request!

sorry if you've done this already, but what would Ghost and Soap's first leave together look like? could be sfw or nsfw, everything is up to you

yes yes yesss this is sfw because my descriptive brain took over, also autistic ghost supremacy 🫶🫶

ghost x soap

Simon wasn't ready to meet Johnny's family yet. Hell, they'd only been dating five or so months before deciding to stick with each other on leave, and by that point it was far too stressful and overwhelming to think about meeting a whole bunch of new people to mask around and make good impressions. Ghost needed the time off to re-regulate, and honestly, Soap wasn't up to introducing a boyfriend he had barely warned his mother about beforehand.

So instead the two taxi'd over to Manchester from the airport, arriving at a tiny, cheap flat with even cheaper security cameras dotted on each outside wall and above the front door. "Enough of a deterrent, even if half don't work," explains Simon, seeing Johnny looking around curiously. He unlocks the door and pushes it open an inch, baited breath for a couple of moments as he appears to listen for anything unusual, before opening the door properly, flicking on the warm overhead lights and pulling Soap in by the hand, who gazes at the inside of his flat whilst Ghost locks the door again.

"Dinnae take you for an interior designer, Lt," John grins, glancing at the taller man before going back to admiring the space. It's dusty, sure, but otherwise not quite as awful as expected, and although cramped, holds a feeling of comfort and rest. The two are standing in the kitchen, cupboards naked oak wood and counters hand-painted daffodil yellow, the honey-coloured floor tiles chipped but superglued back together. The image of Si sitting cross-legged on the ground fixing them fills Soap's mind, his heart fluttering at how domestic his lieutenant suddenly seems.

There isn't a wall between the kitchen and living room, and Johnny takes that opportunity to wonder straight through, taking note of a comfy-looking secondhand sofa to cuddle up on together later. An old TV with a jumble of cables is stood upon a coffee table, which simultaneously doubles as an actual coffee table, evident by a few mismatched coasters with just as many water marks as the surface they're supposed to be protecting. Splintering wood in the tried-to-be-aesthetic bare floorboards are covered by a granny rug which contrasts the baby blue walls surprisingly well. Two doors lead off from the living room, and Ghost walks over to the first one, opening it to show the other.

"Bathroom," he comments as if it isn't obvious. There's nothing extraordinary about it, but Soap does notice his unwavering loyalty here and on base to his very specific shower products - of course. He nods and they move on, entering the fourth room. Si hovers at the doorway whilst Johnny wanders inside, taking in the bedroom.

Most of the space is taken up by a double bed pressed up in the far corner, white paint on the metal frame missing in spots, showing its age. The bedding is black with little bone prints patterning it, soft cotton and all matching. Shoved next to the bed is a chest of drawers, one of the handles missing and replaced with a nail bashed into the wood. Hung up precariously on the picture rail over it is Simon's formal uniform - clearly unused for years due to his skilful avoidance of social events. Again, the floor is stripped of carpet (the bedroom in slightly safer condition than in the living room) and the walls are painted, this time a pale pink and dotted with glow-in-the-dark plastic stars.

"Never got them as a kid," Ghost mutters, gesturing to the stars and then the general soft colours of his flat. He shuffles awkwardly on his feet, avoiding eye contact - and subsequently his boyfriend's loving smile too. "You want something to eat? I don't have anything," he adds quickly.

"We can go doon to the chippy?" John suggests, walking over to kiss him tenderly. "Or if you don't feel like seein' people, I could order us something." The taller man nods at the second option, then proceeds to wrap his arms around Soap's waist, burying his face into the crook of his neck and pressing his lips to the skin, simply savouring his warm embrace.

"I love you, Johnny. I'm happy you're here."

The next few days go by far too quick for either's liking. They're spent with long mornings just laying in bed, doing fuck all on their phones in the oddest cuddle positions known; alternatively, smothering each other in hugs and kisses until they have to give them attention until they're satisfied. Time is spent plodding around the flat, wearing pyjama trousers and fluffy socks and with blankets draped over their bare shoulders.

Meals are cooked with very little skill but a whole lot of try, so at least that's something. Neither go out much; just to the shops when they need something or one night to get fish and chips from the good place across the street. They eat sitting on the countertop or the sofa, watching some shitshow with a laugh track that winds Simon up.

Evenings involve making out during conversation, quietly murmuring and laughing between kisses, chests pressed together so their hearts can talk directly. Ghost realises he's never felt so safe and content on leave before this one night when they're lying in bed, a dim lamp the only light in the room as he runs his fingers through Soap's hair, now slightly curly from growing out whilst not on base. It's quiet, but not in the lonely, terrifying way it usually is when he's alone in the flat, left to his own thoughts for however long between deployments.

Maybe, just maybe, leave will become something that he doesn't dread anymore. And perhaps next time - he thinks, pressing a kiss to his boyfriend's forehead and flicking off the lamp - it might be nice to meet Johnny's family.

Gelphie, 6

6. How they decorated their bedroom

We see their room in the musical, so I'll answer this for the book! Galinda ofc is obsessed with image, and projecting a very specific kind of said image - sheeeee's rich! Sheeeeee's definitely part of this social class she's trying to fit her way into! Despite the fact that for the first year she was actively trying not to let anyone inside her room bc she was so ashamed of her forced association with Elphaba, I def think in the beginning she lived and breathed the image she was trying to become, absolutely not an expression of self, and I think as she got access to the other girls and their rooms, she adjusted accordingly in an attempt to match them while Elphaba watched in silent judgment across the room. Honestly I'm thinking like prints or knockoff copies of paintings by whoever's popular - not whoever the art circles are talking about bc they're causing a stir, that's not safe enough and would require her to have a divisive opinion about it, I mean absolutely inoffensive stuff that you say 'that's nice' about but blends in the background. Thrifted knickknacky stuff that's absolute fluff that is close enough to what she imagines populates the richer girls' houses. Honestly maybe some doilies. Fluffy bedding and a canopy she'd put in on the four poster. The irony being ofc that all the rich girls know she's not rich and not of their class, and if they saw all this stuff they'd be like cringe she's trying too hard, poor silly stupid Galinda to think she's actually one of us.

(Elphaba doesn't decorate her side of the room at all as commentary on what's happening on the other side of the room, and out of both a lack of sentimental items to decorate with and a complete lack of desire to do so regardless.)

By the time Galinda shifts into Glinda, I think she'd toss out a bunch of this stuff and put up art she has an opinion on, perhaps that she'd seen out with Elphaba and debated with her, perhaps that Elphaba herself bought her from some artist in Railway Square and makes Glinda feel oddly warm when she looks at on her wall, and she'd keep it there even if she didn't actually aesthetically love the piece, which is also, after all, cheap. I think she'd have a lot more fun with her love of architecture too, def a lot more books placed prominently at the very least. The canopy on her four poster stays but the fluffy lacy stuff on her bed gets replaced with comfy stuff she actually likes. She visits home and brings back a childhood stuffed animal or two or three. She and Elphaba argue over whether it's an animal or Animal.

(Elphaba starts to accrue things that aren't books too, from Boq and Crope and Tibbett and Fiyero and Nessa and most of all Glinda. Most she either throws away unsentimentally if she has no practical need of/desire for them, but some she places haltingly on her bedside table, and one she hangs on her wall, the lone thing she's hung up on a sea of neutral beige. This is also from Glinda, and it's a piece of modern art by the same Railway Square artists who'd created the one she'd purchased for Glinda that hangs directly across the room. Glinda had laughed when Elphaba put it up on the dare, knowing Elphaba liked it less than she did, but neither take them down. The very idea of it feels wrong.)

((Glinda hangs onto both when she moves out of the room and marries vaguely into the class she'd been after. Chuffrey is too kind and refined to do anything like wrinkle his nose but he does say something like my dear that's an interesting choice of art do you really believe it quite goes with the rest of the room? To which Lady Chuffrey says its my bedroom and I'll hang up whatever art I damn well please, and that's the end of that.))

We’ll make it work; Wanda x Vision x child reader

*Author’s note*

Hey guys well it’s been a LOOONG time since I posted something OUTSIDE of the Bohemian Rhapsody/Queen fandom. So I hope that my marvel readers enjoy this cute little fic that had been on my wattpad inbox since like last Sept. And I PROMISE to those anons who have sent me requests from Doctor Who and a couple more marvel stuff, I WILL GET TO YOUR REQUESTS ASAP. So I’ll stop here for now and let you all enjoy this cute little fic :)

Taglist:

@plethora-of-things

@waddles03

@psychosupernatural

@ixchel-9275

@queensdivas

@platawnic

@jd-johndeacon-or-jackdaniels

_______________________________________________________

They said it couldn’t be done.  Hell everyone would say it was downright unnatural but yet it was finally happening. After the whole battle with Thanos and managing to bring everyone back, Wanda and Vision settled down together in a quiet suburban home in upstate New York.

They built their house from the ground up using their own two hands and decided that now with the white picket fence home, they could now start thinking about having a family together.  Now of course Vision being a machine he can’t physically reproduce but as luck would have it, there was an orphanage just 30 minutes from where they lived.

Wanda submitted an application to the orphanage introducing themselves and what their preference for adopting was.  They had agreed on wanting to adopt a little girl, preferably around 4-6 years old. With some interviews, home visits, and looking through the files, Wanda and Vision finally came to an agreement on their dream child, young (Y/n) (l/n).  

An orphan that was brought to the orphanage after her mom gave birth to her in prison.

Her parents were would-be-robbers who mostly robbed homes or cabins but then they got cocky hoping to rob a bank.  Unfortunately they were caught right before they got even a foot away from the bank.  It was there her mom found out she was pregnant and gave birth in prison before the foster system brought her to the orphanage.

After reading her backstory, Wanda and Vision knew immediately they wanted to have her.  So she called the orphanage and set up a meet and greet and in one week they would get to meet their future daughter.

When the day arrived, Wanda and Vision (in his human disguise) drove up to the orphanage where they met the Head organizer Ms. Eliza Soo.  She asked them some questions that weren’t on the application like what their current jobs were, and since they were publicly named heroes, that they had their powers under control for the sake of their future daughter.

The two heroes assured Ms. Soo that they had full control of their powers and do not intend on showing their powers before young (Y/n) unless she asks them to. After about 15 minutes of chatting away, Ms. Soo told them.

“Alright. Now unlike most meet and greets that other orphanages do, we personally would like to see how the potential parents interact with our children. Instead of trying to force the child to talk in a room with 2 strangers, we ask that the potential adopters meet the child in the Playroom. Are you two up for that?”

“Yes of course. I personally understand what it feels like. For most of my childhood it was only my brother and I for years before he…...” Wanda said.  At the mention of her brother, tears flickered in her eyes but Vision took her hand in both of his and gave it a gentle squeeze.

“My wife lost her brother just shortly after we met. They were both orphaned when they were 10 years old back in her old home of Sokovia.”

“Oh I’m so sorry Ms. Maximoff, my condolences on your loss. I lost my brother around that age too. Gunshot by a rival gang member.” She took a deep breath in before exhaling out. “Now then, (Y/n) should already be heading towards the playroom if not already there by now. Allow me to escort you there so that you three may get acquainted with each other.” The three of them stood up and Ms. Soo guided them out of her office and down the hall.

They soon reached a room that was labeled at the top of the door PLAYROOM. Decorated all over the door were various art projects that the kids have done and at the bottom there were their names and ages.

“Now we’ll just observe you guys from the double-sided mirrors and see how you guys interact with her. If we see that there’s a connection, then we can proceed with the legal adoption.”

“Thank you Ms. Soo.” Vision said.  She nodded and walked off leaving the couple alone by the door.  The two of them looked at each other and Wanda asked her husband and partner.

“You ready?”

“If you are, then so am I.” Vision responded.  Wanda then reached for the doorknob and turned it on its side to open it up.

When they stepped into the room, it was completely filled with every kid of children’s toys imaginable from toy cars and trucks, dolls and action figures, even a small TV with a videogame console.  There was also drawings hung up along the wall just like there were on the door.

Soon their eyes came to young 4 year old (Y/n) (L/n).  She was at a small circular table with some paper and crayons surrounding her.  Happily humming to herself as she continued to draw on the paper.  When she saw Wanda and Vision, her head tilted to the side like an intrigued puppy.

“Are you my new mommy and daddy?”

“We—we hope to be.” Answered Wanda.  A wide smile soon spread across her face and she raced right up to them and immediately embraced Wanda.  Once she felt that little girl embrace her, a warm sensation fell over her and she already felt that maternal instinct take over.  Wanda knelt down and embraced young (Y/n) and she said. “So what is it you were drawing?”

“Come look. I’ve been working really hard on it!” like every excited child that wanted to show off their accomplishments, she dragged them both to the table and they all sat down around it and she began to show them all the drawings she’s done.

Some of them were drawings of herself out in a flower field, with her favorite animals, but one picture struck out to the two of them.

“What is this picture of (Y/n)?” Vision said as he held up a picture of (Y/n) standing between two adult figures.  But they had no hair or facial features drawn yet.

“That’s a picture of me with my new family. I…..I didn’t want to finish it till I knew it was for real. Are you guys really gonna be my new parents?” Wanda smiled and gently placed her hand on top of (Y/n)’s head and stroked down it.

“If Ms. Soo thinks we’re good with you, then yes. We will be.”

“I know one way that can help you, follow me!” she then stood up and raced over to the toy chest and opened it up.  Inside were dozens of costumes ranging from feather boas, to every kind of hat imaginable. Donated Halloween costumes, and even some props. “Since you guys are real life heroes, do you think we could play superheroes?”

Both Vision and Wanda were a little hesitant but after seeing the hopeful look in (Y/n)’s face, they agreed.  So they want up to her and they dug through the costume chest to see what all they could find.

With the wide imagination (Y/n)’s had, her and Wanda would be the heroes while Vision was to play the giant fire breathing dinosaur.  They stacked up some blocks for the town and places the toy cars to make it feel like an actual city.  

Watching them through the double-shift mirror, Ms. Soo along with some of the other workers watched the two former heroes interact with (Y/n).

“Seems (Y/n) has finally found the family she’s always wanted.” Said one of the female workers.

“I agree.” Said a male worker.  Ms. Soo who had been watching with interest, began to realize that maybe her employers were right.

After about 10min. of playtime and just getting to know her a bit more, that’s when Ms. Soo stepped into the room.  Her face was stoic as she looked at the three of them.

Wanda and Vision stood up and Vision asked.

“Ms. Soo, is there something wrong?”

“No. As a matter of fact, I’ve seen all that I’ve wanted to see. And……you guys have proven to me that you’re meant to be her future parents.”

“Really Ms. Soo?! Wanda and Vision are gonna be my new mommy and daddy?” (Y/n) asked excitedly.

“Indeed they are. We’ll have the legal forms printed out and have you both sign them. Then in a couple of weeks you can officially move in with them to your new home.” Ecstatic about the news, (Y/n) jumped up and down happily cheering at the fact she now had a new mom and dad, not only that but her new parents were Scarlet Witch and Vision.

“Thank you Ms. Soo. Thank you.” Wanda said happily.

“No need to thank me. You’re truly shown me that you both are the perfect couple to take her in.”

So for the next couple of weeks, Wanda and Vision signed any legal papers that the orphanage would send to them, get (Y/n)’s room ready for her and buy her some new toys, clothes and get her bed all made up.

Vision was currently outside building the playground that they wanted (Y/n) to play in the backyard.  It wasn’t anything grand just the basic swing set and jointed mini-clubhouse.  But as he was reading the instructions for how to hook the swings up that’s when he heard the gossiping voices of one of the neighbors next door, Karen and Felicia.

“Have you heard about the couple next door adopting a kid?” asked Felicia.

“Yes. That poor kid, having to be adopted by a bunch of freaks.�� Karen mouthed out.

“I mean Wanda’s an okay girl, but I just worry about that boyfriend of hers.”

“Like he’s a freakin machine! You’ve seen all those robot shows. What if he goes all Terminator on that poor little girl?”

“I’d feel safer if her and Wanda bailed when that robot isn’t looking.”

“Amen to that sister. Oh! Did you see the recent Housewives of Orange County….” At this point Vision stopped working and went back inside.

He phased through the wall before levitating himself up towards the master bedroom and just stood there with an array of emotions buzzing about his head. Anger, fear, hurt, heartbroken, but most of all doubt.

Was he really able to take care of a child….scratch that a human being? He was an android after all.  What hope could he possibly have of taking care of a human child? He couldn’t taste properly so there’s no way he’d be able to cook for his new daughter.  There are some human emotions that he still has trouble deciphering, so how would he know what his daughter was feeling, especially once she reached her teenage years?

“Vis?” Wanda’s voice called out to him.  He looked up and saw Wanda kneeling in front of him.  Vision soon took notice that he was now on the floor, his knees curled up close to his chest, his back up against the wall. “Are you okay?”

“Wanda I—”

“Shhh, calm down. Breathe for me.” She placed her hand to the side of his head, her fingers gently brushing against his temple and he closed his eyes taking in a few deep breaths.  “You okay now?”

“Yes. Forgive me I—don’t know what came over me.”

“You were having an anxiety attack.”

“How—how is that possible?” Vision asked.  He was an android how could he have an anxiety attack?

“I don’t know.”

“Well we’ll—we’ll worry about how that’s possible later. Do you want to tell me what it was all about?” Vision looked down with regret and he whispered softly.

“I was a fool to think I could do this.”

“What? What are you saying?”

“Me. Being a—a father. To a human child.”

“What? Vision why—why would you say something like that?”

“I’m not fully human Wanda. I mean yes I can pull the disguise but—when it all comes down to it I’m a machine. After all I was originally supposed to be Ultron’s Vision.”

“But you’re not…….”

“There could be another threat. A threat that—puts you and our……I’m sorry Wanda. I shouldn’t have even spoken up about this.”

“Hey, hey, hey, look at me. Look at me Vision.” She cupped the side of his face. Her eyes filled with concern as her brow furrowed to match the concern in her eyes. “There is nothing wrong with speaking up about something like this. I’m scared too.”

“But you’re at least human. What if I—what if I hurt her?”

“You won’t.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because I feel you. Just you. And when we played with (Y/n) just two weeks ago, I could feel just how happy you were. You will not hurt her.”

“But what if…..”

“Stop.” She held out her hand as she spoke softly.  She then moved her hand and gently with her powers, showed Vision a memory of when they first met (Y/n).

Specifically the memory of when both him and (Y/n) were playing together.  It was when she (as the superhero) had slain the reptile creature and he allowed her to climb on top of him and do a victory pose with her fake sword and shield.  After awhile that’s when he suddenly came back alive and he began to playfully tickle her.

After seeing that memory, Vision turned to Wanda and she said with a warm smile.

“That’s how I know you won’t hurt her. After just knowing her for that short 10min. of playtime. You were just like how my father was with me. Kind, caring, and a heart full of love.”

“You do realize I don’t actually have a heart right?” she arched her brow at Vision annoyed. “Right, sorry.”

“You know what I mean. What I’m trying to tell you Vis is that it doesn’t matter whether your human or machine, (Y/n) loves you for who you are, who you’re going to be to her. You’re the only father she’ll never know. And as long as you care and love her, it doesn’t matter what you look like.” Vision nodded and said to his love, tears flickering in his eyes.

“Thank you Wanda. Thank you.”

“I love you Vis. So does (Y/n). I won’t deny that we’ll probably make a million mistakes but so long as we both love her together, I know we’re doing something right.” The two of them shared a soft but loving kiss before embracing each other.

In a few days (Y/n) was soon moved into her new home and just like Wanda told him, they both loved and gave her the care she was denied from her birth parents.

Of course there were the skeptical neighbors but Vision hardly paid them any mind now, because as long as he was loved by his new daughter, that’s all that mattered to him.  

Also I won’t confirm or deny that when Wanda finally found out just who was responsible for putting doubt into Vision’s head in the first place, she may or might not have given Karen visions of her worst memories and fears, while making Felicia think she had a poltergeist in her house.

Bringing a World of Adventure Hunting in to Your Home

Not everyone is not living in a position to wander the woods, desert, beach or ruins. I had that situation at one point in my life. And yes its depressing. And when you read others doing all these things its can really get to you. However there are a huge number of things yo CAN do to counteract the depression. Lets visit a good many of these things:

1) Everyone’s first Go-to is Roleplaying. Be its table-top or online. But not all Online games bring out the true desire to adventure, as they are limited to telling a specific story. As such I suggest avoiding using game maps and make you own real maps. Right down and study any runes in the game, study the magic tech in the game, write side stories of your character that can not be done in game. Create a history to the character you made. Some games are limited what you character looks like. Draw your own character and hang it by your game station.

2) If you have adventure wear, wear it about the house/apartment. Does not have to be all of it. Boots, a shirt, a vest, tunic, wristbands, cloak 

3) If you  have the money and talent turn kitchen into a tavern or saloon, line shelfs with bottles and plates and other tavern/saloon wear. Avoid cheese props. Study movie sets and get ideas from that. 

4) Likewise turn your bedroom into an Inn room. Go ristic and simple with natural colors and materials

5) Burn in a cauldron or censor wood chips, herbs and incense, 

6) Hang posters of nature about the walls in natural wood frames. If you can obtain some old wood window frames, you that as your poster frames. If possible find images of nature on line and print them out. Try to make all the images co-inside, so its looks like you are looking out into the same view. Change the posters with the seasons if possible 

7) Place realistic life-size animals about your home: Snake, turtle, mice, birds, chipmunks, insects. If you have a ficus tree or a cluster of plants, place a birds nest with eggs in it

8) Play sound effects and ambient sounds in the house. Youtibe and other sites have a plethora of ambiance and sounds from cave to camp sites, tavern sounds, market squares, pirate ships, forests 

9) Add a fountain/s in your home. Fountain pumps can be bought anywhere these days, 

10) Terrariums! Make them and add them to your home. Even of the plants are fake 

11) Aquariums! If your adventurous aestheic love is the see or any water setting like ponds, these are fantastic to have. And do not limit yourself to just fish: Crabs, snails, turtles, frogs, lizards, snakes. Even if you are not allowed to have pes, build an aquarium anywhere. The flow of the water from the filtar moving the plants can lend to the imagination  

12) Wood, tin and copper and wrought iron objects 

13) Leather bound books. Line a shelf with them, 

14) Candles and lanterns. Some people can not have things where they live for safety mode. Even if you never burn them, have a cluster of candles anyway. Just the look of lanterns and candles plays with the mind. You can also invest in battery ones but I think they are silly looking

15) Bowls of fruit: Wood bowls and real fruits and nuts about the house. 

16) Seasonal and year round garlands and wreaths about the house. Clusters of ferns. If you do not have a green thumb, go fake if need be. Ferns and spider plans are my fave. 

17) Drift wood and moss covered wood. 

18) If you have your own Adventure clothes and gear do not bury it in a closet. Get a mannequin and display it, 

19) Fur, leather, blankets, wool, sheepskin throws and pillows.

20) Banners and tapestries 

21) Invest in a couple of mortar & pestle sets, one for the kitchen and one for the bathroom is you have the room. (Confession: I collect them) 

22) Hang herbs and dry plants in the kitchen.   

