

“Ow!” he whined sounding far too pained for how hard Janus had actually hit him.

Janus rolled his eyes. “Let’s just start investigating,” he said.

“Sure, sure, you never let me have any fun,” Remus said, pulling up his wrist and spinning the golden bracelets on his arm. “Hmm…” he said.

“What?” asked Pat.

“Either I put on the wrong jewelry this morning… or my timepiece isn’t working.”

“Well, then I’m guessing we’re in the right place,” Janus said. He turned to Pat. “Your stuff still working?”

Pat brought up whatever device was on his hands. “Yeah,” he said, “and it looks like something is just starting.” Just as he said it, there was a violent crash of thunder.

“Well,” Janus said. “We should probably find the source and soon. Which way?”

Patton glanced around himself and then motioned with his wrist. Suddenly there was a 3D display of the church in front of them.

Janus could see immediately where the problem had to originate. There was a swirling mass of some sort of energy centered at the top of the bell tower of the church. As he watched, he saw the picture of the church glitch out a bit. He had a bad feeling about that.

“Is there something wrong with your display?” he asked, or more hoped.

Pat shook his head slowly. “I don’t think so…” The room seemed to shift suddenly underneath their feet. It felt a bit like time travel, but also wrong. The picture on the display flickered harder, part of the building fracturing and dissolving before appearing back in place. The room settled after a moment, but Janus’s stomach did not.

“Whatever is going on,” Janus said, “We need to stop it right now.”

Pat nodded. “The quickest way up would be that way,” Pat said pointing. The display closed as he did.

“Then, let’s go,” Janus said.

The world was eerily calm as they all started off in the direction Patton had pointed out. In fact, it was almost too quiet.

“Where’s the nearest window?” Janus asked when they came out on the second floor.

Pat glanced at his hand. “There should be a couple a few feet that way.” Janus nodded and left them standing there. When he glanced out of the first window he came to, it appeared to be night. Yet, when he walked to the next window, he saw daylight.

26606

“Time is fracturing,” Janus informed them. “We need to be careful.” This time distortion was much more intense than any of the other ones the agency had been tracking down over the last few months. It had also come on much faster. Usually there was some time between when the time distortion began and it started having extreme effects on the environment. He was suddenly very glad that he and Remus had not split up today. He was even glad for Pat’s company, no matter how aggravating he may be sometimes. Not to mention, he was glad for the man’s technology that seemed to circumvent whatever was blocking Janus and Remus’s timepieces.

He backed away from the windows and returned to the others.

“Whatever you do,” Janus said. “Don’t let anyone be in a room alone.”

“I know what time fractures are this time,” Pat promised.

“It was as much for the idiot as it was for you,” Janus said.

“You accidently bring a bubonic plague infested rat to 900BC one time and you never live it down.”

“I’d say I should put a leash on you, but you’d twist it into something disgusting.”

“Probably,” Remus agreed.

“Where next?” Janus asked, ignoring him.

“That way,” Pat said.

They walked together to the door he’d indicated. “Please don’t be bullshit,” Janus prayed. He opened the door and immediately got bowled over by a stream of salt water.

#not writing #study break stories

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adorpheus · 3 years

Text

on fujoshi and fetishization

Lately, more and more, both here on tumblr and on other sites, I keep seeing people spew unfiltered hatred at fujoshi - that is, women who like mlm content such as gay fanfic and fanart featuring men with other men. And I don’t mean like a specific type of fujoshi, like the ones who are genuinely being weird about it, but just like a general hatred for girls (but especially straight identifying girls) who express love for gay romance.

I hate to break this to you all, but women (including straight women!) actually are allowed to like mlm fanfiction and fanart, even enthusiastically so. A woman simply expressing her love of gay fanfic, even if it is in kind of a cringey way or a way that you personally don’t like, is NOT automatically fetishization.

I’ve been on the receiving end of fetishization for my entire life, from a very young age, as many black and brown folx have, so I consider myself pretty well acquainted with how it works. Fetishization isn’t just like, being really into drawings of boys kissing, or whatever the fuck y’all are trying to imply on this god forsaken site.

Fetishization is complicated imo, and can encompass a lot of things, such as (but not limited to):

1 - dehumanization, e.g. viewing a group of people as sexual objects who exist purely for entertainment purposes, rather than acknowledging them as actual people who deserve respect and rights

and

2 - projecting certain assumptions onto said people based on their race/sexuality/whatever is being fetishized. These assumptions are often, but not always, sexual in nature (like the idea that black people in general are more sexual than other races, etc etc etc).

I’m going to use myself as an example to illustrate my point. Please note this isn’t the best or most nuanced example, but it is the most simplistic. A white person finding me attractive and respectfully appreciating my black features as part of what makes me beautiful is not, on its own, fetishization. A white person finding me attractive solely or mostly because I’m a PoC is now in fetishization territory. Similarly, assuming I’m dominant because of my blackness (like saying “step on me mommy” and shit like that) is hella fetishistic.

That being said, theres definitely a difference between how fetishization works in real life with real people, and how it shows up in fandom.

Fetishization manifests in many different ways in fandom, but most commonly on the mlm side of things, I personally see it appear as conservative (or centrist) women who love the idea of two men together, but don’t actually like gay people, and don’t necessarily think LGBT+ people deserve rights (or “special treatment” as its sometimes dog whistled). These women view queer men as sexual objects for entertainment rather than an actual group of people who deserve to be protected from systemic oppression. I’ve noticed that they often don’t even think of the men they “ship” together as actually being gay, and may even express disgust at the idea of a character in an mlm ship being headcanon’d gay. In case its not obvious, this is pretty much exactly the same way a lot of cishet men fetishize lesbians (they see “lesbian” as a porn category, rather than like, what actual LGBT people think of when we read the word lesbian). There’s a pretty popular viral tweet thread going around where someone explains seeing this trend of conservative women who like mlm stuff, and I have also personally witnessed this phenomenon myself in more than one fandom.

The funny thing is, maybe its just me buuuut.... The place I see this particular kind of fetishization happen most is not in the anime/BL fandom, from which the term fujoshi originates - I actually see these type of women way way more in western fandom spaces like Supernatural, Harry Potter, and Hannibal. I can’t stress this enough, there’s a shocking amount of people who are like, straight up trump supporters in these fandoms. If you want to experience it, try joining a Hannigram or Destiel group on facebook and you will probably encounter one eventually especially if you happen to be living through a major historical event. Like these women probably wouldn’t even be considered “fujoshi”, because that term doesn’t really apply to them given they aren’t in the BL/anime fandom, yet they’re the ones I personally see actually doing the most harm.

Of course this isn’t the ONLY kind of fetishizing woman in the mlm/BL world, there are other ways fetishization shows up, but this is the most toxic kind that I see.

A girl just being really into BL or whatever may be “cringe” to you, or she may be expressing her love for BL in a “cringey” way, but a straight woman really enjoying BL is not, on its own, somehow inherently fetishization. Yes, sometimes teenage girls act kind of cringe about how much they like BL and that might be annoying to you, but its not necessarily ~problematic~.

That being said, IT NEEDS BE REMARKED that a lot of the “fujoshi” that you all hate so deeply, are actually closeted trans men or nonbinary people who haven’t yet come to terms with their gender identity, or are otherwise just NOT cishet. I know because I was one of these closeted people for years, and I honestly think tumblr and the cultural obsession around purity is one of the many reasons I was closeted so deeply for so long. STORYTIME LOL!!! In my early adolescence, I was a sort of proto “fujoshi”. I identified as a bi girl who was mostly attracted to men, or as most (biphobic) people called it, “practically straight”. I wrote and read “slash” fanfic and looked at as well as drew my own fanart. We didn’t use the term fujoshi back then, but that’s definitely how I could have been described. I was obsessed with yaoi, BL, whatever you want to call it, to a cringe-inducing degree. I really struggled to relate to most het romances, so when I first discovered yaoi fanfics (as we called them at the time), I fell in love and felt like I finally found the type of romance content that was made for me. I didn’t know exactly why, I just knew it hit different. LGBT+ fanart and fanfiction brought me an immense amount of joy, and I didn’t really think too hard about why.

At some point, in my early 20s, after reading lots of discourse™ here on tumblr and other places like twitter, I started to get the sinking feeling that my passion for gay fanfiction was ~problematic~. I had always felt a sense of guilt for being into mlm content, because literally anyone who found out I liked BL (especially the men I dated) shamed me for liking it all the fucking time (which btw is literally just homophobic, like can we talk about that?). In addition to THAT bullshit, now I’m seeing posts telling me that girls who like BL are cringey gross fetishists who inspire rage and should go die?

Let me tell you, I internalized the fuck out of messages like this. I desperately wanted to avoid being ~problematic~. At the time, I thought being problematic was like the worst thing you could be. I was terrified of being “cancelled”, before canceling was even really a thing. I thought to myself, “oh my god, I’m gross for liking this stuff? I should stop.” I beat myself up over this. I wanted so badly to be accepted, and to be deemed a Good Person by the internet and society at large.

I tried to shape up and become a good ally (lmfao). I stopped writing fanfic and deleted all the ones I was working on at the time. I made a concerted effort to assimilate into cishet culture, including trying to indulge myself more deeply in the few fandoms I could find that had het content I did enjoy (Buffy, True Blood, Pretty Little Liars, etc). I would occasionally look at BL/fanfic/etc in private, but then I would repress my interest in it and not look for a while. Instead I would look at women in straight relationships, and create extremely heterosexual Couple Goals pinterest boards, and try to figure out how I could become more like these women, so I, too, could be loved someday.

This cycle of repression lasted like eight years. Throughout it all, I was performing womanhood to the best of my ability and trying to become a woman that was worthy of being in a relationship. I went in and out of several “straight” relationships, wondering why they didn’t make me feel the way reading fanfic did. Most of all, I couldn’t figure out why straight intimacy didn’t work for me. I just didn’t enjoy it. I always preferred looking at or making gay fanfiction/fanart over actual intimacy with men in real life.

Eventually, I stumbled upon a trans coming out video that someone I was following posted online, my egg started to crack, and to make an extremely long story short, after like 3 years of introspection and many gender panic attacks that I still experience to this day, I realized that I’m uh... MAYBE... NOT CIS..!? :|

I truly believe if I had just been ALLOWED TO LIKE GAY STUFF WITHOUT BEING SHAMED FOR IT, I probably would have realized I was trans way way sooner. Because for me, indulging in my love of gay romance and writing gay fanfic wasn’t me being a weirdo fetishist, it was actually me exploring my own gender identity. It is what helped me come to terms with being a nonbinary trans boy.

Not everyone realizes they are trans at age 2 or whatever the fuck. Sometimes you have to go through a cringey fujoshi phase and multiple existential crises to realize how fucking gay you are AND THATS FINE.

And one more thing - can we just be real here?

A lot of anti-fujoshi sentiment is literally just misogyny. omg please realize this. Its “women aren’t allowed to enjoy things” but, like... with gay fanfics. Some of the anti-fujoshi posts I see come across my dash are clearly ppl projecting a caricature they invented in their head of a demonic fujoshi fetishist onto any woman who expresses what they consider to be a little too much enthusiasm for gay content and then using their perception of that individual as an excuse to justify their disdain for any women, especially straight women, ‘invading’ their ~oh so exclusive~ queer fandom spaces.

god get over yrselfs this is gatekeeping by another name

idk why i spent so long writing this no one is even going to read it, does anyone even still use this site

*EDIT: HOLY SHIT WHEN DOING RESEARCH FOR THIS POST I FOUND OUT THAT Y-GALLERY IS BACK OMG!!!

