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heythere-mel · 3 years

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Sleepless

Frankie Morales x f!reader

Summary: Your niece comes over to spend the night, as your thoughts of you and Frankie being parents come to the surface.

W/C: 1.3K+

Warnings: none really. This is fluff af, with just a quick euphemism to spice. Tío Frankie being adorable comes with his own warning.

A/N: hey y’all, I’m back on my soft Frankie bullshit (did I ever really leave tho?) with another quick oneshot purely based on my niece staying over with me and her bed hogging ways. Thanks once again to @icanbeyourjedi for literally going back and forth with me over all the soft Frankie thoughts, especially this one that hit me at 6AM today. Also sorry if this is formatted terribly again, literally done on my phone, hahaha. Please enjoy 🥰

The last Saturdays of the month were always reserved for you and your niece to have sleepovers. She loved going over to your place because you were quote “the fun tía” always allowing her to stay up a little later than normal, building forts in the living room, and eating all the sugary treats she couldn’t have much of back home. This didn’t change either after you and Frankie decided to move in together. He practically was a big kid at heart so he didn’t mind getting a chance to partake in the little things such as these. Plus, seeing the bond he was creating with her made you think of the future with him, and maybe even doing all of this with your own kids some day...

Frantic rings from your doorbell signaled the child’s arrival. Opening the door to greet her, “Hi ti-“ she looked passed you with eyes wide and mouth agape as she nearly trampled you when she caught sight of the massive blanket fort that had taken up the entire living room. Frankie had been up super early saying he wanted to surprise her, grabbing every spare sheet and pillow he could possibly find in your little home. From under it all, you see that familiar hat and scruffy face finally pop out of the ‘doorway.’

“Hi small fry!”

“Tío Frankie!” As she ran to him, engulfing him in a big hug.

Did she just call him tío? Had she called him that before? Frankie had been in your life for the better part of a couple years now so you didn’t feel it necessary to correct her. Your heart nearly bursts right there.

“Did you build this?!” her little mind obviously blown at the construction of it all.

“Sure did! Do you like it?”

“It’s only the coolest thing EVER!”

Frankie’s chest swelled with pride as he took her little hand into his, leading her inside to give the grand tour.

The night went off without a hitch. You had ordered her favorite pizza, had all the ice cream with extra toppings, (Frankie couldn’t decide what to get so grabbed all the candy toppings possible because she “had to have options.”) and you were now settling in to watch her favorite movie, The Princess and the Frog, snuggled with her and about 10 of her favorite plushies in tow, the Baby Yoda plush being her new favorite.

Getting later into the night you and Frankie were trying to see how the both of you would fit into this fort to sleep alongside her, most of the room being taken up by the oversized stuffed animals.

“Tía, you and Tío Frankie don’t have to stay here with me. I am a big girl now!”

“Oh, uhhh, are you sure about that bub? We can find a way to make room.”

“Yeah! I’m 6 now! Duh!” as she stifled out a yawn.

Always the independent one. “Okay then. We’ll be right in the next room if you do decide you need us, okay?”

“Okay.” She softly murmured quietly starting to slip into sleep.

After one final check to see if she was tucked in alright and making sure to have her little night light plugged in, you start heading to your bedroom when you turn back to see Frankie bending down to give her a soft little kiss on the forehead and a whispered, “goodnight small fry.” Your heart couldn’t have been any more full at the moment.

Everything had gone smoothly, until about midnight when you felt something, or more someone tugging at your oversized tshirt. You slowly open your eyes only to bolt out of your sleep when you are met with the silhouette of your niece staring directly at you. Frankie springing up at the same time to see what was going on, instinctively starting to shield you with his body at the “threat.”

“Holy shit! I mean, shoot! You scared me bub!”

She said she couldn’t sleep and if it was alright to get into bed with the two of you. Obliging, you make room in the middle for her, making sure she was tucked in again as it took no time at all before small snores once again begin to emanate the room.

Slap! A small arm hit you directly in the face as you turn to try and move the child back over. Frankie wasn’t fairing any better as he had a small foot in his lower back. Each of you had both been relinquished to the edges of the bed clinging for dear life.

“Whose idea was it again to let her up here?” you groaned.

“She’s sleeping diagonally. How is that even comfortable?!” Frankie stated, now completely sliding out of the bed and staring down at the small girl who now overtook his half of the mattress.

“Here, let me scoot her over a bit. Maybe I can make room for the both of us.”

After a little adjusting, and even a failed attempt at trying to swaddle her to prevent future flailing limbs, you were left with a small space to share as the two of you lie on your sides facing each other, exhaustion starting to kick in.

Your leg was propped up on Frankie’s hip, trying anything to get into a comfortable position when you let out a defeated huff.

“Babe just, here let me.” Frankie taps your thigh signaling you to sit up as best you could with the child so close, as he maneuvered his way on to his back. “Okay you can lay down now.” as he pats his chest, beckoning you to him.

“Frankie, I’m not gonna put my full weight on you, you won’t be comfortable.”

“It’s not like we haven’t been in this position before.” cocking his eyebrow up with a playful smirk.

You huff out a short laugh as a playful “Francisco!” leaves your lips.

“Ven cariño.” as he gently pulls you to his chest.

You situate yourself wrapping your arms around his soft middle, your head falling into the crook of his neck, while his strong arms and broad shoulders encase you as you both let out a relaxed sigh at the closeness.

“This is nice.” you whisper.

“Told you.”

You bring your left hand up to play with some of the curls at the nape of his neck, him running his warm hand up and down your spine.

“Plus, I see this as great practice for when we have kids.”

You slowed the motion of your hand through his hair and slowly leaned up to face him.

“Y-you want to have children with me Frankie?”

The two of you hadn’t really had the “children” discussion yet. Having just moved in together you were taking things slowly. But knowing he was obviously having thoughts about it as well and how he had been so good with your niece, it further cemented the idea in your mind.

“Well, yeah of course.” as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world.

“I mean, when the time is right and all, you know? If you’d want that.” he quickly added.

You gently lean down to capture his lips in a chaste kiss, pouring all the tender love and emotion you were feeling in that moment into it.

“I think I’d like that.” trying hard to contain your growing smile.

“Plus, I know we’d have the cutest kids ever!” he blurted out.

You buried your head into his chest with a muffled laugh, then looking back up in total agreeance.

“Oh, THE cutest!”

Your hushed laughter calmed as you go back to simply embracing each other, allowing the woes of slumber to catch up to you, finally being lulled to sleep by Frankie’s heartbeat falling into rhythm with yours and a tiny hand reaching out to touch your entwined arms, also wanting to be just as close.

#frankie morales x f!reader #frankie morales oneshot #frankie morales fluff #we stay soft for one (1) frankie morales #francisco 'catfish' morales #frankie morales #pedro pascal #mel writes!

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iiigris · 3 years

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how they hold you — atla hcs

↳ feat. Aang, Zuko, & Sokka

* * *

A/N: So I had actually planned on posting these like,, five months ago or something but then I kinda forgot about them? Somehow?? And then I randomly got incentive to finish them after classes today?? Idk lol but anyhow here they are and I hope y’all enjoy!!

(P.S. If you want me to do a pt. 2 or have some cute hcs of your own, drop me an ask!! I’d love to hear any feedback!)

Summary: How these ATLA boys give hugs and cuddles! I think about those three things a lot. Mainly self-indulgent but I hope you enjoy them too!! :)

Warnings: much cute and softness hehe; ‘x reader’ implications ofc

Streaming: Heat Waves (slowed + reverb) - Glass Animals

[MASTERLIST]

* * *

AANG

oh you guys, Aang... Aang is a gem

Pretty much down for hugs whenever and wherever

Had a bad day? A disappointment of some sort? Meeting up again after a long time (or even just a few hours but want one anyway)? Boy’s gotchu!!

He gives great hugs too btw

Def the type to run to you and throw his arms around your neck as a greeting

ESPECIALLY if he particularly missed you. “Y/N!! You’re back!! Hi!!”

However,, any other time he’ll let you put your arms over his shoulders and he’ll tuck his arms snugly underneath yours and around your waist, and lean his head against yours

I imagine Aang’s hugs to be like, really soft and comfy, but he also hugs you just tight enough so you’ll smile? Y’know??

Probably won't be the one to let go first unless he’s been wanting to show you a thing he found or learned. “Oh yeah! C’mere, I wanna show you this!”

He will let go as soon as you start to tho bc he doesn’t wanna make you uncomfortable in any way

Also will rub circles on your back to calm you down if you’re upset or sad 🥺

Probably also the kind of person to slide his hands down your arms and grab your hands after hugging you, like he just doesn't really wanna let go yet

As for cuddles? :D

Honestly I think he’d be super giggly about cuddling for the first like. long while.

maybe even all the time sjfnvjgkkb

Like it takes him a while to get used to it even tho he literally hugs you all the time?? So like nervous giggles at first for sure

After that tho when he knows that you’re totally comfortable w him being close with you and he’s used to it, it’s more like happy giggles

Like he’ll just tuck his chin over your shoulder and do his lil laugh quietly dhcbhcbvhb he’s so cUTE

Likes big spoon and little spoon both

Likes to cuddling facing you the best tho so he can see your cute face and your pretty smile

BLANKET BURRITOS OMG

if y’all have a blanket on you better be ready bc he WILL hold onto you and grab that blanket and roll over and over til you’re both cocooned in it and he will not let you go bc he loves it when you laugh like that and loves having you so close that he can feel your heartbeat

Will 100% let you fall asleep on him if you want

He’ll either gently move you to the bed after a while so you’re more comfortable, or he’ll do his very best to stay awake so he can keep an eye out for things that could potentially disturb you so he can get rid of them, but he’ll end up falling asleep too dhfbvhgh

Highly recommend Aang hugs/cuddles. Perfect for comfort or literally any other time ever

ZUKO

listen I’m sure we all know and agree on this, but lemme just say it again: Zuko is warm

Like if you’re gonna fall asleep cuddling him you better kick off those blankets

You don’t need them. Not with your human space heater around.

And listen here’s the thing: Zuko can regulate his body temperature right?? Which means he makes himself warm on purpose so he’ll get hugs

Right??? Perfect strategy!!

Honestly tho, super awkward about it at first

Like you’ll probably have to tell him you want a hug and he’ll be like oh- sure??

Very stiff the first several times. It’s more of like ‘you’re hugging him and he’s standing there awkwardly and he’s not really sure what to do with his arms so he gingerly pats you on the shoulder’ fhfnjgfjjb my poor boi

It doesn’t take him long tho. He figures out pretty quickly that he actually really likes it when you hug him

So he starts hugging you back

And THATS when he gets smart and is like oh, maybe it’s because I'm warm?

bc he’s not ignorant y’know; he’s noticed your ‘aa you’re so warm’ comments 😌

Anyways he’ll actually offer you hugs once he’s more used to them

He likes it when you wrap your arms around his waist, from the front or back

Hugging Zuko from the back dhcvnnvnb — PLS the first time you do that he’ll get so flustered shfbch and he’ll just freeze up

ANYWAYS

He likes you putting your arms around his waist but also really likes your arms over his shoulders, bc then his arms can be around your waist and he can hold you better that way

Also please ruffle his hair. Or just slide your fingers through it right before the hug ends, PLEASE. 🥺🥺🥺

he will melt I promise

If you two are alone and you're hugging him and you mess with his hair a little he will physically relax and probably will drop his face to your neck

Don’t even try to apologize either. “No, it’s fine.... It’s it’s nice.”

When you’re not alone and you wanna hug him he’ll try to act all nonchalant about it, like it’s no big deal. Like sure, you can hug him. He doesn’t really care.

But he does lol internally he’s kinda freaking out

Speaking of internally freaking out, that brings me to ✨CUDDLING✨

Like I said before, he is so. warm.

And like he normally gets butterflies being around you and cuddling with you is no exception, but if you’re cuddling and you get super relaxed and tell him he’s super warm and that you’re comfortable?

He’ll get even warmer dnhfjdf boi doesn’t know what to say to that and he kinda combusts a little inside

But he’s very very happy

Usually he’s the big spoon, but he also really likes being the little spoon, even tho he’ll never say it or ask

Also really enjoys it when you lay on top of him, either chest to chest or chest to back

He’ll rest his cheek against your head and breathe in the scent of your shampoo, rubbing your back/tummy softly (depending on how you’re laying)

If you fall asleep laying with him, at first he’s gonna panic and wouldn’t really know what to do

But he’ll keep you there and press a kiss to your forehead

SOKKA

I WANT TO HUG HIM SO BAD !!! >:| UGH SILLY BOY COME HERE I WANT TO LOVE YOU

sigh. anyways-

Sokka, he’s not too sure about the whole hugs thing at first

You’ll hug him and he’ll just try and blow it off, “yeah yeah yeah, okay, thanks.” pats your shoulder a couple times and releases you

He’ll get used to it, don’t worry.

He’ll get used to it quickly.

Once he realizes you’re not gonna quit hugging him, he’ll suddenly be all for it

Honesltyy he went from 0 to 100 dcnhkjhdfks he’ll want to hug you all the time

“C’monnn y/n where’s my hug? Huh?”

He’ll come up behind you while you're doing something, slip his arms around you, put his chin on your shoulder, and he will not be leaving

“Sokka I need to move my arm—” “No you don't. Not til you say hello properly.”

PLS once he gets used to you he will be so touchy

not only with hugs but like,, with everything

Grabs your hand to go run and show you something or out of excitement, uses your shoulder as an armrest (or your head if you’re way shorter than him hfvbfjhdb), puts a hand on your shoulder to steer you in another direction... et cetera

I dunno I feel like physical touch would be one of his primary love languages but maybe that’s just me projecting

anyways

Sokka is also warm; not as warm as Zuko, but warm!

Hugs you any and all ways: arms over, arms under, behind hugs, hugs where he traps your arms against your sides and squeezes you unnecessarily hard

He’ll scoop you up and throw you over his shoulder too djfnfhv

Sometimes just to show off that he can pick you up and spin you around without dropping you, but usually when he’s taking you somewhere you two can be alone

Then he’ll throw you onto the bed jdhchvh

Big spoon and little spoon, doesn’t really have a preference

When he’s big spooning he’ll bury his face in the crook of your neck and just,, immerse himself in your comforting presence

really likes chest to chest cuddles because then he can kiss your nose and steal kisses from you

also he seems like he’d kiss the back of your hand and your knuckles-

anyways

loves it when you gently press your forehead against his and tell him how much you love him

Definitely will be the one to fall asleep while cuddling lol tired boi 🥺

if, though, you happen to fall asleep before him, he’s not complaining

or moving

He might adjust himself so that you’re in a more comfortable position, but then he’ll settle right in and go to sleep too dkjhdgkj

* * *

@bluebellhairpin I think we may have discussed me tagging you in this way back when I was originally gonna post it? Maybe? Either way here you go uwu

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ushiwakaout · 3 years

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YOUR SERIES FOR THE THINGS YOU THINK HAIKYU BOYS WOULD SAY IS SO GOOD!! Do you write for Tsukishima? Cuz if yes I would really like to know what you think he would say...

thank you, thank you 🥺💖

*sigh* highkey wanting to avoid tsukishima stuff bc i don’t wanna fall deeper into a simp hole

but i guess i’ll do it 🙄 thank fucking god you asked for this bc honestly i was going a little crazy bc i fucking love him so much god fucking damnit

for my sake, y’all are married and you’re a photographer

“mmm, stop poking me.” (7:00 am)

“Hey, i said stop touching.”

“what time is it?”

“No i don’t have practice today... i have school.”

“Not until tonight, so let me sleep.”

“Come back here, i don’t need breakfast right now.”

“Hey i might be slim but i will throw you back in bed if you don’t come back.”

“Wake me up again in like an hour.”

“Mmm, i said wake me up not smother me in kisses.” (8:20 am)

“What’s for breakfast.”

“I’m in the mood for some coffee and a shortcake.”

“What do you mean that’s not breakfast.”

“You may be my spouse but you cannot deny me shortcake.”

“If you forbid shortcake then a want divorce.”

“If you made me pick, i would want a divorce, because it’s like making you pick between me or [your favorite dessert] it’s just evil.”

“I’m not gonna kiss you unless we go get shortcake....”

*motherfucker has such a fucking mood when he wakes up. ESPECIALLY WHEN HE DOESNT GET WHAT HE WANTS. he’s baby but he’s also a bitch*

“have you seen my glasses? i cant see.”

“if you don’t give them to me i’m gonna make you read the menu outloud to me like a crazy person”

“ready for go? i’m starting to get hungry.” (9:00 am)

“are you not going to hold my hand?”

“fine if you get hit by a bike or a car, it’s not my problem.”

“hey actually it will be my problem because i married you, now hold my hand or else i’ll the one pushing you.”

“i’m not an asshole.”

“i’m ordering two cakes, i’m not giving you any of you don’t order for yourself.”

*you don’t order for yourself and just kinda fiddle w his jacket*

“Can i get three strawberry shortcakes and two black coffees, one iced please.”

“Nope you’re not getting the third one.”

*proceeds to eat the two and fiddles with the third*

“Have it, i’d be a waste if you didn’t eat it.”

*if you don’t eat it he will get both physically and mentally upset*

*very much loves seeing you munch down on his favorite dessert*

“Can we go now? I need to study for a test before class.” (10:30 am)

“you’re gonna get hit by a bike, get closer.”

“I wanna get our rings cleaned, their looking a little dirty.”

“So what if it’s only been a year, you know i don’t take it off unless it’s for a match, then i wear the flimsy black one.”

*the ring he gave you was his grandmothers so he’s always fiddling with it when he holds your hand*

“I’m sitting next to you while you edit your pictures, so you can’t complain.” (11:00 am)

*very distracted when he studies because he keeps glancing at you with your tongue out a little while you edit*

*will pinch your tongue*

“It belongs in your mouth.”

*WILL BLUSH OF YOU RESPOND, “so does yours” he will malfunction and flick you’re forehead*

“can you make me a snack?”

“dino crackers will do.”

“hey, don’t make fun of me, you always eat these too. now pass me my crackers.”

“Are you gonna stay alone like a weirdo or are you gonna walk to me the station” (1:00 pm)

“Hurry up and give me a kiss before it’s your fault i miss the train.”

“If you don’t let me go i’m just gonna kiss you again.”

“Idiot let go, i’m gonna be late because of you.”

“Give me another one, you gotta reach for it tho.”