23) Clay pots and assorted pottery about the house. Try to sick with OLD looking styles. Check out some sites or books on ancient styles for an idea 

24) Antlers add a wonderful feel to ambience. Even if fake. Now they are made into door handles, draw knobs and so much more. (DO NO go hung deer and elk JUST for their racks)

25) Bowls and vases of snail shells, acorns, pine cones, 

26) Rolls and displays of maps, 

17) Glass and Ceramic bottles: Display a few or better yet, use them! fill them with shampoos, liquid soaps, drinks and what ever else you use and look at daily  

18) Old style dip pens and ink vials on your desk along with scrolls of parchment and an old leather bound journal, 

19) Color glass baubles like the ones at christmas time and “witch balls” These are great if your Aesthetic is the sea or in the Witchy profession, 

20) Wood wand display. Not talking about Harry Potter here. Do a little reserach and find or make a REAL one. Display it on your desk or mantle staff. If you have a set, even better. 

21) A Statue of an ancient god, 

22) Baskets and wicker to hold things 

23) Metal goblets and drinking horns

24) If you have one or several hand your shields on the walls, 

25) Oil hurricane lamps, 

24) Hang and display Gourds about. If you know how to carve and stain gourds, all the better, 

25) Birds houses. In the house?? Sure, why not? 

26) Feathers. Sometimes just a vase of ling feathers helps. If they are feathers you find in your walks, just as better. Each one has a story  

28) Bowls of rocks. Not only does this bring the natural world in but its said that a bowl of rocks by the door and window wards off negativity. 

29) Old wood boxes. Just do not collect them but USE them. put whatever in them as storage. Afraid you will forget what’s in it??? All the better. There is your treasure at the end of your search. 

30) Corn dollies. These folk cultural dolls and designs have their roots into the ancient world. a display of them, especially during the late summer, really invokes the harvest season 

31) Ceramic and wood bake ware in the kitchen. Ads a rustic tavern feel. This could include   bread boards and bowls, wood spoons, rolling pins,

32) Replace DVD covers with parchment or wood texture covers. Sometimes a wall of game and DVD cases can kill an ambiance you are striving for. If you can not print out all these coves, hang a tapestry over your shelf unit or add wood shutter doors  

33) Cover your library of bright color books with leather, paper of plether, No access to leather? See of someone has an old leather jacket they are ditching you can cut up

34) Wood flutes, harps, ocarinas, pan pips, lyres and rustic drums add to a great tavern-ish display.

35) A tall vase of cattails gives ambiance for this that over adventures in places like rivers and lakes, 

36) If you have a collection of crystals, sea glass and gemstones, show them off in a wood box or basket, 

37) Halloween Witch bottles add to the adventure appel. (I have a buhnch and have all my teas in them, 

38) Fancy yourself an Librarian or treasure seeker? Have a display of “artifacts” like (potters, tiles, scales, bones, glass, wood), Find some broken pottery shards and make them look like Greek pottery. If you sculpt make a remnant of a state or a bone or prehistoric tooth. Create your own artifacts and put stories to them.

39) Hang a bunch of leather sachets and small bags from a hook or sit them on a shelf, 

40) Find yourself a rustic tea set, 

41) Collect vintage clay and wood tops. Tops have been around since ancient Assyria and Babylon.

42) Display a collection of carving tools or depending on your likes, a small anvil and hammer,  

43) Hand on hoots of rack by your door or wall woven wicker hats, leather caps and witch/witch hat, head wreaths,

44) Display an old stick/straw/grass broom head wreaths, 

45) Display a helm or helmet you have in a place that speaks “I am at the ready”

46) Fold a small stack of old burlap bags and place on a shelf and use them to store things like potatoes and onions, 

47) Display and basket of wood knitting needles and wool,

48) Grow plants, flowers, herbs and small trees. Even small pots of just grass adds a sense of nature and Adventure (The ancient Greeks would grow grass for their New Years Eve celebration) I have lemon trees in my windows I grew from seeds.

49) A Fish Net works great to add an aesthetic look to your space.

50) If nothing more find an artist and have him/her draw your aesthetic self as you see yourself in different poses, gear and situations. Blow thing up power size and hang them about your space

51) If you can not do any of this, create a physical scrap book of pictures and images that’s screams your aesthetic ideals. Visit it daily and add to it.

NOTE: While all these ideas are great starts, DO NOT over do it. Less is more. Rustic and simple. Avoid cheesy plastic props and things like signs screaming “I am a Proud Viking!” Investigate films, movies and history into your aesthetic loves and the world behind it. Do not create clutter. Make you space livable and function to your NEEDS. Make you space your home, not a museum. If your space is cluttered and does not bring you a feel of your Aesthetic feelings you may need to pull back on some of your props.     

The Little Vampire Fic : Never Again - Part One

Hello again “Little Vampire Fandom”! I’ve been very excited to write this one and I hope you all enjoy!

Summary: Rudolph visits Tony in San Diego only to find out he is struggling.

***********************

Flying to Tony’s house had become such a familiar route to Rudolph that he could fly to San Diego from Transylvania with his eyes closed. It was a pain to deal with the difference in time zones, the change in weather, and the fact that it was about a 40 hour flight for him. There were definitely some instances in which he wished he could just board a plane like everyone else and almost cut the trip in half, but flying without a plane was much more fun. There was a lot of stopping involved along the way to make sure he stayed out of the sun, but overall, he made it to Tony’s house exactly when he said he would. Tony had just been released on a long weekend and got Friday off, as well as the Monday the next week. They tried to coordinate trips with Tony’s school schedule so that they could see each other as much as possible but also keep Tony’s sleeping schedule as in-tact as it could be. 

As Rudolph flew over the quiet neighborhood where Tony lived, he took a moment to appreciate his surroundings. There was the smell of a distant fire as someone must have been camping out in their backyard. It was on the late side for a family outing, but a group of teenagers was probably taking advantage of the crisp autumn evening. It was always a wonderful temperature there, but some nights got more chilly than others. The wind blew against Rudolph’s face, but he could barely feel a difference since his skin was already so cold to the touch. 

He was almost quivering with anticipation as he reached the familiar white house with four windows on the front of it, a big grey roof, and a fence surrounding a small front yard. It was a nice family home for three people, and since the space was slightly larger than they needed, it was a wonderful location for parties or just having company over. Tony’s bedroom was the last room on the left when he approached the right side of the house. Just as he hoped, there was a singular light shining from his window which meant Tony was still expecting him. The double-hung window was covered by beautiful mulberry colored curtains, but he could see the light slightly peeking through. Rudolph swooped in and leaned against the wall as his long black nails, which could be classified as claws with how long and sharp they were, made a gentle tapping sound against his window. 

Usually, Rudolph heard Tony call out to him and say something along the lines of, “I’ll be there in a second!” or “Coming Rudy!”. However, this time he could only hear the sounds of shuffling feet and a soft thud as if he just got out of bed. Not only that but usually Tony had his room lights turned on so that it was a bigger beacon for him. On this night, Tony had only kept his bedside lamp turned on. Rudolph didn’t have time to think about what was going on as he heard the crack of the window opening slightly. Two hands suddenly squeezed out from under the lift of the window and pushed up on it until Rudolph could fit inside. As he flew through the curtains, he followed through with his habit and shut the window behind him. Tony’s room looked the same way it had when he visited before. The walls were a deep purple color, and with the red-tinted curtains and all of the vampire-themed décor in the room, it almost felt like they never left the castle. Even Tony’s bedsheets had a picture of the traditional Dracula print on them with bat fabric for his pillowcase. Rudolph couldn’t help but feel flattered that he had enough of an interest in vampires that he dedicated his bedroom to them.  

“Tony! It’s-” Rudolph didn’t even get time to speak before Tony had rammed into him, his arms tightly wrapping around his back. Rudolph was shocked, Tony had never acted this way when he came to visit, but he hugged him back. He knew it had been weeks, but they had gone months without seeing each other. Did he really miss him that much? Suddenly, Tony huffed out a laugh and pulled back.

“Sorry… it’s been a rough day,” Tony sighed. His face was barely visible since the only light in the room was coming from the bedside lamp, but Rudolph could see that he was covering his right eye with his hand. “It’s very good to see you Rudy.”

“It is wonderful to see you as well, Tony,” he ran his fingers through his hair until he hit a tangled mass, which Tony seemed to notice.

“So, what do you want to do tonight? Looks like we should deal with your hair first,” Tony chuckled, but his voice was overlaid with exhaustion and another emotion that Rudolph couldn’t quite place. Fear? Anger? Sadness? Pain? 

“I suppose so,” Rudolph copied his laugh, but then floated over to Tony and hovered in the air across from his seat on the side of the bed. “However, first you must tell me what is wrong.” Tony dismissed the request as he waved his other hand in the air and smiled while keeping the upper half of his face shrouded in the dark. 

“It’s no big deal, Rudy. School has just been tough and I…” Tony paused, noticing that Rudolph was not buying it. His arms were crossed and his eyebrow was raised in disbelief. “Okay… fine,” Tony groaned as he lowered his hand away from his eye. Rudolph quietly gasped aloud as he gazed at the swollen purple and black bruise surrounding his eye. It looked awful, and since Rudolph became concerned when Tony even got a papercut, seeing such an obvious injury terrified him.

“T-Tony! What happened?! Are you alright?!” Rudolph flew over to him and put his cold hand against Tony’s cheek. Tony flinched as the whole area around his eye was sore making Rudolph retract his hand immediately. 

“Don’t worry so much, I’m fine. I accidentally tripped and hit this side of my head against my bedpost. It hurts a little bit but it’ll go away soon,” Rudolph took a deep breath as he felt himself relax. At least Tony was alright and that his injury was just a clumsy accident. 

“Well, as long as you’re alright… Then I shall grab the brush,” Tony smiled brightly as he felt relieved that the topic was dropped. He found it strange that Tony didn’t want to talk about it, but he just assumed it was because the fall may have been embarrassing. Luckily, the rest of the night seemed to distract Tony from his bad day. They started by dealing with Rudolph’s tangled hair, which was something that became a habit whenever they got together. Gregory and Anna even made fun of him because they always could tell when he came back from seeing Tony by the fact that his hair didn’t look like a bird’s nest. 

Then they moved onto watching a bunch of cheesy vampire movies which they just ended up criticizing more than actually watching. Tony knew so much more about vampires now, and considering he had the real thing sitting right next to him, they were able to debunk most of the stunts and myths shown in the movies. Either way, it was still fun. The two ended up staying up until about 3:00 a.m before Tony showed signs of falling asleep. They were halfway through their third vampire movie when Rudolph felt something press against his shoulder. When he looked over, Tony had passed out and was now leaning against him. Rudolph smiled as he unhooked his cape from his collar and wrapped it around him. He slowly stood while keeping his arms under Tony so that he didn’t fall over as he grabbed the sheets and pulled them over him. As soon as he was tucked into the bed, Rudolph headed for the window and opened it slowly. Now that Tony was asleep, it was time for Rudolph to go and eat. It had been a long trip after all, but he never wanted Tony to have to worry about that side of the whole vampire thing.

***

As the sun shined in Tony’s eyes, he winced and started to stir. He woke up at about 10:00 a.m with a note left on his bedside table. It stated: “Your father and I are off shopping about ten minutes away. We will be back around dinner time and then we will be off to the theater. Let us know if you care to join us! Say hello to Rudolph for us! Love you!” 

Tony smiled as he set the note back down and stretched, each segment of his spine popping as his back straightened. Bob, Tony’s father, had built him a life-sized coffin for his birthday one year to play pretend with. It was made of real wood, and it was even stained to have a rich cedar finish. While Tony used to use it when he pretended to be a vampire, it eventually became Rudolph’s bed whenever he came over. He even covered the inside with blankets and pillows so it was extremely comfortable. While it was counterproductive to Rudolph’s love of dark and cramped spaces, he came to really appreciate the comfort of the coffin he slept in at Tony’s place.

“Rudy? You still awake?” Tony mumbled as he leaned over to his bedside where the coffin was lying on the floor. 

“Noisy as always, aren’t you mortal?” Rudolph replied, his voice muffled from the thick wooden slab between them. He was satisfied as soon as he heard Tony laugh from inside his dark sanctuary. What he didn’t see was Tony clutching his side and quietly hissing through his teeth as if he had hurt himself by laughing. He grimaced slightly as he pulled up his t-shirt and observed the dark brown bruises that were scattered over his torso like the splotches on a cow’s hide. As he heard the creaking of the coffin door he quickly pulled his shirt back down and glanced at Rudolph with an optimistic smile. 

“Old habits die hard I guess,” was Tony’s response. Rudolph made sure the coffin door was still slightly shut so that the sunlight couldn’t reach him as he smiled up at him. “Oh! Here’s your cape back by the way,” Tony pulled Rudolph’s cape out from underneath the sheets and tossed it over to him. “I guess I’m not used to staying up that late without you visiting.”

“Don’t worry, I only slightly judged you,” Tony stuck his tongue out at him as Rudolph playfully hissed back. 

“Well, I’m going to go get breakfast. I’ll see you again this evening, okay?” Rudolph nodded with a big yawn as he laid back down in the coffin. 

“Good day, mortal,” the coffin lid closed with a thud as Tony made his way out of the room. Rudolph had just managed to settle in when he heard Tony’s phone go off. Usually, he didn’t intend to snoop in Tony’s personal matters, but he had been acting strangely ever since he came. He wasn’t as awake and excited as he usually was, and he seemed to be sensitive when it came to going for a flight or anything that involved a lot of moving. Rudolph respected his boundaries, but he also wanted to help Tony, even if he didn’t want to be helped. As he opened the lid slightly, he was able to slide the phone into his coffin without coming into contact with the sun. 

When he opened the phone he saw Tony’s usual lock screen, which was a commissioned drawing of him and “a vampire” that just happened to look exactly like Rudolph. He couldn’t take pictures with Rudolph since he never appeared in any of them, but he had hired an artist to draw a digital photo of the two of them just from Tony’s description. Surprisingly, the artist drew him almost perfectly. When he looked at the screen, he saw that there was one notification for an email that came in. Rudolph put in Tony’s password, which was conveniently “Rudy” or “7839” in numbers on the keypad. His home screen was actually a picture of Tony and his parents standing in front of the castle they first met in. Tony was on the very end with one arm around his mom and the other around what looked like nothing. He was actually putting his arm around Rudolph, and that was the photo they first took and realized that he could never be seen in them. It was touching either way that that was Tony’s home screen. Even if he couldn’t be seen, Tony knew who was there. 

As Rudolph finally reached the email, he saw that the sender was named Nigel Appleby. He figured it was someone from school or a friend of his in the neighborhood. That was until he read the subject line. “Better Be There”. Rudolph narrowed his eyes in suspicion as he read on further. 

“If you really do have this ‘vampire friend’, how come none of us have seen him? I for one think it’s a shame you have to depend on imaginary friends to keep you company, Thompson. You couldn’t find a real friend even if you tried. Tell you what, you bring this friend of yours to meet us at 6:00 tonight. If you can prove that you’re not spouting nonsense every single day, which you are, then prove it. You wanna be left alone? Here’s your chance, kid. See you then. 

Nigel”

Love Is Blind: Chapter Eighteen

Robyn frowned as she held her dress up to her body. She sighed as she let her hand drop to her side and she stared at herself in the mirror. Chris didn’t give her any clothing requirements but she didn’t want him to waste all his energy for her to come out in sweatpants and a t-shirt, even though that’s really all she feels comfortable in. She tossed the dress on the bed, grabbed a pair of black joggers, a fitted black t-shirt and a pair of black flats. She pulled on a black/white printed cardigan and left out of her bedroom. 

Chris stood up from the couch and smiled at her, “Hey Babe.”

“Hey, you ready to go?”

“Yea. I was thinking we could watch a movie then get dinner, if that’s ok with you?”

“Works for me.”

“You don’t sound too enthusiastic.”

“I’m trying to get used to this again, like you suggested.”

“As long as you’re trying. Anything you need to bring along?”

“Nope. I pumped for the night so I’m good in that aspect.”

“You feeling ok?”

“I’m fine. Let’s go.”

Chris moved towards the front door and opened it for her, “you look pretty, Babe.”

“Chris, you really don’t have to do that.”

“Do what?”

“Compliment me when it’s not true. I look very regular and you know it.”

“Looking regular doesn’t mean you don’t look pretty. You really don't have to second guess everything I say or do. I don’t see you the way you think I do.”

Robyn opened her mouth to say something but just shook her head instead, “Ok.”

Chris frowned as she walked out the door and over to the car. Anesa and Christian were with Leandra and Maxwell while they went out but Chris was partly regretting his decision. Was he pushing her too hard to get back to normal? On the other hand, if he didn’t push her at all, she’d never leave the house again; Robyn was stubborn that way.

The ride to the movie theater was awkwardly quiet. Chris kept glancing over at Robyn through his peripheral vision and she looked distracted.

“Are you ok?”

“I’m fine,” she replied without looking at him, “what movie are we going to see?”

“It’s a few comedies playing, I figured you’d could pick whatever interested you when we got there.”

“Oh. That’s cool.”

They both fell silent again and Chris sighed as he stopped at a red light. Being home with the baby didn’t give them as much time together as he had anticipated so they had never really been able to talk as much as before. Christian and Anesa required all of their attention and when they weren’t around, Robyn just kind of mopes around the house or is asleep. As the light turned green, he turned into the complex that housed the movie theater and a bunch of stores and restaurants. Pulling into an empty parking space in a lit but sparsely filled section, he turned off the car, “do you hate me?”

Robyn’s brow arched as she turned to face him, “hate you for what?”

“Anything.”

“No. Why would I?”

“I don’t know but it feels like I’m being punished for something and I can’t figure out what it is.”

“The world doesn’t revolve around you, you know. Everybody isn’t out to get Christopher for something.”

“I’m not talking about everybody. I’m talking about you. You’re either giving me attitude, ignoring me, or second-guessing everything I say to you. I know the world doesn’t revolve around me but when I’m the one catching the tail end of whatever you’re feeling, I’m allowed to question if there is a problem. We were good when we left the hospital but now I’m confused.”

“I’m sorry you feel that way. I’m sorry if I’ve offended you because it’s honestly not even crossed my mind to be mean to you. Definitely not my intention.”

“It’s that right there. The tone. The look of “I don’t give a fuck” on your face.”

“I am apologizing.”

“And rolling your eyes as you are doing it. Kind of defeats the purpose.”

“You’re being really sensitive, Christopher.”

“Sensitive? Wow.”

“Yes, sensitive. I’ve barely said two words to you since I’ve been home from the hospital. Where would I even find the energy to be mean to you?”

“Well you found the energy tonight.”

“You started this.”

“I am trying to figure out what is wrong with you. I’m catching hell and I don’t know why. I try to stay out of your way, I try to make sure you are on track with the doctor, I help with both our children. I want to fix this. I want to change whatever I’m apparently doing that is pissing you off.”

“You are doing nothing to piss me off except insisting that I’m pissed off. Can I not have no feelings right now? Can I not just chill and go through my motions without you wanting to Dr. Phil me.”

“When it’s affecting me, no.”

Robyn threw her hands up and groaned, “you know what, I don’t even care. I don’t have the energy to care right now, I used it all just getting out of the house. Can we go do what we came to do or are we going home?”

“Neither.”

“Chris, for once, listen to me when I say this is not the time to push me. Let me have my moments, I can go back to my apartment, if you can’t handle it but I am not in the space to be pushed or challenged. I am out because I know I need to be, I am doing the best that my emotions will allow me to do. I don’t have anything else to give you.”

“Except anger.”

“I will get out of this car, call a cab and take my ass back to the house. I’m here because you wanted me to be but I can go where I would really rather be if this is how this night is going to be conducted.”

“Fine.”

“Fine.”

Chris started the car and drove to a parking space in front of the theater. He turned off the ignition and climbed out to open the passenger door. Robyn was already standing by the closed door, “no need to be formal. It’s not that big of a deal.”

Chris just shook his head as they started walking to the theater. Robyn stared at the movie titles before selecting one and Chris paid for the two tickets. He paid for their concession stand snacks before they left to the appropriate screening room. He sat in the corner seat while Robyn sat in another seat on the same row, leaving an empty chair between them. He scoffed then turned his attention to the screen, feigning interest in the previews.

                                       ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As Chris parked the car in front of the house, he climbed out before Robyn could even take off her seatbelt. She watched as he went up the stairs and opened the front door then turned on the living room light. She didn’t want to go into the house because she just knew he was going to want to talk to her again. She grabbed her phone and dialed Leandra’s number. It rang for a few moments before a voice picked, “hello?”

“Le, hey, are the kids asleep yet?”

“No. Why? What’s up?”

“You mind if I come pick them up?”

“Aren’t you supposed to be on a date with your boyfriend?”

“We went to the movies and had dinner already. I miss my babies.”

“Not buying it. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I want to get my babies, why is that a bad thing?”

“Because you want to get them to avoid being alone with your boyfriend and I will not be your co-conspirator. It’s your first night out in a long time and clearly something has happened. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“It’s something.”

“He’s just being- I don’t want to talk to him.”

“So don’t. Don’t start using your babies as emotional shields. You don’t want to talk to him, be a grown woman and tell him that.”

“Then he’s gonna ask me why.”

“And you don’t have to explain why especially if you don’t want to talk to him. I don’t need to tell you how to handle this. You act like y’all haven’t been in the same house all this time. How do you normally go through this?”

“We don’t normally go through anything. I’m either taking care of the babies or sleep.”

“And where’s Chris?”

“Helping.”

“And you don’t talk to him during that time?”

“No.”

“How long have y’all not been talking?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t even notice until he said something before we went to the movies.”

“And what did you say?”

“I apologized.”

“How did you apologize?”

“Leandra.”

“You were a bitch to him, weren’t you?”

“No, I wasn’t.”

“Play that game with someone else. Robyn, what did you say to that man?”

“I apologized but I guess I said with an attitude. I don’t know. I don’t care. I just don’t want to talk about it and I know once I go in this house, he is.”

“Which is a mature way of handling the situation. The longer you don’t talk about it, the worst is it gonna get.”

“Eh, I don’t think so.”

“When’d you get so scary? All this time you’ve been praising him for being upfront and communicating with you and now it’s a problem.”

“It’s not a problem I feel like dealing with right now.”

“Again, tell him that.”

“Ugh….”

“You are on the phone stalling because you’re hoping he isn’t sitting there waiting for you to come in so you can talk. You did this back when you were in high school and you are too damn old to be doing it now. You don’t want to talk about this with him right now, tell him that. You want time to get your mind together, tell him that. Don’t drive this man away or make him feel like he’s crazy just because you have something going on. If there’s an issue, fix it.”

“Leandra.”

“I am not arguing with you about this and no, you cannot come and get my niece and nephew just so you don’t have to deal with your adult problems. They are enjoying themselves and deserve time with their family so their parents can act like fucking adults. Go talk to your man, Robyn Rihanna Fenty Brown.”

Leandra hung up. Robyn closed her eyes and leaned her head against the headrest. Just then she got a text message: You can come in the house, I am not waiting up to talk. I am not going to push the conversation or make you talk to me so you don’t have to sit in the car waiting for me to fall asleep. You want your space, I am giving it to you.

Robyn waited a few more minutes before she grabbed the keys out of the ignition and went into the house. Chris was on the couch, watching TV. She locked the door behind her and dropped the keys on the console by the wall. Without looking at her, he spoke, “the room is all yours.”

“You’re sleeping out here?”

“Would it really matter to you if I was?”

“This isn’t what I wanted this night to turn into.”

“I’m sure it wasn’t but we can’t all get what we want. Sleep well.”

“Chr- Goodnight.”

Robyn left to the bedroom and closed the door.

Chris sighed as he turned off the TV and pressed his head into the back of the couch. This wasn’t supposed to be this hard. At all.

                                       ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Hey Baby Boy,” Chris cooed softly as he grabbed Christian out of his crib. The infant gave him a small yawn as his eyes fluttered open, “too early for you, I know but we gotta get you changed and fed so we can go out for the day.”