#rant #fujoshi #I SAID WHAT I SAID #personal #gender stuff

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sirius-black-killed-god · 3 years

Note

Can we get a small sneak-peak of what's to come in TBWKG? I know you mentioned you were busy, so no worries if you can't share anything at the moment! <3

Yeah, why not. Here’s part of the first scene. My goal is to have the whole chapter up in the next two weeks. :)

The Boy Who Killed God: A Certain Number of Regrets

JANUARY 3, 1972

Remus looked slightly less green when he helped Madam Pomfrey change Sirius’s bandages the next morning.

It was funny, really. Sirius had seen Remus nearly torn to ribbons himself, but Remus seemed incredibly squeamish around Sirius’s injuries; so much so, in fact, that Sirius would have teased him relentlessly for it, had he not been gritting his teeth and cursing his way through the various Aguamenti’s and levitation spells.

Merlin, he thought, when Remus finally let out a relieved sigh and Madam Pomfrey finally retreated to her office. Malfoy really did a number on me.

Really, it wasn’t the equal-and-opposite sort of retribution that was generally expected of these sort of pure-blood grudge matches. Sirius had aimed his curse at Malfoy’s face. It had been severe enough to scar, yes, but the scar was no longer than the palm of Sirius’s hand. And he’d struck Malfoy on the side of his face, eyebrow to chin, an area that could easily be covered by Malfoy’s stupid white-blonde hair.

Malfoy had…

Well, Malfoy had nearly carved Sirius in two, hadn’t he? There was an X etched into Sirius’s chest, from collarbone to hip.

No one could reasonably say that that had been a proportional response.

No one had decried this grave injustice and breach of pureblood traditions, either.

Sirius hadn’t been lying, when he’d told Remus he remembered almost nothing after Christmas day. He knew he must have woken up at some point, because when his father had barged into his room yesterday morning—furious at what he’d deigned to perceive as laziness on the part of his eldest son and heir—Sirius had reached for the inkwells Alphard had given him.

They’d been empty.

All of them.

Which either meant Sirius had, in his delirious fever-dream, somehow managed to choke them down in the days he’d lost, or…

Or, someone had dumped them out.

Utilising his impeccable deductive reasoning skills, Sirius figured it was the latter. His chest certainly didn’t look like anyone had applied dittany before Madam Pomfrey got her hands on him.

At half past eight, a house-elf popped in, bearing two steaming trays of food. Sirius’s mouth watered on sight, and, with a little strategic manoeuvring so as to avoid re-opening his scars, Sirius managed to sit up. Remus muttered a, “Thanks, Speckles,” as the house-elf set the trays on the pillow-wall between them, then disapparated.

They ate in relative silence. Sirius studiously sipped on his piping hot broth—this time containing small bits of beef—as Remus devoured his bacon and eggs. As he finished his soup, and sparing a glance to make sure Madam Pomfrey wasn’t watching, Sirius snatched the last piece of bacon from Remus’s fingers and more or less swallowed it whole.

Remus glared at him, but then sighed. He stood, slid out of bed, and placed the empty trays on the cabinet, before stretching his arms over his head. His neck and shoulders popped, and Sirius tried not to cringe at the sound.

“How are you feeling?” Remus asked, through a mostly-stifled yawn, and really, Remus looked terrible. His curly hair stuck out in every direction imaginable. His eyes were red-rimmed and opened way too wide in an apparent attempt to fight off exhaustion. His uniform was rumpled and untucked, but that wasn’t all surprising given he’d slept in it. The scar across the bridge of his nose was a darker shade of pink, starkly contrasted against Remus’s pale skin and freckles, almost as if—

As if…

Sirius counted the scars. Then, he counted them again.

No. No.

There was no way those were new.

Remus had stayed at Hogwarts over the holidays. He couldn’t possibly—

“Sirius?”

“Hm? Yeah, sorry. I’m fine.”

Remus frowned and raised a disbelieving eyebrow at him.

Sirius huffed. “Fine. I feel like shit, but considerably less shitty than yesterday. Not going to pass out any time soon, anyway. Hopefully. Most likely.”

Remus didn’t look particularly convinced.

Sirius pushed his luck anyway. “What are the chances of you helping me break out of here before Madam Pomfrey comes to check on me?”

“Not fucking likely.”

“But—“

“Sirius, you almost fucking died.”

“I did not!”

Piercing, half-golden eyes tracked down to Sirius’s chest, over the bandages, then back up to the tattoo, and—

“Fine! Fine!” Sirius crossed his arms over his chest, trying to block it from view. Slightly mortified, he felt himself flush red. He wasn’t used to anyone looking at his chest, his fucking tattoo, least of all Remus Lupin. It… It was unnerving. “Can you at least get me a shirt?”

He wasn’t exactly sure when he’d taken off his own shirt—the exact events of yesterday were more than a little hazy in his mind—but he was certainly tired of not wearing one. It brought unnecessary attention to things he’d rather keep secret.

Remus nodded, then gave him a small reassuring smile. “Yeah, I think I can do that.”

Remus made his way to the opposite end of the hospital wing, crouched by a small, bedside cupboard, rooted a round for a minute, then made a vaguely triumphant noise as he pulled out not just a shirt, but a pair of soft, Muggle trousers as well.

“Here,” Remus said, handing over the clothes. “These should do.”

Sirius eyed the clothes, subconsciously wiggling a little in his own, now-ruined designer trousers. The waistband and front part of his trousers were crusted with quite a bit of dried blood, Dittany, and other unmentionable, yet equally disgusting bodily fluids he’d rather not think too hard about. The trousers were about as far from salvageable as humanly possible.

“Thanks.” Sirius took the proffered clothes and ever-so-slowly swung his legs over the side of the bed. He took a long moment just to breathe.

“Do… Do you need help?”

“No.” Sirius tried not to snap, but he still managed to answer far too quickly and with far too much conviction.

Remus clearly didn’t share any of his false bravado, but he turned his back all the same to allow Sirius the dignity of changing on his own.

Sirius shucked his trousers in one go—they were so caked with filth that they kept their shape, much to his disgust—but kept his pants. His silk pants were equally ruined, but Sirius Black had just enough pureblood formality beaten into him that he wasn’t about to go pantsless in borrowed trousers.

Said borrowed trousers were rather large on him—so much so that Sirius muttered a quick spell to cinch them at his waist. The trousers hung well past his feet, the knees were rather worn, and never had such pedestrian fabric been used to clothe a member of the Noble and Most Pretentious House of Black, but they were incredibly comfortable. Absently, Sirius found himself wondering as to where one might acquire a pair and just what the consequences might be if his mother found out he’d gone to a Muggle tailor.

Sirius shook his head and reached for the shirt. It was an equally worn button-up, with a patch on one elbow and ridiculously long sleeves, but it was made of thick, pliable material that smelled of… starlight and piping hot tea. Right beneath the collar—

No. That couldn’t be right.

Right beneath the collar, stitched ever so carefully, were the initials R.J.L.

“Remus, are these yours?” Sirius asked, before he could think too much of it.

Because if Remus had a spare set of clothes in the hospital wing, that might lead one to believe that not only had Remus been a recent resident of said hospital wing, but the injuries he’d hypothetically sustained had also been grave enough to either warrant a change of clothes or an extended stay in the hospital wing that would consequently necessitate a change of clothes, eventually. Which, really, could not be possible because Remus hadn’t gone home for the holidays, so there was no logical reason for Remus to have been in the hospital wing at all.

Right?

Except the back of Remus’s neck flushed red and Sirius felt his heart stop.

Because Remus had a new scar on his face that Sirius was now fairly certain hadn’t been there when Sirius left.

Oh, how he’d wanted to believe that it was nothing.

Nothing, as it turned out, hardly ever worked in his favour.

“Where’d you get that scar on your face, Remus?”

“Siri—“

“No!” Sirius had half a mind to throw the shirt at the back of Remus’s head.

Slowly, ever so slowly, Remus turned to face him, and Merlin, how had Sirius missed it? The scar across the bridge of Remus’s nose was a pale pink, not faded silver. New. Raw. Fresh.

The fight drained out of Sirius, as though he’d been punched in the throat.

“You were supposed to be safe, Re,” Sirius croaked.

“So were you.” Remus’s jaw tightened, but this time, he didn’t turn away. “Our monsters will always find us, Sirius.”

For a moment, Remus looked as though he wanted to say more, wanted to explain, anything. He opened and closed his mouth, his fingers fidgeting all over the place. Sirius waited.

And waited.

Then, suddenly, Remus froze. Every muscle in his body went rigid. Sirius watched, confused and mildly alarmed, as Remus tilted his head up and turned towards the—

The giant door to the hospital wing was open, just a crack. When and how that had happened without them noticing, Sirius couldn’t be sure.

Remus frowned and… sniffed? Whatever he was doing, it was beyond strange. Sirius watched Remus’s eyes dart around the room, seemingly unable to settle on anything in particular, always on the move, always searching for… something.

“Remus, what—“

Sirius heard the faint shuffle, the soft whisper of fabric, the slightly too-loud breathing.

Except there was no one there.

Readying himself for a fight with whatever ghost or shadowy figure that may or may not have infiltrated Hogwarts, Sirius tugged on Remus’s shirt as quickly as he dared without risking reopening his wounds. He shoved the ridiculously long sleeves up past his elbows, called his magic to the tips of his fingers, and took a defensive stance next to Remus.

Someone—something?—hissed out a faint curse. Then:

“Ow!”

“That’s my foot!”

“Potter, if that’s your fucking hand on my arse, so help me God, I will—“

Sirius and Remus exchanged a startled glance.

“Evans?” Sirius called, to the otherwise empty hospital wing.

“Shit.” That certainly sounded like James.

“Weren’t they s’posed to see us eventually?” Peter, maybe?

“Yes, but not until after we scared the shit out of them.”

“That doesn’t seem very nice.”

“It’s supposed to cheer them up. All they need is a good bit of mischief and—“

“Oh, for Christ’s sake!”

With a sudden whoosh of fabric, James, Lily, and Peter materialised out of nowhere, not five feet from them.

“What the fuck,” Remus deadpanned, at the exact same moment Sirius gasped, “Is that a fucking invisibility cloak?!”

#tbwkg #sera answers questions #my writing #the boy who killed god #sirius black #remus lupin #wolfstar #Wolfstar fanfiction #hp fanfiction

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duck-writer · 4 years

Text

De-Aged Donald Duck AU Ch.2

Part one can be read here.

Louie paced back and forth frantically while his now de-aged uncle struggled to find his way out of the over-sized clothes. The image would have been adorable and maybe something worthy of slight blackmail material for the future if Louie wasn’t panicking about how badly a turn his plan took!

“Oh man, oh man, oh man...” He muttered to himself as he tried to think of what to do next. It was a horrible sudden reminder that he hadn’t really thought his plan through.

He was completely fine with there no being a fix when it was him who would be de-aged and needed to be taken care of. Now he was sort of realizing that his family would most likely embark on some sort of quest or adventure to find a way to cure him. After that, he’d probably be grounded for a month if not more!

“Halp! I needs halp! Dewwa!”

“Aw man...that would be too cute any other day.” Louie had to admit to himself. Snapping out of his panic slightly, he knelt and helped his uncle out of his adult clothes. “There...better?” He asked gently.

“Thank ‘ou.” Donald muttered but then wrapped his arms around himself. “No weally. Is cold.” Looking around he frowned before staring up at the other duck before him. “What yous name? Me’s Donal! ...have seen Dewwa? She wook lots wike me!” Donald said happily before he shivered a bit.

Louie grabbed his uncle’s blazer and used it to wrap the young duckling in, and then picked him up. “Hi Donald. I’m Louie. Uh...can you tell me how old you are?”

Donald wiggled in Louie’s hold as he tried to get his hands free and then he held up three fingers in one hand and another finger in the other. “Dewwa and Donal fouw!” But then he looked around and frowned at not seeing any trace of his sister. “Where Dewwa?”