*will laugh in your face before bending down to kissing the tip of your nose*

“Don’t get yourself kidnapped on the way home.”

“What are you doing here? You brought me lunch?” (3:00 pm)

*friends starts asking him who you are*

“My spouse, now stop staring.”

*proceeds to grab your left hand with his to low key show of your rings*

“Let’s go, i’m hungry.”

“Thank you for the food... it was good, could have had less...”

*can’t figure out what to say because it was actually really good but he won’t tell you*

“Could have had less love, that’s what.”

“Stop giggling at me.”

“Hey give me back my-”

*you always take his glasses off before you kiss him, don’t know how he hasn’t caught on yet*

“That was... okay.” (4:00 pm)

“You brought me a shortcake?”

“Wow you do love me.”

“I knew a married you for a reason.”

“You want some?”

“Say ah, no i’m gonna feed you now shut up.”

“Come with me to class, they don’t mind if you’re quiet.”

*will fiddle with your hands when you sit next to him*

*holds your thigh under the desk*

“Stop taking pictures of me.”

“I want coffee again, do you wanna walk to the café?” (6:00 pm)

“I’m hungry again... What? I’m a big boy, leave me alone.”

“Hey if you can reach my hand i’ll buy you a cat.”

*puts his 6’6 wingspans arm up in the air, mind you his hand would probably be up to 6’10*

*Takes pictures of you at the cat café so he can see which one is your favorite for future reference*

“No you couldn’t reach, i’m not getting you a cat”

*fucking liar has been planing on getting u a cat for a good while*

“Just go order the stuff and we’ll head home.” (7:00 pm)

“Sit on the couch with me, we’ll watch a movie.”

*puts on the good dinosaur*

“What? Shut up, it’s a good movie”

“What, no- I’m not crying- you are.”

*flicks your nose*

“See you’re crying too”

“I’m not a bully, you’re a bully.”

“Shut up or i’ll kiss you.”

*will kiss you anyway*

*it doesn’t seem like it but he isn’t a forceful kisser, very soft, long and hot kisses are his go to.*

“I’m gonna shower again, school stressed me out.”

“Take a bath with me” (9:30 pm)

*in the bath his knees are usually always out so he can just hold you while you sit in front of him*

*becomes very soft at night especially when it’s just alone time with you*

*starts kissing your hair, will lightly tease you by massaging your neck and then slowly wrapping his fingers around your neck so he can push your chin up to look at him and he kisses you*

“i know i should say it more but i love you and i know you love me too, and i would trade that for an endless supply of shortcake.”

“See i’m not always a jerk.”

*in bed, he’s the small spoon bc he wants to listen to your heartbeat*

*needs skin to skin contact so his hands are always under your shirt (his shirt) roaming around your back*

“Stop squirming.”

*if you can’t sleep, this man will fuck you to sleep. doesn’t matter what fucking time it is, he gets annoyed and ask why you didn’t tell him sooner so he can fuck you so good*

“Go to sleep or i’ll sleep in the spare”

*lies he hates sleeping alone*

*also... records your reacton while he’s fucking you bc you’re never in front of the camera so he wants you to know how you feel*

*kisses your forehead and then falls asleep to the sound of your breathing*

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sapphicsaro · 2 years

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For the SVU asks thing: 10, 13, 15, and 17! :) absolutely love your blog btw!

hey! thanks sm — i really appreciate it <3

10.) best olivia hair season

listen i am BISEXUAL, mariska has always looked incredible regardless of the hairstyle — HOWEVER, i do happen to love her with longer hair.

i would say my top styles are: season 1 bob, season 8 BANGSSSSSS, current season (23) waves, and that straight middle part shoulder length from season 17

13. least fave character past/present

oof, well all the perps are disgusting (thats a given). so it depends, i HATE that one DA bucanon? or however tf his name is spelled, but you’re supposed to hate him…so? not sure if that works?

if its least faves that we were supposed to like, number one is kim greyleck. i was/am a huge casey novak stan so seeing her right after already made me biased but she was horrible with the victims. could not stand her.

as for current? the new guy. something with a v? he replaced kat which was a blow to me as a queer :/ i don’t find him likable at all and i’m kind of upset the show replaced a queer woman of color with him. idk! just me tho??

15. which character dresses the best?

i better not get shit on for this but—

every. single. outfit. that angela wheatley wore, i would rock in a HEARTBEAT. mama came in, blew up kathy, then brought it to the runway.

also liv’s coats??? idk if y’all can tell from the breakdowns but i’m so into the trench coats and blazers. 10/10.

17. all time favorite episode

with a show that has 500 episodes, there’s no way i’d be able to choose just one!

some faves (& why):

slaves (S1) - the psych evals. the minute i fell in love with each character…oof. from cragen’s break, to olivia’s breakdown, to munch’s callout, then monique and elliot?? so good. and this is when i really realized how much me and olivia are alike! so yep, a top contender for sure!!

night (S6) - again, love casey novak and when she got hurt we got to see a vulnerable side of a character who was pretty reassured and tough. plus mrs. potts, doc oc, AND rocket raccoon?? amazing

raw (S7) - this was just a really good plot twisty episode and shocked me the first time i saw it with it’s ending. tough to stomach as a jewish person, though.

blast (S7) - AS A MELINDA WARNER STAN, i have nothing more to say. what a queen 💅🏼

(can i say all of season 9????)

zebras (S10) - yes, for bensler, but also for gwen 🥺 i love carol kane so much ugh

perverted (S11) - all the bensler vibes but also a damn good episode.

(here’s where i confess that i’m catching up on svu i’ve missed and my knowledge of episodes is a little weak when it comes to seasons (11-21). i’ve just finished 16, 17, 18, so i’m catching up!! but apologies if ive missed a good episode!!)

“benson in trouble” (multiple seasons) - idk if i can call them favorites because that sounds wrong(?), but as a survivor i really find it cathartic to watch the episodes where olivia is in trouble (the william lewis arc, the townhouse incident, etc.). my therapist says it’s because i feel a sense of control and know what what’s about to happen, know that she will survive it and bc i see myself like her, i feel a sense of relief. tmi? ahhh

unholiest reunion (S17) - just a thrilling episode!!

heartfelt passages (S17) - dodds…. and tucker/liv!

gone baby gone (S19) - cmon, so good. but also i just love any and all scenes ever that we get of olivia being a mom

part 33 (S20) - very interesting introspect on the behind the scenes of the detectives. i really enjoyed this debate and honestly was captivated by their reactions.

the return of the prodigal son (S22) - i mean… i don’t need to explain this one.

(ALL of organized crime. no joke, i think i like it more than the current episodes of svu. i much prefer how they are writing their characters!!)

#law and order svu #elliot stabler #olivia benson #bensler #eo #law and order organized crime #law and order special victims unit #e/o #law and order oc #mariska hargitay #chris meloni #ama #ask me questions #svu ask

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coffeeandcalligraphy · 3 years

Text

A chatty writing update | novels, short fiction, etc!

Hi folks!

It’s been a while since I last wrote an update on this blog! I thought it’d be fun to go back to basics, and just talk about writing. This post chats about: new plans for Feeding Habits, my newest novel, my short story goals & growing collection, along with process reflections.

(image description: a photo of green leaves with the text “writing update” in a white font written on top. /end image description)

Post starts under the cut!

General taglist (please ask to be added or removed)

@if-one-of-us-falls, @qatarcookie, @chloeswords, @alicewestwater, @laughtracksonata, @shylawrites, @ev–writes, @jaydewritesfiction, @jennawritesstories @eowynandfaramir, @august-iswriting, @aetherwrites, @avakrahn, @maisulli

What have I been up to?

For starters, I finished my second year of my Writing undergrad last week and got two of my final grades back today (A+ baby)! For anyone who has taken online university, y’all already KNOW, but this year was so difficult. Would not recommend! Really proud of myself to have gotten through this absolute rollercoaster of a school term and am excited to get into some writing. That leads us to:

What have I been up to (writing edition)?

2021 started off so fast. By the time January hit, I was so consumed in my new semester that I did not have time to write Feeding Habits (my novel). In the first few days of the term, I managed to write between class, until I could no longer keep up! Essentially, I did not write any of that novel until exam season (last week), where I did manage to get in about 3k words in ~4 days.

Feeding Habits

I’m currently drafting what I believe will be the last chapter of this book (chapter 10: Swan Song). This chapter is so bizarre for a few reasons. It begins the book’s third part and also marks the shift back into Lonan’s head from Harrison’s. I originally thought this part would be much, much longer, with at least another five chapters to go, but quickly realized the book’s content was nearly completed. In my 4 day 3k palooza, I hit 50k in the book (the word count goal), and couldn’t see myself extending past 60k. Since then, I’ve made the loose decision to write this final chapter as a ~novella. Here are a few reasons why:

1. This chapter is structurally very strange.

I unashamedly shift from present to past to present to past past, and so much more every 12 words. I mapped out the timeline on a sheet of paper, and there were over 20 shifts in scenes (the chapter is only about 4400 words at the moment). The fictive past is incredibly important to this chapter, more important than the present, and I thought it would make more sense to not break randomly for a chapter so I could upkeep the consistent inconsistency of the chapter.

2. The chapter is very abstract

This stems from the structural changes, but there are paragraphs in this chapter of the fictive present that are loosely based in reality. They’re more poems than they are factual paragraphs, and keeping them all contained in one place (so a mega chapter/ novella) would reduce the most confusion!

3. There’s not much left to cover

Like I said above, Feeding Habits is on its last leg, lol! I know exactly where the book needs to end up, which is very, very soon from where I’m currently at on the timeline. Swan Song should cover what 2-4 chapters would cover in terms of arcs.

Feeding Habits and I have a really weird relationship, tbh! When I realized a few weeks ago that it’d been over a year since I started the book, I realized I just needed to finish it. Not that I want to rush (because I’ve taken longer than a year to write a book in the past), but that in order to move onto another project, I’d like to put this one behind first. This book has been the hardest thing I’ve ever written, and has reminded me there’s always a time to let go. This sort of scrounges up a conversation about letting this entire series go, which is certainly something I’ve been contemplating doing soon(ish). If this spinoff series gets a third book, that may or may not be the last Fostered book for a very long time (or ever)! There are many complex reasons to move on, but the main one is that I have other projects I’d like to focus on. This is not a definitive decision, but something I’ve certainly been thinking about!

Here are a few excerpts I wrote recently:

(TW: death, gore)

Dying feels like being a trout dangled out of water. Clinging to a hook. Mouth open. Scales iridescent in a final death cry. It’s like blood spurting up the knuckles, drowning out the flesh. It’s that moment on the long fall down when the clouds cup the body. Easy drifting. The sound a skull makes when it cracks is really just the afterthought.

(TW: death, gore)

Kill shot. Death blow. Coup de grace. Right in the heart. He feels it. The blood swelling, slicking his palms. He can do it. Reach into the cavity. Feel for the ribs. Part each bone. Then cup the humming heart. Stay there. Right. It’s never been easier.

Look at this PURE moment of Lonan holding a baby I CANNOT:

The grocery store was a fifteen-minute walk away. With Olivia clinging to his shoulder, Lonan was acutely aware that she could feel his heartbeat. Open valve. Close. Repeat. Hers pulsed right above his, a miniature drumming. The sky had bruised purple, misted with clouds. The evening air nipped his cheeks, so he made sure Olivia was securely fastened between him and his jacket. With wide eyes, she absorbed the drowsy suburbia, all its family cars pulling into driveways, all its couples heading back home after a sunset walk. When Lonan passed a young boy walking two golden retrievers, Olivia giggled, and didn’t stop, even after he’d spent fifty dollars on groceries and nearly the rest on a red Corolla marked with a MUST GO NOW sign outside a convenience store.

Let’s move on!

Mandy and Cora

I said I wouldn’t talk too much about this project, but I just love it so much?? I wanted to share my SUPER early thoughts on drafting a novel, especially one that is SO different from what I’ve been writing recently. I talked about this before in THIS post, but the summary about this project is that it’s a YA contemporary novel! Can’t believe I’m writing YA again, it’s been so long, but I also think it’s going so well. Everything I’ve learned as a literary fiction writer has been a fantastic primer for transferring back to the genre. Admittedly, I have not written much, but I’m having a lot of fun diving back into a lighter project. This is the summary:

Cora and Mandy are identical twins who’ve always done everything together. But when Mandy decides to go to university out of province after graduation and Cora doesn’t, Cora takes this as an opportunity to “test run” life apart from her sister for the first time by spending the summer at her aunt’s house across the country.

I have come up with a few ~things since I last talked about this project, mostly how I’d like to structure it. As of now, I’d like the book to be structured super loosely. I’m really pulling on a lot of inspo from “We Are Okay” by Nina LaCour (which is SO good), particularly how “nothing happens-y” that book is. This project (which I still need a title for!!) will be structured in short chapters that cover something Cora does on her own for the first time (without Mandy). For example, a few ideas are “Flight”, “Lunch”, and “Groceries”. “Flight” is the first “chapter” (they’re really kind of vignettes) where Cora flies to her aunt’s house. I still can’t determine if this book will take place in Canada. On one hand, I feel like there will be a wider audience if it takes place in the US (is that just an assumption??? maybe?? someone let me know!), but also: don’t really care too much about an audience at the moment! It could also take place in Canada (So Ontario and British Columbia). But if it does take place in the US, I think it may take place in NYC and San Francisco. The problem is: I really don’t like researching lol, and while I’ve been to NYC many times, I will definitely write it wrong! Does this really matter on a first draft?? absolutely not lol, but of course I am already overthinking!

But back to structure: I am looking forward to seeing what this looser structure will do. This is a story that is solely around one half of a set of twins learning to be her own person (and ultimately that she doesn’t have to completely forget her sister in order to do that), and as a twin who KNOWS this feeling, I think this structure of her doing things for the first time is SUPER relatable.

I was worried it might sound silly/worrying to others who are not twins that Cora hadn’t done things like “lunch” or “groceries” on her own, but I feel this so much as an identical twin myself! Not that she hasn’t done anything at all by herself, but as a twin, when you do something without your twin for the first few times, at least in my experience, you notice. If any twins are reading this--weigh in!

This story is the most personal thing I’ve ever written. It definitely is an OwnVoices book! Usually, I avoid details that are remotely similar to me because they make me uncomfortable haha, but with this book, it’s all me, lol! The characters are all Guyanese, which is SO fun because I’ve been planning what they eat (my fellow Caribbean peeps know: the FOOD!), which is so fun (yes they have pumpkin and shrimp, yes they have roti, yes they have pera, yes they have mithai). Every time I’ve gone to dabble at this book, or even think about it, I get incredibly emotional for this reason? I don’t exactly know why. I think this is a story I just so want to tell, with the culture I love SO much that I definitely struggled to love as a child. This is reclamation bitchessss!

Not going to lie tho: the prospect of writing ~a book~ is kind of freaky! I’m going to make the minimum word count for this book pretty short (50k) and see where it goes from there. I think I will focus on this project this summer! Originally I was going to write a literary novel this summer, but I think this one’s calling my name!

Here’s a pretty rough excerpt:

Try. I remind myself that’s what I’m doing after the flight attendant fills me a disposable cup of Coca Cola and all I can think of is Mandy and I shoving Mentos into a bottle of the stuff when we were twelve. Just me, wedged in the middle seat between an exchange student heading out for summer break and a middle-aged woman sipping a cocktail, thinking of Mandy and I bursting whole oranges in a blender when we were bored one Winter break as the plane dips through a wave of turbulence. Mandy and I dying our hair neon green with highlighters (didn’t work—our hair is too dark) as the plane lands on the tarmac. Mandy and I arguing so loud last month, we both lost our voices as I lug my carry-on out of the overhead compartment and shuffle off the plane and through the airport, searching for Aunt Vel.

Short Fiction

I’ve written so much short fiction this year! I have a goal to write a short story a month (they can range in length, as long as 1 is “complete”), so my short story brain has seriously been soaking it all up lately. Let’s chat my month to month breakdown so far:

January:

I wrote four stories in January! The first is a flash fiction piece called “Shark Swimming” that follows a young woman who attends a shark swimming class after breaking up with her girlfriend. I wrote this story for a “test” workshop for my fiction class, and it was based off the prompt “think about something you’re afraid to do and make the character do that thing”. I’m not particularly afraid of sharks, but had been wanting to use the title “Shark Swimming” for AGES (literally since 2018).

This story is one of my favourites. It’s only about 900 words, but I think there’s something profound in how mundanely specific it is. The entire story doesn’t even see the narrator swim with sharks once; it actually takes place fully in the sanctuary’s lobby. But I really love this narrator. This is the first story I’ve written in second person in a while, though I felt really connected to the unnamed narrator. She struggles with accepting that she truly is a “boring” person, and there’s something about the final image that really gets me!

I’ve been submitting this around, though it’s been rejected a handful of times. Hoping I can secure it at a magazine one day because I really love it!

The second story is “Joanne, I’ll Pray for You” which is actually a rewrite of one of my very first short stories (the first story I did not write for a class haha), “NYC in Your Apartment”. I LOVE this rewrite a lot, and also learned the original is not a very good short story! Revising this story taught me just how much I’ve learned in the 2 years I’ve been writing short fiction. Seeing the 2019 version versus the 2021 version side by side is fascinating because I essentially “gutted’ the 2019 version of its beginning and end until all that was left was the middle of the story (aka the actual story). AKA: this is the only story I’ve ever written with a hopeful ending and I cut out all the happy bits lol I am SO sorry (that arc is more for a novel or novella). That’s how this went from a 5k word story to an 1800 word story (my Submittable thanks me for this lol). A lot of details and scenes I included were more pertinent to a 3 act structure/novel, which of course short stories don’t often have because of their brevity. I love rambling about writing theory, and seeing that actually pay off is so fascinating!

(TW: trauma)

Like the original, this story follows Joanne, a woman in her early twenties, who spontaneously breaks up with her boyfriend. She claims the poltergeist haunting her drove her to this decision. The original draft focused a lot more on the traumatic events Joanne survives, but this draft really loosens them up. It focuses less so on the events themselves, and more on how Joanne’s life is affected. I found the details of these events were less important, and even sort of contradicted Joanne’s insistence she is being haunted. Instead, the poltergeist really takes more precedence in the new draft as a force Joanne doesn’t understand. That ambiguity, I think, is what the story truly needed.