Christian simply blinked and Chris chuckled as he went into his bathroom. Settling Christian on his knee, he carefully turned on the tub faucet to fill up the baby bath. As the warming water filled the tub, he dropped a few drops of baby wash and swirled it around a bit to foam. Taking off Christian’s onesie and diaper, he sat him in the small tub then turned off the faucet. The baby stared up at him as Chris carefully washed his arms then legs. He giggled as Chris ran the cloth over his belly and Chris bent down to kiss his forehead.

“I’m glad you and your sister aren’t taking on any of my and your mommy’s energy. Just smiling and happy as can be. We always want it to be that way,” he murmured as he grabbed a cup to pour some water over Christian’s hair. Setting the washcloth aside, he poured a little shampoo into his hand and rubbed it into the baby’s curls before carefully washing it away. Soon Christian was rinsed, dried and dressed in a fresh diaper and laying on Chris’s chest as he sat in the lounge chair in the corner of the nursery. 

Things in the house were strained. The tension was so tangible, it could probably be cut with a knife. Chris agreed not to push but he couldn’t help but feel like he was going to hit his breaking point with Robyn. She was there, physically. She was all in with the babies as was he but mentally, they weren’t in the same book, let alone on the same page. Finding her lying in blood, watching them bring her back to consciousness just so they could have their baby, shook him in a manner he had not expected. For the jubilation of her survival to turn into this tension filled house shook him in a different way. When he allowed himself, in the past, to dream of having her in his life again, this wasn’t what he imagined. They were supposed to rehash the past, move on and start over fresh but this isn’t what starting over was supposed to look like. Maybe Robyn had the right idea about them taking on too many things at one time but the idea of her having his baby still held more weight than their fears. To get what they never had the chance to have before was important and what was to say they couldn’t build on this progression. He wasn’t sure if it was postpartum or if Robyn just really didn’t like him anymore but he wasn’t feeling good about their situation. 

Robyn felt this heavy weight on her legs and frowned as she willed her eyes open. The frown turned into a smile as she saw Anesa sitting on her legs staring at her, “Hey Pretty Girl.”

“Hi Mommy, are you gonna get up soon?”

“Are we supposed to be going somewhere?”

“Daddy’s taking us to the aquarium, I thought you were coming too.”

“Oh Sweetie, Mommy’s taking it really slow after her hospital visit, I don’t know if I’ll have the energy to be at the aquarium all day.”

“Oh. Did they say when you can play again?”

“I can play, it’s just painful to do things for a long time, that’s all. My body is still healing from the baby.”

“Oh, want me to stay home with you?”

“I don’t want you to stop your fun time because of me.”

“Do you not like us anymore?”

“What? Anesa, why would you think something like that?”

“You always stay by yourself.”

Robyn sat up then held out her arms for Anesa to fold into them, “Anesa, Love, I love you and your brother. Me spending time at home a lot has never had anything to do with not wanting to be around you guys. Recovery can take a long time after you have a baby and the fact I had surgery can make it take even longer. There’s nothing I love more than being with my babies, nothing will ever change that. Am I not up with you every morning? Do we not watch Tv and movies together? Don’t we play board games and things?”

“Yes but it’s not like before. Before it was all of us, now you and Daddy aren’t friends anymore.”

“Anesa, me and your Daddy will always be friends and we’re even more than that now. Whatever is going on between us will never have a bearing on how I treat you. I’m sorry if you feel like I haven’t been there for you and Mommy will absolutely try her best to be better but you also have to understand that I can only do as much as my body can physically handle. So long trips aren’t the best thing for my health right now but I’m getting stronger every day and I’m moving more and things will be back to normal in no time.”

“You promise?”

“I promise, Nesa Boo.”

Anesa smiled and gave her a kiss, “Sorry if I hurt your feelings, Mommy.”

“You didn’t. If you feel some kind of way, I’m always here to listen and do what I can to make you feel better, ok?”

“OK.”

Robyn felt another presence in the room and her suspicion was confirmed when she saw Anesa smile.

“Hi Daddy,” Anesa said, “you coming to wake up Mommy? I already did it.”

Chris chuckled, “I see but I was actually coming to get you. Are you ready to go?”

“Can I stay home with Mommy?”

“Anesa, I told you that you don’t have to worry about me. I’m fine,” Robyn interjected, “this is your day to have fun with Daddy.”

“I know but if you can’t come, I can wait.”

“Sweetie, don’t do that. We can always go together on another day. You had plans, don’t cancel them for me.”

“But I want you to come.”

“I know but I can’t walk around all that time.”

“But-”

“Anesa, why don’t you go get your shoes and stuff while I talk to your mommy, ok?” Chris interjected.

“Ok. Mommy, I’ll be back.”

“I’ll be here, Love.”

Anesa left and Chris sat down on the side of the bed, “why didn’t you tell me she asked you to come?”

“Because she didn’t ask. I think she just assumed it was supposed to be an everybody trip. And I didn’t even know that until she woke me up this morning. Why you coming at me sideways?”

“I’m not.”

“You are. I told her to not change her mind about going just because I wasn’t going. Trust me, I am not trying to ruin your day.”

“That wasn’t what I was thinking.”

“Sure.”

“If I get your wheelchair, will you come with us? She’s not gonna go if you stay.”

“I don't need you making any concessions on my behalf, Chris.”

“This is about our daughter, not you.”

Robyn’s eyes narrowed as she looked at Chris but something softened them as he stared back at her, “what’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I just want to have a good day today and Anesa is not going to if her mother doesn’t hang out with us. I don't want to fight with you.”

“We’ve never fought.”

“I don’t know if that’s better or worse,” Chris murmured as he stood up, “I’ll prepare the chair and everything. It’ll be a walk about the aquarium, possibly the botanical gardens and then I’ll bring you back to rest and maybe take the kids to the park or something to give you some space.”

“Guess I should get dressed then.”

“Let me know if you need anything.”

Chris left.

in terms of design advice, any ideas for a broke college student apartment room? 💕💕

college is a weird time because you are kind of a grown up but also definitely not! and your interests and tastes will change so rapidly in the next few years. so honestly it’s a great time to experiment and be creative. this advice all depends on your particular space, but in any small space everything that can be double duty, should be double duty (night stand is also a tv tray/laptop tray, art is also bulletin board or jewelry holder), the more uses you can get out of something, the better! going vertical on the walls where you can get away with it is amazing. here are a few easy and cheap ways to upgrade and some basic design principles:

take this design quiz to find out your style (plug in a fake email) and then google or pinterest away. you’ll see repeat themes (for ex. major bohemian trend is macrame, which easily DIYable, or MCM is all about legs and clean profiles). maybe that would be fun post - to highlight different styles and trends. but here are some upgrades that translate to any design style for cheap:

PLANTS

don’t go to a nursery and drop a hundred dollars you don’t have. a plant or two or three you really love will change the vibe of the whole space, and give you something to take care of, which is ofc good for your mental health. tips for getting plants and planters on the cheap!

think of a relative or friend who already has houseplants and ask for free ones next time they’re splitting. i literally did my entire garden this way in my first place. 

look on like FB marketplace or whatever your swap site is because people are often selling plants or cuttings for a discount.

i have literally split the cost of a plant with a friend and then split it in half, like a baby before Solomon

pothos plants of any kind are easy to take care of and can split into smaller plants pretty regularly.

succulents are usually a few dollars at the store and everyone loves them! start with one simple succulent.

herbs! if you get herb garden seeds or plants you literally make what you eat!

if you have pets, make sure they are pet friendly.

i do not spend a lot of $$ on planters! i use terra cotta because 1. they’re cheap as hell and 2. cute! some of my favorite planters are terra cotta pots kristina painted for me! you can also thrift pots, which i would encourage, or reuse food containers by putting small holes in the bottom. 

create hanging plants by making yarn macrame holders! youtube is your friend on this! you can get a ceiling hook for like $3 if it’s a solid ceiling (drywall) and super easy to patch up when it’s time to leave.

ART

function + form. something organic that you can change out inspiration or art, like a cork or inspiration board (look on like a varage sale or in a thrift store for this).  you can get four12x12 cork boards from target for $7 and create something like this from two of them, which is in and of itself a piece of art (and you can take it down w/out damaging walls)

other cheap things i have done for art:

calendar or magazine pages in thrifted frames  (my favorite cheap tricks is to get matte black or white craft paint for $1.25 from wm or target and paint a bunch of odd frames to unify them)

a picture ledge like this from ikea is your best friend because you can interchange the art to be whatever you want!

embroidery hoop fabric bulletin boards

seriously, posters are cool. get a cheap poster online and hang it with washi tape. it’s not precious. if you want something more grown up, try to thrift a frame for it for cheap. if you don’t like the color of the frame, paint it! if you can’t hang something heavy like this on the wall, use command velcro strips OR set it on top of a dresser or bookcase and lean it against the wall.

i love tassels and buntings. just google either of those and you’ll get thousands of cheap ideas. in my last bedroom i just had a bunting i cut and made over my bed and it acted like a bedframe and i loved it.

just free prints from the internet hung up with little clips like this ($2 from target) or bulky push pins – those holes are so easy to patch!

when my kids were little until two weeks ago i had an entire wall covered with their artwork. i’m saying maybe go to the thrift store, get some ugly canvases with your friends, and have a painting party. everyone brings a $4 thing of acrylic paint and a brush and have a party. good memories + new art for everyone. swap at the end!

pictures! actually print out those pictures and tape them to the wall with washi tape. you can also do something like this with push pins for as big or small as you want to make it (i have this in my living room

here’s a proper primer on the 7 elements of design, but you can skip that and go here if you want!

BALANCE

white space and focal points. in the same way that you need to break up one massive wall of text into digestible paragraphs, you also need to break up the focus in your room. a FOCAL POINT is a statement area in your room (i.e. the window, over your bed, your desk) that your eye is drawn to, and where you want your eye to be drawn to. ideally rooms should have ONE focal point (that’s like the adverb room for writing) but in a dorm apartment, that isn’t practical because it HAS to be multifunction. the important takeaway is that white space on your walls is okay, and important. it gives you a soft space to land, visually, which is important in making you feel more relaxed and even productive.

groupings – grouping like with like makes great sense organizationally AND design wise. a collection of postcards will look amazing on the wall together rather than spread around the room. 

LAYERS

adding layers can make a space feel luxurious – curtains, rugs, extra throw pillows or an extra blanket on your bed or chair. plants are great for this, but fabrics and baskets can add another layer. these can be pricey so i would a. raid your mom’s house if that’s an option and ask if she needs ‘x’ rug or curtains anymore. you can also thrift curtains for cheapppp or even look for clearance fabric – once you wash the curtains they really are safe to use. clearance frabric can be hemmed without being sewn and hung with curtain rings if you need to. and $5 tension rods can work as a curtain rod inside a window frame if needed. i could do a whole post on this but a cheap rug next to your bed and something soft on a window can do wonders!  dude i have also bought cheap cotton weave cloth from walmart and used rit dye to make turqoise curtains and i loved for years. see also: RIT DYE

so decorative pillows are expensive as HELL but regular, cheap pillows are like $4. i get cheap fabric or thrift fabric and sew my own, which you could do by hand, really, and use the pillow stuffing to make it. ikea also sells great cheap pillow covers! 

COLOR

gosh there are no hard and fast rule here but here is a great primer series on color theory for design that you can translate to your room

simplifying a color palette will feel more calming to you, and so will using cool colors like blues and greens. but again, no hard and fast rules. repeat a color or element (shape, pattern) throughout a room 3x (ex. i have a blue rug and that same blueish tone is in a chair and also on a bookshelf. they don’t have to be the same blue, just color family, and it makes it all seem more intentional)

HOW TO DO IT CHEAPLY

buy secondhand. there are entire thrift makeover and upcycle youtube channels that are amazing! same for diy blogs. 

reuse and repurpose what you have. i turned a dvd player box into a toy oven for my kids and they used it as a play kitchen for four years. my bookshelf that stores our games in my living room was $12 from salvation army - i just painted it and added casters for $15. my dresser was a thrift from the REstore, a habitat for humanity store. my end tables are actually butcher block pieces that were in my dad’s factory for forty years. i love bringing old things back to a different life. and you don’t always need a ton of tools to do it.

barter and trade. i traded a one of my kid’s dressers for the hutch that holds our toiletries outside of our upstairs bathrooms. 

sell and repurchase something that works for you. i sold my old bookshelves on fb marketplace and bought another that actually works better. this isn’t applicable to everyone!

make muffins for someone in exchange for their sewing skills or knowledge. i’m teaching my friend to sew right now! libraries often have classes and such to learn new skills.

OK so i have rambled enough. i could ramble more. i hope this gets you started and if you have more specific or follow up questions, on this or organization side of things, let me know! remember these are all just guidelines and the most important thing is having a space you love, that makes you feel comfortable and that you’re proud of and happy in. comparing yourself to others isn’t always the best and you can make it a space you love no matter where you are. 

One-Act Play

1.

It was the summer of 2004. I was living at 940 North Street in Boulder, in the strange kind of rental property you can only get away with in your twenties. It was dilapidated and half-swallowed by shrubbery, but also rustic and quaint, a slice of woods in the middle of town. (A raccoon had babies in my ski boots out back.) It was few blocks from the mountains and a few more blocks to Pearl Street. I used to ride a hand-me-down bike that was heavy as wrought-iron down to the Trident Coffee Shop on Pearl Street and pretend I was a “real” writer. 

(I parked and tripped over the very same bike during the very same summer to greet my buddy, Lisa, and her friend, Jesse, who were enjoying a drink at an outside table at the Corner Bar. That was the first time I met Jesse, and the summer of 2004 is when our romance began. But that story is for a different day.) 

I had just quit my job after a year of working as a receptionist at a chiropractic office. I’d had it with a passive-aggressive boss and no growth potential. I was living with my former African drum teacher and his girlfriend. They ascribed fully to the phrase you-only-live-once and they buzzed with a sort of free-spiritedness that would make my mom cringe. So when I quit my (responsible if people-pleasing and self-sacrificing) job, fate had it so I was living with them, with their input that said, Good Riddance. Now what do you really want to do?

In a bold act of maternal generosity, my mom wrote me a check that covered tuition for the entire month of the Summer Writing Program at Naropa’s Jack Karoac School of Disembodied Poetics. (Naropa, a Buddhist college in Boulder, CO.) I signed up for one week with artist /dancer, Michelle Ellsworth, and used the extra on rent and groceries. (I’d been in Colorado for all of two years and I was barely able to make ends meet even before my new status of being unemployed.)

I picked Michelle randomly;  I liked her picture in the brochure. I can envision her now, as clearly as if I had a Fotomatic print of her in my hands. Clear blue eyes like crystals you hang in the window to shoot rainbow-slivers into the space. A wide, shiny smile. She spoke to our crowded class with a quick, giggly cadence, like the tick of a wound-up clock. Any details blur into the oblivion of non-essential memory, but her imprint, like that of a fossilized leaf on a river stone, hasn’t faded in the slightest.

2.

Our assignment was to write a one-act play about anything.

940 North was entirely furnished in one afternoon from the Habitat for Humanity Thrift store, and its décor was mostly provided by an old lady’s estate sale. I had emptied out the closet in my bedroom to make a writing nook. I had an ancient laptop and a borrowed printer. We definitely did NOT have Internet; I had to use the computers at the college for that. This was still an era where Internet could be used intermittently and intentionally—for checking email and other specific to-dos that required only a finite amount of time. This was before Internet was available and necessary for us to receive continuously and at a heavy drip.

I had not slacked. I didn’t procrastinate. To the contrary—I cleared my calendar for this assignment, took it way too seriously and tried WAY too hard. I wanted so badly to be awesome at this, but after two complete afternoons, I could barely pinch out a coherent sentence.

On the due date, Michelle said, “Ok, let’s go around and have everyone tell us about their play.”

Bla, bla, bla, blur, blur, everyone did their assignment, no problem, until the spotlight landed on me with, it seemed, the sound of brakes coming to a screeching halt. I cleared my throat and shifted in my chair.

“I didn’t finish it.” I said. I felt a clenching desire to fold up and hide. The back of my skull droned like the sudden onset of a fever.

She smiled without a fleck of irony. “Then tell me what you did instead.”

Okay...? So many eyes on me...”Honestly? I re-organized my closet. Then I stared at a blank screen.  Then I ate a bunch of potato chips. Then I typed a few words and printed a page, tossed it into the trash, hung out with my roommates and cleaned my toilet. It went on like that for hours, two full afternoons.”

“Well then that’s your play,” Michelle said, giddy with the proposal. “Anyone want to help Heather out with this one?” Four hands from four complete strangers shot up.

3.

Low, behold, later that week, the five of us lined up on stage like human-cogs in the grand machine that was to be our performance.

I, PERSON ONE: typed furiously on a typewriter, then I pulled out the paper and handed it to the person to my left. Then I started again, and it went on like this.

PERSON TWO: crumbled up the paper and threw it into a bucket of water, then put a hand out my way for another paper to crumple and dunk. Our movements were stiff and mechanical.

PERSON THREE: pulled the paper out of the bucket, squeezed it then smoothed it flat on a towel. Then she looked up to pretend-talk to an invisible person, while pulling another paper from the water.

PERSON FOUR: grabbed the wet paper from the towel and handed it to the next person.  Then he shoved a handful of potato chips from a bag open directly in front of him into his mouth, before grabbing and passing another one.

PERSON FIVE: placed the wet paper overtop a balloon that was held steady onto a table with tape, and then another wet paper and another.  

It went like this, a factory line going going going through at least six cycles, each of us doing our part to assemble a visual-thought from beginning to end, without fighting or judging—just reporting.

When the last piece of paper whizzed out of my typewriter and was handed to the next person, I froze. Then, each of the four remaining performers did their respective actions and froze, until PERSON FIVE was the only one moving. He plastered the final wet paper to the balloon and held it up for observation. Then the scene went dark, and, applause.

The idea that there is information (dare I say wisdom, creativity) in the non-doing, the over-doing, and everything in between, shattered my archaic notions of black-and-white thinking. It created grand pockets of space for curiosity to germinate. Curiosity— the grand antidote to perfectionism.

4.

I could not undo this teaching even if I tried. 

I pull it out now as a sort of valuable overlay to everyday life. It breathes oxygen into the mundane moments, and works as sort of a salve when shit doesn’t go as planned, which is the New Normal. Let the record show, I’ve had young kids in my life for the passed decade-plus, so I’m accustomed to lack of control. And yet, I’ve always also had certain chunks of the day when I was guaranteed some sense of command over my own actions. While Ruth was in preschool, 12 hours a week, I worked and did adult life, making choices that actually happened. At a bare minimum, I had that.

Now we are dwelling in the land of a thousand distractions, with no reprieve. There is no boat off this island. No departures in the near future. It often feels like the how the day unfolds is entirely up to some larger sources that I have utterly no influence on. Is Ruth in the mood to play independently for any stretch of time today? Is she up for watching a TV show while I do a little writing? Will she spend more than five minutes on an art project without descending into coloring her eyeballs with face paint or covering an entire palm in glitter glue? One never knows. One can only pray.

Truth: It took me an hour to write and send a three-line email this morning. The staggering disruptions became almost comical. Ruth fell down FOUR separate times. This is an extreme example, almost as if her nervous system could sense my focus was elsewhere and ran a smear campaign against Mom Completing Any Singular Task. But, if perhaps a lighter version, this is a typical day.

Before Michelle, I may have regarded these off-script moments as those of non-doing, small fails to wrestle with until I can get my “actual shit done.” But today I can see there is so much more there. Choices, aggravation, empathy, my physical body, the body of my wild-puppy preschooler, suppressed laughter, expressed laughter, suppressed annoyance, expressed annoyance—all are contained in these moderately priced moments.

Then you add a blizzard. In the last four days, we’ve gotten multiple feet of snow. The world is covered in a suffocating wool blanket, itchy and hard to breathe underneath. The snow outside—higher than the dog’s belly!!—squeezes us between the walls of this house, everything inside seems tighter and louder because of the outside’s sound-deadening insulation.

So there’s my one-act play for today.

okay so I saw your fox way post (which i realise is from like 5 months ago so i'm sorry if it's not in your main interests anymore) and I wanted to know what you think would be some good descriptors for the organised comfy chaos that is their house. bc i love the idea of a house of miss-matched over stuffed sofas and everything everywhere that doesn't understand the concept of minimalism but I can't find anything online that looks like what I imagine. Thoughts?

omg so The Raven Cycle in general, and Fox Way in particular, is never out of my main interests so thank you for this!! I actually have a Bunch of other metas that I’ve kinda collected notes for and one of them is actual physical descriptions of 300 Fox Way? 

I feel bad because I’ve already promised @sparkly-things metas about Maura and Gray next up ages ago, but hopefully they won’t mind? And I happen to have a lil energy and time today, so here goes with every physical description of the house that I’ve collected during re-reads (may have missed stuff). 

This got long, and is perhaps not even what you were looking for, but I hope it helps you and/or others looking for descriptions of the house! 

Blue describes the architecture of the house, simply, as weird in TRB. In TDT she expands on that, saying it “was two houses knitted together, and neither structure had been a palace to begin with. Narrow hallways leaned eagerly toward one another.” I’m not sure if she means this literally, as in two small houses on nearby lots got made into one building somehow, or just that the way the house is built just makes it feel that way? 

She goes on to talk about a “stray toilet gurgling somewhere” - since we know there is only the one bathroom is she talking about that or does this language mean there is maybe another toilet connected somewhere, like in a basement? Then “the wood floors were as buckled as the sidewalk out front.” Some of the walls were painted in vivid purples and blues, and some had decades old wallpaper (in the same rooms or in different rooms?). “Faded black and white photographs hung beside Klimt prints and old metal scissors. The entire decor was a victim of too much thrift-shopping and too many strong personalities.”

Gansey describes the house as being “cramped with extraneous people and whimsical objects. It hummed with conversation, music, telephones, old appliances.” Malory calls the house “lovely” and seems to appreciate just how many walls there are. 

At one point, it’s said that 300 Fox Way is one mile away from Monmouth Manufacturing. 

The exterior is a “little bright blue house”. There is a hand painted sign that reads “PSYCHIC” and then “By appointment only”. When turned around, the sign reads “CLOSED COME BACK SOON!” I’m not sure if there is a porch, but there is a porch light referred to when opening the front door, so that’s a good guess. There is a front step, so it’s not a ground level entrance to the front of the house the way it seems to be in the back. 

Outside in the backyard - there’s Blue’s large Beech tree, which shades the entire backyard with it’s “beautiful, perfectly symmetrical canopy” that kept out all but the heaviest of rains. There is a high wooden fence covered with honeysuckle that blocked out neighboring lights and the canopy of the tree blocked out the moonlight.

Right off the sliding glass door in the kitchen, there’s a cracked brick patio leading into the yard itself. There are chairs arranged on the patio.

In the kitchen, above the table, is the chandelier described as a “badly designed stained-glass creation” (also described as “the fake Tiffany lamp”) - the one they have difficulty changing the bulbs in. The process of changing the bulbs took at least three hands and was generally left until all the bulbs had burned out - so consider that the kitchen would have different levels of light depending on how far along in this process they might be. The kitchen counters seem always to be cluttered with mugs, teas being made and packaged, essential oils, flowers, pots boiling, etc. There is also a cabinet filled with glasses, either in the kitchen, or close enough to the kitchen for them to rattle when one gets down off of the kitchen table. 

Also in the kitchen - the door to the pantry that Artemus takes up residence in. 