“Uh...” Louie hesitated on how to answer. The way Donald was looking around, a slightly scared expression on his face brought back some memories of himself doing that. He used to do it a lot when they each finally got their own beds instead of sharing one. As much as he liked having his own thing, he was very used and very close to his brothers. Not to mention the night seemed scarier when he was on his own.

Even though he was aware of his uncle and mother being twins, he didn’t think too much of it. But he supposed it made sense that they would have the same strong bond as he and his brothers did.

Seeing more fear slip into his uncle’s face, Louie held him closer and rocked him a little. “Hey, it’s okay. Shh...you’re safe, I promise. I...I know this is scary, but it’s gonna be okay.”

He wasn’t sure if it was going to be okay. In fact, he couldn’t even fathom how much trouble he was going to be in if he was caught. That was a thought for later though, his uncle needed to feel secure. Sneaking out of the garage, by some miracle he’s able to make it to the houseboat. He places his uncle Donald on the hammock and starts to look through some of their old belongings that should be in storage.

“Aha!” He cheers when he finds an old suitcase. It was full of their old baby and toddler stuff. It took a bit of digging but he found Dewey’s old pair of PJs and got the younger duck into them. That at least solved the naked and cold problem.

Now to think of what to do next.

The responsible thing to do was to come clean and ask for help on how to fix this.

That was going to have to wait because Louie heard a stomach growl and it wasn’t his. Looking over he saw the toddler look at him with big, pleading eyes and rubbing his tummy. “Hungy...”

“Four-year-olds can eat solid food right?” He asked his uncle as if he knew. Though the toddler nodded, he pulled out his phone and double-checked on the web just in case.

Louie picked up the toddler and brought him into the kitchen area and sat him down on the floor so he could keep an eye on him. Looking around he debated on what was okay for the toddler to eat. His uncertainty made choosing hard, so in the end he grabbed some tangerines. Since they were kids his uncle always had them on the houseboat. They were juicy and fresh and very easy to peel. He peeled two and that was enough for now. Louie could go back to panicking about what to do next.

“Louie?”

Louie’s head snapped towards the entrance when he heard his mom’s voice. “Oh crud!”

Donald giggled at Louie’s choice of word, and even though he was moments away from being in trouble...that was just really cute. He didn’t have time to hide his uncle, so he simply begged for him to stay put while he handled the situation.

“Donald? Did Louie stop by here? I could have sworn I saw him with a-Oh! Louie, there you are.” Della said when she was greeted by Louie at the stairs.

“Hi! Uh...what’s up?”

“It’s almost time for bed. The boys said you were having a talk with your uncle, but I thought I saw you running away from the house. Thought I’d check to see if everything was okay?” Della knew that she and Louie still had work to do before they were 100% on the same page. As much as she wanted to come back to her eggs and be accepted as their mother fully she was learning to accept that their mentalities were different. While she had them on her mind all the time she was on the moon, they and the rest of the world had assumed the worst. She had to be patient...not her best virtue, but at least her best practiced one on while away.

“Sure! Everything is a-okay! Dandy even, ya know?” Louie did his best to sound nonchalant and cool about the situation.

Della’s parental instincts immediately kicked in and her eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Where’s your Uncle Donald?”

“...he’s in here. Ya know, having a snack.” It wasn’t a lie.

“Well, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if his sister came in and wished him goodnight,” Della said and tried to take a step down.

Louie blocked her from doing so by standing in her way with his arms stretched out, “No! You...you can’t! Uh, see thing is...uh....since Storkules Uncle Donald’s been really strict about who comes in and...and I think that’s just something we should respect, ya know?”

“Louie. What’s going on?” Della asked as she knelt down and tried to get a view inside.

“Nothing!” Louie tried to insist.

“Momma?”

Both Louie and Della stilled. Louie turned around and saw his toddler uncle at the foot of the stairs staring up at them. Louie was already scrambling to explain himself, tears of frustration and guilt as he knew he was in trouble and rightly so.

Whatever form of yelling he expected didn’t come however. Looking up at his mom, he saw a pained and still somehow soft expression as she made her way down the stairs and picked up toddler Donald.

The toddler in turn furrowed his brow as he got a better look at the woman who was holding him. He crossed his arms and huffed, “Twick! No momma!”

“I...no. I...Oh god, Donald.” She breathed and held the toddler close as she tried and failed to fight back tears.

Donald fussed and wiggled until Della had no choice but to set him down. He looked between Louie and Della and his bill began to quiver because he was scared! He didn’t know them! He didn’t know where he was! “I wan’ go home! To momma and daddy! An’ Dewwa! Now!”

“Hey, it’s okay little dude...” Louie tried to calm him down.

It seemed like his uncle’s anger issues stemmed way back. He could see a temper tantrum about to come on and he could guess it wasn’t going to be pretty.

But before he could explode, his mom knelt in front of toddler Donald and grabbed his hand. It confused both Louie and Donald for a second, and then Donald’s face shifted to slightly more confusion and then wonder as his mom traced something in the palm of his uncle’s hand.

Toddler Donald looked up with wonder and confusion as he asked, “Dewwa?”

Della smiled sadly but nodded, “Yeah, Donnie...it’s me.”

Donald’s bill quivered a bit more, then he began to hit and punch at Della but it didn’t have the anger that had been building up before. “You meanie! You’s old! No fair, no fair, no fair!”

“Hey. Ow, okay...hey, look. It’s okay Donnie. It’s okay!” Della tried to soothe him.

Donald jumped back and glared at Della, eyes glistening with tears that streamed down his face. He stomped his feet and had his hands balled into fists at his sides, “It no kay! Dewwa gwow up wiffou’ Donal! Das no how posed go! We posed to go togatha! Das wha’ twins posed do!” Then he fell back on his butt and began to cry, “You’s leave me! Is no fair!”

Though she didn’t know how it came to be, she got the impression that Donald didn’t have the memories passing the age his body was at, at the moment. He didn’t mean to hurt her, he wasn’t aware of the events with the Spear of Selene. She’d been so focused on the pain she caused for leaving and the consequences of not being there for her sons, she hadn’t paid that much attention to the fact that she left Donald behind too.

Her twin.

She pulled him back into her arms, even as he struggled a bit. Eventually, he just clung to her and cried, and she joined him.

Louie felt very awkward, as if he was intruding in a moment he wasn’t invited to.

Before he could make his escape or excuse himself, Dewey alerted them of his presence, Huey and Webby not too far behind.