I also centralized Joanne’s relationship with her boyfriend, Julian, here. Now don’t get me wrong, I really didn’t add anything to this draft. It was a matter of trimming the fat around it to leave the lean “meat” in the centre. But by removing that fat, I was able to emphasize what was most important here, and that was her relationship. Julian always played a really big role in the original draft, but I feel like his role as both a friend and partner to Joanne is much more emphasized since this draft literally is only two scenes now. Because there is less, there is more room for Joanne to reflect, which I’m happy about!

A final change I made was the setting and therefore the title. The original, which was “NYC in Your Apartment,” I couldn’t keep because I shifted the setting to Toronto (this is how I originally saw it, but in 2019 I just?? couldn’t?? write?? canlit??), and “Toronto in Your Apartment” sounded sort of gross LOL. The new title comes from a line in the story which I think is more relevant to the themes!

The next short story I wrote in January was “How to Spell Alpaca.” This one is super fun because I wrote it SO fast (in about 15 minutes or so). THIS is the writing update if you’re interested in learning more. I talked extensively about this one in that update, but some developments are that I dove into an edit a few weeks ago to really understand the core of the story. I’m still not quite there (this is just an intuitive feeling; I know not everything has “clicked), but I am really intrigued by the two mothers in the story, the narrator, and her newfound acquaintance, Violet. Both really struggle to understand their place as mothers (the narrator even declares she isn’t a mother anymore). The narrator, who is in her 50s, sees herself in Violet, who is much younger (~20s), and so she views Violet’s relationship with her daughter in a cautionary, yet mournful way, like she can see it will end up like her own relationship with her daughter, despite wanting the opposite. This is a really subtle story. I feel like if you blink, you’ll miss the message. But I think it’s compelling for that reason. It’s really a portrait of parenting and how to grapple with mistakes you may make that inevitably affect your children. Wow just unlocked the theme writing this lol.

The final story I wrote in January is “The Party,” which may be in my top 3 faves I’ve ever written. This story follows Aida, a recent divorcee in her ~40s. The day her divorce turns official, she moves into a new house and receives a party invitation addressed to the previous homeowner, yet RSVP’s anyway. At this party, she’s hoping to find some sense of noticeability, having struggled with being nondescript her whole life. Things seem quite normal at the party, until it gets bizarre.

I LOVE this story, y’all. Like “How to Spell Alpaca” it really delves into motherhood. Aida, our narrator, is incredibly hurt after her divorce. She now lives farther from her children she struggled to feel connected to in the first place, and doesn’t really know how to reignite her life. This party is a means to do that. This is the first story I’ve written that contains a “twist” which is strange because I really prefer stories that give us as much info as possible upfront, but yes, this one sort of twists.

February

I wrote one story in February, and that was “Protect the Young.” This title is SO changing when I think of a new one because it’s thematically incorrect, haha, but this story follows a woman in her late 40s whose daughter, Lindy, announces she is married the same day all their backyard chickens turn up dead. The discovery of dead chickens prompts our narrator to recall her ex-husband’s murder and the role her daughter may have played in his death.

I love this story so much! I think this would make a great closing for my short story collection. It just has that vibe! I wrote this for my second fiction workshop. I thought I had to hand in the story a week earlier than I had to, so I panicked and wrote this in one sitting! Little did I know, I did not need to do that lol but I’m very happy because this story is so fun. We get to learn more about Arnold (her ex), his relationship with Lindy, and how that translates to Lindy’s relationship with her new husband, Malcolm. I LOVE true crime (I listen to about 3-4 hours of case coverage daily), and this is my first “true crime” story. Because of that, I’m very sus of a few details that probably wouldn’t slide in actual investigatory work, so I’ll also be working on that in a revision. My professor also gave me a great suggestion that may alter the story’s structure a bit, though I look forward to toggling with it in the future.

March

In March, I was really on a Criminal Minds kick lol. I’ve been watching this show since I was seven (oops), and dove into a rewatch since it hit Disney+! This story, “Where to Run When the Lamb Roars,” is very clearly Rachel watching 5 episodes of CM a day. Oops! We follow 14-year-old Astrid as she and her older half brother kidnap a young girl to sacrifice for their yearly ritual.

I knew a few things going into this story, but the main thing was that I did NOT want to show any details of a potential murder (if one even occurs). I really wanted to keep all of those elements off the page because this story is not about those events, but about Astrid’s relationship with her brother. They are a murderous duo, with Astrid actually being the dominant partner. I wanted to explore that. I knew her brother, Fox, was more of a submissive partner in their team, even when he used to do this same thing with his father when he was much younger (chilling!), and so it was a task to explore how this young girl’s desire for violence works. The end actually comes right before the story starts, one could say, but I like it for this reason. It really made me contemplate the story by the time I finished it, and helped me examine what it really was about versus what it appeared to be about.

April

(TW: sexual content, non explicit)

I was so busy this month! Who knows if I’ll write a story last minute, but I did write one story this month called “Five Times Fast.” I wrote this during a “writing sprint” that was being hosted at a flash fiction workshop I recently took with one of my favourite writers ever, K-Ming Chang. I learned so much from this class, and am so happy I came out of it with a draft! This story is just over 300 words, so the shortest flash I’ve ever written, but I’m really happy with it. It was based off the prompt “describe the last time you or your character was naked.” In this case, the narrator has a “friends with benefits” relationship with Ricky who works at a laundromat. This story highlights a moment in this relationship (and also Ricky’s goofy personality lol). I really like it! Hopefully I’ll submit it to some magazines soon.

My short story collection

Very briefly I wanted to touch on my short story collection which I’ve titled “She is Also Dead.” I’ve been meaning to make a blog post on this, so look out for that in the coming months, but this collection is already at around 35k words (about 14 stories so far). The collection also surprisingly has a solid amount of flash fiction which is kind of fun! There’s definitely a range here, which is what I personally love in short story collections.

I feel very professional now that I have a ~collection chart. This is her:

(image description: A chart with the title “She is Also Dead.” It is broken into four columns: Story, Status, Word Count, and Published. Entry 1 - Story: Slaughter the Animal. Status: Revisions, Word Count, 3982, Published: N/A. Entry 2 - Story: Joanne, I’ll Pray for You, Status: Polished, Word Count: 1809, Published: N/A. Entry 3 - Story: Primary Organs, Status: Published, Word Count: 2342, Published: The Malahat Review. Entry 4 - Story: Faberge, Status, Polished, Word Count: 619, Published: N/A. Entry 5 - Story: The Wolf-Antelope Will Not Come for Us, Status, Polished, Word Count: 1556, Published: filling Station (forthcoming). Entry 6 - Story: How to Spell Alpaca, Status: revisions, Word Count: 1327, Published: N/A. Entry 7 - Story: Blink Twice for Final Judgement, Status: Polished, Word Count: 6572, Published: N/A. Entry 8 - Story: The Species is Dead, Status: Published, Word Count: 1208, Published: Minola Review. Entry 9 - Story: Shark Swimming, Status: Polished, Word Count: 907, Published: N/A. Entry 10 - Story: The Party, Status, Polished, Word Count 2339, Published: N/A. Entry 11 - Story: Fig, Status: Polished, Word Counter: 947, Published: N/A. Entry 12 - Story: Protect the Young, Status: Revisions, Word Count: 4128, Published: N/A. Entry 13 - Story: Where to Run When the Lamb Roars, Status: Revisions, Word Count: 2174, Published: N/A. Entry 14 - Story: Phantom Limbs, Status: Revisions, Word Count: 4844, Published: N/A.) /end image description.

This order is DEFINITELY not permanent (at this point whenever I write a story, I just fit it randomly into this chart lol), and some of the info is outdated (for example, Slaughter the Animal is now polished!!! thank god!!!). But just an idea of what I’m thinking of including.

This is the summary so far:

In SHE IS ALSO DEAD, characters are pushed to act on their gravest impulses. A small town turns murderous when their local invasive species, the Janices, begin dying. A child struggles to understand her mother’s suicide. A college dropout who insists she’s being haunted by a poltergeist unexpectedly breaks up with her boyfriend. A mother acknowledges her daughter’s murderous tendencies after her backyard chickens mysteriously die. A young girl caters the funeral of a girl rumored to be killed by a wolf-antelope. A newly-divorced mother RSVP’s to a bizarre party she was not invited to, and a murderous brother and sister upkeep their yearly tradition of abducting a young girl. These stories follow characters who navigate death, violent desires, womanhood, and loss, both self-imposed and otherwise.

This is also so subject to change as I may pull and add stories to the collection!

I think I’m going to leave this update here for now! I’ve written TONS of poetry too, but I honestly ~hate my poetry right now lol, so! Hope you enjoyed this chill rambly update. Hope writing has going well for you all! All the best!

--Rachel

#writing #writeblr #writerblr #amwriting #writingupdates

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nylwnder · 3 years

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you should do an explanation of why each song is on there! i think that would be really cool ngl

hiii i love the idea of this, thank you anon!!!!! (i’m so happy y’all care tho omg 🥺✋)

it’s under the cut ✨

bubs <3

i want to give him the biggest hug.

2h 53m

frank — alina baraz

endlessly — alina baraz

okay so i absolutely adore alina and if you’ve seen me mention that i’m making an album series, it’s going to be this album! these are two songs that just give me falling in love vibez, it’s so ethereal to me. and when i see willy i genuinely play this in my head. i have more alina down the playlist so it would be the same thing for them!

yours — maye

the lyrics <3 i definitely think about the lyrics a lot and i feel like it sums up what i feel about our beautiful blonde haired boy!

want u around — omar apollo, ruel

i fucking love this song. like LOVE it. the vibes vibes vibes vibes vibes!!!!!!!!! the beat, the way it makes me feel, ugh i definitely vibe with it and i feel like willy would too :)

god is a women — ariana grande

when i picture the other party in a relationship with will, i definitely feel like he’s absolutely going to make you feel like a goddess!!!! every time he sees you, he could practically just knee down to you.

the louvre — lorde

abajzjaknskalakakk okay before i start sobbing, definitely have a strong connection to this song and i can just picture a night out, we hit the city and let’s just vibe!!! “they’ll hang us in the louvre” yes cause we would be the cutest couple hands down. <3

chateau — angus & julia stone

we’re in the car, wind blowing in our hair, and the lyrics just sum it up! the beat of this, it just makes me so happy! the whole scene i picture every time i hear this is so candid and it makes my heart flutter every time.

alone with you — alina baraz

take it home — alina baraz

i literally just picture willy every time i hear her lol.

at my worst — pink sweat$, kehlani

our love would be so powerful. these lyrics make me sob! I WANT IT.

green eyes — uncle chris

if y’all seen my fancam of willy to this, (linked here) it definitely proves that it goes so well with him. it makes me feel so warm and i picture domestic life with will on this song.

thinking bout you — ariana grande

cause i’m always thinking about him hehe.

“got me losing my breathe, nobody got me the way that you did. had my eyes rolling back, had me arching my back.” :-)

ivy — frank ocean

i know it’s a sadish song but there’s this playfulness in here from the music itself that i picture willy with. plus he has this song repeated in his playlist so i know we’d be vibing!!!!!!

coming to my senses — alina baraz

i wanna make a fic with this song about him cause i can’t get him out of my head every time i hear this song. alina baraz x william nylander supremacy.

so damn into you — vlad holiday

this is me drowning in love with will.

collide — tiana major9, earthgang

holy fuck i’m obsessed with this song. this makes me hug him, kiss him, caress him, laying down and the sunlight hitting his skin. it makes me so fuzzy like absjaksnksmzkak give me a minute- *SOBS*

comfortable — h.e.r.

this makes me feel so warm, like willy would deadass radiate this to you. “whenever i get around you, i lose it” bitch i ain’t even met him and he sends me spiraling.

tú — maye

i think of will when i’m also listening to maye, so i needed to add some of her songs! and definitely relate him to the lyrics!! this is in spanish, but basically she’s saying: you’re the only one for me. i wanna follow you around all the time. and she loves him so much cause he treats her so very well.

lighting & thunder — jhené aiko, john legend

“what kind of spell do you have me under?” so warm, so cuddly, so peaceful, i want to hug him y’all don’t KNOW HOW MUCH!!!!!!!!!

heartbeats — josé gonzález

stay alive — josé gonzález

so i found these lovely songs on his playlists and i fell in love with them and he loves them so <3

love from ngc 7318 — barnes blvd, tanerélle

again this takes me back to the goddess thing i mentioned earlier. it’s so ethereal and so good and ugh i love it. i legit cannot think of anyone else. “killing the time, building a fort, wrapped in each other as we fall in love.” lovelyyyyyy

k. — cigarettes after sex

each time you fall in love — cigarettes after sex

it’s a rainy day, idk you don’t feel well, and willy comes home from practice and y’all just melt into each others warmth and these songs play in the back as they lull you both to sleep.

take me to church — hozier

if you’ve seen, i did mention i was writing a smutty fic of willy to this song. i’m sorta insecure about it rn, but i feel with some more editing it will show what i think about everytime i hear it. “TAKKEEE MEEE TO CHURRRCHHHH”

movement — hozier

talk — hozier

sexc ;)

let me love you — ariana grande, lil wayne

willy let me love u. pls.

pretty boy — the neighborhood

this song makes me so soft and who better than to think of our lovely blue eyed baby that i love so fucking muchhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!

let’s fall in love for the night — finneas

running around and laughing and teasing each other. idk this at 3am with will, it just feels like it would slap.

esa carita — rusowsky

another spanish song! “esa carita” translates to “that (sweet) face” and the whole song it just talks about how beautiful the persons face is. so that speaks for itself! but the song idk it’s very cuddly and cute and i wanna kiss all over his pretty face.

always forever — cults

stargazing — the neighborhood

come on, omg these, at night, fuckinh vibing, and just being so happy that we love each other so much. i’d be so happy. willy where u at!!?????

tadow — masego, fkj

someone made an edit to the boys in their suits to this song and it lives in my head rent free. and he just matched it so well

blue light — kelela

why do i picture stripping when i hear this? anyways it’s either him or me so…. shsjkakakskkal lmao

morocco — alina baraz, 6lack

okay here goes my sexc stage of the playlist. just the lyrics :)

bite — njomza

this, okay y’all, the lyrics just radiate our boy willy styles. if you don’t hear it, try again. lmao “sexy won’t you undresss for me” had me deadass laughing but we’re staring facts here. “GOT ME SIGNING HIGH NOTES THAT CAN WAKE THE NEIGHBOURS. TALKING DIRTY, RIDING STURDY. I LOVE IT WHEN YOU LET ME RIDE IT LIKE A JETSKI, YOU A PRO WHEN YOU SLIDE IN LIKE GRETZKY. YOU HIT YOUR MARK EVERY TIME LIKE YOU MESSI. FUCK ALL THAT CUTE SHIT, I LIKE IT WHEN IT’S MESSY. BITE.”

ungodly hour — chloe x halle

“love me at the ungodly hour”. goals.

love 2 u — jmsn

the guitar in this, jesus take the wheel!!!!! i feel like willy would know exactly what to do to you with this song playing in the back.

versos de placer — maye

another spanish song! (ya girls spanish so you guys gotta vibe with me!!!) it makes me so happy and it’s pretty much saying you love me so fucking well pls don’t leave.

slow dancing in the dark — joji

slow dance with me willy :(

big jet plane — angus & julia stone

just running away from all our problems. just the two of us. that’s it. “GONNA TAKE YOU FOR A RIDE ON A BIG JET PLANE”

can i — kehlani

hehe :-)

tonight — summer walker

my fancam speaks for itself. watch it here!

woman — doja cat

“LET ME BE YOUR WOMAN” PLSSSSS

#you’re so sexc if you read the whole thing #if you love the songs mwah ily we should get married #g! talks music #william nylander #toronto maple leafs #asks answered #hola anon <3 #william marry me challenge #william nylander imagine

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adinosaurnamedmittens · 3 years

Text

Alright so I can’t stop thinking of RVB Zero and how much potential it has so I wanna rework it a bit to work better.

So first I’m gonna talk about the new characters and what I’d change before breaking down the individual episodes for critique and suggested rewrites. At this point, I’ve only seen up to episode 4, Encounter. So spoilers till that ep.

West - Honestly great! He doesn’t have a ton of character, but what he has is solid. He works very well as the gruff, no-nonsense leader who’s a tiny bit of a dad.

Raymond - Also great! He’s the most classic RVB character, as he’s an underdog who’s not the best at fighting, but has a lot of heart. My fav new character, right next to Tiny.

One - I want to change her to 2nd in command and drop the whole “can’t work within a team” thing. Keep the confidence and slight rudeness, but drop all the lines referencing anti-teamwork. It hasn’t factored into the story so far, One has been successfully working as part of the team for all the episodes. This would make her dynamic with Axel more interesting, being in a higher position of power. Especially considering how her healthy relationship with her dad contrasts with East and West’s relationship. This would reinforce the tension with East, since One now has an actual position of power over her. Also, she should have the exact same powers as Zero, but maybe less powerful. This would help foreshadow that reveal, and help us understand how the enhancements work. While One is a bit of a shit, and thinks she knows best, she’s willing to take the fall when her ideas fail or get them in trouble.

Axel - Imma be honest: totally forgot he was One’s adopted dad until I rewatched the episodes prepping for this. You could drop it totally, as it gets a bit redundant with West and East’s relationship, but I think there’s more fun in working with it. Also, if One’s 2nd in command and Axel isn’t insecure about it at all? Instantly makes him a more likable guy. I also think he parallels to Wash very well (bit of a kid at heart, weapons guy, team dad, emotional heart) so we’re gonna expand on that too.

East - Her and One’s relationship is the driving force of conflict within the strike team. With the changes made to One, East can stay pretty much unchanged. Before they were too similar. Now, with One being abrasive but willing to work together, and East being more reserved and distant, they’re great foils for each other. Also she parallels early Carolina, which I love (speed is her ability, prefers working alone, competitive as hell, dad runs team)

Villains: On characterization, they’re all good! Villains are allowed to be a bit more shallow, and they all seem to have understandable motives for what they’re doing: Zero wants revenge and power, Phase wants revenge especially against West, and Diesel just seems like he’s having fun. I do want to change Zero’s power tho, with Phase already having a teleport with a cool gimmick, and Diesel having a strength/tank ability, Zero should have a unique ability. Maybe gravity because of the sword? It would allow him some cool movement tricks while still being visually distinct from Diesel and Phase’s abilities. Or something inspired by his “ghost” line from Duo.