You can see to the front hall and the base of the stairs from the kitchen, and there’s a main hallway that connects from the kitchen, which is at the back of the house, to the front of the house where the front door is, and so I imagine that the stairs are right there in that front hall area. I also believe there is only the one set of stairs connecting the two floors. The staircase has a railing with a knob on it. In the hallway, there is a table with a clock on it. 

The reading room can easily be gotten to from both the kitchen and the front hall, so I imagine it’s off to the other side of the stairs perhaps and maybe there’s a door from the hall and another to the back from the kitchen? There do seem to be multiple doors into the room, and since Adam describes it as a room meant to be a dining room, that makes sense to me. The doors are sometimes closed, so it’s not one of those rooms that is just separated off by archways or whatever.

Anyway, it is described as containing “the candles, the potted plants, the incense burners, the elaborate dining room chandelier, the rustic table that dominated the room, the lace curtains, and finally ... a framed photograph of Steve Martin.” Maura seems proud of that photograph, and makes sure to tell Whelk that it’s signed. It’s also described as having mismatched furniture, with an armchair at the head of the table.There’s a framed photograph of a standing stone on the wall. Also, apparently, there’s a phone in the reading room. There are blinds over the windows. 

There’s also a living room, which I’m thinking is further into the house, because you can’t see the front hall/door from there. There is a fuzzy mint green love seat, and a blue striped chair, and a wicker bench in front of the window. There’s also a couch. I’m also guessing this is where the TV is, unless there is a separate TV room as well, somewhere on the downstairs level? 

There is only one bathroom, and it’s upstairs. There’s a full bathtub. 

The upstairs phone, the one dedicated to the psychic phone line Orla had put in, is in the Phone/Sewing/Cat room, which has green gingham wallpaper and is “full of a multitude of odds and ends”. I’m not sure if the long purple silk Calla does her aerial yoga in is always there, or of Calla sets it up before she does it each time? There are bins of sewing materials, a chair with a pillow on it, and I’m guessing this is the room with the sewing table in it? 

Blue had repurposed canvas trees glued to her bedroom walls, decorated with collaged and found-paper leaves. There was a card table shoved against her twin mattress with reading materials on it, and a nightstand with a dim green lamp. Her closet door was covered with glued dried flowers. She had a ceiling fan that was hung with colored feathers and lace, also leaves. And she had copied a poem on her ceiling. There was a bird painted on one wall with a talk bubble that read “WORMS FOR ALL”. A shelf cluttered with buttons and scissors. A rotating fan in the corner. Blue’s room is adjacent to the Phone/Sewing/Cat room.

Maura has her own room, which is next door to the Phone/Sewing/Cat room. Calla describes it as being chaotic and messy and filled with too much shit. 

Calla and Jimi share a bedroom. It is my considered opinion that they also share a bed, but this is never mentioned or alluded to. We do know that on Calla’s dresser is kept the three statues of Oya, Oshun, and Yemaya, the Yoruban goddesses.

Persephone’s bedroom was at the end of the hall upstairs, past the Phone/Sewing/Cat room and bathroom, and the door to her room was painted red. She had a desk with a Victorian desk chair, and a “high, elderly twin bed”. There was a shaggy rug. 

Presumably Orla has a bedroom somewhere up there and if there are other residents of the house (see the post referred to in this ask for why I wonder about that possibility), then perhaps there are also other bedrooms??

The attic is accessible from the second floor with a door that leads to the stairs that lead up to it. This door is at the very end of the hall, probably past Persephone’s room. A single light bulb lit the attic and it didn’t reach the stairs, so that was a dark stairway. Once up there, there are numerous slanting roof lines which means this is one of those houses with lots of angles and not just one flat or arched roof. There’s also unfinished wood floorboards and areas patched with plywood. There’s a porthole window (along with other windows apparently?), the leads out to the mismatched roof angles outside. Before Neeve moved in, there was nothing up there because Maura was against collecting things. 

When Calla and Blue go up to investigate once Neeve’s been living there, they find a mattress covered with throw rugs on the floor; lots of candles, bowls, and glasses cluttered together, bright painter’s tape making patterns between those objects, a half-burned plant stalk on a plate dusted with ashes, and in one of the narrow dormers - two full-length footed mirrors facing one another. Also a statue of a woman with eyes in her belly, a black leather mask with a large pointed beak, a red mask that matched it, a switch made of three sticks tied together with a red ribbon, and a little cloth bag with asafetida tied into it.

After they clear out Neeve’s things and it becomes Gwenllian’s room, the mirrors are still there, and the mattress, but it becomes cluttered with her own mess of things, also including candles and half-burnt plants.

So that’s what I got! LMK if you have more questions. I love this house and the people who live in so very much. Thanks for asking about it! 

𝐵𝑒𝑎𝑢𝑡𝑦 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐵𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑠 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡. 𝟚

ㅤㅤ

Minghao / Reader ㅤㅤㅤ College AU ㅤㅤㅤ Words count: 4.1k

Summary: She could be the most popular girl of her school, Y/n’s life became really interesting when she started to hang out and spend more time with the ones who saved her, with this bunch of bad boys who were funnier than she could imagine, with that guy who didn’t hate her like she thought.

Content/Warning: Mini series, Angst, Romance/Fluff

Previous part / Last part

A dead silence had settled in the classroom and, mouth half-open, everyone was looking at you. Your heart was racing and your hands started to shake a little but your eyes was full of confidence. The "bad boys club" stared at you, eyes wide open, impressed by the fact you stood up for them, knowing you might be in trouble too. Breathless, the Principal swallowed and shook his head a little before chuckling. He didn't believe you, these guys couldn't do that, it was impossible for him. "Y/n." He sighed with smirk. "I know you're a nice young lady, you want to help everyone, but-" "Sorry, sir, but I'm not lying. The other students wanted to... to..." You felt Jisoo grabbing your hand and squeezed it lightly. "They wanted to hurt me. I left the school library late last night and it was dark when I came back home. They caught me in a dark area and started to... to touch me." You looked at Jisoo and his friends. "If my classmates didn't come, I... I don't know if I would be here today. They saved me last night and you want to punish them for that. If you do that, punish me too since they fought for me." Shocked, the Principal stepped back and looked at the students he viscerally hated, not knowing what to do. Adjusting his tie, he cleared his throat and abdicated, saying it was fine for this time. Disgruntled, he ordered Mingyu, Hansol and Wonwoo to go back to their classroom and left yours, slamming the door behind him. A loud sigh parted your lips as you sat back on your chair. You could feel the gazes your classmates were giving you and you tried to hide your face when you felt a kiss on the bottom of your head. Seungcheol whispered a sincere thank you against your scalp and returned to his place, smiling widely, proud of "the University ray of sunshine". Silently, your professor came to your desk and asked if you were fine, if you wanted to talk about what happened. Head down, you said it was okay, that you'd rather not think about it. He nodded and patted your shoulder before looking at the boys and thanking them for what they did. He was proud of his students. For the rest of the day, you tried to avoid the guys, knowing they'd want to talk with you about what you said to the Principal. Therefore, you were hiding during recess, lunched with some classmates and, at the end of the day, you ran to the school library, thinking you could be alone there. But the boys knew your habits and you saw them waiting for you in front of the door. "Did you really think we would give up, Y/n?" Seungcheol teased you. "What can I say? I'm a dreamer." You sighed, making them laugh. "Since you're a rebel, now, you're gonna come with us, tonight." Hansol told you, wrapping his arm around your shoulder. "What? Wait, I need to study, I-" "Oh, come on, Y/n!" Jisoo begged you, taking your hands in his. "It's friday. You can take a day off. It's gonna be fun, you'll see." "And you don't really have a choice." Mingyu smiled. "Welcome to the dark side." Wonwoo added with a smirk. You agreed with a sigh and followed the boys outside, telling them you had to call your parents first. Chuckling, Seungcheol advised you not to tell them where you were going to but, rolling your eyes, you called your mom in front of them and told her you were going to hang out with the bad boys of your university, saying they wanted you to go with them to some strange and, probably, dangerous places. They stared at you, eyes wide open, and saw you laugh. "Yeah, mom. No tattoo, I promise. Tell dad he doesn't need to worry, I'll be safe. I guess... Ah ah! Yeah, I'll stay with them. Thanks, mom. Love you." You hang up and looked at the guys, fists on your hips and a cheeky smile stretching across your lips. "Okay, I really like her." Seungcheol grinned, sitting on his bike while Minghao locked his helmet on your head. "He will take you home. Change into some comfortable clothes, eat something and take your papers. We'll catch up later." You nodded and climbed on Minghao's bike as the boys started theirs and let you. "Your arms." The young man said coldly but you just tilted your head, not knowing what he meant. "Your arms." He repeated, catching and wrapping your arms around him. You apologised shyly, your cheeks becoming red as they did in the morning, and tightened your grip when he started his bike. After that Minghao dropped you at your house and let you know he had to go to his and change, you unlocked your door and entered your home, seeing that your parents left a note on the table. "Be careful, tonight, Y/n. Even if we know you won't be alone, we worry a little. Call us or send a text during the night, please." Taking off your uniform jacket and letting your hair down, you smiled and went to the kitchen. Since Minghao told you he would pick you up at 8pm, you cooked a quick meal and did your homework while eating. After dinner, you took a shower, put a large shirt on and went to your bedroom, facing one of the biggest problems in your life... Standing in front of your closet, you were thinking about what you could wear but you had no clue since you didn't know where you were going. Seungcheol told you comfortable clothes. Well, dresses was comfortable for you but it was like you knew wearing a dress was a bad idea. You scratched your head and sighed when you heard the doorbell. It was surely Minghao. You opened the door and froze when you saw him, wearing a black and white printed shirt, a pair of black ripped jeans and a large and old dark perfecto. Even if he still scared you with his cold personality, at this moment, he was breathtaking and you felt the heat colouring your cheeks in a light red tint. You stepped back and let him in, trying to hide the fact you found him more than attractive. He looked all around the living room, focusing a few seconds on the photos, and turned to face you. His eyes went from your head to your feet and, frowning, he asked you why you weren't ready. "I... I don't know what to wear." You replied with a puppy face, playing awkwardly with your fingers. "Where's your room?" He sighed. You pointed at your door and felt your heart skip a beat when Minghao grabbed your wrist, leading you to your bedroom. He stopped in front of your closet and started to look at your clothes. "Is that what you wear outside school?" He asked picking up a pair of blue ripped skinny jeans and a black short sleeved crop top. He saw you nodded silently and tilted his head, twisting his mouth a little. "I didn't expect that. Well, put it on." He handed you the clothes and crouched, looking at your shoes. "Dr. Martens? Better than I thought." Bright red cheeks again! "Tonight it is cold..." He thought out loud. "Do you have a perfecto or something like that?" "I have my mother's old leather jacket." You replied, opening the second door of the closet. "Here." "Good taste runs in your family." He smirked, noticing you were very different from what he thought. "Go get ready, I'll wait here. Don't worry, I won't touch anything." "I have nothing to hide." You shrugged before leaving your room, leaving him alone, a discreet smirk on his lips. While you were changing and doing your makeup, Minghao looked at the photos hung on the walls, seeing none on the portraits was looking at you when you captured them. All the pictures seemed so natural, it made him smile. When he came closer to the bookshelves, he tilted his head and read all the books titles, recognising some that Wonwoo owned. Yawning, the young male sat on your bed and looked at your stuffed animals, noticing there weren't three but four and one of them seemed older than the others. A Snoopy, stuck between the pillows. Minghao leaned over your bed, grabbed the old plush, smiling at how cute he found it, and heard you coming back to the bedroom. "You said three stuffed animals, not fo-" He started before freezing, eyes wide open, when you entered the room. "It doesn't suit me, right?" You asked, lowering your head when you saw his face. "Do you dress up like that everyday?" You nodded slightly, adding that you knew you didn't have a good fashion sense, wearing simple clothes, never trying to be attractive or anything else. "Maybe it was a bad id-" "You look good." Minghao cut you off, catching you off guard, and stood up. He adjusted your jacket and checked at your simple but perfect makeup. "Let's go." You smiled at him, a shy but adorable smile which made his heart race a little, and left the room, slipping your papers in your jacket pocket. You locked Minghao's helmet on your head by yourself, climbed on his back and, without waiting for his permission, wrapped your arms around his waist. Turning his head a bit, Minghao asked if you were comfortable and felt you nodding against his back. "Hold tight." He told you, starting his bike. "They're waiting for us." You nodded again and tightened your grip around him, burying your face into his shoulder, a satisfied smile on your lips. You didn't know where you were going since you didn't recognise the streets around you. All you could say was that the district seemed more industrial than yours. While Minghao drove, his eyes focused on the road, you noticed that a lot of factories was abandoned and, to be honest, the atmosphere made you shiver. It was dark and the only sounds you could hear were from the machines inside the factories. It was a little scary but you surprised yourself liking that. After almost 25 minutes of riding, you heard music coming from a factory and saw a lot of bikes parked out front. You recognised Jisoo's bike and got off from Minghao's when he turned it off. Looking all around you, you let your cold friend take off his helmet from your head, noticing you were more interested by the place than anything else. Putting his hand on your lower back, Minghao led you to the entrance of the factory where two men, looking like wrestlers, checked the papers of some people. "Hey, THE8!" One of the doormen smiled when he saw Minghao. "How are you, man?" "Pretty fine." He replied, high-fiving him. "And who's this angel?" The second bouncer asked, looking at you as he raised his eyebrows. "She's stunning." "Our new mascot." Minghao answered, putting his hands on your hips, while you were thanking the man. "Damn, I thought you finally found a girl. Make him change his mind." The doorman added, winking at you. "I don't believe in miracles, sorry." You giggled, giving him a sweet smile. Rolling his eyes, Minghao smirked at the doorman and pulled you inside the factory, his hand on your back again. At this moment, your eyes opened wide and you couldn't believe what you were seeing. The place was full of teenagers and young adults sitting on old couches, drinking beers and smoking things you didn't want to know what it was. There was a DJ suspended above a huge kind of dance floor and a lot of strobe lights colouring the place in a dozen of colours. You've heard about these kind of places but you never thought you could be here one day, well, one night. Feeling you freeze, Minghao started to ask you what was wrong but stopped when he saw your face, your sparkling eyes and the admiring smile on your lips. He couldn't help but smile too and patted your head gently. He knew you were an innocent and cute girl, the kind of girl he could fall for, but he didn't imagine how much you could be. His heart raced again when you looked at him, an amazed expression on your face. Amused by your reaction, Minghao slid his hand along your head and, for the first time, he didn't scare you. His gaze wasn't cold and his touch felt like the softest thing on Earth. A shy smile stretched your lips as you looked away when you heard Jisoo's voice. "My cutie pie!" Seeing you couldn't find his friend among all the people around you, Minghao grabbed the top of your head and turned it towards Jisoo who was coming over you. "Oh my God, Y/n, you're gorgeous!" He shouted, looking at you from your head to your feet while Minghao left you, walking over his other friends. "I didn't know there was two Y/n!" "Two Y/n?" You repeated, chuckling as you frowned. "Yeah, the cute one and the dangerous! I'll keep an eye on you tonight, all the guys will want to leave with you." "You'll be my bodyguard?" "And you will always love me." He sang wrapping his arm around your shoulders. "Come on! The boys are waiting for you! They'll fall in love, I swear." Laughing at how Jisoo acted with you, you walked over the "bad boys club" and saw them, sat on couches, surrounded by amazing girls. To be honest, it didn't surprise you. The young ladies welcomed you with smiles while Seungcheol and his friends stared at you, utterly stunned by your look. "What a change!" The leader smirked. "If I knew you were wearing that, I'd-" "Nope, don't say anything." You cut him off, laughing. "Y/n, I guess." A breathtaking girl said, standing up at a table, reaching her hand to you, a friendly smile on her red lips. "I'm Meena. Joshua told me you were cute, not gorgeous." "Thank you." You replied shyly, shaking her hand gently, admiring her perfect face features. She was marvellous. Meena invited you to stand next to her since the couches were full and asked you what you wanted to drink. Remembering the face you made the night before when Minghao helped you to drink beer, Mingyu chuckled and told you there was sodas. You stared at him, feeling a lit bit embarrassed but Jisoo, who was hugging his girlfriend, reassured you, saying Meena didn't like alcohol too. Making you comfortable, Meena whispered in your ear that beer was for girls who wanted to seem interesting and come back home with a man. "I don't need alcohol." She added, giving a quick and lovely look at Jisoo who kissed the back of her head. "So! What do you wanna drink?" You were about to answer that anything without alcohol would be good for you but smelled a strong scent next to you. You looked at the cup Minghao put on the table and leaned above it, frowning. "Wine." He whispered in your ear, handing you the cup so you can take a sip. You were surprised to like it and, chuckling, said it was better than beer. Minghao told you, you could drink in his glass if you wanted and focused back on Hansol with whom he was talking. Trying to get to know you better, Meena stayed with you all the night, asking a lot of questions from your favourite animal to the things you liked to do in your spare time. You learn a lot about her too and you understood why Jisoo seemed to be hopelessly in love with her. She was a delightful and friendly young woman, the kind of girl every man could fall for. She was a student from a small university but wanted to become a model. Smiling widely, you told her it was obvious she could be a model, she had everything for, and you even offered your help for her book. You were talking with your new friend when you saw everyone raising their head quickly and look at Minghao. A bit drunk, Hansol shouted "Battle time!" while you asked Meena what was going on. The sweet girl then told you there always was dance battles on friday night and Minghao was undefeated in three years. Excited, the group stood up and went closer to the dance floor but you didn't move. Wonwoo noticed that and, grabbing your shoulders, he lead you to the dance floor. "Don't stay alone, Y/n." He told you before leaving you next to Meena. "I don't know what you did but the boys really like you." She smiled at you. "They're just nice with me." You sighed, raising an eyebrow. "A lot of girls turn around them but they're not like that with them. They really like you, Y/n, trust me." "Of course we do." Mingyu chuckled behind you, putting his chin on the top of your head. You giggled a little, patting Mingyu's hands on your shoulders, and watched the dance battle in front of you. The man on the other side was a really good dancer and his steps were flawless. Looking at Minghao, who stayed still, arms crossed on his chest, the dancer tried to impress his opponent but you had the feeling he had a lot of work to do so. When his turn was over, people congratulated him, except your group, of course. You glanced at the young man when Minghao handed you his perfecto. Without a word or a look, you took it and held it against your chest, smirking a little. Then, the real show could start. Minghao's style was a mix of street dance and martial arts, it was spectacular and everyone was amazed by his moves. Even if he tried to hide it, you could see Minghao's opponent was kind of afraid, regretting his choice to face the only winner of the dance battles in three years. When a idea came to his mind. When it was his turn again, he blew you a kiss, something that your friends didn't like. But, shrugging, you pretended to catch the flying kiss and threw it on the floor before stepping on it. Your group burst out laughing and mocked the guy. A proud smile on his lips, Minghao patted your head smoothly and started to dance again. "Good job, cutie pie." Jisoo whispered in your ear, kissing the side of your head while Meena was giving you a thumbs up. As everybody expected, Minghao won the battle and a second started almost right after with other dancers. Your chinese friend took back his jacket and all together, you went back to your place. Proud of his friend, Hansol said that, as usual, Minghao nailed it. "Wait, Y/n was perfect too!" Seungcheol shouted. "The cutie pie is a real tigress!" "What did I do?" You asked, raising your eyebrows, confused. "You stepped on his heart." Wonwoo said with knowing glances. "What a bad girl." A cheeky smile stretched your lips and made everyone laugh. You didn't really know why you did that when this guy blew you his kiss but, in a way, you took his gesture as a lack of respect. Not only for you but for all your friends too. Around 2am, you checked your phone and saw your mom had tried to call you. Apologising, you told your friends you had to call her back and moved away, Meena following you. She didn't want you to be alone. After getting out of the factory, giving a sweet smile to the bouncers, you called your mom. "Sorry, I didn't see you tried to call me. Hm? Yes, it's awesome! I've made a new friend. Yes, she's very sweet. Yeah, they are taking care of me. I don't know, maybe in two or three hours. Yes, I did my homework. How's dad? Yeah, he can trust him. Yes, he... Mom! He's just a friend! Hm? Okay, I have to leave. Nope. Bye mom. Love you." You hang up and turned to Meena who's were looking at you, a smirk on her red lips. Of course, she immediately asked who was the boy you talked about with your mom and, when she saw your cheeks turning red, she understood it was Minghao. "Really?! Hao?! Oh, Y/n, it will be a long hard road." She chuckled when a girls group came towards you. "Hi, Eun Ae." Meena sighed. "How are you?" "I don't want to talk with you, Jisoo's pet." The one who seemed to be the "leader" replied pretentiously, raising her hand in front of your friend. "So, this is Minghao's pet, I guess." She hissed, staring at you like you were a piece of crap. "Look, I don't know who you are and I don't even give a fuck about it but, let me tell you something. My prince deserves a real woman, someone as awesome as him. He can't waste his time with some... thing like you. So stay away from Minghao. Okay?" She giggled with her friends and started to walk away when a smirk stretched your lips. "Or what?" You asked, seeing her freeze and look at you, eyes wide open. "Do you think you scare me, princess? Who the fuck do you think you are to talk like that to my friend?" "Do you wanna die?!" She growled. "Do you know who I am?!" "I don't care. You could be the First Lady, it would be the same." You grinned, coming closer to her, noticing she was smaller than you. "Do not talk like that to my friend or I'll beat your ass so hard that you won't be able to sit for years. Okay?" You threatened her, leaning over her. "And with respect to Minghao, he's a grown man, he can hang out with whoever he wants. I don't think he needs the permission of a stupid and jealous fangirl who's so frustrated that her crush doesn't give a fuck about her ass." You were looking straight into her eyes, seeing she was more afraid than you expected, when you heard Jisoo's voice, asking why you were taking so long, followed by Minghao who sighed when he saw Eun Ae. "What's happening?" Your chinese friend asked, coming beside you while Jisoo took Meena in his arms. "I don't like the way your stupid fangirl talks about my friend." You answered without leaving your eyes from the girl in front of you. "She called Meena Jisoo's pet and I just made her understand that she better not do that again." "Damn, S.coups was right!" Minghao chuckled before wrapping his arm around your shoulder. "You're a real tigress, Y/n." Eun Ae stared at Minghao and swallowed when he put a sweet kiss on the top of your head, an amused smile on his lips. A nasty grin on yours, you coldly urged her to apologise to Meena. "So... Sorry, Mee... Meena." She stuttered before leaving with her friends. "Oh my God, Y/n!" Meena shouted, hugging you tightly. "You were awesome! Who could think a adorable girl like you could be this... this... this amazing! Thank you so much!" "I couldn't let her call you like that." You smiled, giving her back her hug. Jisoo and Minghao smiled to each other with knowing glances and, all four of you went back into the factory, Meena in her boyfriend's arms while Minghao's hands were on your hips. "So you don't like my fangirls? Interesting." He teased you with a wry smile. You looked at him and rolled your eyes when you saw the smirk on his lips. "I didn't do that for you, Eun Ae's prince, I did it for Meena." You said before sticking your tongue out. "Don't... Don't get any ideas." "If you say so..." Minghao whispered in your ear, feeling you shiver against him. "Very interesting."

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ ㅤ ⁓•⁓ ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ Thank you for reading! 💜 ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ⁓•⁓

It’s About Time -Part 3

A bit longer than last week’s portion. A bit more angsty too (considering angst hasn’t even been a thing in this fic as of yet).