“Whoa, no way! Was there a fourth brother? And are those my old pjs?!”

~~~~~~~

Chapter two! I hope you guys like it >.> !

#De-Aged Donald Duck AU #Ducktales 2017 #Donald Duck #Louie Duck #Dewey Duck #Huey Duck #Della Duck #Fanfic

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foureyeswithanicesmile · 3 years

Text

{Part two}

Gender of reader isn’t specified :)

Quote:

‘ Grayson? Grayson oh my god.’

_____________________________

It was a late night in the city of San Francisco; summer air contrasting with the darker sky as everyone went about their night. All except you.

You had waited for Dick Grayson, who went from your enemy to a little more than a friend, in his apartment in order for him to see you after work; To thank him for two nights ago since he saved your ass from bleeding out.

But Dick Grayson was supposed to be back an hour ago.

Maybe he was just side tracked? He did have to check up on Rachel and Kory after all.

Another hour passed and you grew slightly anxious, debated calling him after strings of half-angry half-worried messages and voice notes were sent from your phone.

What if he just forgot? Grayson’s a busy boy he always is doing something he shouldn’t.

However, he did undress you, dressed you and asked you to kiss him; thats not something you walk away from everyday without any strings attached.

Studying the hours diligently, you began to pace up and down his apartment, worry and almost frustration coursing through you.

Where was Dick Grayson? He would’ve at least sent sarcastic message to say he was running late; but the lack of engagement was concerning.

Another hour had passed before you said ‘ fuck it’, grabbing your almost retired vigilante gear and your hand gun from your bag. Some may ask why you had a gun in your bag when you were only going to see a friend, but it’s because shit like this happens.

‘ Alright Dick Grayson- lets hope you aren’t dying somewhere.’

The adrenaline you got from jumping from scaffolding and strangers’ rooftops was exhilarating; almost to the point where you forgot what you came for. Who you came for.

‘ Dick?’ You called out, even going as far as dangling yourself over buildings to whisper shout his name into any alleyways.

Still nothing.

‘ Oh fuck it’

You sighed, pulling out your phone in order to track him.

Whilst you regretted tracking many members of your company, if Dick was in trouble he wouldn’t exactly be too mad; besides, he’s done the same to you plenty of times.

‘ All the way in the nightclub alleyway? Did this fuckhead leave me to get drunk? i’m gonna kick his head in I swear to God’ You swore to yourself, stealthily making your way to the nearest and invisible rooftop by Dick Grayson’s location.

‘ Alright- where are you huh?’ You trailed off, observing the ground with your scoped gun.

After what seemed forever to look for; you noticed brunette hair sticking out from the outside of the club.

Club was empty. You realised, all the lights eerily unlit as you approached it.

With your pistol in your hand carefully, you dropped yourself in the alleyway, calling out Dick’s name one more time.

‘ Grayson? Where the fuck are you?’ You exclaimed again, walking in the dark confused and almost creeped out.

You believed all hope was lost until a voice spoke brokenly from the corner; the tone immediately catching your attention.

‘ Grayson?? Grayson? oh my god’

And there he was, Dick Grayson in the flesh, bloody nose and half conscious. Confusedly, you sprinted over to him, dropping onto your knees without your regular concern of hurting your knees on the gravel.

‘ Grayson? Grayson what the fuck happened??’ You asked, attempting to keep calm.

Grayson was unresponsive; only seemed to be muttering almost indecipherable phrases.

‘ Get me home’ You finally heard him mutter into your ear, the request causing you to shoot up from your position with him in your arms; limping as he barely managed to stroll along.

‘ It’s alright Grayson we’re gonna get you out of here alright- I’m gonna take you home and you can explain to me’

You weren’t the ‘comforting’ type; i mean when you first met Rachel you almost chewed her out when you discovered her lack of power control.

Everything seemed to be going good, Dick actually fighting in order to get himself home whilst leaning on you; surprised at your own upper body strength.

‘ Alright Grayson can you hear me?’ You inquired, looking in his beaten-up direction with a concerned look under your mask.

‘I-I’m not sure’ Grayson stuttered uncomfortably, falling onto you so that he almost compressed you into the alleyway wall; now completely unconscious.

___________________________

‘ Shit’ Grayson groaned as he sat up slowly; attempting to regather the previous events.

‘ You’re awake- thought you died on me back there you dickhead’ He heard you speak, beginning to turn his head around frequently to catch you in his peripheral vision.

‘ H-How did we get back?’ He asked dizzily, brows furrowing quickly as his headache hit him like a truck, relieved when you handed him an aspirin, water and an egg omelet.

‘ Called Alfred on your phone- don’t worry he isn’t telling Batman shit about this’, you assured, standing in front of his blurry view.

‘ Care to explain what the hell happened boy wonder? I waited for you for ages’ You attempted to complain; words distorted by gathering concern and curiosity.

‘ It was nothing, just unfinished business’ He dismissed, causing your eyes to roll melodramatically whilst he took his aspirin.

‘ Unfinished my ass, I almost dragged your ass back home by the hair’ You remembered, sitting on the end of the couch he laid on; carefully avoiding sitting on his legs.

‘So you took me home and stripped me into my boxers?’ His face screamed sarcasm, your eyes rolling out of embarrassment.

‘ You were beaten up pretty badly, had to make sure there wasn’t any excess bruising or any open wounds’

‘ Mhm, you sure that was all you did that for?’ He asked, a smirk on his visually appealing face.

‘ Oh shut it Dick-head, you did the same around three days ago’

‘ With your consent- in fact I remember you asking’ He teased back once more, sitting up so his arms rested on his knees.

‘ Like you asked to kiss me, Grayson?’ You rekindled, chuckling into your hand when you studied his now flustered expression.

‘ I’m fucking with you- I’d kiss me too’ You smiled, getting up from the couch in order to move closer to him. The lack of distance almost startled Dick Grayson, your eyes transfixed on his face. Out of embarrassment, he decided to look down, only to realise the way his shirts hung low on your chest; causing him to cough and avert his eyes the wall.

Your thumb grazed against the purple bruise painted across his cheek, his eyes now joining yours. With a mischievous smile, you applied a harsh pressure on the bruise with your thumb, Dick Grayson now grabbing your hand from his face.

‘ What the hell? Thought you were supposed to nurse me to health not make it worse’ His face scrunched as he proclaimed, you deciding against removing your hand from his grasp.

‘ Well you did dig your thumbs into my hip’ You recalled to Grayson with a smile, his face contorting into a look of defeat.

‘ Okay maybe you’re right’He admitted with a genuine small smile, going silent when he realised the look you were giving him.

Your curly hair dropped onto your face in a way that accentuated your features. Lips parted similar to how his were when he asked to kiss you not too long ago. Eyes narrow and almost sharp, staring into his with an indecipherable look in them.

In that moment, Dick Grayson realised he still had his grip on your hand, which only tightened slightly during the eye contact.

Yet you hadn’t seemed to mind, and he was well aware of that fact.

The gap began to close, your lips only barely grazing his.

‘ Leave me at your apartment like that again and i’ll have a one night stand on your own bed- you understand?’ You threatened with a whisper, leaving the brunette only able to exhale.

‘ As long as it’s with me’.

And before you knew it, your lips were pressed against his almost desperately, your hands tightly laced in his hair whilst his only rested on your sides.

After a few tension filled moments, you pulled away with a slight laugh, your hands eventually dropping down to his shoulders.

‘ Listen I-‘

You didn’t wanna hear what he had to say, whilst he was a pretty great guy with a really pretty face you weren’t the type for long emotional conversations.

‘ Yeah yeah I know I’m great and I’m hot and you want me to stop doing the shit I do- but thanks to you always getting into trouble that involves me having to save you- I’ve basically retired.’ You refocused, his mouth almost agape as you took the words out of his mouth.

‘ Sorry Dick, but a few kisses aren’t going to magically convert me’

His face dropped as you spoke; now believing that you were going to leave frustratedly.

‘ Yet. I like your group alright, Kory, Rachel, Gar- you have quite the company, I’ll stay if you lend me a favour’

‘ That favour being?’ He asked, his body language changing into its original sophisticated manor.

‘ As much as I hate to ask- But I gotta stay in this apartment’

His brows scrunched in confusion; which you mistook for disagreement.

With a shrug of your arms and a sigh of defeat, you stood from your seat and began gathering your belongings.

‘ Wait- you can stay that’s not an issue- but why?’ He wondered audibly, looking up at you with a perplexed expression.

‘ Simple, got my apartment trashed’ You shrugged off, Grayson now sitting up out of concern.

‘ When? Why?’ He asked, unaware of the living conditions you were now in.

‘ After those guys beat the shit out of me, they saw me scramble into my apartment before I came over- so when I came back the evening after…. It was nothing more than a destroyed flat’.

Whilst the news was stressful and worrying, Grayson was almost confused by your blank expression.

‘ And you didn’t call? I would’ve came over with Kory and the others and let you stay-‘

‘ I don’t always need to report to you Dick, I can handle shit perfectly fine’ You interrupted, a furrow to your brow.

Your sentence caused Grayson’s brows to furrow, he did care about you even if it was only ever discovered when you stumbled on his doorstep.

‘ But I understand that you care- and I appreciate that you care- even if you’re an asshole’ You joked, the laugh coming off more as a happy exhale.

‘ You can stay, alright?’ He finalised, his eyes looking up at you once more.

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myaekingheart · 3 years

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141. Intuition

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Smoke billowed up from the tip of a lit cigarette as Sekkachi took a long, hungry drag. The village was quiet for a Monday, the sky inching up central overhead. Dust clouded up around her ankles with each pad of her feet. She turned a corner, trampled through the same pathway she had already forged on another street. Rei surely would not mind her running late. It wasn’t like they were on a tight schedule and Rei likely needed the extra time anyway. After all, it wasn’t called morning sickness for nothing.

As she strolled, Sekkachi pressed a hand to her toned, bare stomach and deliberated. It was still so hard to wrap her brain around the fact that her best friend was having a baby. Deep down, Sekkachi knew this would happen eventually. She had made her peace with it but that didn’t mean she had fully comprehended it yet. Life was moving so fast and things were changing so quickly. Their youth was slipping ever rapidly through their fingers and there was not a damn thing they could do about it.

Sekkachi cursed herself as she suddenly heard her name shouted from down the street. All those thoughts of youth had apparently summoned him, the true power of youth connoisseur: Might Guy. He waved at her widely before running to catch up with her, a determined grin spread across his face. “Sekkachi! I didn’t expect to see you out and about this early” he greeted.

“It’s not that early” Sekkachi grumbled under her breath, taking another drag. But then again, being out and about any time before noon was evidently suspicious behavior. “Besides, I’ve got plans with Rei.”

Guy nodded knowingly. “What youthful activities are you doing today? A sparring match in the training grounds? Shopping spree? Or perhaps a trip to the dango shop? Hmm?”

Shaking her head, Sekkachi finished off her cigarette and toed the butt into the dirt. “No, we’re heading over to see her parents. Rei’s got big news to share and besides, she’s been freaking out about everything so she wanted to look into some books on pregnancy.”

Might Guy stood stock still in the middle of the street, his mind lingering on the word pregnancy. And it was then that Sekkachi realized she had made a terrible mistake. “Sekkachi!” he shouted, taking her by the shoulders and looking her straight in the eyes. “Do you mean to tell me that Rei and Kakashi are pregnant?”

“I-I thought you knew…” Sekkachi stammered. Her hands grew clammy as she willed Guy to release her from his grip. She watched as he began to seemingly vibrate with excitement, something welling up deep within his chest before almost combusting. “Guy…don’t you dare. G-Guy, I swear to god! Don’t you—”

And then he was off in a flash, racing down the street and skidding around corners fast as a bullet toward Rei and Kakashi’s apartment. He needed to confront his eternal rival on this wondrous news once and for all. Sekkachi dropped her head back with a groan before chasing after him. The pit of her chest tightened with regret and the fear of the impending confrontation. At least she knew Guy would likely take this far better than Rei’s parents would.

Kakashi rested a gentle hand on his fiancée’s lower back as she leaned over the toilet, vomiting profusely yet again. She seemed to be so sick so often, he wondered how her body even managed it. He had watched the way her hands shook as she had stood over the sink that morning and brushed her hair slowly, methodically, as if the tangles were a tricky math problem that required focus and precision. The way her nose twitched and her face paled, the way she tried to swallow it back to no avail. He had skidded to her side the minute she spun and fell to her knees, scooting her closer to the toilet for extra security. She clung to the toilet seat with a white-knuckle grip, her body cold and clammy and her chest heaving monstrously. Once the expulsion was complete, she fell back into his lap gasping for breath, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.

“I’m so sorry, ‘Kashi” she gasped, shaking her head and raking her fingers through her hair.

“Don’t apologize” he replied, leaning forward to flush the toilet for her. “I know you can’t help it.”