EP 1: Viper

The Good: The introduction to the villains and their abilities was amazing. I love Phase’s knife and it’s honestly one of the coolest things I’ve seen in the show. And the intro to the Strike team? Hilarious. Great character work. You can tell that One and Axel are close, that Raymond is hesitant and new, East and One have a very competitive relationship, and West is the tough love dad.

The Bad: Don’t violate the 180 camera rule. The intro fight scene was cool, but the camera moved way too much and made it hard to keep track of everything happening. And with the new, shiny art style we need a bit more time to absorb what’s happening since the detail level went up. Also y’all healed Wash’s brain damage with a throwaway line, and then immediately fridged him? Not cool. I mean, if you wanted to show how tough the villains are, you already had them beat up Carolina.

Story Changes: - Zero gets name dropped this ep so we get a scene next ep where Axel recognizes his name. - Either replace Wash with a high ranking soldier and completely scrub him from the episode, or give a different reason why he can’t help, maybe exactly Carolina’s reason of “you’re recovering”. I’m not committing to totally removing Wash bc in Recovery Carolina’s line of “That I-that we thought was a medium risk asset” hints that Wash knew exactly what they were carrying and I’m excited to see where they take that. - Mainly I want scenes of Wash talking to Axel and expanding on his characterization as they are both Nice Boys Who Have Been Through It. - I also think a scene after we meet Strike where Axel asks Raymond “You like riding with East?” and Ray goes “You two stuck me with her on purpose!” and One goes “Yup!” all cheerfully. Just reinforce those team dynamics and friendships before it goes to shit!

EP 2: Recovery

The Good: The garage scene was perfect. Tiny is amazing, love her so much! And Axel got such great characterization during this ep. What a dork. West and Raymond also work super well together, their interactions are great.

The Bad:You know it’s a problem when the villains have a better dynamic than the heroes. The scene where Carolina explains all the strike member’s abilities and personalities? Bad. Also a little OOC for her. And redundant, since we also get Raymond asking West about East, and Axel’s explanation of the girls to Carolina.

Story Changes: - Have Axel, the emotional heart, waiting outside the recovery room for Carolina. Honestly, this isn’t that big, but I think it’d suit his character. - Carolina’s exposition is changed to solely history and abilities, no commenting on their personalities. Maybe East gets a little “has shown difficulty in working with others” but that’s it. The physical acting for these scenes really shines through, so let it stand alone. Even watching without sound, you can pick up that West is a no-nonsense leader, that Axel isn’t a flashy fighter but gets the job done, that East is fairly young and doesn’t take fighting seriously, and that One is willing to leave others behind if she thinks she can do it better. - For Carolina’s convo with One this ep about her “not willing to work on a team” either swap One with East or change it to “you need to listen to your team more. Don’t assume that you immediately now what’s best” - At the end of training, when Axel says “the guards were priority #1″ One should say “I knew you could handle it.” and Axel could respond with “Well, it’d be nice if you let me know that.” to show that One can work well as 2nd in command, but needs to communicate and stop assuming things. -Also should change Axel’s warning line about her enhancements to “Don’t push yourself. Remember what happened last time?” to enforce that this is a habit, and that while he cares about her, he’s not trying to boss her around as much. -Don’t reveal that East is West’s daughter until Raymond and West talk. That way, there’s a bit more emotional weight, and Ray’s line of “I was digging through the team files” makes more sense if Carolina doesn’t drop that info in the previous scene. - When Axel talks about the experiments East went through, he should mention that he was there for some of them. Dropping more foreshadowing for the Axel/Zero reveal! - Carolina drops Zero’s name in their convo, and we get a shot of Axel’s hand tightening on his weapon, showing the audience that the name means something to him, but we don’t know why.

EP 3: Duo

The Good: First 3rd of the ep? Really good. I love One being rude to Carolina, and then gaining a grudging respect. West and Raymond are, again, the best dynamic. How? I honestly have no idea. The car looks so stupid in the funniest way, I hate it but I love it. Also god yes Axel and Zero’s relationship is so wholesome and could be the best thing in this season. One’s warning call to the facility? The funniest shit. And Zero’s dialogue is hella cliched, but it works bc he’s obv such a dramatic bitch.

The Bad: HOLY HELL THE DIALOGUE. First, One and East’s fight? garbage. Very forced. Super hard to believe these two are real people. Carolina and West literally repeat the exact same line, less than 5 seconds apart. The dishwasher joke West makes does NOT at all work, it’s too tonally dissonant.

Story Changes: - Obv. need to change One and East’s convo. End it with “Without your power, you wouldn’t even be on this team!” East should storm off or almost attack One, requiring Axel to diffuse. - It’d also be really nice to get a line where One acknowledges that she went too far with that, but puts off apologizing to East. It’d be a nod that she’s good at reflecting and assessing, but too proud to actually take her words back. - I’d like to make Raymond more panicked when they find Wash. It’d help sell that he’s in bad shape and add more weight to “He’s got a heartbeat!” - Maybe re-work Phase and Zero’s conversation a bit. The dialogue is definitely not this season’s strong suit. - Pull Carolina’s “I’m just trying to help, East.” since it’s more impactful for East to storm off immediately and West says the line a couple seconds later. And change East’s dialogue to “You may be my CO, but don’t try to be my dad. Not after what you’ve done.” Or something similar. - For the dishwasher gag in the meeting, either pull it or double down. It’d work so much better if someone asks “Are you serious about this? Aren’t there more important things to discuss?” and West just deadpans. “This is of the upmost importance. If we can’t keep this base clean, how can we be expected to do anything else?!” and then Carolina clears her throat super loud and West goes “...Right. Rookie? Take it from here.” - Rework the “Carolina stay behind” dialogue. Even just a “Carolina. You’re still recovering. If you get hurt again, it’ll just be longer till you can take these bastards down. Keep an eye on Wash, will you?” I just couldn’t get behind the wording of “we need you here. With wash” It sounds like every cliched “woman must stay behind while the manly men save everyone!” Might be personal preference but just ew. - Add a scene where One notices Axel being a bit off (bc he’s worried about Zero being a part of the bad guy team) and she asks if he’s okay. He brushes her off, says its nothing. She goes “alright, i trust you.” - Maybe make the flashback a bit more apparent? There was a moment in the middle where I questioned whether or not it was a flashback. Again, could be a me problem.

EP 4: Encounter

The Good: The fight scenes continue to be absolute standouts. The varied environments, the movement, the dynamics on point. Wish we could’ve saw a bit more from Axel, but as is the scene worked well. The framing of the ep was good too, cutting between the mission and the fallout. And Ray, resident coward, immediately squaring up without a thought after West got injured? *chef’s kiss*. THAT is good character development. THAT is an amazing way to establish their relationship without telling us outright. Go feral, my boy! And Tiny and Raymond’s convo was so cute. I love how, despite what he says, Ray is there for his team and always willing to help. Carolina and One’s convo was also pretty decent. It got a bit long and over-explainy on Carolina’s end, but there were some pretty good moments.

The Bad: The fight after the mission failure was SO over-acted. Too much motion, to many camera angles. It changed what should have been tense arguments to hilarious melodrama. This has been a consistent problem, but it REALLY affects this scene in particular. And the second Axel enters the scene it just immediately goes downhill.

Story Changes: - Add a line from West in the beginning scene like “I’ll cut them off!” to explain why he isn’t in the car too. This also means it’s not as out-of-nowhere when West shows up to trash the car. - One should call out Axel instead of East. If she’s his daughter, she should be able to tell when he’s acting off. And she would have an easier time connecting the dots between Axel and Zero. - Instead of “I trusted you.” One should say “You lied to me.” 1) He’s her dad. One lie isn’t gonna break her total trust. 2) This would imply it’s the first time he’s lied to her, adding more weight to the whole situation 3) It’s way more accusatory and less cliched (if only a bit) - Add in a “One, wait!” bc I am a sucker for it and we could hear the guilt in his voice, rather than the weird scene where the girls make him spin around by bumping into him. - It’d also be nice if Ray stayed back for a bit before leaving, so we got a bit of his feelings on the matter. I mean, obviously he cares a lot about West, but does he blame Axel for not being there to help? It’d be nice to know!

TL;DR The best parts of the episodes are the fight scenes, and when they focus on the fun team dynamics. The worst parts are dialogue (mostly the serious bits) and over-animating, as this takes away from the drama.

I don’t mind the cheesy villains, but that may not be the case for everyone.

The best part of RVB has always been the rag-tag found family dynamics. While the fight scenes are cool, they have always been supplemental to the real meat of the show. The writers are trying something new with the whole “actual family” but you have got to focus on and develop these relationships if you want fans to care.

Mostly, I see a lot of potential in these characters, but there are GLARING issues in this season that are holding them back.

#rvb #rvb zero #rvb zero spoilers #rant #long post #criticism #might add on to this when new eps release bc i am invested #though not entirely for the right reasons #i just see the POTENTIAL #and i physically cannot hold myself back

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angelic-blxssom · 4 years

Note

can i request the sfw alphabet for kuroo, kageyama and lev? thank you

———— ꧁꧂ ☘︎︎ sfw alphabet - p1

characters ➪ kuroo, kageyama

authors note ♡︎ so this took waaay longer than expected so I hope you don’t mind that I took out lev (I also don’t know his personality too well but feel free to request him again if you would like his :)

Kuroo Tetsurou ;

A = Affection (How affectionate are they? How do they show affection?)

Kuroo is pretty affectionate when it comes to relationships. He most likely will almost always have an arm or a hand on you at all times, he likes to show others that you are his.

B = Best friend (What would they be like as a best friend? How would the friendship start?)

He’s the humorous yet quite intelligent friend. Kuroo may seem a little aloof soemtimes but he’s actually quite smart. He’d enjoy making you laugh and teasing you quite often.

C = Cuddles (Do they like to cuddle? How would they cuddle?)

Yes! Kuroo lovessss to cuddle! Imagine his arms wrapping around your body as you snuggle into his side and the only thing heard is a fan and the two of yours breathing. I’m so lonely

D = Domestic (Do they want to settle down? How are they at cooking and cleaning?)

Kuroo would probably want to settle down but let’s be honest; he probably sucks ass at cooking. Like his forte is volleyball, not cooking food so you’ll probably have to know how to cook at least something.

E = Ending (If they had to break up with their partner, how would they do it?)

I really doubt that Kuroo would be the one to break up with someone; but if I had to say something, maybe you don’t like his jokes 😼

F = Fiance(e) (How do they feel about commitment? How quick would they want to get married?)

Kuroo wants to settle down and get into a relationship like that but I think he’d struggle with commitment. Kuroo wants to pursue volleyball but if you support him then he’ll have no problem.

G = Gentle (How gentle are they, both physically and emotionally?)

He’s pretty gentle, Kuroo’s hands are calloused and stuff so his grip tends to be tight on you when he’s holding your hand or hugging you.

H = Hugs (Do they like hugs? How often do they do it? What are their hugs like?)

Speaking of hugging you... Kuroo loves hugs! And I mean like; he wants hugs. Desperately. (Probably touch starved but that’s another headcannon) he hugs you alOt.

I = I love you (How fast do they say the L-word?)

Kuroo wouldn’t say it immediately because he’d want to get to know you for you but I’d say it wouldn’t take too long for him to say it.

J = Jealousy (How jealous do they get? What do they do when they’re jealous?)

Doesn’t get too jealous often but when he does get jealous, it’s all out. Like- making out with you in front of the boy or girl, I don’t judge

K = Kisses (What are their kisses like? Where do they like to kiss you? Where do they like to be kissed?)

Kuroo loves to kiss your neck, it’s sensual and he also enjoys the noises that escape you when he does. His kisses are definitely passionate; don’t @ me 😾. You love to kiss his nose because it’s the only way to make him blush heavily.

L = Little ones (How are they around children?)

Enjoys children but probably not his favorite thing in the world.

M = Morning (How are mornings spent with them?)

Definitely morning cuddles, like both of y’all still groggy and shit from the sleep and you just lay there in each other’s arms.

N = Night (How are nights spent with them?)

All I gotta say is... sexy time.

O = Open (When would they start revealing things about themselves? Do they say everything all at once or wait a while to reveal things slowly?)

I think that Kuroo tends to be a more private person in general so it would take a little for him to reveal extremely personal stuff about him.

P = Patience (How easily angered are they?)

He’s not easily angered but as stated before, he will get extremely angry if jealous (not at you though)

Q = Quizzes (How much would they remember about you? Do they remember every little detail you mention in passing, or do they kind of forget everything?)

I swear, this rooster bitch probably remembers everything about you. Remember that one childhood story you told him a year ago, guess what; its still engraved in his brain!

R = Remember (What is their favorite moment in your relationship?)

When he first said that he loved you, your face was all flushed and your eyes sparkled as you laughed and repeated those words back to him. The worlds that made his heart flutter.

S = Security (How protective are they? How would they protect you? How would they like to be protected?)

Kuroo is very protective over his s/o. He doesn’t obsess over protecting you because he knows you can defend yourself but he takes precautions just in case because sometimes you can be very clumsy.

T = Try (How much effort would they put into dates, anniversaries, gifts, everyday tasks?)

I swear to Jesus, this man. THIS MAN. is the embodiment of effort into your relationship. He is always there and has some sort of gift whenever you’re down.

U = Ugly (What would be some bad habits of theirs?)

Probably ignoring you, like if he was with friends, Kuroo probably would forget to text you or respond to calls if he was out.

V = Vanity (How concerned are they with their looks?)

Not extremely concerned but Kuroo does enjoy looking handsome for you

W = Whole (Would they feel incomplete without you?)

He would be pretty sad but he knows you would want him to move on so he would. In this 10 years tho.

X = Xtra (A random headcanon for them.)

It’s like 5am and the only thing i can think of is Big Dick Energy, i know this aint sfw. leave me alone 😩

Y = Yuck (What are some things they wouldn’t like, either in general or in a partner?)

Sharing you? like romantically. so basically being in a poly relationship because he wants your love all to himself.

Z = Zzz (What is a sleep habits of theirs?)

Grabbing your thigh when hes asleep. Sometimes you’ll feel a small squeeze as he is dreaming in the middle of the night. It never is sexual tho, just a comforting thing.

Tobio Kageyama ;

A = Affection (How affectionate are they? How do they show affection?)

He’s not extremely affectionate but you do get some good love here and there from this boy

B = Best friend (What would they be like as a best friend? How would the friendship start?)

He’s definitely still as quiet and “rude” as he usually is but grows a soft spot for you over time. Will protect you from duded teasing you but then go on to tease you himself.

C = Cuddles (Do they like to cuddle? How would they cuddle?)

Doesn’t really like to cuddle but will do it if you ask him. He tends to be kinda stiff while cuddling but definitely gets used to it over time.

D = Domestic (Do they want to settle down? How are they at cooking and cleaning?)

Not very good at cooking but I think he’d do good cleaning around the house. Like you cook and he cleans, fair deal right? Anyways, Tobio wants to settle down but after he’s finished with volleyball.

E = Ending (If they had to break up with their partner, how would they do it?)

Honestly, he’d get really nervous surprisingly and end up doing it over text.

F = Fiance(e) (How do they feel about commitment? How quick would they want to get married?)

Like before, he enjoys commitment but after he has finished volleyball, otherwise it might distract him from winning.

G = Gentle (How gentle are they, both physically and emotionally?)

Physically, he is pretty gentle to you. Soft touches, slightly soft voice as he speaks to you at the dead of night. Emotionally though, hes a little rough around the edges. Teases you and messes around but he always sounds so serious.

H = Hugs (Do they like hugs? How often do they do it? What are their hugs like?)

No. Well kinda. Only hug him when he’s in a good mood, otherwise you aren’t getting a hug.

I = I love you (How fast do they say the L-word?)

Not very fast knowing, Kageyama. He would wait a little and you might even have to say it first :0

J = Jealousy (How jealous do they get? What do they do when they’re jealous?)

He gets jealous pretty easy because you’re the only one that truly understands him. Kageyama doesn’t do much, he just kinda pouts in the corner silently.

K = Kisses (What are their kisses like? Where do they like to kiss you? Where do they like to be kissed?)

He has soft yet slight rough kisses, just like his personality hehe. He likes to kiss your lips because its classic and likes the feel of it. Kageyama enjoys being kisses on the temple because, it makes him feel better from whatever he was worrying about.

L = Little ones (How are they around children?)

Not good. Please don’t bring him around children unless its your own.

M = Morning (How are mornings spent with them?)

Kageyama is up early for volleyball so you see him very little but definitely some soft kisses before he leaves.

N = Night (How are nights spent with them?)

If you ask, he will wrap you gently in his arms and have you listen to his heartbeat as you both fall asleep in the moonlight.

O = Open (When would they start revealing things about themselves? Do they say everything all at once or wait a while to reveal things slowly?)

Kageyama doesn’t reveal to much of himself until like a year of dating? He thinks it’s very personal but you have a right to know as his s/o so he doesn’t mind as much.

P = Patience (How easily angered are they?)

I mean... he’s angered pretty easily lmaO. thats my TED talk.

Q = Quizzes (How much would they remember about you? Do they remember every little detail you mention in passing, or do they kind of forget everything?)

He tends to forget things at time but always remembers the important stuff, like birthday, family, favorite food, etc;

R = Remember (What is their favorite moment in your relationship?)

The first game you attended of his. They were against another school and he was getting sLigHtly worried but when he saw you in the audience, BOOM confidence booster and boy did he love it.

S = Security (How protective are they? How would they protect you? How would they like to be protected?)

Kageyama is pretty protective but probably doesn’t care if you are gone and don’t tell him because he’s not THAT protective.

T = Try (How much effort would they put into dates, anniversaries, gifts, everyday tasks?)

Like volleyball, Kageyama puts in alot of effort to the relationship; not as much as Kuroo but still alot. He puts in work for anniversaries and gifts but since dates are pretty often, not much effort there.

U = Ugly (What would be some bad habits of theirs?)

Being rude to you, like ignoring you on purpose or getting mad for you doing little things wrong. I don’t make the rules, sorry

V = Vanity (How concerned are they with their looks?)

Doesn’t really care about his looks in front of you cause you love him anyways.

W = Whole (Would they feel incomplete without you?)

Pretty incomplete, like he was numb before but now he’s a robot. BEEP BOOP Kageyama. ok i’m sorry. but seriously, he’s lost without his half to keep him steady.