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Miroku retracted his arm from Sango’s shoulder, rolling his head back against the cushion of the couch and groaning loudly. It wasn’t often that he was at a loss, being the type that could break the ice like an actual elephant, but this time was different. His best friend was sulking. Actually and legitimately sulking. Locking-himself-in-his-room, mumbling-words, hanging-his-head-in-defeat sulking. He’d approached the situation jokingly at first, which was probably the worst thing he could have done. Hell, he’d never seen Inuyasha look so dejected before, even after breaking up with Kikyo, so it was perfectly understandable that he almost thought he was being pranked. Once he’d realized how serious this was, Miroku tried a more tender approach. He brought home comfort food, offered some distracting video game time, and even forked up the cash for a bottle of expensive whiskey to help Inuyasha relax and start talking. All of which were rejected.

He’d decided that two weeks was long enough, and it was time to take drastic measures. Enter Sango. After another failed attempt at coaxing Inuyasha out of his brooding stupor, he dashed out into the forty-degree weather, hopped into his car and drove straight to Sango’s apartment. It was against the “Bro Code” to spill about a friend’s personal life, but he didn’t know what else to do and thought a woman’s touch was all the guy needed.

By the end of Miroku’s story, Sango’s roommate came through the front door and froze after noticing him. It wasn’t the first time it had happened in the last week or so, but it didn’t make it any less weird. She hardly smiled, and after a moment, looked away awkwardly as she hung her coat and scarf on the hook nailed to the wall. After disappearing into her bedroom, Sango reluctantly admitted that Kagome had seemed down for a while now, too, with no given explanation.

“And you have no idea what’s wrong with Kagome?” Miroku asked, rolling his head to the side to glance at his girlfriend.

“Not a clue. She was totally fine and then all of a sudden, she just… wasn’t. I’ve asked her a thousand times to talk to me, but she keeps saying it’s nothing to worry about.” Sango replied, a concerned frown marring her features.

“Maybe it’s in the water.” Miroku suggested, feeling defeated.

“Not for Inuyasha.”

Miroku looked at her questionably, turning his body towards her once more in anticipation of what she had to say.

“You said he has a soulmate. What if he found her?” Sango inquired.

“Why would that upset him?” He asked, cocking an eyebrow.

“I don’t know. From all the stories you’ve told me about Inuyasha, he seems like the stubborn type-”

Miroku chuckled, nodding enthusiastically. “Oh, he’s definitely stubborn.”

“Therefore, he may be picky about his women. What if he doesn’t like his soulmate? Better yet, what if he doesn’t like the fact that he didn’t get a choice in the matter? I mean, it seems a little farfetched that 100% of the people that have a soulmate wouldn’t have a problem with their selection.” She shrugged, raising her eyebrows. Miroku sat there for a moment, allowing her words to sink in and process.

“Have I ever told you how brilliant you are, you gorgeous woman?” He boasted, squishing her cheeks in between his hands and pulling her in for a kiss. “What the hell would I do without you?”

She giggled, shaking her head and pushing his hands away from her face. “So, I helped?”

“Are you kidding? Everything makes sense now! That idiot is as stubborn as a mule. In fact, he’s so stubborn donkeys take after him. You’re damn straight he doesn’t like anyone calling the shots for him, especially in the love department.”

“Maybe you just need to help him take his mind off of things for now. Eventually, everything will calm down and level out. Even a guy like him can learn to accept change, right?” Sango asked innocently.

“Oh, uh… Give or take six months down the road he may consider the idea of accepting it.”

“…You’re kidding.”

“My dearest Sango, I never joke about Inuyasha’s attitude. He is, in fact, the worst.” Miroku smiled nonchalantly. “But I’ve tried to keep his mind off of things. I end up more rejected than a high school girl whose senpai won’t notice her. Thank god we’re in this together, huh?”

"We are?" Sango hesitated, frowning at her boyfriend who seemed all-too-eager to include her.

“Of course! Kagome could probably use the pick-me-up too! How about a house party? My place is big enough and we’re on the bottom floor. I’ll invite the neighbors, so they don’t complain. They’re young. They’re hip. Everyone can dance their worries away.”

“I can’t imagine Inuyasha being the dancing type.”

“He is when he’s drunk.”

The pungent smell of alcohol riddled the air as too many people bounced about, shouted, and dry-humped around him to the loud music. Inuyasha distinctly remembered telling Miroku he wasn't interested in hosting a party, and yet here he was; shutout of his own bedroom and forced to stand around awkwardly until the alcohol hit his system. He didn't know how his roommate always got his way, but the man was a master at persuasion and coercion.  

He swiveled the red, plastic cup in his hand hoping the motion would make the ice melt faster and cool the warm whiskey so that it was drinkable. He watched as the two ice cubes hit the sides of the container, flowing in a circular motion as a small whirlpool was created. The lower temperature began to seep through the plastic, soothing his irritated hand and helping him to ignore the increasing prickling.

Ever since that day at the coffee shop, Inuyasha had felt like shit and these sensations had increased tenfold. He knew this party was Miroku’s way of trying to help bring him out of it but being forced to hang out in a very crowded room with a lot of drunk, obnoxious people was far from the answer. He just needed to ride the stupid feeling out.

Inuyasha had watched the message he’d written slowly fade from his palm, disappearing completely with no response. He’d stared at his skin for damn near an hour waiting for something to appear. Every day, he’d check his hands for notes or doodles and his flesh remained clean and clear. The only thing that remained to tie him with whomever the fuck this was, was the annoying, unrelenting tingling that spread from his wrists to the tips of his fingers, seemingly growing worse and worse by the minute. Inuyasha wasn’t one for melancholy to begin with. He was the type of guy that swallowed his problems to deal with another day, but this whole ordeal seemed to be eating him away and wearing him thin.

He was exhausted, he was aggravated, and he was anxious as all hell.

He took a large swig of his barely-cold drink, the whiskey burning at his throat as it coated it thoroughly on its way down. Slamming the cup on the small side table next to the couch, he made his way to the open front door, heading towards the fresh air and calmer atmosphere.

"Inuyasha!" Miroku shouted, waving over the many heads inside. A girl several inches smaller than him tailed behind, clutching desperately to his hand so as not to get separated. Her long, brown hair was held loosely in a high, messy ponytail that swayed side-to-side as she walked, and her dress was almost too revealing for this weather. "It's about time I finally get the opportunity to introduce you two! This is Sango!"

“It’s nice to finally meet you!” Sango smiled, extending her free hand to him. Inuyasha took it in his grip, making sure not to hurt her nimble fingers with his large hands. To his surprise, her shake was firm and powerful, the squeeze hurting his knuckles. When he’d first learned they were dating almost two months ago, he felt compelled to warn the girl about Miroku and his… tendencies. Maybe Miroku was the one he should actually be worried about.

“You probably don’t remember, but we’ve met before.” Inuyasha smirked, eagerly taking his palm back and rubbing it out.

“I don’t and I’d rather not!” She laughed awkwardly, no doubt remembering the hangover she suffered from that drunken night a few weeks ago. “I believe you know my roommate, too? Kagome? She’s here somewhere!”

Inuyasha’s fists clenched, the familiar surge of points and needles prodding his hands with a burning fury. His head twisted around the room, looking for her long black hair and bright brown eyes but coming up with faces he didn’t know and an abundance of putrid scents that burned his nose. Realizing Miroku was staring at him, he stopped and attempted to come off as casual as possible.

“She is? Well I… um… hope she’s having fun.” He slowly nodded, turning and exiting through the door.

The November air was cold as shit and he wished he’d grabbed a jacket before stepping outside, his demon blood not enough to keep him warm at this time of year. A chill crept through his long sleeve shirt and as his senses began to quiet, he could smell rain approaching in the air. It was cold enough at night where the water on the roads would freeze until the sun thawed it mid-morning, but not cold enough for snow just yet.

He walked outside the apartment building, the music still loud enough to reach his sensitive ears as he shoved his tingling hands into his front pockets for warmth. He was almost tempted to let his fingers freeze and fall off, the cold numbing them and aiding in some form of relief from the undying torture.

“Oh. Hey.” A sweet voice greeted as he turned the corner, nearly bumping into her small body that leaned against the wall. Kagome stood there, her chocolate eyes gazing at him unsuspectingly. Her hands were tucked inside the pocket of her dark blue pullover hoody, the logo for their college printed on the front. Her dark curls flowed over her shoulders and around the bunched-up hood at the back of her neck, her messy bangs framing her face too fucking perfectly. She smiled shyly, causing a piercing jab to his heart as he forced himself to take a step backwards.

“Hey.”

Kagome felt a fluttering rush develop in her chest, expanding throughout her entire torso. She’d come outside for a quick minute to compose herself. The moment she’d seen Inuyasha standing along the wall of his living room talking to absolutely no one and drinking who knows what, she’d felt her breath catch in her lungs and couldn’t get it to come out. It was ridiculous, even for her, so she decided to come outside and start over.

The dim lights from the building provided just enough exposure for her to see the slight tint of pink on his cheeks, which she suspected to be from the cold, and his amber eyes staring back at her with both question and concern.

“I-it was… crowded.” Kagome admitted, tearing her eyes away and looking at the ground.

“Yeah, I get it. Me too.”

“What?”

“I-uh… I thought it was crowded too. That’s why I’m out here.” His voice was low and rough, catching all of her attention. Kagome’s eyes met his again, his gaze burning through her as her hands clutched one another through the large pocket in her sweater, trying to calm the wild nerve endings. She desperately wanted to take a step closer to him, as if he were a magnet drawing her in, but pinched the back of her left wrist with her nails to keep grounded where she was.

What was happening to her? These feelings were becoming too intense to think rationally. She shouldn’t have come to the party. She shouldn’t have wanted to see him again. But, geez, did she want to see him again. She’d kept her hands clean for weeks, kept notes in her cell phone and notebooks, and used hand sanitizer for added effect as a form of detoxing to keep her mind off of things, but it only made it all worse. She was sad, and Sango’s concern proved that it was noticeable. How could she tell her best friend what was going on if she didn’t even know herself? Kagome refused to admit the one thing that kept prodding at her mind. She refused to even consider that Inuyasha was the man on the other side of this. He didn’t believe. He had no idea what it was like to feel as crazy as she did now, and she would only be screwing herself over if she gave in and hoped it was him.

Inuyasha flinched, rubbing out the sudden sting that came to the back of his left wrist. He and Kagome had stood there in silence for a long moment. A small part of him felt calm and content, while a larger part of him trembled with agitation.

Fuck! He wanted to know. He deserved to know. If it wasn’t Kagome, all she had to do was say so and he’d move on.

All he had to do was ask and he’d have his answer.

A part of him felt like he already had, though. He’d sent a message, and he knew it was received. He’d never been so sure about something in his life. Why would shit come through to him but not the other way around? It just didn’t make sense. If he understood anything about this soulmate thing, it was that what happened to one happened to the other.

“Listen, Ka-“ The loud ring and heavy vibration coming from his pocket yanked away his focus. He pulled out the device, ready to silence the thing and turn it off completely when he noticed the name in big, bold letters. He didn’t want to answer. Jesus, why did he slide the bar at the bottom of the screen to accept? He was literally seconds away from getting the yes or no he needed, so why would he even consider answering this call? It was past ten, and nothing good ever came from calls from your ex-girlfriend this late at night.

“What?” Inuyasha’s voice came out harsher than intended. He held the butt of his phone close to his face, neglecting to put the call on speaker phone since Kagome was only a few feet from him, his ears sensitive enough to pick up the hysterical sobbing coming from the other end. He waited a moment, the cries never slowing enough to pick up the words she tried to mutter in between. “Hey, hey, hey. Calm down. I need you to tell me happened. Slowly.” He dropped his voice considerably, his tone coming off as soothing as possible while direct enough to be followed.

“… He hit me, Inuyasha.”

He turned down the volume on his phone, knowing Kagome couldn’t hear what was being said but not taking the chances. Her concerned stare burning into him, her teeth chewing on her bottom lip as the tension increased around him from every angle.

“Where are you?” Inuyasha asked, his amber eyes never leaving Kagome’s brown orbs. He knew he was going to regret this, but he couldn’t leave Kikyo alone when she was this scared or hurt. His stomach twisted and turned painfully, feeling a lump form in his throat.

He was pissed. He didn’t need the details of Kikyo’s situation to feel the anger gnawing at his entire being. He didn’t care that she was his ex and he didn’t care what had happened in their past. She was a sobbing mess, hiccupping between words and begging for him to come get her.

He got the information he needed and hung up the phone, sliding it back into the depths of his front pocket. Unconsciously, he’d taken a step closer to Kagome, her eyebrows raised, and her deep brown eyes drifting back and forth from his own to his lips. He slowly lifted a hand to cup her cheek, his palms stinging all the way, the sensation too much to handle as the padding of his thumb just barely grazed her soft skin so he withdrew it altogether. Fuck, he wanted to make that worried expression disappear. He wanted to soothe her features and tell her everything was alright, but the situation was such a clusterfuck that he couldn’t find it in him to say anything.

“I have to go.” He said hoarsely. “I’ll see you soon, okay?”

Inuyasha began backing away from Kagome, finding each step harder and harder to take. He was so damn close to an answer. He was so damn close to her. At this point, it seemed all logic was out the door. He may not know shit about her now, but he was more than willing to take all the time in the world to find out everything he could. God, he wanted her to say yes when he could finally ask her the dreaded question. He wanted it to be her. He wanted it to be Kagome.

She gave him a soft nod, and he was finally able to tear away and head in the direction of the coffee house.

 Could half demons tell if they were being followed? Probably. But Kagome knew Inuyasha’s mind was too preoccupied to pick up on her. Every part of her knew this was wrong, but the horrible feeling that had drilled into her chest cavity wouldn’t ease up until she gave in and snuck off after him. She decided that she could beat herself up later about it. For now, she had to concentrate on staying a safe distance behind while simultaneously staying close enough not to lose him.

The icy drizzle fell around her, shocking the tenderly-cold skin of her nose and cheeks. The smart thing to do would have been to put her hood up but she was worried about looking like a shady figure hanging out in the background, so she decided against it. A little rain never hurt anyone.

Inuyasha’s pace quickened as he approached the lit-up coffee house, half adorned with autumn décor and the other half in semi-put-up Christmas lights. He forcefully threw open the door and ran towards the back where she couldn’t see him anymore, a curving wall from the inside blocking her view. Even through the cold, her hands felt clammy. She could hear the scared voice through Inuyasha’s phone. The voice of a female begging him to come get her. Kagome had no right to be jealous. She was jumping to conclusions, another bad habit of hers, and as per usual, it only created messier situations.

The drizzle turned to rain, her damp hair beginning to stick to the sides of her face and neck. She should just turn around and head home. She should go home, get dry, and put on some stupid romcom to distract herself. So why was she approaching the windows of the coffee house? Why was she searching the inside of the dimly-lit, twenty-four-hour building for the familiar face with the unfamiliar woman? Why did it hurt so bad to see Inuyasha cradling a girl's jaw, their bodies so close to one another?

 “Who did this?” Inuyasha demanded. He wanted to punch the wall next to them and create a god-awful scene. He wanted whoever the hell it was that had the balls to strike a woman to see the damage he, himself, could do so that he would shrivel down in fear at the beating that was coming for him.

“His name doesn’t matter, Inuyasha.” Kikyo responded flatly, her dark eyes avoiding his. His clawed hands held her face, his thumb caressing her pale cheeks, avoiding the darkening bruise around her eye.

“Like hell, it doesn’t!” He snapped. “If you call me to come get you because some asshole you’re dating hit you, you better be prepared to tell me his name!”

“I didn’t call you because I wanted you to fight him! I called you because I wanted you to take me home!” She pushed his hands away, carefully wiping at her tear-stained cheeks. “But you didn’t even bring your car and it’s pouring outside now!”

“Oh, save it! I was drinking when you called, so I wasn’t going to drive around town like that. And don’t act like it’s the rain you’re worried about. I’ll get you home safely, so shut up.” He rolled his eyes, gently grabbing Kikyo’s chin between his forefinger and thumb, and twisting her face slightly to get a better look at the developing bruise. “Who was it, Kikyo?”

“Some guy I went on a few dates with.”

“Who was it, Kikyo?” Inuyasha demanded again, sick of her attitude already.

“Naraku. His name is Naraku. We got into an argument and the rest is history.” Kikyo lifted her chin out of his hold, turning away so the mark of violence was out of his line of sight.

Inuyasha clenched and unclenched his fists, the tingling making it hard to focus on one thing over the other. He sat back in the corner booth they were tucked away in, seething in anger and wanting to beat the ever-loving shit out of this guy. Hell, he would run off and do it right now if he knew what the asshole looked like and didn’t have Kikyo to worry about. It killed him that a woman he’d known to stand tall with pride seemed so small and terrified, so it made it a lot easier that she didn’t want to be looked at. As good as he was at blowing things out of proportion and going off the deep end, he understood that it was more important to get her home as soon as possible.

He made sure to steady himself, ready to take her arm and guide her back to her place, when the small silhouette in the corner of the furthest window caught his eye.

Kagome gasped, forgetting that the main objective, besides snooping, was to avoid being seen. His eyes pierced through her, and her feet felt frozen in place. Her heart beat erratically as her first instinct was to panic. To run. To get the hell out of there and avoid him for the rest of her life, because there was no way she could face him or live this down.

She didn’t expect it to hurt so bad to see him caring for another woman. She didn’t expect to feel so irrationally betrayed to see him stroking her cheek when she was well aware that this situation and their relationship was none of her business. None of this made sense to Kagome. For the umpteenth time, she asked herself what was happening to her. Her lungs contracted, the air traveling through her pipes painfully as the cold rain wracked her body into tremors.

Inuyasha stared out the window, his eyes adjusting to the difference in contrast as her features became noticeable. The rain caused her bangs to wave and stick to her forehead, the layers of black hair that once created a voluminous look clinging to her cheeks. Her mouth hung slightly open, drops of water running along her face and stopping at the texture of her pink lips. The dark blue sweater she wore looked black from the added moisture, her arms shivering at her side and her fingers shaking.

He jolted to his feet, that action startling both the girl outside and the girl beside him. Kagome turned to walk away, the steps quickly developing into a sprint.

But he was faster.

“Inuyasha, what are-“

“I’ll be right back. Stay here.” He ordered, not giving Kikyo a second look before darting out the door and following Kagome’s path.

The rain made it impossible to catch her scent, but he let his intuition guide him. His legs darted quickly, the downpour stinging his face as he turned a corner he’d taken on the way from his apartment. There she was, just a few paces in front of him, her legs running as fast as they could. His burning hands stretched out in front of him, his fingers latching to the arm of her baggy, soaked hoody.

“Kagome, stop! Stop!” He shouted, pulling back so that she’d be forced to stop running. Her chest heaved up and down heavily as he turned her to face him, her head hung, avoiding his gaze. “What the hell are you doing?”

She bit her lip, her breathing still quick, her body shivering beneath his touch. Inuyasha didn’t let go of her sweater. He was sure if he did, she’d take off again. The street lamps hardly provided enough light to see all the features he’d grown to favor on her face as she stared to the ground at his feet.

“Kagome?” He tried again, holding back the growl that crept up in his chest. No, now wasn’t the right time. She looked sad. Hurt even.

“I’m sorry,” She started, her voice a whisper compared to the sound of heavy water smacking cement. “I shouldn’t have followed you. I was just worried.”

“Then why did you run?”

“I didn’t know what else to do.”

His grip on her clothes went slack, dropping his prickling hand to his side. Finally, she looked up at him, peeking through the thick bangs that hung low and hid her lashes.

“Who is she?” Kagome’s voice shook, and it ripped a hole in Inuyasha’s heart. Fuck it all! What the hell was she doing to him? He should have been pissed that she was spying, but he was more concerned that she was wet and freezing, wandering through the streets alone as the night only got later. He shouldn’t have chased after her, but he couldn’t imagine letting her run off when she looked so wounded through those dirty windows.

“Her name’s Kikyo.” Inuyasha admitted, his shoulders sagging as he resisting the urge to step closer and close at least an inch of the gap between them. “She’s my ex.”

Kagome nodded slowly, the statement causing a painful knot to form in her throat. This is what snooping does; if you go looking for trouble, you’ll always find it.

“Why are you upset?” Inuyasha asked, reaching for her hand. She felt the shock. Felt the rush course through her body and she jerked back, feeling more scared than she knew she should have been.

“I’m not.” She lied, trying to seem as natural as possible.

“Why are you upset?” He asked with more fire, stepping toward her and snatching at the sleeve of her hoody to prevent her from leaving like she so desperately wanted to.

“I said, I’m no-“

“Tell me, Kagome!”

“I don’t know, Inuyasha!” She yelled, feeling her resolve crumbling around her. “I don’t know why I’m upset, okay!? I know I shouldn’t be! There’s a lot of things happening right now that shouldn’t be, but I can’t help it!”

His lips curled into a frown, his brows drawing together as he pulled her closer to him.

“Are you her?” Inuyasha asked, his eyes boring into her own.

“Wha-“

“Are you my fucking soulmate!?” He barked, pulling her another step closer. She could feel his hand traveling down her arm, her palm igniting in a heated blaze she’d never felt before. She attempted to jerk backwards again but got nowhere, his skin nearing hers.

“No!” Kagome tore her arm from his hold, her breathing appearing shaky and unstable. The raindrops curved around her brow bone, over her nose, and down her jaw, the path of them numbing her to further cold. She clutched her burning hand to her chest, wanting so badly to feel his wet skin with the pads of her fingertips, but finding the fear of it all too overwhelming. She was afraid it wasn’t him. She was afraid this whole thing was wrong, and she was following all the wrong signs. She couldn’t be rejected. Not here. Not like this. Not while he was looking at her, able to see her break and crumble from the weight of the disappointment. “I’m not your soulmate, Inuyasha! I don’t have one!”

“Bullshit!” He argued, seeing right through her. “Prove it!”

“Back off!”

“Give me your hand, Kagome!” He looked desperate and just as afraid as she was. She could tell he was trying to disguise it with anger, but his amber eyes said everything she needed to know. He, of all people, had a soulmate somewhere nearby. It was becoming painful for him, and he needed to know who she was. Inuyasha’s ache had become just as insatiable as her own.

It didn’t matter. The fear of being wrong overpowered her trembling nerves and made it impossible to put her hand in his.

“I can’t.” Kagome whispered, staring at his open palm, hot tears stinging at her eyes. “I’m sorry.”

His fingers curled shut, the sharp tips of his claws biting into his cold flesh, feeling rejected once again. Why couldn’t anyone answer his damn question? He wanted to break something, curse and shout, anything to release some of the frustration that he’d locked in for weeks now. What the hell happened to happy endings? Why was this so damn hard?

“I should go. I interrupted something that looked important back there. You can go back to her, Inuyasha.” The hurt in her voice was so evident, it shook him to the core. Everything was so fucked up.

“No, look, it’s not what you think. She got into a fight with her new boyfriend and he hit her. She needed help, Kagome.”

“Is she okay?” Kagome asked immediately, mentally kicking herself for the slip. It was none of her business and she should have never butted in.

“She’s fine. Shaken up, but fine.”

“Is there anything I can do?” The hook in her voice was genuine, and Inuyasha wondered how it was possible for someone to instantaneously push their problems aside for a person they didn’t know. His shoulders sunk, unconsciously reaching his right hand forward and gently pushing a sodden strand of hair off of her pale cheeks and behind her ear. Kagome’s heart was so good, and he understood now that she was going to be the death of him.

“No,” He shook his head, relishing in the heat that radiated from their touch. “I’m just going to make sure she gets home safely. That’s all she needs right now.”