“I just hate this so much” she whimpered, pressing her palm over her eyes. Her vision was spotty and warped, like right before she was to pass out.

“It’ll be okay” he assured her, rubbing her shoulder sweetly. “I was looking over those pamphlets and they said the vomiting usually dies down after the first trimester. Don’t worry, there’s an end in sight.” He fed her a reassuring smile, pressed his lips to her sweaty temple.

“I hope so” Rei huffed. She shifted yet again, signalling that she was ready to stand. Kakashi rested a hand on her back as he rose to his feet behind her, ensuring that she would not fall, before extending a hand to help her up slowly.

“Do you want me to stay with you while you get ready?” he asked. He was terrified of leaving her unsupervised, of all the negative possibilities that could occur.

Rei sniffled and shook her head, leaning against the bathroom counter for support. “N-No, it’s okay. I think I’ll be fine” she assured him. Toshio nosed the bathroom door open, trudging up beside her as if to assure Kakashi that he could chaperone. Kakashi scratched the dog appreciatively behind the ear before planting another quick kiss on Rei’s cheek, then returning to the kitchen. Across the counter sat his abandoned breakfast preparations, miraculously untouched.

As he whisked egg yolks in a bowl and hovered his hand over the frying pan, there was a rapid, rhythmic knock at the door and Kakashi’s body immediately went ice cold. He knew that knock anywhere. Roused from his morning haze, Toshio leapt to his feet and raced to the door, barking madly as if he, too, recognized the source of the sound. And with Toshio alerting their guest of their presence, Kakashi knew there was no avoiding the confrontation now. They could not hide from Might Guy.

Sucking in a sharp breath, Kakashi drew his mask up over his face and slowly approached the door, mustering the mental strength to deal with Guy at this hour. Or at least under the current circumstances.

Knowing Guy, he was most likely just vying for another sparring match. The fresh summer air always seemed to feed his insatiable energy. Kakashi redirected Toshio out of the way, clutched the doorknob, and rehearsed his polite refusal in the back of his mind. He would keep things vague, perhaps say he was just tired and that Rei had the stomach flu. He intended to tell Guy of the prengnacy in due time. It hadn’t even been a week since they had found out. He and Rei were still grasping at the weight of this new reality themselves. Keeping things vague would have to suffice.

Kakashi creaked the door open with an already-apologetic smile. Without a moment of hesitation, Guy barged into the apartment and pointed at his eternal rival with a manic look in his eyes. “Kakashi!” he exclaimed and the Copy Ninja felt his body stiffen and chill. He opened his mouth to speak but before he could even make a sound, Guy interrupted yet again. And his words shot an icy bullet straight through Kakashi’s chest. “You didn’t tell me you were having a baby!”

Oh no. Kakashi froze, speechless. Finally, he managed to muster a deflated, “Well, technically it’s not me who’s having the baby…” as he poked his stomach. Although maybe I ought to add some more sit-ups to my daily exercise routine, he then thought.

Guy blinked despondently. “I mean you and Rei!” he clarified. There was perhaps an undercurrent of hurt in his voice, a sense of sadness in having been excluded from such a massive turn of events.

“Listen, I-I was going to tell you this week” Kakashi stammered. “Guy, we only just found out.” He hated that he was so anxious about the thought of having perhaps angered Guy. Kakashi really meant no harm in not having told him the news yet. He hoped that Guy would understand.

The bedroom door creaked open then and Rei trudged out into the light, rubbing her aching forehead and muttering under her breath. When she felt two pairs of eyes land on her, she paused and her own slowly widened. “What’s going on…?” she asked, looking from her fiancé to Guy and back. Before she could even receive half of an answer, Guy lunged forward and swept her up into a monstrous hug. A yelp escaped Rei’s lips, the abruptness of it all only worsening her headache. In the background, the pounding of frantic footsteps echoed in the complex’s hallway.

“Shit” Sekkachi muttered under her breath, skidding to a halt in the doorway. She leaned against the doorframe, gasping for breath. Her face was sallow and dewy with sweat. “I-I’m so fucking sorry” she whispered to Kakashi. “I tried to stop him but…” Her voice trailed off as she inhaled and pressed a hand to her side, hoping to still the sharp, stabbing cramps.

“It’s okay” Kakashi whispered back. “I know Guy can be a little hard to, um…maintain.”

Enthusiastic tears rolled down Guy’s cheeks as he squeezed Rei tightly. “I’m just so happy for you guys!” he cried. “The both of you are going to make stupendous parents! Your babies are going to be beautiful!”

Sekkachi shook her head as she leaned against the doorway, replying softly to Kakashi, “Unfortunately.”

And then Guy leaned back to get a better view of Rei, gushing, “And look at you! Already glowing with the spirit of fresh youth!”

Rei blushed, averting her eyes with anxious laughter. “I mean, I’m pretty sure that’s what happens when you spend all morning puking” she muttered under her breath.

A weight released from Kakashi’s back as he watched the two of them interact. He was so terrified that Rei would be furious about Guy having found out the news before she could approve. Not that it was his fault, of course, but Rei’s temper had been questionable and Kakashi was the closest target. Dropping his shoulders, he skirted around to the sink and poured Sekkachi a much-needed glass of water. She took it graciously, muttering a thanks before taking a long, desperate swig. “So I take it you were the one who told her?” Kakashi then asked.

With a gulp, Sekkachi slumped in defeat. “It just slipped out, I didn’t mean to” she sighed, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.

“Well, Guy was bound to find out sooner or later” Kakashi replied, ruffling his hair. He glanced to his rival and fiancée over his shoulder and cringed in secondhand embarrassment. Guy had since transitioned into gushing about the amazing feats that Rei’s body was about to accomplish, of how incredible a process it all was, and orating several well-meaning but rather uneducated pregnancy facts. All the while, Kakashi could see Rei’s face tinge green, overwhelmed.

To be fair, this was exactly why Kakashi had held off telling Guy right away. He had hoped that he would be able to handle things privately, preferably with Rei out of the picture. He didn’t want to add any more to her burden. She already had enough to worry about.

“I guess I ought to step in and put an end to this” Sekkachi whispered, downing the last of her drink and slamming the empty glass on the counter. “Yo, Rei? Are you ready to go?” she called across the room.

The mere mention of the word go caused Toshio’s ears to perk up, immediately rushing to Rei’s side to leap excitedly and nudge her hand with his snout. Rei wiggled out of Guy’s one-armed embrace, flashing him a half-assed apologetic smile. She allowed Toshio to tug her toward the front door by the hem of her tunic. He spun this way and that, nearly knocking Rei over as she stumbled to slip her shoes on. Smirking, Sekkachi extended an arm to help steady her as she hopped on one foot and tugged at her sandal. “You’re welcome” she whispered.

Rei shook her head and rolled her eyes playfully, whispering back “I’m not out of the woods yet. Nowhere near it.” If anything, a part of her perhaps even hoped that Guy had taken over her entire afternoon. He was overwhelming, of course, but his positivity was a breath of fresh air. Deep down, they all knew that the rest of the afternoon would go nowhere near as smoothly.

If Rei had it her way, she would never even have to tell her parents of the pregnancy to begin with. The fear of uncertainty was not the issue here—rather, the opposite. Her father would be furious at the thought of Kakashi even laying a roving hand on her in the first place, and her mother would surely break down in tears, relieved that Rei would finally abandon her dangerous career for the sake of sheltered domesticity. The thought of it all made Rei’s stomach churn. She swallowed back her anxiety as she gave Sekkachi a light shove on the shoulder. A silent plea that they needed to get out and fast.

Kakashi paused for a moment as he watched Rei shove her way through the front door. The frying pan sizzled and hissed on the stovetop. “Rei, w-wait!” he called after her. “What about breakfast?”

Rei glanced at him over her shoulder and for a moment he swore her entire body was trembling. “I’m not hungry!” she called back to him, waving him off dismissively. Gripping Sekkachi’s wrist, Rei tugged her around the corner and they were gone.

Kakashi tried to handle Rei’s faltering appetite with grace. He tried to remind himself of how unruly stomach had been as of late, and that he should not force her to eat when she was already so sick. And yet the thought of her skipping meals made him anxious. He pursed his lips behind his mask, turned back to the kitchen. Guy cocked a brow in curiosity as he sensed the unease. With a sigh, Kakashi poured the eggs into the pan with a hiss and asked over his shoulder, “Are you hungry?”

Much like the rest of Konohagakure, the Kaminoki Bookshop was quiet for a Monday morning. Toshio pushed the door open with his nose, the bell overhead chiming to signal their arrival. Slumped behind the counter was Yuzu enthralled in some book about the Third Great Ninja War. She glanced up for only a second, calling up the stairs, “Mrs. Natsuki! Your daughter’s here!”

“Thank you, Yuzu! I’ll be right down!” Hana replied. Rei could hear her padding around upstairs, likely in the kitchen by the geography of her footfalls. She seemed louder now than before, heavier, as if at any moment she would break through the ceiling and crash down on top of her. An anxious lump rose into the back of Rei’s throat and without another moment of hesitation, she ducked behind one of the bookshelves for respite. Rei launched herself toward the political texts and tugged down a massive hardback almost too heavy for her to carry.

“What are you doing…?” Sekkachi whispered, eyeing her suspiciously. “I thought you were to look for books on the p-r-e-g.”

“I am, you idiot” Rei whispered back, adjusting the book in her hands. She propped open the cover, began ripping off the dust jacket. “What? Do you think the pregnancy brain has already fucked me over? No. I just need to handle this delicately.” Toshio huffed and nodded as if to emphasize his master’s point.

Sekkachi cocked a brow as she watched Rei shove the book, naked, back onto the shelf and then spin into the arts and sciences aisle. She skipped past anatomy, astronomy, biology, and chemistry all the way up to the pregnancy and reproduction section. There were only a handful of books, many of them dated or otherwise ignored and coated with a thick layer of dust. Rei pulled the most popular title into her arms, shoving the political dust jacket over the cover, and began flicking through. She paused on the fetal development chart.

Peering over her shoulder, Sekkachi snorted and asked, “So which one of these is yours?” She chuckled at how bizarre the images looked, like little aliens.

“Probalby this one” Rei whispered back, pointing to the image marked as eight weeks. Sekkachi squinted down at it, studying the curled little figure with beady eyes and unformed features.

After a moment of deliberation, Sekkachi blurted out, “It looks like a shrimp.”

Toshio barked loudly, as if in response to the mention of food. And then all at once, he nudged Rei hard on the back of her thigh, whipped around, on high alert. “There you girls are!” a voice called from around the corner—Rei’s mother. Startled, Rei yelped and stumbled backward, knocking into the fine arts section. A handful of poetry anthologies tumbled to the ground. “What are you doing looking at pregnancy books, anyway?” Hana then asked, her eyes darting to the book in Rei’s hand. The dust jacket had gone crooked, the cover of What to Expect When You’re Expecting poking out from behind. Rei’s entire body went cold. She was paralyzed.

“I was looking for my cousin” Sekkachi suddenly interrupted, stepping in front of Rei and waving her book in Hana’s face. “Tenjikubotan got knocked up so she asked me to look into some pregnancy manuals for her. She’s all hellbent on learning about ‘the beauty of her body’ and all that good shit.”

Numbing shock made way for chilling relief as Rei felt the pressure release from her shoulders. Sekkachi always had been a clever liar.

“Oh! Well then tell Tenjikubotan I said congratulations!” Hana beamed. Beneath the delight, however, her voice was tense. Desperate. Flooded with undercurents of her own deep-seated desires for Rei’s life. Rei’s chest tightened as the weight of it pressed hard against her chest, suffocating her. Her mother’s face began to warp in front of her eyes, the bookshelves twisting and swaying and the floor beneath her beginning to cave in. She could see Hana’s lips moving, hear her voice speaking, but she could not comprehend the sound. Rei clutched her book even tighter, the mere thought of it making her sick. Her eyes dropped to the floor, to the poetry books scattered at her feet. Only one had fallen face-up, the sharp words staring back at her with disgusting irony. You are on the eve of a devastating psychological upheaval. A whimper rose up into Rei’s throat as the weight in her chest grew heavier. And then there was a slap on her shoulder, hard and fast. The world clicked back into place.

“Well, Rei? What do you think?” Sekkachi asked through gritted teeth, jerking her gaze toward Hana’s direction.

Rei cleared her throat, croaked out a weak, “W-what did you say, Mom…?”

“I said I just finished making some lemonade, if you want to come up for a drink!” Hana repeated. “Perfect for a hot day like this!”

“O-Oh…” Rei whispered. “Y-Yeah…that would be…that would be great.”

Upstairs, the apartment was flooded with an almost ethereal summer light. The windows were propped open and a light breeze billowed the curtains, sheer and graceful. Ice cubes clinked in a pitcher of lemonade on the kitchen counter, already beginning to sweat. Everything was warm and bright and promising. Rei sucked in a deep breath and hoped for peace.