X = Xtra (A random headcanon for them.)

This little- probably hates spiders and makes you kill them for him. He’s a damn baby at times so be warned.

Y = Yuck (What are some things they wouldn’t like, either in general or in a partner?)

Get extremely sexual in front of others; like no sexy touching him or you in front of his teammates . it makes Kageyama a little uncomfortable.

Z = Zzz (What is a sleep habits of theirs?)

Stealing all the blankets from you and then when you wake him up to say you’re cold, he’ll pull you into his arms to radiate the heat.

#haikyuu!!#haikyuu imagines #haikyuu #haikyuu x reader #haikyuu headcannons #Kuroo Tetsurou #kuroo tetsuro x reader #Kuroo Tetsurou x Reader #kuroo scenarios #kuroo tetsurou imagines #tobio kageyama #tobio kageyama x reader #tobio kageyama imagines #tobio kageyama headcannons #kageyama x reader #anime #anime x reader #anon #request

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bijvoorbeeldja · 4 years

Text

HERE SHE IS

The full enemies-to-lovers, “You’ve Got Mail” Sobbe AU, sprinkled with a few little surprises ***

I was NOT playin around when I said I was going to write ALL the fics during this quarantine y’all ain’t ready

Hope you enjoy! <3 I’d love to know what you think (even if you hate it)

……

Robbe’s phone buzzed on his nightstand.

earthlingoddity: good morning

He smiled into the screen, rubbing sleep from his eyes.

sterkerdanijzer: already awake?

earthlingoddity: yep

earthlingoddity: had some early morning inspiration

sterkerdanijzer: r u gonna let me see what you drew this time?

earthlingoddity: nope

earthlingoddity: against the rules

Robbe sighed, shaking his head.

Rolling out of bed, he contemplated what to type in response. This back-and-forth had been going on for months now, always coming back to this: the rules.

Clearly, they could text all they wanted. But that was it: just text. No voices, no photos showing their faces, locations, or anything else personal. Like drawings, for example. Nothing personal.

But really, everything they had been doing, all they had been talking about, felt personal to Robbe.

Screw the rules, Robbe thought. Even just through texts, he’d gotten closer to this person than anyone else in his life. Their conversations often started at dawn and spread throughout the day, lingering into the night until one of them fell asleep.

Of course, he’d agreed to the rules at the beginning. Hell, he’d made them. It was just talking, nothing else. But the more they talked, the more he wanted.

….

In a weird turn of events, Robbe had met Earthling in the comments of an Antwerp street art Tumblr, where teenagers flocked to share and comment on their latest masterpieces. Masked by alias handles, no one involved in the group knew the identities of the others. When they met up to tag at a location, everyone wore masks, hoodies, and dark clothes. Then they rehashed their work online, sharing photos and comments before planning their next meetup.

Robbe, using his disguised handle, had commented on a photo, when a stranger named earthlingoddity had commented back. Robbe had laughed and responded. The two passed banter back and forth before finally moving to DMs.

earthlingoddity: so you’re an artist, then the stranger had written him.

sterkerdanijzer: no, definitely not

sterkerdanijzer: I’m just in it for the vandalism

earthlingoddity: Hahahaha fair enough

earthlingoddity: u live in antwerp tho right?

sterkerdanijzer: pretty sure we’re not supposed to share details, STRANGER

earthlingoddity: ;-)

earthlingoddity: youre right. but i mean, we are talking now. and we’ve probably already seen each other

sterkerdanijzer: yeah maybe

earthlingoddity: I probably would have recognized a vandal tho…

sterkerdanijzer: not a chance. you’re probably one of those uppity art hoes who makes his masterpiece and doesn’t even acknowledge the little people

earthlingoddity: so you’re short then

sterkerdanijzer: enough! no personal details

Earthlingoddity: ok, so no names, no locations, no personal details. Any other rules?

sterkerdanijzer: uhm

sterkerdanijzer: no phone calls. And NO pics of your artwork. I might recognize it

Earthlingoddity: so definitely no dick pics, then

Robbe had nearly choked at this. Even though their chatting had started as nearly nothing, it had rapidly become...something. At least for Robbe. The past few weeks, their conversations had grown from occasional back-and-forths to constant communication, nearly-endless banter, and then...not-so-subtle flirting. Whatever was going on with this stranger, Robbe couldn’t bear to lose it.

…..

Once he was finally ready for school that day, Robbe grabbed his skateboard and headed out to the street. Before mounting his board on the sidewalk, he opened his last chat with Earthling, trying to muster the courage to send him the message he’d been wanting to for days.

sterkerdanijzer: what if we said screw the rules….and met up? Like IRL?

Robbe’s fingers hovered over the keys, trying to gather the courage to hit send. It was stupid, he knew, but he was so terrified of scaring this stranger away. For reasons he didn’t fully understand yet, he needed him. Assuming it was, in fact, a him. I guess it was bold of him to assume Earthling was a boy. And gay. He took a breath and kicked off, starting to roll down the street.

Then, out of nowhere, he was crashing, thrust back off his board and onto the ground as he collided with something. Or better, someone.

Ugh, he groaned. Slowly rising up, he grabbed his phone and bag, which had been expelled violently from the impact.

“What the hell, Robin?” the boy said, picking himself back up off the sidewalk where he’d fallen. “Why don’t you watch where you’re going?! Do you even know how to ride that thing?”

Brushing the dirt off his hands, he looked up, already feeling stiff aches form in his joints from the fall. Looking up, he groaned again.

Of course, it was Sander Driesen. He should have known immediately. No one else had the nerve to call him Robin.

Robbe rolled his eyes. “Maybe you shouldn’t be meandering in the middle of the sidewalk,” he threw back. “Pick a side and stay out of the way of people who actually need to get somewhere.”

Sander scoffed, dusting himself off and grabbing his bag, rearranging the now-disorderly contents inside. “Right, I forgot. You’ll be late for class,” he said, the words dripping with disdain. “Ahh, to be young and only concerned with high school drama.”

Oh, how Robbe hated Sander Driesen.

Clad head-to-toe in black, with a noisy leather jacket, combat boots and a shock of (badly) bleached-blonde hair, he was a walking cliche.

The two had grown up together, coexisting side by side in school and social circles. But the two could not be more different. Because of this, their relationship didn’t amount to much more than swapped insults in passing, tense confrontations, and merciless teasing. Now that Sander had graduated high school, their interactions were fewer. But for Robbe, that was still too often.

“So tell me, O Wise One,” Robbe shot back. “If you’re so above all of us children, why are you still dating Britt? She’s not too ‘high school drama’ for you?”

Sander grimaced. “I’m not with Britt,” he said, almost clenching his teeth.

“Right, whatever,” Robbe said, ready for this encounter to be way past over. “I don’t give a damn about your personal life. In fact, I don’t give a damn about anything involving you. I have to go.”

He turned to leave, realizing he skateboard was still on the ground, rolled out of his reach, an end tucked under the heel of Sander’s boot. He smirked at Robbe.

“Oh, right. Your toy.” Sander rolled it back to Robbe, staring him down with an obnoxious smile. “See you around...Robin.”

Robbe grabbed his board and walked off in a huff, flipping Sander off as he passed. “Screw you, Sander.”

Rounding the corner, he stopped to steady his breathing. Why must his day be tainted with the influence of that fake blonde, edgy wannabe pyscho? Inhaling deep and taking advantage of his high tide of emotions, he pulled out his phone again, returning to his chat with Earthling. Do it, he told himself. Do it before you lose your nerve. Typing fast, he wrote:

Sterkerdanijzer: what if we said screw the rules….and met up? Like IRL?

He hit Send, waiting breathlessly.

Within seconds, three dots appeared. Earthling was typing.

……

The music was blaring, thumping against Robbe’s heartbeat. The crowd at the party was so thick that he was pressed up against Jens and Aaron, their combined heat making him slightly nauseous.

But all he could focus on was the neon glow of the screen in front of him, and in his mind running over and over the words Earthling had texted him hours earlier: Earthlingoddity: probably not a good idea.

Robbe had stared at it again and again, feeling that same nosedive in his stomach as he had when he first got it that morning on the street. He didn’t want to meet Robbe. So all of it had been...nothing after all. Deep down he’d known that. It was just talking. But it still felt like rejection. How could he so intensely have misread their connection? Even virtually, Robbe had felt the magnitude of it. Or so he’d thought.

All of this considered, he hadn’t been a very good wingman for his friends tonight. They’d dragged him to this party at Noor’s, scanning the room intently, looking for girls to pursue. Robbe just stood by, slumped and sipping lukewarm beer that just made his stomach turn.

Earthlingoddity: probably not a good idea he read again. Ugh. He was going to be torturing himself all night.

“Dude,” Jens elbowed him suddenly, or maybe just shifted, their proximity making it impossible to tell. “Dude, ten o’clock. That guy is totally checking you out.”

Robbe scoffed, not even bothering to look up. Gay guys at this party? He doubted it.

“Seriously, Robbe,” Jens pushed again. “He’s definitely staring. And he’s actually pretty hot.”

“Yep, totally,” Aaron agreed, nodding as he took a swig of his beer. “Definitely your type.”

“I don’t have a type,” Robbe sighed, finally tucking his phone back in his pocket and looking up. Shifting his gaze to his left, he looked in the direction the boys had indicated, trying to find a pair of eyes seeking his.

Whoa. Okay, so he was pretty hot.

Tall with messy brown hair, a boy with blue eyes was meeting his gaze. When the corners of the boy’s lips lifted in a smile, Robbe blushed, looking down. Now he looked desperate. Super.

“Go get another beer,” Jens said, shoving him forward. “See if he follows you. And act cool!”

“What? I—” Robbe protested, but the two were now pushing him together, forcing a parting of the crowd in front of them.

Robbe swallowed, palms starting to sweat. He wove slowly through groups and couples dancing, making his way to the kitchen. Inside he sought out more drinks among the counter full of bottles and cups. It only took a few moments before he heard it.

“Hey,” the voice behind him said, deep and raspy.

Robbe turned slowly, trying to swallow the dryness from his throat. The tall boy stood behind him, his beer dangling from two fingers. He leaned down to Robbe, putting his mouth close to his ear.

“I’m Nathan,” he leaned back again to look Robbe in the eyes.

“Uhm,” Robbe stammered. “I’m Rob-Robbe.”

“Hi, Robbe,” Nathan said, smiling. “Do you dance?” He took a step forward, dangerously close.

“Not if I can help it,” Robbe laughed nervously. The boy laughed too, revealing a set of perfectly white teeth and dimples. Robbe wiped a hand across his mouth, worried he was drooling now.

“Maybe another drink, then?” the boy asked. Robbe just nodded.

Nathan smiled and reached around to the counter, searching through the bottles. When he finally found an unopened one, he popped off the top easily, making Robbe’s stomach flip. So hot.

Nathan handed it to Robbe, smiling. As Robbe took it, their fingertips brushed together. Robbe looked down, blushing. Then, again, the boy’s face was leaning down. They were cheek to cheek.

“Want to get out of here?” he whispered, sending a wave of goosebumps down Robbe’s arm and spine. With a small nod, Nathan grabbed Robbe’s hand, leading him through the crowd.

…..

Outside, the air was much cooler, and Robbe felt like he could breathe again. The music blared from the door of the apartment building onto the street, but now it was just a dull throb instead of a deafening pulse.

Deep inhales of the outside air made his head feel lighter, his thoughts clearer...that is, until Nathan would brush his arm. Then he felt fuzzy again. With one arm leaning against the brick of the building, the other was casually touching Robbe’s every few minutes and Robbe could feel his knees going weak.

They had been talking for almost forty-five minutes and Robbe forgot how nice it was to talk intimately with someone he could actually be face to face with. Why had he even been bothering with Earthling? Clearly, that was going nowhere. Nathan, on the other hand, had potential. He was interesting, asking Robbe about his life and sharing details about his own. They talked easily, their touches getting progressively more frequent. Then, Nathan went silent, his gaze flicking down to Robbe’s lips. Robbe’s stomach was fluttering, licking his lips in anticipation. Nathan was leaning in, the hand against the brick sliding down to Robbe’s waist….

“Well, well well,” a loud voice behind him announced, breaking violently through their moment, causing the two to pull apart quickly. “If it isn’t my pal, Robin!”

Sander Driesen, in dark jeans and a white t-shirt, appeared next to Robbe, followed by Britt in tow. He looked from Robbe to Nathan, smiling widely.

“You have got to be kidding me,” Robbe muttered under his breath. Nathan looked confused, glancing from Robbe to the bleached-blonde boy.

“Robin?” he asked, biting his lip in bewilderment.

“Ignore him,” Robbe said, grabbing his shoulder. “C’mon.”

“Aren’t you going to introduce me, Robin?” Sander replied, cocking his head and raising his eyebrows at Robbe.

Robbe groaned. “Seriously, Sander,” he said, “Not now.”

“Oh, c’mon, buddy,” he gave Robbe’s shoulder a soft punch. “Introduce me to your friend,” the last work thick with implication.

Robbe rolled his eyes as Sander stuck a hand out to Nathan, who took it with a polite smile.

“I’m Sander,” the boy said. “Robbe and I….well, let’s just say we have a looooong history.”

Robbe glared at Sander. “We’re going now.”

As he was leading Nathan back down the street, Sander called out again, louder.

“We didn’t mean to interrupt the moment, love birds,” he said, smirking. “Carry on!” With a chuckle, Sander threw an arm around Britt’s waist and walked into the apartment.

A few feet down the sidewalk Nathan turned to Robbe. “Who was that?

“Nobody,” Robbe answered quickly, trying to turn the conversation anywhere but on Sander.

“It didn’t seem like nobody,” Nathan said quietly, rubbing a hand through his hair. “Is he...an old boyfriend, or something?”

“What?!” Robbe near-shouted, stopping to look right at Nathan. “No. No. Not even close. He drives me crazy.”

Nathan bit his lip. “Look, Robbe. I should probably get going.”

“What?” Robbe said, his face dropping. “Because of him? You can’t be serious—”

“I was probably moving too quickly,” Nathan said slowly. “I’m sorry.” He gave Robbe a quick kiss on the cheek and walked away, turning the corner out of view.

…..

Robbe didn’t care who was spilling drinks or getting their feet stepped on. Plowing through the crowd with his elbows, he found his way into the party and back to Jens and Aaron, who were in the middle of telling a story to two girls bearing plastic cups and bored expressions.

“Uhm, hey guys?” Robbe said, tapping Jens on the shoulder. “I’m going to take off.” Jens turned, quickly motioning a be right back to the girls, who nodded vaguely.

“Wait, what happened with the guy?’ Jens asked eagerly. “Are you going to his place?”

Robbe frowned. “No. It didn’t exactly...work out.”

“Sorry, man,” Aaron said, slapping Robbe’s shoulder. “Want us to come with?”

Robbe shook his head. “Nah, you guys stay. I’m going to call it a night anyway.”

Finishing his goodbyes, Robbe ditched his bottle and stepped back out in the night air, now considerably cooler. Finding his bike, he started unlocking the lock when a voice behind him again shook him out of his thoughts.

“Headed home already?” Sander. Again.

Robbe whipped around on him, finding him alone this time.

“Seriously, Sander? Can you please just leave me alone?” Robbe said, almost whining now. “You already managed to ruin this night for me once.”

This sobered Sander a little, who swallowed and took a step forward.

“Robbe, I—”

“No, I mean it, Sander. Go back to Britt, who’s apparently not your ‘girlfriend,’” Robbe did air quotes, making Sander clench his teeth again, “and leave me the hell alone.”

There was silence for a moment before Sander spoke.

“I’m sorry, Robbe.”

Robbe shook his head and turned back to his bike lock.

“I was doing you a favor, okay?” Sander spoke, his voice insistent. “That guy seemed like a real douche.” Robbe scoffed. Seriously?

“I mean, did you see his hair?” Sander continued. “Total poser.”

Robbe laughed to himself. “Yeah, like you’re one to talk,” he mumbled back at Sander.

Sander smiled at this. “Touche.”

Robbe had his bike unlocked now and he started to wheel it down the street.

“See you around, Robbe.” Sander called out.

“Yeah, don’t count on it,” Robbe replied.

As he mounted his bike, his phone vibrated. A message.

Earthlingoddity: You know what, forget what I said. Screw the rules. Let’s meet. When? Where?

………

Robbe didn’t respond to Earthling’s message for several days. When he did, he wanted to come off cool, casual. He drafted and redrafted the same message in a hundred different ways. Finally, he sent back:

Sterkerdanijzer: Yeah, okay. I guess we can. I can do Friday at 18h. Drinks at Jardim Antwerpen?

He got a reply almost immediately.

Earthlingoddity: Absolutely. I’ll be there. Without a mask ;-)

So there he was, sitting at a table watching the sun go down, turning a near-empty glass in his hands over and over again in his hands. Even with the condensation from the glass, Robbe’s palms were clammy. He was so nervous he had to occasionally reach down to calm his shaking legs.

Milan had helped him pick out an outfit, a white linen button up and jeans. Zoe had mussed his hair until she insisted it was “perfect.” But he just felt ridiculous. Why was he even doing this? If he’d learned anything from the past few weeks, it was that he knew nothing. And he was probably going to be single forever. And for all he knew, Earthling would turn out to be a serial killer.

At 18h15, Robbe started to get antsy. He messaged the boy:

Sterkerdanijzer: I’m here. White shirt, brown hair. U close?

But he got no response. He bit his lip anxiously, checking his phone constantly. At 18h45, after he had downed one more drink than he should have, he got up. Leaving a tip on the table, he shoved his phone in his pocket and headed to leave. This was a ridiculous idea, he scolded himself. So stupid. Of course he wouldn’t show.

As he neared the exit, he saw a flash of white in his peripheral. Turning, he saw a boy sitting at a table alone, phone in his hand. Sander.

As if he’d spoken his name out loud, Sander looked up, green eyes glowing. He smirked. “Small world,” he called out to Robbe. “What are you doing here?”

Robbe glared at him. “None of your business. What are you doing here?”

Sander just looked at him for a minute. “I’m, uh...waiting for Britt. She’s supposed to be here soon. Were you waiting for a date?” His knowing smile made Robbe’s insides twist.

“Right,” Robbe said, nodding. “Well, I’m going to…” he turned again to leave.