Kagome’s eyes fell back down to the floor, blinking quickly to block the dripping water from blurring her vision. His touch was so wonderful yet so agonizing at the same time. She didn’t know this would be so difficult. Of all the tales she’d heard of finding your person, she’d never once heard one so painful. It was always a happy start to a happy end. Nothing was scary or conflicting or the least bit trivial about it. Your hand sent you some sort of signal and the rest was history. A couple had once come to her family’s shrine and described the story of how they’d gotten that infamous tingle and literally walked around for however long it took with their palms held out like a flashlight, following the urges and sensations until they collided with their person and felt a wash of relief they’d never experienced before.

So why wasn’t that happening for her now? Why did she feel so much regret saying no when she had the opportunity in front of her to possibly end all of this torment for the both of them? Inuyasha was clearly going through it too, and she was willing to do damn near anything to ease the lines on his face and take some of that pain away. But she didn’t.

Kagome kept telling herself it wasn’t right. She wasn’t right for him. They weren’t meant for one another and they were only making things worse in the end.

“I should…” Kagome’s voice broke, betraying her as she tried to hold herself together for just a moment longer.

“No, K-“

“I really need to go, Inuyasha.” She pushed his hand away from her, careful to pull the sleeves of her drenched sweater over her fingers to avoid any further contact with him. “I have to go.”

She backed away slowly, trying to bite back the quivering of her bottom lip.

“I’m so sorry.”

Make Amends

Part Fifteen - Lucid

This series is a sequel to Breaking A Promise.

Characters: Dean x reader, Sam, Cas (mentioned), OFC Harper (mentioned), OFC Jenny (mentioned)

Warnings: Language, angst, fluff, flangst, smut, possible dub-con, grace kink, magic kink

Word Count: 2500~

A/N: What have I been smoking? FYI @sofreddie made me feel genuinely emotional with her reaction to this chapter. Thank you for beta-ing once again my beautiful wifey <3 Oh, I’m testing out the new line breaks with this chapter too, if they suck or whatever, please lemme know before I start putting them in all my fics.

Series Masterlist Full Masterlist

~ Series and forever tags are open! ~

“I got it!” Sam announces, barging in to the room and making Dean jump with a start.

“The hell, Sam!?” Dean yells, “You ever heard of knocking!?”

“Look,” Sam ignores Dean’s gripes, shoving an open book onto his lap.

Dean glances down at the pages, recognising the print and your handwriting dotting around inbetween the lines. Flicking through each page rapidly like a sticker book, he snaps the book closed. Your spellbook, the one you got from the coven. “She’d been studying it a lot recently” he mumbles, opening it again and checking every page. Each one had your hasty penmanship dotted all over it, “I didn’t realise exactly how much though...”

“A lot, evidently,” Sam sighs, shaking his head, “But check the back page.”

Dean obliges, flicking through and glancing at the paper in the question, “What the…?” he mumbles aloud. His hand traces down the page, he remembered the conversation in the car about this particular spell. The one she and Jenny worked on years ago, that was supposedly unfinished. But now a whole new bunch of stuff had been added, the writing messy and scribbled, wonky in some places like your hand had slipped while doing it.

“I thought this was unfinished?” Dean continues to mumble, his eyes wide and shaking his head as he looked at the hastily scrawn spell, “Didn’t she say this spell like...sends the user into some kind of dream world?”

“Yeah...and it makes sense right?” Sam looks at you, laid out and completely oblivious to the world around you, “She said about the dream root too, so I think she wants us to go in there.”

“Right,” Dean nods in agreement, “Any word from Cas on that front?”

“He said he was heading back now, be here within the hour.”

“Okay, as soon as he’s here, cook me some of that stuff up and I’m going in.”       

°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。

You walk down the long corridor, your steps echoing off the polished floor and bouncing off the walls. Your hands are clenched into tight fists, not sure where you were going or what you were doing, but this place gave you the creeps.

When you cast the spell, you tried to imagine your old childhood house, yearning for somewhere safe and distant from all this chaos that was now your life. You brain seemingly had other ideas however, throwing you into some warped, deformed version of Harper’s old house. The corridor looked exactly as you remembered, but now twice as long with double the amount of rooms branching off from it. Some of the doors were completely inaccessible, you couldn’t open them, not even by throwing your entire body weight into them. Others did open, revealing memories that made your guts churn. So far, you’d seen your parents, playing with an infant you in your old living room before you all headed out to the park. You’d seen you and Jenny, shooting the shit whilst cleaning down the diner after a long shift and then heading out to a bar. You’d seen the bunker, drinking beers with the boys until stupid o’clock in the morning and then having to spend a sleepless night laying beside a nightmare ridden Dean.

“Oh yay…” you groan, trying another door handle and feeling the door click open, “C’mon brain, show me something that isn’t tainted with something fucking depressing…”

“Do we even have anything like that?” your own voice replies back in the air.

“Sure we do!” you argue, holding your hands on your hips and pouting, “Or we could just cut to the chase and you fucking show yourself to me.”

“I am you!”

“So you keep saying! Yet I don’t see a fricking ounce of me in you!”

“Ha! Yeah, okay, tell me how much you didn’t enjoy what’s behind that door then.”

“Ugh!” you scoff, pouting and throwing the door open, what met your eyes made you stop in your tracks.

“Oh boy…” you mumble, pulling at the collar of your shirt as heat rushed up your neck.

It was you and Dean, from a couple of weeks ago. A frustrating long night of dead end research, and you were both letting those frustrations out.

“Y/N, fuck,” Dean growled, he held you to him tightly, your ass just resting on the edge of the desk in your bedroom. He thrust his hips roughly, hungrily devouring your mouth while the head of his cock relentlessly pounded into your cervix.

“Dean!” you moaned, throwing your head back. A thin veil of sweat made your bodies glide against each other with a unique kind of friction. You dug your fingers into the back of his shoulder, bringing your head back and your forehead meeting with his. You could hear his heartbeat increasing and feel the energy from the waves of pleasure that were coursing through him.

“You’re close,” you mewled, biting your bottom lip as you clenched your thighs tighter around him.

“Says you,” he chuckled darkly, “You’re so fucking hot, Baby. Play with your clit, throw yourself over the edge.”

“Is that an order?” you smirked, raising your eyebrow, “You want me to play with myself?”

“I fucking love watching you get yourself off,” he hissed through gritted teeth, rolling his hips into you.

“Okay,” you gasp a small laugh, “I’ll ‘play’ with myself.”

Your eyes flashed that familiar vibrant blue as your powers kicked in. Dean faltered slightly at the sight before realising that his hand was moving of seemingly its own will. A faint blue aura surrounded it, as his fingers trailed down your body and he could feel your soft, hot skin on his fingertips. His hand snaked down to your mound, until finding the small nub of swollen nerve endings. He pressed it, stroked circles on it, flicked his fingertip across it.

His jaw hung slightly open as you chuckled, bucking your hips forward and groaning with pleasure. You were genuinely using him...to play with yourself, prompting a lustful growl to rumble in Dean throat.

He suddenly felt his hips thrust, again out of his control, a choked moan of surprise bursting from him. They thrust again, and again, each with an increasingly fast pace.

“Y/N, fuck!!” he groaned, feeling your walls flutter and clench around him. He could feel everything building, all the pressure and tension, ripples pleasure bubbling over into an endless cacophony of tidal waves.

“That was a good night wasn’t it?” you hear Dean’s voice behind you.

“Dean!?” you shriek, turning too swiftly on your heels and nearly stumbling. The memory that was playing out suddenly melted away into small gusts of smoke, leaving an empty replica of Dean and your’s bedroom in its wake, “I-is it really you?”

“Got the dream root,” he nods, “Just like you said.”

“Holy shit…” a huge broad, smile spreads across your face before you throw yourself at him. He thankfully catches you, holding you while you swing your arms around his shoulders. Your heart swelled so big at the sight of him, it was painful. You could feel your face scrunching up as your eyes burned suddenly. Your bury your face into his chest, losing the fight against your sobs, “I’m sorry Baby, I’m so fucking sorry.”

“Hey, hey,” he says softly, holding you tightly to him, resting a hand on the back of your head, “It’s okay, don’t worry. I’m here.”

°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。

“So yeah…” you sigh, walking back down the corridor of Harper’s house with Dean. It seemed to have got even bigger. Ridiculously. The thing stretched out before you so far you didn’t see an actual end to it, “I finished the spell in the car after we talked about it...It just hit me that I could possibly finish it. Thought it may have helped with...well...everything. An escape so shit’s easier to cope with.”

“I’m just thankful it works and you haven’t accidentally burnt your brain out or something,” Dean shakes his head. He stands on his toes briefly, like he was trying to get a better look down this endless corridor, “It’s still fricking weird though.”

“You’re telling me,” you giggle, “It’s only gonna get weirder no doubt. Other me is no doubt gonna be an absolute fucking treasure…”

“So…that’s what we’re doing?” Dean asks for clarification, “You’re going to go find and...talk to yourself?”

“I guess you could say that,” you shrug, huffing a small laugh as you drag your heels along the floor, “If they’re really me...we should be able to talk it out. Get all the feels on the table. If I’m stuck like this, gotta find a way to move on and live with it, right?”

“Most people would write in a diary or something,” Dean retorts, narrowing his eyes and smirking.

You giggle, shaking your head, “Well, the main reason I cast the spell was pretty much to knock me the fuck out,” you explain, a small sigh passing your lips, “Might as well try and sort myself out while I’m here. Kill two birds with one stone.”

Dean nods, his hands in his pocket as you both continue to walk. You didn’t know where you going, or if it was even possible to find the “Demonic you” in this place you’d created. Something was leading you though, you weren't sure if it was instincts or something luring you, but you found your legs still moving, the heels of your boots monotonously clicking on the polished wood floor.

“I...I think we’re close,” you mumble, the pace in your step quickening as you strode ahead.

“Y/N,” Dean called after you, grabbing your hand to hold you back and stay close, “Look, I-I’m sorry you’re going through all this.”

“What?” you stop and turn back to him with a furrowed brow, “It’s not like it’s your fault. If anything I’m sorry for burdening you guys with my shit again.”

“No,” Dean clenches his jaw while briefly shaking his head, “I should have known the Bar CCTV was a fucking setup. If we hadn’t have gone in there, they wouldn’t have…” His words trail off, and you squeeze his hand.

“Dean,” you say seriously, “You can’t shoulder the blame for everything. Harper’s potion has been slowly fucking with me all this time, so no doubt this day was coming. Jenny’s new concoction just...sped it up I guess.”

You move closer to him, leaning in to him and resting your head on his chest. Your eyes begin to burn as you actually take a moment to reflect on it all. It was only a few short weeks ago that things were feeling good. Everyone was moving on, you and Dean together again and a vague sense of your own special brand of normality was setting back into place. If you’d have thought that a news story about an office building bursting into blue flames would lead to all this…

Damn, your stomach churns as you realise deep down you never would have been able to let it go.

Dean holds you around your waist, pulling you tight to him, resting his head on yours and breathing deeply against your hair. You both linger, holding each other in silence.

“When’s the last time we actually had a moment alone like this?” Dean eventually speaks, looking down at you and planting a small soft kiss on your forehead, “Feels like a lifetime ago.”

“You’re telling me,” you chuckle in agreement, holding him impossibly tighter, “I miss it…”

“I miss it too,” Dean mumbles. He holds his index finger up to your chin, raising your head to meet his eyes, “Just being us...no bullshit hanging or looming in the air above us.”

“Has there ever been a time like that?” you quip, nudging him with your elbow playfully, “You know, I’ve made it so when I’m here I’m just...me. No freaky shit powers or angel radio...I actually feel normal, disregarding the fact I’m using a spell to keep me locked up inside my own head.”

You shake your head with a bewildered laugh, looking up at Dean. His eyes look pained as they glance back down at you. “But…” you force yourself to continue, your heart breaking under his eyes, “It also doesn’t feel right…”

“I don’t think anything about this situation is necessarily right,” he jokes, picking up on your heartache and defaulting to quips to lighten the mood.

You do laugh lightly, your fingers bunching in to the back of his shirt while you try and bite back a sob, “I mean…” you choke slightly, ignoring the tingle in your eyes, “Y-you never even knew me when I was just some normal girl. I’d been on that potion for a long ass time before you and Sam came to the coven. For a fucking large chunk of my life I’ve been...deep down, a monster.”

“Y/N, stop it,” Dean states sternly, his fingers now digging in to your sides as held you, “Don’t say that.”

“It’s true though,” you shrug, a couple of tears breaking through, “It wasn’t always to this extent but...I-I like my power. Even after you and Sam made me promise to abandon them, I went back. Then we tried again and...look where we are now. I always come back to them, because they’re a part of me.”

“Y/N…” Dean shakes his head, “They may be a part of you, but that’s all they are. A part. They don’t make up who you are. A sweet, funny, freaking batshit, badass hunter. Someone who wants to do good, save people, looks after her family…”

“Oh yeah,” you cut him off with a sarcastic retort, “By bringing all new levels of hell and misery into their lives.”

“Um, correct me if I’m wrong,” Dean raises an eyebrow, tilting his head as he spoke matter-of-factly, “You said I can’t ‘shoulder the blame for everything’. So sounds to me like you need to listen to your own advice.”

Your slump in defeat, a smirk playing on your lips, “You’re unbelievable,” you huff, “But thank you...you’re being all sweet and I far from deserve it.”

“Y/N-” Dean starts to argue but is cut off by a loud crashing sound further down the corridor.

“Oh please! You both make me sick!” a twisted version of your voice echoes.

“Wonderful…” you sigh, pulling back from Dean and inhaling sharply. You roll your shoulders, before turning to Dean and nodding, “I’m doing this.”

“Not alone you’re not,” he grabs your hand, standing beside you.

“You sure about that?” you ask hesitantly, “I don’t know what the fuck is going to happen. It could all turn sour super fast. Probably safer for you to get out here incase I implode my own brain or something.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” he answers stubbornly, “You’re not doing any more of this alone.”

You sigh shakily, nodding slowly before the two of you start to walk together.

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@adoptdontshoppets Make Amends Squad @rosethesupernaturalhunter @shayla-markele @justballoonfishthings @iamcraving @disneychic8 @earthtokace @drakelover78 @cookiechipdough

Taakitz Week Day 1: Fashion Disasters

Okay so I finished this in three hours without proofreading At All, so please excuse the mistakes! I’ve also never done something like this and this is pretty much my second ever finished fic so I hope it’s okay! it doesn’t exactly fit the prompt but here’s my submission for @taakitzweek !!! feedback is Always Appreciated!

     Kravitz reached up to smooth down his braids as the rift closed up behind him. He’d just finished up his day in the ethereal plane, and he had previously made plans with Taako to go on a date. They’d gone to the Chug n’ Squeeze before, though he had only recently begun to consider that a first date. He still felt somewhat bad for leaving so suddenly, but Taako had insisted that it was okay, and he believed him.

     Their second date had been at a location of Kravitz’ choice, much to his initial panic. Where did people go on dates, now? He couldn’t exactly replicate their previous date, and it was hard to pick a place that seemed enjoyable to Taako. Dating had still been called courting when Kravitz was still alive, for Queen’s sake, and dates hardly existed at all. You exchanged letters and then you were married, and that was mostly it.

     He approached Taako with his dilemma, and was met with a declaration that “Any place ‘s fine, as long as you show up, homie.” That was nice enough, but it didn’t really help him.

     Eventually, after much, much deliberation, Kravitz decided to bring Taako to see an orchestra. Their first date had been somewhere that revealed a part of Taako’s personality, so it seemed well enough that their second would do the same for Kravitz’.

     They had gone out to a relatively upscale restaurant afterwards, and Taako seemed to be enjoying himself. It was enough for him to agree to a third date, which Kravitz considered a success.

     All of that had led him here, standing in the common room of the reclaimers’ dorm. Most of the lights were shut off, and it seemed to be vacant. He was glad that he hadn’t accidentally transported himself into the same room as Merle or Magnus. Taako hadn’t mentioned anything about telling his coworkers about their relationship, and that was fine by him.

     It was a little worrying, however, that Taako wasn’t anywhere to be found either. He was usually sitting on the couch by now, waiting for Kravitz to arrive. Maybe he was just running a little late getting ready, and was still in his room.

     Another five minutes passed without an appearance, and then another ten. Kravitz quickly checked his pocket watch to confirm that this was indeed the right time and, yes, it seemed to be. Maybe he would just let Taako know that he was here, in case he had lost track of time.

     Taako’s door was shut, but Kravitz could faintly hear noise coming from inside. He knocked softly and waited.

     The door swung open to reveal Taako, looking distinctly not ready.

     “Oh, shit! Sorry, handsome. Forgot we were doing that whole date thing tonight.” His face was covered in some sort of green face mask, and his hair was pulled up in a very messy bun. He was wearing very fuzzy knee-high leopard print socks, and a seemingly just as fuzzy pair of pink shorts. His oversized t-shirt was cut crudely into a crop top and had the words “If you don’t like raw aggression you shouldn’t be working at Fantasy Build-A-Bear” printed in eye-searing pink font. The entire look was disastrous, but it didn’t seem to hinder Taako in the slightest. There was very little he couldn’t pull off, anyway.

     “Oh, um, that’s quite alright. We can reschedule, if you’d like?” Kravitz was admittedly just a tiny bit hurt that Taako had forgotten about their plans, but he knew better than anyone that time was hard to keep track of. It slipped past at alarming speeds when he was working in the astral plane.

     “Nah, don’t even worry about it, dude. You can come hang in here.” He stepped back to let Kravitz in and swept his arm to the side in a showy gesture.

     “That sounds nice. You’re sure that’s okay?” Kravitz hesitated slightly in the doorway before making his way inside.

     “Mi casa, su casa, and all that. I should warn you, though. I got stuck with the baby detective tonight. Dunno if that’s chill with you.”

     “That’s okay,” Kravitz paused for a moment. “Have you told him about us?”

     “What? Aw hells no. Kid’s like, two. He probably doesn’t even know what dating is,” Taako scoffs. “He’ll probably snoop around until he figures it out anyway. It doesn’t matter if I tell him.”

     Someone else spoke before Kravitz could reply. “Sir? Are you talking to someone?” The voice belonged to none other than the world’s greatest detective himself, Angus McDonald.

     Angus was wearing a near-identical face mask, though this one was a deep blue instead of mint green. His typical fancy-boy clothes had been ditched in favor of a much too large t-shirt with “Pan Camp” written across the front. (It was most definitely stolen from Merle.) The green shirt was tied in the front with a purple scrunchie in an effort to keep it from reaching his knees. His long pajama pants were patterned with paw prints. (Taako stole them from Magnus a long time ago, and had cast Reduce on them so they’d fit Angus.)

     Angus noticed Kravitz immediately. “Oh! Hello, sir. I’m Angus McDonald. What’s your name?” He stuck out a small hand for him to shake.

     Kravitz hesitantly shook Angus’s hand. He opened his mouth to introduce himself, but was once again interrupted. This time, by Taako.

     “This is my buddy Krav. He’s gonna come chill with us tonight. You needin’ something, Agnes?”

     Angus remembered his original reason for seeking out Taako quickly enough. “Oh, well, the movie ended, but I realized you had left, so I went to go find you. Then I found you here. I can go put on another movie, if you want me to.”

     “Yeah, go knock yourself out,” Taako waved Angus off, but followed him into the living room anyway. “Just none of that detective shit. We’ve been watching that all night.”

     Angus frowned, but quickly recovered. “What if-”

     “Nope, nuh uh. If you’re gonna start tryna make deals you can go spend the night with Garfield. My room, my rules, boychik.”

     He reluctantly accepted Taako’s terms and turned on a fantasy Disney movie instead.

     “You want a face mask, Ghost Rider? We got a gold one with a bunch of glitter and shit,” Taako turned to rummage through a pile of products on the table. “Whatcha thinking, Django? The gold one?”

     Angus considered it for a moment. “Maybe the blue one? It isn’t as flashy, though the gold would look nice with his skin tone.”

     “Right? That’s what I’ve been sayin’ this whole time!” Taako gave a victorious shout as he finally retrieved a small tube from the clutter. “Here we go!” He turned to Kravitz when something seemed to click in his head.

     “I totally forgot you’re in your fuckin’... three piece get-up. Come on, I’ll find you some clothes. Gettin face goop off of designer shit ain’t fun, lemme tell ya.” Taako set the small tube back down on the table and led the way out of the room.

     His room was less of a mess than Kravitz expected. Granted, it was still littered with various arcane artifacts and strange knick-knacks, but there was obviously a method to his madness. Taako marched up to a dresser shoved in the corner and pulled open one of the drawers.

     After shoving some clothes aside he finally emerged with a large black sweatshirt and long pajama pants. “Here ya go. I don’t really remember where I got these, but they should fit you. Bathroom is down the hall to the left.”

     Kravitz had followed Taako’s instructions and changed his clothes, folding his suit carefully and setting it on the sink countertop. His current outfit was, well, strange. The sweatshirt was comfortable enough, certainly much more so than his previous clothes. It said “I brake for binicorns!” on the front, though that was pretty easy to disregard. The pajama pants were lilac, and felt like fleece.

     He had expected worse, in all honesty. It was more color than he usually wore, but it wasn’t that bad.

     Kravitz exited the bathroom and made his way down the hall. There were hardly any pictures hung up anywhere. Compared to Taako’s bedroom, the rest of his dorm seemed to pale in comparison. The walls were much more plain, here.

     Taako whistled as Kravitz emerged into the living room. “Lookin’ good, Bone Boy! I shoulda got some color on you sooner!”

     Kravitz was grateful in that moment that he would actually need blood for it to be able to rush to his face. He accepted the compliment nevertheless, albeit awkwardly. “Um, thank you. I think.”

     The remainder of the night passed in a blur. Every time a movie would end Taako would put on a new one, trying to get Angus to fall asleep. This was somewhat hindered by the large bowl of chocolate-covered popcorn the little detective kept reaching for. Kravitz could see that Taako worked hard to maintain his offput attitude, even though he genuinely did care for the boy.

     Kravitz decided it was time to make his exit as Taako started to have to fight back his yawns. His ears were drooping slightly, and his words were beginning to slur a little more than usual. He continued to insist he was fine, but his consciousness was clearly fading.

     Kravitz tucked the large blanket shoved in the corner of the couch around Taako and Angus, who had fallen asleep slumped against the elf’s side. With one more fond smile over his shoulder, he manifested his scythe and cut a rift. The quiet hum of the portal filled the room as he stepped through, and he was off.

 Taako woke up several hours later with a cramp in his neck and a smirking boy detective sitting next to him.

   Angus was practically grinning now, and there was a mischievous glint in his eye. “I really liked your boyfriend, sir!”

“Oh, damn it, kid!”

Downpour

i’m not even really sure what this is besides ladrien trash lol. i guess i was just drabbling and it spun out of control so now i dunno what i wrote so uh, i’m just gonna toss it into the void lmao

AO3

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

“I knew it was supposed to rain-” Adrien quickly popped open his umbrella and hung it over Ladybug’s head. “But I didn’t think it was gonna get this bad. Sorry about that.”

“It’s okay, you don’t control the weather. As far as I know, anyway.” Ladybug chuckled, admiring the way rain dripped against her hand. “Besides, I...kinda like it.”

“It is pretty nice.” Adrien wrapped an arm around her waist. “I’ve always liked the way the river looks when it rains. It’s really...comforting.”

“Yeah.” Ladybug warmly smiled, glancing briefly out at the Seine and then up at him.

Her arm hooked around his and held him tight, more enamored by the way his face seemed to glow despite the dark, night sky and the darker storm clouds hanging above them.