“I see the lemonade has attracted company, huh?” an old voice jested. On the couch sat Grandma Teiko hunched over a book. She licked her fingertip as she turned the page, a smile inching across her wrinkled face. She met Rei’s gaze then and there was something in her wise eyes that scared her. Something knowing. With the support of her cane, she hoisted herself to her feet and shuffled towared her granddaughter, pulling her in for a kiss on the cheek. Her varicose hands trembled and her lips felt colder than normal. “I guess summer has been kind to you” she then said, idling on Rei’s face for a moment. “You seem very full of life.”

Oh god. Rei’s back shot ramrod straight and she could feel the heat creep across the back of her neck. There was no way Grandma Teiko could know. Who told her? When did she find out? This was all too much. Perhaps it was just a coincidence. Perhaps it was a joke. But then again, Grandma Teiko had strange ways. Grandma Teiko knew everything.

“You do have a certain glow about you, dear” Hana commented, setting out four glasses and distributing the lemonade. Toshio strained his neck to sniff along the edge of the counter, hoping to steal a taste for himself. Hana instead fished a ceramic bowl from the cabinet, filled it with water, and set it down upon the floor for him. Defeated, he trudged toward his place setting and began lapping up his drink sloppily, splashing water all across the kitchen floor.

Sekkachi watched him for a moment before adding, “The heat does that to you.” She nodded toward Hana in thanks as she took her glass.

“Yeah, the heat’s, uh…the heat’s been a killer” Rei muttered as she received her own. Her eyes dropped to the floor as she took a meager sip. The lemonade was so tart and cold, it nearly made her lips pucker, but it felt incredible as it rushed down her throat. She voraciously guzzled the rest and set her glass on the counter, half-hoping her mother would automatically provide her with seconds.

“Well, I hope you’re staying hydrated out there” Hana said. She eyed Rei’s glass curiously but was too delighted to complain. Lifting the pitcher, she poured Rei another glass. “You spend so much time outside with that damn job of yours, I don’t know how you don’t pass out every day.”

Rei pursed her lips, eyes bugged out in anxiety as she took another long drink. “Believe me, that’s uh…that’s not the worst of my worries” she muttered. Grandma Teiko cocked a brow and Rei immediately wished she had never said anything.

“Well, just be grateful you still have your health” Hana then said, raising a finger matter-of-factly. “You know, just the other day, my friend’s cousin’s mother had to be whisked off to the hospital for heat exhaustion and you know what happened? She didn’t make it, the poor girl. Dehydrated beyond repair. But then again, she was also 97 and had other health complications so I’m sure that that had something to do with it…”

For a moment, Rei’s frustration at her mother’s aimless interest stalled long enough for her to feel relieved that she did not linger on Rei’s words. She took another swig of her lemonade as she half-listened to Hana’s tale. All the while, she swore she could feel Grandma Teiko’s gaze everpresent on her back.

The rest of the afternoon progressed in much the same way, with Hana going off on tangents about her friends and especially the mundane occurrences in their childs’ lives. Truthfully, Rei never cared much for Hana’s friends nor any of their families. They were too self-interested, as if their own little sphere of the world was all that mattered. They knew nothing of struggle, stress, and strife. Not compared to her. Rei pressed a hand to her unruly stomach as she finished off her fourth glass of lemonade and prayed for peace.

The thing about it all that bothered Rei the most, however, was that Hana never bothered to ask about her. She made little remarks about her career and impatient comments about wedding plans, but not much else. As the afternoon progressed further, the sun beginning to descend in the west, Rei’s anxiety only expanded further like a black hole in her chest. She needed her mother to show even a glimmer of interest aside from berating her. Just one tiny spark and Rei would have her segue into this terrifying news. The longer she waited, the more terrifying the prospect of it all became.

And then the chime of the bell echoed from downstairs and seemed to snap Hana from her summery daze. “I suppose I better return to work!” she gasped, skirting around the kitchen counter. “Your father would be furious if he knew I was up here wasting time chatting during business hours.”

Rei pursed her lips, glanced around the apartment. “Where is dad, anyway…?” His supposed absence was equal parts relieving and concerning. Perhaps he was off to pick up a new shipment at Ressha Junction, or maybe it was just time for him to renew his business license at the registrar’s office. Regarldess of the reason, deep down a part of Rei hoped that he would not return until late. That way she could procrastinate even further. But even then, she felt unresolved. While she didn’t necessarily want to face her father with this news, she knew it was better to do this quickly and completely. To tell the whole family at once rather than in separate, equally terrifying little instances. A clean cut, quick like a bandaid or a beheading.

Teiko chuckled and rested a gentle hand on Rei’s shoulder. “Where do you think, girl?” she replied, motioning with her thumb toward the locked office door across the room. If Rei listened closely enough, she could hear the scratch of Yuruganai’s pen on paper, the tap of his fingertips against the buttons of his calculator. Curiosity piqued, Toshio lifted his head from his bowl, water dripping down his mouth sloppily, before lumbering nearer and sniffing under the door.

“I should’ve known” Rei scoffed, shaking her head. Busy as always. She glanced to her mother, wondering if she was stupid. Clearly her father already knew about Hana’s social hour. Whether he cared or not was another matter entirely.

Hana pursed her lips and shook her head as if in disdain for Rei’s lack of appreciation. Yuruganai worked hard and he deserved respect. She almost scolded her daughter for being so apathetic but held her tongue. Instead, she rested a a gentle hand on Sekkachi’s shoulder and asked, “By the way, did you find any books for Tenjikubotan? We might as well ring those up for you while we’re at it.”

Sekkachi glanced to Rei with a knowing smirk. “Yeah. Yeah, I think I found a few” she replied. Pleased, Hana ushered her excitedly downstairs.

Rei wasn’t sure whether to trust Sekkachi’s judgment or to launch herself before her in the stairwell and stop her from whatever informational crimes she was about to commit. Either way, however, she knew that was the least of her worries. As she watched them descend, an icy defeat unfurled from the pit of her stomach. Her window of opportunity had slammed shut and crushed her fingers in the sill on the way down. Rei opened her mouth in attempted protest but no sound came out. She was completely and utterly hopeless.

And then a shaky hand patted her on the shoulder, warm and comforting. Rei’s stomach flipped. She turned slowly and there was a knowing twinkle in Grandma Teiko’s eyes. She took hold of Rei’s wrist, turned her palm skyward, and in it placed a very small and worn book the size of a pocket dictionary. A Shinobi’s Guide to Growing a Life. The silhouette of a pregnant woman was stamped on the cover, the text in simple blue. Rei’s breath hitched in her throat, her vision beginning to blur. All she could manage to croak out was a strained, “H-How did you know…?”

“When you’ve been around as long as I have, you just have an intuition for these things” Grandma Teiko chirped, patting an approaching Toshio affectionately on the head. The dog sniffed the air, licked at her fingertips with his spotted tongue, barked in delight. Teiko couldn’t help but laugh. Apparently Toshio approved of her gift, too. The old woman reached out then to press a hand to Rei’s warm, blushed cheek. A promise. “Besides, you’ve got this glow about you, girl. The type of glow you only get when you’re expecting.”

An incredulous, teary laugh broke past Rei’s lips as she lunged forward to wrap Grandma Teiko in a warm embrace. Her fingers grazed the imprint of the woman’s spine through her kimono, her chest rising and falling with each shallow breath. It was inconsequential. “I just wish I knew how to tell my parents” Rei whispered, leaning back to press the heel of her hand to her teary eyes.

“Don’t you worry, girl” Teiko assured her, her face wrinkling with a smile. “They’ll be easier to break the news to than you think.”

“I’m just grateful that you at least know now” Rei sniffled. “I know I’m going to feel a lot safer telling them with your support.”

Grandma Teiko gave a single nod, chuckling. “You know you’ve always had my support” she replied. “How do you think you want to do it?”

“Well, I was hoping to tell them today” Rei admitted, “but clearly that didn’t work out.”

“It wouldn’t have been a good time anyway” Teiko shook her head. “Your father’s been up in arms about the last quarter, and your mother is in too good a mood.”

Rie pursed her lips, considering her grandmother’s analysis. “I guess the only way to do it would be over dinner or something” she brainstormed.

“That would probably be best” Teiko agreed. “Stage it for your mother like you want to discuss wedding plans. She’ll like that.”

“You think so?” Rei asked. Grandma Teiko cocked a brow as if to insinuate that that was a stupid question. Of course Hana would take delight in such an idea. After all, she was the one who eagerly took Rei wedding dress shopping only a few weeks earlier. She yearned to involve herself completely in the wedding arrangements. Laughing, Rei muttered, “I guess you’re right.”

“I promise, girl, it won’t go nearly as bad as you think it will” Teiko repeated, patting Rei comfortingly on the back. She shuffled toward the staircase, both of them knowing full well that Hana would get suspicious if they hung back too long.

“I hope you’re right” Rei murmured as she idled at the top of the stairs. Toshio nudged her hand comfortingly as she gazed down the daunting, narrow stairwell. Echoes of Hana and Sekkachi’s conversation vibrated through the air. Something in her chest stuck.

And then she felt a hesitation in the air, a strange heaviness. Grandma Teiko reached out for Rei’s wrist yet again and now there was something very different in the old woman’s face. A bittersweet softness unlike anything Teiko had expressed before. The world began to sway to and fro, colors pulsing and fading in threatening technicolor. Something was not right. Rei’s head became heavy and unstable, vision blurring as if in a fog. Grandma Teiko was different now and it terrified her. Something was not right.

“Rei…” the old woman murmured, and for a moment Rei swore there were tears in her eyes. She pursed her lips, hesitated a moment, then reached a varicose hand out to rest upon Rei’s stomach. “I just need you to know…you’re going to make a great mother.”

“G-Grandma…” Rei whispered, placing her hand over Teiko’s. She thought of the little life inside of her, of this massive generational gap. A vision of the possible future flickered in the back of her mind: of Teiko sitting in a hospital room, so small and hunched compared to the large arm chair in the corner, cradling a swaddled newborn in her arms. Of a tiny hand reaching out to wrap around the old woman’s finger. Of the love between a great grandmother and a new little life.

“To think, all those years ago, you never thought you’d get this” Teiko continued, laughing softly. “And now here you are. An accomplished kunoichi, captain of the ANBU black ops. Marrying the man you’ve always loved, and the two of you bringing a life into the world. I’m so…I’m so proud of you, Rei. I don’t think I could ever be prouder.”

“O-Oh god, Grandma, I just—” Rei stammered, her voice strangled with emotion. She swallowed hard in an effort to remain composed, to halt the tears threatening to spill out from inside of her. She could not cry—not now. She could not handle the confrontation of stepping into that bookstore, eyes puffy and bloodshot, and having to explain to her mother why she had become so overtaken. Rei sucked in a deep breath, increasing the pressure against Grandma Teiko’s hand ever so slightly, dropped her shoulders and forced herself to stay calm. And then, licking her lips, she whispered softly, “Thank you.” A moment of hesitation. A rising sensation in the pit of Rei’s chest. And then, without wasting another moment, she surged forward and wrapped the old woman in one last tight hug. An airy sob broke past her lips. The steady thump of Grandma Teiko’s heart pulsed against Rei’s chest. “Thank you for everything.”

Grandma Teiko petted Rei’s unruly hair and planted a quick, trembling kiss on her forehead. “Your future looks so bright, girl. Never stop chasing that light, do you understand? Don’t ever let it falter.”

“I know” Rei whispered. It was the same sentiment that Grandma Teiko had always instilled her: to keep going, no matter the odds. No matter what anyone else had to say, including her own mind. To persevere, prove her worth, triumph. “I won’t” Rei promised. “You know I won’t.” She leaned back again, smiling fondly, before whispering then, “I can’t wait for you to meet this baby, Grandma. I can’t wait for you to love them and support them and teach them everything they need to know about life, the same wa you did for me.”

Grandma Teiko gave a single nod, a soft smile tugging at the corners of her lips. “I know, girl” she whispered. “This little baby has a bright future ahead of her, too. I just know it.” Rei nodded, sniffling as she tried yet again to compose herself. The heaviness in her chest screamed at her to linger in this moment for a little while longer, to absorb every ounce of this fleeting liminal space, but Grandma Teiko would not have it. “Go on, now, get going” she whispered, urging Rei down the stairs. “Your mother is going to have a fit if you waste any more time.”

While Rei did not consider any of this a waste of time in the slightest, she knew that Grandma Teiko was right. The longer they spent here, the greater Hana’s suspicion would become. Rei could not afford any more complications. The situation at hand must be handled delicately and unfortunately that meant being timely and unassuming. Rei planted one more quick kiss on Grandma Teiko’s cheek, taking her hands in hers as she assured, “I’ll be back soon. I promise.” Grandma Teiko gave a single nod in understanding before giving Rei’s shoulder a light shove, an encouragement for her to be on her way. The stairwell didn’t seem quite as daunting anymore, nor did the echoes of conversation floating up from downstairs. The promise of Grandma Teiko’s support filled her with a newfound strength and calm, something Rei desperately needed at a time like this. No longer was she as scared of what was to come. So long as Grandma Teiko was by her side advocating for her, Rei would be just fine.