“Uhm, actually, Robbe?” he called out. Robbe turned back slightly. What was he going to say now?

“Do you think I could borrow your phone to text Britt? Mine is dead.”

Robbe hesitated. Gone from Sander’s tone was any hint of teasing. He sounded genuine. He sounded desperate, almost.

“Yeah, fine,” Robbe seceded, walking over to Sander’s table and handing over his phone.

“Thanks,” Sander said, giving Robbe a small smile as he met his gaze.

Robbe stood there as Sander typed, concentrating hard on the screen. Waiting, he glanced around again. No sign of anybody new. No sign of anybody looking for him. He was so stupid.

“So, were you supposed to meet Nathan here?” Sander asked, not looking up as he continued to type.

“Why do you care?” Robbe asked.

Sander looked up. “I’m just making conversation. I hope it wasn’t him, though. You could do better.”

Robbe scoffed. “Okay, thanks for the tip, Sander.” He turned away again. ‘Cause Sander cared SO much about him. Right.

Then Sander stood, downing the rest of his drink. “Look like she’s not coming.” But as he handed Robbe back his phone, he didn’t look sad. He was smiling. Walking toward the exit, he turned back toward Robbe.

“You coming?” Sander asked.

“What, me?” Robbe asked incredulously.

“Uh, yeah you, Robin,” Sander laughed. “Let’s go.” Walking away again, Robbe stood there, mouth open.

“Come!” Sander’s voice reached Robbe again. He was probably too drunk to think straight because next thing he knew, he was following Sander’s silhouette into the sunset.

…..

“Sander, you cannot be serious,” Robbe stood obstinately away from the door, shaking his head at the boy, who was jiggling with the lock on a door, labeled boldly with a “No Trespassing” sign. “I assumed your plans were more drinks, not jail.”

Sander kept his hands on the door handle, but turned to face Robbe, a teasing grin on his face.

“Would you chill? We’re not getting arrested. I’ve done this a hundred times.”

“Yeah, ‘cause that makes me feel better,” Robbe retorted.

Sander just laughed and continued jiggling until click. The door squeaked open. He turned and raised his eyebrows at Robbe. “Come.”

Robbe shook his head again. He could not believe this. Not only was Sander trying to ruin his social life, he was trying to get him arrested. But Sander had disappeared behind the door, and finally, reluctantly, Robbe followed behind him.

Illuminating the stairs inside with the light on his phone, Sander led Robbe to the top, where he held his hands out in a ta-da! motion, so clearly pleased with this reveal.

Reaching the top and taking in the scene, Robbe’s jaw dropped. A large, open-air pool laid out before him, neon blue water rippling with the cold wind.

“No,” Robbe started, his voice escalating. “Sander, no. We are not—”

But Sander was starting to shrug out of his jacket, then reaching down to undo the laces of his boots.

“C’mon,” he whisper-yelled. “We’re doing this!”

“You’re insane!” Robbe yelled. “There’s no way I’m getting in that pool. We will die!”

Sander laughed as he lifted his shirt over his head. “We will not die, Robbe. Just come!”

Robbe just stood there in disbelief as Sander kept shedding clothes, not stopping at his briefs. In a blink of an eye, he was completely naked and running towards the pool, jumping in with a yelp.

Robbe’s jaw dropped. Sander was actually insane. And was his skin always that golden? And did he have abs?

Emerging from the water with a screech, Sander called out again.

“Robbe, come! It’s amazing in here!”

“No,” Robbe said defiantly. “No way.”

“You’re missing out, Robin,” he called out to him in a sing-song voice.

Robbe shook his head. “It’s freezing cold!”

“Yeah, it’s freezing cold,” Sander said. “But you have to do it. Get in! Now!”

Treading water, the light from the pool making his blonde hair glow neon, Sander waited for him, smiling.

Before he could think, Robbe started unbuttoning his shirt, dropping it on the concrete. Stepping out of his jeans, he watched Sander’s eyes roam across his bare chest. He swallowed hard.

Down to his underwear, Robbe started toward the pool, berating himself for giving into the demands of a pretentious — but weirdly captivating — boy.

Okay, that was clearly the alcohol talking, he thought, shaking the idea from his head.

“Hey, hey!” Sander yelled, stopping Robbe in his tracks. “All the way or no way.”

Robbe balked at him. Was he serious? He exhaled, biting his lip. Reaching down, he stripped off his underwear, now completely bare in front of Sander Driesen. He was going to regret this. But for now, he jumped into the pool.

He had been right. It was freezing. Easily the coldest water he’d ever felt. When his head exited the water, he yelped.

“Oh. My. God.” he squealed, teeth chattering. “I am going to kill you, Sander!” He splashed around violently, trying to keep his limbs from going numb.

“Dude, can you even swim?” Sander yelled, laughing.

Robbe splashed water Sander’s way. “Are you kidding? I can swim better than you any day!”

“Was that a challenge?” Sander quipped, circling around Robbe.

“Well, yeah, I think it was!” Robbe answered. “You scared Driesen?”

Sander smiled at him. “You’re on, Robin! First one to that opposite side of the pool wins! On three!”

“One….” Robbe started.

“Two….” Sander echoed.

“Three!” They yelled in unison, taking off for the pool’s edge.

Robbe stroked, gasping deeply as he tried to find his stride. He was not going to let Sander beat him, no matter how drunk he was.

But when he reached the ledge, cheering in victory, he couldn’t see Sander. He wiped the water from his eyes, and looked beneath the water for Sander. He couldn’t see him anywhere.

“Sander?” He called out. “I totally kicked your ass!”

Still, nothing. Now, Robbe was starting to panic.

“Sander?!” His yelled, desperation creeping into his voice. He was about to call out again when Sander popped out of the water directly in front of him, so close, stealing Robbe’s breath and pinning him against the ledge.

“Sander, what the hell? What are you—” Robbe started, but before he could finish, Sander grasped the ledge behind Robbe, covering his body with his. Robbe felt Sander’s chest rise and fall against his as he tried to catch his breath.

“You won, Robin,” Sander spoke deeply.

Then, he was kissing Robbe, keeping one hand on the ledge, the other sliding down to Robbe’s waist, holding him in place. Sander’s hand was firm, making Robbe melt beneath him. Robbe reached back a hand to hold himself to the ledge and the other found the nape of Sander’s neck. Using his fingers, he pulled Sander towards him, then let those fingers tangle themselves in Sander’s hair. Feeling his pull, Sander kissed Robbe deeper, grasping at any part of Robbe’s mouth he could find, sliding down to his jaw and his neck, sucking the skin there. Whining, Robbe’s eyes rolled back. Sander found lips again, tugging on them gently. Robbe licked the soft skin of Sander’s lips and heard a gentle moan escape the boy’s throat. It was happening so fast. Their limbs and breath were tangling, mixing together in explosive energy that made them both weak.

He was kissing Sander Driesen. He was kissing Sander Driesen. When these words came together and made sense in his mind, he startled, shoving Sander off of him.

“What are we doing?” Robbe spoke, trying to catch his breath. “What are we doing?! This isn’t….we’re, we’re drunk!” His voice was rising, filling with disbelief and exasperation.

“Robbe, I—” Sander said, water dripping off his golden skin, tempting Robbe more than he wanted to admit. He approached Robbe again slowly.

“No, no,” Robbe said, reaching for the ledge and hefting himself out of the water. “This was a huge mistake. I’m drunk. We’re drunk. We shouldn’t have—”

“Robbe, wait!” Sander called, swimming towards the ledge and following Robbe out.

Robbe ran and gathered his clothes. “I have to go, Sander. Let me go.”

Sander stopped, a look of confusion and hurt painting his face. “Robbe, don’t….”

Robbe spun on him, his voice rising. “Don’t follow me, Sander. And don’t you dare tell anyone about this. Swear it.”

Sander just looked at him, lifting up his hands in submission. “I’m sorry, I swear I won’t—”

Then Robbe ran down the stairs, struggling to pull his clothes on over his soaking-wet body as he left Sander behind him.

……

Robbe had hoped that when he woke up, the whole night would have been a dream. A ridiculous dream that would have made him blush...and probably need to take a cold shower. But still, a dream. A dream he could forget about. But the pile of wet clothes on the floor and phone full of messages from Sander proved otherwise. He groaned, aching from the memory and the hangover.

His phone vibrated again and exasperated, he turned to silence it when he saw it — a message not from Sander, but from Earthling.

Earthlingoddity: Hey….I know that there is probably nothing I can say to you right now that will make up for what I did last night. I didn’t mean to stand you up. I promise. Something just...came up and I couldn’t make it. I promise it wasn’t you, okay. Please, please forgive me?

Robbe just stared at the message. As he did, another message from Sander came.

Sander: Robbe, please answer me. I’m sorry about last night. Can we please talk, face-to-face?

Robbe rubbed his face. What was he going to say to either of these people? Why was everything such a mess?

Kissing Sander last night...that had been the biggest shock to his system. Sander hated him. He hated Sander. That was their relationship. But in an ice-cold pool they’d entered some alternate universe and crossed a line. They were drunk. That was it. Right?

Robbe went back to the message from Earthling. Typing slowly, he sent:

Sterkerdanijzer: you were right. We should have never agreed to meet.

He got a response back almost immediately.

Earthlingoddity: No! No, it wasn’t a mistake. We should meet. I promise, something just came up that I couldn’t say no to. I want to meet you so bad. Please, can you give me another chance? I’ll do anything.

Robbe closed the message. Not now.

Taking another deep breath, he opened Sander’s message.

Robbe: Fine, we can talk. Come to my house in an hour.

Sander: I’ll be there.

……

After Robbe had showered and straightened up his room, he took a deep breath. He had no idea how he was going to survive this interaction with Sander, after all that had happened between them. They’d kissed. ALOT. They’d been naked, for heaven’s sake. Robbe groaned, flopping back down on his bed. What was happening to him? The world was turning upside down.

With that, there was a knock on the door. He could hear Jens shuffling to get it, but he raced to the door, sliding past Jens.

“I got it, I got it.”

Jens just looked at him, yawning. “What the hell?”

“It’s...it’s uhm...for me. I’ll get it.”

Jens stared blankly. “You’re being weird.” But he just went off towards the kitchen, yawning again.

Taking a breath, Robbe opened the door.

Sander stood there, his hair also wet, clearly brushed into submission. He had on a cream-colored sweater, which shocked Robbe. He looked good.

“Robbe. Hey.” He smiled, taking a deep breath.

Robbe just stood there, unsure of what to say.

Sander smiled again. “Soooo….can I come in or….?”

“Oh, right. Yeah, come in.” Robbe opened the door wider so Sander could enter.

Glancing towards the kitchen, where Jens was making coffee, glasses clinking, he motioned to the hallway.

“Let’s go to my room and talk,” Robbe spoke quietly.

“Sure, yeah,” Sander nodded. “Lead the way.”

Robbe walked hesitantly toward his room, opening the door for Sander. He entered, looking around.

“Nice place,” he commented, looking at Robbe with a wink. “Thanks for inviting me.”

Robbe smiled, feeling flushed all of the sudden.

Sander went and sat on the edge of the bed. Robbe followed.

Sander cleared his throat. “So, I know what happened last night surprised you. I know it surprised me.” He smiled to himself. “I just wanted to say that….I’m not sorry.”

“What?” Robbe looked up at him, confused.

Sander was firm, sure. “I said, I’m not sorry. For what happened. For kissing you.”

“You’re….not sorry….” Robbe repeated slowly, trying to understand.

“I wanted to kiss you and I did. And I don’t regret it. I know we were drunk, but I think you wanted to kiss me, too.”

Robbe felt heat rise to his cheeks. He spoke quietly. “Sander…it doesn’t make sense. We don’t make sense. At all. We are at each other’s throats constantly.”

“So what?” Sander asked, laughing. “Maybe what we thought was hate was just passion.”

“Passion?” Robbe choked. “Passion? We can’t stand each other! We drive each other completely crazy!”

“Well,” Sander began, biting his lip. “That, I guess, is true. You do drive me crazy. But not for the reasons you think.”

What?

“Sander, what are you—” but Robbe stopped as Sander turned towards him, sliding a hand to cup his jaw.

“You do drive me completely insane, Robbe,” he said gently. “But in a way I want to feel all the time. That kiss was….” he put his hands together over his head, imitating a mind-blown gesture, “pppppffffffeeeewww.”

Robbe’s lips were curling up in a smile he couldn’t hide. He felt warm. But something nagged at him.

“Sander, I can’t do this,” he admitted quickly, before he could stop himself. “I know this sounds silly and stupid, but….there’s someone else.”

Sander sat back. “Who, Nathan?”

Robbe shook his head. “No, not Nathan. You ruined that one, remember?” He slugged Sander’s arm.

“No, it’s….” Robbe put his head down, embarrassed. “It’s someone I don’t even actually know.” He covered his face in his hands. “I know, it’s so stupid. But I think I really care about this person.”

To Robbe’s surprise, Sander didn’t laugh. Or come up with some stupid insult. Or even seem surprised by his revelation at all.

“Okay,” he began. “So, who is he? Where did you meet him?”

“Well,” Robbe said, blushing again. “We met online. On a stupid street art blog. We talk through DMs all day, everyday. Yesterday, when we ran into each other, I was waiting for him. We were supposed to meet each other for the first time in person. But….he stood me up.”

“Hmmm,” Sander sounded. “Sounds like a real asshole.”

Robbe laughed. “He’s not, though! Sure, I was devastated that he ditched me...and then, we kissed...and, everything is just a mess.” He fell back on the bed again, hands over his face.

Sander was silent for a minute. “So did he apologize? For last night?”

Robbe sat up slightly. “Well, yeah. He messaged me again saying he was sorry, and that it wasn’t me.”

“So?” Sander asked, probing for more.

“So what?” Robbe asked.

“So, what are you going to say? Are you going to forgive him?” Sander asked.

“Well...I don’t know,” Robbe admitted. “I want to. You’re going to insult me mercilessly for the rest of time for saying this, but...I think Earthling is my soulmate.”

Sander grinned. “I’m sorry, who?”

Robbe laughed, embarrassed again.

“Earthlingoddity, it’s his handle. I just call him Earthling.”

Sander looked down at his lap, biting his lip to hide a grin.

“I knew you would make fun of me!” Robbe shoved Sander. “I knew it!”

“No!” Sander held his hands up innocently. “I’m not making fun of you! I think it’s cute. I mean, it’s a Bowie reference, he’s obviously got good taste.”

Robbe smiled. “Yeah, he does,” he said.

“So,” Sander continued. “If you think this guy is your soulmate, I think you should talk to him. Give him another chance.”

“What should I say?” Robbe asked. “Do I ask him to meet up again?”

Sander thought for a minute. “I think you need to give him an ultimatum. His last chance.”

“An ultimatum?” Robbe asked.

“Yep.” Sander said, scooting to sit cross-legged on the bed. “Take out your phone.”

“What, now?” Robbe asked incredulously.

“Yes, now!” Sander said firmly. “C’mon. Get your phone.”

Robbe shook his head. Of course, his rival, the guy he’d made out with last night, was now helping him attempt to snag a man. He officially understood nothing.

Taking out his phone, he pulled up Earthling’s message.

“So what do I say?” He looked at Sander.

“Just say….” Sander began, looking off in thought. “You hurt me yesterday. This is your one chance to make it up to me. Meet me tonight or we’re done with this. No more talking, no more messages. This is it. Your last chance” Damn. Looking at Sander once more, he typed it out. Taking a deep breath, he hit Send.

“Oh no, oh no, I sent it. What now. What if he doesn’t answer? What if he thinks I’m desperate?” Robbe rattled off, starting to hyperventilate.

Then, Sander’s phone buzzed. He pulled it out.

“Sorry, hold on a sec,” he said. “I gotta respond to this.”

“Sander!” Robbe whined. “Focus! I need you! If he responds, you have to help me!”

“Don’t worry. Robin,” Sander said with a smirk. “He will. And I will.”

Sander typed quickly, then put his phone back down on the bed. He was hiding another smirk.

Robbe glared at him. “Sander! Are you texting Britt right now? Should I remind you that we’re focusing on me right now? Or should I remind you that you kissed me last night? What is wrong with you?!”

Sander shook his head and rolled his eyes. “I wasn’t texting Britt, Robbe, calm down.”

But Robbe ignored this as his phone buzzed again.

“Oh my god, okay, it’s him,” he cleared his throat. “This is what he said.”

Now, Sander was laughing. Loudly.

“Sander!” Robbe whined again.

Sander tried to stifle a laugh with his palm. “Okay,” he tried to turn the laugh into a cough. “Right, I’m focused. Well, what did he say?”

Robbe swiped and opened the message.

“He said...I choose you, Robin. Always, one hundred percent, forever.”

Robbe’s phone fell in his lap as he looked up at Sander.

“Sander…..what kind of joke are you—”

Sander just shook his head and grinned. “Don’t call me, Sander. From now on, you have to call me Earthling.”

Then, Sander was crawling over to Robbe, pushing him back down on the bed.

Hovering over him, he spoke gently.

“When I saw you with Nathan at the party last week, I got jealous. You looked so hot and I knew I was starting to want you. It scared me. I knew you hated me. But I did. I wanted you. Trust me, Britt and I aren’t together. I just wanted to make you jealous. And that obviously backfired,” he said, laughing.

He continued to Robbe’s breathless stare. “Then I found out it was you I had been messaging when I borrowed your phone at the bar yesterday,” he said. “I saw the messages I’d sent you as Earthling. I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe Robin was the boy I’d been talking to. The boy I’d been falling in love with, online and in real life. I was going to tell you right there, but you were so mad at me and so cute and I couldn’t resist trying to see if I could get you to fall in love with me, too. As Sander. And after that kiss, I knew what we had was real. Whether over text or in a freezing cold pool, it was real.”

Robbe blinked in disbelief. Was he really hearing this? It wasn’t some colossal joke Sander was playing on him?

“Sander….” he said carefully. “Is that true? Is that really—” but before he could finish, Sander was kissing him again, winding a hand into his hair, immersing him completely, deeply into him.

It was true.

.....

So, telling their friends about their relationship had been interesting.

First, Jen had walked in on them, sloshing coffee all over himself when he saw Sander pulling off Robbe’s shirt. That had been a hard one to explain.

But the weirdest part was that no one had really seemed surprised. Sure, Jens was taken back initially, but as they sat in the kitchen sharing coffee (after Robbe had reclaimed his shirt and gotten dressed), Robbe sitting on Sander’s lap, Jens had smiled at them like a proud dad.