Adrien kept his eyes on her, too, his heart started to feel lighter in his chest the longer he matched her loving gaze.

“I’m still glad we came out tonight. Even with the rain.”

“Me too.”

For a silent moment, the two considered staying where they were for the rest of the night. Warmly sharing each other’s company, and body heat, while cold rain dripped and splashed around them.

Such affectionate thoughts, however, were brought to an end with a loud crack of thunder.

“Er.” Adrien shook his head some. “We should...probably start heading back, soon. I don’t think either of us can really afford to catch a cold.”

“I don’t know.” A dim reflection of a lightning strike shined in Ladybug’s eyes. “It’d be fun, just taking care of each other for a few days.”

“You don’t have to get sick for me to do that.” Adrien warmly snickered. “Just gotta ask.”

“Okay.” Ladybug cuddled up to his side. “How about we make some chicken noodle soup when we get back, then? Y’know, just in case we do get sick.”

“Sounds good to me.” Adrien slipped his arm from her body and took her hand in his. “So long as you’re ready for the best chicken noodle soup you’ll ever have.”

“We’ll see about that.” Ladybug tightly held on to him while they started their walk back to his house.

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

“Jeez.” Adrien quickly shut the door behind him. “I didn’t think it’d get worse.”

“Guess I’m spending the night, huh?” Ladybug gave a wide smile.

“Guess you are.” Adrien happily agreed with a hug and tried to lay on the charm. “It’s always an honor to have you in my bed.”

“Phrasing, Agreste.” Ladybug snickered. “Unless we’re saving that soup for later.”

“Yeah, no, we, um, we’re still...” Adrien resigned to the crimson red on his face. “We’ll get that going once we get warm.”

“There you go.” Ladybug snuggled up close.

They stood at the entryway for a few minutes, simply holding one another and smiling through their embrace, gradually rubbing and squeezing on each other as a means to try and raise the temperature. Try as they might, however, the rainwater didn’t seem like it wanted to dry off.

“Um, actually,” Adrien rubbed the back of his neck, knowing in advance just how bad what he was going to say was going to sound. “You should...probably get out of that suit.”

“My, Adrien, how bold of you.” Ladybug teased. “Was this your plan all along?”

“No, I didn’t mean it like,” Adrien stammered. “You’re just...wet. Not in that way, I don’t think, I mean, I’m wet, too, but-”

“I know what you meant.” Ladybug shushed his flustered nerves with a light giggle. “I just wanted to see you blush a little more.”

“Of course you did.” Adrien took a soft, relieved breath. “So, um, do you want any clothes to change into?”

“It’s probably better than walking around in wet underwear. From the rain, they’d be wet from the rain, since my suit got soaked and they might be wet, but...” Ladybug intentionally trailed her thought off.

“Phrasing,” Adrien couldn’t help but smirk. “Bugaboo.”

“Let’s just...get to your room before it gets any worse, yeah?”

“Yeah.” He nodded.

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

“So,” Adrien rummaged through his closet. “Anything in particular you wanna wear? I’ve got all sorts of stuff in here. Haven’t cleaned it out in ages.”

“Got any really big shirts?” Ladybug leaned around him to better look at her options. “Like, an extra extra large t-shirt or something.”

“Hm…” Adrien tossed a few garments out until he seemed to stumble across something that fit her description. “How about this?”

He swiftly pulled a pink tinted shirt off the rack and held it up for her to see, though his eyes went a bit wide once he realized what was printed on the front of the shirt.

“I heart LB.” Ladybug read it aloud with a grin, snickering at the way the heart was colored red with black polka dots. “Isn’t that a tourist shirt?”

“Yeah, I, um…I just really liked the design.” He blushed. “And this was the last one they had in stock, so.”

“I bet it looks cute on you.” She cupped the side of his face and took the hanger from him.

“Not as cute as it’ll look on you.” Adrien smiled. “Er, um, right, pants. You’ll need pants.”

“Any sweatpants in there?” Ladybug asked after he ducked back into the closet.

“Uh…” Adrien thumbed through a few different racks. “I think they might be in the wash.”

“A closet that big,” Ladybug scoffed. “And you don’t have any sweatpants?”

“Hey, it’s been really hot out.” Adrien double checked a few hangers. “They probably got put somewhere else. Or in storage.”

“Alright, well” Ladybug held her chin. “What else do you got?”

“Hm, a bunch of the same pair of jeans, some really beat up basketball shorts-”

“Why do you have so many of the same jeans, anyway?”

“They’re part of an outfit. The outfit. Speaking of, you should see how many of the same shirt I have in here.”

“I can only imagine.”

“Anyway, uh, looks like the only other things are-” He stuck his head out with a notable tinge of red on his cheeks. “Some...boxers.”

“Oh.”

“Freshly washed,” Adrien held up two pairs with a nervous smile, one black with a dark green trim and the other white with a brighter green trim. “If that helps.”

“Uh.” Ladybug had a slight blush of her own at the mere sight of his underwear. “The, um, the black pair seems a little more poofy, so I’ll take those.”

“Alright.” Adrien handed them over and shut the closet door. “You should be all set.”

“Wait.” Ladybug somewhat anxiously bit at the corner of her lower lip. “I know this is gonna sound silly, but...do you have any masks?”

“Actually,” Adrien rubbed the back of his neck and scrunched his face some. “There’s this costume party thing coming up, and...”

“And?”

“And...maybe I’m going in a Ladybug costume.”

“Again?” Ladybug giggled. “Haven’t you gone as me for most of these types of parties now? I know you’ve been doing it for the last like, five years, at least.”

“It’s a good look.” Adrien smirked.

“That’s fair.” Ladybug agreed. “You do look really good in red.”

“Exactly.” Adrien stepped towards the bathroom door with some replacement clothes of his own. “Just, gimme a sec to go grab the mask and change, I’ll be right back with the mask.”

“Take your time.” Ladybug smiled, snickering at him waving before he disappeared into his bedroom.

With a soft, loving sigh, she turned around and laid out the clothing they’d picked out on the counter. It wasn’t quite an outfit, or at least, not a very good one, but it was so very Adrien that she wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d worn such a combination in his spare time. The slightly worn nature of the shirt told her that much.

“Alright. Tikki,” She exhaled. “Spots off.”

A warm, pink glow illuminated the room for just an instant.

“Aw, don’t give me that look.” Marinette plead innocence to her Kwami. “It was...storming, like, really badly.”

“I understand,” Tikki gave her a caring, yet mildly concerned look. “But you’re making a habit out of this, Marinette.”

“I know.” Marinette’s head dipped down. “I just…”

Her sentence wasn’t allowed time to finish, as the sounds of footsteps rapidly approaching interrupted her thought.

“Hide!” She whispered and watched the Kwami zip around the shower wall in the nick of time.

There was a moment before he came back that she thought about greeting him like this, with no suit, mask, or any clothes at all, really. Sure, revealing herself to him in her underwear probably wasn’t the best way it could go, but the temptation was there. What better way to reveal your secret identity, right?

Whatever deliberations she had, though, faded away with the sound of the door creaking a little further open.

“I think you’re really gonna like this mask, it’s...” Adrien fell silent after taking little more than a step back into the room, awestruck at the sight of her back.

“Oh, er-” He realized he was staring by the time his eyes reached the straps around her shoulders and quickly covered his eyes. “Sorry, I’m sorry! I didn’t see anything! I should have knocked!”

“It,” Ladybug let out a contemplative breath and dipped her head forward, throwing away the brief thought of letting him see her as she was. “It’s okay, just...give me a minute.”

“Yeah, yeah, um,” Adrien blindly tried to hand her the mask. “Here. It should, uh, fit you pretty well. One size fits all and all that.”

“Thank you.” Ladybug cooed, wrapping the string around her head and adjusting the mask. “You can open your eyes, by the way.”

“Are you sure, you’re down to your underwear. It’s nothing I haven’t seen before, but,” Adrien took a breath to keep whatever composure he still had. “Just. Okay.”

Slowly, he pried his fingers away from his face and was greeted by the exact sight he’d expected. Knowing what was coming, what was standing in front of him, however, didn’t stop him from blushing wildly.

“Wow.” Adrien picked his jaw up off the floor and shook his head, tying his best not to stare at her undergarments. 

“Back at you.” Ladybug smirked, seeing that he was wearing little more than a fluffy white bathrobe. “I always did love that thing.”

“Yeah,” Adrien smiled back. “That might be why I grabbed it.”

“Anyway, I, uh,” He inched forward and dipped his head to hers. “I guess I should give you the room and go get that soup started, huh?”

“Yeah,” Ladybug gently grabbed at his robe and briefly slipped into a kiss, the scent and taste of rain strong on her lips. “I guess you should.”

“Don’t take too long.” Adrien teased.

“Mhm.” Ladybug warmly sighed through her nose. “I’ll be right out.”

Beyond the Sea - C14!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/13837683/chapters/32699928

Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four | Part Five | Part Six | Part Seven| Part Eight | Part Nine | Part Ten | Part Eleven | Part Twelve | Part Thirteen

Thank you fireflyquill, Lady and Anons that sponsored this chapter! <3

“Can you turn the page darlin’,” Jesse called over to his best friend who was currently trying to wrangle a bunch of seaweed. The book was popped up on the counter next to him and Hanzo reached over to flick the page without really looking. “Thanks!”

Jesse wriggle deeper into his little sand nest and propped his head in his hand to read. He had missed getting to explore other worlds between the lines of crisp print. The story was vaguely familiar and it was much the same as the novels beneath the waves.

A forbidden love that drove two people apart; a man of the sky that fell in love with a creature of the sea.

Jesse ruminated on the words, moving slowly through the page. He kept half his attention on Hanzo. The hunter was trying to do something fishy with the seaweed and three black pearls on his magical worktable.

“You sure you don’t wanna tell me what you’re doing?” He called lazily without lifting his gaze.

“It is best left unspoken,” Hanzo grumbled. The little vein in his forehead was twitching as he hunched over his work.

Jesse hummed softly in response. “If you are going to be usin’ spells and magics now, could you shrink down a few of my books? Then i could turn the pages myself.”

Hanzo turned with a glare and Jesse shrunk down into the nest of sand. Before his heart could jump into a frantic pace, Hanzo’s face softened and he laughed with a shake of his head. “I am sorry, Jesse. Perhaps you are right and I need to take a break.”

“Y-yeah.” Jesse waved his tail hopefully,

“And as a shrinking spell eludes me; would you allow me to read to you instead?” Hanzo swiveled in his chair and leaned down to cross his arms on the tabletop. He settled his chin on them and Jesse smiled as it brought him to eye-level.

“Nothing better than gettin’ to hear your pretty voice.” Jesse waggled his eyebrows and flashed a toothy grin. It made a pink tinge rise to the hunter’s cheeks. “Don’t guess i could ask for storytime in the tub?”

“It has been a while since we had a bath.” Hanzo rested his forehead on his arms with a soft laugh. Heat spiked through his veins at Jesse’s simple request. It was different this time, now that he knew Jesse was sentient.

He reached into the tank and teasingly poked at Jesse’s shoulder. “I suppose you also wish for me to get a ring for you to jump through and balls to knock around.”

“Could you?” Jesse’s eyes lit up and his smile nudged his cheeks high. “I used to whip and weave through coral and dodge sharks and wrangle sea dragons. Doing something more than swimming would make it feel a bit like home.”

Hanzo rested his head in one hand, nodding to his companion. It made sense. If he could not train and use his full body, he would feel restless to. “Perhaps a quick trip to the store is necessary before we relax in a bath.”

“I would love ya even more darlin’,” Jesse’s warm voice shot straight to his heart and he squeezed his eyes shut for a moment.

“Then we shall go.”

“How?”

Hanzo glanced to an empty jar. It would fit in his messenger bag. Jesse would fit even if it was a little tight and Hanzo leaned back in his chair. It would work.

The store was nearly empty on the early thursday morning. The few other customers drifted aimlessly or shuffled along in fuzzy slippers, paid them no mind. Hanzo kept his face blank and impassive as they maneuvered through the petstore. There were plenty of interesting plastic and rubber toys in the dog section that would float.

“What about this one?” Hanzo subtly tilted his messenger bag so Jesse could see the wall of merchandise better. It was a knobbly rubber dog toy that had a hole inside it for peanut butter or other treats. “Perhaps put fish in the hole.”

Jesse squinted at it, his human half hauled up to stick out of the mostly empty jar. “Is that really a dog toy?”

“Yes?” A quick look to the left and the right proved them to be alone. He lifted the jar and jesse free of his bag and held him closer to the red toy.

“Hmm, looks like it’d fit a dick more than some of that peanut butter stuff.”

Hanzo nearly dropped the jar with a splutter. Choked laughter stuck in his throat and he coughed around it. “It does… in a way appear to be a … sleeve of sorts.”

“You humans got some interesting ideas.” Jesse reached out to touch it with a suspicious look. “But i figure it might be fun to swim through and wrestle given half the chance. I like the look of that one too.”

Hanzo moved down the aisle and lifted Jesse to inspect to his heart’s content. The shopping basket slowly filled up with enrichment toys from both the dog, fish and cat section. Jesse was nearly giddy over the small plastic fishing pole with a brightly colored fish at the end. It was nothing like a real fish but he was chomping at the bit.

“Will you look at that,” Jesse whistled after the words.

Hanzo found himself directed over to a display of brightly colored tubes. They were assembled into an intricate run for hamsters or mice ending on each side in a wide cages.

“I wonder if they are watertight.” Hanzo mused as he approached the boxed version of the display. He taped on the transparent plastic with a fingernail. It was strong and study and with a bit of magic, it might be possible to turn it to a different use.

“I could swim anywhere in the house, or at least around.”

“Perhaps we can even set up tanks along the way for you to rest in. You could explore and swim to your heart’s content during the day. Maybe we could even connect it to the koi ponds.” Hanzo couldn’t contain his grin.

It took most of the morning and afternoon to get set up and Jesse waited eagerly in his main tank. He wriggled in the water, chasing the long fins of his tail as Hanzo went up and down a ladder. Sweat made his shirt cling to his back and Jesse did his best not to fixate on the strong muscles it showed off.

The jeans hung low and a very interesting band of fabric peaked over. He had always thought underwear were a bit strange. There was no need to cover his hips or waist in this form, at least as long as he kept himself under control. He breathed slowly, focusing on the fluttering of his gills and the expanse of his water lungs.

Jesse chewed on his thoughts and a chunk of catfish as Hanzo wiped his sweating brow. It was a shame that he was too small to act on the fantasties trying to break through his guard. It would be harder to hide the heat burning just under his skin when they were in the bath together. If they managed to get to it before the day was over.

It was dark outside when the tubes had been set up all over the house. Water was slowly poured into them from the second floor, all the while adjusting containment spells on the different tanks and resting areas so it didn’t all rush out.

Jesse tested out the first section.

The tubes were big enough for him to fit comfortably and he gave his tail an experimental undulation. He rose quickly along the transparent colorful pipe until he could look down at Hanzo. He waved excitedly and bobbed against the side.

The hunter’s grin was bright enough to light up the room. He pointed along the tube to the stairs and Jesse was quick to follow his lead. He darted along the tubes and wriggled around the ninety degree turn and started to climb. It was dizzying and wonderful. The illusion of depth brought a part of his instincts roaring back to life.

He chased Hanzo up the stairs and whipped around the corner to follow him into his bedroom. Hanzo’s laugh was muffled through the water but still beautiful. There was a tank on his bedside table still. It was connect now and Jesse dove down into it with a cheer. He tumbled among the leafy greens and swirled to face up.

He beached himself on the warm sand and rocks with a holler of pure joy.

--

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Extra Credit: Part 4 (Shalaska) - Rosie

Extra Credit Chapter 4 (Shalaska) – Rosie

A/N: This is most likely the last fic I’ll post before 2017 ends, and I just want to thank you all for an incredible year. I never anticipated to end up holding drag queen fanfiction so close to my heart, but here we are. Thank you to every single person who’s read my stuff, liked it, reblogged it, commented on it, popped up in my inbox with love and praise, asked me about the world’s I’ve created, checked in to see how I’m going and progressing, sent me one of the (literal) hundreds of head canons I’ve received – just thank you for everything. Thank you all for supporting me and loving my work during this weird pocket of time in my life.

Story Summary: University professor Sharon Needles hooks up with a slamming hot blonde at a bar who may or may not be one of her students.

Chapter Summary: It’s dinner (date) time! Alaska comes over to Sharon’s apartment for dinner.

Catch Up on Extra Credit: One, Two, Three

Alaska gave herself one last look in the Uber’s sun visor mirror just as the car came to a stop, relief flooding her as she confirmed her makeup looked just as flawless as it did when she left her dorm 20 minutes earlier.

She flipped the sun visor back up before paying the driver with cash Sharon had slipped into her palm earlier in the day.

“For your ride,” Sharon had clarified when Alaska had looked at the bill in confusion, the two of them smirking at the thought of exchanging money for Alaska’s ‘office visits’.

“Oh, I can pay, it isn’t much,” Alaska had offered, trying to return the money.

“No, you’re a student, save your money,” Sharon had said softly, rubbing Alaska’s hips from where she sat in her expensive leather chair. “I wanna pay.”

Alaska had smiled and slipped the cash into her pocket, more than happy to accept Sharon’s offering.

The whole ride Alaska had fiddled with the yellow Post It note Sharon had written her address on. Alaska loved their pen and paper way of communication. She had scrawled her number on a Post It a few weeks ago, and now she had her own little memo written from Sharon. Her eyes followed the cursive, loopy font of Sharon’s personal handwriting.

It was stupid, but it made Alaska feel like they were trading love notes. It felt traditional, nostalgic and special. She slipped it into her flat clutch, making sure it didn’t crease as it laid next to her other precious items, like her favourite lipstick, cards and phone.

Thanking the driver and stepping out of the car, Alaska shut the door before smoothing out her dress. It was navy blue with small pale pink flowers scattered throughout its print. The blouse like style, with its delicate button detailing and cap sleeves, complimented her curvy chest, while the skirt was short and fluid. The defining reason why Alaska chose it though was because of its huge zipper at the back, making it effortlessly easily to slip off.

She looked up at the boutique apartment block towering above her, double checking that the sleek, silver digits reading ‘56’ on the front and the street’s name corresponded with her Post It. Walking up to the front door, Alaska’s index finger hovered over the series of apartment block buzzers before she found Sharon’s, her eyes widening as she realised her professor lived in the penthouse apartment.    

She pressed the top button before hearing a buzz, and soon after the front door unlocked, Sharon letting her in from upstairs. As Alaska walked through the small but stylish lobby and entered the lift, she strained to remember her surroundings from her first night here with Sharon.

But as she stared at the nondescript grey wallpaper and forest green carpet, it came as no surprise that her only recollection of this elevator was the taste of Sharon’s lips on hers and the feeling of her professor’s hand squeezing her ass as they rose to the top floor that first night.

The brisk ding of the lift and its sliding doors pulled Alaska out of her daydream. She gave herself one last look in the mirrored walls and adjusted her bra before scampering out of the lift, its doors wanting to impatiently close.

Alaska knocked on Sharon’s front door and fiddled with her clutch as she waited. Even though she had spread her naked self out all over Sharon’s desk hours earlier, a thrill still ran through her as she thought about their dinner date.

Sharon opened the door, and she felt just as nervously excited as Alaska did.

“Hi,” Sharon said, her eyes crinkling slightly as she smiled at Alaska, taking in the sight of her.

“Hi,” Alaska replied, a little breathlessly. The reality that she was here, in her professor’s apartment, about to have a date, was finally setting it.

“Come in,” Sharon gestured, stepping back and letting Alaska in before she closed the door. “Feel free to take your shoes off too.”

Alaska thanked her before walking in and stepping out of her heels, leaving them next to a pair of Sharon’s near the door. Sharon fidgeted with her fingers and Alaska realised she was probably nervous herself, the thought sending a buzz through the younger girl.

Alaska looked up from her discarded shoes and locked eyes with Sharon. With the door closed and Alaska finally standing in her apartment foyer, the nerves seemed to roll off Sharon’s body as her shoulders relaxed. She stepped forwards, lightly capturing Alaska’s face in her hands before she kissed her. Alaska’s eyelids fluttered closed, a soft moan drawing out as Sharon dipped her tongue between her parted lips.

Alaska’s hands instantly moved to Sharon’s waist, holding her close and feeling the way her ribs expanded as she inhaled deeply, breathing in everything that was Alaska.

Unlike their hurried, hot encounters in Sharon’s office, this embrace was slower, more passionate, with the both of them completely comfortable, yet more vulnerable.

Sharon pulled away ever so sightly, her nose accidentally brushing against Alaska’s. They both smiled at the action, so Sharon repeated it, lightly brushing her nose against Alaska’s and smiling as the other girl giggled at the Eskimo kisses.

“I’m so happy you’re here,” Sharon said softly as the two of them stood in each other’s arms.

“Me too,” Alaska said before kissing Sharon’s neck.

“I’ll show you around,” Sharon offered, intertwining her fingers with Alaska’s right hand.

Alaska looked around and took in the sight of Sharon’s apartment. Floor to ceilings windows, which were framed by modern black steel, ran across one entire wall, while sleek hardwood floors seeped into every room.

Minimalistic pieces of art in gold, silver and black frames hung on the white walls above furniture which came in a mix of materials, from the soft arm chair to the worn in leather couch. The penthouse apartment took advantage of its lack of upstairs neighbours, so the ceilings were high, with light boxes opening some rooms into the star above.

The first night Alaska had entered Sharon’s apartment, the two had stumbled through the dark to the bedroom, powered by lust, alcohol and excitement. It was not surprising that Alaska had paid more attention to Sharon’s naked body than the style of her apartment.

It in morning, it was a similar rush. But instead of being too distracted by undressing to notice Sharon’s place, Alaska was shoving articles of clothing on, desperately hoping she wouldn’t wake the older woman as she escaped while internally freaking out at the fact that she had woken up in the arms of her Marketing professor.

“So this is the living room,” Sharon said as she pointed to a cosy seating area where a built in fireplace was crackling away underneath the flat screen TV on the wall. “Here’s the kitchen, and down the corridor is the bathroom and bedroom.”

“Wow,” Alaska breathed, looking around and admiring Sharon’s apartment. “Your place is beautiful.”

“Thanks,” Sharon said, smiling brightly and tossing her blonde hair over her shoulders as she walked into her huge kitchen. “I’m making crispy skin salmon, by the way. Is that okay?”

“Of course!” Alaska replied, her stomach already rumbling as she inhaled the delicious aromas in the apartment.  

“Perfect, and what’s your drink of choice?” Sharon asked, holding up a bottle of wine in each hand before placing them down and opening her fridge. “I also have a bunch of other options too.”

Alaska took a peak inside Sharon’s fridge and struggled to wipe the grin off of her face. It was just drinks, but Sharon had made sure to cover all of her bases in an attempt to be able to suit any of Alaska’s needs. From the variety of wines, spirits, sodas and even sparkling water, Sharon had put so much thought in.  

“I’ll start with the white wine,” Alaska finally decided.

“Nice choice,” Sharon smiled while pouring her a glass.

She handed the glass to Alaska before picking up her own filled with red wine and clicked their glasses together.

“Cheers,” she said, locking eyes with Alaska.

Contrary to Sharon’s nerves, the night went off without a hitch. She had asked if Alaska would be interesting in dipping toasted bread into a baked camembert with honey and eating it on the balcony with wine, and Alaska couldn’t even believe it was a question.

“Uh, absolutely,” Alaska had confirmed.