Sekkachi hefted the heavy tote of pregnancy books onto her shoulder as she and Rei made their way back down the street. “You know, you owe me big time for this” she huffed.

“Sorry” Rei cringed, though deep down she couldn’t help but be amused. “Do you want me to pay you back in money or packs of cigarettes?”

“Very funny” Sekkachi snarked. “Just be lucky I love you.”

Rei grinned mischievously. “I always am” Then, reaching for the bag, she asked, “Do you at least want me to take those off your hands? I mean, they are my books, after all.”

Sekkachi shoved her lightly out of the way, however, and shook her head. “Didn’t you ever hear that pregnant women aren’t supposed to do any heavy lifting?”

“Come on, it can’t be that heavy” Rei replied.

Rolling her eyes, Sekkachi fired back, “Want to bet?” She readjusted the bag on her shoulder, gripping the strap both to ensure that it would stay put and as a defense mechanism toward Rei. “What took you so long, anyway? Were you stealing the rest of your mom’s lemonade or something?”

Rei hated that even the mere mention of her mother’s lemonade left her salivating. An ache rooted in her chest at the thought of it, light and cold and pucker-sweet. She would have to get the recipe, or just pay her mother to make her seven gallons worth. But that was not important right now. Shaking her head, she replied, “Just having a private talk with Grandma Teiko. She, uh…she knows.” Rei fished the little book out of her back pouch then, holding up for Sekkachi to see. Toshio peered up curiously as the trio walked along.

Sekkachi’s eyes skated across the cover before laughing and shaking her head. “I should’ve known” she said. “I swear, that women must be a fucking psychic or something.”

“Pretty close to it” Rei laughed. As she tucked the book back into her pouch, her opposite hand idled on her stomach. She mused for a moment on life, on the miraculous nature of existence, of death and birth and the fragility of it all. Of the little baby growing inside of her, small and weak and strange. An amalgamation of cells, features unformed, a creature not yet evolved. It still didn’t feel entirely real. “I just hope…” Rei then said, voice much softer now. Sekkachi and Toshio both eyed her curiously. Rei sucked in a deep breath. “I just hope that Grandma Teiko was right. That my future—our future—is as bright as she says it is.”

“Why should you think any different?” Sekkachi asked. Smirking, she added, “I mean, I’m sure it will be. After all, doesn’t Grandma Teiko know everything?”

“You’re right” Rei laughed, rubbing her stomach tenderly. A soft smile tugged at the corner of her lips and for perhaps the first time, she found herself beginning to truly accept the matter at hand. The promise of becoming a mother, regardless of the bad timing and all the strings attached. We’ll be alright, baby, she thought to herself. Grandma Teiko is never wrong. We just need to keep chasing that light.

Baby, our future is so, so bright.

#kakashi hatake #rei natsuki #kakashi x oc #the scarecrow and the bell #naruto #naruto oc #fanfiction

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ofsinnersandsaints · 3 years

Text

where do you run

rating: E (this chapter is G) word count: 20351 chapter: 7/?

My favorite part of this chapter is that for the whole 'do we sleep or do we fight' conversation I didn't have to change or add any of the conversation. Change a little bit of context and Grog is suddenly the best boyfriend ever

Takes place during episode 81

AO3

Thordak was dead, but Raishan was still alive, and the thought was enough to drive Keyleth a little mad.

She was trying to stay calm and logical, but it was a hard thing to do when she was hyper aware that Raishan was free to hurt and destroy whomever she wanted. Keyleth wanted to scream, but instead she had to get downstairs because Vox Machina was planning out their next steps.

When she got to the dining room Grog was already at the large table, and deciding she needed the contact she sat on his lap, her legs dangling between his, instead taking a chair of her own. His hand immediately came up to rest on her hip. “How you doing?”

“I don’t know yet,” she admitted, picking up his glass and taking a long drink.

“You need to fight?” he asked, keeping his voice low.

She appreciated the offer, and while there was some appeal to a sparring match, she shook her head. “We’ve done enough fighting today, but thanks.”

“Just let me know.”

Keyleth nodded as Kerrek and Allura came down to join them and they went over everything they’d learned about Raishan’s potential location.

“I don’t think she’s going to reanimate Thordak,” Scanlan argued as they debated what Raishan could possibly want with the red dragon’s body. “I think she’s trying to probe him for knowledge of some sort.”

Behind her, Keyleth felt the vibration of Grog’s laugh before she heard it. “Probe.”

Scanlan grinned as everyone else shook their heads, clearly amused. “She’s trying to probe his dead body.”

The laughter around the table helped ease the tension and Keyleth poured ale into the cup she was now sharing with Grog. “Okay, I’m going to scry on this Island of Viscon and see if it’s the same place as the island I saw Raishan on. I don’t know if it’ll work, but I can try.”

Vex looked excited at the prospect, “You can certainly try.”

Keyleth was about to start the spell but Vex got the great idea of having Kerrek try the Sandkegh wine, the prospect of which excited Grog so much she nearly fell off his lap. Thankfully, he managed to grab her before she hit the ground, but the moment she was steady he reached into the bag of holding and pulled out the bottle.

“It’s really good,” Grog assured the paladin.

“It’s so tasty,” Keyleth agreed because they deserved this little bit of fun.

Gamely, Kerrek took a small sip and they all watched in anticipation to see how he’d react. After a few seconds he tried to talk, but all that came out was gibberish. Everyone laughed as Kerrek attempted to speak but obviously could no longer feel his lips.

Grog wrapped his arm around her middle to keep her place as they nearly cried with laughter at how immediately wasted Kerrek was. “That is good shit.”

Understanding what her friend was going through, and unable to let the irony pass, Keyleth reached out to touch Kerrek’s hand. “Now the fire has passed through you.”

The laughter was so loud Keyleth was certain it could be heard throughout the castle, and she wiped away tears as she tried to keep a straight face. “It’s going to go all the way through you, so be careful when it comes out the other end.”

Vax took the bottle from Kerrek to prevent him from drinking anymore and it was then Keyleth realized Allura had set up the scry spell on the table while Vox Machina joked around. Keyleth straightened and tried to look more mature, “Thanks for setting this us, Allura.”

“Oh, please, keep going.”

“We didn’t mean to be rude,” Grog added as he moved to put the bottle away in the bag.

Allura smiled and shook her head, putting up a hand to stop Grog’s apology. “This is the most fun I’ve had in days.”

Keyleth felt Grog still beneath her and she looked over her shoulder to see the spark of mischief in Grog’s eyes. “Do you want some?”

With a look around the group, Allura’s lips slowly curled into a grin. It was easy to think of her as the austere, powerful wizard, but Keyleth remembered the arcanist had once been part of an adventuring party of her own.

She knew how to stand up to a challenge.

“After!” Percy tried to cut in, but no one heard him over the roar of encouragement as Allura reached out a hand for the bottle.

“No,” Vax added, even as he laughed. “It’s a bad idea, don’t do it.”

“She needs to do the spell,” Scanlan reminded the group even as Grog chanted ‘do it.’

“It’s morning, we’re all alive. What’s the point if we’re not celebrating?” Allura asked no one in particular.

“That’s what I’m saying!” Grog encouraged.

Allura brought the wine to her lips and took slightly more than a sip. She tilted her head and then handed the bottle back. “Not my favorite flavor.”

As Grog reached forward to take it back, Keyleth could see the wonder and amazement etched all over his features. “Will you teach me your sorcerous ways?”

Keyleth had to admit she was amazing. She put her hand on Grog’s which rested against her stomach. “I have to stand up now.”

He moved his fingers, but instead of letting her go he pressed them against her ribs and tickled her. She squealed and wiggled away; she tried to glare at him but he just grinned at her, completely unaffected.

“Rude,” she muttered, but there wasn’t any heat behind the words as she reached for Allura’s hands. “Just like old times.”

“Simpler times,” Allura agreed.

Keyleth saw the image of an endless ocean dance in front of her eyes, small pillars of steam rising out of the center of the expanse, and beyond that an island covered in green. An island she recognized.

“It’s the same place,” Keyleth announced to everyone and immediately they began debating whether to go now or after they’d rested.

“I cannot die, Vax,” Scanlan insisted. “I’ve already died once today, I can’t do it again.”

“We don’t have any healing,” Vex reminded the group.

Pike nodded, her face severe. “If anyone dies, I can’t bring them back.”

A quiet fell over the group because Pike had been forced to bring more than one party member back from death during the fight.

“I’ve got two healing potions,” Grog offered helpfully and Keyleth moved to stand beside him, resting her hand on his shoulder.

“Allura, do you know of any way to restore ourselves faster?”

“I donf,” she started, then paused and seemed to consider something. “I don fink…”

“Oh no,” Pike giggled. “Allura’s drunk now.”

She opened her mouth as if to argue, then shook her head and started to braid her hair, her lips tightly pressed together.

“What’s the minimum amount we have to sleep?”

“Eight hours,” Scanlan answered. “There’s no way around it unfortunately.”

Keyleth let out a sound frustration but Grog didn’t sound as conflicted.

“Let’s do it, let’s sleep.” They debated some more and eventually Grog and Percy were agreeing, which was strange enough. “Let’s be honest, we’re not quite at our best, and it’s one diseased deceiver in a cave with another dead dragon that might or might not come back to life, and two baby little eggs. We rest, and then we give’em hell.”

After debating lairs and meteors and what Raishan might be able to do in the meantime, Grog tugged Keyleth’s hand and held it. When she looked at him his gaze was practically at her eye line even though he was still sitting. “Keyleth, are you worried if we wait, you’re going to lose your chance to kill Raishan?”

She thought about the question, couldn’t express how much it mattered to her that he’d thought to ask her that. Keyleth hated the idea of waiting, but she didn’t think if they waited they’d loose their chance forever. If they didn’t get her now, it was only a matter of time before they found her again. “I don’t think we’re going to lose the chance to kill Raishan, it’s just a matter of who’s killing who first.”

Percy leaned forward in his seat. “I say that we take eight hours of sleep, and we go there immediately.”

“She thinks she’s got cover, but she doesn’t.” Grog stood up and looked down at her, his hand covering the back of her neck in a way which was becoming familiar. “Don’t you wanna be some fucking wicked badass from the sky? Or do you want to limp in?”

“Right,” Vex agreed. “Plus, she’s got 100 books to go through, that’s going to take more than two hours. She might not get a full night’s rest.”

Grog turned Keyleth so they were facing each other. “I know it feels like an advantage to press, but we were five down at one point.”

She wasn’t sure how he understood how torn she was, but she was. In her head, she knew they needed to wait, to rest, there was no way they went forward without everyone dying. But heart? Her red and beating heart demanded revenge now.

“I can’t die again,” Vex said, echoing Scanlan’s statement earlier.

“You can,” Grog quipped with a smirk. “But it’s not advisable.”

“She has none of her resistances,” Keyleth insisted, looking up at him.

Grog was already shaking his head before she finished talking.

“I’m not worried about those.” His faith was rock solid; Grog didn’t care about what these monsters and gods could do. In his mind, none of it mattered when it came down to it because they were Vox Fucking Machine. “Keyleth, we know what we’re asking of you. We’re asking you to wait, again.”

She laughed slightly at that. They were asking her to wait, but only because they’d just killed Thordak, because they’d just saved a country from a tyrant. It wasn’t as if they were waiting because they needed to do some shopping first. “I think considering recent events, I can wait.”

Grog let out a breath, like he’d been holding it while waiting for her decision. He pressed his forehead to hers for a moment.

“Then at dusk…” Scanlan started.

“We plan,” Grog finished with a grin then turned back to Keyleth. “Make the call, Keyleth.”

“We’d better get sleeping, I guess.” It hurt her hear to say it, but she knew it was the right decision.

“So instead of fighting, we’re going to sleep.”

Keyleth let out an aggravated sound as she turned to look at Scanlan. “Well, what do you want Scanlan? You’ve been devil’s advocate this entire time ‘I don’t want to die, she could kill us.’ What do you want Scanlan?”

“I don’t wanna die.”

“Then we sleep,” Percy and Vex said at the same time.

“I don’t want to die either,” Keyleth agreed. “And I don’t want to watch any of you die again.”

Percy’s logic was cold, “If we go right now, you’re going to die.”

“Okay, okay. I’m going to bed then.”

As a group they said their goodnights and went to their bedrooms – mostly. Percy went to Vex’s room, and Keyleth went with Grog’s to his.

“Do you have a dagger and a mirror?” she asked as she began to undress.

“Probably in the bag of holding, let me look.” He reached into the bag and came up with a small dagger and a broken mirror. “This work?”

“Yes, thank you.”

“That for a spell or something?”

“Oh, no. For my hair,” she explained with a wave at the burned and ruined strands. After she’d fallen into the lava a good deal of her hair had been scorched. “I’m going to try and make it look less like I was mauled by an alley cat.”

He laughed and started taking off his boots. Keyleth set up the mirror on the table so she could see herself and began hacking away at the strands. It wasn’t exactly the best look, but at least all her hair was the same length now. “Did I get it all?”

Grog looked up from his axe which he’d been sharpening while she’d been cutting her hair. “Looks like.”