You’re like yin and yang, he’d said. Somehow you two just fit.

And they did. In so many ways. Their minds, their souls, their bodies...

They just fit.

#wtfock #wtfock fanfic #wtfock fic #sobbe #robbe x sander #enemies to lovers #you've got mail #this was a trip

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ohshit-itsyagorl · 3 years

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Four Dipshits and a Michelle

Part 6

Y’all I’m getting tired of linking all the chapters every time I post an update, so I’m just going to link the first part and my masterlist.

Part 1, Writing Masterlist

Read the story here on AO3

Summary: Michelle never believed in soulmates. But what happens when she turns seventeen and gets her mark? What happens when she inevitably finds the person with the matching tattoo? And what is she supposed to do with Peter Parker. Her best friend in the whole world. Her crush. Someone she feels drawn to for some inexplicable reason.

Also, I know it’s been a long time since the last update (yikes). I actually update every Sunday night on AO3 and just haven't had the time to catch up, so if I ever go a long time without updating just check there first lol. Alright, here we go...

Michelle woke to the sound of a camera clicking and soft snickering. The sun made her head hurt, eyes blinking rapidly.

“I’m sending this to the group chat,” she heard Ned say from somewhere behind her. She yawned into Peter’s chest. Oh no—this was not happening right now. She turned her head to see Ned standing in the doorway, furiously typing away on his phone, grinning like an idiot.

“Ned,” she whined, “please don’t.”

“Too late. It’s already done.”

“Damn you, Ned. It’s too early for this shit,” Michelle complained, though she kept her voice quiet so as not to wake Peter sleeping behind her.

She carefully tried to shimmy out of his grip, successfully turning around to face the edge of the bed, but when she tried to scoot out of his arms she found she couldn’t.

Peter mumbled something and pulled her closer to his chest, arms banding around her waist—going under her shirt—as he buried his nose in the hair at the base of her neck.

MJ felt her cheeks redden as Ned tried and failed to hold in his laughter, letting out a loud cackle that effectively woke Peter up and simultaneously ruined MJ’s morning.

She turned her head and watched as he blinked the sunlight out of his eyes, then looked to Ned, who pointed at MJ, who wanted to sink into the ground and die just to escape the embarrassment she felt crawling like ants under her skin.

Peter looked down at her. He stared for a second—two; then he seemed to realize what he was doing—one hand wrapped around her waist while the other disappeared under her shirt, scraping across her ribs, dangerously close to the undersides of her breasts. “Oh my—oh my god,” he cried, quickly withdrawing his hands and sitting up. The sheet pooled around his waist, and MJ shivered as her eyes dropped to his chest. To that spider tattoo over his left nipple. Peter covered his face with his hands, tight muscles rippling with the movement. MJ bit her lip.

Click.

“Goddamnit, Ned!” Michelle screeched. She grabbed a pillow, soft sheets scraping against the calluses that covered her hands from drawing, and threw it at his head with all her strength.

Ned squawked in outrage. Then seemed to remember what he was doing. “Man, Betty and Cindy are never going to let you guys live this down,” Ned muttered, looking at his phone. “So embarrassing.”

Michelle stumbled out of the bed, grabbing her phone and bag on the way to the bathroom. She flipped them both off for good measure. She slammed the door and collapsed down onto the toilet. Pulling out her phone, she opened up her text messages.

Four dipshits and a Michelle:

Ned: Check it out!

Ned’s text was followed by a photo of Peter and her. She had her face pressed against his chest, his arms were banded around her sleeping form, and his nose was buried in her hair. The sheet had been kicked down to their waists, and Michelle blushed when she realized her shirt had ridden partway up her back. It did look rather incriminating, though it really wasn’t. She scrolled down.

Betty: WHAT THE FUCK?!?

Cindy: I FUCKING KNEW IT ERIJFNCNDLW

Then there was the other image. The one of Peter’s shirtless chest, abs on full display, hands covering his face. And there she was—obviously looking lower than his face, biting her lip, large t-shirt hanging off her left shoulder, clearly showing she wasn’t wearing a bra.

She opened the other group chat with incoming messages—the one with only Betty and Cindy.

Cindy: Well, this is a morning I will never forget

Betty: The way she was looking at him in that second photo, tho

Cindy: I KNOW! MJ with horny eyes is almost scarier than MJ with angry eyes.

Betty: Someone’s got the hoTS FOR PARKER!!!

Betty: MJ, have you locked yourself in the bathroom yet?

Michelle’s fingers flew furiously across her keyboard.

MJ: Those were NOT horny eyes.

There was a split second where the bubble icon popped up. Then it disappeared. Reappeared.

Cindy: They were definitely horny eyes. Betty?

Betty: I agree. The council has convened. Michelle Jones has a crush on the nerd next door.

Betty: Also, SINCE WHEN HAS PETER BEEN RIPPED???

Cindy: Yeah, when the fuck did that happen?

MJ: He’s had abs for a while.

Cindy: You’ve seen him shirtless before?

Betty: !!!

Cindy: Girl, you are so screwed.

MJ: Stop trying to kill me. I died, like, twenty minutes ago.

Betty: But you LOOOOVE him

Michelle shut off her phone at that. One minute. She would allow one minute of embarrassment, then move on.

She leaned her head back against the wall and groaned, trying to use the cool tile to calm her racing mind. Her eyes fluttered shut, slowly counting down from sixty. Fifty-nine. Fifty-eight.

The way Peter had reacted, like he was uncomfortable waking up with her. She had been uncomfortable, too, but that was because of Ned. What if Peter was uncomfortable because of her?

Forty-five.

Her skin still felt like it was on fire, mark tingling pleasantly in a way that sent shivers down her spine. She cursed quietly.

Thirty. Twenty-nine.

And maybe the unrequited love was starting to drive her crazy, but she could have sworn he had been breathing her in—he had been asleep, of course, but…

Fifteen. Fourteen. Thirteen. Twelve.

Her whole body cried out at her to tell him, to be with him, to make him feel good—body and soul.

Seven.

But she couldn’t.

Three.

Silence. Resignation. Determination.

One. Zero.

MJ stood up and shucked off her t-shirt and Peter’s boxers, nearly tripping in the tight confines of the bathroom. And maybe she was being selfish, but she shoved the boxers into her bag along with her shirt. Peter wouldn’t miss one pair. But wearing his clothes… it just felt so right, and she decided that after this morning, she would allow herself that small satisfaction. She put her hair up into a ponytail and looked at herself in the mirror. Then, before she could think better, she reached out a finger and touched her tattoo. Hissed. It was so sensitive—so sensitive after a night spent curled up with him. She could feel her heart beating quickly in her ears, but she could also feel the pulsing rhythm of a slower heartbeat; Peter, it seemed, had calmed down more than she had.

She put her clothes on and marched out of the bathroom. “Not a word from you,” she snapped at Ned as she stalked past. Peter had already put on a shirt and shorts, thankfully. She didn’t think she would be able to keep her eyes off that spider tattoo and then Peter might start to get suspicious.

Michelle turned to look at them. “So… the park and then lunch at Delmar’s?” She asked.

“Sounds good to me,” Peter replied, running a hand through his hair. Michelle looked away quickly, lest her eyes track the movement.

Ned noticed, though. He smirked. “Shut up,” MJ quipped.

“I didn’t say anything!”

“You said nothing very loudly,” MJ grumbled. Ned just grinned at her. She flipped him off.

————————————————————————

By late August, the heat had become pretty much unbearable, the little air-conditioning units used in the cramped New York apartments no match for the sweltering summer.

Which is why Michelle found herself reading on the fire escape with a fold-out chair, trying and failing to cool down, sweating buckets and hating mother earth.

She turned the page. A small breeze swept through the alley and caught her bookmark. She reached out blindly to catch it before it flew out of reach of the fire escape. Just as she caught it, upper body leaning over the railing, sweat plastering her hair to her forehead, she felt hands come to steady her waist.

MJ screeched and whipped around, punching her attacker straight in the face.

Spider-man stumbled backward, hand reaching up to cup his masked jaw, and cried, “What the hell was that for?” His voice was clearly being altered by mask. Another way to protect his identity, she guessed.

Michelle shook out her wrist. “You touched me.”

Spider-man’s eyes widened. He reached his hand up as if to run it through his hair, but he was wearing a mask. “I was trying to help!” He said indignantly, bringing his arm back down and crossing them both over his chest. “I thought you were going to fall.”

“I wasn’t even off balance,” MJ quipped. She reached to push some stray curls off her sweaty forehead, then eyed his suit. “Shouldn’t you be dying in that thing? It’s, like, over a hundred degrees out today.”

“Built-in cooling technology,” he said, leaning against the railing. Michelle rolled her eyes; she supposed he thought it looked cool. It did, but that was beside the point.

“Lucky you,” she snarked. “I’d kill for that on a day like today.” She motioned to her sweaty face.

“The sweat suites you, darling,” he said, white eyes shifting down her body.

Michelle’s face reddened. “Oh my god, that’s disgusting. You could be forty—and if you touch me again, I swear—”

Spider-man’s eyes widened in shock. “No—I’m not forty! I’m a boy—I mean—young man!”

Michelle raised her eyebrows. “How old are you, exactly?” She asked. She waited a moment. “If you don’t answer I’m going to assume you’re older than thirty, which is still creepy, by the way.”

“I’m not, okay?” He said. She waited. “…I’m seventeen.”

MJ furrowed her brows at that. She was seventeen. She could know him. “Okay,” she said.

“You believe me?”

“Do I have a reason not to?” She arched a brow at him, a small smile tugging on the corners of her lips.

He shook his head furiously. “All I’m trying to say is you’re still really pretty, even with all the…perspiration.”

She looked at him more closely; something about him seemed familiar, the way he talked, or the way he held himself—maybe she really did know him from school. “Thanks, I guess. You’re not too bad yourself for a teenager wearing a spandex unitard.”

His hand slipped from the railing, and he stumbled to keep his footing. MJ’s shoulders shook with repressed laughter as she watched him, forgetting for a moment how hot out it was. “It’s not spandex!”

Michelle reached out and touched his arm. He froze. She chuckled. “It sure feels like spandex.”

“Well, it’s not,” he said a bit defensively. He nodded to her book. “What are you reading?”

“A Secret History by,” she checked the cover, “Donna Tartt.”

He nodded. “Is it any good?”

She bit the inside of her cheek. “Yeah, I’ve actually read it before, though. I ran out of new books and I’m too lazy to go to the library so I just picked up an old one.” She shrugged.

“Maybe I’ll go get it after the superhero gig tonight,” he said. She held out the book to him. He just looked at her, then at the book. “What?”

She rolled her eyes. “I was offering for you to borrow it, dipshit.”

His eyes widened again—it was actually a little creepy how they dilated; like, how did they know when to dilate? “Really?” He squeaked, reaching out to grab the book.

She pulled her hand back. “You’re not a serial killer, are you?” She eyed him suspiciously.

“What? No, I’m a superhero,” he said, still holding his hand out. “Why is that part of the vetting process for borrowing one of your books?” He made little grabby motions with his fingers.

“I feel like being a serial killer goes hand-in-hand with ruining borrowed books,” she said, narrowing her eyes. She handed him the book. “But if you damage it, I’ll kill you—friendly neighborhood Spider-man my ass.”

“Who’s the killer now?” He joked. Then he tilted his head to the side. “Well, I’ve got to go. Duty calls!” He reached his arm out and shot a web, swinging off the balcony with the book in his other hand.

“Don’t you dare drop it!” She called after his retreating form. She shook her head, not sure why she was smiling.

———————————————————

Michelle saw Spider-man again two days later. She was out reading on the fire escape again when he landed with a soft thud. She didn’t look up right away, determined to finish one last page.

He cleared his throat.

“I know you’re there,” she said.

“Oh.”

MJ let out a hum, reaching blindly for her bookmark and slipping it between the pages of her book. She looked up at him. “What do you want, Spider-pig?” She smiled to herself at her inside joke, remembering that day in biology with Peter.

He held her copy of A Secret History out to her. “I finished. It was really good—I can see why you enjoyed it.” She took the book from his hands, peering at him from her chair. His eyes narrowed at her.

“What do you want? I can tell you want something,” she deadpanned.

“What should I call you?” He hopped up onto the railing. Her eyes widened a fraction watching him. He chuckled, “I’m not going to fall. Spider-man, remember?” He mimed shooting webs out of his wrists in rapid succession.

“You can call me Michelle.”

“Really? Your friends call you Michelle?” He swung his feet back and forth, leaning back over the railing so his body hung precariously over the alleyway below to grab a piece of garbage floating in the breeze.

“No. I have a nickname, but you can call me Michelle.” She didn’t just let anybody call her M or MJ, and just because he could swing around the city on wisps of silk didn’t mean he deserved special treatment from her.

He huffed a breath. “Fair enough. You look nice today. How have you been?”

Wow, that was a lot to unpack. She looked nice? She was wearing a ratty old painting shirt that hung below her knees and her hair was up in a topknot. How had she been? Well—

She decided to ignore the first comment. “I’ve been fine. I painted today so now my back hurts, but beauty is pain, right?” She said, gesturing to her paint-stained t-shirt.

“You have paint on your face,” was his only reply. He leaned forward, reaching his hand out toward her cheek, “Here, let me.” He brushed his finger over where she assumed the paint was, but then his eyes narrowed and he ran a finger over the spot again.

“It won’t come off, Idiot. It’s dry.” She smirked at him as he withdrew his hand.

“You didn’t punch me,” he breathed.

She raised her eyebrows. “Yeah, I guess I didn’t. Don’t get too comfortable, though—I might be in a bad mood next time you try to pull shit like that.” She mimed a quick sucker punch, then blew on her fist as if to cool it off.

Spider-man laughed at her antics. “You could give most common criminals a run for their money, you know.”

She shrugged, looking down at her hands. The paint under her fingernails seemed way more interesting than it had earlier that day when she had opted not to spend twenty minutes cleaning it out. “I learned from experience. My dad—” She stopped herself before she could say anything more. That was too much information; information she hadn’t even told her best friends, that she definitely did not want to tell an almost-stranger.

She was saved by a ding coming from next to her on the chair. She picked up her phone.

Four dipshits and a Michelle:

Ned: Has anyone seen Peter? We were supposed to meet to build the millennium falcon.

MJ snorted. She quickly typed out a reply.

MJ: Nope. He probably stayed late at the stupid Stark internship.

MJ: Also, you’re both total dweebs.

She looked up to see that Spider-man wasn’t sitting on the railing anymore. She almost had a heart-attack when she heard a voice right next to her ear. “Peter… Peter Parker?”

She squawked, turning around to see him upside down in an army-crawl position on the wall behind her. “Never,” she panted, “do that again.” Then his words registered. “Wait, you really know him?”

Spider-man propped his head up on his elbows. “Yeah, I know him—from the, uh, the Stark internship—which, by the way, is not stupid.”

She stuck her tongue out at him. “It’s rude to read someone else’s messages.”

“Well, I got to go,” he said suddenly. “I have somewhere I need to be.” He shot a web to the roof of the building next to hers and launched himself off the fire escape, disappearing as quickly as he’d come. Michelle looked down at the book in her lap. “Hey!” She looked up to see a red and white mask peering at her from above. “What book are you reading?!”

“The Assistant by Bernard Malamud!” She called back.

He gave her a thumbs up and disappeared again.

She waited, but he didn’t come back a second time.

Part 7

#peter parker #Peter Parker fanfiction #peter x michelle #Peter Parker soulmate #michelle jones #soulmate #soulmarks #Smut #eventual smut #fluff #angst #spideychelle #best friends #spiderman

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oreomonsterhunter · 3 years

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bias game

I was tagged by the amazing @tabsteen who apparently likes to see us suffer over our favorite kpop boys on a daily basis because this was HARD OK 😭 don’t come for me about my answers, this felt like psychological warfare

Rules : Write down your top 10 biases and answer the following questions

Park Jimin - BTS

Lee Minho - SKZ

Jackson Wang - GOT7

Jung Hoseok - BTS

Min Yoongi - BTS

Lim Jaebeom - GOT7

Hwang Hyunjin - SKZ

Yoo Kihyun - Monsta X

Park Jinyoung - GOT7

Im Changkyun - Monsta X

This got long as heck so I’m adding a read more 😅

1. Between 1 and 4 who would you rather kiss?

HOLY HELL HOW WHAT I CANNOT CHOOSE NOPE I REFUSE (final answer is jhope feel free to skip my thoughts lol)

Ok after agonizing over this I have thoughts. Firstly, jimin’s got some kissing lips, so there is that to consider. But if this is just one little kiss, I can’t trust that man. Jimin is the kind of person to fall a little bit in love with you every time you kiss. Meanwhile Jhope (gah that man is Powerful) ain’t gonna let feelings get in the way. I mean I’d be an idiot and go 😍 at a flower that complimented me, but I couldn’t break jhope’s heart even a little bit, even on accident. It would hurt me to hurt jimin. So like one kiss? Spin the bottle and who do I want it to land on? Jimin jhope

But if I’m starring in one of those teen rom coms where the girl’s best friend teaches her to kiss? Jimin omg, the friends always end up together at the end it’s so cute 😂

Ok it’s really late now and I’m still agonizing and tbh it’s jhope I’m just helplessly attracted to that man (sorry kat)

2. Between 2 and 7 who would be your best friend?

Minho (no hate to hyunjin but y’all know which annoying boy I love) because friends to lovers, baybee

3. Between 5 and 10 who has the better voice?

*chokes* Yoongi um hello I’m sorry kyunnie but like, yoongi *goes to play D-2 again and cry in the corner*

4. Between 1 and 8 who is the funniest?

Jimin, my bb, he makes me giggle on a daily basis

5. Between 6 and 9 who would you date?

Ok how did this end up being between these two....gasdjhksdj I’d probably date Jaebeom because we’d have a ton of fun. Jinyoung I think is too cool for me, I’d be nervous (we can be bff’s tho). Meanwhile JB would get nervous and start acting like a dork and then I’d act like a dork and then we’d get along great. Mr. Model over there would be intimidating on dates (but have you seen that show where he comforts the girl in the coffee shop? heartbreaking, this sweetheart)

6. Between 4 and 8 who is the better dancer?

JHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOPE

7. Between 3 and 5 who would you most likely marry?

Jackson, have ye not read my fanfics?!?! I am a ho for domestic Jackson, and thus would marry him in a heartbeat (Jackson bro if you’re reading this hmu I’m wife material)

8. Between 1 and 7 who would you nurse when they are sick?

I...I....I have to choose one babie to babie?!??? Ok but Jimin is a grown adult, and Hyunjin is still an actual kiddo despite being huge and a demon at times. Hyunjin, final answer.