They had gone and sat out on Sharon’s penthouse balcony, the entire world bustling about below them as they sat high in the sky. A few leafy green plants were positioned in the corners of Sharon’s balcony, while a long string of warm fairy lights zigzagged above them. The sun had just begun to set, painting the sky a stunning blend of pink, orange and blue.

It was so romantic and authentic, and Alaska’s had heart surged when a breeze blew through Sharon’s hair when she laughed, still in shock that this moment was her reality.

Even though they were high above others on the balcony, they didn’t kiss, the feeling of being in the open air still holding them back. Sharon had settled for tracing her fingertips across the back of Alaska’s hand, the both of them fully knowing the teasing was slowly driving the younger girl wild. Sharon had gradually leaned in closer as Alaska talked. She purposefully caught her other woman’s gaze before flicking her eyes down to look at her lips. Alaska had shifted in her chair under Sharon’s sensual gaze, making the older woman smile.

They had finally made their way back into the kitchen and Sharon was preparing dinner when Alaska offered to help.

“I know nothing about cooking,” Alaska had laughed, “but I want to learn! Give me a little job or something.“

Sharon had put her in charge of the salad while she organised the salmon, and it was so endearing watching Alaska potter around her kitchen, washing the leaves and setting up a cutting board.

Alaska had just finished chopping up one tomato when Sharon had looked over her shoulder to check her progress.

“Nice job,” Sharon had said in passing, placing a hand on Alaska’s tummy as she walked behind her to get to the pantry. Alaska’s stomach had fluttered at how natural the moment was, and as she picked up her second tomato to chop, she fantasised about domestic moments like this happening more often.

Then Sharon had remembered the entrée she had bought earlier in the day.

“I was just standing there with all the seafood and the salmon just didn’t feel like enough, so I bought us a dozen oysters,” Sharon had justified, pulling the tray out of the fridge.

The crispy skin salmon sizzled in the pan while music softly played throughout the apartment, and Alaska couldn’t help but wrap her arms around Sharon’s waist once she had placed the tray on the counter.

“This is the nicest night,” Alaska had said into Sharon’s neck as she tightened her grip around her body. “Thank you for all this effort.”

Sharon had laughed before wrapping her arms around Alaska and kissing her head, inhaling the faint scent of her shampoo.

“Aw, Lasky, it’s my pleasure,” Sharon replied, her cheeks going pink at Alaska’s appreciation.

The salmon sizzled loudly in the pan, and fear raced through Sharon as she imagined burning their meals.

“I think it’s time for dinner!”

*

“Kimora wants you,” Alaska giggled, wiping the last of the melted chocolate from the bowl and sucking on her finger.

Sharon felt herself throb as she watched Alaska wrap her plump lips around her finger and hallow her cheeks, her finger emerging shiny with spit.

“Who?” Sharon asked, her breathing heavy as she stared at Alaska’s lips.

Alaska cackled, throwing her head back and showing off her perfect teeth as she laughed.

“Oh! Today in the lecture,” Sharon said suddenly, shaking her head and catching up. “Kimora’s nice but… you’re more my type.”

Dinner had gone sensationally. Sharon had cooked the salmon to perfection, and the oysters were a hit. They never ran out of things to talk about, and Sharon’s phone only rang once with a work call, which she happily let go to message bank.

Once the food was eaten and the wine in their glasses was dwindling, they had leaned into each other across the table and continued talking. Sharon had lightly brushed her foot up Alaska’s calf under the table and smiled when the other girl blushed at the contact.

“I want something sweet,” Alaska had announced when they were finished, which led to the two of them hunting through Sharon’s kitchen for a dessert.

Alaska’s face had lit up when Sharon had pulled out a punnet of strawberries and a block of chocolate.

“Let’s eat in front of the fire!” Alaska had exclaimed, a more happier, loose, bubbly version of herself from the wine – or maybe it was because of Sharon.

Alaska didn’t know how to explain it, but Sharon made her feel like an adult. She kept forgetting their age difference, and instead felt like Sharon’s equal. She kept forgetting she was her student, and instead felt like someone Sharon was genuinely interested in, and interested in pleasing.

Sharon had only watched as Alaska happily walked into the living space and placed her wine on the glass coffee table before lying down on the fluffy white rug. She rolled around on the carpet, the fluff feeling amazing against her smooth, freshly shaved legs.

“Come join me,” Alaska had said from the floor, her hair a mess around her, “but don’t forget the dessert.”

Sharon had never thought to roll around on her fluffy rug. She loved how it felt on her bare feet, but the idea of rolling her whole body on it never came to mind. It was such a simple but carefree idea.

It was the little, natural choices that Alaska effortlessly decided that made Sharon realise a large chunk of fun was missing from her life. For how long it had been absent, Sharon didn’t want to think about.

Sharon had brought two bowls over and placed them on the coffee table, one filled with strawberries and the other with melted chocolate.

“You can have the first one,” Alaska had said, swirling a strawberry in the chocolate before pulling it out and watching the excess drip off. Sharon had leaned closer and parted her lips, suddenly not caring if the chocolate dripped onto her carpet. It didn’t, and Sharon wrapped her lips around the strawberry pinched between Alaska’s fingers.

Alaska’s breath had hitched slightly as Sharon’s lips, warm and soft, touched her fingertips. Sharon had bitten down, the combination of fruit and chocolate bursting in her mouth as she looked at Alaska. She had pulled away, only to wipe the corner of her mouth with her thumb, her eyes never leaving Alaska’s.

Alaska’s core had pulsed at the entire interaction.

They had finished the strawberries, and now they, mainly Alaska, were wiping the chocolate bowl clean.

“Describe your type,” Alaska asked, tossing her blonde hair over her should before she bought her wine glass to her lips.

She smiled and repositioned herself on the rug, the white wine in her glass swaying dangerously as she moved around. The alcohol hastily kissed the rim of her wine glass, but it never overflowed.

Sharon looked at the wine, suddenly realising it was like their relationship. Dangerous and horrific if it got out of its place, only to seep into the pristine, white rug that represented Sharon’s career, life, world.

But it never did get out, and it was the thrill that got them both so excited.

“I don’t think I have a type,” Sharon pondered.

“Everyone has a type,” Alaska countered.

“What’s yours then?”

“I asked you first.”

Sharon tsked before laughing.

“Fine, appearance wise…” she said eventually. “I won’t lie and pretend I don’t have a thing for blondes.”

Alaska smiled and ran her fingers through her long blonde hair as Sharon spoke.

“Please continue,” Alaska replied.

“I like… girly girls, I mean, I love makeup so long lashes and pouty lips always get me.”

Sharon’s gaze traced the features of Alaska’s face as she talked, and Alaska’s cheeks warmed as Sharon described her appearance.

“Personality wise, I like girls who are funny, and fun, but passionate and take things seriously. I like girls who are determined, and don’t take shit from anyone. I like strong girls who are sensitive and emotional…”

Sharon trailed off before shaking her head and pulling herself out of her thoughts.

“I don’t know, I’m such a workaholic who’s a perfectionist and also super competitive, so I guess my type is just someone who’ll tolerate me.”

A dry laugh bubbled out of Sharon and her smile quickly faded. Alaska allowed her a moment to stare at the carpet before she replied, sensing Sharon was thinking about a past relationship.

She leaned forwards and brushed her cheekbone against Sharon’s lightly.

“I’ll tolerate you,” she said softly.

“Good,” Sharon whispered back, capturing Alaska’s lip in a kiss.

Before her eyes fluttered shut, Alaska placed the glass in her hand on the coffee table. Sharon’s hands found her waist and pulled her onto her lap.

With their lips connected, Sharon’s fingers trailed down the buttons of Alaska’s dress, Alaska’s chest expanding as she breathed in deeply, desperate for Sharon to touch her.

Sharon pulled at one of the buttons, then pulled again before parting from Alaska and looking down. Alaska giggled at the small frown on Sharon’s brow as she struggled to unbutton the dress.

“They’re just for show,” Alaska said, reaching around and unzipping her dress in one swift motion before pulling it off her body. She threw it lightly to the side before biting her lip and grinding down against Sharon, now in nothing but her bra and underwear.

Sharon smiled before kissing Alaska again, their movements gradually getting faster and more passionate. Alaska kissed Sharon’s neck before sucking at a spot right at the top of her jaw. Sharon gasped at the sensation, her hands trailing down to cup and squeeze Alaska’s ass as the younger girl grinded on her lap. Alaska pulled away, her lips red and puffy from the suction.

“I gave you a little hickie,” she said, a small smile on her face as she admired the pink love bite marking Sharon’s milky white skin.

“A hickie?” Sharon questioned before she remembered. “Oh my god hickies! I haven’t heard of them in years! Fuck I sound so old, but hickies!”

Alaska laughed, so endeared by Sharon’s reaction.

“I can give you more, and you can give me some,” Alaska said.

Sharon rolled their bodies so she was on top before she kneeled over Alaska on all fours, Alaska loving the feeling of the fluffy rug against her almost naked form

Sharon leaned down and placed her lips on Alaska’s collarbone, hallowing her cheeks and sucking on her soft skin. Alaska ran her fingers through Sharon’s hair, whining quietly as she felt how gentle Sharon was before she increased her touch.

Pulling away, Sharon admired the mark she’d left on her skin.

“You put it in quite an obvious place,” Alaska noted.

“I did that on purpose,” Sharon smirked. “I want people to see.”

Sharon trailed a hand between Alaska’s breasts, down her stomach and between her thighs before she cupped her groin.

“Fuck,” Sharon breathed as she felt how warm and damp Alaska was through her underwear.

Alaska’s stomach muscles clenched, the lightest bit of contact causing her sensitive body to respond to every touch.

“You’re so fucking wet for me, baby,” Sharon whispered in her ear, massaging one of Alaska’s breasts in her hand, leaving the younger girl to whimper at her touch.

“I’ve wanted you all night,” Alaska whispered, thinking about how each one of Sharon’s touches had made her so desperate. The tracing of her fingertips on the balcony, the tummy touches in the kitchen, the feeling of her foot tracing up her calf under the dinner table, the hickie, everything.

“Me too,” Sharon said softly. Kneeling over Alaska, she reached for the hemline of her dress and pulled it up over her head, pulling it off and discarding it alongside Alaska’s.

Alaska would never get sick of seeing Sharon’s body. She was curvier than Alaska, with fuller breasts and wider hips balancing her slim waist. Her thighs were thicker and her stomach was softer. Expensive black lingerie hugged her shape, and Alaska was almost speechless as she looked up into Sharon’s eyes.

This felt so different to their previous encounters. They knew each other so much more now, and they were fully aware of what they were doing, where it could go, and what it could mean.

Pressure built in Alaska’s chest, and for a moment she couldn’t breathe. Her eyes widened as she held her breath, but the overwhelming sense of reality became bearable the moment Sharon brought her palms to her lips and kissed her hands, fingers and wrists, not even realising she was quelling Alaska’s momentary anxiety with gentle love and affection.

Sharon reached around and unhooked her bra, shimmying it down her arms before tossing it away and helping Alaska do the same. She traced the red marks running down Alaska’s shoulders and across her ribs from the flimsy straps of the pink bra she most likely bought when she was a teenager, making a mental note to buy her new, expensive ones that properly fit her womanly figure.

She hooked her fingers under the straps of Alaska’s underwear and pulled the material down her long legs, the younger girl immediately spreading herself for Sharon. Leaning away, Sharon went from kneeling over Alaska to sitting back before she pulled her onto her lap.

The blonde parted her thighs as Sharon brought her forward, her mouth trailing over Alaska’s chest, now eye level with two perky breasts.  

Alaska thrusted her hips slightly as she pulsed, her jaw dropping as she looked up and experienced the magnificent view of the city lights from Sharon’s penthouse through the floor to ceiling windows.

Capturing one of her nipples between her lips, Sharon sucked, lightly at first before intensifying her touch, her tongue rapidly flicking against Alaska’s pink bud as she hallowed her cheeks.

Tangling her fingers in Sharon’s hair, the city view distorted as Alaska’s eyes rolled back at the sensation. She arched her back, revelling in how the secure hold of Sharon’s hands around her waist made her feel so submissive.

“Ah!” Alaska whined as Sharon grazed over her sensitive nipple with her teeth, smiling at Alaska’s reaction.

She pulled away with a pop, Alaska’s right nipple red from the attention and slick with saliva. As Sharon massaged her breasts, she wrapped her lips around Alaska’s other nipple

“I love your titties, Alaska,” Sharon said when she pulled away, the two of them laughing at the declaration.  

“I love your pussy,” Alaska replied, biting her lip.

Sharon looked at Alaska straddling her lap. Her hair was scrunched from where Sharon had tangled her fingers in, her lips were swollen from kisses, her eyes were heavy with lust, and the odd hickie was scattered across her heaving chest. She felt herself throb from just the sight of her.

“Then give it a kiss,” Sharon offered, effortlessly rolling them into another position.

It was a jumble of soft skin and blonde as they relished in the feeling of their naked limbs against the white fluff of Sharon’s rug. After seamlessly pulling Sharon’s underwear off, Alaska laid back completely before Sharon gave her one of the couch’s pillows, propping her head up slightly and making her more comfortable.

“Optimum position,” Sharon jokingly shrugged before she turned around, hooking one leg over Alaska’s body before she backed up, kneeling over her face.

“Yes, come here,” Alaska urged, and Sharon parted her legs at her words, lowering herself down further.

Her breath hitched as Alaska’s warm tongue ran over her folds, finally giving into the pleasure she yearned for.

She thrusted lightly across Alaska’s face, the slightest touch of Alaska’s nose or chin against her folds causing her thighs to quiver. Gradually she increased her pace, gently rutting against Alaska, the other blonde’s tongue repeatedly coating her throbbing bud as it lapped between Sharon’s folds.

Placing her hands up on Sharon’s hips, Alaska halted her movements before she wrapped her lips around Sharon’s bud, hallowing out her cheeks as she sucked.

“Fuck,” Sharon gasped as her short, rapid breathes mixed with the sound of the crackling fire beside them.

She gently thrusted her hips as her hands found their way to her chest, her pink nipples growing harder as she played with them. Alaska’s tongue coated her entrance before suddenly running over her bud, her warm tongue now rapidly flicking her sensitive clit.

Sharon doubled over, a string of whines escaping her as she leaned down against Alaska’s body, grabbing fistfuls of the white fluffy rug beneath them as she rutted harder against the other woman.  

Now just inches away from Alaska’s core, Sharon leant down, kissing between her parted thighs before leisurely running her tongue over her folds.

Alaska bucked her hips up in surprise and pleasure, moaning into Sharon at the sensation, which caused Sharon to grind down further.

She ran her fingertips over and between Alaska’s slick folds before focusing on her throbbing bud, circling the bundle of nerves before she pressed down.

“Doing so good, baby,” Sharon mumbled, rutting against Alaska as she praised her.

Their bodies moved in tandem, Alaska’s movements building Sharon’s climax, and as it increased, so did Sharon’s touch on Alaska.

Sharon felt heat coil in her stomach as a weightless feeling tingled through her legs. Alaska’s hot tongue rapidly flicked over her pulsing bud, and suddenly that was all she needed.

“Yes, right, th- there,” Sharon stuttered, her hips jerking erratically as Alaska pulled her through her orgasm.

Suddenly Alaska cried out, her hips lurching up and her thighs clenching as her orgasm overwhelmed her. Sharon was so distracted that she hadn’t realised she never halted her touch on Alaska’s slick bundle of nerves, instead pushing her completely over the edge. Alaska came, moaning and whining underneath Sharon as her body shuddered.

Sharon crawled off Alaska before settling between her legs, her soft blonde hair brushing against the skin of Alaska’s thighs.

Running her fingers through her hair, Alaska smiled sleepily as Sharon slowly kissed her folds, a post orgasm glow settling over the both of them. Sharon picked up the pace, showering Alaska in a mix of tongue, teeth grazing and cheek hallowing. Heat began to stir in Alaska’s stomach as she brought her knees to her chest, spreading herself further for Sharon.

Bringing her fingers up, Sharon dipped her fingertip into Alaska’s entrance, the younger girl’s walls tightening around her touch.

“More,” Alaska whispered, writhing against the fluffy rug.

Sharon pushed all the way in before pulling out slowly, repeating the movement before adding another finger. Alaska’s walls grasps around the contact, and soon Alaska was propping herself up on her elbows and snaking a hand down to touch her pulsing bud.

“Uh ah ah,” Sharon argued, pulling her hand away. “Let me.”

She leant down, wrapping her lips around Alaska’s bud as she worked her fingers. Alaska whined, pinching her hard nipples between her fingers as Sharon’s embrace washed over her.

But then Sharon pulled away completely, leaving Alaska to cry out and shoot her eyes open in desperation.

“I have an idea, but we need to go to the bedroom,” Sharon said, carefully rising to her feet before she offered to help Alaska up.

Confused, but more than happy to comply, Alaska grabbed her hands, leaning into Sharon as she was shakily led into the bedroom, her desire-ridden body making her legs move slowly.  

She excitedly crawled onto the bed as soon as she could while Sharon walked to her bedside table drawer. She pulled out a box of matches before her features and blonde waves were illuminated by fire. She lit a candle, blew out the match and placed the flickering glass jar back on the table before sifting through the drawer again.

“Setting the mood,” Alaska commented, rolling on her back and stretching her naked limbs as the previously dark bedroom was bathed in a soft warm glow.

Sharon found what she was looking for and crawled onto the bed, settling herself between Alaska’s legs as she bit her lip.

“What are your thoughts on this?” Sharon asked, showing Alaska the black toy in her hands.

It was a decently sized dildo, and when Alaska took it from Sharon’s hands, she pulsed as she felt its weight. But the most interesting part was the section extending from the base of the toy at a slight angle. It was another dildo, but shorter and thicker. Unlike strap ons, which involved, of course, straps, buckles, and a whole lot of pleasure for just one party, Sharon had brought out something to please them both.

“I love it,” Alaska smiled. “Can I have… the longer end?”

“Of course,” Sharon replied, before lowering her voice to a more sensual tone. “I wanna see how you use it.”

Alaska seductively bit her lip before lying back on the pillows. She spread her legs, putting herself on display for Sharon. Rubbing the length of the dildo between her wet folds, the both of them were mesmerised at the sight of the toy becoming slick.  

Alaska slowly pushed the tip of the toy in, breathing in sharply as she felt resistance.

“Don’t force it,” Sharon said quietly, her tone serious but trusting, almost like a reminder.

“It’s okay,” Alaska said softly.

She loved little moments like this, where they could be as intimate and raunchy as possible but also so comfortable and caring. Alaska felt so safe with Sharon, and it was that reassurance that made her muscles relax that little bit more.

She exhaled as she pressed the toy in further, leaving Sharon to practically salivate as she watched the length of the toy disappear inch by inch, before suddenly quickly reappearing as Alaska pulled it out.

“Just like that,” Sharon mumbled, not even realising she had started touching herself. She mimicked Alaska’s movements, thrusting a finger into her warmth and following the younger girl’s pace.

Alaska watched as she put a spell over Sharon, revelling in the sight of the older woman completely transfixed. Sharon kneeled between Alaska’s legs, her ends of her blonde curls brushing against her nipples and her stomach clenching as she touched herself.

Thrusting the toy into herself slightly faster and deeper, Alaska watched as Sharon did the same, whining as Alaska upped the pace.

“Add another,” Alaska mumbled, her speech thick with lust as she watched Sharon.

Looking her in the eyes as she obeyed, Sharon slid another finger into her warmth, a long, low moan escaping her as she did so. Alaska kept going, building her pace until she slowed down completely.

She pulled the toy out all the way, her walls grasping around the tip while she eyed Sharon, who was just now grazing her folds with her fingertips, copying Alaska’s actions.

“Another,” she whispered before plunging the toy deep inside, a loud, slutty moan rolling off her tongue as she effortlessly pushed it all the way up to the base.

Sharon did the same, three fingers disappearing into her warmth as she whined, her eyes squeezing shut at the sensation.

“Stretch yourself,” Alaska said, her voice barely a whisper as she watched Sharon spread her fingers apart, moisture gathering at her corner of her eyes as she followed Alaska’s every command.

Sharon whimpered, biting down on her lip as she touched herself.

“Need you,” Sharon whined, desperate for Alaska.

“Come here then,” Alaska said, wrapping her fingers around the shorter, thicker length of the toy meant for Sharon.

Crawling closer, Sharon spread her legs wider, the both of them breathing loudly as they watched Sharon lower herself down onto the toy. The tip was more bulbuls than the rest of its shaft, and Sharon gasped softly as she felt it pass through her entrance. The rest of its length disappeared into her as she effortlessly slid down onto it, her slick walls squeezing around the thickness as pleasure spread through her.

Sharon instinctively rolled her hips, feeling the presence of the toy inside of her and in turn thrusting the other length into Alaska, who whined at the sensation and pulled her knees to her chest as she spread herself.

Grabbing the headboard, Sharon hovered over Alaska, grinding her hips and feeling the toy press inside her as she moved. Alaska felt it too, its rigid length rubbing against her walls.

Alaska grabbed Sharon and pulled her down, their lips meeting and their tongues lapping against each other as they kissed. Sharon kept rolling her hips, pleasure washing over her and into Alaska as she moved, both girls feeling weightless as the sensation both numbed and heightened the moment.

Sharon picked up her speed, thrusting harder, faster and deeper into Alaska than before. Alaska bit her lip, holding back a string of moans out of habit.

“No,” Sharon whispered when she heard Alaska’s muffled whine. “I want you to be as loud as you want, it’s just us.”

Alaska’s lips parted, her eyes almost rolling back as a whined a little louder, but nowhere near as loudly as Sharon knew she could.

“No one’s gonna see us, no one’s hear us, it’s just us, scream for me baby,” Sharon said, urging her on as she continued to thrust, “fucking scream my name.”

Alaska cried out, her bud throbbing and her walls grasping around the toy as each one of Sharon’s words wrapped around her mind.

“Ah, fuck, Sharon,” Alaska cried in time with her thrusts, letting go completely as she let Sharon ruin her. “Sharon, Sharon, Sharon.”

Lust clouded Sharon’s mind as she looked down at Alaska, spread out and desperate as she thrusted into her. Without breaking her pace, she leant down and captured Alaska’s breasts in her hands, massaging them and running her thumbs over her sensitive nipples as she buried her face in her neck and kissed the other woman, knowing she was close.

Alaska whined, loud and needy as desire overwhelmed her entire being, her whole universe consisting of just Sharon. Pleasure coiled in her core, and suddenly there was only one word forming in her mind and rolling off her tongue as Sharon pounded into her and sent her over the edge.

“Ah…mommy.”

Sharon came, her hips jerking erratically as Alaska completely destroyed her, pure bliss streaming through her veins as her climax overwhelmed her.

“Yes, yes,” Sharon mumbled as she came, burying herself into Alaska’s neck as she rode out her orgasm, her walls squeezing the thickness of the toy as she continued to rock her hips.

Alaska held onto Sharon as her own orgasm swept through her, exploding from her core and running through her legs before seeping into every inch of her body.

They held onto each other, and for how long they stayed like that, neither of them knew. Alaska ran her fingers through Sharon’s soft hair as they laid their, their limbs heavy and their breathing ragged as they came down from their high.

“I…didn’t know… we had a mommy kink,” Alaska breathed.

“Neither did I,” Sharon replied, causing the both of them to laugh.

At some point Sharon finally pried herself off of Alaska and slowly slid the toy out before discarding it onto the floor.

Falling back into Alaska’s arm, they intertwined their bodies together, the sound and feeling of each other’s breathing drifting them off into a deep sleep.