Keyleth turned in the chair to look at him. “Are you the right person to be asking this question?”

He snorted, “Probably not.”

“I’ll ask Vex in the morning,” she decided and ran her hand through her hair now chin length hair. “This is going to take some getting used to.”

When she turned to face him, Grog was sitting on the edge of the bed watching. “What?”

“Are you okay?” he asked gently. “About the decision we made downstairs.”

Keyleth walked across the room and settled on the bed next to him, tangling her fingers with his. His hand was so much bigger than hers, but he never made her feel small. Somehow this big goliath made her feel like his equal. “I’m okay with it. It’s not just the right decision, it’s the smart one; I couldn’t bare to lose someone because we made a rash decision. That doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

Grog nodded his agreement. “How close were you to going down?”

“Pretty close,” she gestured to her hair. “Fucking lava. How about you?”

He sighed, “I wasn’t that close. But I sure was a hell a lot weaker than I’ve been in a while. Thanks for not dying.”

Keyleth laughed and rested her head on his shoulder. “That would have really sucked, death by lava.”

“If I wasn’t so worried about you dying, I would have died from laughing.”

She couldn’t blame him, that whole thing had been a farce, but she pretended to be mad as she shifted to throw one leg over his lap. Straddling him she glared into his laughing eyes. “Think it’s funny, do you?”

“Red, you belly-flopped into lava. It was fucking hilarious.” Her scold was cut off as he suddenly stood up with her, her legs instinctively wrapped around him as he turned to lay her back on the bed. “Don’t worry, my respect for you only went down a little.”

Keyleth laughed up at the big goliath whose body was now completely covering her own. “Geeze, thanks.”

“How about this, I’ll give you a chance to redeem yourself.” Keyleth immediately understood what he meant, the glint in his eyes was hard to mistake for anything else. “Let’s see if you can still hold your own against me.”

“We have to go to sleep,” she reminded him and kicked herself because the last thing she wanted to do was rest.

“Don’t worry,” he assured her, all smooth confidence and male pride. “I can be quick, and still leave you more than satisfied.”

Keyleth tried to pretend as if she wasn’t already looking forward to it, and rolled her eyes. “Talk, talk, talk.”

Grog barked out a laugh, and made a playful growling noise in the back of his throat as he palmed her breast and kissed her. There was death waiting for them, there was revenge and danger and a million of things.

But that was all for tomorrow.

Tonight was for the laughter. And love.

#critical role #crit role fic #grogleth #grog strongjaw #keyleth

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thebluenoteblog · 4 years

Text

Just a Number

Summary: While celebrating a win with the team, you overhear a conversation that you really wish you hadn’t heard.

Player: Joel Edmundson

Word Count: 2k

*I’ve never written the Hurricanes before, but I did my best.*

Requested: Can you do a Colton parayko or Joel edmundson one where they have a age gap (reader is 21-23) and on day at a party you hear his friends talking about the age gap and you also hear him not defend your relationship and you leave and when he comes back he sees a blanket and pillow on the couch and the bedroom door is locked and you tell him what he did and you ignore him when he tries to talk to you but that next morning you go downstairs and he runs to you and says he sorry and you guys make up

You were never much of a party person. However, there was no denying that your boyfriend was the definition of life of the party. It wasn’t uncommon for you to find yourself in one of Raleigh’s bars late into the night after a game celebrating a win with the boys and their girlfriends. It wasn’t your favorite pastime. You would much rather be curled on the couch with a good book and a nice glass of wine than sloppy drunk on a Wednesday night. You managed though.

You were managing your way through your second beer of the night when you excused yourself to go to the bathroom. You weren’t gone long. Three, maybe four minutes. The boys and their girlfriends were all pretty far gone though, so their social skills were basically nonexistent at this point.

You paused a table away, still able to hear their too loud voices clearly over the bustle of the bar. “I don’t understand how you do it man.”

“I could never date someone that much younger than me, I would feel like I was babysitting all the time.”

A round of laughs and no defense from Joel, he was laughing right along with them. You should have made your presence know. You should have walked up to the table and stopped them from making asses of themselves. You couldn’t make yourself. The temptation of finding out what they truly thought of your relationship, what Joel truly thought of your relationship, was to strong.

So, you stood partially concealed behind a group of men and listened.

“You’ve got to think about this. You’re at totally different points in your life, man.”

You watched as Joel nodded and took another drink of his beer.

He wasn’t wrong. You were getting your college degree and Joel was traveling North America playing in the NHL making millions. That had nothing to do with the age gap though, it would have been the same story whether you were twenty-one or twenty-six.

“You aren’t really planning on staying with her, are you?”

You didn’t want to hear the answer to that question. You already had your purse, so you turned and walked out the door before he had time to answer. You didn’t say goodbye. You didn’t tell anyone you were leaving. You didn’t want them to see the tears in your eyes. Childish? Yes. Why did that matter? You’d done everything you could to prove yourself to them and still, none of it mattered. So you walked down the street, ordered an Uber from a McDonalds and waited.

****

“Where’s (Y/N)?” Joel asked, craning his neck to look around the bar.

Sebastian turned his head, joining him in the search, “I don’t see her.”

“Could she still be in the bathroom?” Petr asked, “She isn’t out here.”

“It’s been like fifteen minutes,” Joel said, though his concept of time was skewed by alcohol and it had been much longer then fifteen minutes. He started to stand from his chair, “I’m more worried about something having happened to her between here and the bathroom.”

Sara put out a hand, as the soberest person at the table she was thinking the clearest. “Sit down, I’ll go check the bathroom. I don’t think they would take to kindly to you walking into the women’s restroom.”

She stood and walked off, Joel leaned back in his chair bouncing his leg and pealing at the sticker on his bottle. “Man, she’s fine.” Haydn said from beside him, “stop freaking out.”

Joel didn’t take his eyes off the bottle, just nodded, “Yeah, you’re probably right.”

“Haydn? Right about something? It’s a miracle.” Sebastian said in an attempt to lighten the mood. Haydn threw a straw wrapper at him and he swatted it away without much effort.

“Sara’s coming back,” Petr said, nodding his head through the crowd.

She took a seat with her lips pressed together and said, “She wasn’t in there, or anywhere along the way. Did you try calling her?”

He quickly placed his beer on the table and pulled his phone out of his pocket. The phone rang once, twice, then voicemail. He pulled it away from his ear and stared at it. He was feeling really fucking sober by that point.

He tried again. Straight to voicemail. He looked up at the rest of the group, “Straight to voicemail.”

They all looked around at each other, concerned. “Do you share you share your locations with each other?” Sara asked.

Joel nodded, a little bit of the panic leaving his face as he pulled out his phone and went to the app. No Location Found. “Her phone is turned off.” He looked up, eyes wide, “What do you do when someone goes missing in a bar?”

“Do you think maybe she just left?” Haydn asked. “Like maybe she just went home?”

Joel shook his head, “She wouldn’t do that. She wouldn’t just leave and not say anything.”

“Eddy, it’s a hell of a lot more likely that she went home than that she got kidnapped in a crowded bar and no one noticed.” Haydn said, “We’ll stay here, you go back to the apartment and see if she’s there.”

He pushed his lips together and closed his eyes, trying to think logically through the panic and what was left of the alcohol in his system. “Okay.” He said eventually, “Okay, I’ll go see if she’s there.”

****

Twenty minutes later he was unlocking the door of your shared apartment and pushing it open. He stepped inside and the first thing he noticed was that in the middle of an otherwise spotless apartment (courtesy of you, despite the team thinking he was babysitting you, you were the one cooking for him, cleaning up after him, and in general making sure he was taken care of) there was a blanket and a pillow thrown on the couch. They weren’t folded. Not the way they would have been if you had been leaving them for a guest. They were unceremoniously tossed.

They hadn’t been there when you’d come home to change after the game before heading to the bar. At least he knew you were here.

He closed the door behind him and as he flipped the lock he called, “(Y/N)?”

There was no answer. He could see into the living room and kitchen from where he was standing so that really only left one of the two bedrooms as options. As he walked past the guest bedroom he pushed the door open. Nope.

He made it to the end of the hallway and twisted the door knob of the master bedroom without pausing in his stride because, well, he expected the door to open. It didn’t. He ran right into it, took a step back and twisted it again. Locked. “(Y/N)?” he asked through the door, knocking a couple times, “Can you let me in?”

There was no verbal response, but through the door he could hear her turn up the TV to tune him out. He pounded harder on the door, “(Y/N), seriously! Let me in!”

There was no sign whatsoever that she had heard him. He sighed, “Babe, what did I do?” He asked making sure his voice was loud enough to be heard over whatever show she was using to drown out his voice.

On the other side of the door, you turned down the TV and responded, “Go away, Joel. I’ll talk to you in the morning.”

He could hear in your voice that you’d been crying. He ran back through the events of the night trying to find anything that he had done that was bad enough to illicit this response from his usually stable, calm, reasonable girlfriend. He couldn’t come up with anything. “(Y/N), I swear to god I will break down this door if you don’t let me in.”

“I don’t want to deal with this right now! Go away!” You yelled, finally snapping and throwing a pillow from his side of the bed at the door.

He flinched at the impact and took a few steps back. He stared at the door for a few more minutes wondering what the fuck he’d done and how he was supposed to fix it. After a long moment of contemplation, he headed to the couch to grab his pillow and blanket.

****

It was a good thing you usually walked staring at the ground when you were in a bad mood. If you hadn’t been, you probably would have tripped over your boyfriend who was laying sprawled on the floor outside your door like a guard dog. You stepped over him and made your way into the kitchen.

You must have been slamming things around louder than you thought you were because the notoriously heavy sleeper appeared behind you within five minutes. You did your best to ignore him, but it was difficult given his following you around with a confused, guilty look on his face. It was like he felt bad for what he’d done but he wasn’t quite sure what that thing was.

Finally, you dropped the bowl of eggs you were whisking on the counter with a clatter and turned to face him with your hands on your hips, “Okay, ask.”

He swallowed, eying you nervously like you were some type of wild animal. “Why are you so mad at me?”

You were angry and not quite thinking clearly. “Don’t you mean to ask why I’m acting like a child?”

“What are you talking about?” He asked, his eyebrows coming together in confusion. Then his face paled. “Oh.”

“Yeah, oh.” You said, “Make your own eggs, babysitter.” Then you returned to your whisking.

He stood quietly behind you, knowing he had to do something to fix this, but not quite sure what. As you poured the eggs into the pan he decided that saying just about anything was better than saying nothing, so he decided on, “Babe, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

You hummed, acknowledging that you’d heard him but not accepting the apology.

“To be honest, I don’t even remember what all was said. I was mostly tuning them out.” He said, taking a tentative step toward her. “I know I should have stopped them, but it just didn’t seem like an argument worth having.”

“Is this argument worth it?” You asked.

“No.”

“Well I’m glad to hear that you feel that way. Maybe next time you won’t just sit there while all your friends try to convince you to break up with me.”

“I didn’t!” He defended himself, walking up to stand next to you, leaning against the counter and trying to get you to meet his eyes.

“Really?” You asked, “Because that’s sure what it seemed like from my end.”

“(Y/N),” He said, voice serious, so uncharacteristic for a man who prided himself on being so lighthearted, “The only part of that conversation I remember was telling them that I plan on marrying you someday.”

You looked up from your eggs, “I didn’t hear you say that.”

“I did, (Y/N), I swear.” He said, “They asked me if I was going to stay with you-,”

“Actually, they said you aren’t really going to stay with her, are you.” You corrected him.

He swallowed, and you stared into each other’s eyes as you waited for him to say something. Eventually he said, “Yeah, they did. They were wrong though, and I told them that. They shut up after I did.”

You dumped the finished eggs on the plate you’d set out then turned to face him, tears in your eyes. “You really said that?”

“I did.” He said, “I swear to god, (Y/N). I wouldn’t lie about that.”

He took a step toward you, closing the distance and wrapping his arms around you. “I know I should have said something sooner and you have no idea how sorry I am, but I don’t think they’ll bring it up again.”

You blinked back tears as you buried your face in his chest. “I’m sorry too. I guess I kind of proved them right last night, didn’t I?”

He hummed low in his chest, “No, baby. Besides, it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks. We both know I’d be lost without you taking care of my irresponsible ass.”

#Joel Edmundson #joel edmundson imagine #Joel Edmundson Imagines #hockey imagines #nhl imagines

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