9. Between 2 and 3 who has the better smile?

AQHHHSDHAHFOIUSNDGHD I CAN’T BELIEVE THESE IMPOSSIBLE QUESTIONS I love both of their smiles so dearly, this hurts......but if you twist my arm and make me choose one.....Jackson

10. Between 6 and 8 who would you vacation with?

Jaebeom probably. I’d get sick of Kihyun a week in. Some people you can love, but you can’t live with. And any vacation is gonna be a week or more for the sake of indulgence, so I’d probably try to maim kihyun on day 10 lmao. Meanwhile JB and I would get on swell. Two foodies who love to travel? We should start a vlog

Tagging: @taetaespeaches and anyone else reading this who feels up to the challenge 😂 no pressure if you don’t want to! And don’t feel like you need to have long answers like my insane late night thoughts lmaooooo

#tag game #tagged #this was so hard I can’t even

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corancoranthemagicalman · 4 years

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Hannibal - Ep1 - Reaction

Okay, so this is starting because of @quartermastercandlestickmaker and @todorokisrose [yes, y’all both gettin’ tagged in the annoouncement and this one. I need to be clear on who is causing my suffering.]

I’m here in this hole now. This dark pit.

This is not a live-blogging of my watch, but I am writing this live. So, writing live posting later. If that makes sense. I’ll have one post per episode and after I’ll compile them all into a master list.

Spoilers ahead.

What a grand opening my dudes. Thrilling music. He’s got that “he fucked up” face going on. WAIT NO HE’S SHERLOCKING THE SHIT. OH COOL. NO WONDER I SAW SOOME FANART OF THEM BEING BFFS. Oh, I like this. Weird effects flex but I dig it.Ooooooooooo I was not expecting that voice. IS THIS WHERE THE “THIS IS MY DESIGN” SHIT CAME FROM WHAT THE FUCK Have I known this more than I thought.

Also low-key bitch *looks* like a psychopath no wonder what is gonna happen happens. Oh rip Mrs. Marlow ;;~;; that was a hard change bro.

I don’t wanna think about ---

BITCH THIS *IS* WHERE THE THIS IS MY DESIGN SHIT CAME FROM OH M Y G O D

Also Laurence Fishbourne god bless I love him.

It’s difficult for me to be social too, fam. LAURANCE WHY DID YOU FIX HIS GLASSES THAT WAS SO WE IR D???? Also bro same I love you, Will Graham, you funky little sociopath.

“Every girl is a candy bar” mhm okay thanks for that. Will and this sociable thing is really fucking me bro minus the serial killer obsession/profession/vibe.

Laurence Fishbourne is an amazing actor but I’m also digging the dude playing Will (srry names are my weakness so his name is Will.)

Oooooo booi. I recognize Katz from fanart she’s a popular one right. But we’re going upstairs.

I’m so worried about opening the door

Oh no

He knew

This bitch been knew

Holy shit

I like the whole thing with eye contact. I’ve seen the gif where it’s mentioned but I like how it’s subtle and not overly emphasized so far. Oh we’re flashing back again. Poor Elise. It’s a super interesting story technique using him as the killer. Also damn bitch “you unstable” you’re such a nosy bitch how were you interrupted when you were asked not to enter

Now everyone is here

Antlers promote healing mhm okay

I wanna hug him but I also don’t want to make him uncomfortable with contact. IS HE STOPPING FOR A DOG OH ,Y HO GOD. I’D DIE FOR THIS MAN. I’D DIE FOR THIS MAN. HE STOPPED FOR A DOG. HEWENT BACK FOR THE DOG OMGH THIS MAN THIS MAN IS,,,,, he adopted a fucking stray dog. This man is lovely. I love this man. This -- HE DOES IT TO MULTIPLE DOOGS OH MY GOD I WANNA MARRY HIM ANDHAVE WINSTON AND EVERYBODY AND OMOG HE’S SUCH A LOVELY STRANGE CREATURE.

Where are we now. In a dream state? OH SHIT WE ARE THAT’S A BODY AND A HEARTBEAT IN MY EAR WHAT THE FUCK ahhhh fun nightmares I love it. Oh shit the towels. Bro. There are quite a few visuals happening.

“USE THE LADIES ROOM” dafsjhg

Stop yelling at him ;;~;;

Woah this is a lot to unpack in this scene you can see Will like slipping omg. It’ss almost unsettling him not having eye contact but like I know the reason for it and therefore it’s just impressive acting and not like unsettling of the actor to do that if that makes sense? I really am impressed by that level of commitment to not have a “look at the camera” to keep showing how he won’t look at other people.

Ooo this is one of the lady psych talkers which is like on the Graham side while the blonde one is for Hannibal, right even tho Hannibal is a brain doc. ALANA that’s her name and that might be how you spell it. She doesn’t want him out there but Laurence needs her to be his back up. (Oh, his name is Jack.) JACK DONT MAKE PROMISES WILL CAN AND WILL GET CLOSE.

WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SHOW WHAT THE HELL ARE THOSE SHADWS AND THE ANTLERS PIERCING HER OH MY GOD WHAT THE SHIT IS THIS SHOW I THOUGHT THE VISUALS I HAD SEEN IN FAN ART WAS JUST LIKE FANON IMPOSED OMOG “SOMETHING WRONG WITH THE MEAT” O G M OOG HE’S EATING THEM FUCK

Is this

Is this my bitch

MY BITCH MADS OH MY GOD.

I love him. He’s so unconventionally handsome. He looks like he’d kill and eat me but I’d thank him for it, yanno? Oops.

No nonsense MM handing this crying man some tissues I love it. “I hate being this neurotic” omg the mood also Hannibal’s glance to the tissue is fucking amazing??? V Subtle Acting /cries in beauty

Franklyn, the lion isn’t in the room boy (just discovered I might wanna put subtitles on but they’re not working so rip)

Frankie boy got so scared by that comment thanks, Dr. Lector.

Mhm no secretary that’s,,, suspicious,,,, “sad to see her go” mhm okay sure Jan

Oh this bitch does draw oh my god john hopkins internship and all. Laurence is impressed and Mads is “mhm are you gonna try something” sdajkfgh A LAYMAN DAMN aww he’s like “oomg you’re so amazing dr. mr. sir”

OH THEY’RE IN THE SAME ROOM HERE WE GO BBY

FUCKKK IT BEGINS

SORRY HE’S GIVING THE WHOLE DOWNLOW

“Associations come quickly-” “so do forts”

QEFJWahgrsdfdkq WHAT THE FUCK

THIS IS LITERAL THE FIRST DAMN CONVERSATION HE HAS WITH HIM. I KNEW THE CONVERSATION ABOUT EYE CONTACT WAS ONE OF THEIR FIRST, BUT THIS IS THE LITERAL FIRST WITH THE ADDED BONUS OF HE ACTUALLY MAKES E Y E C O N T A C T OOMGGG??!?!?!?!

Oh ;;~;; “YOU WONT LIKE ME WHEN I’M PSYCHOANAYLYZED” im this is very flirtatious als jack you’re like br o

So he’s the King of Empathy. He’s,,, helping Will see his own face,,, mhm,,,,, what does that say about you, Dr. Lector?

He’s mocking where he was apologetic is this maybe noT

FJAGUDIS

SHIT THOSE ARE LUNGS

“HE HAS A DAUGHTER SAME AGE” O H B O Y THAT’S UH DADDY HAS SOME ISSUES WITH BABY LEAVING HOME

Also this is a copy cat dklafjsghjfd OH DAMN THAT SNAP BACK ABOUT DR. LECTOR FFUCKK MAN.

Also,, I can see why this show,, caused issues,,, a man should not look handsome while eating fucking lungs.

More visions I cannot even

What does this

What the hell is this

Dr. Lector showing up at his house o h .

IS HE FEEDING HIM FUCKING LUNGS BITCH OH MY GD ON A FIRST DATE???

“God forbid we become friendly”

“I don’t find you that interesting”

This smells,,, like a ship,,, mhm,,,,

Breath will damn breath slow and use the words omg

Mhm ookay “we’re just alike” in the first bit…

Uncle Jack sees him as a fine china tea cup. That’s hilarious.

“How do you see me?” says Will.

“The mongoose I want under the house when the snakes slither by,” replies Hannibal WHILE WILL IS KEEPING EYE CONTACT.

OH MY GOD. MHM. KAY. IM OKAY. THIS IS OKAY.

So is there a reason -- “plain but pretty” hannibal gives a look -- is there a reason no official officer is accompanying them like????? They’re both not??? FBI????

Damn hannibal spilling shit everywhere.

HE’S USING A TISSUE TO PICK UP THE PHONE

TO CALL HIS DAUGHTER

MHMMMM?????????

Wait no he’s calling someone else

Who is this

OH HE’S CALLING GARRETT. OH. wait is he helping other cannibals get away. What the fuck. You can’t do that, Hannibal. Is there a fuckking cannibal union yall get together and trrade recipes.

OH NO GARRETT MURDERED HIS WIFE AND KID DIDNT HE OH NO

OH PLEASE NO

Wait we’re back to reality

This back and forth is trippy

H N

OH NO

FUCK YU HANNIBAL AND YOUR STUPID FUCKING CANNIBAL CLAN THIS PR WOMAN :(((((((((

I do love how this built up to Hannibal being the cannibal but it was Hobbs. NFIEGSIBFD

HOBBS NO

FUCK HIM UP WILL

(also I guess Will technically is FBI that probably helps lmao)

Oh no

O h n o

Dont whisper at him to see bitch

Oh no

Will

Will it’s

Oh no

>:((((((((((((((((((( hannibal Imma fuck you up

Will honey let someone clean your glasses. Does she survive? I hope the girl survives. The Traitor Cannibal Bitch is going with them. Mhm.

Alana tryin’ to protect him. (Does she like him? I got bad news, babe, he’s gonna fall in love with a man-eater.)

shE SURVIVED??? AND HANNIBAL IS THERE WITH HER???? OMOG??? DOES HE FEEL BAD YET YOU FUCKING BITCH YOU READ THE CANNIBAL WRONG AND HE NEARLY MURDERED HIS FAMILY wait is this chick who everyone calls their daughter oomg??? Is this her????

WHAT WAS THIS SHOW OMG WHAT WAS THIS SHOW

#C's 2020 Hannibal Watch #Hannibal (NBC)#I'm watching this for the first time in 2020 oh my lord #I'm super excited for it #it's very promising #Hannibal spoilers?#do I need to tag for that?#murder husbands #because whoops

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exordiumed · 5 years

Text

bananas and other things

↳ college au

pairing: park chanyeol & you (featuring: the rest of the beagle line)

genre: fluff

word count: 1.49k

summary: sometimes, love comes out of nowhere

Park Chanyeol always prided himself as a guy who had immaculate intuition. Someone with great gut feel. That friend who always says, "I told you so.”

He always seemed prepared for everything; it was almost comical. Always had a plan, always knew what to say, always prepared. Until he met you.

Being late to his lectures was definitely not Park Chanyeol fashion. He silently cursed himself as he sped-walked toward his lecture theatre and, as luck would have it, bumped unceremoniously into someone. You.

"Fuck, I'm so sorr-" He started, but cut himself short when he saw your face. How had he not noticed anyone this beautiful in campus before? Your hair pushed back and tied up, your flyaways managed to be tamed by the amount of sweat on your forehead. Your eyes, bright and wide, as the two of you continued staring at each other in shock.

"I'm sorry, I should've looked at where I was going." You offered as an apology. You were quite proud of yourself for managing to spit the words out of your mouth because, wow, you have never seen a guy more beautiful than the stranger standing right in front of you.

It felt like one of those cliché romance novels where the main characters stare at each others eyes and marvel. It wasn't too far off from reality; it was exactly what you were doing at that moment in time. He, much like you, had been sweating profusely but, you had never seen anyone look this attractive while sweating. Ever.

"Yeah, uh, no trouble. It was my fault, really. I should've looked at where I was going," Chanyeol lamely replied. Inwardly cursing himself for having his first words to a pretty girl be a half-assed apology.

He felt his face heat up and felt his hands grow sweaty. Again, he cursed at himself. Chanyeol always prided himself as a calm, composed guy. Someone who had everything under control; always prepared. And this girl, quite literally, came out of nowhere into his life.

"I guess I'll see you around....?”

"Chanyeol. I'm Chanyeol.”

"Then I guess I'll see you around then Chanyeol," and with that, you bid the slightly starstruck boy adieu.

Chanyeol shook his head and quickly walked off into the direction of his lecture theatre, in the hopes of arriving on time, and mostly, vainly trying to get you out of his head.

After a rather long and tiresome lecture, where, Chanyeol literally did not learn anything as he had correctly guessed, he was busy thinking about you. And it occurred to him that he never got your name.

He was spacing out (something he didn't do often, damn you), when his train of thought was disrupted by the image of someone's palm coming into his line of vision.

"Jesus Yeol, what the Hell? I've been calling for you for the past five minutes! What's gotten into you?" Baekhyun's damning voice made its way into Chanyeol's ears.

Slightly dazed, Chanyeol stops in his tracks and (attempts) to recollect himself. He shakes his head slightly.

"Sorry, I've just been.. thinking, I s'pose.”

"About what? A girl?" Another friend, Jongdae this time, jokingly said.

"Yeah, as if. Chanyeol has as much game as my left foot," Baekhyun joked, but kept his eyes on Chanyeol, wanting to see if Jongdae was indeed, correct.

"It's really nothing. Forget it. Hey, isn't there this new cafe in town? I'm kinda hungry.”

"Seconded.”

After what seemed like hours of walking to the city centre, which was only a 15 minute walk in reality, the sweaty gang of boys had finally reached the new swanky cafe that has just opened. It was cute, to say the least. Everything was banana themed.

"Finally! I'm starving." Baekhyun all but groaned the moment they stepped through the doors of the chic bakery. The air-conditioned room was much appreciated escape from the sweltering heat outside.

The group of boys took a few seconds to fan themselves and cool down before walking towards the front counter to decide what to order.

Chanyeol quietly studied the overhead menu before deciding on a banana milk soft serve ice cream. And then his eyes trailed down to the front of the line to see..

You?

He shook his head. That couldn't be you, could it? But of course it was you, chatting with your friends who were also in line. He noticed how wide your smile was and how the apples of your cheek were slightly pink from the heat and he noticed the way your eyes turned into half-moons when you smiled too hard or when you were laughing at something silly your friend said.

He must’ve been staring for quite a while because, your eyes met and you gave him a tiny wave.

Chanyeol gulped and he waved back at you, slightly in a daze mostly because he didn’t believe he bumped into you here of all places.

“Who did you wave to?” Jongdae asked him.

“I knew it! You were thinking of a girl earlier!” Baekhyun cut off before Chanyeol could reply.

“Why didn’t you tell us? How long have you known each other? What’s her name?”

“Can y’all slow down, we only met today geez,” Chanyeol mentally groaned. “And her name is...”

He never did get your name. What an idiot, he thought.

“Her name is...?”

“Uh, I never got it.. actually.”

“I don’t know if I ever told you this, but you’re an idiot.”

The taller male, well tallest actually, was about to retort before Baekhyun said something quite brilliant.

“Well, you can ask her now can’t you? Just casually slip over there and ask her for her name and get to know her and I dunno maybe score a date?” He ended his suggestion with a waggle of his eyebrows.

“Y’know, coming from you that’s actually not a bad idea!”

“Thank yo- Wait a minute!”

Chanyeol didn’t get to hear the rest of their bickering because his feet was moving faster than his mind could think and his feet brought him right next to you.

You could feel his presence right next to you and you slowly turned to greet him, but of course, again, you were stunned by how good this man looked. It’s unfair really, for someone to be this cute, with his big eyes, his floppy ears, his really cute fluffy hair that you wanted to reach out and touch.

“Hi,” you said.

“Hi,” he replied. “I never got your name earlier.”

“Oh! Right, I’m uh (Y/N)!” You tried not to let your nervousness show from your voice and you thought you did a pretty decent job.

Though, you couldn’t help the way your heartbeat quickened when he repeated your name, testing out the way it sounds on his tongue before he smiled at you and goddamn, you thought. You would definitely not mind if you saw that sight every morning when you woke up, and every night before you went to sleep. You were in serious trouble; having only met this guy today and you were already this whipped? But can you really blame yourself? He’s too cute.

Little did you know, Chanyeol was feeling the same way about you. He also realised, he had no idea what to say now. He didn’t really plan this far.

Thankfully, the cashier saved the both of you.

“Welcome to the Yellow Cafe! What would you two lovebirds like to order?”

“We’re no-”

“I’d like to have a banana soft serve ice cream please,” You turned to Chanyeol, eyes wide because, well, the cashier just called you two lovebirds and he didn’t deny it and this whole thing seems really rom-com-y right now.

“Sure! And what about your girlfriend?”

Taking in a deep breath to calm your heart, you managed to order a banana latte. Somehow Chanyeol had beat you to the payment. And somehow the two of you were seated together in a booth near the window.

“Are we on an impromptu date or something?”

Chanyeol’s ears turned red at your question and you found it extremely endearing. He nervously ate his ice cream before replying: “Do you... not want it to be one?”

“No, I do want it to be one.”

Chanyeol, only having heard you saying no, sighed.

“Oh, I’m sorry I tho- Wait did you say that you.. wanted it to be a date?”

“Mhmm.”

This time, Chanyeol gave you the brightest smile you had ever seen and you thought it could give the Sun a run for its money. You liked it. You liked him. And you really wanted to see more of him.

“I would really like it if we could do this again,” you said.

“Me too.”

And this time, it was your turn to give him a dazzling smile.

Chanyeol was always prepared; until you, quite literally, came out of nowhere and that was probably the best unplanned thing to ever happen to him.

#ummmm the ending kinda sucks #im scared to publish this lmao #exo #exo imagines #exo scenarios #chanyeol #chanyeol imagines #chanyeol scenarios #park chanyeol #chanyeol x reader #chanyeol smut #exo smut

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